A Little Piece of the Quiet Life

There's something particularly beautiful about the British seaside in winter that can't be matched even on the sunniest of days. D and I are just back from having spent a wonderful relaxing week in St Ives, staying  in a simply stunning flat right on the heart of town on The Digey. It was a week of only good things: fireworks, chips, long lie-ins, strolls along the beach, lots of photography, reading, pasties, plenty of knitting (of which, more anon), reading great books, the odd pint of cloudy cider and even finishing the Guardian cryptic crossword for the first time ever!

The sea is incredible at any moment of the day and taking a stroll whenever we wanted was a pleasure. There were moments when it was quite wild walking along the harbour wall and the beaches of St Ives, (especially on Thursday morning when it felt as if Force 10 gales were raging!) but there was respite to be taken in any one of the many charming pubs along the harbour. And a few pints were gently nursed while we puzzled over the crossword, staring out at the waves.

The flat itself was gorgeous, with slate flooring, clean white walls and original artwork everywhere. Looking out of the window to the left we could see the wild and wonderful Porthmeor beach and through the window on the right we could see the boats coming in and out of St Ives harbour. Amazing! Everything was exactly as we would have hoped and we felt right at home from the very first moment we stepped through the door. The Digey is in a wonderful location just off Fore Street, with its very own chocolate shop, Chocolat and delicatessen, The Digey Food Room. There was a really homely bakery at the bottom of the street and a very handy paper shop at the bottom of Fore Street, just on the harbour front. Just about everything you could possibly need for a relaxing week in a home away from home.

St Ives is not only beautiful and perfectly placed, but super-cultured too! We visited the Peter Lanyon exhibition at Tate St Ives, and had a lovely lunch in their cafe. (In the exhibition space I managed to get myself told off for taking a photograph out of the window - oops! But I couldn't resist, it looked so tempting...)

Without a doubt the cultural highlight for me was a visit to the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. To see where such a talented artist lived and worked and to be in that space was humbling. Being out of season I had the place almost to myself and I could have stayed for hours and hours, just taking it all in. I took some photographs in the garden and of her studio, but they in no way convey the true beauty of the place.  If you are visiting Cornwall, please visit. Inspiring and beautiful.

Barbara Hepworth's Studio

Here's my own attempt at art - a snapshot of the sunrise from our window.

On the needles, I've had an incredibly productive couple of weeks. The weekend before we went away, I treated myself to a ball of Rowan Cocoon to make up Ysolda's Icing Swirl Hat which I'd picked up the pattern for at Knit Nation in the summer. It was really rewarding to start and finish something just in a couple of days, I just wish I had a balloon to block it on, so that I can wear it!

I took quite a bit of work in progress away with me and so Cheadle is also coming on apace and all of it is now knit apart from the collar and cuffs. The central plaited panels and picking up for the top half didn't prove too difficult, but the thought of sewing the bottom section onto the plait is a little bit daunting, so I'm putting it off just a teensy little bit!

A bit of a mixed project is the blanket that I've been making for my study for - oh, only about the last three years! It started off as a bunch of squares, each in a different stitch, but I got bored and no two squares were even remotely the same size. Then it turned into a really rather lovely Moderne Log Cabin pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting's Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne, but it became unwieldy and sat gathering dust upstairs. Well, as they say, third time's a charm and I'm now on my sixth square of Diamond Afghan from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Knits. And I'm loving it! It should be in aran, so I think it'll probably take about 60 squares altogether, but I'm off to a pretty happy start...

St Ives is served by not one, but two yarn stores, Kuiama Crafts on Fore Street and the really rather lovely House of Bartlett where the proprieter hit exactly the right spot when she asked if I needed any help, or if I was happy just to stroke the wool!

I'm also loving The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket. It's great just to dip in and out of whilst enjoying a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea in bed on a Saturday morning and I'm quite sure that it's going to inspire me to get some Christmas gifts started for friends and family. (Only six weeks to go - eek!)

In Cornwall, apart from the papers, I read only fiction: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey, The Road Home by Rose Tremain, The Cat Sanctuary by Patrick Gale and Life of Pi by Yann Martell. All great reads and perfect for a week away. 

I Love Yarn!

Unsurprisingly, I have caved in and bought some more Cocoon to make my Owls sweater! I've opted for Polar, a really lovely natural shade, but unfortunately the wool has come from two different dye lots, and I'm waiting to hear back from the online retailer, before I get started. I really hope that they can let me have all six balls from the same lot, as I think it would look a little bit odd. Luckily, I do have Cheadle to keep me going, and my Mum bought me 700 grams of navy blue Aran, so I'm going to spend some happy hours on Ravelry looking for the right pattern for it.

Mum and Dad came over this weekend for a visit to admire the new living room (which sadly is still picture-less). We had a lovely lunch of Yotam Ottolenghi's aubergine 'cheesecake' recipe from the Guardian Weekend magazine. I dished it up with a hot ciabatta loaf and a green salad and a bottle of very cold white wine. Yummy! After lunch we took a stroll up to Clarenden Palace in the glorious spring sunshine. A really lovely day.

Spring is on the Way

March is here and after three, pretty much solid, weeks of dismal grey rain, the sun is finally out. This morning, walking to the station past Queen Elizabeth Gardens it was bright, crisp and clear. There was frost on the ground, but the sun was out and it finally felt as if spring was on its way!

Except for a few notable highlights, the last three weeks have also been a bit grey. I’ve had a pretty stinky cold for most of it and I got knocked off my bike by a car. The cold has now shifted and I’m the proud owner of a cycle helmet. I’ll be battered and bruised for a few more weeks, but in the grand scheme of things, I count myself as lucky not to have been more damaged. I haven't been out running for three weeks now and I'm starting to get a little bit impatient to be back out there pounding the pavements.

On the up side, D has finally finished his MBA and it was with a well-earned feeling of achievement that we drove a beautifully bound copy down to Henley to hand in at the college. After years of slaving away in his little room on the top floor of the house, he is now entering The Period of Great Reflection which basically involves swapping business books for Heat magazine, watching a whole lot of televised sport and drinking many, many pints of lager at our local. We're making the most of all of his free time with trips to Stourhead, to the movies to see the memorable An Education (a well earned Bafta for Carey Mulligan) and out for dinner a couple of times too. We're also enjoying the newly-decorated living room, which looks lovely. We’ve got most of our new artwork framed, so as soon as they’re all up, I shall post a photo. (We went for the stoney white in the end.)

On the needles, Cheadle is coming along very nicely, but I am very tempted to break my vow of monogamous knitting and cast on Kate Davies’ Owls. Just need to get me some more Rowan Cocoon and I’m good to go!

My book of the month is the really rather lovely Salisbury in Detail which has been published by Salisbury Civic Society and includes a photo of my very own door knocker, Crombie the bull, as shown on page 41.

Back to Knitting

I have rediscovered my love of knitting! And it turns out that all I needed was some new wool. After a joyous bonus at work I have invested heavily in Rowan Cocoon from my LYS and have started on Cheadle by Marie Wallin as featured in volume 13 of The Knitter. It's a contemporary cable knit pattern with a giant plait horizontally across the middle with a ribbed waist and a garter stitch cow. It's a gorgeous pattern, that I hope will look fantastic and Cocoon is such a soft, gentle yarn to knit with, that I'm fully expecting that the whole thing will be a real pleasure to work up.

I have frogged, knit and re-frogged my leftovers scarf. I still don't know exactly what the wool is going to become but I'm hoping that, in its own sweet time, it will just come to me. I'd still like it to be a scarf, but am veering towards a pair of chunky round-the-house socks. I've also fallen head over heels with Kate Davies owls pattern. Until April the 1st, all of Kate's profits on this pattern will be going to Médecins Sans Frontières, to assist the relief effort in Haiti, so get on over to Ravelry and buy yourself a copy now!

Other exciting news is that D and I are going to have a beautiful new living room by the next time I post here. We're just living with a few swatches on the wall and have narrowed it down to two different colours; one a stoney white and the other a warm biege. They both have something to recommend them, but we're completely split on which will look best, so may end up tossing a coin to decide. Whichever we choose, I'm really looking forward to having somewhere serene and lovely to spend our evenings.

I've absolutely loved browsing Folksy for some affordable artwork and have made some purchases from TerrorDome, Lola's Room, Tim Irving and artquirk. I can hardly wait until they arrive and we can put them up with some of our own art.

Currently working my way through The House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Grant - completely mindless, but oh so readable!