My blog can now be found at
Saturday 12th Feb
Having a houseful of boys, guess what today has been all about??
6 Nations Rugby !!!
So an ideal time for me to do some design work research....
which is when I came across these 2 beautiful embroidered pieces
by Jesse Newbery and Ann MacBeth -
- already a big fan of work by the Glasgow Girls
and loving Jessie M King's work
(she used to live in hubby's home town of Kirkcudbright
-as a boy he remembers seeing Jessie M King
riding round the town on her bicycle!)
For my City and Guilds Embroidery ,
I made and embroidered a grey silk shawl, using Jessie M King's illustrations as inspiration -
I would love to get back to my embroidery
-(especially as I have a room stacked to the ceiling
with fabrics and silks !!)
but these days it's knitting 24/7 and there always seems to be a deadline ahead!
One day...............
Friday 11th Feb
As it has been such a beautiful day
have been out in the garden looking
for any signs that Spring is just around the corner
-so far only a few little green shoots
but there are two lovely patches of snowdrops.
I recently received this card
from a very dear friend, who knows
that I always have a few flowers in a jug
on my kitchen table even if it is only a few sprigs from the garden.
although the odd little diamond wouldn't go amiss!!!!
Thursday 10th Feb
How many knitting groups do you know,
who have a go at 'Zumba' while they are knitting?
Marion brought her laptop with her last night
and as there is a new Zumba class
starting in the village next week,
we thought that we ought to check it out!
I think that we used up more calories laughing
-how uncoordinated am I?
We all wanted to know if it was compulsory
to wear skimpy bikini tops ??
Especially as several of us, are ladies of a certain age ??!!
We did think though that knitting along with the steps, could be the start of a brand new craze!!
Wednesday 9th Feb
The first signs of Spring .jpg)
always seems like a good time to begin something new
-so here we start Mr Darcey's Blog!
I am not sure how good I will be at managing
to keep a daily blog but will do my best....
Inevitably there will be lots of chat about knitting
and yarn .jpg)
but hopefully just a little bit more too!
Current projects include a lacey vest top for Artesano
in their new yarn from Manos, Serena
- a lightweight, supersoft yarn in baby alpaca and pima cotton
-it knits up as Dk and drapes beautifully!
Just finishing a Manos silk scarf with beads
for the new magazine Simply Homemade
and a lace project for Let's Knit is just about
to come off the blocking board.
There are also one or two lace samples being worked on
for Artesano's launch of some new Manos Lace colours.
Research this week, has led me to look at the work
of the Bloomsbury Group again.
Although already a big Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell fan,
I wanted to take a closer look at the work of Duncan Grant
-especially the patterns he designed for textiles...
- I particularly like the muted chalky colours
he used in many of his designs
and inevitably it has set me thinking
about how I might use this in a knitted design.
Once I started investigating, as always happens,
I got sidetracked by all kinds of other delights...
.......this time I came across some wonderful examples
of Eastern European embroidery
-very bright and vibrant but oh so intricate..
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