Did you all have a lovely Christmas? I did, with my family, which is why I vanished for so long. My sister hosted the husband and me, my parents and her boyfriend and conjured up the most impressive meal with a smile. Juju, you rock!
So, in the last of the Christmas spirit series, here is a picture of the Rockefeller Center Tree and skating rink. I have to say that going there makes me smile - it's such a Christmas cliche and yet it is still wonderful to go there and soak up the atmosphere - with a Dean & DeLuca hot chocolate in hand is my favourite way...
And here is a cool picture of Club 21, a restaurant in New York on West 52nd Street. There's something about those jockeys that makes me smile and take pictures of the place every time that I walk by.
I did actually get some knitting done when I was in the US. I didn't post until now as I principally worked on a moss stitch scarf for my father - which I gave to him on Christmas day and promptly forgot to take a picture of it. Oops. Well suffice to say that it was in Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran (again, I hear you all laugh) in colour 500, a greeny/khaki colour which is one of my father's favourites.
Then I worked on this:
This is for my father in law. I said that I was going to keep to simple knitting projects until after Xmas and this is definately one of the easier projects. A mistake rib scarf, using Jaeger extra fine merino aran in the dark grey - strangley called Derby. Not the brightest of colours, even by my standards, but I know that my father in law will like it and that's what counts. I am surprised as to how nice this scarf has turned out. It is rigid enough to be quite manly and yet it is soft and flexible. The husband does not like scarves as he gets too hot and yet he was quite taken by it - I thought at one point that he was going to keep it for himself.
Then I cast on for the Backyard leaves scarf from the Pam Allen "Scarf Style" book for my mother in law for Christmas. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I knitted about 2 repeats over a couple of days (I should have taken a picture but forgot) and then I realised that there was not a chance in **** of my getting in done in time to give it to her. Which is a shame as I think that she would have loved it. She used to knit a lot and some really intricate things from what the husband has said.
But as I know that she likes a bit of a lace effect, I have cast on the Opera scarf in Debbie Bliss merino aran for her. In the loveliest blue - it's not to bright and not too dull (Shade 203). And I know my blues as it is my favourite colour. Here's a picture of it, except that it is now nearly finished as I shall be giving it to her tomorrow.
I know that I have raved about this pattern before but I have to say again that it is fantastic. It looks more difficult than it actually is, and also looks as though it might have been done in crochet. The ridges between the lacy bits are quite thick, the lacy bits are really thin so you have a scarf that not only looks good but which also feels great to the touch.
Right, I am off to Caernarfon in Snowdonia, North Wales tomorrow for a week to stay with the husband's family. I am not expecting to have any connectivity while I am out there, but hopefully I should come back with some nice pictures. All I have to do now is go and find some knitting to take with me. Now that could be a tough decision.
Happy new year to you all and to your families, a little in advance. A.x
I am not too sure what the odds of it snowing in London over Christmas are - even the BBC don't seem to sure: Freezing conditions make UK icy.
So I thought that I would follow the suggestion of Jess and make my own snow flake. Here it is:
Well, as I said in my last entry, here's my airline madness story. I thought that the whole can you/can't you knit on planes had been covered on the various discussion boards but my experience on my way out to NY was just silly.
I had my knitting on a pair of circular metal Addis in a plastic bag in my carry on luggage. I also had 2 pairs of circular bamboo Addis in my carry on bag - I had meant to put them in my checked in luggage but forgot. So I went through security and put my bag through the scanning machine with no difficulty and proceeded to the gate of my flight.
There they were doing individual bag checks. The man who went through my bag, pulled out my knitting which was in a plastic ziplock bag. However, due to the way he was holding the bag, he could only see the yarn and missed the metal Addis which were showing on the other side of the bag. Then he pulled out the pouch that contained my bamboo Addis.
He proceeded to tell me that these were incredibly dangerous, that I was irresponsible and that they could be used as a garotte. I tried to explain to him that I had knit on Virgin flights both to and from the US in the last 8 months - and that anyone could use a belt or a strong pair of shoe laces or a scarf as a garotte. He got angry with me, raised his voice and told me I was lying, that it wasn't possible that I had knitted on any Virgin flight.
At this point, I decided to leave it and walk away - I was quite angry - not so much because he wanted to take my needles, I alway knew that might happen, but because of the way he was speaking to me. So I took my bag, left the bamboo Addis and walked off.
It was only when I was seated on the plane that I realised that I still had my knitting with my metal Addis still in my bag - seeing as he hadn't noticed them. I had completely forgotten about them as I was so angry at the previous incident. I grabbed a flight attendant and said 'Excuse me, I have my knitting with me..' and was about to offer to hand it over to her for the flight - when she said that it was fine for me to knit on the flight and that they had no issue with it.
So, leaving aside the fact that the random bag searches are not exactly effective, I have written to Virgin to say that it is astounding that there is not a clear policy - that their airline staff think that it is OK for me to knit whereas their ground policy think that I am a danger.
So there you go, if the airlines don't appear to be sure as to whether knitting is allowed or not, how on earth are we?
End of rant :)
After knitting, my other big passion is chocolate. I think that it is mainly because I went to school in Geneva just down the road from a chocolate factory, I was clearly brought up and educated to love chocolate.
Anyway, the 11th of December is a special date in Geneva where you get one of these:
This is a traditional 'marmite' (cauldron) that you get in Geneva for the 'Escalade' festival. Back in 1602 the Duke of Savoy sent his soldiers to invade Geneva which was an independent state at the time. The soldiers (known as the Savoyards) climbed the walls in the dead of night. But legend has it that Mere Royaume making her soup in her kitchen and heard them. So she threw her cauldron full of soup out of the window on top of them and thus raised the alarm and Geneva was saved.
It is kind of like Halloween. Traditionally children get given a chocolate cauldron full of marzipan vegetables. They also dress up and go door to door singing a song commemorating the event and get given sweets and the like.
I still don't have any knitting content due to all of the Christmas knitting thing. I think that this will be my last year of knitted gifts. It seems like a really good idea in October when you are buying the yarn and planning it all. It seems like a lot less good idea 10 days before Christmas when you realise that you haven't done it all. So, this is the last year where so many people are getting knitted gifts. As of now, I shall knit gifts as and when I feel like it.
I met a lovely NY knitter the other day: Abby. Abby is really lovely and we had a lovely time sat in a coffee shop knitting and chatting. She's knitting a sock in the loveliest colours - so we compared some sock knitting notes. But I thought that I would have to go and hide with shame when she said that she had started her Christmas knitting in the summer. Eek. Actually I am impressed but have to admit that I could never be that organised. I wish I could, but one has to be realistic.
Right, I was going to rant about knitting on planes but I think that will have to wait until my next posting. Suffice to say that I had a bit of an adventure.
I leave you with some more Christmas spirit pictures - large NY baubles.
And large NY coloured lights.
I went into central London on Sunday with my sister. First of all we met up with some friends in Libertys to get a little knitting done on the side and have a good natter. I always wonder whether it is wise to take my knitting to Libertys as every time I go I seem to end up ripping as much as I knitted. Pathetic really. This time I was doing some moss stitch (I know I said I wouldn't but it's for a Chrismas present and it is worth it) and I managed to go wrong on one row then knit another 40 and then realise.
You would think that by now I would have learnt that you should have a quick look at your knitting every couple of rows just to be sure. But no. Well I have a 6 hour flight this afternoon so I am hoping that I'll make some progress there. And I WILL check my knitting as I go...
By the way, can I just say that my sister is a star. She just laughed off the whole jumper that I will not be knitting her for Christmas thing and didn't even complain that I announced this here instead of telling her directly.
On the UFO front, I have also made some progress on my sock. Polly has been the most patient of teachers as I have made her repeat the instructions for me about 10 times - and she does it without the slightest look of exasperation. I should learn from her example. I turned the heel - have a look at this:
I am so so proud. I came home and showed it to the husband and then insisted that he do more than say 'That's nice'. I finally got a 'Wow' and a 'YES, I am really impressed'. There was a lot of prompting.
Finally, the Christmas spirit caught up with me on Sunday when I saw these people:
I love the Salvation Army's tradition of playing Christmas Carols - to me it is one of the things, along with satsumas and fairy lights that make me love Christmas.
No time to take pictures and blog properly, there are Xmas cards to be written, knitting to be completed and I have to get laundry done as we are off for a little bit next week. I am breathing deeply in an attempt not to panic.
But, whilst going through the huge 'to file' pile on my desk, I realised that I have 2 copies of the Knitting and stitching special of Women's Weekly. That's just criminal seeing how many people I have heard saying that they want a copy and somehow didn't get one. So - Want it? Drop me an email and let me know: knittingemail@hotmail.com. If I get a lot of requests, I will put the names in a draw.