Between Christmas and New Year I went down to London to meet Jan at the BL - not for literary purposes, but because their café is a great place to hang around for ages and exchange gifts; decent-sized tables, some of them hidden round the corner, reasonable food and hot drinks; and weirdly they don't look twice at people dragging wheely suitcases in and out of a library. Which always seems slightly odd to me; but very convenient!
Jan's blogged her gifts from me, but here's a pic of her in her new scarf:
And here's Tilda modelling the wonderful shawl Jan gave me - there's a Bad picture of me in it on her blog - I'll let you go there yourselves...
Strangely, we were both knitting Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawls at the same time. I mean, what were the odds... This one is in Hand Maiden Sea Silk, probably from Stash, and it's absolutely gorgeous. People have raved to me about the Sea Silk but I've only seen it in the skein and it didn't sing to me - now I can see why... Incidentally, this is the same colourway (Vintage) I used for Mam's Icarus shawl - so I dug out the spare yarn from that to illustrate how different the colours are on different yarns:
I love that about dyeing... Get Knitted had the yarns arranged by colour on their stand at the NEC in September and it was fascinating seeing how differently the yarns took the colours. Here are some more knitty gifts from Jan...
The books are fabulous - most of the actual patterns are for table linens, but the charts are wonderful and a pattern from the first book was used for the Yarn Harlot's wedding shawl (entry for October 24). The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug (in Fruit Coulis), the snowman is a row-counter, and the blue object on the right is a compact case for circulars. On top of that are some stitch-markers from MLQ: here's a close-up of those...
Pretty, eh?
And last, a photo of one of the remaining pieces of Christmas knitting, finally delivered to its recipient last night: International Socks of Doom in Socka Limbo. There was also a pair of broken rib socks in Regia Tibet, but I seem not to have photographed those!
... and of Kate's Clapotis, (delicately accessorised with an old tea-towel, I note) in Rowan Tapestry in the Rainbow shade handed over on Boxing Day but somehow never blogged... Only took 4 balls which I thought was pretty good...
oooh, I wondered who was getting the markers (but was of course too polite to ask ...!)
ReplyDeleteWill you be wearing Jan's shawl to the KTog on the 20th so we can see it in person? I ask because I plan to be there - yay! I desperately need your help starting the heel of my sock! :-)
ReplyDeleteMLQ - love the markers! EJ - if not wearing it (cause you know, my wardrobe is just so co-ordinated), I will be bringing it and the alpaca version for compare-and-contrast... But shall have my beady eyes on both... Sock heels, ook! bring them on...
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