I knit day

Ooh, what weather - London didn't try very hard to make this a nice sunny, welcoming day... rain and wind and more rain... a cheerful grey-in-grey.
Not daunted by the non-hospitable weather, M and I packed our little cotton socks (well, cotton hat in my case, as I am knitting gifts for D's little son who is expected in 3 months' time) and made our way to the I Knit London Day. Guest speaker was the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl McPhee), but as we hadn't made up our minds early enough, we didn't buy a ticket for her special event. Sorry, Stephanie, we would have loved to hear you speak, daunting as the Lindley Hall might have been - I'm sure you did a great job and hope you had a fantastic time with all the British knitters who bought their tickets on time!!

Instead, we used the lull in market hall visitors and managed to make our way to the book stands. I sometimes wonder how very lovely knitters can transform into very scary people who run over you and use elbows to make it to the fronts of stands... hmm. There we are - focus on yummy yarns and goodies might be to blame here (at least I hope that there are no more sinister reasons...). Anyway, it was great to see the lovely Socktopus with busy helpers, and enjoy looking and squeezing my way through some beautiful (oh so forbidden) and scrumptious yarns.
And despite my very firm stash-buying-ban, one little skein of lace yarn somehow clung to my hands at The Loop stand, and made it into my bag (making me part with my pub lunch money... probably better spent on the lovely lace yarn... my re-heated Risotto at home was quite nice, thank you very much)

Back at home, slightly shivering, we made the kitchen nice and cosy, had coffee with our fellow mosaique member and pianits K, talking about warmth, reindeer candles, future recording projects, etc. I think I might pick up my cotton hat now and knit a few more rounds for D's baby while letting the day pass by in front of my eyes one more time. More iknit day pictures here....

Baby knitting & Sunshine

Yes! Summer in London (at least one day of it....)! At 25 degrees Celsius and with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky, M and I just had to go out and sit in the park.
Equipped with the left-overs of last night's pizza and some coffee, as well as our new picknick blanket (finally premiered on actual grass under a sunny sky), current knitting projects, finished baby knitting projects, and a camera, we settled down next to the Thames River and a bare chested Italian gentleman who was obviously catching up on all of last week's phone calls. Just to annoy him I didn't take a picture of him, especially when he started whistling different tunes and trying a few other interesting moves to catch our attention after spotting the camera....

But really - it was a very lovely and peaceful day, and my skin might even have made the transition from greenish white to eggshell off-white. Here are some of the FOs that have finally been caught by the black box:

Saartje's Baby Bootees (Cashsoft Baby DK, Rowan)

Stripy-Baby-Trousers (Organic Cotton, Blue Sky Alpacas)

Coffee&Cream Baby Trousers (Organic Cotton, Blue Sky Alpacas)

Aaawww.....

Madness - and gratefulness

Is it ever going to be summer this year? This morning the sky was bright and blue and enthusiastically I was wearing a skirt to meet our friend HC for breakfast before she starts her estival activities in the UK this year coaching in Glyndebourne. G, HC and I used to share a house for a while and I really miss her and our crazy Monday morning conversations about the meaning of life. But coming back to the summer outfit, by the time we went home at about 1pm my legs had a nice blue-ish colour and for the rest of the day I abandoned the idea of summer clothes.

I'll leave the story with the 'cat Nazi' and the slight madness that followed to G for another post. In any case, instead of visiting the cat we went to Ikea last weekend and bought lots of stuff and an assortment of boxes and shelves to organise all our things: music, CDs, DVDs, books and - yarn!

With order re-established, I virtually didn't leave the room in days in order to finish our press pack for our Body&Voice - Voice unlimited Project! From about 20 hours of material (concerts, workshops etc) we created a short video about our ensemble - only 2 minutes long and not too bad for someone who's not a technician in the first place. Eventually we'll put it on our YouTube site, so you can see for yourselves.
I'm so proud of our Body&Voice Project. A project that unites singing and body works with a team of experienced singers and practitioners; oh, just go over to our Body&Voice website where G just put the English site in place.
I had this idea for years, but only last year I found a team of practitioners who believed in the project. We received the most amazing feedback in our workshops last year. In about a day our amateur singers (who generally only sung in the shower) not only learned a couple of opera choruses (some in two parts) but happily performed them at the end in a mini staged version - and last but not least had loads of fun.
As an interesting side effect, our practitioners loved the singing so much that they joined in the singing classes like it would be the most natural thing to do and one of the participants has now joined a choral society. We usually get a lot of comments from people who think they are 'not cool enough' or 'not good enough' to join a singing workshop. Excuse me, but if you love to sing then you are definitely cool and good enough to do it (I'm not saying you will become an instant professional).
Who knows - you might find that you're actually much cooler or better than you think you are - and let me tell you the surroundings of the abbey where we will be doing the course this September are spectacular. So grab your favourite partner and/or friend and go to Germany for a weekend. There is loads to discover!

A little trip to Amsterdam

Two weeks of wonderful sunshine here in London, and then a trip with work colleagues to Amsterdam.... pouring rain!! However, it cleared towards the middle of the day, and it turned out to be a great time on a boat, going through the Amsterdam canals.

Although I have been to Amsterdam many times before, I had never had the opportunity to see some of the little hidden courtyards - originally mostly built out of charity by organisations or individuals - that can be found in the centre of the city. Here is a picture taken in such a courtyard.

It was a bit too late for shopping by the time we came off the boat, but I just had to take a picture of this cheese store.... Really makes me want to go back some time soon (sigh). Besides... there must be some nice little yarn and crafts stores just waiting to be explored.