Home again, home again...

Well, almost. Packing up and getting ready to leave Boston. But Stariel has put together some photos from my time out with the Magnificent Seven Knittyboard folk yesterday. Go look. There's even Jaffa Cakes.

Boston adventures

Another quick post, because I'm heading out to Haaavad Square to meet some friends for dinner. But Boston is great fun (and the conference is just about bearable). I got to meet up with Ariel and Jenn on Tuesday night for coffee and knitting and yummy Indian food. And here's proof (picture shamelessly stolen from Ariel's blog:

I was also delighted to find a LUSH store 2 blocks away from the hotel. Lush was one of my affordable treats back in the UK, and there's nothing like walking into one of their stores and having your nose overwhelmed with all kinds of good smells. So I stocked up on Flying Fox shower gel, and Retread conditioner and massage bars and hand cream and various other goodies.

Plus I got to explore the Boston Public Library - I even became a guest member mostly so that I could look at their reference only copy of Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting - yes, the one that goes on ebay for over $200. It's certainly a wonderful book - great history and research on Aran sweaters, and some yummy yummy patterns too. But I'm not shelling out that amount of money for it! Hopefully someone will bring it back into print soon....

OK, that's the news update. Oh - and I'm getting together with a bunch of Knittyboard folk on Saturday afternoon, which should make for some fun adventures. If anyone reading this is around the Boston area, check this thread for more info. And now off for food. And if you want to have an overload of adorable cuteness, you really need to see the newest photos of my nephew. Can't wait to see him again.

Drive by posting...

On the way to bed, before I leave for 5 days in Boston. Back Sunday. Work conference, but hopefully I'll have some time to eat good seafood and maybe even find a SnB group or yarn shop.

The poncho got finished and delivered to its recipient, who was overjoyed, and refused to take it off. Here are the pics:

The pink was a last minute, er, addition, because I used up all my purple yarn for tassles before I realised that I still needed to make the i-cord for the drawstring, and sew the casing for the string down. Oops. But I figured that by putting it in the fringe, it became a feature. Overall, it's a simple pattern and a quick knit - the main frustration is that the rounds keep getting longer and longer as you go on... but it was all worth it to see the joy on Evelyn's face. Oh, and doesn't it tone well with my blog colours?

A good day for free stuff!

Well Monday was highly profitable in terms of knitting loot! Look at all this!

	I stop off at City Knits on my way home from work to stroke the new sock yarn they were expecting (and which hadn't arrived), and ended up talking and making plans for a fair isle felted bag that I'll design... and as I was at the counter, I picked up and flicked through a new book that was displayed near the register...
And found this! A whole chunk of pages that were printed upside down. (It's clearer if you click on the thumbnail to see the whole image). I showed Lynn, who went to call the publisher. And I jokingly said that if they let you keep it, I want it! ... and a few minutes later she handed it to me. The publishers are sending her a replacement copy, and now of course, she has to go through the rest of the stock to see if this was a one-off. It's actually quite a neat little reference book, so I'm glad to get it and save $15.
Then I get to our Monday night SnB at Sweetwaters in Royal Oak, to find a new face ... Kristina, the woman who'd started the group way before I ever came along. It was wonderful to meet her, and see the amazing work she was doing on the Sunrise Circle Jacket from Interweave Knits. And, to say thankyou to Julie and myself for keeping the group going last year, when for a long time it was basically just Julie, myself and Coley, she'd brought gifts from her yarn stash. Look at these - aren't they pretty?
On the left are two balls of laceweight yarn. The grey one is the softest thing I've felt for a while, and the greeny-yellow one has this amazing slight boucle to it, and should be fun to knit up and see how it looks. On the right are three skeins of Cestari natural yarn, a 2 ply worsted weight, with approximately 210yds per skein. The amazing thing about this wool is that a) it was "manufactured exclusively by the sheep and shepherds of Chester Farms, Churchville VA", and b) it's still got all the lanolin oils in it. So it'll make your hands wonderfully soft when knitting with it. OK Julie, it's up to you now.. let me know which one you'd like, and we can meet up to handover the yarn.
And the final, closing gift for the day.. was of course, this:
The Gold Medal for finishing in the Knitting Olympics. Nothing more really needs to be added.