The memory of a picnic

We often visit Cambridge in the UK because our son lives there. It is such a friendly and beautiful city! We love to picnic and one of our favourite spots is Jesus Green. 

This folded book depicts a memory of one of these precious moments where everything felt wonderful and everyone and everything seemed to be smiling. 

It is a fabric and paper collaged piece, with hand stitching and embellishment. I also used some watercolour paint.

The technique used here, I learned from the textile artist Anne Kelly. A PVA glue solution gets used to attach paper onto fabric. At first I was a bit hesitant about it, but I found myself loving it: the technique makes a "fabric" that is really great to stitch through! And I get to use some of my lovely paper pieces I have been collecting for years!

The cover of the book is a piece of a kitchen towel and it has a button and beaded cord to close it.

I hope to have the time and energy to make many more of these memory-books!

I made a little video where you can see me opening the book, which you can watch it if you click here.

Jo Mittens

Jo March has been one of my heroes since childhood. In "Literary knits, 30 patterns inspired by favorite books" by Nikol Lohr, I found  a pattern for Jo mittens and really wanted to knit them. Partly because I like Jo so much, but also because of the practical boyish look of these mittens.

I struggled with the pattern, to be honest. I don’t think it 's written clearly enough for a not so experienced knitter and I had to frog more than once. I didn't seem to be able to make the pattern work, so in the end I modified it. Overall, sometimes a bit of a frustrating experience but, in the end, also very rewarding.

I like my Jo mittens a lot and am happy I persevered! I love the look of the knitted fabric, its warmth and the way the mittens fit and feel. 

The yarn I used is Rauwerk 100% merino (100g - 220m), an eco-friendly and ethical yarn from Germany. this is fantastic yarn, soft and rustic at the same time, in wonderful colours, a real favourite of mine! I bought this skein at Yarnporium in 2018 (you can read my blogpost on Yarnporium here) at the booth of Wild Woolly (a super nice London yarn shop)

And a little shout-out to the knitting needles I used, Lykke driftwood double-pointed needles : simply super! The combination of the yarn and the knitting needles made this a lovely project!

the wonderful yarn and super needles :