Meanwhile, in London...

...I would like to acknowledge two awards, one from Knitter Bunny and the other from Quelle Erqsome:

- Nice Matters
- You Make My Day.

Thank you! I love it that people take the time to stop by my blog to see what I am up to. Mind you, occasionally, I do wonder whether I am interesting enough or my knitting is good enough. I ain't no Brooklyn Tweed or Ruby Wax.

I resisted having a blog at the start, believe it or not - I am now a convert as having a blog has encouraged me to start looking around more and made me take much closer note of my projects as they are in progress, documenting steps, errors and successes. I would never have thought about doing that in the past. It makes for a lovely record of work.

So anyway, enough of the navel gazing. I have grouped these two awards together as my list for each award would be the same!

I have left out the people who nominated me (else this blog post would abound with bunnies and moustaches) and instead, I have selected the other blogs and people I check on regularly, as they have influenced my knitting or enhanced my life one way or the other over the past year!

Please note that if you receive an award, you get to 'pay them forwards' on your own blog. Just make sure that you leave them a comment on the award recipient's blog so that they know. Be warned, you may get an award more than once (blahblahblah).

I've listed these blogs in alphabetical order:

1. Brooklyn Tweed: for being influential, for stunning knits and photography.
   
   
2. My Fashionable Life: for being influential and Anna's lovely writing style.
   
   
3. Posh Yarns Dee: for beautiful yarns, lifestyle and commentary.
   
   
4. Rabbitch: for being a laugh-out-loud funny and blunt fibre maven (I suspect her of being kind and supportive on the sly too)!
   
   
5. Robynn: for getting me started on all of this blog madness, for introducing me to lovely knitting supplies (Purlescence) and for encouraging me to stretch myself in everything knitterly.
   
   
6. Roobeedoo: for her many socks and personal fortitude in the face of adversity. I first came across R because she was another winner in a competition that I entered and is now, interestingly, one of the blogs that I check most regularly.
   
   
7. Team Knit: for being themselves and thereby allowing me to live vicariously and pretend that I am a lot younger and cooler by hanging out at their blog from time to time! They have a keen eye for fashion and a good knack for selecting the most happening knits to make.
   
   
8. Yarn Floozies: for being so kind and putting up with a jetlagged Londoner last October and taking her awkward butt along to some of Vancouver's best yarn haunts!
   
   
9. Yarn Harlot: for dry humour and her specific take on life! Oh c-o-m-e o-n, don't pretend that you don't read this blog!
   
   
10. Yogic Knitter: for being my key offline partner in knitting crime. She knits an awful lot faster than I do! In fact, if you could all get over to her blog and innudate her with ideas for really complicated patterns and knits for the yarns that she has in her stash, I would be very grateful - anything to slow her down! I reckon that she should be up for the Vintage Sock pattern challenge now that she has finished her Karenina, don't you? 34 knitted leaves, that'll sort her right out!
    

* * *

And now for something completely different...
(a little snippet from the Offline Life of O.R.K.)

SCENE
Who Ate all the Cakes?

[Somewhere in London, Tuesday 29th January 2008, 15:00 GMT]

Enter Stage Left:
An excited person who has just become an aunt. She offers around a box of very expensive, exquisite looking, petit four type cakes from Pauls. In this way we are all able to share in her family's celebration. We each select a cake.

Me:
One very small, perfect oval of chocolate sponge adorned with apricot shreds sits enticingly on a cheap, square, paper serviette in front of me. It promises two mouthfuls of intense sweetness - I am entranced by it.

To my left:
Someone selects a cake, a little mini pie item, overspilling with chopped nuts and dusted elegantly with icing sugar. He quietly and carefully scrutinises his petite yet volumptuous choice. I assume that he is relishing its consumption pretty much in the same way I am going to relish eating mine. There is a moment of silence.

Stage Left:
Excited person continues to offer cakes around in the background.

To my left:
Quietly, yet very clearly, someone announces to the air in front of him:

There should be a minimum size for these things, cakes I mean, don't you think?

Me:
I tear my eyes away from my treat. I glance around, hoping that the excited person has not overheard him. Luckily, she is oblivious. I decide to ignore him. I return my gaze to the perfectly formed, visibly dense delight that nestles on the serviette in front of me.

To my left:
Someone bites into his mini nutty pie. As suspected, it turns out to be a confection of pastry containing sweet minced nuts, including almonds. There is a small pause while he chews.

I hate marzipan. This isn't nice at all. I picked this one because I thought that it looked like a mini-mince pie.

[Another pause]

Well, I hope I get offered another, so I get the chance to eat one that I like.

Me:
Stunned, my head does a 360 degree swivel, checking on location of the newly created aunt. She's gone from the room. I relax. I decide to speak.

Excuse me someone, please might I make a suggestion?

To my left:
What?

Me:
Internal voice - learn to harness your inner voice. On the outside, if you do not like something someone has given you, say nothing, just be polite. Otherwise, you risk upsetting the person who made the generous gesture? You can't shove someone's generousity back in their face by stating that what they have given you is 'not nice'!

[I give someone my best attempt at a meaningful, knowledgeable look.]

You know what someone, when the excited person returns, if she has any cakes left to offer, I truly hope that there are only little pie ones left - it would serve you right!

To my left:
Actually, I'd probably take one - after all, cake is cake.

[pause]

Hey anyway, whatever happened to feedback is king? (or words to that effect)

Me:
Good grief, in that case remind me never to knit you anything - I'd be terrified to be on the receiving end of such honest feedback! I can picture it now, "What's this? What did you make me this for, what am I supposed to do with it?!"

Then I can imagine that you would tell me that it's okay, you'll just take it home and add it to your dog's basket!

To my left:
[concilliatory tone] I am sure that I wouldn't be that direct. I'd probably say, "Oh, you made this for me?"

Me:
What...? That old chestnut, "Thank you, that's nice...[dramatic pause]....what is it?!"

To my left:
Oh no, it would be, "Thank you, that's nice...[dramatic pause]...did your child make it?!"

Me:
Copious laughter!

After all, can anyone imagine saying this to another knitter or crafter of any kind?! I doubt that you would manage to exit the room without a dpn jutting out of your neck at a jaunty angle.

Postscript:
My cake was utterly delicious. If I haven't lost weight this week then I know I can blame:

- my little oval cake; and
- the two little round cakes adorned with poppy seeds, citrus shreds and inside, filled with gooey apricot that I managed to disappear as well.

Well, I had to. It was greed. It was a public service to protect the innocence of the cake provider while someone was out of the room. There were no little pies left but....

...I couldn't risk him eating another one. What if he hadn't liked them? What might he have said?! The whole situation could have got very messy. I ate all the cakes. I saved the day.