Not tender, loving care, but Top Left Corner.

Regular readers of my blog will know that the area we live in, Assynt, is a vibrant community, and there is always something new happening and always something to be involved in.  Well, over the course of the last couple of years, I've come into contact with and have got to know Mandy Haggith - mainly through the fact that she came to some knitting classes I was giving, and took to knitting with great enthusiasm and relish and was soon turning out beautiful and colourful socks.  Mandy is a writer and an environmentalist, and is an enthusiastic ambassador for arts and crafts.  Last year a group of artists and craftspeople in Assynt formed a small group to look at ways that we could promote the incredible range of arts and crafts emanating from this small, remote community.   While the group is still in its infancy, Mandy decided to create a Community Interest Company and set up Top Left Corner.   She asked me to become a director, and I was thrilled to say yes.

Our main aim is to get people both from within Assynt and outwith the area to come to the inspiring landscape of Assynt and get creative.  My own contributions to this aim includes helping to organise various arts and crafts courses, and I will also be starting knitting classes in the local schools once the new term starts in the autumn.  Mandy runs Writing Retreats at Glencanisp Lodge a number of times a year, and we will also be running a willow workshop in the middle of June, so if anyone reading this is planning a visit to Assynt in June and fancy learning how to work with willow, please get in touch.

And finally, I leave you with my pitiful progress on Alina.  I've had a busy weekend with both visitors (my big sis from the US, very briefly) and dyeing (getting ready for Gardening Scotland next weekend), so my knitting time has been limited, but I plan working on it this week as I'd like to have a little more to show at Gardening Scotland at the weekend.  I should say that normally I don't use variegated yarn for lace, but actually, although it is hard to see in this picture, this colour scheme is working well with the pattern.  I have high hopes for it once it is properly blocked.