Archive for the 'travel' Category

featherweight cardigan

Pattern: Featherweight cardigan (rav link), by Hannah Fetig

Yarn: Malabrigo lace, in the colour Natural 63

Needles: 4mm, and 3mm for the ribbing.

I chose to do 1×1 ribbing for the bottom edge of the cardigan, finished off with my favourite tubular cast-off. I worked the front edge and sleeves in stocking stitch with a rolled edge.

As this is for me to wear during the summer, I didn’t mind that the edges rolled back quite a bit, and I like the way the rolled edge looks at the neckline.

Notes: I was happily knitting away on this cardigan when I read Bell’s cautionary tale about laceweight cardigans. She, and many commenters, talked about the problems they had with some laceweight yarns felting and just not being sturdy to last. I looked more closely at my knitting and realised that the yarn was indeed starting to felt a little, even before I had finished working on it.

This is most noticable on the sleeves, where I picked up the stitches that had been knit earlier. Blocking the cardigan helped, as it made the newer stitches also felt slightly, but you can still see a ridge where the two meet:

I am happy with how this cardigan turned out but, given that it started to felt before I even finished it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out not to have a particularly long shelf-life. On the plus side, it only took me four weeks to knit, so I guess I’ll just enjoy it while I can!

Photos taken here:

To celebrate our anniversary last week we spent a wonderful long weekend staying in a fairytale chateaux near Bordeaux. I couldn’t resist slipping a couple of photos into this post – if you’d like to see some more, the Flickr set is here. Not bad eh?

Published on July 4, 2010. 13 Comments Tags: , , .

pompeii: what we did on our holidays (2)

We spent a day of our Italian holiday visiting the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

In 79 AD the volcano Mount Vesuvious erupted. On that day, the surrounding area, including these two cities, were covered with  nine feet of burning gas and rock.

When Pompeii was excavated in the 1920s, holes that had once contained organic matter were discovered. The ash had solidified before this matter had disintegrated. And of what did that matter consist? Well, wooden objects such as doors:

And, more hauntingly, the bodies of many people and animals who had died in the ash. The archaeologists found that they could fill these holes with plaster and recreate the forms that had once taken up the space of the hole. The remarkable and poignant casts created from these voids speak of the last moments of these peoples’ lives.

Because of the way Pompeii was buried so completely, and the nature of the solidifed ash which covered it, the city remained incredibly intact. I thought I’d share some pictures of Pompeii and its sister town, Herculaneum, also buried in the volcanic ashes. Click on the arrow below to start the slideshow.

Published on April 20, 2009. 19 Comments Tags: , , .

amalfi: what we did on our holidays (i)

We stayed in a small, family-run hotel that clung to the cliff face hanging directly over the sea. We slept to the sound of the sea gently slapping against the rocks beneath our windows.

The hotel was, in parts, literally hewn out of the rock face. It was quite a surprise to walk  down the stairs and come across this:

It was as though carving the last bit of rock away was just too much trouble!

We spent a lot of the week pottering up and down the coast to various small, beautiful fishing villages, where we drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of seafood and pasta.

One day we hired a speedboat. The skipper took us along the coast from Amalfi to Naples, exploring the dramatic coastline with its little coves and grottos. We disembarked on Capri, where we walked the coast path and had lunch before leaving the island in style and being taken back along the coast. Rather than loading this post up with photos, I put together a slideshow of this day. Click on the arrow below to start the slideshow.

Next time, I’ll share photos of our day in the extraordinary ancient cities of Pompei and Herculaneum.

Published on April 17, 2009. 20 Comments Tags: , .

Rome

Rome was … astonishing. We did, and saw, so much in such a short space of time. I thought I’d share some of the (very many!) photos I took. There are lots of ruins and statues here, so if that’s not your bag, come back tomorrow for a knitting update!

Published on October 26, 2008. 5 Comments Tags: .

Denmark (3): Helsingør

Thank you so much for the encouragement about my Pomatomus socks, and for all your lovely comments about Popknits!

Whilst in Denmark we visited Helsingør, or Elsinore, as Shakespeare re-named the town in Hamlet, and spent an afternoon at Kronborg Castle.

It began life as a fortress in the 1420s, with the current castle being built after a fire in the 1600s. As ever, it’s the details I love. This is from the entrance arch:

A view from inside the castle, looking across the cannons to the sea beyond. Can you spot the sailing boat in the bottom right window pane?

The courtyard walkway was made from these amazing arches:

Looking backwards across the moat to the castle entrance:

Outside the moat, the cottages had been renovated and were beautifully preserved:

There was a lovely outdoor cafe where we had our lunch.

Published on August 20, 2008. 10 Comments Tags: , , .