After a good day at the Canal festival and an excellent meal at a local curry house, Matt and I spent the night at a local hotel. The Hotel is famous for being one of the places that Edward took Mrs Simpson before their marriage. I wonder if their bed(s) squeaked as much as ours did!
Next morning we headed off to Wipsnade, a grey day and dodgy batteries on the cameras meant few photos but we still managed to have fun.
Matt and I headed off to Leighton Buzzard to help the local Knitting and Crochet Guild with their Annual Canal Festival project. This year it was a knitted nature trail and great fun was had by all trying to track down all the exhibits. Here's a selection for you
| Toadstools knitted by local school |
 |
| spot the real one |
 |
| Wasp nest |
 |
| name those toadstools |
 |
Ok so I've been tagged by Nic, so here goes my first ever blog chain
id·i·o·syn·cra·sy
Pronunciation Keyn. pl. id·i·o·syn·cra·sies
A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
Write down five of your own personal idiosyncracies. Then, if you wish, tag five people from your friends list to do the same.
1. I like to drink my coffee black and cold.
2. I can't concentrate on work if my desk is tidy - a very rare status, usually only applies when I'm going on holiday.
3. I never refuse an offer of free yarn - if I don't want to use it, I store it until I find a suitable home for it. This is probably the reason why my stash is stored in at least 4 locations in London!
4. I love doing all the quizzes shown on knitters blogs
5. I never answer the mobile phones without checking for caller ID and don't pick up my home phone after 8pm unless I'm expecting a call. This is probably due to the fact that we seem to be on someones call list and get upto 50 calls per day where the number is withheld!
I'm shattered! last week was a long one at work even without the extra transport hassle. Friday night we headed to Yorkshire for a weekend with the family before they all dissappeared off to France for the rest of the summer. I'd given strict instructions that I wanted no high profile event and on the whole they complied and we got to enjoy a family BBQ only my nephew missing and he managed to phone from work in Edinburgh! The garden was looking good with some of my favourite flowers on show.
Sunday we had a nightmare journey home, instead of the usual 3 hours it took 7.5 hours which meant I only got 4 hours sleep before heading off to Paris on Monday morning, via Eurostar, to meet Lisa. We managed about 6 hours of meandering around Paris and despite trips to la Droguerie and Bon Marche I came home with just 4 balls of yarn.
The journey home was delayed due to technical problems so yesterday was been a classic example of a zombie occupying my desk at work - it was a 10 hour office day as well - I'm really looking forward to getting next week off!
Parcels and cards have started arriving, even though the main day isn't until the 3rd. Matt has taken charge of hiding them as he knows I'm unable to resist a parcel so if you've sent me something I'll say thank you later!
On the knitting front I'm making slow progress on "Legal Loopholes" but plan to focus on that next week when I catch up on watching a backlog of DVD's. I'm about 5" into the corset and am still not sure about the choice of yarn but love the colour.
The knitting deadline is sneaking up on me and I'm only 3/4 of the way through - looks like I'll be pulling a late nighter on this one!
Once that is out of the way it will be time to concentrate on 2 items. "Legal Loopholes" is at the boring stage just going round and round for the body but ideal for tv knitting. My carryalong project is the silk corset by Anne Modesitt which I'm making in Oasis (Soy Silk). I'm hoping to take this on my Eurostar trip next week and make a serious start on all that rib.
Another deadline fast approaching is my 50th birthday and a family party this weekend. Knowing my luck it will rain as we've planned a BBQ. The family have such diverse food allergies it's a nightmare trying to find a restaurant to eat at, this way we can all please ourselves.
In preparation for this momentous event I treated myself to some super duper skin care stuff in the Harrods sale - can I find it? NO!
I'm exhausted from all that knitting!
First was Liberty's on Thursday - how glad I was to get back on track, I'd been grumpy for the previous week as I didn't get my "fix" the week before.
Friday saw 18 knitters from several London groups plus the KCG meet to knit at the British Museum. I enjoyed the peace and quiet, light and airiness of the building and am prepared to go back and knit there again. Hopefully the service will speed up once they get used to us.
| Dawn |
 |
| Nickerjac feeling camera shy |
 |
| Kate, Richard and Jane (KCG) |
 |
| Mary, Jennifer, Ellen and ? |
 |
| Lixie, Pamela and others |
 |
Saturday was the KCG agm at the V&A. A great talk on the history of knitted fashion and I'm still besotted with the knitted petticoat! I was voted onto the KCG committee so will be interested to find out what my duties are.
Sunday was spent quietly at home trying to rectify all the mistakes made the day before (trying to knit lace in the dark and whilst talking to 60+ like minded women).
Monday morning I realised I had some knitting to get on with for a deadline that had zoomed up, so I as thankful for the traffic jam that meant it took me 3 hours to get to work! No knitting Monday night as I went to the pub to say goodbye to a colleague who I've worked with for 19 years!
First invitation is to any knitter in the London area to come along to the British Museum on Friday 15th July from 5pm to join members of the Knitting and Crochet Guild. We will be in the restaurant until closing time.
I mentioned this on a number of lists and have been very touched by members of the traditional knitting list who have decided to nominate that as a night to knit for peace and will knit along in harmony with London.
Second invitation was from Matt's cousin asking if we would like to meet him in London on Thursday night for a meal - quite a surprise as he lives in California! So I get to go to Liberty's and then out for a meal.
Third invitation was from a knitting pen friend, Lisa, she's an American planning to visit Europe in the next couple of weeks - did I fancy joining her for a day in Paris or Brussels?
Urgent consultation of the diary and the bank balance means that I'm giving myself an early birthday present and meeting her in Paris for the day in 2 weeks time - suggestions of must see sights please?
Today was no different to any other Friday, right down to the fact that I didn't manage to get a lunch break! Normaly not a problem as I'm sstill recovering from the duck salad and cake binge at Liberty's the night before.
All of my staff turned up for work today and my commute was no longer than normal. few reported any difficulties which just shows what an amazing job the emergency services etc did.
I've now managed to speak to some more of my friends and have heard news of everyone else from the network of knitters. I finally spoke to Sue late this afternoon and caught her at the airport about to fly out to Australia on business - lucky girl.
I think I'm nearly at the seperate for the sleeves stage on the "Legal Loopholes" - time to try it on and see if my mistake with the needles is obvious. I hope not as I really don't feel like frogging this. Lots of conversations about it on my bus journeys today and the colour has been given the thumbs up from everyone. I will take photos !
Good luck to the Rowanettes heading for Get Knitted tomorrow - I'm resisting the lure of wool and going to the opening of the new Apple Store in Bluewater, I'm hoping to learn how to use my new toy.
Last week some of my knitting friends couldn't understand why I carried a cone of yarn around with me on the bus.
Tonight I think they will understand that this is my security blanket - if I have enough yarn to knit it doesn't matter how long the journey to work (or home again) is and it's how I can coccoon myself from the horrible events.
I've been touched by the number of calls I've had and the emails from friends in the USA and Australia checking that I am safe.
My thoughts are with my police colleagues who got drafted in to help and the awful things they are having to cope with and to the families affected by these callous acts
I may have been stopped from going to Liberty's tonight but life will go on as near to normal as I can make it
I'm not sure what's going on in my head this week. I started the "Legal Loopholes" pattern from Medrith Glover last week using Cashmerino Aran. Because of my loose gauge I dropped down to what I thought was a 4mm needle. Progress is slow but enjoyable so I finally remembered to check my gauge - I've over compensated and am now getting too many stitches to the inch! On checking the needle size I'd dropped to a 3mm - no wonder it looked neat!
For those of you not familiar with her patterns let me say that I love them, I love the way she explains what is going to happen, how it will look and the way her sense of humour comes through. Her Circumnavigated Cardigan pattern has been one of my winter favcourites for a few years; Ginny's cardigan is very effective in variegated yarn and I'm thinking of making another out of Noro and the Peacock facecloth is a masterpiece (one of these days I will get around to knitting it again).