London

Well, whatever happens with the job, at least I got a day in London out of it.

(I was lucky and just missed the car bomb scare, so it seems a little...off...to be going on about yarn and books, but everyone recovered admirably and went about their normal business. The West End that night was just as busy as ever, apparently. So I will just also go about my normal business as well.)

The interview finished up about two, and my first mistake was not using the bathroom before I left the building. The second mistake was thinking that it would be an easy walk from King's Cross to Loop, the yarn shop in Islington. It would normally have been fine, except that I was wearing heels. I always wear heels to job interviews, on the theory that taller people get paid more. Anyway, these heels are fine for normal, everyday walking around, but a 3/4 hour brisk walk, followed by another few hours wandering about a new town, not so much. My toes were killing me.

But Loop was great. I'm still keeping myself on something of a yarn diet, so I tried not to go overboard. They had a great stack of books that were on sale, and lots of new, interesting yarns. I reined myself in and got just three balls of bamboo, which I'd always wanted to try.
(See how I cleverly managed to include a picture of my fuchsias in there?) We tried, but we cannot get a picture of the yarn that shows its brilliance, shine and colour correctly. It fairly glows, I tell you. It's made by the Be Sweet people, and is hand-dyed by South African women living in a rural, economically depressed region. Which is nice and all, but the yarn! It's absolutely beautiful. It's not variegated, really. It's a single colour, but some of the yarn takes the dye up differently than others, so the result is a nice shading of different green-blues. It's like the colour of dragonflies- that's the perfect description.

Here's the yarn knit up:

I know those two pictures show completely different colours. The true colour is somewhere in the middle, but a bit more green. This stuff is soft. And drapey. It makes a beautiful, fluid fabric. I keep feeling up the swatch. I'd been knitting with some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and I thought that gave a slippery, soft fabric, but this bamboo stuff? It kicks silk's ass. This stuff is slinky. I'm so looking forward to wearing this next to my skin.

Anyway, after Loop, I walked around London for a couple more hours. I tried to go to Foyles, but couldn't for the life of me find it. I've been there before, but I'll be damned if I could find it this time. After a couple of passes up and down Charing Cross Rd, I gave up and found the huge Waterstones in Piccadilly Circus instead. There I found a copy of Christopher Moore's novel A Dirty Job. I love Christopher Moore, and I can't ever find his books in the book shops in Dublin. His books are funny, articulate, and delightfully absurd. Sometimes he'll throw in a sentence or two that reminds me of P. G. Wodehouse. Seriously. I know that's a weird comparison, but it's true.

After an hour or so at the bookshop, I made my way to Heathrow. Well, I tried, but the Piccadilly line was experiencing severe delays. Welcome to London.