At last !!

The sun has arrived, the garden is full of growth

 - a blackbird has built a nest in the car port,

 a wren under the back porch

- and don't we all feel better for the sight

 of some glorious sunshine and blue sky?

 

I recently sneaked out for a glorious 'awayday',

when a dear friend took me to see the newly re-furbished Ashmolean Museum.  

The clever use of modern architectural features

marries beautifully

with the ancient.......

-how creative is this display?

Busts of all ages artfully

displayed up the stairwell.

 Of course I made a beeline for the textile gallery

- disappointed that there wasn't more

but a visual feast nonetheless

-one can only marvel at the delicate nature

of the stitchery accomplished in the dim light

of oil lamp or candles.

Henry V111 's cloth of gold was a stunning piece

of embroidered fabric and was used

 to cover his coffin at his funeral.

My favourite Pre Raphaelites were in evidence

in the Painting Gallery

and there was so much to see in The Hunt

 

which David Dimbleby talked about in his recent

 Seven Ages of Britain.

Lots of lovely dark and brooding Dutch paintings

and some cherubic angels and religious scenes.

 

And the day was rounded off nicely

with tea at The Randolph -very civilised!

On to Knitting News:

After several requests to repeat the Freeform Course,

I have arranged to re-run the Workshop

on Saturday 12th June

-full details on the Workshops page

but if you can knit and /or crochet and

would like to be a bit more adventurous

with your skills then

why not come along and have a go at Freeforming?

One of the students from the last course

 is now completely hooked and made these beautiful bags.

Mr Darcey's Knitting Circle

After 2 editorials in the local paper,

there have been several enquiries

about Mr Darcey's Knitting Circle

so now we meet every week

-one week in the morning from 10.00-1.00

the following week in the evening, from 7.00-10.00.

We are so lucky to have such an inspiring venue

in which to work ....

(there was a hare sitting outside the window last week)

 

All the details are in the menu to the right under

'Mr Darcey's Knitting Circle', including photos of the

 group furiously knitting away  !!

I have recently started a scrapbook for the knitting circle,

 full of photos and records of everyone's finished projects.

If you live locally (near Banbury/Daventry

-although we do have members who travel from

Towcester and Northampton)

then do come along and join us !

 We are having a 'Knit a necklace' morning on

Wednesday 12th May and we have invited some

of the local craft groups to join us

-why not come along?

 Mystery Blanket:

 We are still gaining new participants for

 the twice monthly Mystery Blanket Classes

 

so I will be continuing for a while yet.

Some students are nearly ready to begin

putting their swatches together so I will post photos

of these heirlooms as and when they are done

-personally I can't wait to see them!

Finally I thought I would share

 the following pictures with you

- at a recent Ladies Evening,

I donated one of my raggy scarves

 as a raffle prize .... a novel way of wearing it!

 

Events: Ragley Hall 2nd/3rd May