Hello!

I know it's a bit of a cop out but....

.... I am tired, and my other half has written about today in much more detail than I am capable of at the moment.

You can find him at http://fegrig.blogspot.com/

I think you might need to copy and paste because the phone app isn't up to proper links. Leave him a comment if you like, he has blogged every day in November and I think that having suggested it to him a month ago, I may have created a monster... but he is MY monster so that's OK.

n

25421 steps today... And a blister!

Achey Breaky Feet

Some people go to art galleries and museums when they go on holiday.
Some people enjoy fine dining.
Many people, on a trip to Brussels, a great brewing nation, would sample the beer.
Or they might eat mussels.

I like galleries. In fact I am unreasonably excited about seeing Anish Kapoor's work at the Royal Academy on Tuesday. But art galleries per se come second to people watching in a cafe or simply wandering around with a camera recording windows, letterboxes, drain covers, cobblestones and that's before I start on the shop signage and the hustle and bustle of the local market.
The pictures are all on the proper camera, but as you can imagine every street gets peered down for possible Urban Explorer excitement and to satisfy my inner building-geekery.

Fine dining tends to be exchanged for whatever happens to be handy at the point when we feel peckish, neither of us drinks beer and although Gavin likes mussels, I think they are like eating salted rubber.

All the exploring fairly racks up the kilometres. 20,000 steps yesterday and 18,700 today. I'm so glad I left the stiletto heels at home.

n

Brussels is fun!

Eurostar was good.
Weather has been fairly kind. A bit of drizzle but nothing really wet. The fields of northern France look wetter than those in Yorkshire which I passed yesterday.
The hotel is great. It isn't the one we thought we were staying in! There are two of the same name, and we only realised on Friday when it was too late to change. This one is a little way out of the centre of town but it just means more scope or exploring and we have discovered some interesting eateries to try.

n

Not playing

There is a technical term, when you have turned your phone on and off and on and off and on and FINALLY it works but the only apps which function are the factory settings ones so all the useful stuff like kniiting gauges and the colour matching program and the whatsthatwordinfrenchandjapanese app just sit there laughing at you. It's called Bricked. And my phone has just done it. And I expect it could be cured by syncing with my MacBook but since that is 500 miles to the north at the moment it's not a lot of use. Oh well. More time for knitting! n

Having a few days off.

The shop will remain open for business, but I am having a few days off to celebrate our wedding anniversary, so I won't be looking at emails or processing orders until the end of next week, 4th December.

New blog posts will appear below this one. I'm still trying to blog every day on November so there might be a photo or two!

n

Notebooks for knitters.

The shop was updated this afternoon and as well as the yarn and some bargainous fibre, I added a new range of notebooks.

   

 

I make no secret of the fact that I have a bit of a notebook habit, and these tick all my "must have" boxes - page numbering, indexing, squared paper, perforated tear out pages... the list goes on. They are perfect for knitters, and pretty good for things which benefit from indexing, like family recipes for example.

I am having a break for a few days so they will be posted out at the end of next week. They are selling quickly so tell your nearest and dearest if you'd like one in your Christmas stocking.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to p/hop, the total, as you can see is more than 70% of the £10,000 target and I am immensely grateful to all of you. Thank you.

n

   

Win a Year of Yarn

I think we have eaten too much cake because the link doesn't work... click here instead.

n

  

Happy Birthday p/hop

I can hardly believe it's been a year.

Pop over to the p/hop blog and read what's been happening. Jane has offered a new pattern for p/hop (thanks also to Alice for this).

As always, patterns are offered in return for a donation to MSF and we rely entirely on the honesty of knitters to make this work.

Tomorrow I will be blogging over there, and making an announcement so be sure to check in. And if you make a donation, be sure to leave your email address... all will be revealed very soon.

If you would like to blog for MSF, just follow the instructions and Clare will send login and password information. The more people who do this the better, we each have our own readership and this is a simple and effective way of spreading the word.

See you!


n  

Stationery

Most of us collect things. Mugs, stamps, yarn, rhinocerii (yes, mother I am looking at you). 

I'm watching the Antiques Roadshow at the moment and there is a woman on it who is passionate about ships, she has a ship's wheel and huge carved timber pillars from the Mauritania and a chair from the Canberra. This is useful information the next time someone exclaims about the size of your yarn stash. At least you don't collect big stuff from ships.

Of course I have my own collections. 

Double pointed needles. I have far more than could be used up in even the most chronic case of startitis.

Pencils. Coloured. "Lead". Propelling.

Moleskines. The Quadrille ones with squared paper.

And I have what might be called "a bit of a stationery habit".
 

Today I was thrilled - I may need to get out more - to discover a new brand of notebook, the Leuchtturm1917. Catchy name, isn't it? 

Leuchtturm is German and translates as English Lighthouse according to their website. The company was founded in 1917 and has been selling specialist albums for stamp, coins and even the little discs you get on the top of champagne corks which stop the wires from digging in to the cork. 

Of most interest is their range of notebooks. These are rather like Moleskines, but with extra features like detachable pages, numbering on each page, stickers and an index you can complete to make cross referencing easier.

You can see more information about them here. I mentioned this on twitter and someone immediately asked if I would consider ordering them for the shop. The A6 size would be an ideal notebook for a knitter. I have contacted the company, so I'll let you know if I'll be able to stock them. It would be helpful to know if you would be interested - or if my passion is mine alone!

n 
 

 

Postcards.

Dear Chickens,

I know that it's winter and it's dark and miserable, and I know that at least one of you is peri-menopausal and simply not up to producing an egg a day, but it's been five weeks and we have just bought our second half-dozen box in the last four years, and really they aren't the same. Oh yes, and why do you choose to moult in November? It's not the most sensible time to be walking around half-dressed.

Dear Breadmaker,

You are fabulous. You have just produced a lovely loaf made with Dove's Farm Organic Barleycorn Flour, which is stuffed full of good stuff like omega 3 rich linseeds. So why do I feel guilty for using you instead of doing the whole baking bread thing from first principles?  

Dear Gavin,  

I love the fact that you are watching the rugby (Scotland v Australia) on TV with the sound turned off and have the Radio Scotland commentary on the wind-up radio beside you. My Dad used to do this with the cricket. The pictures really are better on the radio, aren't they? - Not that the commentators are at all biased, perish the very thought.

Dear Judy,

Speaking of cricket, I just wanted to tell you how delighted I am that you have been selected to manage the England Women's Cricket Team on the forthcoming tour to Trinidad and Tobago. We clearly have the edge with a knitter in the squad, the ability to see the completed sweater in your mind's eye play the long game when you have only just chosen the yarn bowled a couple of overs will be very useful. Did the selectors know that you are a knitter when they chose you? 

Dear Clouds,

I think we've had enough now thanks.

Dear p/hop,

Are you getting excited about your birthday yet?  A little bird tells me you have some rather special presents on the way.



Dear Yarn Club Members,

I hear that parcels are starting to arrive and that you approve of the colourway this month. It's always nerve-wracking sending them out, despite the fact that I've been posting Club parcels for more than three years. Thank you for having confidence in me. 

Love, n.