winter fires and workshops

Here we all were travelling along just fine, enjoying a blissful start to winter. The sunshine has been enchantingly  filling our living area with glorious golden light; shortening days of sunshine but sunshine nevertheless. There's something about the golden warmth of Winter sunshine that soothes the soul. 

Winter Solstice came.

It was a glorious evening. Not in the least bit chilly or cold. No blustering winter winds. It was one of those evenings when you could quite pleasantly sit outside around the fire all night chatting and sipping chai. I think I was becoming a little bit complacent about the wintriness.

Then the wind came. And the rain. And the temperature dropped, not that significantly that you could say it really was icy cold. It's never icy cold here despite the complaints of some locals but suddenly the Winter sunshine seemed more precious than ever. Rather than endless days of golden sunshine, there are mere teasing glimpses. It will be short-lived no doubt and I do suspect that in a week's time, our living area will once again be bathed all day in the golden sunshine that makes heating completely unnecessary. The backyard will once again be enticingly inviting me to come and sit outside on the deck to knit and sip chai.

Until then, however, you shall find me rugged up in front of the fire savouring every little bit of warmth it gives as the rain pelts down on the tin roof and the wind howls through the she-oak and banksia treetops. But I won't be complaining really, winter is quite mild here. There's no snow, there's no frost and there's no sub-zero temperatures. 

 Amongst all this mild winter weather, I shall be teaching a number of workshops at places that are quite a good deal chillier than here. 

Once again, in September you'll find me at The Craft Sessions in the Yarra Valley teaching a couple of classes on design and technique. I am so looking forward to this weekend. Last year's was an unbelievable and most beautiful experience where I got to meet some really lovely people and forge some new friendships. There was such a gentle atmosphere of friendship and support as all these amazing women came together in sharing a passion for craft.  

There are still some tickets left for this amazing event, but I'm sure that that won't be the case for much longer.  
This year, I believe, there is even a payment plan to make it even easier to get to TCS.  

You can find more information on the classes I shall be teaching at The Craft Sessions here:
Knit Design - Grading
Knit Design - The Beauty of a Circular Yoke
Knitting - The Secret to Becoming A Great Knitter
The little cardie you can see above is a new pattern I have written just for the circular yoke class.

At the start of August, I shall be jetting off to Tasmania, the land of the White Gum Wool, for an extra long weekend that will involve some teaching at The Stash Cupboard. This is going to be another amazing weekend. I am teaching classes Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday, and when I'm not teaching I'll be hanging out with some other lovely knitting people that I am really really excited about meeting. 

The classes at The Stash Cupboard will have something for everyone; the knitter looking to start out on circular needles, the intermediate knitter and the knitter looking to have a crack at designing. 

If you're interested in these classes you can find more information on the workshops page of my website.

You can find more information about the workshops I'll be teaching at The Stash Cupboard here:
An Introduction to Raglan Design
Learning to Love Your Circulars
The Perfect Cowl

I do have plans for a few more workshops and classes this year, some plans are in the pipelines, some are just hatching.  I've added a workshops tab to my website so you can keep up with details of where I'll be teaching.

Happy winter everyone! Hope your knitting is keeping you snuggly and warm.