We're very lucky to have Jeni from Fyberspates coming to teach dyeing at Hvalø Gård for the first weekend of August. Many lovers of her yarn were very disappointed when Jeni announced her plans to discontinue her hand-dyed line this summer. They now have the chance to learn a trick or three from her creative hands!

Jeni's teaching style is relaxed and informal, but we will cover all the basics of hand-dyeing on different bases and weights of yarn, starting with standard yarns such as Bluefaced Leicester and moving on to silks, alpaca and mohair. 

Imagine the colours of the island in yarn form!

If you book in June you will get 25% off the price of Jeni's retreat. 

I have a beautiful view from my workshop, across the field in front of our house, down to the sea. Living by the water means that the view is never the same, never static, always changing. There's always something to watch, and if I happen to be working on a set of ten chair seats (yawn!) I find myself looking out of the window more often than I should. 

This morning I have had several distractions keeping me glued to the window! First we had some wary visitors. Two roe deer tiptoed across the field, no longer camouflaged against the dun coloured winter pasture now that we have had some warm days and the grass is getting greener by the minute!

We have hawks nesting near the farm this year. They are utterly fascinating to watch, and one of them spent ten minutes hovering over a very interesting spot on the field this morning. Such patience deserves its reward; I hope it caught the mouse it was watching! As our daughter is determined to have chickens, having hawks so close my result in dramas this summer, but I have to admit to being on the side of the hawks.... (I'm not overly fond of chickens. The result of an angry cockerel flying up and pecking my face when I was tiny!)

I wasn't particularly pleased to see this naval vessel churning past us! I couldn't understand why they were in the archipelago rather than out at sea, but then I saw that it wasn't a Norwegian ship and there were several sailors taking photos, so it was a sightseeing trip!

We're so looking forward to the first retreat of the season. Åsa Tricosa is coming back to Hvalø for a weekend of Ziggurating, the clever and stylish sweater construction technique she has developed. She taught at a retreat here last summer and was an enthusiastic and entertaining tutor! This year she'll also be giving a shawl class, so anyone who has felt daunted by the first leaf of her gorgeous design Semele will be able to get hands on help! 

The Ziggurat weekend is just after the summer solstice so you will get to enjoy long Norwegian summer days, days filled with Åsa's fabulous classes, good food, walks in the woods, laughter, a dip in the sea for the bravest of us and new friendships! We hope to see you there.

We've had days and days of heavy rain, which has left its mark on the beach, and it felt as if we'd skipped summer and moved straight to autumn, but today the sun is back at last. There was a frost in the night so everything was sparkling and beautiful this morning.

The eider ducks are busy chattering and gossiping and most of them have paired up, but there are still some lonely ones looking for love;-)

Today the olive tree has moved back out to the veranda steps, a sure sign that it's spring at last. There's tea in my mug, newly wound yarn in my yarn bowl, Bamse is sitting on my feet and I have new sunglasses. What more could I ask for?

Now the weather is getting warmer I can start using my corner again. During the winter our built in veranda is decidedly chilly so the door is shut for months on end, and all I can do is peer wistfully at my favourite spot in the house. In my corner I have the wonderful cane chair my parents gave me for my 35th birthday, a sturdy basket full of yarn and a small table with Very Useful And Lovely Things (no, definitely not nick-nacks!). This morning I've tidied and cleared away the junk we seem to store out there while we don't use it, and now I'm boiling the kettle and planning an afternoon of knitting, reading and tea drinking!

There's no nicer way to spend a Sunday morning! We filled our pockets with all kinds of wonderful treasure.

The greylag goose turned up on the field in front of our house a while ago, and then first oyster catchers came on the 8th of March, as always, to celebrate International Women's Day, so I have high hopes for Spring arriving soon, but it's still chilly, I haven't dared put my olive tree out yet, the fritillaries are on my kitchen table rather than in the flower bed, and I'm very happy that I've finished knitting a warm and cosy shawl I've been working on for a while as I have a feeling I'm going to need it.... 

The pattern is Quill from Brooklyn Tweed and the yarn is beautiful Catherine from Posh Yarn.