Beach heart pebbles for Valentines Day

I've been collecting heart shaped pebbles from the beach for a long time, and have finally decided how to embellish them!

Each one is (of course!) different in shape and size, and to be honest some are "heartier" than others - but I'm having great fun prettying them up.

As it's nearly Valentine's Day it seemed right to try to make pebbles sexy, so I've gone for a lacing effect knitted stitch, like corset lacing!

I've started to add them to folksy and etsy and will continue to add more as I knit them!

Ocean scarf for *ME*!

I've had a ball of this yarn in my stash for a while, it's from the Sirdar Crofter DK collection and is a "magic" yarn that creates a fairisle effect all by itself. I've even knitted it up twice before but hadn't found a way to show off the beautiful ocean shades and the clever self-pattern effect.

Finally I discovered a pattern that would do it justice! It's by Leslie Lewis, on Ravelry, and is called the Ocean Waves Scarf. I used 45 stitches and basically knitted in pattern until I ran out of yarn. I knew it wouldn't be enough for a normal scarf, so I've added some buttons from my stash and made it into a neckwarmer, joining each end to the opposite edge which means it comes together in a point at the front, just where you need the warmth in a shirt neckline. I love the stripes of sea colours. 

My teddy is a better model than I am!

Spread the Warmth, AgeUK's winter campaign and knitting challenge

AgeUK contacted me a few days ago to ask if I'd join in their Spread the Warmth campaign. Now it's my turn to pass the challenge on - will you join in?

This winter, 24,000 older people could die because of the cold. Many of these deaths could be prevented if everyone lived in a warm home.

We need to get the message across to every MP – including yours. So AgeUK are asking people to knit a message to send to their MP. If you're not sure who your MP is, you can find out by entering your postcode into www.parliament.uk.

You can download the knitting pattern from AgeUK, it took me very little time and a very small amount of yarn - but if you are not a knitter, you can still add your voice to the campaign here. You can also download the leaflet which includes the note to send with your knitted message:

AgeUK also has advice  to help people keep themselves warm during the coming winter months - let's all spread the warmth!

Please share the link to AgeUK's campaign around your social media and reblog if you can. Thank you.