A Foggy Day in Londontown

For some unknown reason, it took me a lot longer to bounce back from this trip to London. Maybe it was the fact that I took Mom to the airport at 4:30 AM or that I worked a full day upon my return or that I couldn’t sleep the night I got back. Suffice it to say, blogging was the furthest thing from my mind. Here is the trip in a nutshell.



The flight over was uneventful (other than the woman bitching one row away, but I chalked that up to her unfortunate choice in footwear for a trans-Atlantic flight - seriously, leave the Fryes at home) and I knew that it was a shopping day for me. First up was Liberty. Lola, I am telling you, this is fabric and yarn nirvana. I absolutely go crazy for Liberty’s fabric. I bought half a meter of each to make something – anything – from Amy Butler’s book. On the yarn front, I bought a new Rowan kids’ book and enough yarn to make Beaner a sweater for her birthday. Hopefully the Other Sister will put it on her. That night we dined at Wagamama’s and I think I may have eaten the single finest meal of my life (can I tempt you and the Knife to take a trip with us this summer? Please?)


If you click on the picture, I described the different purchases on Flickr.

The next morning was our most ambitious as we were venturing out of the central London area into the different neighborhoods. The Flyer and I had two, yes two, yarn stores mapped out. Thank goodness I have Dad’s natural sense of directions because it was a little challenging. The first stop was in East Putney to a store called Stash Yarns. It is a relatively new shop owned by a lovely woman and her selection of yarn was wonderful (that's the shop in the photo below). I bought a KPPM skein, a grey skein of Trekking XXL for a pair of socks for the Flyer, and a lovely hand dyed silk blend. The splurge was a set of Blue Sky Alpaca DPNs and come Chibii needles. All in all, it was an awesome shop. The second shop, Loop in Islington, wasn’t as promising. I was really expecting more because it is talked about as the grand-daddy (or mommy) of yarn shops in London. I just wasn’t that impressed. The yarn was disorganized at best, the shop was very small, and nobody ever said hello. I almost had to force myself to buy something so it just didn’t happen.



Other than that, the rest of the days were spent traipsing around London with the Flyer, doing the stupid shit we love (listening to the accents, taking short cuts, buying silly stuff). Little Britain Live was hilarious; honestly, where can you see a grown man actually do the penis tuck live on stage or Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in red vinyl hot pants?

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of knitting done. I cast on a pair of socks out of my Trekking and knit a bit in the hotel room, but I wasn’t allowed to take the socks on board for the return flight. On the whole trip, I think I said “fuck” twice; on the last day (spent in the airport), I must have said it twenty times or more. “You can’t take the needles on the plane.” Fuck! “You have to stand in the queue for 45 minutes because we reissued new security measures.” Fuck! “We don’t sell that sandwich the Flyer loves so much in the airport.” Fuck!

Anyway, glad to be back and glad you made the helmet liner (I stopped at Kraemers on the way home from class to buy some Summit Hill yesterday for mine . . . plus some of their Vintage line, but that's another blog-story). I know how busy I will be with work before conferences so I couldn’t commit to making one for A Knitted Frenzy, but I will probably make one for the website listed for the pattern. Oh, can you convey to the Brother that political statements to the Other Sister’s email are not a good idea? Honestly . . . does the boy ever learn?

Ava

PS – I bought your Lush stuff (and I will be near several in Montreal in a few weeks). That being said, I forgot to give it Mom (but I did give her the Olive I bought for you).