More picture of Scotland that W took, posted for no reason other than I like them.
Have you seen the History Channel show about the places hidden underneath major cities around the world? (“Cities of the Underworld,” according to google) The episode about Edinburgh talked about the land bridges that are now almost totally hidden. Here are a couple:
What, your downtown doesn’t look like this, too?
I didn’t end up doing nearly as much knitting this weekend as I had planned. This was all I managed in my couple of hours of work:
That would be the beginning of a toe-up sock. Not too impressive, but I did try out a few new things in the process that it turned out I really like. First, the yarn. Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. I wound it into a ball several months ago when I originally planned to do something with it…and never did. But now I have no idea what kind it is. The ball band is somewhere, but now that everything is unpacked, I seem to be able to find less than I could when it was all in boxes. I suspect it’s the Superwash Merino. Whatever it is, I love it. It doesn’t split as easily as Lorna’s Laces and the colors are really vibrant. It’s also quite soft. I have a winner.
Second, I’ve discovered a brilliant new cast on method for toe-up socks. My old favorite was the Magic cast-on. While I love the way it looks, I apparently knit really tightly and have quite a bit of trouble increasing in the first few rows when casting on this way. My new favorite is the Middle Eastern cast on. Ironically, though it’s apparently been around forever, I couldn’t find instructions to link to. I found it in the most recent issue of IK. Its pros: very easy, and there’s no knot at the toe to stick out. That’s one of my pet peeves. It did take me a couple tries to get it right. Hence the lack of progress on the sock.
W, on the other hand, had a much more exciting weekend. He spent last week in Scotland, where he’ll be going for the next academic year. And I going? No. (there’s that whole matter of paying the mortgage for our newly acquired house) Am I jealous? Extremely. But I will be visiting often and plan to become an honorary resident during his time there. My office has been warned.
He came back today with all kinds of goodies. At my request, there was no yarn. (with the crappy state of the exchange rate, it’s so much cheaper to buy even British yarns here) But he did go to a yarn store anyway. This one was in Edinburgh. Isn’t he sweet?
He did bring me pattern books (in English this time!) and another issue of Simply Knitting.
Notice also the John Lewis bag underneath. Seeing as our governments are rather friendly, many, many people in DC travel to the UK for work. The one thing everybody brings back is a tote bag from Harrod’s. I can’t make too much fun, I did the same thing. (it now carries my knitting on planes) However, W brought me back a really nice John Lewis bag. For those not so familiar with the UK, John Lewis is another department store, but more along the lines of Macy’s, if Macy’s had a grocery store in it. It’s going to replace my dying work bag, and I’m going to treat it as a bit of an experiment. Everybody knows Harrod’s, but who will know John Lewis? I suspect that there will be far fewer. We’ll see.
When I got the first issue of Simply Knitting W brought me back from France, I didn’t know that all of their magazines come with some prize sort of thing. The one with this issue was a set of 3 sheep-shaped needle protectors. Sort of random, but cute.
Speaking of sheep…
Real Scottish sheepies! The one in the left foreground seems to be creating its own variegated yarn.
Here’s where he’ll be spending the year.
Dad, this will be you!
I fear that my blog will turn in to a Scottish travelogue next year. Oh well. You’ve been warned.
Yarn that’s a combination of silk and stainless steel. That just sounds painful to knit with. I have these imagines of it slicing into your fingers as you knit. The stainless steel apparently gives it “memory,” but wouldn’t it be hot? Look at the scarf Amy from Knitty made with it.
I’m off to make tacos and start enjoying my 3-day weekend. Hope you do the same. We’re getting cable tomorrow, so what better excuse than that to sit around and knit?
We spent the weekend in cold, rainy Mystic, Connecticut for a wedding. The wedding was great, the weather not so much. Owing to the 8-hour car ride, however, I did get some knitting done. My project for the trip: I tore apart and remade the red baby kimono from weeks ago.
I even got W’s college roommate into the act, winding the yarn back onto the cone as I deknitted the sweater. Now I just have enough yarn left for another 30 or so of these things…
And what would a trip be without a yarn store hunt? If you’ve ever been to any remotely touristy area in New England, you’ve seen those cute hand-drawn-looking maps they give away everywhere that serve as a really basic way to orient yourself to the area and point out all the sponsoring shops. (these are nowhere near being to scale–my favorite part is that they only list some major roads intersecting. What, did some of the stoplights not sponsor the map?) Lo and behold, this little map had an ad for a yarn store!
This is actually their little ad from the map and, as far as I can tell, that seems to consist of their entire web presence. The store is definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. It had a great selection (heavy on the wool, but also lots of cotton options) and was bright and cozy. The whole time we were there, the owner was helping various people find yarn for projects. The only drawback to this friendliness is that it makes you have to wait on said owner to make your purchase. Generally not a problem (more time to browse!), but a bit of an issue when you’ve left yourself exactly 45 minutes to drive back to the hotel, change, and drive to the wedding. But we made it on time and I made out with these:
It’s Blue Sky Alpacas cotton, and it’s yummy. I think it will grow up to be a pink and green version of this giraffe. What’s one more French pattern to add to the list to translate?
note to self: when establishing new phone number, put on the Do Not Call list immediately. We have a new number which exists exclusively for our DVR service, and nobody has the number. I don’t even know it. Today, we got two calls on it within 5 minutes of each other: the Washington Post and the Washington Times. It seems that your number is fair game about a week after it’s set up.
I just discovered that I now live practically next door to where the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is held. Clearly I’ve never been or I would have known this. I do, however, hear about it every year and think it would be fun to do. I missed this one by a week, but next year, I’m there. Just look at the list of vendors you could buy yarn directly from–there are big names there! Must start now to whittle the stash now in preparation.
In other discoveries, I recently came across this:
Think Wikipedia, but about knitting. It’s relatively new and needs more entries, but I found a couple cute vintage knitting patterns right off. There are also quite a few technique entries that not only explain what the technique is but also link to demos, articles, or further information of some sort. The best part? Since it’s a wiki, anybody can contribute. Get an account and show the world what it’s been missing!
We did the big move over the past 4 days. No knitting content today; that will come as soon as I’ve unpacked all the yarn. But I have actual storage space for it now! I wonder if being able to see exactly how much yarn I have will make me more likely to use it, rather than acquiring more? Probably not. However, the whole buying a house thing might put a crimp in the yarn budget for awhile, so that might do it.
We finally got internet connectivity today. In our apartment (don’t laugh), we had dial-up. (in our defense, it was FREE. And I was darn sure not paying for something I could get for free. It really wasn’t as slow as you think. Really.) Now we have a fiber optic connection. Let’s just say it’s a tad faster. I’m downloading podcasts as I type, and it’s actually fun just watching them fly. I decided to download all of the episodes of Cast On first. Who cares that I already had more than half of them!
My impressions of moving:
- hiring movers is SO worth it. I pleaded (read: whined) for weeks to try to convince W we should have someone else move us. We compromised: we brought loads up every day before work and on weekends, and the movers moved the heavy stuff and furniture. Still, it was fabulous.
- if you pack all your plates, pots and pans and anything else involved in cooking before actually moving, aluminum foil can do almost anything. Don’t have cookie sheets to transfer things on aluminum foil into the oven? A flat USPS priority mail box (the big one) works quite well. Once washed (it bulks up a bit), the Mason-Dixon ballband dishcloth pinch hits quite well as a pot holder. And all the knitted scarves and hats you have lying around? Great padding for fragile items.
- living in 3 stories turns out to be a bit of a workout, especially when the laundry room is on the bottom floor. (I have a laundry room! Actual space to block things!) I was actually sore the second day.
- contact paper is evil. If you have fallen into the trap already and need to get it off, a hair dryer works wonders. Goo Gone works well on the leftovers. (thank you, thank you, thank you to whoever gave me the Goo Gone when I moved to DC 8 years ago. I think that must have been Mom. I didn’t open it until last Tuesday, but it made life so much easier.)
- if you take all your sweaters and coats to the new abode while still living in the old one, the weather will turn much colder and you will be forced to become creative with layering.
- not getting a landline works fabulously well as long as you bring your phone along with you. When you leave it on the top floor and it rings while you’re on the bottom floor, it starts to seem less brilliant. Running up and down stairs to get to it can also be hazardous to your health.
Now that I’ve left you with all that wisdom, it’s a beautiful day, and we’re off to explore. And go back to Target for the 5th time in 3 days. Such is moving to suburbia.
We’re moving Thursday. Today we finally started some serious packing and took up fragile things that we didn’t want to have the movers handle. (we hired movers! It took some convincing, but W finally agreed. I think he realized the wisdom when we started packed up our books and academic journals today–10 boxes alone. And they’re not all done yet. Having someone else move me is one of my life goals. Another is to own furniture that doesn’t come awaiting my assembly, but that’s going to take a bit longer)
We also took up couple things that were already in boxes or self-contained and could easily be moved. Which included…my entire knitting stash, which spent most of the morning hanging out by the door. It doesn’t look so big in the harsh light of day when stacked.
I’ve still got 5 good knitting days in until the big move, though. So that led to the question of which projects to keep with me. The possibilities! But then I got real and realized I probably won’t be doing much knitting anyway. Ever hopeful, I settled on another baby kimono. I wasn’t happy with the red one I made in garter stitch, so that one is going to be deknitted and redone in stockinette. I seem to keep forgetting that there is still much packing to do.
I’m always amazed at how much stuff I turn out to have. Just one of the piles of boxes we’re dodging:
the kitchen is done, at least!
