About time too

Feels like ages since I've been on-line. Well that's because it has been. Part of the reason is that I was staying with my lovely Mum who doesn't have a computer. She reckons that she's too old for it. She's in her 60's which I really don't think is too old to be playing with the pc. I mean there are plenty of 'mature' ladies and gents on the socknitters group who surf the net, blog, play games and work on-line. I'm trying to talk her into it but I think it will take time as she's a bit of a technophobe. Mind you telling her that she could do her shopping on-line seemed to appeal to her. I think the thought of not having to pick up huge tins of cat food and carry them herself was quite reassuring. She only has 2 cats but they eat a lot.

While the disadvantage of not being on-line is that I can't update my blog. The advantage is that I get lots of time to shop and knit. Or go on stash enhancing expeditions which are otherwise known as 'SEX' Anyway on one such sex excursion I manged to get this lot well some of it anyway. The sock yarn I bought here in Berlin but ther rowan classic 'Coast' book and the blue yarn for the 'Lynton' cardi is what I bought in Scotland. I had great fun in the shop and even met one of the rowan designers. Jane Galbraith. She even let me try on the cardi which on the front cover. Very nice but I decided to go for some mindless knitting and do something a bit plain. The colour of the cardi has come out pretty well in the photo .

Scotland was great fun and just hanging around with my Mum and sometimes my Sister was very relaxing for a change. Normally my time is so short and I try to cram far too much in. So much so that I barely get a chance to knit. This time was different. We went straight from the airport to Helensburgh to meet up with friends of mine and see Sofia's exhibition at Hill House. Wow is all I can say. She's a very talented girl and I get so jealous ever time I see her work. I have a few of her originals here at home but the new work she's done is fantastic. She's updating her website but as soon as its finished I'll attatch a permanent link so that folks can have a look at their leisure.

Before I dissappeared from the cyber world I did manage to cram a few things in around work. One of them being the Berlin Sternfahrt for bikes. It was a huge cycle tour with 18 starting points in various parts of Berlin and surrounding areas with over 250000 participants. Needless to say, we stopped the traffic and we even got to cycle on the motorway. We started out from Wedding U-Bahn and did a circular route through Berlin. There was a bit of a bike jam trying to get onto and off of the motorway but it was great fun and I really enjoyed it. There is also a campaign for going to work on your bike which I do every day anyway but I think its a good thing. Events like this and more cyclists on the road will mean that the local council or whoever it is who is responsible for putting in bike lanes will maybe take note. On my whole way to work, there is not one single bike lane. Occassionally there are little dotted lines with a bike symbol at the traffic lights however these are generally ignored by cars and I've been knocked off my bike a few times by drivers who just don't care or don't look. One of them was a police car which I was very annoyed about. Ah such is life. In the mean time I'm off to finish the right side of the cardi and then start on the sleeves.