Look at what the husband brought home with him a little while ago... Isn't he lovely? I have told him that I am keeping him for at least another 3 years.
The husband and I were married 3 years ago today. We had the most wonderful day, the weather was stunning which is a minor miracle at this time of the year in London, and we were surrounded by friends and family. I am feeling very sorry that all of my pictures are in the flat in London as I have a real urge to go through them all and relive the day. Ah well, I am sure that the husband and I will be able to talk it all through tonight over dinner.
I can honestly say that there is not a thing that I would change, including my trip to the supermarket on the morning as I was hungry but couldn't face the hotel breakfast. I will leave you to imagine the faces of all of our guests when the bride-to-be traipsed into the lobby looking rather scruffy in jeans and with 2 big Budgens plastic bags :) Ah well, I scrubbed up well later on.
Two years ago the husband took me to Venice for our anniversary as a surprise and last year I surprised him with a trip to Annecy. This year we have decided to go and see my good friend Marivi in San Francisco. It's not quite the romantic getaway that we want to have as a tradition but Marivi's little girl is having her naming ceremony and I haven't met her yet or seen Marivi in 4 years so we are making an exception. I spent a lot of time in SF some years ago and I am really looking forward to going back.
So I will not be blogging for a bit (not that you will notice seeing how little I have posted recently) but I am hoping to come back with lots of nice pictures and maybe a knitting story or two. Now to do a search online for SF knitting stores - all suggestions welcome:)
I am not quite sure where the last week has gone, it seems to have flown by and I have not done a third of the things that I was meant to (like send a card to Kristine to say thank you for putting me up and putting up with me for two weeks - thanks sweetheart, I had the lovliest time and you were the most gracious hostess).
I have been working on a project for a friend and have not picked up my needles since Tuesday when I got back to NY. And trust me, the withdrawl symptoms are severe: moodiness, overwhelming desire to stroke yarn and, as I have been on the computer most of the time, I have been glancing at people's blogs to get my fix.
I did manage to get a tiny bit of knitting done at the beginning of the week whilst I was still at Kristine's and on the train on the way back and here's what it looks like at the moment:
Yes I am afraid that it is a poncho (Sharon, I know that it is wrong, I just couldn't help myself). And here is what it will end up looking like when I finally get around to picking it up again.
The pattern is really rather easy and thoughtless but I have nonetheless managed to rip about as much as I have knitted. You follow a pattern repeat to do it but my brain keeps blanking whole bits out which means I forget to do the YO or the inc 1 where I am meant to. This is clearly not the fault of the pattern but the fact that I tend to watch Law & Order whilst knitting (there is an episode of L&O on TV at any time of the day or night in the US - it's addictive) and clearly I should not be allowed to knit in front of the TV. Ah well. The yarn is lovely, it does shed a bit but I am hoping that will go away once I wash and block it.
One fantastic disovery that I have made whilst here are these little stitch markers. I don't like any of the stitch markers that I have, all plastic and rather large, which makes them hard to use, especially when knitting with 4 ply as they slightly stretch the stitches. Not the end of the world, I know, but I like my knitting to look as good as I can make it so that just annoys me. But these are fantastic - not only is the part of them that hangs on the needle small, but on top of that you can go back and hang them on knitted fabric. Now I am sure that the rest of you knew all about them and have your knitting bags stuffed with them but I discovered them last week at Knit Happens and I am delighted.
Hurricane Ivan went over our heads yesterday which was exciting. I was woken up by the crack of lightening followed by some rather impressive thunder. It was nothing like a hurricane by the time it got here as it had lost it's edge. But the storm was fantastic and I have to say I am glad that I don't like anywhere in it's path when it's a category 5. Here's a picture of the sky when things calmed down - none of the pictures of the storm came out as the rain was too hard to see anything much.
Finally, as a treat, I present to you the latest fashion in toilet roll covers:
Anne, a customer of Knit Happens, brought this in the other day to show me. Anne's originally from the UK where her mother still lives and this is her mother's handiwork :) Beautifully knit, it has to be said. Anne's mother has offered her the pattern should she want to knit another one. Any takers? Thanks Anne for bringing this in (please post me a note so that I can get your email address). And thanks to Holly for remembering to send me the picture. My blog would not have been the same without it.
Finally I have found a little bit of time to update this - apologies to you all - and especially to my father who I know checks this regularly and reminds me that it has been a while since I last posted.
I have been having so much fun with Kristine that I hardly know where to start. So in no particular order, here we go.
First of all I got to extend my birthday a little more, something that I am really in favour of. I got to Kristine's house and found a beautiful wooden swift waiting for me as a belated birthday present. It is lovely. I haven't told the husband about it yet as the size of it might be an issue - my knitting already takes up a little too much space in his opinion.
Then we went up to New York for a couple of days - Jacinta and her husband were there as was Debbie Bliss so we all hung out and had a merry time. Here's a picture of Jacinta, Kristine and me out to dinner one eveing.
We visited a few of the NY yarn stores - here's Debbie at Downtown Yarns.
We also got to go to Habu which was a lot of fun. They had all kinds of yarns in interesting mixtures, some of the softest that I have ever felt. And a lot of them were in whites, beiges and browns. A store after my own heart.
And we went to Flushing Meadows to watch the US Open one evening. I have to say that was one of my highlights of the stay. I have been trying to get tickets for Wimbledon for years now (you put your name into a draw for tickets and get them if you are lucky) and have so far failed so when Kristine told me we were going to the US Open I was soooo excited. Here's the main stadium where we had our seats.
We were really lucky as we got to see two evening games, one was Serena Williams v. Tatiana Golovin and the other was Andy Roddick v. Rafael Nadal. And let me tell you, the tennis was great.
Another great bit of my stay is that I got to go to Wendy's house and have dinner with Wendy and Kristine. I can now say that I have seen the stash room and I shall say no more. But she does have some lovely yarn. There was a LOT of oohhhing and aaaahhhing on my behalf. Better than the yarn (did I just say that?) was Lucy. I grew up with cats but don't have one now (it would be unfair with all the to-ing and fro-ing to the US) so instead I adopted Lucy for an evening. She is very cool.
Can I just mention here that Wendy makes fantastic brownies.
But has she actually done any knitting I hear you ask. Well yes, I have. I have finished the front of Flighty:
I also finished a raglan cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Baby knits book as well as the Debbie Bliss boat neck sweater for my friend Jane's baby - both in Cashmerino aran, obviously :). Here's the one for Jane's baby.
And then I making good progress on Ice in Rowan's ASC and have cast on for the Blue Sky Alpaca Retro Poncho. Which is lovely but stalling as my Addis are not quite long enough. I will have to get some more tomorrow. The pattern is really simple, just slipped stitches and yarn overs mostly but it looks divine. I am using yarns from 2 dyelots for reasons that I will not go into and one lot is slightly pinky, the other slightly yellow. At first I was not too happy but I have decided that I like the slightly stipy effect (you have to look real close to see it). Pictures to follow once I find the battery charger for my camera which I fear I have left in NY.
Finally, here is a shot of the steam coming out of the street on First Ave and 52nd Street where there was some underground work going on the other night. I just love this picture.
I am staying with my friend Kristine in the US at the moment and haven't really had time to post. I will write all about our adventures very soon indeed and post our pictures too.
A. x
P.S. This goes for Kristine's blog too...