Other than things that I make for me, which seem to be quite rare these days, I don't often get to see things that I made being worn. Well, last week I went to have lunch with my friend Antonia. Her second child is due any time now (Thursday is her due date) so we're all waiting for the phone call from her husband...
I arrived at her house to find Blake, her 21 month old son, wearing the cotton sweater that I made for him ages ago. I thought that I would make it a bit big so that he would 'grow into it'. Well I gave it to her 5 months ago and poor Blake is still doing his bestest to grow into it. I think that I was a little ambitious on the sizing. You can just catch a glimpse of the sweater on the picture below. It's a the 'Striped sweater' from the Debbie Bliss 'Quick Baby Knits' book.
I cast on Ice a few months ago, it's a design from Rowan 27 in All Seasons Cotton. I left it sitting around a while - it's dark grey and didn't really feel right for knitting when I was in the US and the weather was so warm and summery. Here in the UK though, it is cold and wet, so I have picked it up and here is the second sleeve.
I can't wait to try it on. It is perfect television knitting as it is all stocking stitch with a minimal amount of decreases. Now, I like doing slightly more complicated knitting some of the time like most peoplel, but sometimes there is nothing better than something that knits up fast and that you know you are going to love from the second that you cast it on. (Although I am worrying about the length of the sleeves). I spent most of the weekend with it, watching the West Wing. My idea of a perfect weekend.
Admittedly it has taken me a bit long to get around to writing this but I am determined that I am turning over a new leaf and shall be a more faithful blogger as of now... And if I don't please feel free to post messages to remind me. I don't think that I will do as well as Wendy but at least 2 or 3 times a week would be more respectable than my current average.
I had a lovely time at Ally Pally. Here's a picture of the front entrance for those of you who didn't get to come along:
I met lots of knitting people that I knew from their blogs - such as Kerrie - and also got to see lots of the Liberty crowd, compare purchases and generally have a good natter. And guess who I got to meet? Anne Velghe. Here we are together:
I knitted for Anne in the Rowanette Extremities Exchange that Polly, Emma and Sue organised earlier this year. Along with her hat, I sent her a hank of Touch Yarns boucle. And guess what, the scarf that she is wearing is made from that yarn! Knitting for someone as a surprise is lovely but it is even nicer when you get to meet the person as well.
And then I also met Lily Chin (the world's fastest crocheter), Kaete Brady (the fastest US knitter) - here's me with them as well as Debbie Bliss. My small claim to fame. Sadly the husband was really most unimpressed with this picture, despite my trying to explain the importance of it all.
I didn't buy all that much yarn at the show. Mainly because there wasn't enough time. But also because I am banned from starting any new projects until I have cast off at least 2 of the following WIPs: the Retro Poncho, Flighty, Ice, the Opera scarf, my sock (with a lot of help from Polly) and Birch.
I got some Colinette Giotto in the Cezanne colourway. I can think of at least 3 people who would love a Xmas present made from this.
And I bought some Wensleydale Sheep yarn. It's an alpaca/pure new wool blend and is lovely and soft. The colour is not quite as purple as on the photo, more of a lilac really. They had the sweater knitted up on a mannequin and Kristine pointed out how lovely it was and said the colour would suit me so I allowed myself to be tempted. They have some lovely yarn and it is so nice to see a small producer like that doing well - not surprising seeing how scrummy all of their yarns are.
I have a lot of knitting updates to give you but I can't find the memory card reader for my camera so it will have to wait. Trust me it'll be better with pictures.
In the mean time, and a long time later, here are the rest of the pictures from San Francisco.
Those of you who come to Liberty's may remember that, earlier this year, I knit two baby tops and a blanket for my friend Marivi's little girl, Elena. Well I had never met Elena and our trip to SF was all in honor of this little girl who was having her naming ceremony. Here she is with her (very) proud parents.
It was lovely to meet her and especially nice to see Marivi again (it had been a while to say the least). We had a lovely time and spent quite a few hours sitting around drinking coffee which is what you should do if you haven't seen friends for a long time AND they have a delicious little girl for you to play with.
We also did some sight seeing. First of all: I give you another gratuitous shot of the seals. I can identify with all of that lying around and socialising.
We did an afternoon trip to Alcatraz. The tour was interesting and we both enjoyed it lots. Here's the island from the boat as we approached:
Here's the cell that they think might have housed Al Capone:
And here is one of the isolation cells. I think that the husband thought that I would have loved to spend some time there knitting but I reckon it was a little on the dark and damp side. Other than that I would have considered it. I didn't get much knitting done on this trip to the US and was willing to grab any opportunity.
I took this picture on the boat on the way back from Alcatraz. The waves were crashing up against the boat windows and I thought that the effect on the window was quite interesting. And for once, it came out well (I have an interesting history of taking what I think are 'cool' shots and then, three weeks later, staring at the results wondering what was meant to be so good about them).
Finally, I saw these fishing boats. SF is also a working fishing port something that apparently not too many people are aware of - or at least that's what the signs next to the port said. So I thought I would spread the awareness.
Just in case you were wondering, I didn't make it to a yarn store. There were just too many things to do and the husband and I hadn't seen much of each other so I was loathe to leave him alone for too long. More proper knitting content soon, I promise. Off to hunt for the camera memory card reader.
Gosh, I am sorry for being so useless at blogging recently. As I said in my last post, things went a little mad. I think that they should calm down by the end of this week and I have to say that I am really looking forward to it.
I managed to leave both the battery charger and the memory card reader in the hotel in San Francisco and only realised when I was packing on Saturday. So the only pictures that I have to show you are the ones that I downloaded to my computer whilst we were in SF. I only got back to London a few hours ago and am feeling the jetlag rather strongly. I shall go and buy the memory card reader and a charger tomorrow if all goes well.
Those of you who were in London last year (or in Chicago, I believe) will remember the cow invasion, the 'Cow Parade' - well New York is suddenly sprouting apples all over the place - part of the 'Big Apple Fest'. I saw plenty, some odd, some interesting and some that I wanted to take home with me. Here are a couple.
Then I flew off to SF and guess, what? They have hearts popping up all over the place - it's called 'Hearts in San Francisco'. Here is one of my favourites, outside the Ferry Terminal.
We had a fantastic time in SF. The weather was lovely so we donned our walking boots we walked, walked and walked. We walked along the bay from the Ferry Terminal to Pier 39. I spotted this sign on the sea front and I just loved the sentence taken from an advertisement for the Melodeon Bar by the Bay - a long time ago.
Pier 39 is the classic tourist spot, full of shops aimed at tourists looking for a souvenir as well as the speciality shops that the Americans do so well - stamp shops, chocolate shops and even a shop selling nothing but alpaca things. Not the kind of place that the locals go to. But just behind Pier 39, I found the seals. It was the noise that told me that they were there, as they bark very loudly. And then, as you get closer, the smell gives them away a little too...
They really were very cool. They all climb on top of these floating planks, but also on top of each other. There's a lot of shoving, pushing and falling into the water going on. All rather amusing.
We then walked through the streets of SF, up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. This is a shot of Coit tower which figures on a lot of the souvenirs from SF.
And here is the view of the Christopher Columbus statue with the island of Alcatraz behind it.
I will post pictures of Alcatraz at some point, but the pictures are stuck on my camera for the time being. Here's the other view from Coit Tower: the Golden Gate bridge:
I have to admit that I could have stayed up there for hours, the view was stunning.
I don't have any knitting pictures for now as I haven't had time to knit. I did knit on the plane on the way back but messed it up royally and shall be frogging tonight if I can face. Instead, I leave you (especially for Sharon this one) with a picture of a store that sold almost nothing but nasty acrylic ponchos in North Beach in San Francisco. Even the husband thought it was quite terrifying and said that he was glad I didn't knit that kind of stuff :)
