A lovely week..

How good has the weather been this week?  What a difference a bit of sunshine makes!  My 'education friends' have started their 6 week sabbatical so I'm trying to have one day out with them a week.  This week I went to Salts in Saltaire which is one of my favourite Yorkshire venues, everybody loves Salts....many years ago I knew the lady who worked as the last textile designer in Salts Mill, she worked there about the same time that I moved down to Yorkshire.  Just looking at the sheer vastness of the building had me wondering how many looms they had in the Mill: it is huge...the restaurant, gallery and retail side only takes up part of the building but the rest is occupied by various companies.  If you live outside Yorkshire I cannot recommend this place enough....its a real insight as to how the Yorkshire Textile industry used to be.
So, when we visited we had a bit of lunch and a mosey around the 'shops', I particularly like the area that sells books and cards....the cards are usually by wonderful artists and I generally stock up on them.
Salts also has a permanent exhibition and is very much the home of Bradford artist David Hockney , unfortunately we did not get to see his latest exhibition of paintings produced on his i-pad.  But throughout the mill there are plenty of his paintings adorning the walls.  When you enter the ground floor of Salts there is allways the scent of lilies and its accompanied by gorgeous classical music.....and they have a gorgeous selection of cards, artist materials and books.  Whenever I visit Salts its usually to meet up with friends but one day I plan to visit Saltaire village next to the mill - the village was constructed to house the mill workers by the enterprising mill owner Titus Salt - which is supposed to have a lovely selection of shops .. one day I'll do this...

My new Salts shopper bag...

This is the dining area

Lilies are in abundance at Salts!

On the ground floor....

I particularly like this Hockney picture ....I love the boldness of colour and it reminds of the 

Jean Paul Gaultier perfume.

Rowan Magazine 52

The new Autumn Winter magazine has just been released by Rowan and is filled with some gorgeous projects.  As per usual it is beautifully photographed and I'm delighted to say its in lots of lovely Scottish locations - in particular Ballone Castle, home of the wonderful Scottish textile company Anta.

So, the knitwear....Fairislerona particularly likes this the project below - because Rona loves Fair Isle.  It's designed by Marie Wallin and is called Orkney, it is knitted in Felted Tweed and is just yummy.....

Another Marie Wallin design called Kintyre and it is knitted with Wool Cotton, DK and Kid Silk Mohair.  Gorgeous.

Some great sweaters for the men in our lives - this guy really reminds me of 

Country Winston Marshall of Mumford and Sons.....

I love both of these - Rowan produces their own Ugg socks!  Apologise for the quality of the first photo, but I love the 'over knees' socks by Jemma Weston using Felted Tweed.  This pattern is also a freebie on the website.

These are Kaffe's and I particularly like the knitted patchwork blanket - wonderful colour combos.

Rowan Magazine 52 is now available at Up Country - so get those needles out!

Another 2 Quilts....

Some more Quilts to add to my Gallery produced @ Unravel on Saturday with 2 lovely ladies.....fingers crossed for Emley Show!!!! :)

Unravel @ Denby Dale

As a quilter and dressmaker and living in the Holmfirth area I have really struggled for years to get material.  Its o.k. getting it on the internet but you really need to see the stuff and colour reproduction is never that good on-line and it is so important in quilting.  So getting fabric is usually a 50 mile round trip for me to get to the nearest shop.  But hey! there is hope on the horizon - with the shop Unravel at Denby Dale....only 12 miles away!

'Unravel' is on the main street in Denby Dale and the the shop is spread over 4 stories.  There is free parking outside the shop and across the road.

The owner - Mary - stocks wool, fabric, haberdashery and patterns,

she has a lovely range in all of these categories, as well as a lovely shop!

On the first floor she has a yummy range of cotton fabric which is particularly suited to quilting - but can be used for dressmaking.

On the same floor she carries a range of Indian textiles which are made up into items - mainly accessories - or fabric that can be bought by the metre.

Then in the basement she has a workroom where I had a 'Quilt-in-a-day' workshop on Saturday - its a fab space!  And - as if that's not enough' - on the 2nd floor she has an exhibition area for textile work.  This is the website http://www.unravelcrafts.co.uk  - 
so check it out and see for yourself! 

How to crochet a daffodil

I've been working on a floral tea cosy and have produced a pattern that is available from 'Up Country' and will eventually be on the Ravelry website.  It is a knitting and crochet pattern - at the moment - and has produced a lot of response in the shop.  I hope you like it!  The flowers are really easy but the daffodil is a bit tricky so this is a tutorial that supports it's making: I hope it make's life a bit easier as I dont want to create crafty problems.  So here we go.....

                                              This is the 'flower basket tea cosy'.

Chain (ch) 4 and slip stitch (slip stitch) to make a ring.

Chain 3 - this forms first treble(tr), then 11 tr into ring.

Sl st to top of 3 ch.

Now this is when it gets tricky: ch3 then on the v-shaped loops that have been made at the top of the previous stitches work into the back loops - instead of the whole stitch.  

Work 1 treble into each stitch - this shows the 3 ch, 1tr and then the start of the next treble.

Continue round the trebles till you meet the 3ch - slip stitch to join.  You'll have created a bowl shape.  Repeat this round again, but this time work into the whole stitch.

Now ch2, and double crochet in first stitch, then ch2, dc in next stitch - repeat all the way round and this will produce a fluted edge.  

Sl st into first ch of ch2 and fasten off - you now have the trumpet of the daffodil.

Next tricky bit - turn the trumpet upside down and join the yarn through any thread from your first round of treble stitches.  

Do 1 double crochet, ch2 miss the next treble from the same round and make a double crochet in the next stitch.   

Do this all the way round - (ch2, skip next st,  1dc in next st )  till end of round joining with a sl st into 1st dc.  So you now have 6 loops to work into.  

Sl St into first crochet loop, ch2, 1tr, 2 double trebles, 1tr, ch2, 1dc into same loop.

You then have the shape of the first petal.  Slip st into next loop and start a petal again.

3rd petal

Completed petals

Now we'll do the edging of the daffodil, this will pull the petal in and give it more of a cupped shape.  

*1 dc into next ch2 space from previous round then 1dc into next 2 stitches

then crochet 2

then turn put hook back into the first crochet you made and put a slip st through it 

- this will make a picot (pointed) edge to the petal, dc in same stitch, that's the pointed edging created on the petal.  

Continue with a dc in next stitch

and then a dc into 2 ch space

Then a slip stitch into the join between the petals.

Petal completed.  Repeat from * for the rest of the petals.

All petal edging completed.  Tidy up ends.

The daffodil.