There have been benefits in inspiration to having to stay local for the time being. I’ve been exploring much more of my local area on my walks, including a new section of the Southern Upland Way. Seeing how the countryside has changed since the start of lockdown has been great to observe- I’ve loved watching the hills turn from greens and golds to purples and pinks.

The two images above were taken on Ruberslaw, near Hawick. I’ve had to go over to Hawick a couple of times to pick up pieces from the mill. They’ve managed to get back to work, putting in place social distancing measures, a lot of hand sanitiser stations, and they’ve even built custom, movable screens they can move around to be between people when they need to be a bit closer to discuss something. Seeing these measures has been another advantage to local manufacturing.

These two scarves, my new Eildon Scarf and Shuna scarf, really to blend into the landscape well I think! Just now the heather seems to be in full bloom, with pinks and purples everywhere!

I took a few days off to do some longer walks, along two sections of the Southern Upland Way. One day was spent walking from Traquair to Yair Bridge, a section I have walked before but really enjoy, over Minchmoor and up to the Three Brethren. The second day was spent walking over a lot of moorland, starting from near Longformacus and ending in Lauder. The views (above) were not as dramatic, and we did meet a lot of very curious cows in one field- Leni was not impressed by them, and is now definitely scared of cows!

Throughout this time of lockdown I’ve been trying to balance work and life. So many plans I had made have been cancelled, and it’s very hard to plan for the autumn, as there are so many unknowns. I put off doing a lot of knitting during lockdown as I wasn’t sure which events would go ahead, but now I’m trying to get back into the swing of knitting regularly again.

I’m currently trying to get a lot of scarves finished and ready to be sent to Japan, for an event there in October. Sadly I can’t go with them as planned this year, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for next year!

Even though I’m outsourcing some of my manufacturing locally, I’m still hand framing, and hand finishing most of my designs. Below you can see me knitting, and putting a blanket scarf on the linker.

My routine has changed this year- normally I would have had two walks a day, in the morning and mid-afternoon, but with lockdown restrictions I had months of just one walk. Now I’m used to spending the rest of the day working, but I’m trying to add in an evening walk while it’s still light.

An exciting local discovery is that there are the remains of the broch just outside Galashiels (below) , with a view along the valleys to the Eildons. Not much is left of the broch, but you can clearly see the entrance, and the entrance to the stairs. I had no idea there was anything so old to see in my local area!

Wild flowers catch my attention all year, and they are particularly wonderful just now (although I’m sure I say that in Spring too!). What’s interested me is just now many there are in pinks at this time of year- foxgloves, clover, campion, ragged robin, willowherb, heather and thistles. Maybe there will be some inspiration from nature and textures of wild flowers piece in my future..

I’ll leave you with this photo of my Eildon Scarf on Ruberslaw, as I love how dramatic it looks.