Knit-o-Rama

Hello Dear Readers,

I know, I know, long time no post. Been busy this month with working 6-7 days a week (plus taking Greek lessons on Thursdays, at last!) but I am feeling a bit rough today so I'm taking it easy and working from home today. Taking a break from work though I thought I'd update you on my craft activities.

You may remember this yarn from this post almost a year ago that Patrick gave me for my birthday. I have been working on this cardigan since August, designing, knitting, ripping, knitting, repeat and finally finished two weeks ago. It's so light and lovely, but still warm since it's cashmere and silk. Love wearing it, but I'm still a bit nervous that I'm going to snag it on something, or that I will spill sauce on it!

Here is another finished item, a little shrug made out of what was left over from Odie's sweater
And this fun little guy who is very naughty and keeps appearing all over the house; i.e. in Patrick's bed, in my closet etc....... naughty monkey! My mother sent me the yarn and patterns for making sock monkeys and I am loving it. After finishing this one I cast on right away for the baby version. They are going to a friend of ours in Cyprus who is having her second son in April.

Big plans this weekend as Chris and I are going to see Cirque du Solei's new production, Totem. It is at Royal Albert hall and we are going with our friends Molly and George from Graduate school. Afterwards we are going to a vegan resturant, hooray!

Last post about Cyprus

Hello Dear Readers,

Made it back from Cyprus last week safe and sound, but from the time the plane hit the ground I was off running, back to work, back to the gym, back to Kew on Sat's and teaching knitting on Sun so I've been too busy to post properly. Chris and I moved rooms over the holiday and now we are in the spacious upstairs room that used to belong to my brother (he's moved his huge stash of clothes, books, video games etc into the largest room, he needs it!). The upshot is that Chris has space for his desk and computer and I have a horizontal space for my sewing machine and crafting. Yay! It's the perfect amount of space for us, photos to follow. It also means we have lots more room for visitors, including a pull out futon in Patrick's room (Hint Hint HINT!).Here are some of the last images I took in Cyprus. The Epiphany is a really big deal there, and the Archbishop of all Cyprus comes to Paphos (he's from there anyway) and throws the celabratory cross into the sea, which crazy young men dive in after. I have no idea what this is supposed to symbolize, but it's a rip roaring good time with a band, marching naval ensigns, cotton candy and popcorn sellers, the works.
In the afternoon Chris and I took one last drive in the mountains. We saw donkeys and goats, and this amazing waterspout over the sea at sunset. It's a little hard to see because the sunset lighting was poor, but towards the left of center is a dark bit of cloud that extended all the way to the sea. Pretty neat sight!

All in all it was an ok trip, but all the family obligations we had, not to mention staying with my mother in law for two weeks, meant I was REALLY glad to come back to my own house and my own space.

We may be going back at Easter time, we'll have to see. For right now I'm enjoying finishing off my blue laceweight sweater, making a prodded rug for Patrick's new bathroom, and knitting up some sock monkeys for some friends of ours who are expecting their second child in April. Never at a loss for somethin to do.

Cheers!

More Holiday Fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Another whirlwind week in progress here at our holiday house in sunny Cyprus. After recovering from New Years, Chris and I took a fantastic hike on a trail in the north-west peninsula known as the Akamas region. There is a sort of nature preserve there with four hiking trails. We took a 7.5 km one that started out going pretty much straight up a hill, what would in Texas probably be classed as a mountain. It did afford us spectacular views of the bay of Lachi which this photo hardly does justice to (yay for dipping into my 2011 photos now, love that fresh feeling of a new year!).
It got pretty warm hiking and I was down to just a tank top - I know Chris will not like the plunge back into the London cold next week! We saw some pretty good flora, including lots of cyclamins which are my favorite.

We also saw this strange new bush with unusual berries.......(the picture isn't great so I'll tell you they are shells from shotguns)
We heard quite a few gunshots while we were out, and even ran into a jeepload of hunters. I was repeating "don't shoot don't shoot" as we were hiking but as I don't know how to say it in Greek it probably didn't make a difference one way or another..... When we got to the top there was a large stone structure and some ruins, it looked like an old church or monestary, with a few remnants of paintings on walls still visable. I took some of the stones that had fallen off the ruined walls and put them back on - every little helps as they say in England.

Another day we went to the little botanic gardens that is set up here, but to be honest it was pretty dissapointing, mislabeled plants and very small gardens. We were also the only people there, I think they were preparing for some big event because the tavern was set up with chairs draped in white fabrices, but no one seemed to pay us much attention anyway.

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to finish things, specifically craft projects. Chris's mom has had these needlepoint projects in her closet certainly as long as I've been coming to Cyprus, and most of them were started when Chris's sister was 5 or 6.

This time I decided to really get cracking on finishing some. We took a trip to the local habadashary to see if they had some of the same yarn, the woman said whoah those are really old, we don't carry that knid of thread anymore but you can try a shop called Evros. We went there and took a look and lo and behold he still had most of the colors I needed! I asked about the white for the background and he said evyerthhign I have is there because the factory stopped making that kind of yarn a long time ago. I may very well be the last person that buys that kind of tapeestry thread off of him.
As of the writing of this blog I'm just about done with the one with the girl in the white background....... no idea really what I will do with them but they were just calling out to me to be finished and liberated from their bag in the back of the closet. If you see anything you like feel free to call dibs! I can make it up into a pillow, or it can be framed, turned into a bag.... you name it.

Finally on Tuesdsay we caught some of the solar eclipse that was visable here. I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't turn out at all. Here is chris checking it out behind the safety of some polarised glass he has just for that purpose.
I never saw a proper solar eclipse before, even a partial one like this. It was pretty special.

Tomorrow is the Epiphany, the last day of Christamas and an important day here in the holiday calander. We are going to try to get up early enough to watch them throw a cross into the sea an see a bunch of grown men swim after it to try to catch it..... not sure what that achieves but it'll be a good cultural experience anyway. After that we are driving to the capital to see Chris's sister and her family, in the quiet of their own home instead of the craziness of the holiday.

Home again home again on the 9th....looking forward to it. I like being here on vacation and learning lots of Greek, but there really is no place like home!