London

I'm leaving for London for the beadweaving course at Missenden Abbey. Unless there's a good sale somewhere I don't plan on buying anything! However, I will be checking out the bookstores, beadstores and the few yarn sections around. Last time the yarn dept at Liberty had been placed in a hallway with minimal lighting! John Lewis usually has some good tools and I'm looking for more of the afghan hooks in plastic.

I thought until this morning that it was going to be pretty awful in London as my travel agent booked me into a hotel far away from everything and with no air conditioning. I hit the ceiling, which is very rare for me, so she found another one in an excellent location but still no air cond. So again I was upset and this time I told her I would cancel the whole deal at which point she told me I'd lose $100. Anyway, I calmed down and had a good night's sleep and this morning she called to say the hotel is now across the street and has good air cond but still t he first night is at the other hotel. However, she was hopeful that it might get changed before the flight.

Knitting: yes, I have finally finished the Topping fairisle vest and it is gorgeous. However, since there is steek sewing up and hem sewing up to do, no picture until I come back and finish that. The colors are great. Mostly pastels with a few dark ones like #82, a dark green. The pattern was an allover quite easy to do but not boring. There were a few minor errors but the designer is very fussy and I learned quite a few new tricks from doing this vest. If I ever make it again, I think I'll go for the next larger size as this one came out tighter in tension than my usual one.

So now I am working on summer stuff although I do have this fairisle scarf to finish this summer. My biggest problem about packing is what to take to knit or crochet. Since weight is a problem, I think the only thing I can take is about 4 balls of sock yarn in cotton and a crochet top to finish, also in cotton. I have vowed not to open my pocketbook, but knowing me that is a rather meaningless vow as any sale and all of that goes out the window which is why I need to have room in the suitcase for yarns. Beads can go carryon as they take no room and weigh a lot. Books not at all. I plan to look at books all over, and just write down the titles I want and order them later. with the odd exception of course. There's this Italian knitting magazine I see sometimes in London called Susanna. That one I'll buy if it's there. There's this big kiosk on the way to Covent Garden and that's where it is found.

I won't get to Harrods or the V&A on this trip. My foot seems good now, but I'm not taking public transportation and I can't walk that far either. I also won't be visiting an interesting bookseller who has some Hungarian embroidery books to sell.

So everyone be good until I return.