Category: Knittastic!

When Ann and I visited Liberty yesterday, we finished our trip with a visit to the Art Bar Cafe to sit, knit and enjoy some “tea.” For us, tea involved soda and water and some toasted crumpets. They were simply delicious!

While at Liberty, I picked up some Rowan yarn – 2 skeins for a pair of socks. (Gee, big shock there.) That is what is in the bag, in addition to some 1.5mm circulars.

The trip to Cardiff today was fabulous. The weather was perfect, the town is great for walking around in, Brenda and I stopped in some really cool unique shops, and then visited the castle where we had lunch and knit outside of the Norman Keep. Nothing like knitting near a 700 year old castle. It was fun getting a chance to just sit and talk with her, and I look forward to a longer visit the next time I come to the UK. Hopefully, I will be able to afford all the goodies at Melin Tregwynt that I want then, along with cooking goodies for Mike from Lakeland. If you ever have a chance to visit Cardiff, I highly recommend it!

Yesterday was spent seeking out the photo opportunities. I had a bit of a problem with the camera on Monday night, which was stressing me out. It decided that it wanted to take bracketed photos for me, and it was overexposing all of them by two stops at least. (That is camera geek speak for the fact that everything was coming out dark.) Yesterday morning, before I headed out, I poked around the menus and found the reset to default option. Completely saved the day!

I went back to the other side of the South bank for photographs of Parliament, then off past the London Eye to Jubilee Gardens. I had waited until the rain passed to go out, so the weather was great and I found an empty bench to sit and knit on. It raised eyebrows from a few people as they passed, and I think that some women stopped to listen to the man playing the guitar behind me as their cover to check out what I was knitting. I made some progress on the sock, only to discover later that it is too big. Oops. The 60 stitch version was too small, the 70 stitch version was too big, so hopefully the third start of the 64 stitch version will be just right!

After awhile, I headed off across Hungerford bridge to walk to Piccadilly Circus. I stopped in Trafalger Square to sit at the steps in front of the National Gallery and knit for awhile. Then, after taking some more pictures, I went on to Piccadilly to try to find new Birkenstocks at Lillywhite’s. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any there. I stopped to knit at the Eros Fountain, sitting next to a woman with a very tall mohawk. That takes all of the attention away from a woman sitting and knitting in public. Then it was just a quick hop on the tube, a trip over to Covent Garden, and I found a new pair – identical to my old ones from my last trip to London that I have worn out – at the Birkenstock store in Covent Garden. Then the rain began.

I took the tube to meet up with Ann at the British Library. We explored for a bit there and then took the bus over to Loop in Islington. Two skeins of Colinette Prism in Slate forced themselves to go home with me. I tried to resist, but it was pointless. I adore the colors and plan to make a seed stitch scarf out of it. Then we joined the ladies at The New Rose Pub for Angel Knits. Knitting. At a pub. What fun! I sat next to a nice lady (who I didn’t introduce myself to – I was so out of it after all the rain!) and she knit English (throwing) faster than anyone I have ever seen. I was fascinated, just watching her knit! I also got to meet the delightful and amusing Nikki and her GIANT knitting needles. I believe she said they are 25mm? All I know is that my teeny tiny size US 000 needles were shocked.

After a bit of time at the pub we headed over to Pizza Express to eat and chat and chat and eat, then it was off to the tube to head back to the hotel. I’m so proud of myself and my 3 tube journeys on my own – I can do it! Last time I was here, Mike guided me on the tube, so I didn’t have to learn to navigate it. I was a bit nervous at first yesterday, but the signs are wonderful and so easy to understand. And I still have my magic touch – every time I walked up to a platform, even when I had to switch lines, a train was there within a minute or two. I don’t understand my luck, but I won’t question it!

Do not mess with the knitters in the corner at the pub. They have pointy sticks.

In Houston, it is just too hot to go hiking. At least you can’t really go hiking outdoors. Instead, Julia came to visit from Austin last weekend, and Katy & I met up with her. We went on a Fiber Crawl, visiting both Yarntopia and Yarns 2 Ewe. Then we went to Ikea. Ikeeeeeaaaaaa! I had not visited the new, much larger Ikea since they remodeled it. Goodness, it is HUGE. We trekked around Ikea for an hour or two. My Trekking yarn has not made it onto the needles yet, but it went with me!

I’ll be taking it with me to London, so it will probably make it onto the needles at the airport today. I was doing well with restricting my fiber packing, and then Chris pointed out that the yarn stores overseas are not like what we are used to in the US. Great. Just great. Did I mention that I tend to overpack? Yeah. Now I keep thinking of things I want to bring. I keep reminding myself that I am sure that I will see sock yarn that I love, so it will all be ok. It is barely working.

In the knitting bag for the trip:
– The half finished Clapotis made in Lorna’s Laces Lion & Lamb, Lakeview. (That is a lot of L’s!)
– The Trekking socks
– The P socks for Tara (Potatomus? Pomatomus? Goodness, I can never remember the name.)
– The first two skeins of yarn for my Eris sweater. Yes, I am finally making a sweater.
– Possibly one more yarn for socks, because a skein is small and easy to carry around as needed.

My big debate? Bringing a hank of roving and the drop spindle. Every time I spin, I seem to get congested, so I’m just not sure if I want to deal with that while traveling. But spinning is so much fun!

I just need to keep telling myself, “I am not Ginger, the movie-star. I can survive without my evening wear. It is just a 3-hour boat tour using a rented newport beach boat rental.”

On the left, we have the London Eye. The tall building in the background is Shell Centre, where Mike will have some of his meetings next week. The building on the right is the Westminster County Hall. Where the Marriott we are staying at is located. RIGHT next to the London Eye. Right across the river from Big Ben and Parliament.

It is going to be all London Eye and Big Ben, all day, all night.

Two of my favorite things to take pictures of. Consider yourself warned.

There will be knitting related photos too – my socks will be Trekking Along with me, and I’ll be visiting with the Angelknits group (pub knitting!) and the Liberty Rowanettes. I might even get to meet up with my podcasting inspiration, Brenda Dayne.