Spain was fabulous!

We've been back from Spain for almost a week now and I wish I was still in Spain. I love hot sunny weather. We left Spain in nearly 30 degrees (and that was in the evening) and when we landed in Bristol it was 10 degrees and raining. It was a bit of a shock to the system. Its been feeling really autumnal since we came back even on a couple of sunny days.

We spent a lot of time on various beaches. We're lucky that the southern Costa Blanca and Mar Menor/northern Costa Calida region has lots of beautiful beaches. If you wanted to, you could probably go to a different beach every day for two weeks. Here are our favourite beaches.

 

 Two different beaches along Mar Menor

 

 Mar Menor on the left and Calblanque on the right

 

Calblanque on the left and Cabo de Palos on the right

On the beach, in between falling asleep listening to audio books and cooling down in the water, I knitted a pair of socks.

 

We did also spend some time by the pool and I did some sock knitting there too.

My other favourite knitting place was on the balcony of my parents' apartment. I love sitting out there in the early mornings and evenings knitting and watching the world go by. I mainly knitted on a new shawl design which I got about 2/3 of the way through. I've barely picked it up since we got home though.

We didn't spend every day on the beach though. One day we got up really, really early and drove in to Alicante and caught the TRAM up the coast to Altea. Altea's old town is full of narrow streets and pretty white houses and is built on a steep hill. As I injured my knee a few days before we left, I did struggle walking up all those steps but the view from the top was worth it.  

We got to Altea just after ten and spent two hours there before we caught the TRAM back to Alicante. We were glad we got up early as it was already getting too hot to be walking up hills.

We also visited one of our favourite places - the city of Murcia. We always go in the evening as it's cool enough to enjoy the shops in the narrow streets in the old town.

We were lucky with our chosen evening as there happened to be a fiesta on. So we stayed late to watch the parade of the Moors and the Christians. We only watched the first two hours of the parade but it was amazing! Lots of fabulous costumes and the highlight for me were performances by Andalucian horses. They performed an advanced form of ballet.

We did visit a couple of other places too but this was mainly a holiday to relax and recharge. I did mange to finish the socks minus the afterthought heels, which I finished last weekend. I love these socks. Yarn is by Mudpunch who dyes the most amazing self-striping yarn. I don't normally bother matching stripes on my socks but decided to give it a go on these socks and I'm pretty much spot on with the stripes. 

However, once I got to the heel I couldn't be bothered so the heels don't match. I did afterthought circular heels. I am planning to write up a pattern for socks which can be worked toe up or top down with afterthought heels as every time I knit a pair I get asked about the pattern.

I also knitted a pair of beaded lacy wrist warmers. I made them quite long so I can wear them with 3/4 sleeves and they'll cover the exposed part of my arms. For this pair I basically made a tube. For the pattern I will give a choice of a tube or proper fingerless mittens with a thumb. There will also be a choice of lengths. I have finished the second wrist warmer since I got home but haven't had time to take photos yet.

It's back to reality now and I've already taught two workshops since we got home and tomorrow we're off to Yarndale in Yorkshire. Will I see you there?

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