Magical

Have been away for a few days - in Venice, in fact, with my parents, brother and SIL. These pics probably say it all:

It was lovely. We stayed at a posh hotel with its own landing-stage, took a water-taxi there and back, and apart from a frantic dash through Schiphol airport on the way back and the quickest plane-to-plane transfer ever (during which, amazingly, our luggage made it onto the plane with us!) it was a really relaxed few days and the weather for the first two and a bit days was wonderfully warm and sunny. I did a bit of knitting; started a pair of Jaywalkers and knitted on a shawl I can't show you.

I also have not one but two FO to show -

The Pomatomus socks were finished on the train north (we flew out of Newcastle airport as that's where my family still live) and here they are, just before grafting, slouching about on the table in the train (for some absurd GNER-related reason, travelling north first-class was cheaper than a Saver return). They were lovely to make, but as you can see, there was a scarily small amount of the Celestial Merino left at the end...

and these are Stewart's birthday socks, in Opal handpaint from eBay.

And finally, and very belatedly, one of the wonderful birthday presents I received from Jan the week before last (sorry, Jan): a skein of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace (silk and wool) in the Get Knitted colourway: isn't it gorgeous??