Summer's curtain call

 I did a brief google on the politically correct description for what we used to call 'Indian summer' and there doesn't seem to be a consensus - but I did stumble across a poetic description labelling it 'Summer's curtain call' which is quite sweet.  Yes, after a week and a half of definite Autumn weather in Shetland (see previous post), and coming home thinking it was time to put away the summer clothes, the weather has surprised us by suddenly warming back up to a sunny 23 degrees.  Luckily we had booked to go away one final night in our caravan for the season so we were able to take some advantage of the weather. We camped down south of Bletchley and had a nice lunch with DS who lives in Milton Keynes now. Yesterday we had a walk down the Grand Union Canal as far as the Three Locks which was quite pleasant.

I also got to go to Milton Keynes IKEA where I picked up some more folding storage boxes to fit my Kallax yarn storage units, as part of the continuing struggle to sort the knitting/lace/ScanNCut room out.  The original idea back when we moved in was to have all the yarn nicely on display in each cubbyhole of the Kallax units, like a yarn store.  In practice this doesn't work at all because the yarn is all different shapes and just wants to fall to the back, or fall out completely to the front.  It's easier to just stuff it all into a storage box labelled 'Shetland' or 'DK'.  I was also looking for a better storage option for all my DPNs but the Milton Keynes IKEA no longer seems to stock any useful divided boxes or cardboard drawers like they used to. I may have to build something myself.  10-15 years ago in my sock knitting heyday, I had all kinds of smaller DPNs but now I can't find hardly any, they can't all have broken or been lost so I'm hoping they are in the mess somewhere.

I also came across a fairly ancient knitting UFO - an Aran jumper I started c late 90s before I learned how to handknit properly.  I had later pulled it back and reknit the front, and knit a plain back on the machine, but stalled on the sleeves partly because I've run out of the original yarn (now discontinued) and couldn't find a good substitute.  When I cleared out my machine knitting room, I came across a cone of Aran wool so I'm using that to handknit the sleeves while we watch 'Shetland' on television. I had never watched Shetland before as I'm not really into crime dramas, but now I can tell DH 'I was there!', 'I had chips in that chippy!', 'that's the museum!' and point out the continuity errors as they jump locations.  As you can imagine, DH just loves all the interruptions.

Before I headed off to Shetland, I finished the circular sewing box I was making, it turned out quite cute. Not sure how practical it is, as it wants to roll forward, but if it had tools in it then it would stay put better.  There is a sewn on magnetic closure, then the ribbon acts as both decoration and a handle.

Our window repairs are all done, so no more builders, yay!!  The scaffolding is still there even though we've told the company we're done with it. Last time we had scaffolding I think it stayed up for a further three weeks, I suspect they were using us as free storage until they needed the equipment for someone else.  I can climb out our second floor hall window and have a cup of tea on our temporary 'balcony' at the back of the house, it's rather nice.  I've been plodding on with booking up my New Zealand itinerary, the flights, hotels and domestic transport are all booked so now I am focusing on activities such as Hobbiton, Weta Workshops, Maori village dinners etc. I feel like travel today is stuck in a grey place between 'exciting global adventure' and 'no admittance unless you booked six months ago'.  And if you booked it all six months ago, then it can start to feel like you are just 'travelling by numbers' when you're there instead of exploration and discovery.  But that's the reality for popular destinations so I try to have a mix of both. What's your travel style?