europe2008 | Laura Chau

the yarn…and a first!

September 18, 2008

I bought a lot of yarn while I was away. A lot. I only bought one piece of clothing (an expensive but amazing, made-in-France skirt) and the one pair of shoes (which, by the way, are Doc Martens for anyone who asked), but I bought a hell of a lot of yarn. I hadn’t really intended to, but whatever. Yarn makes a great souvenir!

I got some at k1 in Edinburgh, some at Le Bon Marche in Paris, but most of it came from iknit day.

In the top left, there’s cashmere from Devon Fine Fibres, some for presents and some for me – they raise their own flock, and have a very limited supply of yarn, but it’s sooo beautiful. And inexpensive, for sure.

Top right is organic merino from ColdHarbour Mill, a working mill and textile museum! They had 100g skeins of the undyed organic merino on for 5 pounds, and I bought a sweater’s worth of the 4ply plus some others for gifts.

Bottom left is two skeins of Bowmont wool from Devon Fine Fibres, a new rare cross breed. It’s a mix of merino and shetland, and is really soft in a still-wooly way! They didn’t have much left when we got there (I blame erqsome, she bought a sweater’s worth of the grey) so I just got the two skeins. Now, what to make?

And in the bottom right, not yarn of course, it’s fabric from Liberty. Expensive, but sooo pretty. I’m going to have to make a few more practice skirts before I commit to cutting this up!

And the first?

Last night I held my book for the first time – a box came into the store just when I was starting to work last night. And I sold my first book, to my friend Jeff (I’m sure books have sold so far, but this was the first one *I* sold!). And I signed my first book.

Whew.

just a liiiitle more

September 15, 2008

My flight home was uneventful, if a bit long – the flight itself was about 7.5 hours, plus all that waiting around on either end (and it was far from the gate to customs and everything here in Toronto!). They showed one of the same movies as on the last flight (Ironman), which I thought was pretty lame – but this plane had leather seats. Did I mention that this flight was also delayed? I got an email last week from my booking agency with the details – it was delayed by almost 6 hours. At least, again, I knew in advance!

My sister apparently harvested a flying saucer (patty-pan-type) squash while I was away that had gone unnoticed – and when harvested it was the size of, I dunno, a smallish cabbage? The one thing I asked my family to do while I was away was to watch my plants, and they didn’t really do it. So now I’ve lost a few tomatoes and harvested a couple baseball bat zucchinis this evening. Sigh.

I think my attempt to beat jet lag is working, because it’s 11 pm here and I’m still (sort of) awake. I’ve been up for about 20 hours though, so I think it’s now time for bed!

Yarn photos shortly! I got some great stuff across the pond!

heading home

September 14, 2008

(Paris, view from Sacre-Coeur)

It’s my very last day in Europe, and I haven’t left Ysolda’s flat all day! It was nice, though, homey and such. And since we’re both headed out tomorrow, we could spend time packing without rushing. I vacuum-packed my clothes and yarn into the bottom of my suitcase, packed most everything else (except my like, pjs and wash bag) and I think I’ll get everything in there no problem. Getting the suitcase down the circular staircase on my own might be a bit tricky though!

We ended up getting pretty cheap tickets on a flight from Paris to Edinburgh – booked them Thursday night for a flight on Friday afternoon! It turned out to be way easier than taking the train anyway, and we got in around 7pm. Thank goodness Ysolda’s mom watches the news and rang us up to let us know – otherwise we would’ve just gone to the train station and been stuck!

Saturday morning we headed out to the Edinburgh farmer’s market for lots of goodies for dinner-making, plus I got a little bag of border tablet for my Scottish food souvenir – one certainly doesn’t need more than wee bit of that super-sweet stuff! ysolda blogged about our lovely dinner (with photos, which I couldn’t take because my hands were covered in pasta dough!).

So my European jaunt has come to an end (or close enough anyway). I had really great fun, especially in Paris! I think the sunshine had a lot to do with that! I did have a few feeling sick or homesick points, but overall it’s been a fantastic trip. I’ve got tons of photos, yarn and other souvenirs (more on that when I get back home!) and I had a great time going around with ys and experiencing Europe for the first time.

I’ll be back.

And psst – Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting (by yours truly) is now available on Amazon!

Join me for a book launch celebration at lettuce knit in Toronto on the evening of Wednesday the 24th of September!