Whaur the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond

Just a quick post to share some of the better photos from my holiday to near the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, where we rented a cottage for a week for some much needed rest and relaxation. Though it was mostly grey, as soon as the weather turned beautiful we were up and at the Loch as early as we could manage. It was a beautiful, still day, and the fog was still clearing away.

We did an 8-mile bike ride to the next town up the loch, where we got a slightly different view of Ben Lomond (the mountain). Cycling is something we both did in our youth and so I haven't ridden that far in about 10 years, and OH had never ridden thar far (or indeed on public roads at all!), so it was an experience and we enjoyed it, though we did wind up with pretty sore bums and would have liked it if less of the path was near a major road (talking was difficult with the noise).

All in all a beautiful day!

Seriously though, the rest of the week was so grim weather-wise that the photographs don't really sell Scotland as the excellent country it is, and quite often I didn't take any as the light was so grey. This did mean we spent a lot of time curled up with the telly and films in our cottage, so I got quite a bit of knitting done.

Colorado

My dear reader, thank you for your patience; things here at Chronicles have been very busy for the past week and I can only apologise that my blogging has fallen by the wayside. I will tell you all about it when I can but for now, here is my last post about my trip to the US.

The whole reason for going was actually for work, so I spent three weeks hanging out in Boulder, CO, with some super-cool weather fans at this place. Can you see it perched on the hill there? Beautiful place to learn about meteorology.

As it was an organised course thing with about 30 people on it, there were trips at the two weekends. The first one involved a shortish hike in the Rocky Mountains National Park, which was also incredibly beautiful.

The view from the top, at a little less than 12,000ft (3,600m). It was chilly enough for lying snow to remain (even though it was June!) and high enough that I had to catch my breath once or twice.

The walk started in essentially scrubland and descended about 1000ft...

...into forest, where we caught the odd glimpse of the mountain tops.

Despite the descent, we still encountered some sizeable snowdrifts, as it was sheltered from wind and a little shaded from sun. There were a couple where I was walking through snow well above my knees - and the one time I fell into one I was in it up to my hips!

This is the bottom of the walk, taken looking back up - still a few snow patches near the path but it was noticeably warmer at 10,700ft when we arrived at lunchtime.

The second weekend, we did a much less strenuous walk over fields and in the woods. We got some lovely views back over Boulder and the Great Plains, and of the Front Range.

Visiting Vienna

I haven't yet told you about my trip to Vienna at the end of last month *facepalm*. It was mainly for a conference related to my PhD, so there was quite a lot of worky stuff through the week. However, the weather was too nice to stay indoors all day every day, so I took (almost) an entire day off and went for a walk around the tourist sites. I got the underground out the Rathaus and wandered about a bit... This choice may have been mainly to do with the online research I did beforehand about the location of yarn stores. Sadly, the one I had found was closed, but I wandered up an interesting-looking street; just full of little shops and cafes....

...and I was wandering up I saw this on the opposite side of the road.

Named with all the usual linguistic directness I have usually found in the German language. No sheep based puns here, oh no, just 'wool'. It is great inside too, full of lovely yarn and especially sock yarn. Though the floorspace was not huge, the floor-to-ceiling shelves were packed with squishy goodies, and enough knitting patterns and books to keep me occupied for a long time. If that had been what I was looking for.

I was up for some more sock yarn, after a bit of a diet and making a serious plan, I was itching to treat myself. After making a small purchase (very restrained I thought)....

... I walked back to my accommodation on the southwest side of town via all of the major tourist attractions.

Though what I didn't buy in yarn I made up for in snack food. All yummy of course!

Going on Travels

Tomorrow, I am leaving for America for a month. It has been a busy week sorting things out for that and moving out of my house, and trying to do some work somewhere in between, but I think I am almost there. 

The plan for America is to have a fun week, and then work for three weeks. For the fun part, we fly to Denver and stay there for two nights, then fly onto Page, Arizona, pick up the hire car and drive off into the desert. Well, saying that, we have booked the lovely Cameron Trading Post Lodge for five nights, which is quite a treat but the location cannot be beaten; it is a couple of hours drive from all the things we want to do.

While I'm away doing all this fun stuff, I have scheduled blog posts to go up, about what I have been doing in the few weeks (that hasn't been running around madly getting stuff done). I thinking by the time I get to the work bit I might need a little relax of an evening, so I'm hoping I can squeeze in some time to blog about what I did in my Week in Arizona and What Craft I Have Done. But I don't really know how intense this work will be, so if I fall off the radar entirely, don't worry too much.

See you on the other side!

Loop, London

I went to Cambridge for a Summer School, stayed in a lovely college, ate lots of food and slept very little. But mostly this was really hard work for 11 days with one and a half days off in the middle. The half day was spent punting...

... and of course knitting. So on my full day off I wanted to do something that was very much not summer school-related, very much not in Cambridge. So I went all the way to London town, met up with the lovely Sophie who whisked me away to somewhere I have wanted to go for a long time now.

Loop London. Yes, it's lovely window display does have woodland-creature-related art on it. And like many a knitter before me, I stepped in to a little woolly haven.

This was an excellent way to leave the stress of the previous week and the hustle-and-bustle of London that my inner Northerner still has issues with and just think about knitting. There was a lot of really lovely yarn [bottom photo] - I mean the £10-£15/skein sock yarn, which I love - but there was also decent yarn more suitable for a beginner (under £5/ball DK). I got some of each...

100g Malabrigo sock in Impressionist Sky. Will probably make something for my mum, as she loves that sort of colour. Probably not socks, it's too pretty! I did spend a long time squeezing the Wollmeise but this colour spoke to me.

This one is really much much greener than this, but my camera will not do it justice. 50g of Rico Cotton DK, probably for making some little mittletts or something. As yet unsure, mainly bought because I loved the colour.

Overall, Loop is a brilliant yarn shop and was in a good area with plenty of cafes and other interesting shops, walking distance from King's Cross (but probably not with luggage!) and an excellent selection of yarn. Heartily recommended!

Culross

Today I have been in classes from 9am to 9pm for the fifth day in a row, and my brain is fried. It is too fried to sort out Lauriel which I keep messing up. Too fried to play pool. Definitely too fried to do any of the massive pile of work that is lurking just out of my eyeline. So as that is all no fun at all and I could do with some escape, I'm going to write about another of Scotland's tourist attractions I went to this month; Culross (pronounced coo-ros).

It is a lovely old village that much of has been protected by the National Trust for Scotland - and it is easy to see why, it is too cute. We pottered round the manor house (called the Palace, a little optimistically!) and had a brilliant tour of the village which I learned loads on. And then we had tea and cake, of course.

The manor house - built 1626! - is a fab shade of yellow and contains all kinds of crafty treats (I did take a couple of shots before remembering that NTS properties are ususally no photos allowed, oops!). There is still a little of the original paint on the walls/ceiling in a couple of the rooms, and the paintings are really beautiful. The Culross Needlework Guild has done a ton of work in there, it was absolutely stunning, especially in the Garden Room (that was deffo no photos!).

The whole place grew up on a clever mining scheme that got coal out from under the Forth, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The good stuff they sold and the poorer quality coal was used for turning the salty Firth of Forth waters into salt. It was eventually flooded in a severe storm but at low tide, you can still see the old harbour wall and the borehole (circled in red) they used to send the miners down in (nb. it doesn't have a train service (freight-only line) but I did see buses and the car parking was easy and free).

And I hear it was on Coast a long time ago. Clearly a program of excellent taste, it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. I heartily recommend it, especially if the hurly-burly of Edinburgh during the festival is finally driving you mad - it is less than an hour away and so relaxing.

A Darn Good Sunday

So I was in Scotland - or maybe more precisely, in Fife. It's just the north side of the Firth of Forth (the estuary that Edinburgh is on). Why? because my lovely other half is from there. I have been there many, many times over the years we have been together, and had a lot of more active weekends that this one. It's just that this one I thought was the most noteworthy.

Saturday was actually pretty quiet - food shopping, a walk on a beach, a very speedy trip to a yarn shop in the next town (I didn't think it was very good so I'll keep quiet about it). Evening in. On Sunday, he even had a lie in! By the time he got up I think maybe he felt guilty that I'd been up for three hours, eaten breakfast and was well into Cup of Tea Number Four. So when I suggested a rather mad trip in the car to Falkirk and then Glasgow, he agreed as quick as lightening!

So first was the Falkirk Wheel. It is a fabulous piece of millennium engineering that connects two canals in Scotland - the Union and Forth-Clyde. It lifts the boats up/down by rotating around, while using minimal energy and looking pretty. I really enjoyed it; relaxing boat trip, educational in an interesting-not-boring way, and ice cream at the end of it.

{apologies for the dodge reflections}

Then things took a turn towards yarn...

The Yarn Cake is a wee shop in north-west Glasgow (near the Botanic Gardens) and so far, it is the best yarn shop I have been in. It may be small but is perfectly formed; I liked the balance of Drops with indie-dyers (the Yarn Yard and Abstract Cat when I popped by). The decor was simple but effective, there was a good selection of knitting books, and there were tables for perusing books / knitting / debating what to buy / eating cake / drinking tea. Because I am shy, I didn't take photos inside (there were a fair few other customers) and because I am disorganised, I don't have photos of all the stuff I bought there (but I will soon!). And I will certainly go back when I can, armed with camera and confidence.

But overall, it really was a brilliant day out with stunningly sunny weather, doing things, drinking tea and buying yarn. And my other half is very very lovely for doing all the driving - it did go over 100 miles!

Woolfest 2011

Woolfest is only the second knitting-festival-thing I have ever been to, but it was just what I'm looking for in one. There was a lot of yarn to keep me happy, enough other aspects of the craft to inspire me to try something new, and some very cute animals.

I went with my mum, and we rented a cottage near Bassenthwaite Lake for a week (though I could only stay for five days) - I've been to a lot of places lately so I'll probably do a proper travel post soon. Here's a photo of everything that we bought, and I think it's quite a haul! The natural roving and the two blur rovings on the left are my mum's, though the herdy notebook is mine.

There are two cakes of roving are Waratah Fibres Polwarth-cross for Stephcuddles (here's a better photo just for you):

This is the one I cannot catch the colour on, sparkleduck self-striping sock yarn - the website is under construction but says they will be at Knit Nation (though I won't be) - well worth keeping an eye on as there was a LOT of beautiful yarn there (including some sparkly stuff which I managed to resist). This is going to be the first pair of socks I knit for myself; two at a time and toe-up.

Some blue sock yarn from Laal Bear. Not sure what I'll knit with it yet but it is very cuddly.

I couldn't even wait for a ball winder to start knitting with this; some toe-up socks for an as-yet-to-be-decided female friend. The colours remind me of one friend, but I only knit her some socks two weeks ago. Hohum.

I also bought myself a couple of hanks of merino roving, in the hope that I can learn to spin soon. I guess I've got a lot of knitting skills lined up so it might be a while. And it seems the purple theme remains....

So, now I just need to get knitting. Bring on the wool!

What I've been doing lately...

Visiting idyllic castles (Bodian in Sussex).

Enjoyind the British countryside in not-very-British weather.

Pottering around gardens (Nymans in Sussex).

Remembering how much I love wisteria.

Walking in a bluebell wood

Falling in love with Edinburgh. Again.

Watching Spring arrive in Edinburgh

Indulging.

Learning that teapots grow on trees.

I remember when I lost my mind...

Things have been a little quiet on the blogging front, haven't they? I've been hard trying to turn my life into organised chaos (rather than the standard chaos it's in at the moment), and after a philosophical evening (possibly induced by red wine...) decided that life = chaos, and I should stop. In theory. I may have pulled a loooong day at work today, but it's so I can leave early tomorrow. And I mean early - girly lunch and a maintee at the theatre :)

I think I did go a bit bonkers last month, so thanks for reading the Blog of a Crazy Lady, things much better now. I am my own in charge of my work, not the other way around. I'm managing to have a social life (and meet lovely new people, too!). I've got a housemate. I've got an income. Life is good.

The only problem now is: There's No Knitting! Seriously, I have made one pair of gloves in the last month. And they're a present so no photos yet. So the knitting plan is being formulated, now. Things on it include:

• Interesting crimson and mustard mittlets, to match the mustard hat of some months ago. Sadly not enough of the mustard, cannot get hold of more. Fortunately helped out by Chantel and Steph in Ilkley.
• Finishing off my uber-warm wrist warmers - knitted but not lined.
• Coming up with something to knit for the boyf that's not a scarf, hat or gloves.
• Coming up with something to knit my boy housemate.
• Ishbel for my former housemate.
• Simple City for me.
• The dalek, which has totally ground to a halt lately.

I think it's in that order too. Awesome, there is a plan! Now to crack on with it - bring me my needles!!

PS. Well, indulge me: just one photo of the Brilliant Barcelona Break. Loved it, everyone should go. Especially in September for a week of lovely warm weather and beautiful blue sky.

All These Things That I've Done

So, it has been a good long while since my last post. I have been busy with work, sadly, but now things are in a definite lull. I am deeply loving relaxing, and am back into knitting. And getting on with Life Admin, which is getting a bit desperate!

Apart from horrid work, I have also had some fun. I have been buying things, 'cos it makes me feel better. Especially things in the Cath Kidson sale like this spotty knitting bag - half price! - and I'm definitely keeping this one for me. On the grounds that it's waterproof.

I have also bought a couple of bits for one of my friends, who is in need of some knitting guidance. A knitting bag that was reduced, and the piggy stitch markers are courtesy of Steph.

I also got some for my birthday, I thought the apples were soooo cute! They have already proved themselves really really useful. They also cheer me up and inspire me to carry on, as well as reminding me about my progress. Thanks Steph!

I did also get the main birthday present from my parents; my lovely metal KnitPro interchangeables, which I LOVE!! They've already been put to much good use. Though the case they come in is a little cheap and nasty, and I would like to make one for myself, though I think my mum is still recovering from making the project bags!

And that's just the knitting stuff! There have also been some purchases of other sorts, though my favourite two have been my Stress Half Pint (like a stress ball) and Sheep Bag, both from Dublin over the weekend. I got away properly and now feel well rested and fed - the cake & Guinness diet definitely agrees with me!

I will give a bit more of an update about what's on my needles at some point...