No surprises in London

The temperature has dipped again, reminding us it's full on winter out there as it's been snowing on and off since yesterday lunchtime. Reading the news, it looks like London has pretty much ground to a halt, so perhaps last week and not this week was the time to be on that training course.

The trip itself was OK I guess as these things go. My hotel was in Tower Bridge, while the training centre was just around the Corner from Bank tube station. I hate traveling on the tube, so I hiked over and back each morning, with each journey coming in at just under two miles... Which all went towards canceling out some of effects of living out of a hotel and restaurant all week!

I got lost quite a bit too. This is the first time I've been on a training course where I haven't also had a streaming head cold to deal with as well. I was surprised at how much more alert it made me feel and willing to wander around the streets of London when the class was done. Nothing spectacular, I just sort of explored looking for any worthwhile shops really; Dave tells me that despite my efforts I missed a book shop. :(

The course itself was pretty much as expected. There were only six delegates, all experienced sys admins and the course material was heavy going, with some sections rather like pulling teeth. The instructor was very excitable and obviously enthusiastic about his subject, which (for those who like to know these things) was the Solaris OS. I was on a 'delta' course for experienced systems administrators, i.e. a course to highlight what has changed in the latest version.

As planned, I took the much lamented Jaywalker sock with me to plough on with in the evenings, making a couple of changes this time. I cast on on 2.25mm needles and did a K1b, P1 rib for the cuff which will hopefully pull it in a bit. Once past the cuff, I returned to my 2.5mm needles for the rest of the sock. About half way down the leg (which I've knit considerably shorter) my fingers were incredibly sore, so as an experiment I switched from the metal needles back to my Clover bamboo DPNs at which point the going got a lot easier. Having knit this sock leg twice on metal pins, it seems that I've adjusted enough to the pattern that I can cope on my much blunter bamboo's. This meant much relief for my poor fingers.

Nothing to see at this stage, but the sock returned from London at approximately the same point I ripped it out last time and I've worked on it some over the weekend, so that it's now past the gusset and I'm knitting down the foot towards the toe.

The moment of truth when I try it on will come at some point soon... Unless of course I get distracted by lace in the near future.