Gaile sent me this incredible calendar:
It was a whirlwind trip to San Francisco, but it was quite fun. Sunday cancer-killing Megan and I went to IKEA along with every other resident of the Bay Area (seriously, people were SPILLING out of the building). As we sat and ate (Swedish meatballs!), I gave Joanna a call, and she came to meet us, resplendent in her Rogue.
So Monday I went to meet Marie and Andy, who were visiting from Wales. Andy went off in search of music, and Marie and I had a little fiber fest. First we went to Britex Fabrics, which is pretty stinking amazing. They have four floors of fancy fabrics and notions!! We were too overwhelmed to purchase any fabric, but here you can see that Marie bought a Britex Fabrics tote!
I know, her poncho is gorgeous. One of the employees gushed over it and told her it was the BEST PONCHO she had EVER seen.
After Britex we headed to, drumroll please, Artfibers, where Marie helped the local economy quite a bit. I’ll have you know I bought nothing for myself! We spent a good chunk of time there then headed to the Ferry Building Marketplace to meet Andy and Joanna for lunch. A lot of the storefronts were closed, so it wasn’t very crowded. We ate at Taylor’s, a diner sort of place. They give you these little buzzer spaceship things to tell you when your food is ready, and I started developing a nervous tic from listening to all the beeping noises! The fries were good, the shakes seemed good (including Joanna’s $10 million pumpkin shake), and the fish batter was corndoggy and weird.
So after lunch Megan very kindly came to fetch the 3 of us (poor Joanna had to go back to work), and we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to San Rafael and Dharma Trading! The catalog makes it seem like they are all about dyeing and have never heard of yarn, but hoo boy, they sell yarn! We met Rachael there in her newly minted Cromarty, and yes, the ladies went gaga over it. Here’s a blurry shot of us:
Yup, that is yarn that Megan is holding!
So after Dharma Trading we all went to get frozen custard and pumpkin frozen yogurt. Marie and Andy were only able to make it to the tops of their cups before they gave up, but we Americans succeeded in reaching the bottoms of the cups.
Okay, I have to go and watch Lost now, but here’s a shot of some gorgeous, traffic-stopping Colinette that Marie gave me. I love it and can’t stop petting it!
Okay, so I didn’t leave my heart in San Francisco, but I did have a great time. I am now rather exhausted, though (but probably not as exhausted as some of you crazy Rhinebeckers). Since I still have to unpack before I collapse, I am just going to show you a couple of photos. Cancer-killing Megan and I went to our friend Beth’s for dinner, and she made this lovely cake (and she DID kind of hint that she would like to see it here):
It’s pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. The recipe is from Cooking Light. Isn’t it beautiful? It was also a conversation starter, since we had all sorts of things to say about pomegranate.
And here is Megan showing off her chemo curls as we breakfasted at Tartine. You can see it was a nice day:
That’s a giant gougere you see there in the foreground. It was peppery and fun to eat, since it was comically large.
It hasn’t rained here for nearly half a year, so I suppose it’s a good thing it’s raining right now. The bad thing is I’m headed to San Francisco tomorrow, and I don’t care to drive in the rain. It looks like it is going to be rainy the whole time I’m there. I’m trying to have a good attitude about it. After all, I grew up in Portland, OR, so I should be used to rain, right? I’m headed up there to meet Marie and her other half, who are vacationing from Wales! You know that Artfibers is on our list, right? I’ll be back Tuesday.
Before I sign off, I wanted to alert you to a breast cancer awareness knitalong that Laura is hosting. Also, there are some charts for the ribbons here. Think pink!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and there is so much good pink stuff out there for sale I can hardly stand it. Cancer-killing Megan is completely obsessed with it all! Since I’m going to see her in a couple of days, I whipped up these mittenettes:
I was inspired by Chris, who made some very cute pink ribbon wristbands. Of course, I couldn’t find any of the light pink Cotton Ease, so I went with some cheapo TLC acrylic stuff. I had a lot of trouble with the ribbon part. It kept looking weird, and it kind of still does, but it’s better than the earlier attempts, let me tell you. And yes, I realize that one mittenette is bigger than the other. They are supposed to be the same size, but I am clearly a spastic knitter. Let’s hope Megan’s left hand is plumper than her right.
If you like pink and like to shop, it’s easy to support breast cancer research. Many stores are offering pink goodies for sale, with significant chunks of the proceeds going to breast cancer research. Target has some nice items, and for many of them, they will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
I may not speak German, but I do speak the international language of candy. Today was traveling-German-food-truck day, so I went to load up on some bockwurst and saw this:
Click the photo to see what’s inside.
I asked one of the German ladies what it was, and she kept telling me it was soft and fluffy, and I thought she meant meringue. She said people either like it or hate it. Later I saw an English translation on the side of the box: chocolate-covered MARSHMALLOW. Major score. Here is one with a bite taken out of it:
And one final candy-related item. Check out this fabric that Jan sent:
Don’t you want to eat it? I’m thinking about making a pillowcase with it so that I can have candy-filled dreams …
Joanna provided a recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. Yum.
Of course, because of my early onset dementia (I know I joke about this dementia, but I really AM scared I’m going to get it, and I don’t consider it a laughing matter, so no offense to anyone), I messed up the recipe and accidentally put in twice as much oatmeal as needed. They still turned out okay, though. Oh, I used chocolate chips and Halloween-colored M&Ms. The cookies didn’t taste very pumpkin-y, but Deedle knew the pumpkin was in there. We feed her pumpkin with her meals, and she was going nutso over the cookies. She even tried to jump on the table to snag some!
I think the Hallowig is total genius. Mine came out a little big, and Peter thinks it looks rather Roman gladiatoresque.
Today was Pioneer Day in our little town. It’s a celebration of community or something. Most of the stores are closed, since the purpose of Pioneer Day is for everyone to come together and celebrate. I got talked into helping with the parade (yes, there’s a parade). I didn’t think it was going to be much fun, but it was. One of the highlights was getting to wear a fluorescent yellow safety vest! The parade had nearly 200 entries. There were lots of tractors and horses and Shriners (because what parade would be complete without Shriners) and old cars and kids.
Whoah, big thresher! (On the right you can catch a glimpse of a fluorescent vest. That’s Fred.)
This was part of a local elementary school. They had very colorful banners that they waved around. I heard they got all tangled up later on, but it was pretty at the start.
Another highlight of Pioneer Day is the bean feed in the city park. They cook up a frightening amount of chili beans and give them out for free! With bread! Here’s where they scoop it out:
And here’s a lively group enjoying the beans:
Notice the pot? You can bring a container from home, and they will fill it for you! Now don’t you wish you lived here?
I started knitting Karis, the lacy poncho from Rowan 36, but instead of using the lovely Rowan Kidsilk Haze that the pattern calls for, I’m using Lion Brand Imagine, a nylon/mohair blend (mostly nylon with a dash of mohair thrown in). I had a full ball of it left over from a previous knitting failure, so I only had to get two more. A poncho for $15 sounds like a deal to me! The thing is Imagine is fatter than Kidsilk Haze, so it’s going to be heavier and not so delicate and lacy lovely like Melanie‘s is. No matter! Someone has to make rash knitting decisions! Here’s the neckband:
Umm, yeah, it’s kind of bright, isn’t it? And I know it should be obvious to me, but I am having a doozy of a time figuring out which is the right side and the wrong side, and what’s even more confusing is it gets kind of backwards when you start knitting the body, because you’re knitting upside down, sort of. I think I am definitely going to be someone who gets early onset dementia.
By the way, I read somewhere that Imagine is being discontinued!
