Finished Object: Industry

Pattern: Industry by Libby Jonson
Yarn: Sweatermaker Yarns Simply Sock
Colour: Blue, yellow and white
Needle: 4mm Round Needle
Start of project: October 4th , 2015
End of project: October 25th, 2015

On Ravelry

The yarn for this shawl has been travelling quite a bit before it was all knit up and ready to be worn today. I bought it during our summer holidays on Vancouver Islands, at Uptown Yarn in Courtenay. I am not really good at yarn shopping in an actual store, I am always rather overwhelmed by all the colours, sizes and possibilites, so I tend to either buy nothing or something I am not sure I'll ever actually turn into a project. This yarn fell in the second category. I really liked the colours, because it looks like a mix of sunshine and the sea and it felt very soft but I had no idea what to knit with it.

A while ago I saw Michelle's Industry in her blog and I liked the pattern. I wasn't sure what it would look like in a very variegated yarn but I didn't want to buy even more yarn for a shawl I didn't really need urgently, so I decided to just do it. I only had the one skein and I knew it would always be difficult to find the perfect project for it.

I started my Industry just before we left for London and  Brighton. The pattern isn't difficult apart from the beginning and the end of each row (I always had to check these), so I was able to knit on the plane to Gatwich Airport and back, in our ugly green YHA room, on the train down to the coast, in our beautiful hotel room in Brighton and also on the beach (definitely my favourite place of course). Back at home I put it aside and concentrated on my Hitchcock, till I run out of yarn with that one. Whenever I was tired and needed some sunshine in my life I picked up the shawl and knit a few more lines.

In the end I managed 26.5 repeats of the pattern and had about 3 inches of yarn left after I cast off, so very efficient use of these 500 yards. It is a bit light for the coming winter temperatures but it's very soft and cosy and I totally love the colours. The pattern is only visible when you are close up, but I know it's there and that's enough for me ;-)

Finished object: iPhone sweater

Pattern: Phone Sweater by Pat Olski
Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina Worsted
Colour: Vintage Sari
Needles: 3.75mm Round Needles
Start of project: October 24th , 2015
End of project: October 24th, 2015

On Ravelry

School started again a week ago and it feels like all my time gets sucked up in a time warp. For that reason I haven't been knitting a lot and I didn't have anything to write about (I would have been too tired anyway most evenings). I did actually knit some but both projects are still on the needles.

#1 the Hitchcock I am knitting for my ex-husband, because I ran out of yarn and had to order another skein, which will probably create even more uneven colour changes (I'll write more about it once it's done, but it doesn't feel like that one is going to look really good)

# my Industry shawl, which has been growing but only slowly.

But today I really felt like starting something new. I got a new iPhone two days ago, which makes me now the proud owner of the newest iPhone of the family (before I had the oldest ;-). I chose to go with pink (actually rosé-gold), because I used to have a really cool mobile that was totally pink. This one is called Barbie 2.0 (only pink phones have a name...) Anyway I don't like protective cases and always carry my phone around either in my jeans or loosely in my bag without anything.

So I decided that at least for my bag some protection might be nice. I looked around ravelry and liked the Phone Sweater pattern from vogueknitting.com best. I used some of my left over Vintage Sari (from my Bradway Shawl). The whole cosy took about 3 hours from cast on to cleaning away of the last yarn and I used only 20g of it.

Now my iPhone might be the best dressed in the family ;-)

Two nights in Brighton

After our second night in London we took the train down to the coast. The weather was still foggy and wet but somehow it didn't feel as oppressive away from all the buildings of London. In Brighton we walked to our hotel next to the beach and it was such a lovely room with a view and with our own bath and toilet (funny how fas these things get really important).

We enjoyed watching the sea roll in and out, went on the pier to gamble away our coins (good thing we don't have anything similar at home, Yannick would be very challenged not to spend all his money at some machine) and we drank lots of coffee (so many lovely coffee shops!)

On Thursday we woke up to a clear blue sky and the promise of sunshine. We strolled around Brighton and had a look at the Royal Pavilion. Of course we also went to the beach and to the pier again.

 
Then we took the Coaster bus towards Eastborne. We got off at Seaford and had a picknick at the beach. I really loved the quiet autumn mood there and I am very fond of the little colourful beach huts where people keep their summer stuff.

Next we went for a hike. At first we only wanted to get on top of the cliffs right next to the beach but then it was all so beautiful that we just kept going. Soon we saw the Seven Sisters in the distance. The intense white of the chalk cliffs looked stunning mixed with all the blue and the green. We had no real plan but I kind of wanted to get on top of at least the first sister. It was obvious that wasn't going to happen when we reached Cuckmere Haven, we would have had to swim across the Cuckmere River to get to the other side. Hiking all the way back didn't seem tempting and we could see lots of buses going up and down the hills in the distance so we walked along the river till we got back to the street at the Cuckmere Inn. Our shoes and trousers got quite muddy but it was fun anyway.

We got back to Brighton just in time for the setting sun. The pier looked so beautiful bathed in the sunlight. I also went to have a look at the old pier - the West Pier - which is only a skeleton by now. When it was almost dark we took a tour on board of the Brighton Wheel and even though I was rather scared at the top it was so worth going up there.

On Friday it was already time to go back home again. But first I did some knitting on the beach and we soaked up as much sun as possible. I am so glad that we got those three days next to the sea, I enjoyed having lots of time to talk with Yannick (who does live in his own special world sometimes but who is also very charming and considerate) and I'll try to remember that I don't like big cities next time ;-)

Two nights in London

Before we could go on holiday everything got super stressy. I was already really tired after the first 7 weeks at school. With new students it usually takes time to get everything working and by then everyone is so tired that it doesn't run smoothly anymore. Once the fall holidays are over it's going to get easier, because they know how everything works and they are fitter after two weeks of relaxing.

So on Friday 2nd of October I was so glad to have reached the holidays and I was looking forward to  a few days in London and Brighton. Unfortunately that Friday evening I found out that Yannick's cat was severly hurt and as nobody else could take it to the hospital I ended up going with it and of course we had to wait for a long time. It was quite unclear how they would proceed and with Andreas and Antonia gone and us leaving two days later it was quite a mess, which totally stressed me out, so much so that I could barely concentrate and pack.

We left anyway and arrived in London on Monday around noon. We found our way through London and to the Youth Hostel but there I realised that I might be too old for YHA after all, our room was  so tiny and smelly and in the basement without any natural light that I felt really lost. The fog and drizzle didn't help.

Yannick was a big help, he was excited and he did everything to cheer me up. Nevertheless I decided right away that I didn't want to spend three nights at the YHA and I changed our booking in Brighton, so we could spend more time next to the sea.

I should actually have known that London was too busy for me, it's one of the things I keep forgetting (kind of weird, once we arrived I remembered that I had been slightly overwhelmed every time I'd been there before ;-)

 
We did a bit of sightseeing, went to the Harry Potter Film Studios (which we both really liked) and went shopping (which made Yannick really happy, he hasn't taken of his new jacket at all) So the first two days were ok and the best was yet to come...