Ginger Knits UK

I'm still not knitting as I've been watching... ... and photographing... ... and cheering ... ... and sometimes missing

I am failing at the Rav Games as I am too busy enjoying Olympic London. The atmosphere here is superb - friendly and polite, welcoming and quirky. On Sunday myself and a few friends went on tour visiting national houses. Some countries have commandered buildings in London to showcase their culture . Most of them are free and they are good fun. We started off in Casa Brasil aka Somerset House, where we saw some artwork, plus plans for their games in 2016. I think I'll go back in the evening and enjoy a caipriniha or two and pretend I'm on Copacobana beach. To keep this linked to the fibre arts they had this fabric wall and these freaky crochet dolls in part of an art exhibit. We watched a little bit of the women's marathon which to be honest was a little tiring so we mooched along South Bank, stopping off at the Tanks at Tate Modern, taking a break from sport and enjoying some culture I think Swiss House was my favourite as it had cheese and choc...

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...

I had some knitting time this afternoon. Look who came to help hinder my progress. These are socks (of course), which I am test knitting for the marvellous knittingtastic . I started them on the way home from a very eventful Woolfest. Great pattern. I'll let you know when knittingtastic publishes it. The yarn is easyknits BigBoy which I bought at KnitNation last summer and is lovely to knit with. I'm trying to knit with yarns I bought at shows last year, before the show dates come round for this year, though I'm failing at the mo. In other news, I broke my yarn diet, but with yarn for a specific project and only two skeins of DK. I was sorely tempted by many treasures at Woolfest but made sure I wandered around the show without any cash or cards on me. There'll be more on the eventful Woolfest coming soon on the p/hop blog.

I've been on a yarn diet since 1st January 2012. That's 140 days without buying yarn. What is the reason for this self-imposed austerity I hear you cry? What about all the gorgeous yarns out there. Why? Why? Why? Well this is why: Those 'x's on the photo are yarns I've used since taking the photo. I'm sort of using it to keep track of how much of my stash I actually knit with This is only part of my sock yarn stash. Admittedly some of the yarns photographed here (in a pique of annoyance of the size of my yarn habit last weekend) are leftovers, but never the less I still have a ridiculous stash. There are packs of jumper yarn picked up in sales, those numerous odd balls which I tell myself don't count, and the "oh, I'll treat myself" skeins when volunteering at knitting shows. Now I'm not denying the yarn does not bring me pleasure. It does. I love colour. I love texture. And I like supporting independent small businesses, bu...