the highs and the lows

SIGH.
It's been a long week. Let's recap, shall we?

1. Last week I had to go to London for work. I work for a British company, and my boss is in the UK, so twice a year, I have to go reconnect with her. I flew Virgin Atlantic, which I love, from Newark, which is close to home (not like icky old JFK, which is a million miles away), but I didn't get a whole lot of knitting done on the plane out there because it was an overnight flight, and mostly I just watched movies and slept. I didn't have a lot of energy for concentrating on my knitting project.

2. What project was that, you're asking yourself. Well, my boss told me that she wanted to invite me over for dinner (she specifically said OVER for dinner, not OUT to dinner), so I wanted to make something for her toddler (20 months!) as a housewarming present. What I ended up making was this:

Project: baby hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: KnitPicks Shine worsted in Iris
Needles--oh, i forget--I think size 7 DPNs
Notes: For pete's sake, it's too freaking small to fit a toddler. A baby perhaps, but a toddler? I asked around at work from the people who had kids, and just received sympathetic smiles and bemused stares. Anyway, good thing I've got like six pregnancies and just borns to knit for. Someone's eventually going to wear this fricking hat! It's so cute.

3. Anyway, I'd finished the hat before I left, and since it was obviously not going to fit, I decided to start this instead. NOTICE that the pattern says ONE BALL of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. ONE BALL! So I bought one ball, not thinking. I'm so irritated with myself for this. It's a hard lesson to learn. I got all the way through the ONE BALL, and was only 2/3 of the way done! So what did I do? Well, first of all, I couldn't give it to my boss, which didn't end up mattering anyway, as she forgot that she'd invited me OVER, and instead we just went OUT. Which was fine, since I had nothing to give her. If I ever finish this thing, I'll give it to her for Christmas. So anyway, I went back to the LYS near my office to get another ball, and OF COURSE they didn't have anymore! They didn't even have any coordinating colors except white, and that looked too weird. Like peppermint or something. Plus, babies + white = dirty, so I bought a ball of a golden yellow Debbie Bliss, but when I got home, Spanky said it looked like the Florida State Seminoles colors, and I messed it up anyway, changing the colors, so I just ripped the whole thing out, and I'm going to do it again in another color later. I forgot to take a picture before I ripped, because I was so mad.

4. So my London trip:

I manage to do about one touristy thing each time I go. Most of the rest of the time I'm working, so it's not exactly a vacation. This time, my hotel was by the British Museum, so that's where I went.

This is a really crappy picture, but I was trying to be sly with the photos,since I wasn't sure whether they were allowed or not. Anyway, it's the entire facade from a Greek Temple.
Also, this was my favorite room:

This is the Enlightenment Room. It was one of the few cool rooms. Probably because it wasn't mobbed. Who wants to look at books? ME! Anyway, King George III apparently donated his library to the Museum when he died, and some of the collections of other famous Brits from the 1700s are there as well. I wish I'd had more time there.

Here are a couple more pictures from my walks around London:


That last photo is of a glockenschpiel outside a Switzerland store. I don't really know what they sell, but the bells make music on the hour a few times a day. The music was so pretty and since I was lost, it helped me get back on track to the hotel.

5. Anyway, this past week was just catch up from my trip and I've been SO TIRED when I got home from work. However, I did make time on Thursday to see a play that we got cheap tickets for from work. It was fun! I haven't been to a play in a long time, and for $25, I was happy to go.

6. This weekend, I've been busy with more fun things:
Strawberry Shortcake

Lemon Poppyseed Scones

Swatching!


7. I decided to approach this baby knitting thing practically--by who's due first! So I'm knitting Cargo from Knitty for my friend Ilene who is due in September and is having a girl. I already bought her a little onesie with Frida Kahlo on it, so I thought these would be good to go with that. We'll see. More on that later.

Here's hoping it doesn't take me another week to update again. I'm sorry this was so long, but the days are so packed...