IKnit Weekender and London

On Thursday we left for London for a family weekend. Friday morning at 7.30 am, after about 3 hours sleep (the bed was far too soft and the room too hot), I left the hotel in North London and got on the train and then the tube to get to Iknit Weekender. How do people cope with communting on the tube every day. One morning was enough for me. I had to stand nearly all the way and it was packed. I was rather stressed and hot by the time I arrived at Victoria. I then walked the short distance to the venue.

I taught 'Two at a time socks on circular needles) in the morning. The workshop was 3 hours and I had 15 knitters. They were all great and worked really hard. It was quite difficult for some of them as about half the class had never knitted socks before. The recommendation for this class was that people should have knitted at least one pair of socks before attending. I enjoyed the class but it was hard work. I like to give a lot of individual attention and with a lot of the techniques involved in sock knitting you have to show people close up. It's not easy to demonstrate to a full class. As a result I ran around like mad for most of the lesson and realised how unfit (and overweight) I really am.

I had just over an hour off in the middle of the day before my 3 hour intermediate lace knitting class in the afternoon. I had a quick lunch and then walked around to look at the stalls. There weren't as many stalls as I'd thought there would be but this was my first time at Iknit Weekender. All the stalls were great though. I was tempted by so much delicious yarn but I decided to be good as I really do not need more yarn. I did buy a crochet book and some gorgeous buttons. I'll take pics of them when I've unpacked my suitcase.

I headed back to my class room early to relax and prepare for my lace class which was fantasic. I had 10 knitters, 3 of whom I'd met at Woolfest in June, and they were all very good knitters and everyone kept up really well. We knitted a small lace swatch based on my Strawberry Patch Stole and then practiced working the knitted on border. It was a much more relaxing class and I actually managed to sit down for most of it.

I failed at taking pics. The only one I took was this one of my empty lace class room (before the class started):

Afterwards, I walked to Westminster Abbey to meet Simon and the girls who had spent the day at the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. Although it was only a short walk, I was in so much pain (in my back/neck) by the time i got there. We decided to try and find a Pizza Express restaurant we went to a few years ago somewhere along the river. We knew roughly were it was and walked along the Southbank for what seemed like ages. We were all tired and hungry and i was in a lot of pain so in the end we gave up and went to the Gourmet Pizza Company instead and had lovely pizzas. We headed back on the tube to the railway station to catch our train back ot the hotel. Unfortunately the train pulled away from teh platform just as we got there. We had to wait a whole hour for the next train. It was gone 10pm by the time we got back to the hote. I fell straight into bed.

On Saturday, after a all you can eat Premier breakfast (we stayed at a Premier Inn and the breakfasts were fantastic), we headed back into London. Vanessa and I headed to Harrods while Emily and Simon went to a book shop on Picadillly. We had great fun walking around Harrods and laughing at all hte OTT stuff there. The Pet Kingdon department especially gave us a good laugh. The clothes they sell for dogs is unbelievable. I can't believe that people actually buy that kind of stuff for their dogs and at designer prices. they had a dog treat stall selling cakes, pup cakes and other treats for dogs. They really did look good enough to eat. I bought our dog, Sam, a chew bone.

We also visited the musical instruments department where we listened to two staff playing on the grand pianos. It sounded fantasic. We also walked through the food halls. Wow! So much gorgeous food. As we both love ice cream we couldn't resist this (which we shared as it was HUGE):

And look at these cakes:

We also walked past Harvey Nichols but didn't go in. We spent a long time looking at the window displays though:

                                                        thousands of pencils

                                                                     a dress made out of wooden pegs

a car decorated with race horses.          

Aren't they amazing?

Afterwards, we went to meet Simon and Emily and headed to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.  I looked at Van Gough's sunflower painting and then found a seat to relax in while Simon and hte girls looked around. I'm not the arty type and I was so tired and in pain again. I actually dozed off for a bit and I wasn't the only one. The sofa I sat on was full of people leaning against the wall and snoozing.

We then walked up to China Town for an early evening meal at a Chinese restaurant which was quite nice. We decided to head back to the hote earlier that night.

On Sunday we went in to London for the final time to attend a service at Holy Trinity Brompton. Simon and i have wanted to go there for a long time. And it was a fantastic service, the worship music was great and Nicky Gumpbell was preaching. He is the founder of the Alpha course which both Simon and I attended when we became Christians.

Emily was really keen to see the pet department at Harrods and as Harrods was only a few hundreds meters up the road from the church we walked up there for another walk around the Pet Kingdom. We also looked at the Mineral Gallery and the Foold Halls again. The girls also wanted to see Buckingham Palace so we stopped there for a few mins. We got back to the hotel to collect our car much later than planned and got home very late last night.

I did do a little bit of knitting but nowhere near as much as i'd planned. I occasionally took out my knitting when we had breaks during the day and on the tube/train. I spent most of the time working on my Carment shawl and it's getting bigger, although it doen'st look like it's growing.

 i'm keen to finish this soon.

I had taken the yarn, pattern and needles for a new project to start but I never had time or energy to get onto it. I finally started this morning and then realised I'd made a mistake and had to re-start it again. Once I got going, progress was quick. I'm loving this project and I could have easily spent all day knitting. I did treat myself to a bit of knitting time this morning before I got down to do some work. I've got 3 patterns to finish that should have been finished last week. I've nearly finished one and hte others are half-done.

Most of the club yarn was dyed last week but it's still not completely dry. I'll be dyeing the rest tomorrow and it'll be posted as soon as it's dry. Sock club parcels were posted before we left on Thurday and I forgot to take photos... again!

Now, i'm going to watch a Sandra Bullock movie, 28 days, and do some more knitting.

Nite x