Bring on Spring

I don't know about the rest of you but I am getting a little bored of winter. I don't mind it too much up until Christmas and the New Year but, come the end of January, I am seriously fed up of it all.

As a result I was in need of some happy easy socks in a cheerful spring colour. I had some Sundara Sock Yarn in Lilac that I wound ages ago for no apparent reason and which had been calling to me for quite a while.

At the same time I was in need of some knitting to take on my recent trip to New York. I was a bit worried about the whole 'needles on planes' thing but I don't like sitting still for 8 hours with nothing to do so I wanted a sock pattern that I could easily cast on once I had boarded (I didn't want to take anything half knitted in case someone made me leave my needles behind).

I had a good look around as I was looking for something quite easy, no techniques that would be hard, or unknown (toe up cast on is my nemesis), and finally Knitty's Spring Forward socks by Linda Welch became the clear front runner. I love them. It's one of those patterns that I didn't much like when looking at the picture on Knitty but then a quick glance on Ravelry had me wanting my own pair.

I don't much love the bamboo dpns, I think they have been used one times too many and at least one of them is quite seriously bent which annoys me no end. But never enough for me to think to replace the bent ones with straight ones when I am at home. I only ever notice on the bus in the morning. Oh well.

Can someone give me January back please

I am not quite sure what happened to January. Admittedly I got to go to NY for a week with work but still. Someone appears to have fast forwarded through some of the days in the month. Mind you, that got me closer to the payday following Christmas so I probably shouldn't complain.

I had a lovely time in NY for lots of reasons. I saw friends, work was good fun and interesting and I got to do some yarn shopping. Those of you who have followed this blog for far longer than any of us care to remember will remember that I started this blog when I was living in NY and I haven't managed to get back there since we left so this was a much anticipated trip. Here's the view from our office.

How lovely is that? The weather was quite warm by "NY in January" standards and beautifully sunny nearly the whole time I was there so that was lovely. I completely accidentally walked passed the Lion Brand Yarn Studio as I meandered back to the hotel one afternoon.

I particularly liked the knitted lion in the front window.

And also the knitted door handles.

In some ways it was a shame it was closed. In others, it was just as well.

I also spotted these huyge 'balls of yarn' when walking past a rug shop in the village so I couldn't help but take a picture.

I'll post something about my recent knitting in the next few days but, in the mean time, you have to look at this if you remember playing Mario Brothers when you were younger.

Socks with holes

GRRRR. I went through my laundry basket the other day and it appears that a few moths had made their home at the bottom and were happily munching their way through my Welsh Conwy Socks (Ravelry link) knitted in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock.

Actually, make that double GRRR with GRRR sprinkles as they have munched their way through both socks and one of them has TWO holes. I am fuming and I can't quite decide what to do. Do I:
1. Throw them out.
2. Throw them out.
3. Throw them out.
4. Try to darn them. Fail and then throw them out?

This is now how I envisaged the beginning of my knitting year 2010. I do have a darning mushroom that Thomas gave me as part of my knitting exchange a few years ago but I really can't see that I have the patience or the ability to darn socks.

GRRRR.

New Year, things I love and a knitting update

Well, Happy New Year to you! May it be a good one in all the ways you desire.

It’s been an odd few weeks. I don’t think that I have actually picked up my needles in the last three weeks. I’ve done a teeny bit of seaming to finish the blanket that I made for my sister for Christmas – finished on the evening of the 30th of December when I was seeing her on the 31st. Why I cannot ever finish something before the deadline is beyond me. Anyway, I’ll blog about it once she sends me some pictures of it (I forgot to take any) so in the meantime, here’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for weeks.

Jane over at The World According to Jane tagged me over a month ago and I really intended to post about three weeks ago but time escaped me at some point between the baking, seeing friends, a trip to Wales, an ridiculous chest infection and recovering from a few too many nights of revelry (which changes from my usual too many nights on Ravelry).

The Tag was ‘things I love’ and I am going to take Jane’s lead and not include people otherwise my husband, my family and my cat would rank rather high (ok, so I know the cat is not a person, but you should try telling her that). So here are 7 things that I love:

1. Hand cream. I have a real fascination with handcream. I hate having dry hands and have been told by friends and colleagues alike that their enduring picture of me generally involves me rubbing my hands together having just put hand cream on. I can’t have enough of the stuff, right now I have the following on the go: Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream (a gift from the lovely Jacinta), a small pot of lavender handcream from Restoration Hardware (an American store) which is also from Jacinta, a tube of Body Shop's Vitamin E Hand & Nail Treatment which brings back brilliant memories of a friend no longer with us, a pot of the most lovely Heligan Honey Hand Cream (some of us suspect there's some Bergamot in there) from The Lost Gardens of Heligan which I bought when the husband and I visited there this summer (I can’t recommend visiting Heligan enough if you are in Cornwall, we loved it!) and finally, probably my best discovery of 2009, Aveda’s Hand Relief. I have 2 tubes of this hand cream and am literally thinking I need about another 4 so there’s one in every room, one in my handbag and one at work.

Moving on from the handcream before it becomes an essay...

2. Tea. Just plain breakfast tea. Made just right so that it’s golden and at that perfect temperature of really hot but just cool enough to drink. I love tea. I am clearly a bit of peasant though as I can’t get my head around all the other teas such as Lapsang Souchon, Earl Grey etc. Nope, just plain Tetley’s tea for me please (or PG tips or whatever, I really don’t mind as long as it’s breakfast tea). I am a great believer in having a cup of tea whatever the circumstance, good or bad. I grew up in Switzerland and we used to get family & friends to send us parcels of tea bags as the tea on the continent is just not up to scratch. I carry on that tradition by sending tea parcels to Kristine in Norway. (By the way, I like herbal teas such as Camomile, Peppermint or, my current favourite, Lemon and Ginger)

3. A cold bedroom with a warm bed. I don’t think that I need to expand on this, you are either in my camp or in the other camp. The camp of people who like a warm room. Sadly my husband is in the other camp. Sigh.

4. Hobbs. I have a fascination with Hobbs clothes. And their boots. I have the same relationship with it that many people in the US seem to have with Anthropologie - it's all lovely but I can only afford the odd bits, not the shopping spree that I would like. Oh well.

5. My stash. Ok so that may be a given for most of you. And I am sure that you all love your stashes. But I have recently realised quite how much I love my stash. In particular the fact that it’s full of things that I want to knit. So I have no need to buy more yarn and that’s been quite a revelation really. It also means that I am now able to accept the fact that there is a Sale at Libertys starting in a few days and I don’t feel the need to ask one of my yarny friends to put an extra bag or two of yarn into their baskets. Years ago, I’d have thought that was impossible. But there you go. Maybe I’ve grown up a bit.

6. “Sans Famille”. A French book that my mother read me when I was a child. It remains one of my favourite books and I re-read it when I am feeling down. It’s a real tear-jerker but with a lovely ending and it brings back memories of my mother reading it to me. Apparently it's been translated into English and is called 'Nobody's Boy'. I am not sure I'd recommend it if you are older than 15 or so, but it remains a big favourite of mine.

7. The final thing I love... ooh, it's a hard one. But I think I am going to nominate sweets. I have a thing for small sweets. I love Smarties and Jelly Belly Beans (I'll be going to NY later this month, and can't wait, just so that I can buy the biggest bag of Jelly Beans ever).

I am sure that there are many other things that would be contenders for this list (champagne suddenly springs to mind, chilled and with some canapes on the side...) but I think that I may be over engineering this list. And it would be nice to post it in January, not February. So this is my final list.

On the knitting front, now that the blanket is done, I need to look forward. The husband's sweater, Archie by Kim Hargreaves from the book 'Precious' is finished but needs sewing up and the collar needs knitting on. And guess who left all of the yarn for that sweater at the Knitting Retreat in Wales?? Yes, that would be me.

I'll leave things there for now, there are a few additional things on the needles but I'll blog about them tomorrow and we'll see if I'll have made any progress on any of them by then :)