london | Love Is All You Knit

Nov 03 2013

Antics, designing, Family, knitting, Music, travel, wool, Yarn

On Rock Shows and Knitterati in London

I arrived in London while Joey and the band were at the BBC recording an interview. I made my way to the venue for that night’s show, where the tour bus was parked and unloaded my bags. I decided to venture down Upper Street, knowing that Loop wasn’t too far away. While I was window shopping, I got a text from Joey saying that he was just a couple of blocks away so I headed back in his direction and spotted him quickly. We must have love-radar because he spotted me at almost the exact same moment. We had one of those movie-scene greetings, where time stands still and you’re hugging and kissing in the middle of a busy street in a fabulous city- it was pretty magical. Hand in hand, we strolled down towards Loop and popped in. I got to finally meet Meghan Fernandes and Lydia Gluck of the wonderful Pom Pom Quarterly, and Meghan helped me pick out a British yarn. (I snagged that gorgeous skein of hand-dyed BFL sock yarn from The Uncommon Thread shown above). Meghan also told me that Stephen West was knitting in their upstairs room, so we headed up to meet him as well. Stephen was very nice, knitting away as we all talked about music- it turned out he would be attending the Iceland Airwaves festival that Joey would be playing soon. We left the shop with my skein of beautiful British yarn and, sadly no pics with Meghan and Lydia or Stephen. (I blame the jet lag for not thinking to snap an iphone pic at least). Meghan and Lydia came to the show that night and I had a great time hanging out with them. It was so lovely to meet them both and I hope to work with them again soon.

It’s-a-small-knitterly-world-post-script:

Since I was unable to stay on tour with the band through their Iceland show, I sent Joey with the sole purpose of making sure to snag me some Lopi yarn while he was there. This morning he popped into a coffee shop to ask where he could buy some yarn, and who else was there but Stephen West, knitting away with the WestKnits Fun Squad? I now have a sweater’s worth of Lopi on its way home to the states with my wonderful knitwear-loving husband.

Tagged iceland, knitting, london, lopi, pom pom, yarn

Oct 31 2013

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Antics, designing, Family, knitting, travel

Insta October

October was a really great month. I always love it because the change in seasons feels fresh and exhilarating but also because its my wedding anniversary month. I was feeling a little sad when I first realized months ago that Joey would be out on tour during our anniversary, but what better excuse for me to go on a trip to Europe than to celebrate 12 years of marriage with my love? I spent 7 days traveling with the band on the tour bus and had the most amazing time. Some of my favorite parts of the trip were just watching the guys doing their thing and playing some really wonderful music. I squeezed in a bit of knitting backstage and on the bus (the knitting pic above was taken while sitting in the artist’s lounge at the BBC!), but I mostly just soaked up all the sights and enjoyed some quality time with Joey.

Tagged amsterdam, europe, ireland, knitting, london, music, paris, travel

Mar 06 2013

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Antics, Family, travel

Love and Coffee Mugs

Joey and I have amassed a collection of coffee mugs that tell a little story of our lives. It wasn’t an intentional collection, but every time he leaves for a tour he comes back with a little something from whatever fabulous country or city he has visited, and the souvenirs that see the most use are always the mugs. I have a few special ones in the collection too and I was noticing the other day how we tend to pick out certain mugs for each other, and that there may be little unspoken messages behind our selections.

When I’m pouring the coffee I always think something along the lines of “oh he gets the Union Jack cause he’s going to London soon and I’ll take the knitting one because I plan to do tons of knitting today” or “I feel like tea and I’m going to drink it out of my London tea cup and since that one is little, Joey gets the little one from Sweden. He loves Sweden.”

When he pours the coffee, he tends to make mine in the Love Is All You Knit mug and his in either the Amsterdam mug or maybe the Don’t Mess With Texas. Sometimes he’ll bring me coffee in the little mug from Holland with the Dutch girl and boy leaning in for a kiss. And when he is on tour, I tend to drink from a mug that is geographically close to wherever he is traveling. Yes, there has been an “oh he’s in Spain, so I’m drinking from Barcelona today,” and I’ve even drank from his J- initial cup to feel extra close while he was away.