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I'm back!

Hello everybody!

Leon and I flew back from China this afternoon, and I want to say "hi'. We didn't just go away for a month. For 28 days we dropped off the digital network. No phones, no internet, no facebook, no Ravelry, no text messages. We could have stayed in contact, but it felt so good to just be in the moment.

The trip was fantastic. We crossed a quarter of the globe by train. We rode horses in Mongolia. We got drunk on Russian vodka. We drank and ate and saw amazing things. And I knit throughout. Also, those top bunks were fabulous to spindle from. And the boys we were travelling with thought the idea of "spindling from the top bunk" was hilarous.


Althought the trip had many highlights, there were surprisingly few fibre highlights. We saw a yarn shop in St Petersburg. The yarn was very ... bright. I thought Mongolia would be fibre central. there was plenty of fibre on the hoof:

And I even saw this sign:

but there was no actual fibre to be had.

In Beijing we stumbled across a yarn shop near the forbidden city, and I bought some lovely wool for a jumper for Leon. The guy in the shop indicated it as sheep by baa-ing at us! Weirdly enough the shop had lots of different yarn, but no needles or accessaries. i was trying to buy a row counter, but how do you say 'knit counter" in Chinese?

The trip afforded plently of opportunities for knitting. I finished the first Angee sock on the plane, and the leg of the second. I finished them on the train. They pooled terribly, but I still like them. They were a fun, relatively simple Cookie A knit.


The train tracks scarf was so simple and fun to knit. I love self stipping yarn and this was a dream to knit. I planned to make it twice as long, but after knittng 100 grams I thought enough was enough.

Then I cast on the featherweight cardigan. I've still got half an arm and the collar to go, but it turns out a lace weight cardigan is perfect holiday knitting. Here it is at the Great Wall in China

And that's it really. I've unpacked, put the stash in the stash box and I am planning my next project. After three weeks of stocking stitch, both straight and in the round, I'm thinking my next project is going to have cables, lots of them, and steeking too.

Comments

  1. Welcome home!! Ive missed you soo much!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay! you're back! Great photos, I especially like the one of you at the Great Wall of China! People must have thought you were a little ::crazy:: Can't wait to hear all about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Woohoo, really looking forward to Monday night to hear about your trip, it sounds amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sounds like an incredible trip! can't wait to hear about it - but might have to! may not make tonight due to illness, boo, so you might have to save some tales for next monday!

    ReplyDelete

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