The rain in Spain...

Now, I've always liked having a birthday in February. Perhaps I'm biased, but it's always seemed to me to be by far the most interesting month, having a weird number of days, leap years, etc, etc. There are two problems, firstly, my birthday is very nearly Valentine's Day, which has given me a lifelong hatred for that event, and secondly, living in England, let's face it, the weather. Having moved further south as life has gone on it's not generally as bad as it was on the night I was born, when father drove through five foot snowdrifts to get my mother to hospital in Yorkshire, but I still tend to find myself craving a little vitamin D by that time of year and try to take a break somewhere a little sunnier.

Last year we settled on the southern Spanish city of Seville, famed for the Seville orange that's used to make marmalade. I pictured blue skies and trees laden with glowing fruit.

As you can see, we got one, but as to the other...

It chucked it down. It absolutely binned it. Seville is a truly stunning city, Moorish architecture and little twisty streets that would be absolutely divine if one didn't keep getting lost in them in driving rain.

Design-wise, as you can see, Seville is a pretty inspirational place.
Buildings are frosted like wedding cakes.

Walls are covered in intricate patterns.

 

 

 

But what did I find myself doing? Head down, rain pouring down my neck, I stared at the pavement. Luckily Seville's pavements happen to be quite diverting. I saw herringbone tiles, chequerboards, honeycomb patterns, all sorts. And as we sat in our lovely hotel room, I sketched them down, and came up with a way of knitting them.

 

That's how my Seville cowl and mitts were born, published in this month's Knit Now Magazine.

 

(c) Practical Publishing

And finally I get to see the colour of those blue skies, thanks to making the sample in Eden Cottage Yarns Askham 4-ply in the striking Damselfly colourway.

 

Talking of Blue, following my last blog post, the Cat Walk Shawl is doing really well and has already raised lots from generous knitters both for PDSA and for other animal charities where some knitters have chosen to donate to a similar organisation in their own country. If you'd like to know how the cat himself is doing, here's Bluey today sat on the top of the sofa next to me: