Sasha's illustrated talk last night was fascinating. She showed us slides of her designs, creations and inspirations over several decades of her career – many modelled by her own children near her studio in Wales. We were all inspired by the beauty and ingenuity of her knitwear creations, in particular by the way she takes a single motif from nature like a leaf and turns it into a pattern, and of course her brilliant eye for colour.
Everyone's skills are improving and there are lots of gorgeous knits around!
After another evening of knitting into the night, we enjoyed a class this morning on crocheting flowers. Personally, it was something I'd never seen much point in before, but I'm now well and truly hooked, as I can now see the amazing effect of making a cushion, for example, 3D by adding a knitted flower or leaf embellishment. They are also quick to make and you can get so creative - in the class, I crocheted one flower and then knitted another, both of my own freeform design, and
now I'm putting one inside the other to make a daffodil shape.
I'm already noticing an improvement in my knitting abilities over the past few days - I'm getting faster and picking up many new skills. We're all now at the stage of piecing together our work so far into a cushion cover or bag, using the flowers to give added texture.
Maggie, adding flowers to her work.
This afternoon, some of us went for a lazy swim in the pool, and then we enjoyed a 'show and share' session where we all showed something we'd knitted. The range of creations was extraordinary, from Carolyn's extremely fine lace shawl in progress to guernseys and all kinds of socks. We took pictures of ourselves as a group proudly showing off a table display of our own work.
Carolyn with her fabulous lace shawl.
This evening, we're heading out to a local restaurant for what promises to be an excellent dinner.
