San Francisco, Part 3

Tuesday was another day of class. I walked back to the hotel a different way, and look what I found... I felt like a bit of a goof taking this picture in the middle of the Financial District, but I knew that Sarah would appreciate it.



The entrance to Chinatown is not far. I had heard (from a reliable source) that there were sweatshirts to be had for a good price, so I headed over for some (window)shopping.

There are some weird streets in San Francisco.

Why I like San Francisco, part 2

It's been a busy week, what with going to class all day (ok, most of the day) and then spending all evening working my way through my list of tourist activities.

On Sunday, Erin and her boyfriend took me to dinner at The Stinking Rose. Then we walked back through Chinatown and got fried sesame things with bean paste for dessert.

I took some pictures of the hotel lobby while I was waiting for them. Isn't it stylish?

Monday after class I took the cable cars (after a few misdirections, the streets here are confusing) to Grace Cathedral, which came highly recommended.

It was beautiful and awe inspiring and I only took pictures outside. But they have some amazing doors. See?

They also had some beautiful flowers.

From Grace Cathedral I walked down the hill to catch a cable car

and rode it to Ghirardelli Square,



which is on the bay. I took pictures.


I saw my first palm tree of the week. Or, at least, the first one that I noticed.


I shopped and ate samples and bought a tasty cupcake.


I decided to take the cable car back up to Lombard Street. But the line was very long. Remembering that the guidebook had said that it was quicker to get on at a stop further up the hill, I started walking. I thought a cable car would catch up with me. I stopped after a few blocks and took a picture of Alcatraz.



Then I kept walking. The cable car never caught up with me. The map made it look like a short walk. It was not. See? That stuff way at the bottom of the hill by the water is where I started walking. :)



There were lots of cars lined up for their turn to drive down "The Crookedest Street". I decided to walk down the hill to get the full experience.


Then I kept walking to the next cable car line to go back to the hotel.

Why I like San Francisco, part 1

Guess what I found this afternoon while I was walking around downtown. Without even looking for it, although I'd been meaning to make sure to visit sometime this week.

That scruffy looking building, once you ride the scary elevator up to the second floor, is the home of Artfibers, which is a very cool yarn store. They make all their own yarn. They let you try it out in the store. They have so many different options that it takes forever to decide.

And I found it by accident, which made my afternoon very cool.

Next up, dinner at The Stinking Rose with Erin, who used to live in Cincinnati.

San Francisco

Know what 4+ hours on a plane (plus maybe 1/2 hour waiting to get on the plane) gets you? This:

That's right. A good start on a toe up sock. Admittedly, this is my second start on this sock. But still. I think that's pretty good progress.

There were a few distractions. Turbulence. Snacks (twice, since it was a long flight). A small child kicking the back of my seat. His mother/female (ir)responsible person clipping her (hopefully) fingernails behind me. (Is this allowed? It seems pretty disgusting to me, particularly in such a small space with so many people next to you.) Stuff like that.

But, now I'm finally in San Francisco, hooray! I hear there are some good yarn stores here. :)

Sock details: KnitPicks Felici yarn (Arugula colorway). KnitPicks 2.5mm circular needle. Yarn over Cable pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks (p 39-43). I'm doing this as magic loop, which so far means working the sole on 1 "needle" and the rest on the other. I'm pretty much following the directions for using 4 dpns, just replacing the 2nd & 3rd needles with the other half of my circular and putting a stitch marker in between. Just like the Queen of Sock taught me. :)

Big woolly stripey thing, revealed

My baby sister got married this weekend. I intended to make the happy couple a Log Cabin blanket as their gift. Unfortunately, it's taking much longer than expected and will probably continue to take a long time since I start grad school in a couple of weeks. Fortunately, reliable sources tell me that I have up to a year to give a wedding gift.

I had been keeping this project a secret, or at least making an attempt in places where Brecka would see it. However, the happy bride decided that she wanted to see her gift in progress. Which means that I can now share pictures.

Here's a somewhat recent shot. Since this was taken I've added the next dark green stripe and started picking up for a small stripe of burgundy, which will be used as the border color as well after one or two more repeats of the three-color pattern.

Balcony Gardening

I said I'd post some pictures of my favorite flowers. The ones that bloom all summer long even when I only water them once. Well, here you go...

Don't they look nice?

Ugly hat

There are some things that just beg to be frogged.



It all started out so innocently. There was a sale on blue yarn for Father's Day. I bought yarn with blue in it, hoping to make a hat for my dad. I bought a top-down hat pattern to use with the yarn, thinking it would be fun. I started knitting and eventually got this. It looks ok in the photo, but imagine it on my dad's head - it just didn't work. At all. So this yarn, which I really do like, has been re-balled and is waiting for fresh inspiration. Poor yarn.

Why I love KnitPicks

I ordered some more yarn for a project on Sunday. This morning I had an email saying that it would be here in three business days. And I just got home from work to find my yarn sitting in front of my door. Yay!

Admittedly, I did pay for 3-day shipping because I wanted to make sure that I'd have what I needed by when I thought I would be ready for it. But getting it today pretty much makes it 1-day shipping - at least by my calculations.

:)

Update: Ok, now I like KnitPicks even better. I ordered a bunch of different things, including a skein of Felici sock yarn, since I was dumb and only ordered enough for one sock before. I asked them to send me another skein in the same dye lot, if they had it available, and they did! But that's not all - I was also ordering extra yarn in a bunch of different colors, and for every single color they sent me more yarn in the same dye lot as what I already had! I didn't think that would even be possible - I'm so impressed!