I brought a ridiculous amount of knitting with me for this trip. All the time I was in Britain I worked on a baby blanket for twin #2 (no pictures until it's gifted, though). But I finished off all the yarn I'd brought for it by the end of my trip (my train travel, particularly my train delay, allowed for that) and so mailed it off back home from Oxford.
Then I also brought along the lace shawl I worked on during my spring trip. And I happily started working on that again.
But alas!
Yes, one needle is now significantly shorter than the other. Sigh. First, I managed to break off the very tip of the needle--and I'm still not sure how I did that. But with the help of a nail file (a sort of frighteningly effective nail file) I resharpened the point and kept knitting. Sadly, however, I then managed to... well, I'm also still not sure what, but apparently I knelt on it or something, and broke off a couple of inches of the needle. While I managed to sharpen it again into a workable point, it's just too short to use comfortably. So, bye, shawl, for now.
And that means socks. I also brought, for reasons that made sense at the time, four different sock yarns. This is the first I've tackled, a golden version of Malabrigo sock, which I'm knitting in the well-loved (but never before knit by me) Monkey pattern. Except I'm knitting it toe up. And with a short row heel (which is now done, but I don't feel like photographing it again). And I'm using a size 00 needle. And knitting on the bus, despite being told by one bus conductor that I was not allowed to do so. After a day of twiddling my thumbs on the bus, I decided she was making that up, and so started knitting again. Not a problem, apparently.
The only problem with being in Petersburg after two weeks of being a tourist in Britain is that I'm a little touristed out, and thus am not inclined to go to scenic places and take pictures. But the benefit of being in St. Petersburg, and particularly with living in the center of town, is that it's hard to go anywhere and not find something scenic. Like the canals, and the columned buildings, and the famed Cathedral of the Spilt Blood, built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.
I'm not sure what all those people were looking at, but it's a spot where canals and rivers come together in a confusing maze of water, streets, and bridges, girded with pastel buildings. My bet is that it involved boats.
I didn't see the bridal couple I'm sure came out of this car, but they were probably having pictures taken either by the cathedral or in the gardens next to it. And, man, that's a ride. Make the car I saw covered with images from "From Dusk 'Til Dawn" pale in comparison (no, no pictures of that--it drove by, and I wouldn't have known what it was if it hadn't had "From Dusk 'Til Dawn" written out as part of the painting).
Petersburg is a funny city, in that although I think it's just lovely to walk around, even on a wet misty day like this (Saturday, of course, when the archives are closed and I don't have to work), I find it hard to capture that loveliness in pictures.
But so much of the beauty is in little things--like this building, which is ornately decorated in Russian style, but WITH DRAGONS. DRAGONS!!! How crazy cool is that??
And then there are even odder things, like this old church. Its domes are gone, its brick exposed and a bit worse for the wear. But you can see that cross put up there at the top--I was surprised to see that, because I figured this had long ago been converted to a sport center or some such thing. But, no, even if it was, it's now been converted to an evangelical church.
There's always something in this city.
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