We had a Knitting Parlour staff outing to Royal Ascot for Ladies Day on Thursday. We equipped ourselves with fascinators, loads of food, umbrellas and pretty frocks and obviously our knitting!

We had a picnic in the coach park when we arrived which sounds really naff but it was quite a nice grassy field and the coach was useful shelter when it started chucking it down. Then we had to queue for maybe 45 minutes to get into the ring. It was because you have to cross the racecourse and they put down a tiny board so you don’t ruin the grass but it does create a bottleneck and it was touch and go whether we’d get across before they have to close it for the Queen.

This is us when we arrived.

Pat and Mary waiting for the Queen.

Mary and me waiting for the Queen. That brown is my shawl completely covering up my pretty frock but it was chilly and most likely about to rain.

There were 6 races and we bet on all of them but only won twice out of about 20 bets between us! We were getting tips by text from Mary’s husband but ignored them (we knew best) until it turned out they were pretty good.

The Queen and the Duke. The Queen was in Oatmeal.

We did LOADS of knitting on the coach. Pat was knitting a summer top with some yarn she got in America and which I can’t remember the name of, Mary is making a Mission Falls scarf for the shop and I was knitting the baby surprise jacket with Colinette Jitterbug.

Our next trip to the races will be closer to home. We’ve decided to have the shop’s 2nd anniversary do at Worcester races sometime in July.

In other knitting news I had a bit of a hiccup with my Louisa Harding Coquette shrug so the pattern won’t be on the website anytime soon until I knit it again in something else. The Surfer cardigan which is in this week’s shop window was quite a success. I have to come up with a red white and blue theme for the next window for Malvern in Bloom. I’m thinking of making a union jack out of balls of yarn but that may prove to be too ambitious.