40 not out

This entry's been a long time coming, but last Tuesday I was 40. Since then, it seems to have been a very pleasant but somewhat unending whirl of activity, hence lack of blogging... I'm not about to get all Yarnstorm on you - she does it so much better - but here are some slightly imperfect fairy cakes, the ones which wouldn't fit in the tin to take to EJ's husband Paul's birthday barbecue this afternoon, complete with M&S additive-free dolly mixtures.

On Tuesday, I met Jan in East Putney; after a cuppa (and presents!), instead of heading for Stash, as usual, we went to the De Morgan Centre, which is a lovely place and essential if you like artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The pots, in particular, were a revelation because they're displayed back-to-back in glass cases so you can also see that the backs are highly decorated too, usually in the same colours but in completely different patterns. No photos allowed, but they had a very nice guidebook to the collection... Then we went for lunch which lasted a strangely short but actually long time (we suddenly looked at our watches and realised it was 4:40pm...) and I got back on a train to catch the last hour of the evening KTog.

Among rather a lot of beautiful things, Jan gave me some yarny items...

Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in a colour called Stormy Skies. (Additional white fur by Amelia, who objects to photos being taken of anything when it's dinner-time and insists on monitoring and expediting the process).

And a skein of Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Chapman Springs. (I tried to find out about Chapman Springs as a place, because that sort of thing's always interesting - but it seems there's a road in Atlanta, and a Chapman's Springs near Salem, Mass. which is now called Eggleston... The funniest thing was that the first 6 pages of Google results are people raving about sock yarn...). This has already been wound into a ball for the River Rapids socks - my current travelling project is a scarf which is now nearly my height, so it's stopped fitting into a bag...

There are a couple of other knitty things from Jan I'd like to show, but the photos came out really badly with flash - I'll try again on Tuesday.

On Thursday I picked up a parcel from Gill - who is, as anyone who's visited her shop knows, a serious yarn fanatic with access to The Good Stuff. I spent a day in anticipation (I had time to collect, but not actually open, the parcel before work and birthday drinks, so it was 11pm by the time I tore into it!) and this was not disappointed...

Two skeins of Abby's Yarns handspun in a colour called Blue Blazes. The beads are some I already have, and go perfectly. I'm thinking a very beautiful pair of handwarmers for next winter, possibly with some lace...

And a skein of Jitterbug (and Bug's feet again; she really was Very Cross about dinner). I've raved about this yarn before, and now I get to play with a new colourway - Florentina.

Obviously, I don't have a purple thing going on. Nooo... not at all...