Colour Crush: Shades of Suffolk

I loved the colours on holiday. 

pale mint with this rust

 faded turquoise with green mildew

 a MUSTARD beach hut!

 THAT colour in the middle- wow!

and sand. 

Pure colour. Bliss. 

xxx

Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh is one of my very favourite places to visit in Suffolk. It has a lovely buzz about it, full of artists and writers and great places to eat. While at the start of the week my photos focussed on the amazing clouds, towards the end of our holiday we enjoyed clear, azure skies and a heat we're not accustomed to even this late in Spring. There was a fabulous sea breeze, however, and the sound of the sea waves breaking gently onto the shingles was magnificent. Something about that sound makes me feel at home. 

Aldeburgh used to be a tiny fishing village, made popular by Benjamin Britten, who loved the town. It's a great little place to visit, we come once a year. Last time our visit was made memorable by torrential rain then our campervan breaing down in the middle of the high street. People stood watching as poor old Ramsey was loaded on to an AA low-loader then transported back to the hire company in Chelmsford.  

This time, we enjoyed tea and cake, chips and ice cream and everything in between. 

We do the same each time- chips from the Aldeburgh Fish & Chip Shop eaten on the sea wall, a meander down the promenade to the fisherman's shacks, then back up through the town to Cragg Sisters tea room (granny chic at its best), in and out of shops, then a beer or an ice cream. We once stayed here on Valentine's weekend. I was pregnant with Albert and it was snowing. But still did the same thing. Tradition is tradition for a reason. 

We love it here. 

xxx

Wild Walberswick

Just across the harbour at Southwold sits the incredibly pretty village of Walberswick.In the heart of the village there are tiny, local shops, beautiful rambling cottages dripping with faded wisteria and proper post boxes and telephone boxes. As you head towards the waterside, the landscape opens up to a wild marshland, dotted with black shacks framed by the masts of the boats moored in the river behind. On the green are some more lovely gift shops, overpriced cafes, and a proper village hall. 

The main draw for me, as a child and as an adult, is crabbing. Many a happy time has been spent here in my childhood and adult life, dangling a length of string attached to some bacon to lure in the many crabs that hang out near the water's edge. Smoked bacon is the best bait. Have a bucket ready to deposit your catch into, and count them after an hour's hard crabbing. Then, throw them back in for the next happy bunch of crabbers. Bliss. I don't have any pictures of that, as we spent most of the time trying to stop the children from throwing non-waterproof items off the bridge and herding them away from curious dogs and crabs. 

You can also walk or bicycle along the coast to Dunwich from here- a city lost to the sea over the centuries. Wild and wonderful. 

xxx

Southwold

I love Southwold, it's so nice, clean and quiet. I love that there's a sandy beach, a pleasure pier and rows of colourful beach huts. I love the Adnams brewery pubs, and the much-too-expensive gift shops. I love the marshes, dunes and harbour with fish shacks and a 'foot ferry' across the river Blyth. It's full of higgedly streets and serene green spaces, huge looming cliff-side houses and interesting views. 

We stayed at a little cottage called Tittlemouse House, near to my favourite pub and the beautiful dunes. You can walk across the marshes to the harbour from here, and one morning I saw two muntjac deer grazing on the common across the street. It was quiet, clean and comfortable. We visited the 'Under the Pier Show'- an extraordinary collection of alterntive amusements by artist Nick Hunkin; wandered through back streets and up ramps, past the lighthouse and past the Sole Bay brewery. We avoided storms and sheltered in pubs, sipping pints of local beer and munching chips. We built sandcastles, lost dinosaurs, ate ice cream and found the dinosaurs again. Southwold was perfect. 

It was a good holiday. I'll show you around Walberswick next time. 

xxx

Refreshed and revived

Hello! Welcome to my new bloggy friends and visitors-Hello indeed to you! I'm really excited and nervous to announce that a couple of weeks ago I decided to enter the Deramores Blog Awards. Judged by a host of really rather respectable judges (including Lucy from Attic24!) I'm up against 65 other entrants. The awards is to celebrate the spirit of 'passing it on', and so I was thrilled to share my horizontal box stitch pattern with you as part of the theme. The winner will be announced in a couple of weeks. I doubt I will win, but it's given me a chance to find some other really amazing knitting and crochet blogs out there. I have loved diving in to 'the competition' and learning some new things and reading some beautiful words. Have a look-see, you wont regret it. Click HERE to take you to the finalist's page. 

And...I forgot to mention last week that I was going on holiday! 

We took some time away last week on the Suffolk coast, and it was so beautiful. We were invited to a wedding so decided to rent a cottage and stay at one of my very favourite seaside spots- Southwold. If any of you have been there, you'll know how special it is. It's full of independent businesses, and really fights big commercial enterprises from entering the town. Last time we visited two years ago, they were busy campaigning against Costa coffee's bid to open a shop in the town. It looks like they lost, sadly. And a Tesco has crept in, too. But aside from these, there are a host of local businesses that are thriving in this town. There's a fabulous pier, lighthouse and row upon row of brightly-coloured beach huts. This part of the world is particularly special for me as I often had summer holidays here as a child. Here are some snapshots from the week- dramatic skies, plenty of Adnams ale and lots and lots of CHIPS! 

I will share some more throughout the week, location by lovely location. 

Until then, happy summer dreaming!

xxx

A Very Crochet Christmas...

Every year, around December 1st, I panic. I haven't bought any gifts, I am totally skint and I am forever struggling to think of original, thoughtful gifts. Increasingly, over the past three or four years, I've taken to making presents. And this year is no exception. I have a stash and I'm not afraid to use it. So I thought I'd round up some favourite ideas and patterns from my personal archive and around the web to get the old creative juices flowing. Click on the links to take you to the pattern. Disclaimer: All of my patterns here are freeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Though I'd prefer it if you didn't make these to sell, do of course make lots of these to give to friends and family.

For the laydeeeeeez:-

My 'Sarah' chunky snood...

 My chunky knit wrist warmers... or try Tanya's puff stitch crochet wrist warmers

...or even my Cath Kidston cowl...

Or perhaps an easy peasy super chunky cowl?

For the gents:-

My brother has requested another iPhone sleeve, the cheek of it! He has also requested a Sarah cowl in 'man colours'. 

This hat from Learn to Knit, Love to Knit by Anna Wilkinson was a hit when I made it for my hubby for his birthday, so I'm making a grey and cream one for my brother in law this year.

For the babes:-

This bedroom mobile is perfect for babies and is jolly good fun to make. Pattern from the Coats craft website here.

I loved making this little Giraffe for baby Ted, pattern can be found here.

Baby's ear flap hat- FREE PATTERN coming this week!

And for the homebodies:-

My Fika cushion

I made my mother-in-law some lovely potholders! These two are free patterns found via Pinterest...

 Star pattern here

Square pot holder pattern here

And that's it for now! There are of course thousands of free crafty patterns and tutorials online, I find pinterest a never-ending source of inspiration. Check out Tanya's blog for more crochet gift ideas and beautiful crochet treats!

happy holiday hooking!