Marathon Knitting

I have only been gone for a week, but there have been requests for me to pick up the pace here even though our staycation is only a summer memory.

I am in London, but the wide range of London travels last month was replaced this past week with the very narrow limits of one arm chair in front of the TV while I knit. Sometimes the only way to face the world is with yarn and needles. Whatever is ailing you disappears as the alpha waves take over and the rows of stitches pile up. All very Zen, I guess, but sometimes a knitting marathon can bring forth a finished product, as this one did.

A new sweater for my granddaughter.

I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's legendary Baby Surprise sweater pattern that is knitted all in one piece. I made one last summer for the first time in a baby size, and it was such fun, I wanted to do another one. When we were visiting friends in New Hampshire this summer we stopped off at the huge Patternworks yarn shop in Centre Harbor where I bought some random skeins of thick soft merino in bright colours that were on sale. As usual when I buy yarn that appeals to me, there was no preconceived plan for the yarn which explains my humungous stash of yarn, all waiting to be assigned a plan and a pattern.

With the thicker yarn and a larger needle, I hoped the Baby Surprise would come out as a Little Girl Surprise, and I think it has. There were a few tense moments when I thought I would run out of yarn in the final rounds of knitting, but I managed to eke out the last few stripes.

Leftover yarn!

I also learned a new technique. I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's I-cord edging for the neck. I love the look and can't wait to try it on other edges.

Today I went out in search of buttons which is always a lost cause here in London. Oh for a Joanne's Fabrics when buttons are required. There are a fair number of outlets for fancy buttons, but basic plastic in a broad range of colours and sizes are impossible to come by as far as I can tell. I went to the famous Button Queen on Marylebone Lane who did have bright colours, although not in a large size, and not six in the same colour either.

After three days in the same chair, last night I managed to rouse myself to go to the South Bank for a concert by The Imagined Village, made up of folk musicians who formed this collective group a few years ago to explore what English folk music is. Their idea is to present folk music in both traditional and new ways with a multicultural bent that represents the folk of modern Britain. I asked Bob what he would call what they do, and he said "folk fusion." So that's the best I can do to describe them.

Except for the Prom concert we went to in August, we hadn't been to a concert in months and months which is very out of character for Bob who lives for music of all kinds. Now that September is here, the seasonal schedules for every concert hall and performing group are piling up. Not to mention the newspaper and magazine supplements on what not to miss this season. It is one of the things I love about September in London.