News

Last week, my friend Fu and I returned from an amazing holiday to Iceland. We had a fantastic fortnight despite the cold and rather wet weather. The first week involved an Hélène Magnússon hiking and knitting tour of the Tröllaskagi mountains, north of Akureyri. Under Hélène's knowledgeable guidance, we walked along beautiful trails, admired numerous Icelandic plants and knitted our way to a pair of lace weight mittens!            After a stopover in Reykjavík, we headed for the Volcano Trails in the Þórsmörk valley. The scenery was stunning: dark volcanic river beds; basaltic slopes; and ancient...

"Warmed by the sun, blown by the wind..." are the opening words of an unfinished poem by F.C.B. Cadell, one of the four Scottish Colourists known for their bright, distinctive works. These early 20th Century Scottish artists which included S.J. Peploe, J.D. Ferguson & G.L. Hunter, though never an actual group at that time, individually visited and trained in France to continue learning their craft. Cadell returned to Scotland in 1908. I have always admired Edinburgh-born Cadell's work, visiting the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Artwhenever possible. So, when I came across the Iona Craft Shopwools at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival...

Over the winter of 2011/12, my friend Fu of Bearford Yarns and East Coast Organicsplanted an organic orchard on her farm in East Lothian consisting of both heritage and modern varieties of apples, pears and plums. The heritage trees were included so that she could help preserve a number of lesser known British fruit varieties. When I visited the orchard in the summer of 2014 to admire her hard work planting over 1000 trees, I was amazed at the number of species I had never heard about! Supermarkets sell a very limited range of British fruit. Recently when I was...

One of my favourite trees is the Scots pine, botanically known as Pinus sylvestris. This native conifer can be found across Scotland, and in particular throughout Glen Affric to the west of Loch Ness in the Highlands. The photos below were taken over Easter 2013, on our last family holiday to Glen Affric. Our first family visit was in 1999, and we've returned on more than seven occasions!        When I came to design a new pattern for my bag fabric, the Scots pine immediately came to mind. Once I had drawn up a design using my knitter's graph paper...

I have always loved flowers.  When I was training to be a herbalist, I was delighted to be told to compile a herbarium for a Botany module; although it was tricky to find flowering plants in Scotland in October and November!        When walking in Scotland, I always take my camera along in case I spot any interesting flowering plants. One of my favourite places for wildflower spotting is the isle of Ulva off the west coast of Mull.  These photos were taken in the summer of 2009, and show devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) and ragged robin (Lychnis flow-cuculi).    ...