Tea and Cakes

I’ve been unsure about blogging this, but it’s most definitely behind me now, so I’m going to go ahead.

I was quite relaxed in the lead up to the wedding, I thought. I finished work on Monday, went to pilates class in the evening, and then Mum and my step-Dad arrived. All was good.

Tuesday I went out to the wedding hotel with the parents, then had a coffee and scone with them at M&S, and saw them off safely to visit their friends.

I headed into the city centre to buy a few bits and pieces, pootle a bit, and collect some of the wedding suits. I was in and out of Arnotts and Debenhams a couple of times. (This may be important)

When I got back to the car my face felt a bit hot, and I noticed I was getting a couple of spots on my cheek. it had been a warm afternoon, so I thought nothing of it.

I got home, had a cuppa, and waited for L and S to come over so that S could do a trial for my wedding make up. (Incidentally, S is awesome at make up. I don’t usually wear make up and was nervous but she is wonderful).

My cheeks and neck were quite warm, and my skin felt really rough all of a sudden. I freaked out a little bit but the lovely people on Ravelry calmed me down and pointed out that it was probably just a stress thing. That seemed most plausible.

All was good. Late in the evening it got bad again. Itchy, rough, and hot. Off to the late night chemists I went, where I confirmed that I hadn’t eaten anything unusual and had no known allergies.I didn’t mention the make up trial. I knew it wasn’t a reaction to that: it had started before, and was on my checks and neck rather than where the make up had been. Stress, was the diagnoses through the window, and some weak anti-histamines were given to me.

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Wednesday morning I still felt bad, so I planned on going to a different chemist to get something stronger. Then I got up and looked in the mirror.

My face and neck were swollen. I looked like the young Monica from Friends. It was not pretty. It was not how I wanted to look on my wedding day.

I rang the GP.

My morning plans cancelled, I sat at the doctors trying not to freak out and cry. What if I was contagious? What if we had to cancel everything? What if my face stayed like that? What about all the things I had to do?

I go to a great doctors’ surgery. They are lovely and friendly and sympathetic and they listen.

The best guess was an allergic reaction. As I hadn’t eaten anything unusual, and my lips and throat weren’t swollen, it seems likely that it was something in the air when I was shopping on Tuesday. Hence the relevance of walking in and out of Arnotts and Debenhams a few times: I suspect there’s a purfume out there that doesn’t like me. Even then, that’s a bit odd. I’m not allergic to anything. I have easy, not sensitive skin. It was all very strange. I’m possibly allergic to getting married, but once should be enough for that anyway.

I left the doctors with instructions to get some better anti-histamines, and prescriptions for antibiotics and steroids. There was talk of IV steroids too, but thankfully that wasn’t necessary.

I went off to meet my Dad and step-Mum at the in-law’s house, took my drugs, and everybody watched as my face went down.

That evening I went to hang out with a bunch of my family, and if anyone noticed they were too nice to say. It was a lovely relaxed evening and I’m glad I ventured out, I wasn’t sure about it at first, the way I looked.

Back to the doctors again the next day, with more wedding preparation plans scuppered. More waiting, more prescriptions, but a lovely doctor who didn’t charge me for the second visit, and who assured me that all would be ok in the morning, which it was.

The family and friends that knew what was up were brilliant. I know that there are loads of you reading this now who would have helped too, if I had asked. I didn’t want the wedding to be all about me and sympathy for my swollen itchy face though. I wanted it to be about my love for Donal, and the two of us making a commitment, and having a lovely party with our closest friends and family. Which is what it was.

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Unfortunately, as my cheeks and neck cleared, the side effects from the steroids kicked in, and the day after the wedding my forehead broke out into really nasty acne. I weaned myself off the drugs sooner than I was supposed to (but still gradually in case anyone is worrying), and my skin is almost clear again.

So.

Our first full day here in Tuscany we spent relaxing outside until the sun went down over the mountain across from us. It was lovely.

The mosquitos think so too. I have 19 bites. My neck is clear, my cheeks are clear, my forehead is clear, and my legs look like I’ve been attacked by a small octopus.

Still, my heart is happy, my brain is happy, and we’re off to Florence for the day tomorrow, so there will be no more self-pitying posts.

Today has been (and will continue to be) a lazy one.

We’re relaxing in our little villa in Tuscany, surrounded by vineyards, enjoying the sun and the sound of crickets on the hills.

I’m knitting, and reading, and eating delicious food, and later I will drink more yummy local wine.

Exploring is for another day.

I have a small fear of crossing bridges, and driving through tunnels. It’s not usually an issue, and although crossing the Liffey on the M50 bridge makes me a little nervous, it’s over in a second so I don’t worry about it.

When we decided to drive to Italy for our honeymoon, my brain mentally erased the Alps. It’s not that I didn’t know they were there, just that whenever I thought about the route down, that part was, well, sort of fuzzy.

Yesterday we crossed the Alps. The road had been rising and rising, then without warning we hit a tunnel, which was a bit too long for my liking, and emerged into the mountains, on a huge bridge.

Yikes.

Many, many bridges and tunnels followed, including the 11km one underneath the spectacular Mont Blanc. I tried not to ponder the feat of engineering and the massive amount of rock above us as we passed under the mountain.

The scenery in the Alps was breathtaking. Really, really stunning, and I’m very happy that we drove through.

We reached the shores of Lake Garda last night, on a balmy summer’s evening, and woke up this morning to 18 degrees, grey sky, and pouring rain. I don’t care though. We’re on our honeymoon, we had a wonderful wedding, I’m relaxed, and very, very happy.

“I’m not knitting anything for the wedding,” I said. “That way madness lies,” I said. “There’s enough to do already,” I said.

Then I bought my dress. I love it. It’s perfect. And now I want a hand-knit shawl to wear in the evening, after the ceremony.

While I was pondering this, R rang. there were still spaces left on a lace knitting class with Carol Feller at This is Knit. (I’m blogging from my phone and can’t work
out how to get links in but Carol’s website is called Stolen Stitches, and she has fabulous designs, so do look for it). Carol has a design that is perfect for the wedding. I hadn’t signed up for the class before as I was supposed to be working that day, but the schedules had changed and I was free. If I was that way inclined, I’d think that the universe was trying to tell me something.
Carol very kindly allowed me to work on the non-class pattern during the workshop, but I’m also completely in love with one of the class shawls and will be making it at some time in the future.

Next then, I needed some yarn. I don’t wear silk, which limited my choice for laceweight. However, TIK have a lovely laceweight yarn called Cashwool, which is 100% merino, really soft, and great value, with 1.3km of yarn per skein. No white left in stock though. It’s ok, I can deal with that. Lilac then. Very me.

I was all set to swatch when I got an excited text from R. D had the cashwool in white, and would pass a skein on to me. To top it off, R, who works something like 23 hours a day, finished work for the night, kidnapped D, and like wonderful yarn ninjas the two of them arrived up at my place with a late night emergency delivery of white laceweight.

So now I’m knitting for the wedding.

The last couple of weeks seem to have flown by. Work, college, life, eh, it just seems to have been a never ending stream of things to do.

This morning (just) I checked twitter, realised it was the day of the Dublin monthly spin-in in Powerscourt, grabbed my spindle and headed in. I ran out of the fibre I had with me just before it was time to pack up, so I did a bit of knitting too, and spent a very relaxing few hours in good company playing with fibre. It was super, and just what I needed. The spindle was spinning instead of me.

The consensus on the cardigan is that it is indeed too big for me. (I say consensus, and what I mean is everyone thinks so except the eternal optimist R, who insists I’m just wearing it wrong). So, friends and family, anyone want a cardigan? It’s lovely. I’ll even put a button on it for you.

So, here’s me in the cardie. Granted, it doesn’t really go with the dress I was wearing today, but it was a quickly grabbed photo. It also doesn’t have a button yet. It needs one, at the top.

See? It’s lovely, it’s just too big. It’s very squishy and stretchy, and it swamps me a bit.

Frogging it is not an option. There are 10 balls of yarn in there, plus 2 out of every 3 balls had a knot, so there are many, many ends that I sewed in. I’m not ripping it out. Shrinking it won’t work either – the yarn is machine washable, and really, it’s too lovely to mess around with like that.

So. I’m thinking. I don’t think it’s meant for me. Which means I need to work out the best way to go about finding the right home for it. I’m open to any suggestions.

This is my Six Nations cardigan.
It’s a lovely pattern (Shalom Cardigan, from Involving the Senses), and lovely yarn (Rowan RYC Cashsoft Chunky), but I do not love the cardigan.
It’s too big for me.
This is the sort of project where that shouldn’t really matter, and I made it slightly smaller than called for anyway.
But it’s still too big. (No, I didn’t swatch, but I don’t think that would have helped, it just doesn’t suit me).
Right now it’s drying, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. I don’t see myself wearing it.
So now I’m a bit stuck, as I don’t really know what to do with it.

To cheer myself up though, I’ve cast on for some Garter Stitch Mitts for myself, to replace my Fetchings as spring/autumn wear, as the missing one never showed up. I love this pattern. It’s simple, pleasingly constructed, and works really well in the tweedy yarn I’m using.

In an attempt to start blogging again, I’m copying Chris, and posting a list of things. This is mainly because I have too much that I want to say, and don’t really know where to start, and I’m finding it a bit overwhelming. I’m finding a lot of things overwhelming, at the moment.

Thing 1: I’m supposed to be studying right now. I’m not though, clearly, but I’m not beating myself up about it. Instead, once this is done, I will make myself a cup of tea and sit down to read some more of my book.

Thing 2: I’m currently reading The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, and for the life of me I can’t work out why I haven’t read it before. It’s hard to tear myself away from it to do the other things that have to be done, like housework and washing clothes.

Thing 3: Even though the sun has gone in I have clothes outside on the patio on the airer. Technically this is against the rules, and it’s probably not much use anyway as it’s a bit chilly today, but I do like my clothes to get some fresh air every now and then, and if the sun would come out for just a little bit too it would be super. So much nicer than clothes dried in front of a radiator.

Thing 4: I should really also be sewing the many ends in on my Six Nations cardigan, which I finished yesterday. It started out as my Knitting Olympics project, but I didn’t finish in time, and worked on it in front of most of the rugby matches instead. I should be taking advantage of the long weekend to get it washed and dried while I’m home and can leave things outside to dry. I’m not sure I like it though. Which is often how I feel about the bigger things I have knit. I will get it finished and washed and dried and I will take pictures.

Thing 5: I got engaged. Or rather, we did. That was a little while ago now, but it’s been more than a little while since I blogged. I have a beautiful ring that’s from my paternal grandfather’s family, but right now it’s with the jeweller waiting for the goldsmith to have a look at it and see if it can be re-sized down enough to fit me.

Thing 6: I’ve spent some time finding out about family recently, and have some lovely photographs and interesting histories, and I might put some here, for me to remember.

Thing 7: This is me. I’m quite fond of this photo.

You know, I was going to come here to write all about the fantastic day I had on Saturday with Kneehigh and ChicwithStix, but I’ve been beaten to it: Read about the morning from ChicwithStix’s perspective.

I shall continue anyway. We headed off not so bright and early on Saturday to Ashford in Wicklow, to visit The Yarn Room. Oh My. Close your eyes for a second. Imagine your perfect local yarn store. Mine has a comfy sofa to knit on, big windows to let the light in, lots of lovely yarn in bright colours, friendly people dropping in, and a nice cup of tea.
The Yarn Room has all of this. (Unfortunately the 45 minute drive when there’s no traffic means it doesn’t really count as local).

While we were there we bumped into Nic, who was teaching a mother and son to knit down at the back of the shop, and met Pumpkinknits and Jenna from Ravelry.

I got to try out the Ashford Knitter’s Loom, which I want very much indeed, but can’t afford (yet!) and don’t really have the space for at the moment, even though it folds up and is very portable. I really had to drag myself away from this, I was having loads of fun weaving.

Then we sat and the lovely Stephanie made us tea and we ate the yummy cookies Kneehigh had made and we knit and chatted and could have spent all day there quite happily, but we had another appointment to make…
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Our second appointment was to pop in to visit The Constant Knitter. This is a new online shop in Dublin, and we went along for a little yarn preview. Rosemary stocks Garnstudio yarns, which are really good quality and excellent value – it’s great to have a supplier in Ireland. The Constant Knitter is the only place I’ve found that stocks pure linen yarn, very reasonably priced too, so I bought a ball to have a play with, along with a few other bits and pieces of course.

Rosemary made us tea and lovely cupcakes too, and again it was hard to drag ourselves away!
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After fueling up with some delicious lentil soup we popped into the lovely This is Knit, to pet their lovely yarns and so I could gt a new options cable.
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Phew! Three yarn shops in one day. All we could do at that point was head off to Kneehigh’s, drink tea, eat tasty snacks, and knit and spin the evening away. Super.

Last night This is Knit organised a yarn tasting evening in the city. Yarn tasting? Yes. Yarn tasting.

New seasons yarns and some old favourites wound into sample balls. €20 bought me 20 vouchers, which I then exchanged for 20 sample balls. ‘Shopping’ was so much fun!

I tried to pick up colours that I wouldn’t normally use, and I got to try out some yarns that I’ve been curious about but haven’t been able to justify buying.
Rowan Kid Classic for example. I’ve eyed it a lot, but now I have a tiny ball in a lovely forest green to try out and see how I like it knit up. Rowan Cocoon I stroke every time in the shop, and I have a voucher for This is Knit waiting to be spent on some to make an Owls Sweater. However, I’m only buying the yarn once I’m ready to cast on, so now I have some to try out first and pet at home. Mirasol Qina is a new bamboo/alpaca blend, which is beautiful and soft and just adorable, and now I’ve knit with it I’m totally in love.

I also picked up some Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon, which isn’t something I thought I’d ever pick up or buy, but last night was all about sampling new things, so I picked a bit up to try out. More on that in a while.

Here’s my haul:

As well as the yarn samples there were sample knits from new pattern books to try on. And I fell in love:

Imagine it without the cords and black t-shirt underneath, and perhaps with an inch or two more length in the waist…
It’s from the new Louisa Harding collection called Little Cake, and it’s knit in her new Thistle yarn, which memory tells me is a wool and alpaca blend, but I could be wrong about. It was certainly warm!
(Looking at the photo there the cable twists seem to be sitting nicely on my boobs. Would have to fix that.)

After the yarn tasting we retired to a hotel bar where I had a very fancy ginger tea:

This is where the sari ribbon comes in.
Two of our lovely hostesses were with us, and knit stripes of the sari ribbon into some swatches, and all of a sudden I can see how it could be used.

Here we see the sari ribbon sample relaxing in the company of a butterfly pin and some kid silk haze.

This was Kneehigh’s sample, and I love it, because it shows the different effects that could be had: my favourite is for the bottom stripe, which is just knit normally. In the middle the texture of the ribbon itself was used to knit through, and at the top a crochet stripe was added in. While I probably wouldn’t knit a whole garment out of it, I really like it for a bit of a shimmery accent.