Passport: Check.
Euros: Check.
GBP: Check.
Tickets: Check.
Almost ready to go! I have some work to do this week to prepare for the annual audit, and other tidying up at the office. Then off we go!
The house could use a tidy as well - we have a lovely niece who's agreed to house - or rather cat-sit, and I want her to be comfortable. However, there are outside family commitments that are taking some time.
Knitting: I'm into a new shawl - Swallowtail, with Elann baby lace merino. I have finished the budding lace (19 repeats) and now I'm about to embark on the lily-of-the-valley lace, which in TOUGH. I've already frogged a bit. However, I got out stitch markers and I'm trying again. Hope to have it finished before we leave.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
It's hard to think of anything else.
I've been doing some natural dyeing, following recipes and hints offered on the 'Plants to Dye For' group on Ravelry. I dyed a mohair - and - nylon shawl that I had knitted some time ago - it was originally a pale baby-ish yellow, so I tried it in some butternut liquour I'd had soaking since the fall. I wet it, but didn't mordant - put it in a pot with the cool dye, brought it up to just under boiling, and then let it cool in the broth. It's a beige now, a touch on the greenish side. Better than yellow, anyway. They I tried a couple of skeins of my Belfast Mini Mills sock yarn (80% alpaca, 20% nylon) in black bean liquor. This was mordanted with alum and cream of tartar overnight, and then just put in the water from soaking 2 kg of black beans. Some people are getting a nice blue, but I just have this silvery grey. The cowl underneath is the undyed alpaca.
This is my nice Multnomah - I have gotten several compliments about how nice it looks when I wear it - usually with brown, though I have tried it with blue (jeans) and that's fine too. I keep planning to take a photo of it on me, but I haven't managed that yet.
Planning the trip is taking a bit of time - usually weekends! I bought a Ryanair-approved suitcase and am starting to make lists about what to take. On the flight to Glasgow we can take 5 kg as carry-on and check 20 kg, but of course Ryanair is 10 kg and no checking, so I have 15 kg for stuff for Emily - which so far has amounted to 2 tubes of deodorant for Jeremy. And slippers. Felted slippers.
Still no sign of the passports - they should come this week, I hope. Getting excited!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Travel Planning
We've purchased tickets for Glasgow and Ireland in April. Still have many details to work out, but fixed points on the itinerary are spending a week or so with Emily and Jeremy, first in Glasgow and then travelling to Ireland for Easter Week. (They are actually in Ireland now, having travelled over by train and ferry and are staying with Jeremy's school friend in Dublin.)
So, we may not spend much time in Dublin when we are with them, but somewhere south of Dublin - Waterford, Kilkenny, or Cork for my preference. Looking for a cottage (self-catering, they call it) in those areas. I'm looking for free broadband. Fred wants free heat and electricity. Priorities!
Then, on the 16th and 17th there's a dance workshop weekend with Pat Murphy in Ballinasloe - by all reports a bit of a hole - so we want to get a cottage for a week somewhere not TOO far away but more interesting, music- and dance-wise. Friends are joining us there for the week, and attending the dance workshop too.
On the knitting front, I've joined the "10 shawls in 2010" group on Ravelry - and am already bogged down, as I am knitting "Bitterroot" from the Winter 09 edition of Knitty - the large size - in Knit Picks Gloss Lace. It's lovely, and the pattern is easy (which, for me, means that I end up at the middle or the end of the row with the correct number of stitches, so I haven't messed up anywhere on the row.) It's a bit dull, though, as the pattern alternates between segments of "ssk k1 k2tog" and "yo k1 yo" all over (although the lace edge is more interesting). I'm going to start adding beads soon, so that should perk up the interest level quite a bit.
Ironically, just before I joined this group I started a "Traveling Woman" shawl, but as it was begun before January 1st, it couldn't count as one of the 10. So, 11 shawls finished in 2010. Two of the shawls have to be big ones (500 m. or more) and the rest should be 250 m. or more. This lets out any one-skein Kidsilk ones for sure, and many of the mini or shawlette patterns I've collected. I have also decided to knit all 10 from stash, and I have a chart with 17 patterns and 17+ yarns - haven't made any definite matches yet (besides Bitterroot).
I am also considering junking my "Meandering Vines" shawl, because I just discovered (almost at the end of the second half) that I have been doing eight repeats...but I did nine on the first half, AND I HAVE TO GRAFT THEM TOGETHER. Even a poor mathematician could see that this is not going to work. The alternative to total junking is to work the second half again. This would not count as one of my 10 shawls in 2010 either. Curses.
So, we may not spend much time in Dublin when we are with them, but somewhere south of Dublin - Waterford, Kilkenny, or Cork for my preference. Looking for a cottage (self-catering, they call it) in those areas. I'm looking for free broadband. Fred wants free heat and electricity. Priorities!
Then, on the 16th and 17th there's a dance workshop weekend with Pat Murphy in Ballinasloe - by all reports a bit of a hole - so we want to get a cottage for a week somewhere not TOO far away but more interesting, music- and dance-wise. Friends are joining us there for the week, and attending the dance workshop too.
On the knitting front, I've joined the "10 shawls in 2010" group on Ravelry - and am already bogged down, as I am knitting "Bitterroot" from the Winter 09 edition of Knitty - the large size - in Knit Picks Gloss Lace. It's lovely, and the pattern is easy (which, for me, means that I end up at the middle or the end of the row with the correct number of stitches, so I haven't messed up anywhere on the row.) It's a bit dull, though, as the pattern alternates between segments of "ssk k1 k2tog" and "yo k1 yo" all over (although the lace edge is more interesting). I'm going to start adding beads soon, so that should perk up the interest level quite a bit.
Ironically, just before I joined this group I started a "Traveling Woman" shawl, but as it was begun before January 1st, it couldn't count as one of the 10. So, 11 shawls finished in 2010. Two of the shawls have to be big ones (500 m. or more) and the rest should be 250 m. or more. This lets out any one-skein Kidsilk ones for sure, and many of the mini or shawlette patterns I've collected. I have also decided to knit all 10 from stash, and I have a chart with 17 patterns and 17+ yarns - haven't made any definite matches yet (besides Bitterroot).
I am also considering junking my "Meandering Vines" shawl, because I just discovered (almost at the end of the second half) that I have been doing eight repeats...but I did nine on the first half, AND I HAVE TO GRAFT THEM TOGETHER. Even a poor mathematician could see that this is not going to work. The alternative to total junking is to work the second half again. This would not count as one of my 10 shawls in 2010 either. Curses.
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