Knit and wine

Very pleasant Knit and Wine Tuesday evening. Laura, Sarah and Caroline did a little late night shopping......

Carolyn was impressed with Sarah's beautifully knitted Nordic cushion.

Sue B and Caron did a little knitting and a lots of whining ......and wining, of course.

Agnetha and Annifrid?

Sue and Sarah modelled their crochet shrugs at Knit and Wine - Mamma mia, did Abba have this pattern too?

Linda's birthday

September is a bumper month for birthdays at Jolie - Linda, Karen, Dany, Libby, Trish, Julie and Ann....... Linda had a double cream doughnut thing.

And matching nail varnish to go with her present. That's some colour coordination.

Home sweet home

Dany made Linda a garland. Fabric, glue, paper scissors. Quick and easy - love it, no sewing!

Knit and wine

Tuesday 27th September 7.30 - 10pm.

Summer crochet workshops

Young Charlotte brought her crochet squares in to show Linda who was more than impressed with her achievements. Ros was on a 1-2-1 refresher crochet and cracked on with her pattern reading and hooking.

Gypsy Rose Dany......

Oh what a summer - if you can call it that. There's been more rain than sun. Dany, Phil, Eddie, Ollie and dog Billie did however manage a few lovely days in Shropshire, staying in these wonderful vintage showman's caravans. Phil and I had the red and yellow one.

Eddie and Ollie had the green one.

Both were very quaint with wood burning stoves and electric lights - all mod cons! We had 22 cupboards in ours!

This was Eddie and Ollie's fireplace in the green 'van'.

The 'vans' are on a little campsite in the grounds of Walcot Hall. If you are staying within the grounds you are free to wander around the gardens and arborteum which are very beautiful.

There is even a lake, with a little boat.

Billie came too, but didn't find the gypsy in her soul. She wasn't keen on 'glamping' . Always the opportunist, she stole the sausages out of the frying pan on the campfire. Needless to say she wasn't popular that evening.

Ollie lent her some cool specs when she'd been forgiven.

We visited Bury Ditches an iron age hill fort nearby. Billie and Ollie re enacted some ancient local Britons.

Shropshire is a beautiful county and we explored some pretty places, but Walcot Hall was a real find we'll definitely be back. www.walcothall.com

What a day! We had two Knit and Chats last Thursday. We celebrated Beryl's birthday in the morning and had a special Jolie cream tea in the afternoon (Donna was there for both, how did she manage that?). Beryl had some great cards and beautiful turquoise charm bracelet with a pretty peridot charm - Beryl's birth stone.

And Erika Knight came too! Erika joined us to show us her new venture or rather adventure.

Erika is launching a new yarn collection - all pure British wool and expertly spun in Laxton's mill in Yorkshire. We had a preview of colours and textures and patterns too.

Jane fell in love with the 'fur' - infact, I think she wanted to take this little friend home with her. Watch this space for more news on Erika's yarns @ Jolie.

Feeling fruity

What to do with a few raspberries and a couple of eggs? Individual raspberry souffles from Nigel Slater's wonderful little book Real Fast Puddings. Ready in 12 minutes, fat free and delicious!

There were rather more calories in Scarlett's Victoria sponge she made for James's birthday. It all disappeared in a flash tho.....

To a tea

Knit and Chat with a cream tea - every Wednesday afternoon from 2-4pm. Heaven?

Smashin' pumpkins

PC Karen brought a delicious pumpkin pie to Knit and Chat on Tuesday. What a lot from the allotment! Home made from home grown pumpkins and decorated with pretty cake stencils - now available at Jolie. Scrummy indeed!

Scary crochet

This crochet creature is Nibbler from Futurama (apparently), and was made by Sue Ford's 23yr old son, Chris. We are very impressed with Chris's crochet skills, but unfortunately can't admit to knowing who Nibbler is......we think he's great though.

Nigella Brown

A posse from Jolie took a trip down to The Fleetville Vintage Emporium down on Hatfield Road, St Albans, where our Donna has a stall - www.thefleetvillevintageemporium.co.uk . Also recommended, the cosy alfresco Tea for Two Cafe - with excellent waitress service.

'Nigella' makes a good BLT, it has to be said.

Knit and wine

Tuesday evening, 16th August, 7.30 - 10pm.

We've been taking turns in the shop during school holidays, but Dany and Linda will both be at Knit and Wine on Tuesday evening. Do join us if you can. xxxx

Wonderful wet weekend

We had our annual Jolie weekend in Southwold. Starting off with breakfast at Cafe Clare in Clare, Suffolk, we spent all day getting there taking the scenic route through the villages and stopping wherever the fancy took us.

We had cream teas at The Weavers Tea Room in Peasenhall, just as Donna had a text from Slimming World wishing her a great weekend. Ooops!

Stopped at Yoxford Antiques Emporium where we met Hinge and Bracket.

Spotted a great crochet swimsuit. Pity the weather wasn't up to it.

Linda found some nice fabric, a dodgy housecoat, neglige thing (she didn't buy it) and a great beehive style hat (which she should have bought).

We stayed at The Swan in Southwold.

Trish and Julie came too. Julie somehow managed to avoid the camera.

We were joined by Sinjit and Minjeeta for the room party on Sunday night.

It was a blustery, windy, rainy, wet weekend in July. For goodness sake, what happened to the weather this summer?

Sailor Bill obliged by taking a picture of us .....and a liking to Linda too.

Found a little bit of colour by the seaside.

and Southwold's lighthouse is so pretty.

We loved the homage to Southwold crochet curtain.

We did see the sea - but this was about as close as we got.

Dany shared her big Toasty cardi with Karen.

Windy windmills.

We managed plenty of shopping, of course. Donna bought new Fit Flops.

Tea, again, down at Susie's kiosk, by the seafront.

Hellie purchased a charity shop raincoat - more out of necessity than style we felt.

Coffee this time in Woodbridge on the way home. There was an incredible downpour while we were drinking our coffee and we couldn't get out because the street flooded. We had to leave through the back kitchen door of Caffe Nero.

Aah, but it was great inspite of the weather. A happy laugh-a-minute good time was had by all. To top it all we finished up at The Angel in Lavenham for a truly delicious meal. Unbeknown to us Marco Pierre White took over about 10 days previously - we thought it was good and by golly the food was amazing and not too expensive. Definitely worth a revisit.