Wednesday and a(nother) trip to Islington

The Thursday before we left for Houston, I trekked up to Loop in Islington for some present shopping (the Wollmeise in Monday's post). I also picked up a couple of balls of grey merino for a re-try of the Gherkin mittens that I was designing about this time last year, that stalled out. The stalling was due to 1) I wasn't happy with the way the stitch pattern was working out and the charting was making me INSANE, and 2) fingering weight yarn on US 2 needles = slow progress. So the lovely StR that was going to be these mittens is now repurposed to something else, and I'm doing them in a much heavier yarn*. Not surprisingly, they are going much faster this time around!

First finished mitten on top of the book I just finished (it's brilliant and made me cry)

In any event, after my shopping spree (which also included a couple skeins of Cascade 220 for the 4th London-inspired pattern...), I decided to walk back towards Waterloo and set off down the road in a somewhat southerly direction. It was raining a little bit, so I went along under my somewhat tattered cheap umbrella, watching the buses and taxis go by, through a part of London I'd never been through before, just generally enjoying being able to wander about on my own. I finally found the river, after passing Fleet St. and St. Paul's, had lunch and took the train home. It was lovely.

And in striking contrast to the following week in Houston, where walking a few miles on a whim just isn't an option. It's something I'd managed to forget about (largely), since my childhood in Boston certainly involved much walking/public transportation/getting myself places using things other then a motor ve-hicle. I was the last of my high school friends to get my driver's license, partly because they could drive me around, but also because it wasn't really necessary. I realize that the presence of accessible public transportation is something of an anomaly in US cities, and that seems truly unfortunate.

Today I "had" to go back to Loop, because two balls of the merino was not enough. Thankfully they still had some of the same dyelot left, so the mitten prototype should be done tonight. I also perused the Angel antique market (gorgeous buttons!) and then I took the bus to work - along another new route that I hadn't traveled before, enjoying yet another part of this amazing place where I am lucky enough to live.

* And I have new charting software that makes it all so much easier...

Travel knitting again

While I was packing on Friday, I kept thinking of the knitting things I wanted to work on, and try out, and oh maybe I should bring that just in case. By the end of this internal dialogue and random collecting of yarn and needles and patterns, I had a pile of stuff larger then the pile of clothes I was bringing. Ehem. This is what happens when I pack for a trip and Himself isn't around to quell my hoarding impulses.

So I took a biiiiiiiig step back and realized that I really am looking at three major knitting times - two plane rides and knit night on Thursday with the ladeez (which, to be fair, is likely to involve lots of wine and food, and not so much on the knitting). So I whittled the pile down to:

1) the handspun Sprout Tappan Zee for the elder child-demon*
2) a hank of Cascade 220 Heathers and a bunch of charts from BW's books to try out some swatches for a new design

That was it, until I 3) tossed in a couple of balls of grey DK weight superwash merino to try for the Gherkin mittens that should have been released in pattern form almost a year ago...still, three projects isn't so bad, is it?

* so designated because, after arriving at our home for the week at 8:30 pm local time/2:30 am our time, she decided that 2:30 am local time was time to be awake. I managed to keep them corralled with a combination of threats, sheer force and DVDs on my laptop until almost 6:30, but I'm still considering child-icide.

Southwark Collection, design #2

The Brits have a certain dry sense of humor when it comes to phallic symbols, which has resulted in the above building being nicknamed The Gherkin. It even has it's own Wikipedia entry. The Gherkin is visible from many parts of London, but when I walk up Borough High Street coming back from the coffee shop, I can see the tip peaking up into the sky. Pun intended.

I love the swirling lines going up around the building, and have been trying to wrap my head around how to recreate them in some mittens. First up was the yarn:

I bought this skein of StR lightweight waaaaay back in my first Blue Moon Fiber Arts experience (actually, my only BMFA purchase so far, since I ain't paying to ship to the UK, thankyouverymuch). It's been marinating in the stash, waiting for the perfect project to come along. And for whatever reason, my inner magpie decided that it needed to become some twisted stitch mittens.

I was having a bit of a brain cramp as to how to work the decreases so as to maintain the lines of the twisted stitches, but get a bit of the change in the diamond shape as it goes up. I think I came up with something as I was on the verge of going to sleep a few nights ago, but it remains to be seen whether or not my dreamy solution is a real life, practical solution. Stay tuned.