Small haul and long boat

I like October - apart from the lovely autumn colours October means a two week half term (yes DD`s school is odd), Ally Pally and a holiday.
Ally Pally is MY day. I book the day off work as soon as the list comes round, and when the day itself arrives I take myself off, just me, by myself and it`s great. I can go round which ever way I want, and if I want to visit the same stand three times, I can, with no one to comment. I don`t necessarily buy much, but I just love wandering and looking.

This year I bought the new Let`s Knit magazine, which despite the unpromising cover, I quite like. (The DVD that came with it on the other hand, is, well painful to watch to be honest - I`d be embarassed to be involved with that one).
I also picked up a copy of Elizabeth Zimmermans Knitters Almanac, and can`t believe how much it makes me want to knit! The other bits and pieces are circs for socks and stitch holders.

Yarn wise, I ended up with socks, scarf, hat and shawl. I was really surprised to see Fabel sock yarn at only £1.60 per 50g ball from Scandinavian Knitting Design and bought a couple for socks and three for a scarf. ( I may end up finding out why this was so cheap, but I thought it was worth a try), Two balls of GGH Davros will become another Coronet (from Knitty) for me and I fell in love with the silk from Knitwitches Yarns and this colourway is called Blackcurrant Sundae, I can well see why (as always the photo doesn`t do it justice)

Our week on the canal boat was very enjoyable, we were blessed with wonderful weather (apart from tuesday afternoon, when the rain was even running down inside our waterproofs yeuk) and though it was quite physically tiring, we felt mentally relaxed. The canals were quite quiet and the water was so still ahead, we saw some lovely reflections. DD captured this one (she took lots of nice photos, seems to have inherited her Dads eye for it)



Our trip was from Rugby down to Banbury and back, and here in the centre of Banbury, right by the shopping centre, I had to wind up the pedestrian footbridge for the boat to pass through making the shoppers wait - Oh the power!


We had some lovely misty mornings, which gave some very atmospheric pictures at sunrise.

and yes, the boat did look like that, had a few scrapes entering/leaving the locks by the look of it, but at least it meant we didn`t feel too precious about it

And just to show you how cold it was, here is another of DD`s pictures taken the morning the ropes were frozen to the mooring rings!

Two new knitting bags ? !

Two new knitting bags in one weekend ! What a lucky girl.

I`ve been wanting a small, cart about bag for ages, and having seen lots of examples on the internet, I grabbed a pretty off cut of fabric that has been lurking in my cupboard for ages, and created this....


It is based on many of the sock bags I`ve seen around, with a 4 1/2" square base and is about 10" high - perfect for small projects and in this case a Baby Surprise Jacket which is coming with me on the train to Alexandra Palace on friday. :-)

Then, as DD needed some more velour dance pants, we took a trip to Primark - well at £4 who cares if they get scuffed or torn on the dance floor (they do seem to spend a lot of time sliding around on the floor considering it is supposed to be dancing, but perhaps I`m just being old fashioned) and I spotted this......


Perfect for a whole project, and they have even included a mobile pocket which is exactly right for my i-Pod. And with room for a book or two, this one is coming with me on our canal boat holiday on Saturday.

See you all when I get back, hopefully with lots of goodies from Ally Pally, and lots of knitting from the holiday