The Greats at Knole House

By greats, I mean the Great Hall, the Great Screen and the Great Staircase and to be honest they’re very well named.

Knole, which is close to Sevenoaks and was our stop off on the way to our cabin for our escape weekend close to home, is a former Archbishops’ Palace. The Great Hall would have been right at the heart of it and where the whole household would eat together. For me the floor was a fantastic part of the space, but there was much more to it than that.

The carved oak screen dates to the early 1600s and is decorated with leopards and other symbols of the Sackville family.

But the ceiling can’t go unmentioned - isn’t it fabulous?

The staircase, unlike the hall, was only for members of the family, distinguished guests and high ranking sevants.

The paintings though - they really should be named as greats too. They depict the Four Ages of Man, the Five Senses and the Seven Virtues, though one virtue - temperance - is missing.

The sculpture is Giovanna Zanerini, a celebrated Italian ballerina and mistress of the 3rd Duke of Sackville. She was known by her stage name - La Baccelli and lived at Knole, and she remains there today.

There’s much more to see at Knole, and considering it’s only about thirty minutes from home I can’t believe this was our first - but certainly not our last - visit. It’s definitely worth a look if you’re close by.

My mustard campfire granny

This crochet project has been on our last two breaks, so it’s already well travelled. I took it with me to the Lake District but didn’t get around to starting it, and then took it with us to Ticehurst with the intention of sewing in the ends. That didn’t happen either, but I did get to use it while sitting outside on the deck of an evening, and I couldn’t resist photographing it with the woods as a backdrop.

You’ll have to excuse the threads, but I think you’ll agree the photos are pretty special.

The blanket is a simple continuous granny square and the colours have worked out well. Originally, in my head the constant colour was going to be cream and I planned to use up wool that I had for the contrast colours. But the cream wool I had was heavier than the double knit of the contrast colours, and as they were the main reason for starting this throw I had a rethink.

I had a couple of balls of the mustard, which I’d bought because I liked the colour and I think I spent most of our Lake District holiday talking myself into using it and wondering how it would work. As it turned out I’m glad I did.

I had a rainbow of colours to use but again didn’t really have a plan, so before starting I spent some time working out a rough colour progression. I knew that I had more of the pinks, reds and oranges so it made sense to leave those for the outer rows.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and am even more pleased with the photo backdrop too. For something that didn’t start with much of a plan I can see this being well used, and I think I’ll be making another with a navy main colour, but not just yet, as I’ll need to accumulate some more contrast colours first.

My unplanned plan

Hook size 4mm, using a mixture of double knit wool - from the centre:

• Hobbycraft: Knitcraft mustard cotton blend (main colour)

• Vikki Brown Designs: Blackberry Sorbet

• Vikki Brown Designs: Image of You

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ombre One (green)

• Vikki Brown Designs: Blue Raspberry

• Hobbycraft: WI Soft and Cuddly green/yellow mix

• Drops Cotton Light: Mint

• Vikki Brown Designs: Potion

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ombre Four (green)

• Drops Cotton Light: Ice Blue

• Vikki Brown Designs: Senecio

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ombre Five (green)

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ombre Two (blue)

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ombre Four (lilac)

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ethel

• Vikki Brown Designs: Claude

• Vikki Brown Designs: Ombre Five (pink)

• Hobbycraft: Knitcraft pink cotton blend

• Vikki Brown Designs: Seeing Red

• Hobbycraft: Knitcraft coral cotton blend

• Hobbycraft: Knitcraft orange cotton blend

Now, to sew in those ends!

Small and perfectly formed

The cabin we stayed in at Downash Wood Treehouses couldn’t have been better named and it was a perfect place to escape to for a long weekend.

And it was pretty special on the inside too, though if I’m perfectly honest the pink fluffy artwork and ceiling light weren’t my cup of tea.

The kitchen fitted snugly alongside the bathroom, and it was great to have a proper oven.

And in between the bedroom area and the kitchen there was a small lounge area, but given the weather it got very little use during our stay.

Who’d have known what to expect from the outside?

On the other side though, that really was where the magic was. On the decking there was a table and chairs, a couple of adirondack chairs, a firepit BBQ and the big draw a wood fired hot tub. Which we made plenty of use of, we were less successful with the firepit BBQ though, apparently setting and tending to one fire was plenty enough for MOH.

A great weekend away, a great place and we almost didn’t notice that we didn’t have the internet. Almost.