My Weekend....at the seaside.

Hello, how was your weekend? I'm back to share a little bit of my weekend away. This was a very last minute booking, we both felt we could do with getting away and I didn't want to leave it much later than this weekend as Jodie is due in less four weeks. Thursday evening I rang up the regular caravan site that we usually stop at in Brean and they had some vacancies for Friday and Satutrday night.

We set off on Friday lunchtime and arrived in Clevedon by 2.30pm, we love this little town and the Victorian pier has got to be one of my favourite constructions. The sea was very still, hardly a ripple to be seen, we went to Tiffin's Tea House, overlooking the beach and pretty pier, where we had a savoury cream tea which I enjoyed very much. We then headed to the pretty little shops on Hill Streeet, I love the yarn shop there called the Spinning Weal and had to pop in but I was very good and didn't make a purchase.

We finished off with a glass of Procecco at The Cellars, overlooking this beautiful cottage garden, well I did anyway, the husband was driving!!!!!

Saturday morning we drove to Burnham on Sea to buy some supplies and stopped off for a Costa Coffee, we were very lucky with the weather and the sun shone all weekend. We bought some burgers and a throw away BBQ so we could sit and have our dinner on the beach in the meantime we spent a pleasant couple of hours walking along the beach, stopping at a couple of bars before heading back to the caravan ready for dinner.

Our caravan was a stones throw away from the beach, we only had to walk through the sand dunes and found the perfect spot for a BBQ. We arrived just as the sun was about to set, Mick was in charge of the food, why I sat listening to music and knitting, perfect!!!!

My Menehune by Mel came in handy for the beach as it went cooler in the evening, it's perfect just to wrap over your shoulders to keep the chill off.

When we got back to the caravan, we had a great view of the fireworks display over at Brean Pleasure Park, a perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday morning, we packed up our things and headed to Weston Super Mare, we walked further up the promenade than usual. I'm so glad we did, we found this beautiful little beach, where the sea doesn't go out at low tide due to the sea wall so it's safe to paddle/swim and no mud.

This is the sea wall that you can walk across and get to the old part of the town, it was a pleasant walk along the coast.

We stopped for a Diet Coke break and Mick came back with this bottle for me, I'm convinced he asked the waitress especially for this one but he denies it!!!!! After wandering around the town we headed back home, it was a fab weekend.

The Curious Collective Shawl 2014 has been released today, this is one of Helen Stewart designs but with a difference. We, as part of the Curious Handmade Group over on Ravelry had some input to this design, over a few weeks, we got to vote for what we'd like to see in the design from the colours, to the shape, to the stitch pattern. Helen took all this information and designed the shawl to the specifications of the group. Helen is hosting a fun Curious Collective 2014 DKAL with a chance of winning some great prizes, more about that tomorrow or pop over to the group now and check it out.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along......a little bit of sock knitting.

Hello there, I hope you're having a good week. I've actually been knitting on my Calla Socks by Rachel Coopey this week, the pattern is from issue 4 of Pom Pom Quarterly, my favourite knitting magazine. I haven't knit on these for a while now but this week I picked them up and I'm very nearly at the toe. I'm using Artesano Definition sock yarn in Azure, I love the colour.

My Pebble Beach Shawlette by Helen Stewart is at the 50% point of the pattern, I need to work on this more this week to keep up with the KAL.

I might add some beads to my shawl, I've got these gorgeous grey beads that match, I will try adding them near the bottom of the shawl and see what it looks like.

On Friday afternoon whilst sitting in my garden under shady tree, I started this sweet tank top by Debbie Bliss. I had some yarn in my stash and wanted to knit something my soon to be grandson.

It was such a quick knit that I has it finished by Sunday, so I'll show you the finished item on Friday.

I also had a small amount of leftover yarn so knit a pair of bootees to match.

This week I'm reading In Broad Daylight by Seth Harwood, a fast paced, hard to put down thriller. Check out Tami's WIP Wednesday, Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's KCCO for more crafty WIPs.

I'll leave you with a few photos from our Saturday afternoon in Bewdley, a beautiful riverside town. The regatta was on so we sat by the river with a Pimms, live music and watched all the action.

Have a great week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

FO Friday......A Wee Envelope Jumper.

Happy Friday, everyone. I've finished the Wee Envelope Jumper!!!!! It is so cute!!! After a few false starts, joining the back and front yokes, I whizzed through it. It is knit in the round and there is no seaming at all with this pattern, just picking up a few stitches.

If you decide to cast on this gorgeous baby sweater by Ysolda Teague, all I would say is read the instructions carefully and if it says join with first stitch, think about which exactly is the first stitch ( I joined the last stitch) or picking up stitches along a certain row not along the edge like I did, that's where I went wrong not reading instructions properly. The above photo shows you how the jumper is supposed to look like once you've started the back yoke. I'm sure everyone else won't have a problem anyway, it's just me, I'm going to blame my fuzzy head and warm weather ;-)

Once you're ready to start and join the right sleeve to the back yoke it will look twisted, that is correct, I knit it flat and obviously didn't get the envelope opening. This is how the front should look like once you start knitting the sleeve.

I hope I haven't made this knit sound complicated, it really isn't, it was just me not reading and following instructions correctly. I'd never knit this construction before and when I emailed the pattern support with a photo asking where I'd gone wrong, I had a reply within an hour putting me back on track. Once explained it clicked straight away where I'd gone wrong, I just need to go button shopping now to finish it off.

I know this pattern will be one I keep going back to time and time again, I've already decided the yarn and colours for the next one in a bigger size, the pattern goes up to an age four year old. I love that there is no seaming, it makes for a quick knit, once I'd finished the yokes and sleeves, the body didn't take long at all. I used Kettle Yarn Wimbledon Sport in Blue Pictcies, it's a beautiful, soft squishy yarn in 100% superwash merino, perfect for baby knits.

We've had another couple of birthdays this week, it was Paige's birthday on Monday, she's my youngest daughter and she turned 19, where do the years go??????

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to take a picnic over to Bantock Park. She had a lovely time, it was nice as her sister and partner were still down visiting, her gran and grandad, Aunty and all her cousins were there to celebrate with her.

Wednesday, it was my sister's birthday, this time we took a picnic over Telford Park, we were going to take this cutie over to the play area but it was so hot, we found a spot under a big shady tree and didn't move. She was happy playing with her new frisbee or flying disc as she kept correcting us.

I managed to just sit and get some knitting done, I love to knit outdoors, it makes me happy and with this wonderful weather we are enjoying in the UK, I'm getting plenty chances of doing exactly that.

I had to share this photo with you, this is my dad and baby nephew, it was all too much for them and they zonked out. I love this photo, it makes me smile every time I look at it, my dad said he wasn't asleep, he was resting his eyes. Yeah right!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

xxxxDebxxxxx

 

Unwind Brighton 2014.....a weekend of fun, new friendships and lots of yarn.

Hello my friends, last night I got back from a long weekend break in Brighton. It was the weekend of the very first Unwind Brighton, so the weekend was arranged around it, though I wasn't sure whether I'd make it as I was ill, in bed for three days earlier in the week. I still wasn't 100% but I had an amazing time anyway, I met some wonderful people who I know through Ravelry and Instagram.

We stopped in a hotel called Five, a beautiful Georgian house situated on a Regency seafront square, directly opposite was the beautiful public gardens, perfect for some quiet time in the sunshine. As you can see at the bottom of the road is the beach, right by Brighton Pier. The hotel is very near the Laines, the Pavilion and on the doorstep were lots of bars, cafés and restaurants, saying that it was very quiet and we heard no party goers on the night.

The hotel didn't serve a traditional English breakfast but bought a picnic basket to you room consisting of toast and jam, croissants, muffins, cereals, cheese, fresh fruit and freshly squeezed orange juice. We're not fans of big cooked breakfasts, so this suited us down to the ground.

When we arrived on the Friday morning, it was raining heavily, we did have a little wonder around the Laines and through an Instagram friend's recommendation we had lunch at a little tapas bar called Casa Don Carlos, which was wonderful and very authentic.

After lunch, I could pick up my wristband and programme all ready for Saturday morning, we then checked into the hotel and relaxed for a while, it had stopped raining by early evening and we had a stroll down to the seafront. The first thing we saw was an open air cinema on the beach showing The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, it was free to get in so we took a seat and had a Margareita slushy, what a great way to spend a Friday evening!!!

We then took a walk along the pier where we ate chips and I had my fortune told by Zoltar!!!! By this time I was ready for bed, as I wanted a good night sleep before Unwind.

Saturday morning the sun was shining and Mick walked me to Brighton Dome where the event was been held, what a beautiful place for a fibre festival. The first person I ran into outside the doors was my lovely blog friend PJ from The Snail Garden.

We walked into the hall and was hit by a rainbow of colours, I dont think either of us knew where to look first, there were so many wonderful vendours, all very friendly and ready for a chat. I wandered around oohing and arrring, touching the luxurious blends of yarn, deciding what to spend my money on. It's my birthday on Friday so I'd been given my birthday money early to spend at the event, by lunchtime I'd spent it all and was very happy with all my purchases.

After lunch, I went to the Podcaster Meetup, where I met up with some wonderful people including Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch, Kristina from Eaden Yarns, Tanya from A Yarn Loving Mama, Feltaria and Gem, Mrs Blaza who bought her adorable baby boy. All these lovely ladies, I've met through Intagram a great social media site for yarn lovers. I had a little chat with Green Triangle Girl from The Playful Day Podcast and also Helen Stewart from The Curious Handmade Podcast who I regularly do test knits for, it was a pleasure to finally meet her and she is as lovely as she sounds on her podcast :-)

I got to catch up with the lovely Zena also known as Little Yellow Uke, who I've got to know through Mel, Zena doesn't live far from me so hopefully we will meet up again soon. The photo above is of the two of us in the gardens, that we sent to Mel, hopefully next year they'll be a photo of the three of us!!!!

Zena gave me this gift, some beautiful stitch markers that she'd made with an handmade tag inspired by my class over at Camp Aloha Friends, aren't they pretty?

I got to spend some more time with Helen, Zena and PJ where we had a group cast on for Helen's new pattern Pebble Beach Shawlette which was the winner of the Unwind design competition. There was also some other ladies from Ravelry including Suddgummi and Ruthrabbit, we all sat in the Pavilion Gardens under the shade of a huge tree. I think this was the highlight of my day, sat chatting and knitting with such nice people, I could have sat there all day!!!!

Helen also gave me a gift, a gorgeous project bag and some fabulous Curious Handmade postcards, I feel really blessed to have met so many wonderful people over the weekend. Helen is having a Pebble Beach KAL over on the Curious Handmade Ravelry Group, why not join in, they are always great fun, with lots of chatter and the chance to win a prize.

This is my treasure trove of stash I bought, spread over my hotel bed. I would like to thank Dani and her team for putting together such a wonderful event, this was the first year for Unwind Brighton and hope it won't be the last!!!!

After the show I met back up with Mick and went to a few of the bars around Brighton, there's so many to chose from, lots had little hidden courtyard gardens. We finished up having dinner at English's of Brighton, a seafood and oyster bar. This is another restaurant I would highly recommend, we sat outdoors watching people walk by, listening to music played by the street musicians, eating the most delicious seafood and drinking wine. A perfect end to a wonderful day!

Sunday we spent the day at the beach, walking along the promenade, looking in the many art and gift shops along the front, stopping at the bars and cafés for drinks and snacks, we even watched a bit of the Punch and Judy show, that bought back memories of when my children were young. I also got to knit on my Pebble Beach, sat on the beach that is was named after.

 

The weekend ended far too quickly and on Monday morning we checked out of our hotel and drove further along the coast. We stopped off at Worthing and Bognor Regis, aren't the colours of the sea stunning, I could have sat there watching it all day. We finished the day off by eating chips on the beach before the long drive home. This has been one of my most memorable weekends away, I fell in love with Brighton and have left a little piece of my heart there. I'm so grateful to my husband for treating me to this weekend as a birthday treat and I hope to return soon.

Have a great week and I'll be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the giveaway.

xxxxDebxxxx