Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Here's our tree on Christmas morning. This is not the tree we had originally.
My parents are bright and clever and interesting and practical and pretty worldly and very funny. But not that quick when it comes to buying Christmas trees. This year my brother found himself in a similar situation - all the usual places had sold out or closed down. (Unlike where I live in Manhattan, where you can't walk two blocks without encountering a pavement covered in deliciously pine-fragrant trees of all sizes).
The youngest of my siblings did manage to find a place that still had a few trees left so he got one for us as well as one for his own little family. He kindly brought it over, sawed off the bottom, chopped off a few of the lower branches, found a bucket and some rocks and set it up in our living room. Celebrating his efforts by lifting my niece onto his shoulders so she could pop the fairy on the top. It looked good. Nice and tall and broad. Then the needles started to drop. Not just the normal few... the carpet started to turn from light brown to pine needle green.
So....we turned to my sister and she found us this little beauty, just in time for my Mum and neice to decorate it on Christmas eve. The good thing about a small tree is that it doesn't take so long to decorate!

I can't remember much since my last posting.....it's all a blur of sneezing, nose blowing, and trying to get to sleep - this has been my main source of nourisment, (not the fly spray!):


My Dad had a rotten cold when he greated me on the driveway last Sunday. I was weak and tired - I knew I would catch it!!
On the train ride back from London, I started to feel it coming.... the scratchy thoat....that pressure in the sinuses... I didn't have the energy to fight it... I just let it claim me.
I'm feeling much better now though! My strength returned just enough for me to make a delicious vegetarian Christmas pie:

Good job too, otherwise I would've had just potatoes for my main meal, (wouldn't be the first time!) And seeing as though I'm the only veggie in the family -there's plenty left over for me to eat whenever I want a nibble - hoorah!
Of course it wouldn't be Christmas without Quality Strret. My sister bought two giant tins. My favorite is the fudge one - YUM! I'm not going back to NY until I've put on at least 10 pounds!!

Although I was out of it for the last few days, I did manage to get a bit of knitting in, (no surprise there then!)
Here's a scarf I finished in the wee hours of Christmas morning when the house was full of snores and ticking clocks:

It's the free kit I got for renewing my Rowan membership last year. I think it's called Froth Scarf and it's made from two balls of Kidsilk Haze, (nice stuff, but a pain to frog!) I didn't want to do the ruffle trim, so just carried on with the main pattern until I'd used up all the yarn.
Here's the recipient, taking a break from kitchen duties:


As well as being nuts about all things knitting, I have another passion......I am an admirer of the work of Dutch artist and storyteller, Dick Bruna. My favorite character of his being a certain little rabbit named, Miffy. Over the years I have collected tonnes of Miffy stuff; books, toys, mobiles, bags, pencils etc. but I don't have the room for such a collection now so it is mostly boxed up in my parents' attic, at least that's where I hope it is!!
I usually where an orange Miffy watch, but I need to replace the battery!
This Christmas my Mum gave me these:

Hoorah! My feet will be warm and happy and covered in pink Miffies!!




Talking of pink......that's my 4 3/4 year old niece's favorite colour...
Here's she is testing out her new pink skates - we had good fun yesterday tearing up and down the hall - i think its fabulous that she shows no fear and laughs louder than ever when shes dramatically crashes to the floor!


I'll be babysitting her this evening while my sister and her partner/boyfriend/finace? (not sure what we're calling him at mo?), anyway...they're going out tonight, so I'll be over at their farm getting up to all sorts of mischeif with little miss trouble! hehehe!

It's great being at my parents' house. It's spacious and airy and I get to sleep in a proper bed! There is plenty of good food and we have a good laugh. But there are weird things in the house - things one normally wouldn't expect to see...
As I walked into the room I'm sleeping in, I notice stuff on the floor - the usual; clothes, boxes, remains of Christmas present wrapping, then near a set of drawers was this:

Two limbless dolls wrapped in plastic...

Downstairs in the "Sewing Room", so named as it houses a couple of sewing machines and tonnes of fabric, but also many other things that haven't found a proper home. When I went in there to fetch a box of chocolate shortbread biscuits, (YUM!),I found these in the corner:




Is it just my family that's like this?

Heather Does England - Part 1

(Long post - but bear with me, there's a bit about knitting coming up - promise!)
After saying my goodbyes to the tiny, dark apartment, I was very happy to see a taxi pull up beside me on Central Park West - he must've spotted the two rather large bags I was dragging and recognised a decent sized fare. A friendly chap from the Ivory Coast, he enquied if I was fond of football and if I had watched his team in the World Cup, I hadn't but did hear something about peace decending over his country as they watched their team - but am embarassed to say that's about all I know about it.
My flight took me to Manchester - I usually fly into Heathrow, so it was a refreshing change to hear the scouse and manc accents around me instead of the usual harsh sounds of the southerners.
I made a mistake with the choice of in-flight movie, "The Wickerman", starring Nicholas Cage - what a load of old tripe! Should've switched over to Penelope Cruz's "Volver", but left it too late and wanted to try and rest as I had a longish drive ahead of me.
Tiredness prevented me from even taking the crochet out of my bag - so much for getting the project all set up - but I would've been miffed if I didn't have it if I needed it!
After fidgeting around in my seat for the entire 6 1/2hrs, I was happy to see the dark and drizzley homeland beneath us.
Quickly through passport control and baggage claim I went in search of the Car Rental place, which took a while to locate but friendly staff on hand pointed me in the right direction and I found myself behind the wheel of a funny little blue Fiat Punto by 6:30am. I talked myself through the controls, (as it had been a year since I was last in the driving seat), and after a few loops around the car park I let myself loose on the streets of early morning northern England - there was hardly anyone else around so I felt quite at ease.
As I drove south the sun started to rise and it was very tempting to put the pedal to the metal but had been warned about the increase of speed cameras so I kept an eye on the speedometer as I trundled along.
With a big smile on my face, (happy that I hadn't caused a massive pile-up!), I reached my destination just before 8:30am - HOORAH! Home at last!
It's so good to be home, it doesn't matter if you've just nipped out to the shops or been on a round-the-world trip, there's nothing like the feeling of coming home.

So the last few days have been somewhat of a blur.....
Most of Sunday was a sleepy haze.
Monday was spent with my 4 3/4 year old niece and 16month old newphew - great fun but completely exhausting. We played lots of games and I took them both to the supermarket so had a little taste of what it would be like to be the mother of two little ones. Good fun but it was nice to had them back over to their parents at the end of the day!
Tuesday I got a few of the things on my list done:
1. Eat a chip butty:
The photographic evidence being; Menu board inside the chip shop - look at all the deep fried goodness one can experience:

Here are the chips!

Mum and Dad had the works - Fish, chips, mushy peas, bread and butter and a nice cup of tea:

Here's my chip butty - deeeelicious!:

Shot also reveals huge dark circles around the eyes, (not been able to sleep since leaving NYC!! Stress of needing visa is most probably too blame)

After running around getting everything ready for the London trip the next day, I was able to start a new knitting project - a jumper, (sweater), for my niece, (just making it up as I went along) but I was obviously not paying enough attention as it just about fit me:

So it's frogging time for that....

Wednesday: After maybe 2 or 3 hrs sleep I jumped on a train bound for our capital city. Again tiredness prevented me from crocheting or reading. (On Tuesday night, when I should've been sleeping, I finished reading "The Bookseller of Kabal" - very interesting book that I had started to read well over a year ago - had to put it down while my life stopped to write my book - so it was very nice to be able to relax and start reading again!! I recommend it!
I had been dreading the visa renewal process since last year's was performed. Not only is it expensive: Over $2000 for the H1B to be prepared, $100 for the Embassy fee,(not incuding the £1+ per minute phone charge when calling them to book the appointment), £13.50 for the courier to deliver the passport and an astounding £110 for the train to London!!
They then make you stand in a queue outside for around an hour, (yesterday was particulary cold and very damp), last year I had to wait a total of 5 hrs! Luckily, this year it was only 2 hrs! I was out of there very much more quickly than I had bargined for - I hardly did any crochet and only ate half of the Nutella, peanut butter and sliced banana sandwhich I had prepared for the occasion the night before!!
My plan was to meet my Mum in the afternoon, who was travelling down on a later train, (she can travel free in first class!!)
I took a long stroll down the very busy Oxford Street, dropping into John Lewis' habadashary deptmartment - happy to see a good choice of yarns, books and plenty of knitters shopping including a glimse of Father Christmas who was asking small children what they wanted this year:

If I had had the courage, I would've sat on his knee and asked him for a longer holiday but I was being a bit shy.

Topshop was next on my list, saw a lot of things I wanted to buy, but with the dollar so weak, it's all a bit pricy. I bought a flowery dress, only to see it being worn by a girl on the street as I stepped outside - Oh well, hopefully it won't be so popular in NY!
By this time I was really dragging - my body was telling me to go home and straight to bed, but there was one other place I really wanted to see...



I had had an annonymous comment about I Knit London on my blog, checked out their website and it looked like the kind of place I would be into.
After a tube ride across the thames, I arrived in Vauxhall, followed the sketch I had copied down of the directions and arrived just outside of the shop as my Dad phoned to say that Mum had arrived, (Which was closer to were I had just come from, typical!) I told him that I wouldn't be long but what bad timing as it turns out that I Knit London is a fab little shop! I fell instantly in love with it and it's part owner, Gerard, a Liverpool native and my new best friend!
Here's a few shots:




Check out their website and knit a blue square for their Knit a river!!

I bade I Knit London a fond farewell, hoping to return soon and jumped back on the tube to head northwards.















I met up with Mumbly who had eaten lunch with my brother and his girlfriend who live down there. By this time I was barely awake, but did have one last stop to make before heading home again:

Here's Mum on the phone with Dad, (telling him that we had regrouped), outside of another nice knitting shop called Loop:

I was happy to see that they sold the Blue Sky brand, (one of my favorites).
They also sell gorgoeus knitted lavender pillows, (I have been wanting to make some for myself for ages but keep forgetting to get the lavender!) I also liked the stuffed toys with strange expressions and cuddly soft bodies. Here's my favorite, a foxy sort of creature, lying in the window, (although it's his orangeness I probably really like!)


It's a shame that I had such little energy/time.....I rarely go to London any more and there is so much I would like to see and do there..... maybe next time...

Last Post from NYC of 2006

With less than an hour to go until I leave for the airport, I had to start a new project.
Not wanting to have my precious needles confiscated, I opted to go crochet for the journey. If my fat plastic crochet hook gets taken from me at JFK, I won't be too upset.

Using some mystery stash yarn, I cast on, (not sure what the proper term is for beginning a hooking project), this thing, which I hope will become a beautiful scalloped-edge scarf and maybe I'll be able to give it away as a Chrietmas present! (I'm not that good at crochet, so we'll see what happens!) Inspiration for this project was from a gorgeous, (much nicer than my lame-o effort), scarf that Rachel made - Leave a comment, Rachel so you can take a bow - I don't know how to link to you!!
Now that's sorted out, I can finished packing and try to flag down a Taxi.
Little England here I come!!

Sneaky Peak

Yes, I know I haven't posted any photos in ages but I do have a good excuse....
...my wrist is still not pain-free - but a helluva lot better than it was! Thanks for all the well wishes - I really do appreciate them :o)

In knitting news, (yes, I have been able to do a little bit - can't keep me down for long!), I've been working on a secret project for Miss Stoller's new menswear book. Here's a naughty sneak peak:


It's a fairly easy knit, but I'm not enjoying the pattern writing. What I thought to be a very clever way of increasing the pattern for the larger sizes has become a huge pain in the neck and I can't wait for it to be over!! That will be my Christmas holiday homework!!

There are also at least 5 finished projects that I need to photograph and publish the patterns - it's going to be a busy, busy holiday in the land of Chip Butties for me!!

I'm off to my homeland this coming Saturday for a glorious two weeks - Yipee! Looking forward to shopping at Marks and Spencers for some new undies - they're the BEST! And checking out what's going on at Topshop. There will be stops at all "wool shops" in my vicinity, including a newish one in Beeston that I'll be able to walk to - Hoorah!! Maybe I'll get the chance to meet a few fellow Brit bloggers? Drop me a line if you're in the UK and maybe we can rendezvous ;o)

Happy Birthday to MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Sorry to have been absent - I have soooooo much blogging to catch up on but doubt I will get the chance before I leave for my homeland.
May I take this opportunity to say a HUUUUUGE "Thank You" to everyone who helped me to celebrate my birthday - it has been a weekend of great company and delicious food, the finale being a slendid dinner with the boyfriend this evening at this place where we dined in the company of this man.
If you are in the mood for more of an upscale vegatarian dining experience, I heartily recommend it.
Massive thanks for all of the thoughtful cards, gifts and well wishes - I feel so very lucky and privilaged to have so many wonderful, genorous, GORGEOUS people in my life - THANK YOU!!!!!!