A Walk in the Woods, a good day for customers and some knitting

Hi! Good to see you back here! I hope you had a nice weekend!

This Sunday we went for a nice walk in the woods! Only this time I remembered to bring the camera, so you can all come along (on this virtual tour)! We went to one of the National Parks in Kempen (a lovely area in Belgium) - near a place called Donderslag (Thunderclap!).

This is my favourite photo of the walk!

The walk went through woodland, along fields, through wetland, heather, along a pretty lake. We chose to do the 8.5km trail (which was marked in blue on the map and also along the paths).

Start of our walk

I soon stopped to take more photos, there were toadstools, spiders and lots of acorns to admire.

Cute Toadstool

This is my wood - from a spider's view

After we came to the edge of the forest (see first photo) we walked along some corn fields.  I soon spotted a dash of colour in the grass along the side!

Dainty harebell flowers

A field of corn - very tall!

The corn stood over 2m tall! A bit further we walked along a huge ant hill and I spotted another colourful flower!

Purple Cornflower

We walked through the woods again and the ground became wetter. It was really funny, every time we approached a big and deep puddle, there were a dozen or more little frogs jumping into the water for cover! I tried to take a photo but failed! They were too fast! Finally we had this vista in front of us!

The Lake

View through the trees

A few more flowers...

Wild Camomile

Until we came towards a field of green beans! Belgians love their fine green beans!

A Field with Green Beens

Before the last stretch of the walk...

What a mighty tree!

Along Birch trees

...back to the car park with the map where we started! We were lucky with the weather!

The map with our walk marked in Blue (8.5km)

Afterwards, we drove to the nearest small town (called Meeuwen) and sat outside a roadside Ice Salon to enjoy some very special ice cream as refreshment.

Special Ice Cream and Coffee

I hope you enjoyed this little journey! Believe me, I limited the photos, I took quite a lot. The scenery was quite varied and it was very enjoyable. There was so much to see and experience.

Knitting WIP and Harlequin Blanket

This post wouldn't be complete without any mention of making things!

On Saturday I went back to the Lana Wool Shop that I mentioned before. I had received an invitation for the Day of the customer (Dag van de klant).

Here are some additional photos of the window displays. You can see a customer version of this blanket (A recent mystery Knit Along Afghan Blanket by Martin Storey for Rowan):
Rowan weblink
Ravelry link

Rowan Blanket in the Window display at Lana

Lana Shop, Antwerpen

Inside the shop the owner, Lea was holding a knitting cafe (Breicafe) for the customers. We sat around a table and enjoyed refreshments, there was coffee and Cava, Cake and Belgian chocolates. It was lovely to be with so many like minded people who were making some awe inspiring knitting projects from Rowan, having bought the wool here at Lana. Many of the people present had also followed classes with Lea. Maybe I should enrol, too?

I had decided on Friday evening that I wanted to make a sort of Loop scarf, so I cast on! (Below you can see my Autumn Loop Scarf and the Granny Stitch Crochet Scarf of Many Colours (made with 7 different colours of variegated yarn from Lang) that I both made about 9 months ago. I used them for inspiration and size guide.) I used RICO Melange Chunky yarn (size 6-7mm needles - I used 9mm!). I took this with me to the shop to continue knitting there.

The idea: Knitting a Loop Scarf

On Saturday and Sunday I did quite a lot of knitting (and hardly any crochet!), and this resulted in the scarf on the left below, shown here knitted up with 2.5 balls of yarn.

Laying it on the floor to photograph I played about with it and changed my mind about WHAT I was making! I thought I might as well go for it and use the 6 balls of yarn I had (instead of the 3 that might have been enough for the Loop Scarf). I decided that I would make a Shrug instead! I love the yarn so much, the colours are fantastic and I know I would love to wear it this season, so no time to waste!

So I cast on anew (with double the stitches) and began again.... (see right side, approx 2+ balls of yarn used)

Here's one I made earlier...

The reason I kept the first version was that I could do a sort of try out in front of the mirror to get an idea how large it might be when finished. Obviously it had to be unravelled so I can use the yarn for further knitting!

Oh, and look at that! No chance of photographing the knitting, Cleo my cat got in on the act!

Cleo inspects my knitting!

What do you mean - selfie?

 (We all know that cats own the internet!!!)

Here's a quick peek at the Harlequin Blanket today before I went to the knitting cafe this afternoon!

Harlequin Blanket 30.09.14

Adding green yarn...

Well done! You arrived at the end of this post. Thank you for reading this, I hope you found it worth your while. Hopefully you might feel refreshed and inspired (a little bit) and take this feeling with you whatever you will be doing next!

And if you want to comment, then please do so! I love reading your comments, it's like getting postcards from all over the world! :)