I won't show some of the items as a photo of a cone of cream alpaca silk is pretty boring, there were also 2 small balls of angora/silk in cream. As for the rest - you might notice a colour theme developing here
Knitwitches DK Cashmere in Deeply Violet and Gossamer Dreams in Dianthus Pink. This was planned expenditure to add to the yarns bought at Excel earlier this year. I have projects in mind for both.
Hand Spun Mulberry Silk from Di Gilpin - Wye Sue put this into my hand and there it stayed, nothing was going to make me give this up. I have 146 gms to play with - any suggestions?
Eden bought from Di Gilpin, produced by the Fibre Company and it's a mix of French Angora (20%) , Tussah Silk (48%) and Fine Wool (32%). Di has promised to send me a copy of a new pattern she has created for this yarn - guess who is stalking the postman!
Despite stinking colds and various aches and pains Matt and I managed to get to Wales last weekend. We both still felt ill on Saturday so gave the show a miss and just potched around Llandrinod Wells for the afternoon. We found a good curry house for a meal on Saturday night which helped clear my sinuses!
Sunday morning saw us arrive at the showground at 9.30 and I soon met up with Wye Sue. Matt left us to play in the woolshed and that was it! He came back at regular intervals for coffee and to show us photos of what we were missing. See his photos here At the end of the afternoon he persuaded me to visit a few halls and this is what I found
I kept spending but mainly on planned purchases from Knitwitches and then blew this weeks housekeeping budget on yarn from Di Gilpin.
It was great to have time to chat with Sasha Kagan and Pauline Turner about the KCG and a very personal masterclass from Ruth Lee led me to confound the train passengers on my journey home as I tried to knit with bamboo cane for yarn!
I promise to photo the yarn over the weekend and play show and tell.
The rest of the week was the pits with me working to 7.30 pm every night combined with transport problems meant I was rarely home before 10pm so very little knitting achieved.
I'm determined to finish Tailored Scallops this weekend so that I can start on my project for the Rowan Exchange!
The car is packed, we're ready to go as soon as I find the spare batteries for the camera.
Do you think 3 knitting projects is enough to keep me occupied for a weekend of travelling?
Will I need to buy more yarn? Will Matt try to stop me? Does he have a death wish?
Where am I going? Here
There have been many previous entries about Water Aid and the Knit a River campaign. Today saw the first outing of the complete project.
It was great to meet up with Water Aid supporters, Knitting friends, sewing up friends and the general public!
A fantastic day out - we paraded the river through London. I wimped out of the walking and travelled in style on the top deck of a bus! I waved to thousands of people and smiled so much my face hurts - how does the Queen do it?
All my photos can be seen here
For the last 5+ years a group of knitters has met for tea on a thursday night in the Art Bar Cafe at Liberty's. These have been some of the most sociable nights of my life and probably some of the most expensive due to all the "enabling" that goes on - my internet shopping skills have expanded at an alarming rate!
Next week sees the last week of the contract with the current catering company and as yet the staff team don't know who will stay with the new caterers, who will be moving on to other venues. We hope the new company will make us welcome after the refit but before then we must say a proper goodbye to Christian, Claudio, Jacek, Agnes and the others and thank them for their hospitality.
There have been quiet and sedate nights; rowdy nights; nights of triumph when we have modelled our new creations; visits from Secret Santa; nights of 45 people table hopping; nights when the staff have asked with great concern for the health of those they haven't seen for a few weeks; nights where we have had visits from the angora man, fom Lily Chin and Habu; not forgetting the visits from Kay and Anne (Rowanettes before Mason Dixon), Thomas with the shawl and yellow tulips; nights when they have gone to extra lengths to supply food and drink for this picky customer - nights where a stressed and tired soul has left feeling at peace with the world!
I want to mark the work of this remarkable team and show them how much their service has mattered - anyone wishing to contribute a comment to a "Thank you" card please email it to me ( ydavies AT midc DOT co DOT uk ) marked ART BAR CAFE and I'll ensure it gets passed on.
Back to Lace Style and the Tailored Scallops and I've finally READ THE PATTERN properly. Okay, my row gauge is off so I do need to wing it but they did tell you to do so many rows before the armhole shaping - I only saw the measurements!
That Knit row that I thought was wrong was right as well!
Just shows how much stress I've been under! Anyway I now have a back and a front complete and will definately have fun with the arms and my gauge when I get there.... but that 'a a problem for another day.
Thursday I managed to escape work and meet up with Yvette for a gentle shopping trip around London with calls at John Lewis, All the Fun of the Fair, the Kipling shop and Liberty's. Each stop generated packages the knitting content of which cannot be disclosed as they are for SP exchanges. The highlights of the day were lovely alpaca/ merino socks knitted by Yvette and a set of knit Picks needles that Sue had been kind enough to shop for on her recent trip to the USA and Canda = what wonderful friends!
Saturday was a busy day, first a KCG committee meeting in London this time. After the meeting Wye Sue, Martine, Linde and I descended on I Knit to sew some more squares and chat over a glass of wine /cup of tea. We had a short stroll through the gardens at Bonnington Square and I fell in love with the bark pattern and colour on some of the trees - no photo as I'd left the camera at home.
My thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post. I'm slowly reading my way through the many posts made on that day and they have given me a great deal of material for me to think about.
Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day 2007
It's also World Asthma Day Asthma has been a part of my life since I began teething more than 50 years ago and has had a significant impact on my lifestyle. So it was with great joy that I also celebrated today as the day my employers banned smoking not just in the office but within 5 metres of the office doors and in any company leased vehicle. Now how can I persuade them to become more enlightened about providing me with better telephones, induction loops, microphones etc so that I can hear what they are talking about? There are other health matters that occasionally rear their ugly head and mean I need to take time off of work - I've been collecting them over the last few years A few weeks ago I had the experience of a bus driver yelling at me on a crowded bus. She was yelling at me to stand up and offer my seat to an older passenger. On a good day I would have but it was a bad one. She repeated this abuse for 3 further stops until one of my colleagues got on the bus, he realised who she was shouting at and whatever he said to her kept her quiet for the rest of my journey! This was my first real experience of public abuse - so I wrote to her employers suggesting that some training in customer care, disability awareness and common manners might be useful! The letter I got back couldn't even quote the correct bus route let alone identify the driver so I have no faith that any of this will be raised. Why do people assume that if they cannot see a disability it doesn't exist?
Posted by Yvonne at 10:11 PM
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