Finally, some pictures

This should have been posted about a week ago, but, well, it wasn't. This is the view out my window as we were starting our descent into Paris. The clouds were so puffy and such a pretty shade of bluey-grey (this photo doesn't really do it justice) that it looked as if you could walk on them. But then we went a little futher and dissappeared into the clouds and next thing we knew, all was dark and grey and rainy... not nearly as glamourous as one imagines Paris should be.

Last night I finished my other glove! yay! I actually completed the Peaceful Palms KAL - and early too! here's what they look like:
I finished knitting and sewing up the left mitt yesterday evening, and then wore them out when I went to meet a friend for a pint. They're pretty comfy, and I quite like them, although I think that the thumbs might be just a wee bit too tight - I'll have to try and stretch them as I wear them. I think these will be very useful here this spring - both outside and when I'm typing in our poorly heated library, and then later, when I eventually have to face another Ottawa winter, I can wear them over full-fingered gloves for a little added warmth. I really liked working with this yarn - its Rowan's Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply. Its feels little rough while you knit with it, but the finished product is nice and soft. The only real complaint I have is that while knitting up the side seams, the length of yarn tangled easily, and broke off it I pulled even the slightest bit too hard - most of the time I didn't even realise I was tugging it when it broke. but at least this didn't happen while knitting, so I guess I can't complain.

Now that these are done, I have to pick a new project. I have a one skein wonder still waiting to be knit up (I took it home to knit over Xmas, but never got to it), but I also want to dive into Jemima sweater already. And then I have a gifty or two that I need to start working on - they don't need to be ready until the summer, but knowing me, I need all the time I can get! I really wish I had access to a tv here... then I could join the Knitting Olympics and try to finish one of the gifts while watching the games!

Actually, having just read a little more of that page, I now have a new knitting goal for the future... I'm loving those Dale of Norway Olympic sweater patterns, but since I neither have the money or the time to invest in one now, I will wait until Vancouver, my hometown, hosts the winter Olympics in 2010, and knit the Vancouver sweater then... that gives me 4 years to build up my skills to the point where I could actually knit something that complicated in only a few months (my concern now is not really the difficulty of the sweater, but rather the time it would take me to make it, what with all the frogging and tinking and abandoning and picking it up again after a hiatus that would be involved!).

To make up for the lack of photos in my posts over the last few days, here are a few I took this past weekend... Tara and I went to Tyneside on Sunday to check out a castle that we'd heard of, but never seen...
I don't know how we could've missed this on our previous visit to Tyneside - you just walk down to the end of the main street and there it is... we ended up not going in though, because we didn't really want to pay the 3 pound entry fee. Instead, we walked around the point in the other direction...
As you can see, there's just one ruin of the priory and then some more modern buildings out at the end of the point. I think there's also a graveyard up there, but that's about it. Here's a view of the point that we walked along - it was really windy so we walked along the road... it eventually takes you around to the main beach that we went to way back in October.
On Sunday the beach was packed with people and their dogs, and even some surfers in the water, although we didn't seem to think that the waves were all that great. But then this is England, so I guess they can't be too picky!