Yesterday was spent indulging in knitting goodness. I started with a trip to Vauxhall City Farm for a Winter Woollies day. I spent some time meeting the residents
before entering the classroom to watch spinning demos and purchase a small amount of fiber from the farm's alpacas.
Then it was on to I Knit London for a marvelous afternoon listening to Jane Waller and Susan Crowther give a talk about their new publication A Stitch in Time.
It was fascinating listening and the garments were fantastic, there was a rush to try them on
The patterns have been updated using modern yarns, some of the sizes have been adapted to fit ample sizes and there's quite a few projects in there I fancy knitting. I've even got the yarn in stash for some of them!
I finally got around to photographing Meret - a great KAL on Ravelry with the Woolly Wormhead. I loved the pattern which was as well written as ever. The yarn was Jamie Possum and I managed to do the non-slouchy version out of one ball.
Linden was knitted using Artesano Alpaca Aran in Sunset. I love the yarn, I love the pattern, the jacket has been worn daily since I finished it and last night at I KNit it was nearly hijacked by 4 other knitters so I think I can say it was a success!
A couple of weeks ago I'd planned to attend a knitting event in Brighton, life conspired against me. Last night I received a taster of what I had missed thanks to Liz and Wibbo's Words
The yarn is one of Wibbo's Works and is a great organic Australian merino with the fantastic name of "Barbie Takes a Trip".
Liz very kindly bought me a raffle ticket and I ended up the winner of this
A Forest Canopy Shawl knitted using Trekking XXL sock yarn by Wibbo
Thanks to both of you for giving me such a treat!
ps I've started saving for next year's event!
An evening spent with friends, knitting , and wine all in the company of a warm and witty man - can life get any better?
Try spending it with 3 such men and you'll know why I'm still smiling this morning.
Some queued to get Franklin's autograph, I had a special request to make based on one of Matt's recent comments - Franklin was happy to oblige
the end result
and yes I did get one of the calendars!
In Memory of
Lance Corporal JOHN JOSEPH FANTOZZI
37702, 9th Bn., West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
who died age 21
on 09 October 1917
Son of Antonio and Louisa Fantozzi, of 37, Sudbury St., Sheffield.
Remembered with honour
BARD COTTAGE CEMETERY
Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Gran talked a lot about the brother she lost in the war, she got upset that he was buried away from his family and that no-one had ever visited his grave.
Thanks to the superb work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in putting their records on-line we were able to find where his grave was and Matt and I made a visit on her behalf shortly before she died.
I'm thankful that I visited it as it meant a lot to her, the experience of seeing the daily parade and sounding of the last post at the Menin Gate in Ypres was one of the most moving that I have experienced.
I rarely talk about the day job on here but want to give credit to a small group of my team's clients who spent a morning of their recent school holiday making poppies as their community reparation - they made over 1,000 poppies for the British Legion. Whilst they were making them they discussed the long term impact that wounding and killing has on families - something that they are all too familiar with. In the afternoon they went out on a constructive leisure activity but also played "spot who's wearing a poppy" and they took a pride in their small contribution.
doing nothing!
I'm still wondering where I used to get my energy from, this is the quietest autumn that I've had for six years. I miss the shows, the meetings with friends, the space away from the daily routines but I know that I'm not up to coping with them right now. Getting up and dressed is a major battle before I attempt the journey to work! Still all those blood (and other) tests have ruled out some nasty things, the vampires will want another bite next week to try to eliminate yet more!
Matt's using his down time between jobs to try to regain some structure to his "office" space and things are slowly coming together. No more monetary surprises but he has found a few books and games he thought he'd lost.
We celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary on Halloween with a quiet night at home, we'd half -planned to go away on Saturday but one look at the weather convinced us to stay put.
There have been a few things to make me smile - notably the arrival of Franklin's new book and the new Luxury One Skein Wonders. I've finished the knitting on Linden and am hoping to get it sewn together today and have a few small gift projects planned whilst I look for a new "big" project - I was sorry to see that the next editions of Twist Collective and Knotions have been delayed as the sneak previews wetted my interest.