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After almost two years’ absence from blogging, I finally decided it was time to set up a new blog.  Whereas my last blog was a joint knitting/sewing project with my dear friend Renee, this blog will be all about me me me!  I don’t spend enough time on either of my interests – knitting and travelling –  so I hope this blog forces me to do more of both.

I’ve been on quite a few knitterly adventures over the past few weeks, but with little photographic evidence though – hopefully this blog will also force me to finally buy a camera that works!

I had a very woolly weekend recently at Camp Bestival, where the team from I Knit London taught scores and scores of kiddies and adults to knit, with all knitted pieces going to the Great British Sheep.  For a great pic of the sheep in all his woolly glory, check out Ruby’s pic here.  Typical though, I’m so rubbish at celebrity spotting it took me ages to realise that I’d plonked myself down on the floor next to Kate Nash.  You’d think the throngs of camera-weilding fans would have given it away for me.  Not to worry.  Here’s a great shot of Emilie teaching one of our first recruits on the Friday morning (you can just about see the tongue-poking-out-in-concentration)…

I didn’t get the chance to take any more pics after that, as it just got too hectic in the knitting tent.       Luckily other people got some more pics, so for the full round up in pictures, check out the Flickr group.

I had a great day trip last weekend to the Natural Dye Studio Open Day in Suffolk.  I got all inspired about learning how to dye yarn, whilst friends (that would be Alice and Mel) managed to snaffle a skein of yarn each before it had even had a chance to dry.  That’s determination!  (Of course I bought some yarn myself, but it was already skeined and ready for sale.  I’m such a traditionalist).

Amanda uses indigo to dye her dark blue yarns, and the results are stunning.  Thanks to my rubbish camera I couldn’t get any decent photos of either Amanda’s or Jen‘s dyeing demonstrations, but seeing the indigo reminded me of the fabrics dyed by local people in the villages around Sapa, Vietnam.  Here’s a pic from my wanderings in 2005:

This just reminds me of how much I love travelling.  I’m off to buy a new camera today, so I’m looking forward to taking snaps of more travelknitting that I have lined up. Hurrah!