Monday in London

I walked my feet off today! I decided to walk rather than take the tube because there wasn't any rain predicted for today. By the end of the day I found out that I couldn't take the tube anyway because I had left my Oyster card in my other jacket pocket. The weather was great for the most part. A couple of times snow fell, but not enough to make any difference. By the end of the day it rained and I finally pulled out the umbrella. I was glad I had it!

My journey took me down Old Brompton Road, past Harrod's and into a quiet little street where I found Patricia Roberts Knitting. Don't throw tomatoes, but I had never heard of her until I looked up LYS in London. Turns out she's been a knitwear designer since 1962. The shop was filled with wonderful sweaters, scarves and mittens already hand knit. At first I was disappointed because I thought I had stumbled into the wrong kind of shop. I asked the woman at the counter if they sold yarn, and they did have some in the back. Whew! I found a bargain. 20 gorgeous skeins of beautiful lambswool for ₤30. It's in my favorite color, fushia. I see a sweater in my future. Mmmm.... perhaps this gorgeous one that I've been wanting to knit for soooo long?

Then it was across the street for lunch at the Wilton Arms. Shepherd's pie and tea for lunch. It was quite good.

Afterwards I took a walk through Hyde Park. It is HUMONGOUS! I had planned to run there this morning, but I didn't get out early enough. It looks like a great place for a run. If it's dry later in the week I might give it a try.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to find Loop. Maybe I'll hit some museums too.

Hello from London!

(waving the Queen's wave)

We arrived in London yesterday, 2/14/10 or 14/2/10 as they say over here. It was a lovely Valentine's Day spent wandering the streets near the hotel, lunch at the Troubadour, window shopping, then dinner at Imli, an Indian restaurant off Oxford Street. We opted for the Valentine's Day special. I thought it was good, although Rex thought it was a little bland, and Kiki thought it was cold. Oh, well. For dessert, we had waffles at the Belgian Waffle stand. Yum! Then off for a pint at a pub down the street. I can't remember the name at the moment.

The Troubadour Club is the original, unlike it's counterpart in Hollywood. Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix played there among others. It looks like local bands play and they have poetry reading on Monday. I'd like to check it out if we get a chance. The food was great too.

Today I am off to find some yarn shops. Since it's not raining yet, I may visit some of the parks. I'd better get going before I waste the day away!

Ravelry Party at Unwind!

On Thursday I went to the Ravelry meetup at Unwind Yarn. I wish I had some pics, but I didn't even think to bring a camera. D'uoh! It was really fun. I got to meet Casey and Jess, and talked to Casey for a while about programming. He's very cute and kind of shy. Go figure, a shy programmer?!

The place was packed when I got there around 7pm. I didn't know anyone there except Stephanie. I was hoping I'd run into a friend, but I guess I should have brought one. My brain just doesn't work that way.

After a while I decided that I just wanted to sit and knit so I took out my RSS (Really Simple Socks). Here's a pic of the leg. It's a little hard to see the detail. Right now I'm at the point of starting the heel. These socks are my own design with a little help from a pair of store bought socks that I've had for years. I've been looking at them since I picked up knitting again and I've been wanting to try the pattern. Well, they are finally wearing through the heel, so I thought I'd give it a go. These are one repeat shy of the store bought ones. The yarn they use is much thinner.

Designing is a goal I have for myself this year. This is the first project, other than the Sky Wrap Scarf that I designed quite by accident. By the way, I have uncovered the directions for the original Wrap/Scarf that I thought just couldn't be what I saw at the store. Attached were directions from the web that I used as a start, but even they are not what I ended up with. I will write up what I did. I remember most of it, but I'll have to make a sample just to be sure.

Back at the Ravelry party, as soon as I whipped out my socks, I got lots of comments and compliments. I talked to Laura, tinkknitter on Ravelry who I hadn't seen for a long time. She works at Unwind sometimes. I met Lucky Penny who I can't find on Ravelry right now, and a couple of gals from a church across town. One of the women was really outgoing and saw that I was knitting two socks on two circulars. She was intrigued by this and asked if she could watch because she had always wanted to try it. Her friend is a crocheter that she's trying to convert into a knitter. As we talked we discovered that we know some people in common. The choir director at our church used to give lessons to their kids and a woman that started the walking group at our church are friends of theirs. Small world, huh?

After the crowds thinned out I was able to move around and bought this beautiful shawl pin and these yarns. I'm trying out the wrap again in this Tough Love sock yarn from sweetgeorgia. The color is just gorgeous! I'm not sure it wants to be the wrap though. I think it may be calling out to be Pomatomus. The colors remind me of a beautiful Hawaiian ocean, crystal clear water and the scales of a fish. We'll see...

I'm not sure why I bought the Manos de Uruguay except that I kept picking up the skein. It's so soft, and the colors... Alright, you got me. I bought it because it was love at first sight. I don't know what I will make with 175 yards yet. They only had the one skein because it is a prototype. I think it might be a spring scarf of some sort.

The shawl pin was complete impulse. Ummm, weren't the yarns too? Anyway, I needed a shawl pin. I have a wooden one, but I never wear it because it needs finishing.

So silly of me. I was telling the ladies that I was trying to use up my stash yarn before buying any more. That was before I saw these wonderful yarns. Also, the entry fee to the party was to be used toward any purchase made that night. I couldn't let that go, could I? ;)

New Year, New Habits

Happy New Decade! So many things to think about. This is the year I turn 50, so of course it's a milestone year and makes you consider creating some new habits.

I have already created the habit of running, although for the last month I've really fallen off the wagon. I've had a cough, a cold, and earlier in the month the winds were kicking up the ashes of the Station fire and creating such an environment that I wasn't thrilled to be outside. But for Christmas I got a Wii Fit and now I can work out in the house. I did work out to DVDs before, but sometimes you just have to change things up. The Wii Fit has so many fun exercise games that it will be a long time before I get bored! I've heard that the hula hoop burns lots of calories! ;)

A habit I need to get back is gardening. I haven't taken it seriously for many years. This house doesn't inspire me to garden because there isn't much room. The back yard is mostly concrete with a small patch of grass. There are borders around the edges which are wild and overgrown now. That's where I will start. I think I will work on flowers and bulbs for spring.

I need to create a habit for practicing the guitar every day. I've bought a few programs and taken lessons, but I rarely think to pick it up like I do the knitting needles. I got a beautiful new guitar for Christmas from DH. It is much easier to play than his Takamine, and it has a beautiful tone. Playing guitar is something I have done on and off since I was 13 or so. Mostly off. I often think that if I had kept it up over the years I would be pretty good by now.

Scrapbooking is another thing that I need to create a habit for. I haven't done it for quite a while, but I keep collecting digital downloads from Gotta Pixel. I do love the digital scrapbooking. I take a long time to do it though. If I do a little bit a week, maybe I can learn what I like and create pages faster.

I definitely have the knitting habit down. ;) After Christmas I finished my Clandestine socks. I finally took a picture of the shopping bag before I gave it away as a gift. I finished Josie's Little Miss Greenjeans Sweater and gave it to her for Christmas.

I also need to create a habit for cleaning up after myself. After eating/cooking, working, knitting, dressing, etc. Yep, I'm a messy person. It's actually much better since the kids moved out. Now it's only my mess! I notice that in the weeks DH is gone, I tend to be a slob. So this year I resolve to clean up after myself.

While I'm at it I could get in the habit of organizing my time better. Calendars and timers might be good. I tend to rebel even against my own rules. What?!? I know... Pathetic.
So this year I resolve not to rebel and teach that rebellious kid in me to stay on track.

I've got lots of stuff there, not to mention choir/vocal practice and school homework - oh yeah - and blogging. ;)

Daily stuff to do would be Bible Study, exercise, guitar knitting, voice, homework, clean up after myself.

Weekly stuff could include cleaning house, gardening, blogging and scrapbooking. Not bad.

Now that I've got myself somewhat organized for the year and spent way more time blogging than I meant to, I'm off to practice guitar! See ya!

Programming Makes Me Fat

I'm convinced that programming is bad for the waistline. Besides sitting on your butt most of the day, it makes me want to eat.

I am in the second semester of Java programming, so I don't know a whole lot yet. It's really frustrating. It takes me a week or two to get through some of this homework. Especially when all the examples are for int arrays and we are working on String arrays. Besides the fact that I'm trying to make a object and the examples are shown in procedural programming. Have your eyes glazed over yet? Mine did. That's probably why it takes me so long to figure it out. If I don't have coffee before class I want to go to sleep. I've caught the guys next to me napping behind their screens too.

So, if this is so incredibly boring, why do I want to do it? Maybe I'm just weird. I like to figure things out. I like puzzles. I like a challenge. Maybe that's why I picked up knitting, why I'm currently into lace. I guess next it will be entrelac, but I'm not really crazy about the look of the finished product so it will have to be something really pretty.

Ehh, skip entrelac. I just got EZ's Opinionated Knitter and there are some gorgeous Fair Isle sweaters I'd like to try. I haven't attempted Fair Isle yet. I've dabbled in Intarsia. I really need to get into some color work.

Currently on the needles: 1 CounterPoint Scarf (Almost done, but it's taking forever because I only work on it once every two weeks during the video at Bible Study.)

2 Clandestine Socks. I have about 4 inches left to complete. I've made the leg and turned the heel. I'm currently working on the feet, two at a time on 3 needles. Three because for some reason I have one long needle and two short ones. It was easier to turn the heel with the short ones and keep the long one for the top of the foot. Hmm. These are taking a while too. Probably because of the Java homework. Sigh.