London in 15 seconds, and home

my english breakfast
Originally uploaded by amysinger

It wasn't 15 seconds, but it felt like that! Home last night very late. Trying to readjust to Toronto time with sporadic sleep, small amounts of caffeine and massive Tivo catchup [three weeks of Tivo'd stuff!]

Until I can make my words work again, you can peek at the full Flickr albums of Oslo [new pictures since my last post], and London.

I have stories and it was all good, good, good. For now, though, sleep.

Getting ready to move on...

Vigeland Park
Originally uploaded by amysinger

We've been really busy, taking in as much of Oslo as we could between teaching classes and recovering from ongoing jet lag. Lots of new photographic highlights on Flickr.

You'll see Theresa in many of the pics. She's amazing. I will be very sad to leave her behind when I get on the plane to London tomorrow.

Meanwhile, you can listen to both of us in the Norwegian Public Radio interview we did earlier in the week. The whole program can be found here, for those who speak Norwegian. T's working on a translation and I'll link to it when it's done.

live from Oslo!

damn.
Originally uploaded by amysinger

damn. look at that sky. gotta love my canon elph. it occasionally gives me gems like this.

yes, we're here. we got here tuesday at noonish and both of us were asleep by 3pm that day. we woke up, not kidding, 11 am the next morning. we were exhausted from 12 hours in transit. it's just after 10pm on wednesday now and we're going to sleep.

but the flight over was great, thanks to our amazing 1st row seats in a brand new Boeing [!] 777 jet with more legroom than you can imagine.

so far, we're a bit confoozled in the city, but having Theresa here is so amazing. she's helped us understand the transit system and other Norwegian customs. [tonight, i figured out which bus would get us home and was right. whew.] she's also HUGE fun and seriously adorable, and i know i'm going to miss her big when we leave. but that's not for a week yet. :-)

SOAR 2007 photos

i'm home and zonked. here, take a peek at my SOAR photos, if you're interested.

i'm home for less than 24 hours, so i've gotta run. plus, my right wrist is killing me [i overdid it on the last day at SOAR]. but it was amazing and i would so do it again!

next time i write, it'll be from Oslo! can you stand it?

the bag...it's finally here!

Do you remember this?

We sure do. We've been talking to Tom Bihn for several years now, giving them our ideas and feedback on their ideas for a new knitting bag design. Well, it's ready and you can finally get one for yourself!



It's called The Swift, and it was named by a clever group of Knitty readers around a big table at a coffeeshop in Toronto. One of them wrote about it on her blog, and she's clearly smitten. Me? I got to test a prototype or two and I'm really impressed with the final bag. Tom Bihn's famous for producing well-made, well-thought-out bags, and now we finally get to benefit from the best of his design expertise blended with what Knitty readers said they really wanted in a bag.

Because you might wonder, we're not involved with Tom Bihn except as cheerleaders and fans of the stuff they make. We don't get a cut of the bags or anything else beyond our prototype samples. We feel lucky to have been asked for our opinions and ideas on the topic, and we're glad to see the final result of our collaboration.

spinnah.

y'all. i can spin. seriously. silk roving. bamboo. carded hemp + cotton.

maggie casey is a fabulous teacher.

pics to come during my pitstop home.

also, w00t!

wheee!

psssst.

eee!

this is it. my last stationary day for 3 weeks. i'm off to SOAR tomorrow!

eeee!

freaking out? yes. but happy freaking now.

my suitcase? is not big enough. jillian and carla have filled an entire station wagon with their stuff [and maybe a few things for me :-)], so i guess it's not surprising that i'll need two bags.

eeeee!

i'm *this close* to binding off both sleeves for the Artfibers silk coat and must finish tonight. knitting from 4 cones of yarn at once is not good plane knitting. but i'll bring the pieces with me and hope to come home with a finished coat!

the churning noise my macbook is making now? it's encoding my copy of Lucy Neatby's Knitting Gems Vol. 1, so i can bring it with me on my iPod. why? because she's got a billion different ways to do a button band and all of them are smarter, easier and better looking than knitting a strip and sewing it on. i don't retain new techniques well at first, so it's a real treat to bring Lucy with me so she can show me over and over again until it's locked in my brain.

plane/downtime knitting? new sock. two skeins of Sock Candy in Little Bunny Foo Foo. pattern? in keeping with my love of the mindless, easy knit, something new, spotted first on Harlot's blog, thanks to Presbytera. a sock that starts, toe up, with 8 sts by 8 rows? dear lord, i am in heaven.

did i mention that my suitcase is too small?

eeeeeeeee!

i'll be bringing my portable solution with me, so i can make sure you get a special treat on Tuesday morning.

it may not be an iPhone or even a Treo, but i can use it to blog, view the web in full color on a rather large screen, check e-mail and do all sorts of other stuff. handy, eh?

for now, must sign off. will blog if i can on the road, but mostly, i'll just be having fun with the girls [and boys?] in the UP.

playing with the big kids!

For as long as I've known Jillian's friend Carla [now she's my friend too], she's gone to the SpinOff Autumn Retreat (SOAR) every fall. We all rave on about Rhinebeck [and rightfully so!], but I've seen few bloggy mentions of SOAR.

I suppose it's because it's so much less accessible. Only a limited number of people can attend. The class fees, though not unreasonable for the caliber of teacher we'll be studying with, are not cheap. Lodging and travel make up the bulk of the expense and it's a big enough number that it makes me nervous. But I can justify that because it's a] an actual business expense and therefore a tax write-off and b] a week spent with my friends, having fun, and not working. I haven't had one of those in a long, long time. It's also probably the only time I'll attend SOAR for the rest of my life.

The way SOAR works is this: There are two parts. The workshop, which is the first 4 days, and the retreat, which is the last 3 days. The first 4 days, you study one subject with one teacher. I'm taking Spinning 101 with Maggie Casey, something I clearly, desperately need to learn. Jillian's taking something advanced and way over my spinning head. :-)

The last 4 days, there are half-day sessions on different topics. And there is the SOAR market, the consolation for us missing Rhinebeck this year. :-)

So that's what next week will be about for me. Spinning intensively, learning from a master, and having a lot of fun 24/7. I've packed a rather large bag with all sorts of fiber to spin while I'm there, including hankies and a spindle, will carry my Ashford Joy DT on the plane, and plan to finish the Artfibers sweater before the week is out. I'm halfway through both sleeves now [knitting them both at once isn't faster, but it does allow me to relax and know that the shaping on both sleeves will match, which is one of my big fears].

Before I go, though, we have a little Knitty treat planned for you. What is it? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

100% lutefisk free!

Looky what Theresa made! An ad for my class in Oslo [which I now know is pronounced something like "osh-le"].



I've already heard from a few blog readers that they're coming. [How cool is that?] We're getting SO EXCITED! Theresa has also offered to translate in class for anyone who needs it. I think I'm going to strap Theresa to my leg and keep her with me always.

Eee!