Crochet on Corfu…

Eleonora from Coastal Crochet

5 years ago

I was very lucky to be able to enjoy a family holiday on the island of Corfu at the beginning of June. Being such a beautiful island with lots of nature and coastal inspiration to enjoy, I’d like to share some of that with you here in this blog post… yes wherever I go, my crochet comes too!

I had never been to Greece before… as a family we don’t fly very often and tend to enjoy travels in our campervan so this was a real treat. Why Corfu? Well like many people we’ve enjoyed the TV series ‘The Durrells’ over the last 4 years which is filmed on Corfu… and it enticed us to visit!

We stayed in a little apartment in Kalami on the north east of the island. A really wonderful place which is also where Lawrence Durrell lived in the ‘White House’ from 1935 – 1939. You can see it there…

We only took cabin luggage so I didn’t have much room for yarn but my holiday project was a Filet Crochet shawl using my gorgeous skein of ‘Blue Planet’ silk yarn from Spectrum Fibre… it’s such a special yarn and Corfu seemed the perfect place to be crocheting with it…

On the beach was the most fabulous piece of driftwood that many people sat on… when I got the chance I used it as a brilliant base for some photos!

The first local crochet which I spotted on Corfu was quite by chance… we had hired a car and drove up into the mountains. We stopped at a viewing point and there on the ground we saw this…

…which on closer inspection was a happy crocheted face so I hung it up for others to enjoy… a Corfu Yarnbomb!

Corfu is very close to Albania and here you can see across the water… at one point Albania is only 2 miles away!The beaches are amazing for beachcombing… yes there is sadly a lot of plastic washed up but we also found beautiful driftwood and seaglass too…

We hired a boat one day and the water really is this blue…

And so clear… it was the first time I tried snorkelling which gave such a wonderful snapshot into the sea life below…

I crocheted around a piece of seaglass using my pattern which you can find hereThere really is so much seaglass to be found on the beaches. We bought a local fruit liquor in a glass bottle which is in the shape of Corfu… now once we drank that delicious drink, it became the perfect home for my new seaglass collection!

We visited Corfu Town and I really wanted to buy some yarns locally… but I just couldn’t find a yarn shop…

I did see these crocheted dream catchers in a tourist shop though…

And then we came across ‘Adriana’s Workshop’ where a local lady sells her own crochet makes…

I got talking to the delightful and very talented owner… and she gave me directions to a yarn shop!!

Off we went across the town only to find that it was closed… 🙁

But it was a pleasure to gaze through the window and see that crochet is certainly alive and well in Corfu Town…

Oh how I would have loved some of that local yarn to take home with me but alas, not this time…

We then visited the Vlacherna Monastery…

And inside is where I saw some more local crochet… which just like my holiday project was Filet Crochet too! How wonderful…

During our stay we came across more crochet in other churches we visited…

We spent one whole day driving around the north of the island, stopping off at various coastal places…

Sidari where we swam and also found some more seaglass…

Peroulades which has a beach with amazing cliffs and views to the very north west tip of Corfu Island, Cape Drastis and also south to Diaplo which is part of the Diapontia Islands…

We visited Porto Timoni which has a very unique beach… actually two beaches, either side of a piece of headland…

And finally Paleokastrisa beach for more clear waters and snorkelling…

Progress was made on my Filet Crochet shawl during the week…

And the local flowers and plants were just stunning…

And now to an absolute highlight for me … we discovered ‘Agathi’s Handmade Lace‘ Shop in Kassiopi. And what an absolute gem… I had finally found crochet heaven on Corfu!

The delightful owner sells her crochet makes… and she’s been doing this here for 47 years! It was absolutely wonderful to see all the amazing things she has made…She told me how she had learned to crochet initially in her childhood, like so many of us, but then she had gone to a designated school for handicrafts on the island of Crete and mastered her craft there. She crochets all these designs from her head… it was just so inspiring to see and I was in awe of her crochet skills! She makes lace too…

I just had to buy something to support her business so my daughter chose a gorgeous red crocheted top. She looks absolutely amazing in it… you’ll have to take my word for that… 🙂

We found the actual house that was used for filming on the TV series ‘The Durrells’… that was a really lovey place to spend some time…

And we even managed a sunset! Staying on the north east of the island, it meant we didn’t see the sunsets from Kalami so we drove around to the north west and it was certainly worth it…

Corfu is just so beautiful and I made the most of the photo opportunities and photographed my ‘Coastal Granny Square’ which I designed for the Hobbycraft Blanket crochet along (it didn’t take up much room at the bottom of my hand luggage!)…