No, no, the weather map is over there, not down there...

I turned on the news and weather the other day to be confronted by these.

Can you believe that? I am a happilly married woman but even I completely failed to notice what the weather was actually going to be. It was on channel five so that kind of explains it, but I was still quite surprised. Mind you, not too incapacitated to grab my camera.

Now onto the knitting - did I mention Pooch briefly took up knitting? He has half made a very wide scarf and in the process bought some chunky alpaca/wool mix in coloours he decided not to use. So having listened to him go on about bed socks in far too much details I banged these out this afternoon. The benefit of using 12.75mm needles and super-chunky yarn is that 18 stitches gets you a sock so they were never going to take long.

In between I have been trying to finish my ripple bag and now just have the handles. The pattern calls for zig zag ones like this:

But....they don't seem right. I'm sure once you put any weight on them they'll stretch out of shape anyway, felted or not, so I think i-cord. I'm thinking a length in each colour twisted together for each one. Only thing putting me off is not having much love for knitting i-cord, but then I don't have love for knitting zigzag straps so swings and roundabouts.

I do also now have another knitting project to queue up - another hat. The slouchy one just didn't look right. The final proof was when I forced it on my ickle sister, and she looked this good in it.

You can't wear a hat again after your sibling looks better than you in it. So, I am on the look out for another one, but I'm not sure what style would suit my moon-face. Some googling later gives me...

Advice One: (If you have a round face) Hats with an asymmetrical or irregular brim and brims that roll away from the face. Steer clear of hats that hug the face or head and hats that have a tailored look or have a round crown. Brimless hats and round crowns emphasize the roundness in the face. Choose soft, medium height crowns and trimmings which direct the eye upward. Avoid brimless hats and low round crowns that emphasize the roundness of the face.

Advice Two: (If you have a round face) Choose hats with high brims and angular shapes, avoid round, circular, or floppy-shaped hats, always choose hats that are wider than your face.

Advice Three: (ROUND) Medium or small brims, neat styles, worn forward or on a sassy slant. Asymmetrical brims will lessen the roundness.

So to summarise,

• Asymmetrical or rolling brim - must have a brim
• Avoid round crowns
• Consider sassy slanting

Knitted hats with brims...um? I need some fuel to power my thinking.

Thank you Greenwich Market.

Snow woe woe woe

Obligatory snow outside the window shot.

It's the snow equivalent of a comb-over. Plus bonus frozen dock shot.

It was only about 60% frozen when I went past, but then it wasn't until about 10.30. Because i am on holiday. Did I mention before that I was on holiday this week? Well I am, and a very stupid time I am having. Largely going on nonsensical trips to places that are closed when I get there. Another one this morning - to the egyptian consulate to apply for my visa. It is the coptic christmas day today and so it was closed. Who saw that one coming? So I went off to the V&A to see the Magnificence of the Tsars. It was really good - even though there was a group of posturing art students draped all over the place. I had a great time wondering around and saw a lot of parts I had never seen before. Partly because I went up to the Members Room for the first time. This is it.

It was very sophsiticated, refined, demure and.... FREEZING. The woman staffing the cafe bit was wearing a hat, a huuuge scarf, gloves and what looked like several jumpers under a coat. I sat there for about half an hour reading the Kaffe Fassett Pattern Book, which they had in their eclectic library, before giving in and going elsewhere for warmth. The Members' Room is through the glass and Archiecture galleries, both of which were stunning. The door is like an optical illusion at one end.

Check me out in my knitted hat, knitted jumper and knitted cuffs (and knitted socks, incidentally). My knitted scarf was in the cloakroom - yes, it's the season of the knit.

'Glass' struck me as the next logical place for an upgrade. This is one of the cabinets - it reminds me of the cases at Stratford Stations full of local resident's collections of objects.

There was a lot crammed in but a few particularly stood out. A gorgeous Lalique vase:

I did a project on lalique at art college and will always have a soft spot for his stuff. I also spotted this gorgeous one. No idea who it is by, but is lovely.

Then also, hanging from the ceiling, was this.

I don;t know what it is. I do know it was horrendous to photograph. There are more photos here. I intend to find out more about it another time.

My last discovery was this enormous church screen, which formed part of the Great Exhibition. It was transferred to the V&A in 2001 and has been completely renovated. It is something like 10x11m in size and is just astonishing. I loved the shadows it cast on the wall almost as much as the screen itself.

Sooooo, tomorrow promises a return visit to the egyptian consulate and then a massage in the afternoon ( well, I am on holiday) but I am not sure of what do in between. One of my abortive visits on monday was to Loop to have a look at the Norah Gaugain books but it was closed (so much for spontinaity) so could go back there again. Or maybe another museum? Who knows...

Brrr

It is fricking freezing here.

So naturally one has to knit hats.

This is the slouchy copy cat hat except I'm not finding it slouchy enough, so I'm doing that block-it-with-screwed-up-carrier-bags-thang.

With the freakin cold continuing I just hope it dries soon.

The afghan continues, and to make it easier to keep it all together I made a bag. It's got a cunning little pocket on the outside to keep my crochet hook in.

Last blanket I made I went through about 8 - I still don't know what happened to them all. This time I want to see if I can do it with one.

In between I've been rippling. First ripple is the ripple bag which I've been working at on and off.

Then there are the socks I just cast on yesterday.

This is the sock blank I dyed a while back. I'm going toe-up so I can decide which ripple stitch to use on the main part. I just got the Jan Eaton book yesterday and keep changing my mind.