alipyper

Author: Allison

  • slow progress

    I haven’t blocked the sweater yet. It’s amazing to see the difference once it’s blocked – it will lay completely flat and the cables will pop!

    It’s been slow going on this little baby sweater pattern. It will match my knit Pixie Cable Hat pattern (available here or here). I’ve started knitting it from the bottom up, but I think once I work out the dimensions for the shoulders and neck I’ll re-write the pattern to knit from the top down. What I’ve worked out so far is the easy part and I’m dragging my feet to  work out the hard shaping part. Sigh. It’s so cute and I want for it to be done, but I’m afraid of getting the dimensions wrong and having to rip out the stitches and re-work the rows. Moaning and complaining about it won’t make it easier. I’ll just have to buck up and finish!

  • warm weather

    The Mr. and I took the kids south for the President’s Day weekend. {K} had a soccer tournament in St. George. It didn’t go so well for {K} and his team, but hey! we all enjoyed the break from work, school and freezing temperatures.

    I’m not supposed to point out the fact that the Mr. is wearing his reading glasses on top of his sunglasses so that he can see his fishing line. Oh, it’s so sad to get old!

    The Mr. hasn’t been out fishing all year. The poor Mr.! Too busy with work and family. It was pure heaven for him to stand in the sunshine and cast to his hearts content this weekend. It doesn’t bother him if nothing bites, he’s just glad to be outside with a fishing pole in his hand.

    It’s interesting to note that {I} is the one that has received the fishing gene from his father and grandfather. He can’t sit still through church or school to save his life, but get him out fishing and he is calm and focused for hours. Magic.

    I didn’t want red sand in my yarn so I stayed in the car to wind my skein of MadelineTosh Prairie lace weight yarn the old school way. I’ve been designing a child’s sweater pattern for months now (in betwixt all the distractions of the holidays) and have another sweater pattern swirling around in my head but the thought of bringing either of these projects, which require a tremendous amount of focus and attention, gave me heart palpitations. So I brought the MadelineTosh yarn I purchased at Loop Knit Lounge while in London and I got started on the Swoon sweater pattern found in Juju’s Loops.

    Pure bliss.

    Ravelry project page here.

  • sugar withdrawals and a danish heart tutorial that hasn’t happened yet

    I bought this solid chocolate hand painted polka dot heart from Rococo Chocolates in London for the Mr. but I kind of don’t want him to eat it – it’s too cute!

    London was so glorious and I had a lovely time! I’m in serious sugar withdrawals, though, now that I’m back home. AND Valentine’s Day is today. The torture!!  I’ve been trying to get a step by step picture tutorial of how to make a crocheted Danish Heart posted since a few people have found row 3 of the pattern a little bit tricky.

    It will have to wait – we’re taking the kids to warmer climes this weekend and jetlag and the reality of three children and a household to run after being away for two weeks have conspired against me. When I get back…

  • cath kidston and the parthenon

    What a day I had yesterday! It ended with me being incredibly homesick for my son {I} and wishing desperately that he was with me (I wanted all my children and the Mr. with me, but especially {I} yesterday at the British Museum) to see the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman exhibits. They were spectacular! And the most spectacular thing about it was being so up close and personal to them.

    Reading Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson  and the Olympians series made {I} want to learn Greek, live in Greece, go on a mission to Greece, and BE Greek.

    I, on the other hand, want to live in a Cath Kidston store. I want to eat, drink, sleep, and speak Cath Kidston. I’m sure it’s very juvenile but it makes me very happy and the Mr. very poor. The Maryleborn High Street store was delightful and I enjoyed every minute of the hour and a half I spent in it agonizing over the fact that I couldn’t just buy the whole store and transport it back with me in my suitcase.

    When I’m done living in a Cath Kidston store, I’d like to move down the street a few spots and live in the Rococo Chocolates store. Double yum. I’m taking full advantage of the foreign travel clause in my “no sugar” contract. The best? The sea salt chocolates. Ooh, baby!

    Around the  corner and down a ways is V V Rouleaux. Gorgeous ribbons and trims. I wanted to buy their whole selection of velvet ribbon. Why is it so hard to find velvet ribbon in Utah? Why? A great selection of velvet ribbon should just be a given in a craft store, but apparently nobody else thinks so.

    Lindsey from Urban Mums {London} wrote about The Button Queen, which is just a hop, skip, and jump away from V V Rouleaux, and made me want to check it out. It’s true! It’s only buttons! And it was all business when I went in to peruse. I think that you could find any kind of button you could ever want there, and some pretty spectacular cuff links too! I loved it.

    When I got home after my glorious day of shopping in Marylebone and the amazing visit to the British Museum, I discovered that there was a Scottish Highland Shop RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the British Museum, where I had JUST BEEN, that had some Wallace plaid items available! Darn! So, I went back today and picked up some ties for my Dad, who gives all his sons-in-law and all his grandsons when they turn 12 a Wallace tie to wear to church. Yay! Success!

  • gretchen

    Made it over to both the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern today, as well as a fly-by of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Loved the Tate Britain, but pretty much the complete pre-Raphaelite painting collection – which I was dying to see – was gone! It’s on loan in Russia for the rest of the year! I was so disappointed. I did very much enjoy the above painting, Gretchen, which was painted by Joanna Mary Wells in 1861. It made me REALLY miss my daughter, though, and wish that my family was here with me.

    St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

    Can I admit something quite shocking and old fashioned? I’m not a modern art fan. There are a few pieces here and there that I enjoy, but on the whole I find modern art depressing, dark, angry and narcissistically full of itself. So, I’ll need to go back to the Tate Modern with the Mr., who is able to view and appreciate modern art with a more discerning eye than me.

    I loved the heft and solid neo-classical nature of St. Paul’s Cathedral. I didn’t have time to go in and climb to the Whispering Gallery in the dome – which comes highly recommended – but it’s on my list of London things to do when I can come back with my family. That, the Tower of London, and a whole host of other things that just are not going to be possible (nor were they the purpose) on this trip.

  • primrose hill

    I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill. -William Blake

    Climbed to the top of Primrose Hill in Regent’s Park yesterday. The view of London was spectacular! I think I have time for the Tate Galleries today, but I have to get a move on.

  • ottolenghi

    The VERY FIRST THING I bought in London was a lemon blueberry cupcake and a rhubarb almond cake topped with meringue from the Nottinghill Ottolenghi. No joke. I wouldn’t joke about such things.

    My rapture at these desserts was in NO WAY influenced by the fact that I haven’t eaten any sugar (nothing – no honey, agave, cane sugar, artificial sugar or any other processed sugar!) for the last six months. Well, okay, maybe it was influenced a little. When I started not eating sugar, I reserved the right to have special treats if I was in a foreign country. You know, to make myself feel like it wasn’t a forever thing. At the time I had no travel plans. Lucky me that I’m unexpectedly in London!

    Portobello Road Market in Nottinghill on a Saturday afternoon.

    Since I’m a complete sugar addict, I will be promptly resuming no sugar when I return to the States. But, oh! Ottolenghi was truly a sublime way to break my fast! I’ll have to check out their cookbooks when I get back and see if I can in some way recreate my treat for my family.

    Not only am I a sugar addict, but I’m a toy snob too. I can’t control myself from passing by a good toy shop! Honeyjam was not a disappointment. You can see the shop from Portobello Road and it was like a magnet, pulling me in. I did manage to walk out of the darling store without anything but it was very, very hard!

    I only had an hour to sprint down the market road while ballet class was in session. I saw a few shops selling Scottish woolens, but alas, no Wallace plaid was to be found. Lots of stalls selling British china, silverware, antiques, a few crocheted linens, and brik-a-brak. I’m sure that there was a lot that I didn’t see, but it definitely was posh tourist central. No great deals to be found by me.

    Except for the glorious Ottolenghi. Worth every pence.

  • liberty of london

    Okay, so I returned to the mother ship today (do you see the ship on top of the building?!? Really, there is a ship on top of the building!!).

    Oh, Liberty, I love thee.

    It was gorgeousness overload. But outrageously expensive! Yikes! Their signature fabrics are of the highest quality and the cotton is almost as soft as silk, but since I didn’t have a specific project in mind I couldn’t really justify expanding my fabric stash. Never fear! I did pick up a souvenir and I was ridiculously happy to sign up for their loyalty reward program.

    Down the street from Liberty was a cute little yarn shop called All the Fun of the Fair.

    Loved the eclectic yarn, haberdashery, and gifts. Super lovely.

    Again, not far from Liberty and very near Hanover Square, I discovered MacCulloch & Wallis, a three story fabric, notions, trims and ribbon shop first opened in 1902. It was chock full of the nitty gritty supplies needed for dressmaking – full of substance and not much fluff. It was perfect. I’m sure that if I lived in London I would be there very often. Probably more often than the mothership, Liberty, I’m forced to say. I do have Scottish blood running through my veins and those thrifty genetics do occasionally force me to be practical.

    I ran out of time, so I couldn’t continue my tour up towards the Marylebone High Street, but I’m hoping to get back downtown early next week to check out VV Rouleaux, The Button Queen, and the largest Cath Kidston store in London. Can’t wait!

  • mademoiselle brongniart

    Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun: 'Mademoiselle Brongniart'

    I only had about an hour at The National Gallery the other day. I’ll have to go back because I did not do the museum justice. I picked the most famous paintings and went directly to them – so touristy of me! As I was rushing between rooms I was stopped in my tracks at this Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. In the turbulent summer of 1789 at the beginning of the French Revolution, Le Brun took refuge in the Brongniart home. I thought how poignant it was for Le Brun to have painted a child with her knitting, perhaps as a way to counter balance the turbulence and horror swirling around her at that time, perhaps as a way to repay the girls parents for their generosity. In any case, I thought it was one if the most personally significant paintings I saw all day. Absolutely lovely.

  • loop knit lounge

    Oh, oh, oh, I was in the most glorious yarn shop today. Loop Knit Lounge, located in London’s borough of Islington, was a complete delight, from top to bottom. Charming and helpful staff (co-owner Susan Cropper was behind the counter), the most glorious selection of yarn imaginable, books, magazines and lovely gifts – I could have stayed in the shop for hours, slowly moving from one spot of inspiration to the next. It was absolutely worth every single tube station change I made to get there and get back.