Hanging out with the Posh Folk

Among other happenings, this past Friday Alli and I went to the Ivy Plus Society's (semi?) annual cocktail party. Sounds pretentious doesn't it? Well, it was. Initially I was very hesitant about going, and the 25 pound price tag didn't help. But the event was also being held at The East India Club, a proper 'Gentleman's Club' if there ever was one, and originally populated by the various Higher Ups of the East India Company. Translation: You're never going to have the chance to get through the door ever again in your life, so GO. Thus, off we went to a schmancy cocktail party, makeup, hair, dress and all. Here are a few (very poor quality) pictures i snapped on the sly.

The entry to the building, and the wall of school plaques (featuring all the really poncy schools)










Our event was held in the smoking room, featuring many portraits of very important (and likely deceased) old men.


In all honestly, I would have loved to have the opportunity to poke around, but sadly it wasn't in the cards. So we went off and mingled instead. Sigh....can you imagine what a stereotypical Ivy League gathering might have been?? Yeah, a lot of the people were like that. There were some pretty neat ones there as well, however. So it was a very good time to be had, not to mention the wine (East India Club's House Label) was fantastic.

Plus? We looked awesome - first photo is from after we left (they kicked us out promptly at 10 pm) and went and had a great dinner at Spaghetti House, made even tastier by being starving. Please also note - I totally had awesome heels on, but took them off when I actually had to walk somewhere. The second photo is Alli's absoutley INSANE hair do. Because it's awesome.


















Lastly, the current state of my Ravelympics Chantal, which is going VERY fast (as I've done nothing but knit for the past two days). Yoke, sleeves divided, and the waist decreases are all done, Now I'm just plugging along with the body until I get back to the hip increases. After that, a nice classy moss stitch border for the buttons and collar.

Olympics Baby!

As one of the many nutters who take a part in the knitting site, Ravelry.com I am also signing on for their traditional Ravelympics! The idea is that you pick a project, cast on during the opening ceremony and (plan to) have it finished by midnight on the last day of the Olympics. Obviously, as it's only 16 days, if you're doing something big, it's a bit of a push. But that's the whole point, the idea is to work hard while watching the games, as a way of sharing in the spirit of it. Challenge yourself and try something new etc etc.

So, for my Ravelympics Project, I'm making a cardigan for work. Because now that I am "employed" I need to look respectable and professional, and my current closet of clothing doesn't precisely fit that description. I've picked up a few bit and bobs (including a pair of slacks that turned out to be 6 inches too long, and required going into work with them pinned up with bobby pins *headdesk) but what I really need is a nice comfy office sweater. Hence, the Cardigan. With that in mind, I've chosen to knit myself a Chantal, in Big Wool (Rowan). It's a lovely cloud color, pale grey with a hint of blue. I am slightly leery of how this may come out, as i tend to look like death in pale colors, but it was that, hot pink or lime green. So....cloud it is. This particular pattern was chosen because it's a fairly classic K2P2 design, bulkier yarn and most especially because it's top down. According to most patterns I've found, I have a freakishly long torso, so I'm hoping that the top down approach will be easily modified to add length.

I cast on this morning while watching a rerun of the opening ceremony...because there was just no way I would have been able to stay up that late (Wine from Friday night, a post on that one to follow). I only got to see bits and pieces of the ceremony though, as the BBC only chose to do a 30 minute 'highlight' version, which was terrible, and then when I figured out that Eurosport had it, I'd already missed about 2/3 of the ceremony. But I DID get to see the awesome fiddler/tap dancing duo, bits of the whales and the slam poets. All in all, I really enjoyed what I saw and those graphics were amazing. Ten points to the Canadians for that one!!