Happy Holidays

D and I are just back from a rather wonderful week in Cornwall. We were pretty lucky with the weather and although it was cold, it was clear and just about the perfect weather for wandering along deserted beaches and staring wistfully out at the sea. As you can see from the photo, my Flicca cardigan got its very first outing in public, accompanying me to St Ives where we took in the sea air and visited The Dark Monarch exhibition at the Tate Gallery. We also stuffed our faces with the most delicious pasties and I took a series of photos of the boats in the harbour and the beautiful beach. Other days out included The National Seal Sanctuary at Gweek, Sennen Cove, a trip on the King Harry Ferry to St Mawes, a visit to Boscastle and a morning wandering around the gardens of the National Trust property at Trelissick.

My absolutely favourite place to visit in Cornwall though has to be Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes. It is always beautiful and on this occasion it was just stunning. It was really quite wild while we were there and D and I wandered around the sands taking photos of the magnificent waves. Talk about mean, moody and magnificent. Very romantic, too.

While we were away, I took full use of the amenities where we were staying and swam every day we were away. I also racked up nearly 20k on the treadmill in the gym, which I thought was a pretty good effort! I optimistically took about ten books with me, but only had the time to read a couple - Small Wars by Sadies Jones and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, which were both perfect holiday reading. I also started The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, which I'm hoping will be a grower, as I'm not loving it as much as I'd hoped.

Due to the curious length of the Cornish mile, I really got stuck into Mum's Christmas present, the Shalom cardigan. Every time we were in the car going somewhere, I whipped out the needles and notched up a couple more rows. The pattern was made for someone six feet tall, so I'm having to take out a whole bunch of rows - hopefully it's still in proportion. I shall have to have a trying on session and check that it's not ended up completely wonky!

Now that Christmas is getting closer, I've opened up my button box again and started working on some new bracelets to sell at the Walker Books Christmas Craft Fair. I invested in some new buttons from Pavi Yarns online store, which is particularly good as you can buy in much smaller quantities than some other retailers, which means I can experiment a bit more without having to invest to heavily. I'd already been comissioned for four little bracelets from Lucy at work for her nieces, and it's been really lovely making them up. Here's an example of one of the new ones that I've made up - hope you like it!