A Coastal Christmas Holiday…

For the third year in a row we spent Christmas in Zeeland which is a province in the south west corner of The Netherlands http://www.vvvzeeland.nl/en/

We stayed in a small place called Nieuwvliet-Bad. It’s been the perfect place to meet with family at Christmas. I have family who live nearer Amsterdam so it’s a couple of hours drive south for them and for us just a couple of hours drive north from Calais, after crossing the channel. We stayed in a holiday home together and really enjoyed some quality family time…

I love the beaches- they are so different to where we live with wide stretches of sand and sand dunes…

I believe that the beaches can get very busy in the summer months but it was quiet at this time of year and we enjoyed whole stretches of beach to ourselves as we strolled.

I really enjoyed having a different back-drop to use for photographing my various crochet makes. The first project I finished during our stay were these ‘party cuffs’ from the December ‘Little Box of Crochet’. My daughter sweetly modelled them for me…

I also discovered a fabulous local yarn shop, Winkel van Sophie, in a town called Oostburg http://www.winkelvansophie.nl/

I asked the owner if I could take some photos of her shop and here they are…

As you can see, it was an absolute delight to visit the shop. There was definitely more of a focus on crochet than on knitting which was lovely for me and I treated myself to some genuine Dutch yarns which I loved photographing with the back-drop of the coast…

The beaches were north facing so unlike the south facing beach which I live near to, the sunsets weren’t over the sea but back over the sand dunes…

On Christmas eve we walked around a very picturesque Dutch village called Groede. There was a Nativity scene made from reclaimed wood in the village square…

…and a lot of the shops and homes had crocheted curtains hanging in their windows…

I’ve written about these in a previous blog post https://coastalcrochet.com/2015/09/15/gehaakte-gordijntjes-crocheted-curtains/

Crochet is definitely popular in The Netherlands. My dear aunt got me some crochet kits and I was also able to purchase a couple myself which I saw in different shops and I now have quite a collection!

I was able to crochet quite a bit during the holiday and here I am on the sofa in the holiday home. I’ve gone back to the granny square blanket which I started in November. I found I could easily pick it up at any time and I didn’t need to concentrate too much either. Perfect when there are people all around and I didn’t want to miss out on any conversations!

A lovely time was had by all and I really felt creatively inspired and refreshed by the coastal surroundings, slow pace and break from the usual busy routines.

I hope you all had good Christmases wherever you were and however you spent it… Thank you all for reading throughout 2016 and for all your supportive comments which I truly appreciate.

I wish each and every one of you a good 2017 filled with creativity… 🙂 🙂