This is a reposting of something I posted on this day in 2003.

Stories about my father
( Today would have been his 76th birthday )

I'm copying most of this post from nelladarren. Ju, you rock!

shannachie got the Deutscher Phantastik Preis (German Award of Fantasy Literature) at the scifi/fantasy part of the Frankfurt book fair (BuCon), in the category "best German language newcomer"!!!

Link to the original post.

I spent most of Friday at the show at the Knit One Pass It On booth, teaching mostly secondary school girls to knit, though I did have a rewarding continental knitting session with one of the other teachers early on and a few crochet students later in the day.

The fun thing about the continental lesson was that while I was teaching the lady how to purl, some knitters from Denmark came by. Initially they exclaimed, "Wow! You knit like we do!" and then they realised I was purling differently and offered to show me. Though I was pretty sure what they were going to demonstrate, I handed them my needles. Because I'd never seen someone from Denmark do this in real life and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

Friends and students, if you've learned Norwegian purling from me, I am here to tell you I do it exactly like those ladies from Denmark! Wahoo! I demonstrated again for my student (OK, I was showing off by this time), and she was, as most English knitters are, totally boggled by the necessarily quick motions of the needles-- even though I wasn't nearly as fast as the ladies from Denmark. They were delightful, and they enriched my day.

I did have an unpleasant experience a bit later on, which I've outlined on a friends-only post on LiveJournal, but I'll give you the gist here (copied from the other entry, for those of you who are now experiencing deja vu):

While I was teaching a group of five secondary school girls to knit at the Knitting and Stitching Show, a cranky old biddy walked up to my group of students and started criticising the way they were knitting, the way I was teaching them, and pretty much everything. No matter what I did, she wouldn't go away. My students were mortified and vulnerable; onlookers were appalled. I asked the booth supervisor to come stand behind me while I very evenly explained to the old biddy that this was my class, she was interrupting it, and could she please find something else to do with her time besides terrorising fourteen-year-old girls (who are naturally unsure of themselves). She ended up saying that my teaching methods were irritating her so much she had to go away and stomping off. My students were highly critical of this lady, and so was everybody else who overheard (and a lot of people overheard).

There's no need to dwell on that cranky old lady: my students learned to knit and purl, and they were doing pretty well, too. I took a break and saw a little bit of the show, got some fudge for filceolaire, and picked up a copy of Divas Don't Knit because I'm craving some mindless fiction and somebody recommended it to me. Hopefully it won't be as bad a recommendation as The Friday Night Knitting Club. I am actually looking to find a copy of a book by Barbara Bretton called Casting Spells, which is apparently about a witchy/sorceressy knitting shop owner. I could probably get into that, even if it's appalling. ;)

And that was my entire haul from the Ally Pally show. I simply didn't have the money to buy loads of yarn, the crowd was too dense for me to stop and see anything for long (for shopping, I admit that even though the variety was slightly less varied, I'd prefer the quieter and less packed I Knit Weekender any day), and the fact is, there were only two things I could have been enticed to buy knittingwise yesterday: a copy of Cat Bordhi's new book, which I really can't afford but dearly, dearly want, and some of the new neon Kauni. Unfortunately, Scandinavian Knitting Design were not at the show, which was a bummer. I had such a great experience ordering from them last year and I would have loved to meet the nice people who do such great business over the web and over the phone. Web of Wool were there with their usual supply of self-patterning everything; I abstained. GetKnitted weren't there, unless I missed them. Colinette was there with new colours that were barely resistable (but I resisted), and there was the usual astounding display of Shetland lace at Jamieson's of Scotland.

At the end of the day, Fred related a story about one of our teachers sweetly offering to teach someone to knit—and him sitting there with his hand over his mouth, covering the hysteria, because "someone" was Nicky Epstein. I wouldn't recognise Nicky Epstein if I tripped over her, so I hope it wasn't me. He promised it wasn't. Brief pause while I google: No, I don't think it was me, but she isn't a wild dresser it would appear, so I might have made the mistake. For any of you who would like to know how to recognise Nicky Epstein at a distance or even close-up, here's the best photo I found.

The trip home wasn't as maddening as the trip there, where I'd been the victim of two disabled trains on the Northern Line and a station mixup at Moorgate, but I did just miss the train out of Alexandra Palace and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. I am still not sure I had the right ticket for this train, but no inspectors in the carriage ftw.

I came home via London Bridge, and filceolaire met me at the New Cross train bridge, just because he is the sweetest husband ever. I hope he keeps me.

Since it's now September 1 where I am, and even though the book won't be officially released in the UK until November, I want to send a hearty congratulations and WOOHOO to seanan_mcguire, whose first novel, Rosemary and Rue, is now FOR REAL ON BOOKSTORE SHELVES ALL ACROSS AMERICA.

Way to go, Seanan. You rock.

We're back. We got in a little after 10pm tonight. I'll try to post some stories and memories over the next couple of days; suffice it to say the trip was wonderful. As always, we've come home to new challenges, and the world definitely continued on while we were across the sea and largely without net access. I'm glad you all didn't burn down the internet.

Needless to say, my pants are completely bankrupt, and I'm not going to be reading back over all those LJ posts. Please point me toward anything you'd particularly like to share.

• Friday 14: Drive to Holyhead via Iron Bridge, arrive in Ireland, ferry people from Dublin airport, fall into bed exhausted
• Saturday 15: Spend quiet morning, early afternoon in Dublin B&B and hanging out with girls and boyfriends and kids, spend late afternoon at family party, have dinner somewhere, fall into bed exhausted
• Sunday 16: Ferry folks to airport, wander around Dublin, find perfect ring, have lovely lunch at Captain America's Cookhouse, wander around Dublin some more, fall into bed exhausted
• Monday 17: Ferry folks to airport, wander around Dublin, find perfect knitting bag, have lovely dinner with brother-in-law, fall into bed exhausted
• Tuesday 18: Drive south through Glencree and into the Wicklow Mountains to Glendalough. Get teenager to ferryport at Rosslare in time for 9:15 ferry, find kitschy B&B near Wexford, fall into bed exhausted
• Wednesday 19: Explore Wexford, get rained on, Ferns castle, Jerpoint Abbey, find lovely country house B&B near Gorey, fall into bed exhausted
• Thursday 20: Explore more of Wexford, get rained on, drop in on Scoil na gClairseach, find B&B in Kilkenny, have dinner at place I remember from 2006, fall into bed exhausted
• Friday 21: Journey back to Rosslare for Saturday morning ferry via Kells Priory and other lovely spots, find B&B near ferry port, fall into bed exhausted
• Saturday 22: Arrive for 8:45 ferry to discover our ferry ticket was for Friday. Pay €50 to change our booking and forge ahead. Land in Pembroke Harbour over an hour late due to casualty on ferry requiring helicopter ambulance. Drive through south Wales via Pembroke, Tenby, and Laugharne. Realise we'll never make it back to London before midnight; ring friends in Cheltenham and arrange to stay with them for the night. Arrive, chat, fall into bed exhausted
• Sunday 23: Have lovely breakfast with Cheltenham friends, chat, head out around 11 toward Oxford via Burford, make it back to London around 6:30 for dinner with pdcawley and his lovely wife, drive home, unpack, cuddle unusually affectionate cat, fall into bed exhausted

An aside to seanan_mcguire: mokatiki must just have got lucky: we searched all over today and could not find any sport copies of Rosemary and Rue. We'll keep looking. :) Would have been fun to send you lots of photographs.

I've taken more than 300 photographs on this trip. I'll upload them and get them into some form for sharing as soon as I can. :-)

I love how things look when they get all stretched and the lace opens up. :)

( One wide photograph below the cut tag )

Aaagh! See that on the left needle? That's the amount of space I have to finish doing the lace work for the edge of the Silk Garden Serina. See that little string coiled above the right hand needle? That's all the yarn I have left. :(

This post comes as result of a google search. I'm feeling guilty with all this time on my hands; I should be doing writing or revising. Problem is, my computer is currently in the kitchen/diner, and so is G's. G is playing a lot of computer games, and he is always streaming music or having a loud skype conversation. Other rooms where I have written in our house in the past contain things like televisions and beds, both of which are impossible for me to resist at the moment.

So I looked online to see if anybody had compiled a list of good places to write in London. It turned out there aren't any generic 'great places to write in London' lists that I could find, but a couple of blogging writers have posted lists of where they like to write, mostly comprised of stuff like, 'um, at my desk in the morning.'

Here's my list. Do you have a favourite place to write? Post it in a comment, even if it's not anywhere near London!

• Oxleas Wood Café. I haven't written there for a long time, but there was a time when I was there 2-3 days a week with a laptop. Probably need to do that again.
  
• Generic coffee shop writing, with or without free wi-fi. Actually, without is probably better. I find that getting out of the house helps me not beat myself up because there's a sink full of dishes somewhere not being washed. I used to particularly enjoy writing in very public places and just tuning out whatever was going on. I remember in high school purposefully writing in the IAA cafeteria because in my room I was available, and in the cafeteria if I took a seat off the beaten path and had my head down over a legal pad, I was likely not to be disturbed. Singapore, believe it or not, was great for this. Everyone mostly moves very fast in Singapore, so if you're the sole person taking up space at the back of the coffee shop (where there is certainly free wi-fi), nobody is going to complain overmuch. Also, you're obviously a tourist.
  
• Anywhere quiet and isolated. I've actually done searches for places that have picnic tables in and around London that aren't attached to particular restaurants or cafés. These are less common here than in the US, for some reason.
  
• I'm interested in the idea of writing in train stations, but there are few good places to sit with a laptop that aren't attached to specific restaurants or cafés, and there's only so much coffee I can consume over time. Writing on trains also appeals as a concept, but long train journeys are few and far between for me, I'm almost never alone, and sleeping seems to be a more common default switch for my brain than writing.

Your turn! Where do you like to write? Do you have a single writing space, or do you like to explore strange new worlds?

We have a Dolce Gusto coffeemaker up for grabs. This was a free gift from Viking while I was working at EFDSS, and my coworker couldn't make the first one work, so Viking sent a second. I fixed the machine (it wasn't actually broken, just stuck) and took it home. It is in perfect working order, has all parts it's meant to, and comes with the original instruction manual and two boxes of coffee pods. The only thing missing is the coffee mug they supply with the machine, and I never had that to begin with; it was kept at EFDSS for folks to drink coffee out of. The coffee pods are Dolce Gusto Caffé Lungo, which is described as 'like a long espresso', and Latte Macchiato, which is a two-capsule coffee that's essentially a sweet latte.

Upsides to this coffeemaker:

• Makes coffee that doesn't taste as bad as instant by the cup and immediately;
  
• Is fun to play with;
  
• Is easy to clean;
  
• Means everybody can have whatever sort of hot beverage they want without lots of prep. You can see a list of available capsules here.

Downsides to this coffeemaker:

• Takes up a bit of space (but is all in one piece and easy to put away);
  
• Uses only Dolce Gusto coffee pods;
  
• Coffee pods are expensive (£3.28 online, £3.75ish at Sainsbury's. The prices are the same whether you're getting a coffee that requires 2 pods (8 cups/box of pods) or only 1 (16 cups/box of pods).

We also have a Tefal 3-tier Steam Cuisine Steamer. Product shown on webpage is not exactly like ours but has most of the same features. We've had this steamer for years and are just not using it very much. It comes with all accessories including a rice container and instructions.

Upsides to this steamer:

• You can steam an entire meal using all three baskets, or just steam some rice using only one;
  
• The appliance stacks away neatly and takes up less space when stored;
  
• It shuts itself off automatically according to a timer you set;

Downsides to this steamer:

• We have found it difficult to clean, but your mileage may vary;
  
• One of the steamer tiers has a crack in it, but this does not affect performance;
  
• Tastes tend to travel upwards in the steamer and drips tend to travel downwards, so particularly if you're steaming fish, will have rice and veg that tastes of fish if you steam three things together

These appliances are at our house, clean (steamer could do with descaling), and ready to be given away to the first UK-based friend or acquaintance who is willing to come pick either of them up. I will not be shipping either of these because I don't have the original packing material. Please only reply if there is actually a chance you want and can get this appliance. I love my American friends, but page after page of 'gee, if only I could afford the plane fare/had a teleporter/could make it to your house before X-and-So' is going to irritate me today; please don't do it.

As an aside, we are also looking to get rid of quite a lot of old clothing and old books. If you think you might want to come have a rummage, please get in touch. Caveat in paragraph above applies; I am emphatically not shipping books.

If I do not have takers for the two appliances by this weekend, I will be posting them on the Lewisham Freecycle list, where they will be snapped up immediately, so if you're interested, please let me know!

My pal and writing acquaintance, David Wake, has a play that'll be in London for two more days only, in Earl's Court.

I'm hoping some of you might like to go and see it tomorrow night with filceolaire, possibly G, and me.

Venue:
Baron's Court Theatre
7:45 pm
Admission: £12

We're amenable to an inexpensive dinner before or after the show, but by inexpensive, we mean 'we're skint!'

It's OK to comment here or email me at my LJ address if you're interested in coming.

For those of you who don't know, I currently manage a community centre in Southeast London. This is an interesting job, with all sorts of things to do, lots of task juggling, and a variety of people to interact with, most of the time. The building houses a nursery that has a large staff, a full kitchen, and tons of great kids, a dance company, and provides some classroom support for the local secondary school.

Friday morning, I walked into work and set the front doors to open automatically (pram access). Then, I checked in with the nursery staff to see if there was anything they needed.

"Harper," said the nursery receptionist, "There's some kind of alarm going off in the kitchen. Can you check it out?"

( And here begins our tale. )

I've just made what is for me a pretty large reduction in my friends list. I simply am not having time to read everybody the way I'd like to, and so I've removed several people and communities.

If:
You haven't posted in ages;
We know one another only peripherally;
I know you but don't feel like our common interests meet all that much;
You're not a member of my immediate family/local circle --

I've probably removed you from my friends list.

This doesn't mean I don't like you or that you have offended me or something. It means there are not enough hours in the day! In between work, teaching, writing, music, knitting, and designing, my LJ reading was going into skim-mode anyway, and when I discovered that a couple of old and dear friends had had some trouble and I'd missed it, I realised I needed to make this cut.

If you want to continue to read protected entries, do please drop me a line. I will probably re-add you, but I cannot read everybody anymore.

Knitting, music, some silly memes, some PSAs and all that will continue to be public.

Blocking Lace!

This is mokatiki's BRANCHING OUT, which she gave to me as a birthday present. To preserve my rapidly failing dignity, I won't tell you which birthday it was for. But today, with the help of a £15 playmat from an Amazon Reseller, I've pin-blocked it. Woohoo!

Updating my old 'get the knit' post. I'll link it in to my page links and probably post it to Dreamwidth later today.

Where to Get The Knit in the UK

I’m going to concentrate on fast, (relatively) inexpensive mail-order shops here, but you should know that my favourite walk-in knitting store, hands down, is I Knit London in Lower Marsh Street near Waterloo Station. They do some mail-order, but there are less expensive places to order wool online.

That said, here’s my take on UK mail order for wool. I’m not concentrating much on indie dyers, although we have some excellent ones. These are in no particular order; they’re just from my bookmarks.

• MCA Direct is a fantastic source of the kinds of wool you’d find in a haberdasher’s or a Hobbycraft. They sell all grades of acrylics, wools from Sirdar, Patons, Jaegar and Wendy. Their high end is Rowan wools and Regia sock yarns. They often have good closeouts on discontinued wools and sell project packs at a discount. Ordering from them is fast, direct, and personal; I got an apologetic email when I ordered something that had just been sold out, for example.
  
• Texere sells bulk wools on cones at pretty good prices. You can find all kinds of grades and blends, not all of which are suitable for handknitting. They do sell some balled yarns, but the thing you’d be looking for here is large amounts of yarn for specific projects.
  
• ColourMart has a fantastic array of fine laceweight to aran weight fibres. They specialise in cashmere, silk, and other high-end fibres, and their selection, while mercurial, is vast. Do not visit this site if you are a lace knitter with an online shopping addiction. You Have Been Warned. ;-)
  
• First 4 Yarns comes highly recommended. They’re another supplier of mixed yarns, including some higher end things.
  
• Get Knitted is a big mail-order outlet that recently opened a storefront in Bristol. They’ve been the ‘best’ UK mail order shop for a long time, and they carry knitpicks needles and other posh accessories.
  
• Socktopus is a mail order shop that caters exclusively to socknitters. They also have a storefront shop in London, but I haven’t been in. While they look good on paper and run a lot of workshops, their website selection is often thin or out of stock. I’ve never ordered anything from them.
  
• Knit N Caboodle is another big mail order supplier; they have Zauberball at better prices than anybody else, and they also sell ‘Purple Pins’ dpns, which are very cool to look at. I’ve recently heard stories that their fulfilment is slow and not great, but I’ve also had friends get instant responses from them, so your mileage may vary.
  
• Colinette Yarns sells directly from their mill although they’re also distributed worldwide. Their website is often the best place to find the perfect colour of whatever Colinette yarn you’re looking for, and fulfilment is pretty fast. I’m particularly enamoured of Jitterbug, their excellent multicoloured sockweight yarn.
  
• Angel Yarns is the only online shop I’d put in the ‘avoid’ category. Their website is not tied to their stock, apparently, because everything is listed as in stock, but you can wait ages (and I do mean ages) while they procure your stock. Highly annoying. I ordered twice from them while we were in Singapore, and they never managed to get an order right.

Please comment if you've got another online shop to add. I know we have lots of excellent indie spinners and dyers in the UK, so if you have a favourite feel free to post it in comments; I may try to include them in the list at some future point.

I should really just back away from Colourmart.

Right. Now.

The Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust is holding a barn dance on the 13th of June at Woodlands Farm on Shooters Hill Road.

Music by Skinners Rats

Cost is £12, including supper. I have ten tickets to sell; if you're interested, please get in touch!