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:

 

 





Thinking out of the honesty box

Last year I seemed to spend a lot of time on this blog apologising for not being terribly regular. There were a couple of reasons which I didn't fully go into, but which meant I wasn't feeling particularly joyous last year, one of which was my lovely cat Bluey being diagnosed with a serious illness around the middle of last year.

I didn't then, & don't now, plan to go into the details - he is, I am glad to say, still very much with us at the moment and getting all the love, care & spoiling we can give him.

(c) David Jollie

What did give me cause to be thankful, as unexpected vets' bills mounted for various diagnostic tests, was that we're at least lucky enough to be in a position where those were not a showstopping issue - we could be confident that we can make choices for him based on what's best for him, not what's cheapest. I thought about how horrible it must be if your beloved pet was ill and you simply couldn't afford to look after him. Even responsible pet owners can find themselves in that situation, through no fault of their own, and some of the people who most need their pet in their lives - elderly or vulnerable people - are most likely to find it difficult in these situations.

So, it made me realise how important the PDSA and similar charities around the world are - in providing vet care for pets of people in need, as well as affordable pet insurance and advice about pet health.

As part of my support, I did the thing I enjoyed best - designed a knitting pattern! Cat Walk Shawl features cat's paws pattering from centre to edge, cats eye lace and as near as I could get to little cat faces around the edging. It's worked in beautiful Artesano Alpaca Silk Lace, with yarn support generously provided by my friends at Artesano Yarns.

Rather than charge and have any donations go to the tax man, I'm using an "honesty box", and asking knitters who download the pattern to visit my Just Giving page and donate whatever amount they want to the PDSA. I'm also really happy for knitters who would prefer to donate to a similar local charity to do so - but let me know who via a comment on the pattern.

I did sort of manage to get the man himself to model the shawl - see above - but trust me, photographing cats and lace shawls together on windy day is not the easiest.

The donation page has been so successful that I have also set one up for an older charity pattern of mine - Bob's Beanie - which I made to support my friend Alex's fundraising for the British Heart Foundation in memory of her dad Bob. You can donate at https://www.justgiving.com/bobsbeanie

 



Alex is modelling the hat coincidentally sat on the same bench in my back garden as Bluey - she was a rather less mobile model!