so this is England

Once a year, I spend a week in the UK to meet with my manager, and get caught up in our company's version of the employee review. It's tedious, sure, but these things are never fun, and at least I get to actually travel over and meet with her in person, rather than over the video conference thingie.

I also got to see my friend Eve, who lives in a house built during the Civil War. The English Civil War, which she's dated to about 1640 (the house, not the war).



It is made of wattle and daub, and you can see in this picture where she and her husband had to repair the back wall (those brown panels). Yes, they learned how to do the wattle and daub and fixed it themselves.



They also have a lovely garden, with flowers and fruit trees, a vegetable patch, a mulch pile, and a swing for their 15 mo. old son, who is adorable, and whom I totally neglected to capture on camera. Oh well. I did get the house though!

I also spent time with my friend Kate and her husband, just hanging around London over the weekend.



The weather was lovely, and we basically tooled around Hackney and then I got to see her new house, which is AMAZING. I wish I could afford something like this. It's the perfect size for a couple planning to settle in without raising a family, and if they did decide to have a baby, they would have the spare room.



I did a few things on my own, too. I got to see the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for quite a long while, as I'd gone down there to see the Portrait Gallery, but it closed before I could get there. Sadly, all I got to see was this fellow:



He rode and rode for a while, and then I got up to get a sandwich from Pret, came back, and he'd gotten off the bike and was aping around up there. He had friends in the crowd also dressed like gorillas, and they were passing out flyers for his website, which he is advertising in front of the bike. Lame. There was a person in a panda suit setting up their electric guitar when I left (they'd taken the gorilla and his bike off in a cherry-picker).

The last day I was there, I left work a few minutes early (with my boss' blessing--I think at that point we'd run out of things to talk about!) and ran to Loop in Islington. That whole area is so cute! I have to remember to go back next time I'm there. What a great shop! Most of their inventory seemed to come from the States though, or South America, and with the exchange rate spanking the US again, I wasn't about to spend cash on things I could get easily in NYC, so I bought some Colinette. I know you can get it here, but it seems much cheaper when you're paying 5 pounds per skein for it, and it is made in Wales, so I didn't feel it was as much of a cheat.



This is Giotto, and I've got two skeins of it now. Not the most practical yarn ever invented, but isn't it BEAUTIFUL?! Oh, I love it so much. I just don't really know what to do with it. The owner of the shop was suggesting a drop-stitched scarf, or maybe something loopy, so perhaps that's what I'll do, but I really would like to make something pretty that I can wear a lot. I don't think I have enough for a top, unless it was something really strappy. We'll see...

I also bought a project bag:



It is just like the smaller ones that I got at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this past summer (only thinner cotton...), but those are more for socks and small projects. This one is pretty substantial, and I'm sure I'm going to use it a lot. It is a Pretty Cheep Project Bag by Fia. I obviously got the one on the right.

That was my only yarn shop experience. I should have found a shawl pin while I was there, but I forgot to look. On the plane to England, I spent most of the six or so hours watching the new 'Star Trek' (fantastic movie!), 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' (omg, soooo terrible), and most of 'The Informant' (surprisingly good! Ben Affleck does a really great job... I didn't get to see the end, though I suspect I know who did it.). I spent it knitting the rest of some Artyarns Supermerino left over from these into a simple stockinette cowl, and I must have knit the damn thing three times all the way through by the time I got to England, but it is still a little too droopy, and I think a nice pin would just be the ticket, because I'll be damned if I ever take it out to re-do it again, and I probably won't use it the way it is. Let me demonstrate:



I don't actually have a pin--that's a dpn, but you see the difference, right? The second way has more structure, and you can actually use the cowl as part of your outfit, like a neck piece. So I should have looked for a nice stick pin, but like I said, I forgot. Any suggestions? I guess this would be FO #34, even though I'm not too happy with it. The one thing I used from a pattern found online was to knit five rounds and then purl one round, which helps stop the stockinette roll. It actually does work!

I also brought my two skeins of Classic Elite Waterspun that I got out in Springfield, and created the Columbia Beret, which I absolutely love. I started the beret before I left, but wasn't very far. That was my nightly knitting when I was in the hotels, after the whole cowl debacle, and it was satisfying that it worked out. I actually finished it at the Hoxton hotel, watching "A Walk to Remember" on TV. Yes, that horrible Mandy Moore/Nicholas Sparks movie where she's 'dying' and turns the bad boy good. Yes, I think I did cry a few tears for her. Yes, PMS is a bitch, and I might have also eaten three candy bars, but WHO'S COUNTING, right?! Anyway:



These pictures were taken at 1am as soon as I bound off on the top. You can still see the ends hanging down, and I (still) haven't blocked it, although I have since woven in the ends and have actually worn it several times.



I love this hat. It's the perfect color, the perfect size, and I love the ties at the top. I love that I can pull it over to one side or toward the back. I'm so glad I made it.



Please forgive the blurry pictures and the fact that I look exhausted. Sometimes you can't wait, you know?

FO# 35: Columbia Beret by Sarah Pope at Blue Garter
Yarn: Classic Elite Waterspun, which of course is discontinued. Sheesh. The beret took about 1.25 skeins of the yarn, and I think I'm going to try to knit some handwarmers out of the remaining yarn--simple 2x2 rib ones with just a thumb hole.
Needles: Size 7 circular (24"?) and dpns.
Notes: I did the pattern exactly as written. It is super-slouchy though, so bear that in mind. I've never done a slouchy hat before though, so it doesn't bother me. I'm not over the slouch yet.

On the plane ride back to NYC, I watched 'The Proposal' (soooo much funnier than I thought it would be. I actually want to watch it again!), 'Minority Report' (I'm not really sure why--I think action movies are easier to watch when you're knitting though...), and something else which I can't quite recall anymore. Oh well.

I used that time to work on the only other thing I'd brought with me--the sorely neglected Clementine Shawlette. I'm through the set up rows on the first side (it is done in two pieces and then grafted together in the center) and about 4 inches into the main body of the stole, and I'm enjoying it! The Blue Sky Alpaca & Silk yarn is sooo nice, and the lace pattern isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I am going to take it on my upcoming trip to Denver, and will hopefully be able to finish the first half at least by this time next week.

So, all in all, a successful trip! Saw some friends, did a little yarn shopping, a little knitting from the stash, and finishing up WIPs. Not too shabby. Oh, I do have one more yarn purchase to discuss, but I think that can wait, eh?