Photo of the Week 3 - Leeds Cityscape

Leeds is an old, old city. Nobody really knows how old, though - there are some written references to a Roman garrison town which was in the area, on the River Aire by a ford, but no remains have been found to pin down the precise location.

The forest of Loidis, or Leodis, was part of the kingdom of Elmet, from the 5th to 7th centuries AD.

As you can see above, if that Roman town WAS in the same spot on the river as Leeds occupies today, there's really no hope of ever finding it. The Waterfront in Leeds has been a very busy area for a very long time.

The above photo was taken from the staircase in the Hall of Steel at the Royal Armouries Museum on Clarence Docks, overlooking the Aire. It is centered on the parish church, and shows one of the Victorian cast iron bridges in the background, the Millennium Footbridge in the foreground, and several of the apartment buildings that comprise the redevelopment of the Dockside area. It was taken in January 2010 and, let me tell you, that frozen slush you can see was murderous to walk on.

This is NOT a Knit Blog!

But, it is written by an obsessive knitter, so knitting is going to feature heavily.

I've already mentioned my sock knitting craze, and after 8 pairs of plain toe ups with short row heels, I'm currently working on my first ever patterned pair of socks. Still toe up, but I'm hoping the departure from the old and familiar is the start of a more mentally challenging creative journey. The next step will be a pair of cuff down socks, now I have a good eye for how much yarn it takes to make a pair to fit me, so I'm not fretting about running out of yarn with half a foot to go.

One thing I've learned from this project, is that Malabrigo Sock yarn deserves its reputation for gorgeous colours, but with the slightest hint of dampness it binds onto bamboo needles like it's glued there. Since I love my bamboos, and the past few weeks have been hot and humid, this has not been a project full of peace and harmony. In fact, more a project filled with profanity, threats of violence against inanimate objects, tangles and obsessive hand washing and drying (to no avail). Grateful as I am for this skein, which was a swap gift and a most thoughtful one, I don't expect to be seeking this brand out in future, unless I'm prepared to use metal needles throughout the project.

As the image also shows, I caved in to the inevitable (not gracefully) and switched to metal needles. Since I have the tension from hell, and bend my needles into something resembling emaciated bananas, metal needles do unkind things to my fingers, so I mostly avoid them.

Of course, I don't just knit socks. In fact, my creative diary is fully booked up for the foreseeable future. I have a hat for a friend, another hat and a sweater for The Welshman, a sweater for The Caver (not such a hassle, he's a skinny shortarse. Has to be to get down those pot holes), plus, at some stage, a warm shawl and a hooded jacket for me. All to be done this year. Along with more socks.

I like a challenge...


And, to those now suffering an earworm of This is Not a Love Song, by the Sex Pistols... gotcha! :)

Photo of the Week 2 - Leeds Canal Basin

Leeds became a prosperous cloth market town in the Middle Ages due to the fact that the Aire river was navigable along much of its length. Cloth and other bulky goods such as coal and limestone were gathered in from the surrounding areas into the huge warehouses along the river front owned by major merchants before being shipped onwards.

In the eighteenth century, the Leeds & Liverpool canal was built to make shipping these bulky and heavy goods over the Pennines to the port city of Liverpool possible, as well as shipping them down the Aire. It took 46 years to build in its entirety. This is the very end of the canal, the basin in Leeds where it was joined via locks to the Aire river.

This area has recently reopened after redevelopment. Sadly, this translates as 'one of the few central green spaces in the city now has a blocky ugly hotel and an apartment tower on it, with a few benches and tiny patches of grass left over to keep the public quiet'

However, many other redevelopments along the canal and river front in Leeds are a lot more sympathetic to the history of the area. Expect a great many other photos of the waterways in the future. This picture was taken from the bridge near the Canal offices, looking towards the Aire river. The new hotel is on the left.

Inherent Contradiction the First

I am a lifelong barefooter. I have wonderfully healthy feet and ankles as a result - they're broad, well shaped, not deformed from ill fitting shoes or heels, the nails are healthy. My preferred footwear for years was a good pair of hiking sandals, year round.

So, why is my time so taken up these days with the knitting of socks?

Perhaps I'm just an awkward sod.

But no. About a year and a half ago now, my trusty hiking sandals failed me. A strap broke. Being Autumn, sandals were thin on the ground (see what I did there?) so I was forced to fit my feet into shoes. Literally in years, the only shoes I'd worn had been a pair of 'high days and holy days' black heels which covered both funerals and job interviews with aplomb, and now I found myself with a pair of black Birkenstock mary janes.

I found out within 15 minutes that my normally tough feet did NOT have the required calluses to go bare in Birks, and found out within days that the commercial socks I bought were NOT fun to wear on a daily basis.

And, well, come on! Knitting is what I do. So, armed with a pattern, yarn and needles, I set out to self sufficiently clothe myself.

Eight pairs later, I have enough sock yarn stashed, and patterns bookmarked to keep me going for about 5 years, at the rate of one pair per month. And I do not knit that fast.

Self sufficiency in socks has been achieved!

And, you know something? For the past two winters, my feet have stayed warm and dry. And I end up wondering how come I didn't do this sooner? Sometimes it's okay not to be superhuman tough, it seems.

But I still call myself a barefooter. Because I'm an awkward sod.

Inaugural Photo of the Week

Ingleborough in the Peak District, taken on a changeable day in the first half of May this year.

One of the mountains that make up the Three Peaks Challenge. Along with her sisters Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent, Ingleborough in this picture shows everything I love about my corner of the planet. Solitude, space, a sense of monumental time passing...

The Three Peaks are limestone country, and as we all know, limestone is made of the shelly remains of sea creatures, deposited, laid down and compressed over millions of years. Now, think of the preceding sentence and look at that picture again. Sea creature shells make up that entire landscape. Look at the size of it, and think of all those countless billions of little creatures, over millions of years.

Time passing.