More signs of a winter wonderland & the first craft of the year!

4 of us headed off this morning, in a small snow shower, to Newburgh for our monthly knitting group at the ever welcoming Twist Fibre Craft. The drive through the snowy countryside of Fife was beautiful, except when we disappeared into the freezing fog.....

We were the only 4 at knitting group so got to sit in the shop and watch all the customers coming and going and chat to the owners, Laura and Peter. I was finishing off a baby blankie that they had commissioned from me, to display in the shop (I've already made a couple of items for them using the wool felt that they sell) - what better theme for a knitting shop than.....SHEEP!

Once again I used the shop's wool pre-felt, which I lightly hand-felted and then washed in the washing machine at 30 degrees to get the lovely warm, woollie and comforting felt I use to make the blankies (and many of the goodies I made for the Makers Market I attended in November) and then started embroidering the sheep, using smaller pieces of pre-felt which are then attached to the blankie. The big sheep has a squeaker inside it and the flowers and grass are made of normal wool felt. The wall hanging behind is made from hand-felted, coloured, pre-felt (by Laura of Twist).

After we spent about 3 hours chatting, sewing & knitting and eating (wholemeal brioche made by Laurence, fruit scones by Louise and German Christmas cookies by Andrea) we headed down the hill to the River Tay where the on-going cold snap has caused ice floes to form. We wanted to see the ice flowing down stream - quite amazing that there was so much ice as it is a salt/tidal estuary.....it was an amazing sight and the sound of the ice creaking and crashing as it bumped and nudged it's way.