A Pair of Finished Gloves, A Nice Magazine & Some Useful Books

Over the past few days I've been working on my accounts (yawn), doing battle with my printer (grr) and working on some designs for some project proposals (yay).

I also finally finished the sparkly gloves I was knitting for my sister. I gave up on getting them finished in time for Christmas (that dark blue yarn is a pain to knit in the evenings, which is when I do most of my knitting) but I got them sewn together just in time for her to pack them in her suitcase. No time for photos (sorry!) so here's a snap of the leftover yarn instead:

When I've not been knitting in the evenings, I've been watching telly (the new seasons of The Bridge & Sherlock), reading books and flicking through the the latest issue of Crafty magazine...

 
... which includes a project designed by me. Look! There I am! :)

I've also been getting stuck into planning some Nice Days Out for this spring, with lots of looking at maps and flicking through my Art Fund guide. My Art Pass is great for the discounts it gets me, but it's also great for helping me focus when choosing things to do in London - the city is so big and there is so much to see and do, you can quickly become overwhelmed by all the different options! It's nice to be able to pick a place or two from the guide and then plan a day around them.

Also helping me with my planning = these two books about London's Hidden Walks.

I picked up a great leaflet recently that included suggested walks around the City of London, with lots of interesting bits of info about the buildings, parks, statues, etc along the route and I was thinking how great it would be to have such a thing for other areas of London, too... and then I spotted one of these books (volume 2) in a museum shop on my most recent Nice Day Out and realised it was just what I wanted!
 
The walks all look great, and the text is fun to read and really interesting (I looked up a few places I'd already been to and learned loads of things about them I didn't know before). I couldn't resist popping in to Foyles on my way home to buy a copy of volume 1 to complete the set!