It must be nice to be a cat; well, to be my cat in particular. Flossie gets nice food, comfy places to sleep, an immaculately clean litter tray, toys and all she has to do in return is to lie around in the sun looking decorative. Nice work if you can get it....
The last pic is of two Lea Stein brooches; my treat to myself.
Yesterday (the Big Day itself) was lovely; lunch with friends at the National Portrait Gallery with a fabulous panoramic view over the rooftops of central London and delicious food, then a visit from another friend with a huge bunch of flowers.
Episode 3 has yet to be scheduled; it will, no doubt, include eating a large lunch somewhere or other....
Met up with Liz on Saturday for an early birthday celebration. I have a Big Birthday this week and have every intention of making it last for several days. We met at the British Library which has a rather nice caff where you can drink coffee and linger happily for a few hours.
We both knitted socks and Liz finished her Baudelaires. It's a slightly odd photo; Liz is busy photographing her feet. You can't really see the socks very clearly but there are more pics here. We had intended to see an exhibition, but got sidetracked by a trip to Loop and a Very Large Late Lunch at Browns in Islington. Lunch was delicious; especially the warm chocolate brownie which was decadent beyond belief. We were both very restrained in Loop and didn't buy yarn, just needles and a magazine.
Liz gave me lots of great presents; the knitterly ones included Lantern Moon ebony needles, a set of vintage needles still with original paper tags, Ginger Luters' Module Magic and a ball of hand-dyed MSSSY* sock yarn. There was a lovely card with a purple flower; definitely one for a clip-frame. She also brought me a present from mutual friends in Texas.
Isn't this gorgeous? Three balls of the softest alpaca you've ever felt in a beautiful colourway that's somewhere between purple and aubergine. At the moment, it's saying lacy scarf, but I'm resisting the tempatation to cast on until I've finished my Leaf Lace Shawl (scroll down).
Have to say that I'm looking forward to Episode 2........
* You won't have heard of MSSSY yarn before - click on the photo and read the details on the label!
Lots of nice things have been thundering through the letterbox at Wibbo Towers lately.
A skein of Ruth's hand-spun (so soft, gorgeous colours) and this month's skein of cashmere/merino Sock Club yarn (so soft, gorgeous colours, er, again) from Posh Yarn.
Twister sock yarn from a German eBay seller (a 100g ball of each of the ten colours in the range cost me a smidge under £35 including delivery), Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock bought on sale at Get Knitted, a wraps-per-inch winding tool from The Flying Ewe (I've always wanted one of these).
I rather blame Dawn for the final purchase, but she's right, it's a must-have book for a shawl knitter in spite of the dull cover and the black and white photos. It's packed full of wonderful shawl and scarf patterns. I bought it from the Needle Arts Book Shop in Canada and it arrived in three days. There were three packs of free stitch markers and a bookplate tucked in the parcel, all nicely tied together with green and purple ribbons. I'm going to weld my wallet shut now! It's time to start saving up for Ally Pally.
Guest-starring this week are a rather handsome feline, Maximilian Schnell (Mac for short), and a postcard of one of Tadek Beutlich's wrapped pieces from the late 1980's. Yarn, cats and culture, what more could anyone want?
I hadn't realised how much time has whizzed past since the last time I blogged until Bee mentioned it. I'm engrossed in work for a new book; this is taking up most of my time and I haven't been out and about as much as usual, apart from a quick trip to Peter Jones last weekend with a detour to Stash Yarns. Yes, I know that, strictly speaking, Putney isn't on the way when travelling on a bus between Sloane Square and Streatham, but the thought of knitting for a few hours in air-conditioned comfort with Michelle and Nic was just too tempting to resist and well worth the extra journey. I also wanted to pick up a skein of Tilli Tomas yarn that Nathalie had kindly stashed away under the counter for me.
I looked at the Rowan yarns in Peter Jones and bought a few balls of Kidsilk Haze in the new purple colourway which should coordinate nicely with the skein of Tilli Tomas Disco Lights (spun silk yarn strung with tiny matching sequins). Not quite sure what I'll make yet, probably something in the scarf/wrap line using the KSH double to match the weight of the silk.
I also had a couple of dabbles on eBay. Cashmere samples from ColourMart - you get a tiny skein of each weight, just enough to knit a sample with - Iris Schreier's Modular Knitting and 500g of blue faced Leicester 4ply in a vibrant deep pink to make one of my own designs. Nic mentioned to me that there are several errors in Modular Knitting and you can find the corrections here.
I'm having a fun day today - woken just before 6am by a double assault on the senses (Flossie hacking up a hairball next to my ear and the dustcart announcing its arrival with a few deafeningly loud repeats of 'Attention! Vehicle reversing!'). I'm now contemplating more time at the grindstone and a visit to the dentist for a filling. Keeps me out of mischief, I suppose...