Ginger Knits UK

I'm still on a bit of a high after our awesome Olympic games opening ceremony last night. We had our neighbours round as they don't have a TV, plus its nice to share these experiences. They're from Singapore and America and their Canadian friend was over too so we represented three continents between us. As a result my knitting went out the window. We did have cake, Olympic cheesecake... Plus British beers and international snacks. It was really interesting watching the ceremony with non-Brits who looked blankly at some of the in-jokes such as Michael Fish's 1987 weather report and The Archers theme so we were happy to explain the nuances of British culture. I'm nursing a bit of a sore head today thanks to our neighbour's Italian-Chinese walnut liqueur they brought from Beijing where they used to live (it was also fun comparing the Beijing and London ceremonies). I have done a little bit of knitting on my WIP wrestling entry which happens to be in...

I am very, very lucky. I got a ticket to the technical rehersal for the Olympic Games opening ceremony. I live just a few stops away from the Olympic Park on the Overground so thought I'd document my way to the games and the park around the stadium to give those of you who can't make it a taster of it which will be a little different to what you might see on TV. I'm part of #savethesurprise so I'm not sharing any photos of inside the stadium and what I saw (which is most excellent and I hope will do London and the UK proud) I did spot some knitters, but that includes spoilers, so you'll have to wait to hear about that. It's exciting to hear how many knitters I know are involved in one way or another. Anyway, here's the slide show. Enjoy! If you'd like to see a larger version please click this link which will take you to Flickr.

I'm having a bit of a fling with Picasso at the moment. When I was in Barcelona last month I managed to finally visit the Picasso Museum which documents his early life and last week I went to see the Vollard Suite drawings at the British Museum - which is FREE!!! To be honest I have no idea what a Vollard Suite is. I was with a work friend who was keen to get to the pub, it was Friday night, so we dashed round with Nick muttering "pub" under his breath. I'm easily distracted in museums and am terrible at doing the "ooh, just one more room, oh look, the next room has cool stuff in it too" which is usually fine but there was beer to be had after a long week. So, neverminding what a Vollard Suite is (yes I could read the blurb on the BM's website but I can't be bothered to right now), the drawings are beautiful. Many of them have an incredible composision and Picasso's use of the page is inspiring. The image below is grabbed from the museum web...