October Out and About

 Last weekend on Saturday David and I visited Kingston Lacy near Wimborne to see the autumn colours.  There is a Japanese garden which has some lovely acer trees which turn into some gorgeous colours this time of year.

The next two photos are in the tea garden.

Going to the kitchen garden, it was lovely to see late summer flowers 

And harvested pumpkins in the greenhouse 

On display between the tea room and shop

On Sunday, an early start from Wimborne, I went with the Quarterjack Quilters on a coach trip to the Knit + Stitch show at Alexandra Palace in North London.  It’s quite a trek from Dorset (about 3 hours each way).  It has a variety of needlecraft suppliers, with workshops (I didn’t take part), demonstrations and exhibitions. 

I enjoyed the Anne Kelly’s exhibition.  The stitching on objects, like embroidering over and old quilt

Adding stitching details to a work box and cases

The Embroiderers Guild had an exhibition of the works of past embroiderers in their collection 

On the exterior walls of the gallery were artworks by current members of the Embroiderers Guild, on the theme of Land and Sea

I love the texture in the photo below

Near the entrance was the exhibition of winners from the Festival of Quilts, here are a few below.

An enjoyable if a shattering Sunday. I made some purchases including some Christmas presents.

It was lovely and sunny so I had time to enjoy it before heading home on the coach.

Beginning of October - Getting Very Autumnal 🍁🍂

 

I love the stitch pattern on my Lewes fingerless mitts that I used this as my monthly marker. 

I didn’t have any knitting to take with me to the local Knit and Natter group so I took some yarn from my stash to start to knit a pair of mittens for my granddaughter as the day went on I finished knitting one! 

The pattern is from Sirdar’s Bumper Book of Accessories, no. 2, with gloves, mitts, socks (2 needles and seamed!) and leg warmers. I’ve used the remains of some plain blue DK and Aurora from the last jumper that I knitted her. I’ll start the left mitten ready for this week’s K&N.

Another thing I’ve picked up recently has been the Yorkshire Blanket, which I decided had been hibernating for long enough!  This is a pattern from Ravelry by Emyleah Newbery of Meemamakes. I started the squares last autumn to use up some Stylecraft Special DK yarn from previous makes and ended up buying four balls more while away on holiday in Amble last year.  I had one half finished square, which I finished off (the red) and then started on another square (the green).

I’ve enjoyed the different techniques in this blanket, very textural which has taken me a little out of my crochet comfort zone.  

Let’s hope I can make some progress on this blanket.