The nights are drawing in, there's a nip in the air so obviously it's time to get out the knitting that's lain abandoned in a basket in a corner of the sitting room since the clocks went forward at the end of March.

I hadn't knitted in years. Who had? But then I kept seeing books with knitting heroines and I remembered the pleasure of it. I used to love knitting. But still I didn't actually hunt out my pins. But then my lovely granddaughter arrived and I found myself walking into the wool shop in the Arcade and drooling over the patterns, the yarn.

It was a whole new world. No longer were baby clothes restricted to white, pink, blue or yellow. Babies wore strange and beautiful colours. Yarn was gorgeously soft Cashmerino I went knitting crazy for a while, but then the days grew longer, the garden called and projects languished.

There's the panda jumper I'm making for my granddaughter.

The shrug for my daughter (a really difficult pattern and I don't think that is going to ever get finished. And there's a pile of patterns and wool that I bought in a rush of enthusiasm.

Would she like this cupcake hat?


She does love a hat.




Or what about this frog outfit?

Probably not. She's not a baby any more, but a a little lady. Time for that ballet cross-over I think.

Yay, to the end of the wip and hooray for knitting!

OH BOY!

As if I didn't have enough to do, I've got hooked on knitting again. I haven't done this in years. Not the kind of knitting with complicated instructions. In fact the last thing I knitted was a yards long Dr Who scarf for the first born. But then, this week, I passed a little shop that had wool in the window. And it called to me.

Maybe it's all part of being a grandmother. Here's the little sweetheart I'm knitting for -



And here's the pattern. A little bolero in a pale sagey green (babies wear such sophisticated colours these days!).



The back is done and one side.

Readers, I rhink I might be hooked.

OOPS...

Almost forgot. I'm giving a writing workshop on Monday 9th August, 11 am at Carmarthen Library. In case you're thinking of entering the New Voices competition and want to pick my brains.