Busy Weekend

Hello Dear Readers,

Due to the EXCESSIVE leave that I get working at Kew, I have enough left over to work only 4 days weeks until the end of my contract (Sept 10). I took last Friday off to take care of some business, including working on a paper for publication and finally registering for a GP! It seems the real problem I had before was going to the wrong one, one that as I was informed the first time I went there was "only for keeping English people healthy." I thought that didn't sound right, so the second time I went there to register they told me I had to prove that I was going to be in the UK for 6 months which I could only do by showing I was a registered student or had a job for 6 months. So when I went back with proof of my job at Kew and a letter from the place where I teach knitting, they informed me I needed to show I had been in the UK 6 months AND was going to be there 10 more months. I showed my letter from The Sewing Rooms, but since it didn't have an end date (it was open ended and implied I had a job as long as I wanted) it wasn't good proof I would be here 10 months. At the advice of some of my friends I went somewhere else, and guess what? All they wanted was proof I had an address in the UK and a copy of my passport for identity!! My first clue that I wouldn't get satisfaction should have been them saying it was only for keeping "English people" healthy, foreigners beware! Ah well, at least I finally got in the system!


In other news, I've been busy knitting! I made this cowl for keeping warm in the chilly herbarium. It works perfectly because it keeps me warm without dragging in the specimens.
It was a quick project that I could work on while chilling out watching movies on the weekend.
I did a double twist in the tube to make a pleasing drape on the neck, I think it works pretty well. Originally I did it about 5 times too big, but the second try is the charm.
I've also been working pretty steadily on my lace-weight cardigan which I'm making from some yarn Patrick got me for my birthday. I'm already under the arms and working down the body.
Madeleine was also here on Friday on her way back to Amarillo. She gave me a fantastic bag with dachshunds on it and a cute sewing kit that will be perfect for me to take with me while I'm working on a new quilt. She also dropped off these two gems of books for me to use while she's out of the country. Beautiful illustrations of a new flora to learn, perfect!!

Just working 4 days again this week, I will try not to get too used to it. The other thing I did Friday was to apply for 3 jobs at Kew that would be starting in a few months, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Mini-Break

Hello Dear Readers,

This week I had a mini-break (that's what they call a short vacation here) of a sorts. I'm still trapped without a passport, but I took some of my excessive leave from work to go up to Harpenden on Thursday. I just love taking the train, so civilized! I met up with all of Madeleine's friend's from Graduate School which was fantastic because I had heard so much about them from her and it was good to be able to put a face to a name. They all seemed really great, and the time just flew by as we talked and ate at fabulous restaurants. I also go to see the place where Madeleine did her PhD (Rothemstead). Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with them again the next time they all get together.


Friday I slept in a bit, then went off to be a tourist at the Tower of London (I get in free with my Kew pass, milking that baby for all it's worth!). Here is the famous tower bridge, featured in the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

I took the tour given by the "beef-eaters" who are all ex-military and actually live within the tower walls with their families. We did get rained on a bit (this IS England) but I think it added to the mystique and gloom of the place.


Here is part of the actual 1000 year old Norman tower. On the bottom left of the picture you can just make out the cages for the Ravens at the tower. There is a story about the ravens which you can read here on wikipedia. I didn't go into the tower but instead went to see the crown jewels. They don't allow pictures in there, but do sell a lovely souvenir guide for only 5.99 (pounds that is). They were sparkly and big and pretty, but I was stuck in front of the most annoying family in England consisting of a loudmouth granny, annoying mum and the worst behaved 10 year old boy ever, who they kept feeding lollypops. AArgh! I was about ready to slap each of them by the time we got to the jewel room!
One the way out I got stuck behind the changing of the guard, with their big bearskin hats. Then I took myself over to Embankment and had a hot cup of tea (It was rainy, England, and Afternoon, you must have some tea!) and went to console myself by getting some new face wash from Lush. Mmmmmm! Afterwards Chris came from work and we went over to IKnit London and picked out some new yarn for some slippers for me since my old ones are ripped to shreds. At home I soaked in the bathtub for a good hour and a half while Chris made dinner, then we watched Idiocracy with Patrick (while I knit) and went to bed. What a fantastic "vacation". I'm making up for it now by doing 4 loads of laundry and cleaning the house like a maniac, but it was really worth it, I should do this more often.

Super Secret Knitting and A wonderful guest

Hello Dear Readers,

What a tiring (in a good way) week! Last Wednesday I went with some girls from Kew to see the Bolshoi Ballet do Le Corsaires at the Royal Opera House in Convent Garden. We had 'seats' in the upper slips, the top floor, on the far side of the horseshoe shaped auditorium. We had to stand for a lot of the performance and lean over to see, but it was still FANTASTIC. They were so talented, and the costumes were a feast for the eyes. I stayed out in the city until 1 1pm on a School Night (as it were) but it was fun and well worth it. Except Friday afternoon when I had to leave work early because I was so tired out!

I have also been very busy working on super secret knitting projects, some of which I can now reveal because they are already wending their way to their recipients.

These are some flowers and bugs that some of you that may or may not read this blog will see in a few weeks. It's from a book I picked up at Knit Nation for my friend in Amarillo.

We had seen this book together and both liked it, but when we went back later it was gone! I saw it straight away at Knit Nation and knew it was Kismet.

The flowers are really well done, and there are a large variety of fruits, veggies and insects as well. It's both Knitting and Crochet, and it's the perfect way to use small bits of yarn.

These socks are the Skew pattern from Knitty Winter 2009. I used some yarn Madeleine's mother sent me for my birthday, it was pretty nice to work with, even though it is superwash.

The pattern really turns knitting socks on it's side, literally and figuratively, and they were a really nice mental exercise to work on.

I also had a visitor this week!

The aforementioned Madeleine who is back in Jolly Old England for her friend's wedding. We went shopping on Saturday and had lunch at the food court, it really felt like the good old days, but better because Chris was there too.

Busy busy week, just spending today catching up with chores and spending some time with my brother. Madeleine brought some special food items for me from Amarillo and we are going to make a special dinner together.

Finally, I leave you with a last piece of knitting so super secret, that it cannot yet be revealed except in part....

oooh, the suspense!

Knit Nation!

Hello Dear Readers,

A friend of a friend had bought a ticket to Knit Nation (a big knitting/teaching/marketplace event going on in London) but couldn't use them so I got to go! I wasn't really planning on buying anything but it's always fun to go look and hang around with hundreds of other knitters, plus, I had a mission. The woman who couldn't use the tickets wanted a skein of Woolmeise, which apparently is THE hot new yarn from Germany so I got to go shopping for someone else, an activity I much prefer. The yarn comes in crazy vibrant colors, and the booth looked like this:
That's just some of it! The poles are covered in knitting as well, and each bookcase of yarn topped with a colorful knitted object. The marketplace was relatively (compared to say, Maryland sheep and wool) small but lapped it three times at least and was never bored.

I ran into 3 knitting celebrities. Woolly Wormhead, famous for her unconventionally knitted hats, graciously allowed me to take her photo:


Ysolda Teague was there as well, and in her booth were all the knitted items she has had featured on Knitty and the Twist Collective, and best of all she had a photo booth so you could try things on and take a photo. I asked if I could photograph her for my blog and she said, "would you like to be in the photo too?" and I said, "yeah!" And so we took one together in the photo booth and then it printed out and I said "can I keep it?" and she said "Yeah, would you like me to sign it?" and I said "YEAH!" She was totally cool and friendly which must have been hard after three hard days of knitting fair and I'm plugging her patterns because they are incredible, go check out her blog and rav page! I'll post the signed picture when I get a chance to scan it in. I also saw the net's most famous sock designer Cookie A at the very end of my trip, but I didn't snap a photo as everyone was hanging around waiting to hear the results of the door prize drawing.

Not celebrities (yet) but still pretty awesome were these two ladies

who are friends of mine from Knitting Group. I didn't know they would be there that day, so it was really fun to run into them. We sat outside for a bit of a rest, a snack and some knitting. It was glorious, there were knitters (male knitter alert!) to the left
To the right

and in front of me on the chairs everyone was either knitting, or eating while wearing fabulous knitwear.
It was a really refreshing and inspiring morning, I feel like I recharged some of my creative batteries. In the next few posts you will be seeing quite a bit more knitting from me, some only sneak peeks of secret knitting and some pretty darn cute stuff. Stay tuned! And thanks again to Annette Lee for the ticket!

In the footsteps - literallly- of Chuck and Al(fred)

Hello Dear Readers,

This week I was fortunate enough to attend a small meeting on early events in Monocot evolution. (Monocots are a group of plants made up largely of lilies, grasses and palms that I work on at Kew). The meeting was held at the Linnean Society in London, the same place (but not the same room) that Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace co-presented their ideas on evolution by means of natural selection.

At the head of the room is the Alligator skin chair (with lovely embroidered cushion) under portraits of three very important scientists. Linneas is in the center (father of the system we use for naming all life on earth), flanked by Hooker (famous botanists, former Keeper at Kew) and someone else who's name had rubbed off. There were also portraits of Darwin, Wallace, Robert Brown (from whom we get Brownian motion) and others.


The Linnean Society (oldest botanical society in the world) is in the same complex of buildings as the Royal Society for Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy and the Arts. This is the Royal Society, the building where Darwin and Wallace actually presented their work. Upstairs from the meeting room was the Linnean library where tons of rare and fantastic books are kept. The basement also houses Linnean's original herbarium specimens from which many of the names of common plants are derived.

How cool is my life!

Hampton Court - and good old William and Mary!

Hello Dear readers,

Last weekend while Mom, Chris, AND Pat were over in Cyprus so I took the opportunity to go with a friend from work to one of the places that I can get into free with my Kew pass.


We chose Hampton Court, the former pleasure palace of Henry VIII, who just happened to be getting 'married' the day we went.

First Hannah and I went out to see the grounds, and enjoyed doing the hedge maze. We managed in under 10 min, not too bad. It reminded me a lot of the William and Mary triathlon except it wasn't dark and we weren't listening out for the police....

I also noticed this interesting crest over one of the windows which looked just like the William and Mary symbol, what a coincidence. Turning the corner I saw this:

It's a little hard to see in this picture, but in the rectangle above the Corinthian columns is William and Mary writ out in Latin, quite large. Apparently they inherited the place from Henry VIII and added a whole suite of apartments!

Heading back towards the palace we saw the man himself headed to his stag party.

Along with our tickets came free audio tours, so we went through the William and Mary apartments, then Henry VIII's area (and saw the newly married Henry and Katherine Parr announced as Man and Wife) and finally finished up with the kitchens.

All in all a very grand day out, and thanks to Hannah for coming up with the idea and hanging out with me!

Oliver!

Hello Dear Readers,

More on my Sister and Mom's trip to London last week. Mom left on Friday for Cyprus with Chris while Cat, Pat and I had a grand day out in the city. In the morning Cat and I went to Leisceister Square to get discount tickets to a West End show (and randomly ran into Chris's cousin, who lives in North London. Who says it's a big impersonal city?). We were hoping for Lion King but they didn't offer cheap tickets. Instead we went with Oliver which was a FANTASTIC show! And I remembered a lot more of the songs than I thought I did. But first, while waiting for our brother to get there we did a highlights tour of the National Gallary (led by me, showing Cat some of my favorites)

Then we went across the street to St. Martin's in the Fields and had lunch in the Crypt. Yes, really in the crypt where they put dead people.

Here we are sitting over grave stones...... and next is the Drury Lane Theatre where we saw the show. The sets were amazing, they changed the background cityscape so you feel like they are really running through the theatre. At one point a train was supposed to be passing overhead onstage and I was confused for about a minute when it didn't go by, I was that absorbed in the show!

After the show we headed to Gordon's Wine bar, the oldest bar in London, but first encountered some Dalaaks...

After Cat figured out how to take pictures by candlelight (we sat and had a drink actually in the old wine celler) we drained the bottle and talked for a solid hour as only Lindon's can. Loudly, with much teasing and bickering. Great times, we should do this more often than once every 3 years.....

Feeling a little tipsy, we traipsed over toward Waterloo Station, where Cat and I went on our "flight" on the Eye. Luckily the long line let us sober up a little before we went up.

Aww, what a fantastic trip. I wish Cat could visit every weekend! Thanks for coming over sissy!