Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The Mediterranean Diet - Boqueria style

 


More lusciousness and visual feasting from Barcelona
Posted by Picasa

Back to Barcelona

 


This is just one of the reasons we were happy to be self-catering in Barcelona. Who would want to resist displays like this? We were a staying a stone's throw from the city's main market, La Boqueria, where these glorious fruit and veg stalls are to be found. The city's restauranteurs are said to purchase their produce from this source. Fish and meats were also to be found, plus spices and herbs, cheeses, cooking equipment and fine wines and plenty of atmosphere. Everything was so beautifully presented, and so fresh. It makes my mouth water just to revisit these photos.
Posted by Picasa

Caught Jaywalking Again

 


Next off the needles were a glorious pair of purple Jaywalker socks, which are luscious to wear and wash well, too. I'm impressed with this bamboo fibre/wool mix, both for knitting and for wearing. I also like the colours.
Posted by Picasa

The consolation of a warm hat



Here I am by Newport Transporter Bridge, which disappointingly turned out to be not running, nor was the Visitors' Centre open, despite what the official Newport web site said. Never mind, the sun was shining and despite a cold wind I was cosy in my just-finished Sloppy Joe hat (pattern and wool by Woolly Wormhead) and a couple of scarves around my neck.

The area around the river at Newport looks very interesting (this is the one in South Wales, by the way) but, alas, it is not very accessible to visitors of limited mobility and we could find nowhere nearer the town centre to park, the better to admire the new pedestrian bridge, interesting sculpture and ruins of something that could be a castle or a jail.... So having taken the air and then driven around a bit, we had to head back onto the M4 and back over the Second Severn Crossing.

There's such a lot of building going on in the centre of Newport. I hope they don't forget the needs of the blue badge brigade, of which I am a fully paid up member. Sometimes being an armchair traveller loses some of its magic when, despite researching an outing, the reality fails to materialise because the venue is either closed and/or inaccessible.

Mustn't grumble too much: at least we were able to enjoy the sun, of which there has been such a dearth of late. It started to rain during our journey back to England, so at least we got something about the visit right.
Posted by Picasa

Hot Foot to Kew



The next finished objects were these Kew socks, again in blues, purples and greens. It's a pretty pattern, lovely to knit, but the socks have a tendency to go baggy - is it the pattern or is it the wool? I don't know. Still, they are pretty.
Posted by Picasa

My Potamus Socks


At last! Here's a photo of my lovely Potamus Socks! My resident techie and partner for life has adjusted some Firewall settings, which has made some difference to the co-operativeness of our technology, and lo! at last! Here are my socks in all their ocean blue glory.
Posted by Picasa

Is this a photograph I see before me? No.

I tried to add a picture via Firefox instead of windows, but that didn't work, either.

Still no photographs

Well, I just can't get no satisfaction - Blogger will not upload any photographs and nor will Picasa2. If I try to upload by clicking on the picture icon then nothing happens at all, and if I go through the routine on Picasa, I get an error message referencing an empty field. I've contacted Blogger Support and had no response either, which is frustrating as they might know what their error code means.

I suppose it might be down to something on my computer, maybe a firewall setting or windows update, but I can't get anywhere and it's driving me crazy.

If you want to see a picture of my socks, please see

http://fibrespates.blogs.com/photos/knitting/img_4820.htmls

You may see that the hyperlink routine is malfunctioning, too.

Woolly Wormhead has a photo of my hat on her site, too.

I wish I could get this sorted!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Four socks - and a woolly hat

Time has sped by. I've been poorly again, and the computer has been having some behaviour issues: it's worse than the children, sometimes...

Anyway, I haven't been too poorly to knit, most of the time. I finally completed my Potamus socks and am delighted with them. They are knitted in Fyberspates Sock wool, shade Ocean.

In socky mood, I then knit a pair of Kew socks (another Knitty pattern), which was another pleasant pattern to work. I used Lana Grossa - Mega Boots Stretch Shade 704 from Get Knitted
For a change, I then made myself a Sloppy Joe Hat, designed by Woolly Wormhead,, aka Ruth, which I adapted a little by making a bit deeper than the pattern. It's a great hat for stuffing all my hair underneath, or my chignon and hair stick, and it keeps my ears very warm, too. I love it! I used Ruth's space-dyed yarn for it, too.

Now I'm making another pair of Jaywalker socks, in a luscious purple Trekking yarn (also from Get Knitted) with which the pattern works really well. However, I will soon need to diversify - just how many pairs of socks does a girl need? Actually, there are some garments that have caught my eye in the soon-to-be-published Interweave Knits Spring 2007 magazine, and there's only 6 more days until it is due in the shops.....

Blogger is refusing to have anything to do with photographs tonight, so I'll post pictures when permitted - hopefully sooner than later, cos I've got loads more lovely shots of Barcelona, too.