We came back from Spain this week after a lovely week of relaxation, very nice weather (I am a bit brown!) and lots of lovely trips out on our bikes. We left on Ellie’s 19th birthday – here she is the day before opening her pressies – Happy Birthday and enjoy your last year of being a teenager!

Poor Ellie has had a bad back so she was only able to come out on a couple of bike trips but Jake and I did some really good long ones.One of my favourite was a trip we had not done before down to the next beach along from La Marina, El Pinet, which is a nature reserve with really good views of the salt flats and my beloved mountains!

We also had two chances to see the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations with trips to the parades of icons in both Torrevieja and San Fulgencio. The Torrevieja parade on Good Friday was very crowded and as it took place about 9pm was difficult to get good pics – but the place looked lovely with all the candles in the maces the participants were carrying. There were four large icons including a last supper representation which were all very impressive.

The San Fulgencio parade was on Easter Sunday morning and it was a beautiful sunny day. San Fulgencio is the nearest small town to La Marina and there were not many people there so lots of opportunity for good pics. There were two icons – Jesus and the Madonna and also a beautiful parade of women dressed in very stylish black suits with lace mantillas and traditional combs which looked wonderful.

The Madonna started off being covered in a black veil then after she had been taken round the main streets she was uncovered and the infant Jesus put in her arms – she was then paraded around the main square with the band playing before being taken back to the church.

A lovely holiday – can’t wait to go back though it will probably be next year now before we go again.

Not much knitting and stitching has been going on though I did get a few more rows done on the latest hat I am working on.

This pattern comes from the April issue of Let’s Knit and I wanted to do it to try out the lacework pattern which has worked well. It is knitted in Sirdar Escape yarn which is variegated. I don’t think I will be keeping this hat – lovely though it is as it is slightly the wrong shade to go with my Spring coat so will use it as a present.

Also got a bit sidetracked from that just before we went away as Helen from Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed had just had some Baby Snowball delivered so I had to buy some of that to make a baby blanket. It is so soft to work with and feels wonderful when knitted up.

We have had and are expecting some new additions to the family – we met up with my cousin Neil and his wife Vicky in Spain with their gorgeous 8 month old baby Anna-Mae who we had not met face to face before and my other cousin Joanne is expecting a baby in a few weeks – more chance to knit!

I have also just started a new cross stitch piece for the ASOE exchange – theme (unsurprisingly!) is Spring so am hoping to finish that this week.

Also need to get cracking on some new re-enactment clothes for Jake as he has grown again so will be cutting out new hose and brais this weekend. Our first event is in two weeks time at Bolsover Castle for St George’s Day weekend followed by the first May Bank Holiday in South Wales at the Cosmeston Medieval Village so am really, really looking forward to being under canvas again!

Have a really busy few weeks coming up with work – normally things get quieter for a bit after Easter but we are running a taster course for people who may want to become Literacy and Numeracy teachers so I start that next week. Does mean there will be less time for creativity but on the plus side we get to do some fun Maths things!

Hope that you all have had a nice Easter – thanks for visiting.

You may remember that I made Ellie a hat (from a Ravelry pattern) and wristwarmers set for Xmas. The hat looks like this –  

I was very pleased with it as it has a bit of a lace effect round the bottom which involved some yarn forwards which I had not done before. There were some mistakes but they don’t seem to show.  

As you know I want to improve my knitting techniques so I ordered myself a new book from Amazon which arrived last week – this was on my wish list for Xmas but the kids obviously think I have enough knitting books and ignored the suggestion so I treated myself.  

 It is called 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield and I want to learn to crochet as well this year thought it would provide some good little projects for inspiration.  

I decided as the first project to do a little flower to go on Ellie’s hat – she chose the wool and a simple poppy design (I did attempt another design but got very confused on row one so had to abandon that!). And I finished it last night (though am going to add some little seed beads to it tonight to give it a sparkle).  

It was a very simple pattern only involving garter stitch and some increases. Ellie has now pinned it on her hat and has gone off to town with a friend in it this afternoon (she has been home from Uni this week as her term has not started again yet).  

Last night I taught Ellie to knit -she has been to Knit and Natter a few times with me recently and enjoyed herself so she has started a scarf in the same wool to match her hat and wristwarmers. We will being doing some more knitting and stitching tonight – am very excited that the new season of 24 is starting tonight – as it is on a Sunday I should be able to see all of the episodes and hopefully will not miss any by being away at re-enactment. This week I have to crack on and finish a cross stitch for a Valentine’s Exchange through ASOE  which has to be posted by the 2nd Feb.  

I thought I would also share with you some more of the Xmas knitting that I did – this is finished scarf in Noro Silk Garden that I blogged about sometime ago as a WIP. This was a present for my Nana.  

I also made this for my Mum out of the most gorgeous Maggie’s Knits  Mist Slub yarn that I bought from Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed. This is made using moss stitch though you can’t really tell but it does give it a bit more texture. The yarn is expensive but lovely and silky to touch.  

I also knitted a scarf for my aunt from the lovely ladder or ribbon yarn called Zip. I don’t have a good pic of her wearing it but it was a very simple design that someone at Knit and Knatter told me about.  

All you do is knit in garter stitch – casting on about 30 stitches on large needles – I used 6mm – knit the ball, cast off and then sew the two ends together making  a twist with the knitting before you do so. This makes a very pretty cowl scarf  which is lovely as an evening scarf and I have got a couple more balls to make some more of these later in the year.  

Just a note on the links I put in to my posts – these are purely for info on what the yarn/ books that I are use are like and where you can get them from. I am not paid or sponsored by any of the companies I link to and most of the yarn I buy is from my LYS – Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed in Westbourne Road, Huddersfield. I am however conscious that lots of my readers are a long way from Yorkshire so won’t be able to get their stuff from the lovely Helen who runs the shop so I am linking to give you alternative sources. 

I have also been discovering some new blogs. One that I would like to share with you today is by a very talented women who goes to my Knit and Natter group. She is someone I knew by sight from years ago as our children went to the same Primary school and I often used to see her in the playground. Her name is Arianwen and her blog is called The Silver Spider Presents. She does the most amazingly complex patterns including lots of lace work and I am in awe of her talent – she also has three kids who are younger than mine so I am amazed at how prolific she is as well! Do go and visit and say hi.  

Well it is still raining here – though luckily no snow – so any thoughts of a quick garden tidy up have been banished. It is looking really battered because of all the snow but I will have to wait for some less soggy weather so that I can give it a good fettle.  

I will leave you with another lovely pic of Spain. This is again from Pablo’s (icu 202 Canon’s) Flickr collection and is of the tower on the salt flats (salinas) just down the road from La Marina at Santa Pola. The salt flats have been there since Roman times and salt is still collected – mainly for use on roads (so they have been busy recently!)  

The salt flats are home to lots of birds, most notably the flamingos who come to eat the food that makes them turn pink and are surrounded by mountains which reflect beautifully in them. You pass them on the way to the airport and they are one of my favourite things in Spain.  

Thank you very much for visiting – see you again soon!