Go, Kathleen, Go!

Not only is Go, Kathleen, Go what it says on the pack of stickers J bought me for Valentine's Day (oh you thought it was the trip to Dublin?) but it is also the title of this picture.
It was taken in the lounge of the hotel we stayed at using a ten-second exposure of the shot. J asked me to keep my face fairly still while he photographed me knitting. I think the resulting blur is quite good fun. Look at those frenzied needles! I look a bit stern but it's just because I was trying to keep my face still.
I haven't been knitting too much this past week due to other commitments, but all being well, I'll get more of a run at it this week. Don't have many more knitting pix on the go at the moment, but I can show one pattern repeat's worth of Deep from Rowan 39. I like the way it's shaping up although it looks tiny bunched up on one needle, and the yarn seems really dry. I know all yarn you knit with is dry, but this feels dry too.

Trip to Dun Laoghaire

I must admit I didn't intend leaving it as long before posting about our trip along the Dublin coast to Dun Laoghaire.
But one week of a really busy work schedule and computer difficulties, here I am. This picture is just next to the Marina in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary). You can see we are wrapped well against the weather, but it was very pleasant as long as you were well-covered.

Jonathan is looking cosy in his Kaffe Fasset scarf with a million seagulls, yes, you guessed it, it's the outflow pipe. This is the view round the bay out towards Sandy Cove. We walked right round the bay.
Kathleen and a sculp-cha.
We had a great, if very bracing, trek out along the promenade. We could see the promontory of Howth and the ferries coming in from Holyhead, as well as the cargo ships.





This'll be your Sandy Cove then, a bijou beach of golden sand, featured in James Joyce's Ulysees. There were some intrepid swimmers braving the February air, actually now that I think about it, they were all hardy Senior Citizens. (Not your parents and godparents, Mhairi?)

Round the other side of the bay there was "the Forty Foot" where you can, if mental enough, dive off the rocks as they did in Joyce. This brave soul was definitely up for it anyway.

Can you make him out?

Just in case you get carried away....
I still haven't stopped laughing at that expression.
Don't know the last time I saw the word "togs".

There is a smallish turret shaped James Joyce museum in Sandy Cove, but being off-season it was closed. Nil desperandum. I should really try reading some of this guy's stuff, with all the advertising I'm giving him, eh?

Then we walked all the way back before having a quick look in the shops in town. I'm not one of these people who have to look at the shops wherever I go, but it was Valentine's day the next day ;-)

Added later- why do they bother giving you a preview if the finished article looks nothing like it? I don't know, tut tut tut.

Dubalin as the locals say

Sculpture of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square Garden.

Ok, let's get the bad news over with first of all- the wee yarn shop selling Kilcarra Wool I visited last time is now an Arnotts Bargain Shop. :-( Right, glad that's done, the rest's good news.

Had a great time in Dublin, or Dubalin as the locals were saying.
We stayed in Chief O'Neills hotel (named after the Chicago police chief who catalogued a lot of traditional Irish music) which is in the Smithfield District. It was right next to Distillery of Jameson's Irish Whiskey and we went up an old Jameson's chimney which is now a viewing tower on our last day. Great view of the city and the district in general. Hundreds of cranes! Loads of construction and development going on.

We took a trip in an open-top bus and although both of us had been before (J actually used to work in Dublin), we learned a lot of history and local anecdotes.

We went into the art gallery and saw all sorts, from all different periods; very interesting overview of many different eras and styles in a relatively small space. Brilliant gallery if you have a couple of hours and want to see a little bit of everything. As opposed to say the Uffizi in Florence (July 2004) or the Louvre in Paris (Feb 2005) where you could spend several days and still be on the Renaissance.
Unfortunately I missed the display of Philip Treacy hats in the Design Gallery as we only found out about it when up the viewing tower on the last day.

We ate well every night, but my favourite meal was the one we had in the Gallagher's Boxty House in Temple Bar. I had a beef boxty (apparently a traditional potato pancake) which essentially had a steak sliced up into it and a creamy mushroom and Irish Whiskey sauce, accompanied by colcannon (mashed potato with savoy cabbage through it) and mushy peas. Followed by wonderful bread and butter pudding.

Next time some details about our trip to Dun Laoghaire - a must for James Joyce fans.
Happy Knitting.

Back home safely from Dublin

Hi there,
Thanks for all the best wishes. Unfortunately I was too late to get some of your recommendations.
Had a great holiday anyway and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
I'm in a bit of a rush tonight, but in the meantime I'll leave you will a photo of myself and Molly Malone with her killer cleavage.

Happy Knitting.
x K 

Ready for our next jaunt

Knitting? Check. Pups? Check. Breeks? Check.

All packed and ready for a long weekend in Dublin!

Leaving straight after work tomorrow (Friday) for our latest adventure.

See you midweek.
x K

Is Spring on the way?

Don't know if spring is on the way as such but I've certainly started looking at the Spring 2006 mags.
As always I had a lovely time at the Knitting Meetup in the Tramway and decided to call in at John Lewis on my way home. Not least because India said they had DB Maya in the sale! They sure did, a fair amount of a light blue colour and a nice purple. Didn't indulge though. Was hoping they had some of the variegated stuff but it had all gone.
Anyway, not one to leave a yarn department empty handed I stocked up on Rowan Summer Tweed for a design called Deep by our local Rowan design consultant (for the time being at least) Carol Meldrum taken from Rowan 39 .
As always, opinions vary when the new Rowan comes out but I am pleasantly surprised with this one. For me, if this magazine hadn't come up with the goods (to my taste) it was a deal-breaker, I wasn't going to be renewing my Rowan International membership, because the increasing costs were not being matched by what we were being offered. 37 disappointed me and 38 left me in despair, but there is plenty in this one to pique my interest. I'm not saying I will knit all (or any necessarily) of these but once you fight your way through the dressing up box styling I can say I like
Jasmine
Salcombe
Ramona
St.Mawes
Minnie
and Jinny from the cover amongst others.

Rambling Rose, Crinkle, Carolina, Frances all nice too. But Deep is the one for me to start with. Have already had a hold your arms out session with DH to ball some of the skeins so all that's stopping me is my long list of Works in Progress. Ha, ha, never one to be deterred by just a few unfinished objects!

Jaywalkin'

Hi, have a look at my strategy for avoiding a long delay between socks one and two. Spent some money at getknitted on a few sets of dpns and now I'm doing two socks at a time.
Rib one, rib two; leg one, leg two; soon to be heel one, heel two etc.
These are my ankle Jaywalker socks by Grumperina from MagKnits at the end of last year. I was inspired to do them by this method, in fact I was inspired to do them at all when I saw India's at our last get together at the Tramway.
I haven't joined the Jaywalker Knitalong as such because it seemed to be getting a bit unwieldy for the organiser, but you never know, I may submit them for another sock ring.
The pattern is not at all difficult, I always let myself get hocussed into thinking that patterns are harder than they actually are, and I am LOVING the effect which the Regia Mini Ringel is bringing out to perfection, IMHO.
I got this yarn from the Gem Shop, King Street, Castle Douglas on one of our visits to see J's mother.
I am also really quite happy with Rowan 39, but I'll say more about that when the book becomes more widely available so I can back up what I'm saying with photos.
Happy Knitting!