The subject matter, of course, is knitting. Well, fiber.

After wandering (which happened after the post which comes second) around the Main Street area (note, this is not High Street nor Hauptstrasse), stopping at Marks & Spencers for some nosh and checking out the bookstores I came to Casemates Square. The square, named for the Military Barracks on the side was also once the site of public executions. Now it is a bustling sunny place filled with cafes, restaurants, benches, fountains and children playing.

Anyway – there was a sign on entering the square about Arts & Crafts on the second floor of the far, long building. Arts & Crafts? Why not? Coming up the stairs internal to the building before reaching the balcony were three panels of a school children’s quilt project. The past portion and present made sense. The future? open to anyone’s guess.

On the outer walkway in one direction were some shops and the Army Recruiting office for the local Regiment. (I did mention that Gibraltar has had a long and messy military history didn’t I?)

Turning around, in the other direction – there it was. Inside the lovely and open shop was an extensive display of local products ranging from quilting and sewing through jams, jellies and baskets. There might have been some jewelry as well, but my eyes were distracted by a table of women in the far left back.

Tues afternoons, from lunch till 1500 is a gathering of charity knitters (or those working on their own projects as well). There is an extensive collection of books to be borrowed, a wall of donated yarn for charity knitting and eight ladies working on projects ranging from sweaters and caps to afghan squares and shawls.

I spent a lovely hour just relaxing and knitting. The shop is also the local BookCrossing Zone with high shelves and several hundred books which made me, again, wish that I had a book to add to the shelf. I was going to pick up something, just to journal it and add it to the swap shelves in the ship library but suddenly noticed the passage of time.

Heading back to the Coach Terminal I was just on time (but everyone else was late….).

On the route back which again took almost two hours – I finished the Hocus Pocus and cast on the first arm for the Clockwork Cuffs. The photos were taken after I returned to my room which is why you get one of my current Rainbow jacket status.

Since I was just here in Nov (as apposed to Nov of 2007) when I had seen some of the museums I decided to take the tram across the northern part of the island from Tenerif. From one end of the line to the other takes close to an hour starting from near the old fort at water’s edge and ending at the Pedestrian Zone at the other.

It is easy to see that we are back in Spain; the fancy patterned stone side walks with their lines, symbols and insets are gone in favor of ordinary cobblestone and pavement. The architectural highlight in this city is the door. Old wooden doors pitted but lovingly tended. Newer doors (well 100 years old is newer, right?) gleam with varnish and sealant. Also of interest are the wooden frames to upper windows.

I hope you can handle doors two days in a row. Oh, and did I mention the tribe of Scouts complete with backpacks, sleeping rolls and a weary looking couple of adults escorting them down the street. From the variety of languages heard I don’t think they are local kids.

Reading -

I am trundling through Monica Ferris’s Needlework Shop Mystery series. Not exactly in order by chronology but by alphabetical order as I picked most of them up over the last year on the various Audible Sales.

Knitting.

It takes much longer to finish a section repeat on the Shadow Jacket now that I have added the body extensions on both ends to to the sleeve sides. ~150 stitches suddenly had 220 added, which does slow me down.

Traditional embroidery here is a variation of white on white cutwork with blue on which being first seen no earlier than 18xx and brown on ivory only in the second half of the 20th century. There is a small embroidery museum (from which I include a few pictures taken before I saw the sign saying no photos). I stopped at two of the Embroidery Factories, one of which was an actual working location.

The process is as follows – drafting of patterns, punching of patterns, transfer of the pattern to the fabric. What follows then is the hand (mostly) embroidery followed by finishing. Most locations also sell some needlepoint (most of which looked like it was French/DMC with the body of the work completed leaving the background stitching up to the purchaser. You can see that there were cubby upon cubby containing current and historically used patterns. What I also was informed is that the government, in an effort to protect the industry does not allow patterns, materials etc to DIY. Kind of explains the many stores offering embroidered linens and garments and the absence of any remotely resembling needle craft (wonder what they do about the Internet – plain brown wrapper?)

This also seemed to be the correct post in which to place the current knitting update.

The shadow shawl is complete as of today. After completing a couple of rows on the pumpkins in Hocus Pocus I switched over to the shadow jacket. I was at the point where I needed to cast the body onto both sides of the first sleeve. Rather than follow the directions and have one side off 1/2 a row I elected a provisional cast. When I get to the neck split, I will go back and three needle bind off under the arms from the provisional stitches (which shouldn’t show in the black although I may go nuts during the execution). It was at this point I found that everything no longer fit on one needle. I don’t’ think it will be quite as hard to go back and work the second sleeve in, since it is 15 rows short of complete to the shoulder.

Let me tell you the tale of a shawl. It started life as several balls of yarn purchased in the seconds/sales room at Schoppel when Nanawolf and I took a road trip. Everyone needs the occasional road trip and various balls of multi-color long repeat singles, plied and lace weight were just too good to pass up.

May 2010 rolls around and I take the Mole to head across the Atlantic, landing in NYC only to cruise back on the Costa Atlantica. Checking back, it looks like I still need to upload most of the pictures from that trip – I got as far as setting up the pages…

Given that the cruise was 14 days long with about 7 days total at sea left a lot of time for knitting. I started this shawl around the 12th from an Evelyn Clark pattern. I hadn’t done all that many shawls to that point and was trying to stick close to the directions.

Since then it has been languishing in my UFO pile. It is just not that thrilling. The colors are so not me, and the pattern has been lost. (for those of you on Ravelry – the project is here.) Yesterday I decided that enough was enough. I have other patterns that are close enough. Besides, it is only a 10 stitch repeat. Falling Leaf (also a Clark pattern) lined up perfectly and added a bit of interest. In fact, morphing from one shape to another is both knitting and visually interesting.

Any who – I picked it up yesterday and knit one motif section (about 12 rows as I remember). I looked at this huge ball of yarn and figured I could manage another repeat. So I did that. Finally – today I did the edging – 14 rows, then started the last two rows. All of a sudden that ball of yarn was getting smaller, quite rapidly as a matter of fact.

nearing the end

Still figuring that I was going to be ok – since I was sure that I had another ball of this stuff somewhere I knit the last row, and started the bind off.

Well, as you probably guessed it, I am short yarn. Not a whole lot, about six inches worth of stitches so say about 0.5 meters of yarn. That isn’t very much considering that the shawl measures 65 x 36 prior to blocking…

those last few stitches

I just went through that particular bin of yarn again. There isn’t any more. Not white, not green. I may be able to steal some pink out of a different family in the same weight, but then there is the potential of the next project also being short.

One thing is certain, since I have an early train it is not going to get solved tonight.

I had mentioned alpaca on cones that were my share of the treasures brought back from Bolivia to my friend Carmen. With the exception of the Paprika, these were all natural colors in light fingering weight. (I drooled over the other dyed cone which was a boucle. Alpaca Boucle? Then I thought of the many skeins of such I already have languishing in my stash. What would I do with it? Never mind, after fondling it for a while, I put it back in the box).

I had forgotten to mention this

lavendar merino lace

it was on sale, cheap

Now all I have to do is upload the pix to Ravelry. Somehow it always feels nicer to hit the “use yarn from stash” button when I start a project. Only thing is – I really shouldn’t be starting any new projects.

folded in sixths

This is the scarf, well it started out to be a scarf, that I cast on while in Chicago. A simple thing – doubled strand of Peruvian Merino Lace on 5.00 mm needles. Pattern take from Radical Changes Ms Soprano needed something to wrap around her neck.

Since this was a scarf, no swatching was needed (I can hear you all snickering right about now). Adding in some edges stitches and a center section to make sure that it was wide enough (you can see this coming a mile away) I happily cast on and started knitting. One ball of yarn (~400 meters, doubled) was obviously not enough.

the first ball finished

Adding the second ball, I kept on going. The photo is somewhere, just imagine the same scarf only a lot longer. She tried it on, It wasn’t quite long enough which was what mattered to her. I was a bit concerned that it was getting a bit bulky since it seemed to be a smidgen wider than the average scarf.

I took it back to Germany with me, plowing ahead with the third ball. Wait a minute – did I show you the pattern up close?

details

I love the pattern. Not only is it a nice knit, but the 8 row pattern is extremely easy to remember. My only other variation was to change the direction of half the twisted stitch cables to induce symmetry.

Finished, I considered blocking it. It would make it light and airy; would softer and bulkier be better? Then I did some measuring. Blocked – it was going to be 24×72. Not a scarf, it had morphed into a freaking shawl. Never mind – it counts for a Shawl in the 12/2012 group and will wing its way to Chicago tomorrow when the post office is open.

Anyway, as I started going through various bins, bags, and boxes (the essential three “Bs” of knitting storage) I discovered this simple cowl.

cowl? Would you believe long tube?

which was all finished except for the second edge/end.

It was a matter of minutes to manage a few rows of seed stitch and bind it off. Color it finished. Now all I have to do is find it a home.

Meanwhile, back to the reading!

my matching set

I have them now, they are great. Clear ringing tone and incredibly smooth glaze. Special combination of black and red just for me.

Now, all I have to do is see if Angela is up to making a new model – one with a divider in the middle so that I can use two balls of yarn at the same time for stranded knitting.

note – with the exception of the alpaca (and the starry sky) – the rest were close-outs and will be used for gifts.

the new PJs

or is that sleepy?

The good thing about catching a plane at 1600 on a Chicago afternoon is that the flight – around 8 hours – gets in about midnight (biological time) where it is supposed to be morning at the landing place (add in the seven hours of time zone change).

I was surprised not to be more confused than I was for the rest of the day.

So far I have managed to

• Photo’s the new additions to the stash (which also meant finding the power adapter, charging a the camera battery and down loading 427 pictures on my powershot (I have no clue who it was that got married, or the identity of the boy with the bubbles or took the photos. Family? Anyone?)
• emptied suitcases.
• Get the boy to take out trash, bio and recycle (some of it more than one container), start on his room and clean the downstairs bathroom as well as make a trip down to the cobbler to recover repaired shoes
• picked up a refill at the pharmacy and found that the appointment George had for the morning wasn’t on the books (no clue why someone called me to schedule something then forgot to enter it but hey – this works. Stopping up stairs to say hi to Denise and met this dude (Viet Nam Vet and guru of dealing with the VA) who provided me some extremely useful information about Chapter 35 (which is not the same, and doesn’t overlap with Post 9-11 GI Bill). Who was it that said money that helps pay for kids education is good?
• cleaned out the fridge (once again, stuff had died in there while I was gone. I think they all just leave it for me so that I will feel useful).

I thought about knitting – but then decided that I really needed sleep. The morning will be soon enough to finish up this scarf which has grown by more than a dozen pattern repeats and get it in the mail to Chicago.

the new length

Reading

I had mentioned the reading in the my first note this year. I am attempting to shift my reading to free sources as much as possible. It may stop me from spending as much on books (all formats) as I did last year. There is a lot of material free (B&N, Amazon, iTunes and even occasionally on Audible). In response, there was a wide variety of reading from all of you. Ron, for example answered -

What am I reading? Just finished the “Hunger Games” Series after Deb kept telling me I need to read them. I could not put it down, 3 books in 7 days, over 2000 pages. Well written. Interesting fiction with socioeconomic subtext about distribution of resources (food) in American future at some distant point yet to come. It is not deep, but it will grab your attention and hold it. It reads like an ancient Roman story set in the future… food and blood sport used as tools to control the masses. Play the colonies against each other for the good the the empire. I am probably going to read them again to see if I missed anything… It is about to be released as a single movie, that has a big list of stars in the key characters.

These are books in which I, to this point, have had no interest. I had mostly heard teens talking about them. After being totally irritated by poorly written wizard stories and sparkly vampires, I had been ignoring YA fiction. Sounds like these might actually have some redeeming worth and I might reconsider.

Ignoring all those books out there which fall into the SVS group (stupid vampire stories), I have been listening to mostly mysteries and the occasional non-fiction.

For something completely different in non-fiction, I would recommend “Looking through a Keyhole” a memoir by Julia Spencer. With sharp, clear prose Ms Spencer unflinchingly interweaves her past into her present situation. Having inherited retinitis pigmentosa, she must come to grips with going blind; changing her life, reclaiming independence and finding her place in the world. This is also a story of Irene – a golden lab – who makes the difference. Most of us have issues with trust, wanting to do things for ourselves. Having to define relationships, especially in one’s seventies is really pretty impressive. I don’t know how the book would read – I have it in audio (and at $3.95 it is cheaper than print) and the narrator is awesome.

Otherwise, have deleted a number of free books, read a couple of so-so urban fantasies and am working my way through some of the early Sharon McCone books by Marcia Muller (again, Audible has nice sales).

Knitting

One does not want the daughter of a knitter to get cold. Someone who has moved to Chicago didn’t have a decent warm neck scarf. So, I knit her a scarf

just the pattern portion of a larger shawl design

This was after spending time at Dominick’s. What, you may ask, is Dominick’s? Think Safeway (well, it is part of the Safeway family). Large, really large grocery store complete with loyalty program, nice people at the cash register, good produce and a manager who is out talking to customers and bagging groceries rather than hiding in an office. We spent money – she now has staples, spices and food.

Back to the yarn expedition. I had noted (isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing?) there was a yarn store on W Polk, which should be close, that had a group meeting for lunch on Thursdays.

I hiked up Wabash, cut over to State Street and finally figured out (with the snow coming down in my face and my toes getting cold) that I had walked too far when I got to Washington. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Chicago has streets named for Presidents. What I don’t remember from the 5th Grade is the order of the presidents after Washington. Hello? Like I need this information because? It would be also useful to know that not all East-West streets are through streets.

You know what is coming next don’t you? Not being a complete fool, I headed down into one of the Blue Line entrances, found the map on the wall which told me I still had four blocks further south to head. Brilliant – right where it was supposed to be – there it was on W Polk.

Loopy Yarns at Dearborn Station

Spent a lovely noontime and early afternoon with Vicky (the owner) and other knitters who dropped in.

I didn’t work on the After Hours Shawl

mostly through the second skein

Instead I managed to get from here

Spooky

the Halloween Cowl

Obviously, my trip back to the apartment was much quicker than the one on the way over.

For the second (or is it the third year?) a sub-group the Jewish Fiberholics has run a holiday swap. No ornaments obviously, just Marla setting up the match with no one knowing who “has them” till the package arrives which leads to a lot of fun questions, hints and merriment in the weeks leading up to the deadline.

Third year – I wasn’t able to play last year from Afghanistan.

This year I managed to get my package off in plenty of time. Early Dec – I received a box from the woman who drew my name and I managed to hold off opening it till tonight.

swap goodies

Underneath that lovely bundle of silk for spinning (rainbow dyed) is a CD. The little package up at the top contained 3 elegant glass lace weight stitch-markers. A small sachet with lavender is in the middle.  The edible goodies were four different varieties of fruit confection from a local to the Upper Northwest Orchard. Similar to Turkish candy, the flavor and texture was amazing. Since it is not like I really needed anything, I think the woman who drew my name did an excellent job of  coming up with fun stuff.

I had sent off a box with yarn, 2 fat quarters, a knit scarf and a couple of knitting/sewing toys. I know it got there but haven’t heard anything else. Ah, well.

It was dark when I got up in the morning, overcast the entire day and dark early in the afternoon.

Actually, when I started looking it up I found claims that the 21st was the solstice or the 22nd. Or, more importantly that the 23rd was the longest night. It was at this point that I decided that no one was going to confuse me with facts and that I needed to knit something simple.

Like, let us say – a soft, squoosy, slouchy hat for one of the girls. Knit on size 9mm needles out of two strands of Shakespeare held together. It finished up in no time at all just leaving the Eldest with the task of procuring her own ribbon for the row of eyelet’s.

Dirigible - The Jane Victorian

warm ears for the Eldest

past the half way point

which involved a number of ridges of solid yarn contrast to match the front edge to make a nice center back. Unlike the odd suggestions in the book, I chose to just knit 2 ridges of the lighter color, eight of the dark and two more of the lighter color.

The hardest part is now making sure that I reverse the color changes of the first side so that the shawl turns out to be the same number of rows on each side. I have solved the simple problem of keeping eight stitches in garter at the two edges by means of sticking in stitch markers. I am also moving the color change line on the gold this time rather than the white. Still, I have to admit being 38 rows into the second half feels good – even though I think the total number of rows is somewhere around 288 before getting to the front edges. Ah well, progress is good.

three of four pieces for the current item in progress. Yarn is a combination of some Brunswick Impressions that I have had longer than we have lived in this house. Might have purchased it when we lived in Munich, but then again I might have to admit to buying back in our first Heidelberg days which would place it between 1993-97. I never admit to adding yarn to stash and letting it season for years. No – never would I do that. Unfortunately, I do know that I knit some of the batch purchased into a sweater for the Eldest which she was in college. Finished the sweater while we were living in Munich if I remember correctly so I can only hope this yarn has not been in the stash for longer than – oh say – 12 years.

Anyway – that accounts for the blue. Then there is the chilipeppers tweed alpaca which I purchased on sale (almost all my yarn is purchased on sale, I love sales) with a project in mind. No clue what so ever as to what that project was, yarn did enter the house via a Webs (yarn.com – you know the people) sale after we moved to Heidelberg so it has be to 10 years old or less. Since this particular pattern doesn’t use up all that much, I figured that taking 100 meters from a 600 meter hank was not a particular big deal. And it does certainly make a contrast to the blue.

pieces 'o vest

I can’t show you anything more than this till I have it put together and the release from the designer.

this is a more current picture of the shadow shawl that I started on my transatlantic cruise

not my usual colors

I am almost at the half-way point and you can clearly see the demarcation line where the knit and purl sections change place in terms of color. That change line will wind up at the shoulder line.

(yes – Vivian Hoxbro and no – I almost never knit anything that is remotely gold, harvest or orange so shoot me ….)

Breakfast is fine with melon, musli and coffee. Lunch I am limiting myself to soup and salad which means that I can indulge myself at dinner.

One of the advantages of fixed seating at dinner (which can also turn out to be a horrible disadvantage) is that you have dinning companions. If you are travelling with family/friends it might not matter. Traveling by myself, it has turned out to be a fun and fascinating experience.

At my table is a Russia couple. Dimitri speaks Russian. He does not acknowledge speaking anything else – even so – I know that he follows both German and English quite well. Tatyana speaks Russian and German (University translator) so she spends part of each meal translating for him. Victoria is Romanian – but has lived the last 40 years in Berlin (West). Her German is clear, she also wants to work on her English. We have a couple from Rhode Island (both of whom are originally from Boston – complete with accent). They met originally through their jobs as registered medical laboratory technicians. Denise has just retired after more than a few years working Chem/Hemotology. Dave is still working in a immunology lab on one of the VA cancer projects. Finally – we have a Canadian couple from Calgary. Richard retired a few years ago and Donna has just hung up one of her many jobs in the last couple of years. She is a former travel agent and obviously a love of travel is still ongoing.

What is also obvious, not just with this particular group – is that repositioning/transatlantic travellers are usually not not first time cruisers. You have to be in a certain mindset in order to really appreciate the long time it takes to get somewhere (along with the fact that it quite reasonably priced). Sea days really have to be your thing, and you can’t be really easily bored.

It is now back to the knitting and classical guitar in the Atrium.

Picking it, I counted out the stitches for the three sections just to make sure I was on track. It was at that point that I made a rather ugly discovery: I was well on the way to knitting a second right half. You read correctly; for some reason I had not been paying attention, or misread the directions. Even though the colors are not the same, the directions are basically reversed so that the long side is in the back and the shorter side in the front.

Frog.

This morning – with a whole sea day ahead of me, I started the second half over again.

Then, after casting the black on and reuniting to the same location as before, I realised where I had gone wrong. Rather than count 427 stitches, I had counted the first section, placed the marker, counted the second, placed the second marker, then cast on the last section. Hello? This is what I did the last time: the cast on is completed, then the markers position is determined from the end of the cast on, not the beginning. The end is in the back, not the front. Or, conversely, if I do it the way I had just done – I have a second verse same as the first.

Argh!

right color combination -one row off.....

All of this may explain why I took a knitting break from Lastrada, going back and working on the remaining test knit I have promised – the Taj Mahal shawl for a few hours.

Not wanting to be chasing small beads around the lounges – I decided that one of the winged shawls from Vivian Hoxbrø was in order. Or a couple of Victorian era Capelets – or both…..

And listening to music time, there is that.

But anyway as a knitting I almost always bring more projects than might seem sensible. After all, when one is at sea it is impossible to find more yarn or knitting needles. Besides short projects I brought along a major UFO.

This sweater is Lastrada another in the seemingly endless Hanne Falkenberg designs in which I have indulged these last few years. The yarn I am using in this case is a complete substitution with fingering weight alpaca yielding a soft and extremely light garment.

first, the yarn

I started this while stationed in the UK – so figure Winter/Spring 2010. Then it sat fallow, first because of moving everything back to Germany, then because of the deployment and finally because it is just too warm for summer knitting.

The first half I completed promptly

Right side of sweater

since each half is knit in one piece – you are looking at the complete right side both front and back. It is also not like I didn’t start the second side -

the left side started

it is more a matter of the infinite number of hours of garter stitch that made me put it on hold. Since this knit is almost the definition of mindless knitting, it seemed ideal for ship board, especially since rough weather is not going to get in the way of endless stitches on 3mm needles. Oh, the good part is that you start with the maximum number of stitches so each row does get shorter.

I am still testing out the various lounges and haven’t found my favorite place to knit, but then I still have seven more sea days ahead of me after the Canary Islands.

How many lectures have you attended where the speaker is totally oblivious to his/her allotted time resulting in a complete disruption of the schedule and cramped up the speakers to follow? citing time than I want to admit I have fantasised about different ways of evicting the discourteous person who is droning on and on. Perhaps a hook from the side? Noose from above? Water cannon? Occasional the speaker can be good or even great and entertaining. Even so, to blatantly ignore the time limits just drives me nuts.

Part of the blame must be placed squarely on the shoulders of the panel moderators who have a greater responsibility to the conference than just introducing the speakers and calling for questions at the end of the session. The good moderators insure that their panel runs smoothly and politely but firmly cut off those with verbal diarrhoea and an inability to tell time.

This year’s meeting added a nice tool; a countdown time ticking away in the lower right hand corner of the projected slides. Green turns to yellow at one minute remaining and at the end of the time the counter starts increasing in large flashing red numbers. Most speakers this year stayed within their limit. Even so, there were those who just didn’t get it. Coupled with most of the moderators who failed to do their jobs, I wasn’t able to avoid the aggravation completely.

Now, if we can just get an interlock so that anyone who goes more than 5 minutes over has his slides disappear to be replaces with large flashing letters saying “time up” I think the problem would be solved. Doubt that more than one speaker would need to be embarrassed to make the point.

Test Knitting

Success! I finished the third repeat in the morning and the fourth over lunch time cutting my time from an hour per repeat to 30 minutes. Sitting down at 1800, i managed the last four repeats then figured out how to close up the cuff (hint – just grafting doesn’t work neither does binding off) and need to remind the designer to put proper instructions in her pattern (first row and last row don’t have the same stitch count which means ….).

After that, you should not be surprised when brain death hit. I happily wound the second ball of Cherry Tree Hill for the Taj Mahal before remembering that I need a centre pull ball in order to knit both halves at the same time.

a Guildford Pub front

Mary had teaching this morning, giving me a chance to sit and knit for few hours. I also wandered a few stores and otherwise relaxed. After lunch at Wagamama’s, we wandered through the Guildford Museum. Because of the government’s commitment to history and the arts – the museums are free. I was able to spend time looking at two of my favourite things – needlework and implements -

lace

Victorian needle work tools

paired clamps for skeins

and model railways.

a model of Guildford

On the street – A regular (the keyboardist)from Threepenny Bit with a couple of extras were busking. Wonderful, fun foot tapping tunes to make one’s heart glad. I picked up their CD for £5 and tossed my small loose change in the case.

ThreePenny Bit

To put a great end on the day after finding a pair of shoes and Clark’s, Mary and I spent the evening doing needle work.

Starting from Guildford, catching the train to Waterloo was a pleasure as compared to Camberley. There is a direct train that takes under 40 minutes for the farther distance rather than the bumble train that stopped at every station that I used to take. Leaving at 0854 mean that while I was still in high cost, the number of passengers had dropped significantly, I actually had a two person seat to myself, I could hike through the underground to the Northern Line without getting knocked over and find a seat on the north bound train. From Leicester Square (pronounced lester for all of confused non-brits) a change to the Piccadilly line east provided a long, calm opportunity to relax all the way to Wood Green.

Exiting the train, I happen to fall in behind a group of three women about my age. Not asking, this is a presumption given their grey, short hair, unlined faces and the presence of empty carry bags.

Ah! I thought – fellow stitches in search of treasure. I followed them out the door, across the street (waiting for the pedestrian light of course). Boarding the W3, we rumbled along passing blocks of what I would call townhouses sharing walls and tucked up together like a row of dowager women gossiping. At the Alexandra Station stop, they exited the bus. Shrugging, I did the same. Ahead of us was another line of women, about fifty all told queued up to board a bus which was signed “Alexandra Palace” alternating with “private charter.” The lower interior was packed tighter than clowns in a car leading me to eel through the standing passengers and pop up the stairs to find more than 50% of the seats empty on the upper deck. Not being the only one imbued with common sense, about 15 women followed me.

leaving the train stop, the bus rounded the curve while crossing the tracks and trundling up the hill to Alexandra Palace where I stood in line to buy a concession ticket (anything with a concession/discount per UK speak) since I am past the magic age of 61. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping, fondling yarn and otherwise engaged in fibber bliss.

It is also the first of Oct – I could lift my ban on new knitting/sewing projects. Or maybe alternate new things with finishing old?

In spite of my promise for nothing new in Sept – I managed three scarves (traveling and out of knitting), one test knit (a cowl) while frogging 6 items and finishing up three shawls, a baby pod, a vest, a cardigan and a pair of socks. The UFO/WIP pile has been diminished. In fact, it all fits into one container (well, it will as soon as I put away the yarn) and add the SOA which has been hanging around since before Kuwait. I think I had forgotten about that one. I even had started finishing the Norwegian Star Vest (1999) and was doing well till I ran out of yarn. As soon as I figure out which of all of those boxes has the last skein of grey – it can be completed as well.

So – should I start something new? Or continue up the back of Chess for George?

In other events – the crew took me out for dinner last night. We tried The Sahara at 165 Hauptstrasse. The food was ok, the service was horrible. Not because the waitresses didn’t care, but simply there was no way the three waitstaff could cover the entire restaurant, outside eating area and counter when the weather was lovely and the take-away was brisk. It is back to Cedars (Hauptrasse 105) for me.

Plan it because it makes no sense to arrive at a time that the post office is not open in case I might just have a package. Executing the mission is just one more thing to add to the day. It doesn’t happen when I am out of town. Almost all financial correspondence comes these days electronically. Periodicals arrive via the German Post. Certainly we get enough junk mail and shopping flyers to fill the paper bin each month.

So when I get asked if something has arrived I answer without ever thinking about, or mentioning the last time I even checked for mail. Nope – nothing.

Instead of – yes – I have packages!

been bouncing around since June 2011

I also received a number of patterns ordered from Reconstructing History.

Most importantly, there was a package that left California 30 Aug 2011

containing

Cashmere and Kid

From now on I will have to caveat everything with “please remember, I only go to the post office every 2-3 weeks and haven’t checked my box since (fill in date>.”

Oh, right! $600 savings, that is why. Changing planes was cheaper than a direct flight, especially with only 7 days advanced purchase (and a return date more than 1 month in the future). Thinking about it now, I should have taken the puddle jumper to Philadelphia and then Singapore Airlines, but I didn’t.

Anyway – somehow I missed read the time I got in vs the time my flight departed. We arrived ~ 1100 after circling London a few times on the flight path merry-go-round. My outbound flight was 1645. That is almost 6 hours – and Ocean Nessie – complete with beads

in sport weight Monarch

Can you believe it? The woman who always travels with 4-5 times the number of knitting projects that could ever be completed was out of yarn! I wasn’t out of reading material and after trawling through the shops it became obvious that I was not purchasing anything (sorry, but L465 for a leather iPad cover is really stretching it, even if it is by Mulberry. At least in the opinion of someone who bought a great padded leather case for her iPad on sale at less than 30$US).

I read from London to Frankfurt. Took the train from Frankfurt to Mannheim and actually managed to connect to the WiFi – letting my three at home know that I was on my way.

Exhausted, I got off the S-Bahn connection from Mannheim at the Heidelberg Westadt-Suedstadt stop to find Ms Soprano and the Gwennie waiting for me. Hiking home in the dark (now going on 36 hours of wakefulness) I was more than grateful for the company and someone else to carry the back-pack and computer bag. The Gwen behaved like a perfect lady on the leash which was good because there is no way that I could have held on should she have bolted.

Being home, in my own bed is wonderful.

Most than a bit fuzzie scarf

complete with lots of small, glittering bits hiding here and there. One skein of Patons Lace (acrylic, wool and mohair…)

Travel

In the US, travelers are now accustomed to air lines charging for just about everything from checked luggage to drinks and in-flight meals. I have heard of some of the same on some Midland’s flights in the UK. The US airlines have been charging for alcoholic beverages for years on international flights (and you get the best bargain with US$).

I have also seen a trend in charging extra for what certain seats on the aircraft; primarily those which give you extra leg room.

However, I was floored when I discovered that British Airlines wanted to charge me for making a seat reservation ahead of time. I believe the charge was $15. To make a seat reservation, especially with the caveat that the airline could change it if they needed to…. That one is just a bit beyond the pale.

Flying BA

In spite of all of that, I managed to have a comfortable flight across the Atlantic on BA. Leaving late (and arriving at the airport in time to turn in the rental car so as to not incur an additional days charge). I cast on another Nessie to keep my hands occupied. BA actually had my veggie meal (pasta) and the flight was not completely full.

Fertig!

OK! Donna is done after only 16 months in progress. Ok – after maybe a couple of months knitting while I was in the UK followed by more than a year of fallow time and completed with a burst of energy this week.

She was joined by this nice pair of socks

Slip-Stitch Green

I would call this day highly successful. Projects completed. In fact, everything I brought along to finish up is done so I feel completely justified in rewarding myself with starting a Nessie -

to which I might just add beads

Rather warm and humid today in lovely rural Virginia, we ventured out to drop by the post office (I could carry some fabric home but the mail is so much more convenient) before returning to home made ice tea with mint from the garden and some more knitting.

Donna - the first arm is now finished

We will not talk about the sewing. It is something that I had totally forgotten, or perhaps not permitted myself to remember. Falkenberg has this nasty tendency toward too many seams, weird edgings and only rare provisional cast ons. This is a sweater that would have been markedly more simple to knit had there been a provisional cast on at the front then picking up stitches and knitting the collar all of one piece after the shoulders had been sewn together.

I also found that knitting the arms in the round was much simpler than knitting back and forth with yet another edge to seam.

Other than that – we just hung out, and generally had a quiet day (this is in Toano, VA)

It also explains why, again I was awake in the middle of the night, having fallen asleep on top of the couch wrapped up in my usual LLBean sleeping sack while I had waited for Carmen to get home from an evening out.

Since Carmen teaches English as a second language classes at her church on Saturdays (well, actually she runs the whole program including a luncheon [bribe] for the other teaches following the classes) I had the morning and early afternoon to traipse around looking at patterns and fabric. I didn’t find anything at G Street for which I was sincerely astonished, but did find several useful items at Hancock’s in Gaithersburg.

<h4>Nessie</h4>

There is this fun free pattern on Ravelry called Nessie. When I got bored and tired of working on the green baby pod, I decided that I could work on this.

looking kind of like seaweed

this Nessie is knit on a 4.00 mm needle out of Monarch Sport Weight sock yarn (350 yards of which there was less than one left). Composed of both short rows and one long set of increases, it curls most delightfully

ready to wear - Nessie

up to layer comfortably about the neck. In this light it might not be clear, but the lemon yellow, bright grass green and orange remind me strongly of sherbert.

The baby pod is also finished.

one each, green pea pod