Very knitty day today, after a somewhat shaky start. This was Not The Day to attempt to go to London from Waterbeach. The train terminated unexpectedly at Cambridge and decanted us onto the platform with 1.5 minutes to get from platform 4 to platform 3 for the 9:15 (which was only going as far as Finsbury Park due to
this). On your average station, this would be next door. On Cambridge station, where platform 1 runs into platform 4, and platform 3 is down past two branches of AMT coffee, one branch of Smiths, the entrance hall, the loos, sundry offices and several dozen people waiting for the Stansted Express with, seemingly, 200 suitcases each, you have to be moving at a fair clip to make it. I did - just. The halt, the slightly older, and those accompanied by small children, luggage etc. were trampled underfoot... The 9:15 pulled into Finsbury Park at 11:05, ten minutes before I was due in East Putney. Somehow I didn't think I was going to make it on time...
Thankfully
Jan had her knitting and iPod on hand so was gainfully employed when I staggered cursing into the daylight...
We then went to
Stash. Which is a wonderful place. Their
blog has more pictures, and links to still others... They were fantastically hospitable and let us lounge around knitting, staring, cooing and fondling stuff in the shop for an hour and a half, and even gave us yarn to play with... Here's the damage:
One Lamb's Pride Worsted - I've heard so much about this yarn and its felting properties - and one Colinette Graffiti. Despite appearances these two are both meant to knit at the same gauge and I'm hoping they'll become a pair of knitted slippers. One Koigu; just because. A Susan Bates knitting gauge/measure/swatching tool, because it's pretty and cheap and lovely. A pack of Bryspun stitch markers because I haven't seen the simple ones that small before...
I was relatively restrained because a) Nathalie assured us they weren't going anywhere b) I'm still gobsmacked by a an incredibly generous delivery of gift yarn I received last week, which I'll blog next and c) I was unable to forget the huge vet's bill I paid last Wednesday at the critical moment! But if I won the lottery I'd open a yarn shop, and the stock would overlap more-or-less-precisely with what Stash stock at the moment...
As I can't upload more than one photo to a post tonight, I'll stop there; rest of the day to follow...
... the original blocks from this book. E-J has blogged this much more successfully than I will (although she sells her own blocks short!) I've been getting ready for a family visit this weekend, but am hoping to lay them out somewhere this weekend and get a look at all of them (and, of course, take pictures!). We had them out on the pub table for much of the evening (although in the photo below most had been put away and Frances (on the back at the right) is looking at the last ones. Also pictured are Kate, Bekki and Rosie - E-J and Jackie were talking to the barman about scarves at the time...
Bekki's finishing of her top-down sweater was incredibly cool - have to investigate that! She just worked down the sleeve, cast off the cuff, sewed in an end et voilà... However, I found out last night that the knitting course I'm teaching at Cottenham in August is going ahead - so I'll be spending the next month knitting and hunting down samples and making class notes. It's a three-day class, so quite a major undertaking...
and started making the 
