The 2014 knitting and crochet retreats have started

Wonderful, a whole two weeks of knitting, and a bit of cooking. Spring has finally sprung and we have had nearly two weeks of glorious weather and the cowslips are out.

Guests Juliet and Stephanie arrived on Thursday in glorious sunshine, soon to change to pouring rain on Friday morning! However, after breakfast we made a quick dash into Saintes to the yarn and fabric shop for a few emergency supplies, yarn for all of us and a new crochet book for me then back home for lunch and an afternoon knitting.

Stephanie has made a start on an entrelac hat and lacy shawl (a brave move on the concentration levels but has been saved a few times by the lifelines), Juliet finished off a pair of moss stitch bootees and has moved onto experimenting with different crochet edgings, I have finally completed a project for Knit Now magazine that has been hanging over me for weeks and have started on some Easter bunnies.

Today we had more rain in the morning but the sun appeared in the afternoon so we went to Cognac for a wander around the shops, more fabric and ribbon purchases for me, and a couple of albums for Stephanie from the vinyl record shop. After coffee in the square and a quick photo session in the church and down by the river it was back home for more knitting.

31st March

It is the end of another month and after more howling gales and rain yesterday we have some sunshine this morning. This is the view from my office window, taken early in the morning. Spring seems to come and go, I can't believe it is Easter already and we have only sat outside in the garden once so far this year!

Rowan have a free pattern on their website for a cute Easter Bunny knitted in Rowan Revive if you want a quick project.