Friday, October 26, 2007

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!

5 comments:

Bryony Ramsden said...

Oy! Don't knock the Drops/Garnstudio yarn! It is ace. All of their yarns are pretty cheap (even the alpaca silk and silke tweed are cheaper than UK and some US rivals). Their alpaca 4ply is lovely stuff :)

Can you tell I'm a drops fan?

dreamcatcher said...

Lovely photos from your holiday! The Drops yarns are definitely all lovely and exceedingly good value for money :-)

Ambermoggie, a fragrant soul said...

jealous, I miss living on the canal:( Glad you had a good week:)

Sarah said...

October is a lovely month and yours does sound great. Nice selection from AP - must check out that sock yarn.

I subscribed to the LK mag as they have a three issues for £1 deal so I thought I'd give it a try - despite issue 2 not being out yet I have to wait for my sub to start with that. Hope it's as good and glad I'm not missing anything with the DVD!

Hellbelle said...

I got some Fabel sock yarn too! Too good a bargain to resist.

Love the canal pictures. I went on boat holiday a few years ago and it was the most relaxing thing ever. Sounds like you had a good time :)