Ginger Knits UK

Taken on Sunday. It's a test knit for a new p/hop pattern.

I'm pretty sure 2012 isn't going to be year of the Monkey in the Chinese calendar, but I couldn't resist this kitsch calendar when we were in Hong Kong last year. I was taken with the different picture for each month.  

Here's my first finished object of 2012. A bit like the food most of us have been eating for the last post-Chrimbo week, they are leftover socks. They've been on the go for yonks, and almost finished but I was dithering over the cuff colour. The teal green of the toe and heel felt too dark for the cuff. In the end I used a smidgen of my Old Maiden Aunt Put on the day sock yarn which I think compliments the colours in the body of the sock, which is Misti Alpaca sock yarn. The toes and heel are Lang Yarns Jawolle, the name of which is a work of genius. I've used the nylon thread that comes with Jawolle in the toe and heel so I'll see how well they wear.

Yesterday we went to London's Natural History Museum, one of my favourite places in the city, to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. We went with our good friends Paula and Brian who are also travel and photography fans. The exhibition was surprisingly quiet so there was plenty of space to take in the awe inspiring images as well as chat about travel, photographic techniques (In camera double exposure anyone?) and of course, the wildlife. Paula and I were both taken with this abstract image of a spider's web, by Finnish photographer, Antti Partanen, titled A Spectrum of Silk. There were also some outstanding entries in the Black and White categories. This photo of a chachalaca (it's a bit like a jungle turkey) , by Gregory Basco , would make a lovely fabric print. If you can't make it to the exhibition you can view all the images online . So where is the knitting in all of this? Well back in the summer I asked Brian...

Hello 2012! I hope the New Year is full of joy, success and happiness for you all. December 2011 was full of knitting so I'll be showing you some of my FOs, yes I actually finished things, over the next few blog posts. I've also been bustling around London since Christmas visiting exhibitions. We had a quiet evening last night, eating good food and sampling interesting beers and ciders. Back in October we collected some quince from our friends garden, which I turned into Quince cheese . We saw in 2012 eating grapes, in the Spanish tradition*, Manchego cheese and the quince cheese. A delicious way to start the new year. *Eating one grape on every stroke of midnight. It's harder than it sounds. It's also good fun.