Scarf-o-matic

Seeing red: a double decker bus and a sock

It rained buckets on Saturday, but did not dampen our friends' civil partnership ceremony at all. As we waited outside the town hall, two other C.P. couples posed on the steps: two young men in smart suits with their arms around eachother, and a few minutes later two young women in the most wonderful cocktail dresses emerged laughing and shivering as confetti and raindrops fell on them. The ceremony we attended was very moving (and civil, of course!), and then we all piled onto a red double decker bus. It was a gorgeously old one!

Did you ever travel on one like this? And who remembers going down these steep bus stairs?

After pressing this button?

The party was fun, and given all the red wine I consumed... I can't believe I didn't wake up with a sore head. And, yesterday, I finally completed one sock... only one more to go.

almost a sock and for no reason at all... a horse

I am wielding needles, but in a slow sort of a way...and I have almost finished a sock! But I am going to rip it back and restart the toe as it feels a bit tight.

The baby hat, as it turns out, is a little larger than baby's head (whoot!). Said baby is on the teensy side, so she will grow into it. My sister - wedding end of August - had better start delivering a baby or two from next year, 'cause this auntie's needles are primed and ready to go.  Talking of weddings, we are off to a Civil Partership ceremony today and the partners-that-are-to-be-hereafter-civil have hired a double decker bus to ferry guests from town hall to home... do you think we will all be fighting our way to sit at the front of the top deck? Or shall all the guests be civil too?

And just because, here is a photo taken last week-end in Devon, of a horse.

Miss Dashwood off the needles

I can be quite ignorant when it comes to English Literature classics (my excuse being that I was educated abroad), so imagine my surprise when I sat down to knit Miss Dashwood and watch Sense and Sensibility: Dashwoods on the telly and a Dashwood on the needles. Lovely film, and - I must say - a lovely pattern too. I am a convert to picot edging, but not - dare I say it - a convert to knitting with cotton angora: it feels beautiful, the colour is very nice but I found it split easily when doing k2tog. No earflaps and - I note with horror as it may be too small - I made the 3 to 6 months size (I thought I was knitting the 6 to 12 months size!), but I had enough with one ball of yarn.

And, I received this treat in the post courtesy of Maglia. A wonderfully colourful skein of her hand dyed yarn, which would make a very patriotic pair of socks in time for the World Cup (if I were a football fan!). Thanks!

Green hat and a frog

My work colleague dropped a heavy hint the other day, letting me know that her baby had grown so much that the little hat I knit her earlier this year was almost too small. I found myself asking, 'how about a cotton one for the Summer? Would she like that?' (as if a baby that is not even 6 months old is going to express a preference!). A wonderful excuse to pop into Loop and purchase some yarn to make 'Miss Dashwood'. As this month's Project Specgtrum is green, I chose this particularly fresh shade in cotton angora:

My first attempt at picot edging! I will be omitting the addition of earflaps, as the baby might overheat this Spring.

And, in honour of Project Spectrum, here is a photograph of one of the frogs in the pond. Not quite as green as one might expect, so I don't think he will be croaking to the tune of 'It's not easy being green':

hunting ancestors not deers

I am knitting at snail's pace right now, but here is a glimpse of what is on one of my needles:

We found the antlers in a field in Caithness over a week ago. We had driven up a track for 4 miles in the middle of nowhere searching for a cemetery called Ballachly:

It would make a marvelous film set, don't you think? My g.g.g.g.g.g.father (I may or may not have enough great's in there... but you get the picture, a long dead ancestor) was buried there in 1848. We were lucky and found the gravestone easily because someone else had recently been there and cleared it of moss (I wonder who?).

There are many deer in this part of the world, and one must have shed its antlers early this Spring. Can you spot them in this photo?:

This area of Caithness is quietly and sedately beautiful, if a little haunting. There are many abandoned houses in the Highlands, as the landlords drove the people away without mercy to make way for the sheep. The landlords called it the 'improvements', as they were making more money, but the people called it the 'clearances' as they lost their homes and the rights to the land, many leaving for new lives in US, Canada and Australia (but can you blame this wee lamb for the past?).

Thanks for the best wishes re: biopsy. Stitches out tomorrow, but there is a waiting list for results so will not know until end of June. But I have a treat in store in the meantime, look I won a skein of sock yarn from Maglia! Thanks, Lu.

Elephants in London

Today we saw the most amazing vision: a mechanical elephant in central London. As part of the London International Festival of Theatre, and created by Royal de Luxe, we witnessed this beauty roaming the park:

There was also a beautiful little 'large' girl marionette that roams about as well, a time traveller being pursued by the Sultan:

She was very beautiful:

The elephant spurted water among the crowds, and there was music. It moved on from the park into the city and marched up Picadilly:

An amazing sight. 

I had to switch off from blogging earlier this week, as I had a biopsy... and it was a wee bit more painful than I anticipated! (8 stitches across 5 centimeters... ouch).