Category: adventures

  • Achievement Unlocked: San Francisco!

    We’re returned from our jaunt to San Francisco! It was awesome.

    We attended my cousin’s wedding in Walnut Creek for the first few days – it was HOT but there were actually a few shops and restaurants in walking distance, even if it did take 4 pedestrian signals to cross under the highway! The hotel had a pool, so we bought bathing suits and hung out there for a bit before going to the wedding at Heather Farm.

    IMG_0175

    Once back in SF proper, we toured all around. It was fairly warm, but nicely breezy. Every day we’d get up a pretty relaxed time, have breakfast, go around for awhile and have lunch, walk around some more and then pretty much pass out at the hotel at dinnertime. My feet were pretty tender from all that walking – you never know what giant hill was around each corner.

    By the time dinner came around we’d pretty much be done with being out, so we mostly had dinners in the hotel suite with my mum (groceries or take-out), except for the one night we had ramen, in Japantown. I didn’t take many photos, but here are a few highlights…

    hohobus-sm

    Took a hop-on, hop-off bus one day – it got us to Fisherman’s Wharf, which was great, but then when we wanted to leave, the last bus had already gone! We ended up waiting an HOUR to take the cable car back downtown. The Cable Car Museum was a great (and free) little museum stop.

    sfmoma-sm

    SF MOMA recently reopened after a long renovation – it’s beautiful. And rather large!

    unionsquare-sm

    Union Square

    sf-japantown-sm

    Japantown was great – interesting shops and buildings, yummy ramen. We actually spent more time there than I was expecting.

    aamuseum-sm

    Asian Art Museum.

    farallon-sm

    Happy hour oysters at the Farallon with my mum! (I should probably have gotten some photos of the three of us.)

    gg-park-sm

    Golden Gate Park. We went to the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young museum, which had a great observation deck view.

    gradient-flowers-sm

    So many pretty flowers and plants, surviving the drought.

    le-beach-sm

    Lands End was a highlight – definitely worth the bus trip! The views were breathtaking.

    le-goldengate-sm

    Golden Gate Bridge, of course. (We didn’t go across or even very near it, ha!)

    le-sutro-sm

    Sutro Bath ruins.

    le-me-sm

    I was there!

    verb-sm

    And of course, high on my list was visiting A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland! It was beautiful, I spent a bunch of money, and then we went out for tacos with Kristine and Julie.

    I’ll share my purchases from Verb next post! Stay cool.

  • Wool & Wine in the County

    I’m back from the Rosehaven Yarn retreat and I had such an excellent time! Lesley was an amazing host, and everyone was so nice.

    I took the train out to Belleville where Lesley’s husband picked me up, and we made a quick stop at Rosehaven before heading over to the venue, Jackson’s Falls Inn.

    rosehaven-sm

    jacksonfalls-sm

    There were a few too many of us for the inn to accommodate, so I was actually staying down the road a bit at Black River B&B – the room was so luxurious, and I even had a deck looking over the Black River. This city girl even got to see a few stars at night. Big thanks to Meredith for letting me hitch a ride back and forth!

    bbdeck-sm

    blackriver-sm

    The schoolhouse at Jackson’s Falls where meals were (as well as classes) was so cozy! Paul and Lee provided so much good food and were great at handling different food requirements for such a big group.

    schoolhouse

    neilson-map-sm

    dinner-sm

    On Saturday afternoon Purlin’ J’s Roving Yarn Co dropped by – it’s a converted fire truck that’s now a yarn truck!

    yarntruck2-sm

    yarntruck-sm

    The knitters ranged from a lady who has only been knitting for 10 months to an amazing 90-years-young woman who just picked up spinning, got a wheel for Christmas and knit up a handspun shawl! So inspiring. My classes went well I think! I taught Continental & Combined knitting, Entrelac, and two-handed colourwork. The other teacher, Cheryl, taught Brioche, Mosaic and Toe up two socks at once!

    Something kinda freaky – Cheryl has a sister named Laura…and I have a sister named Cheryl! How weird is that?!

    class-sm

    Nancy sees me taking a photo…

    tern

    I picked up a wee bit of yarn (Quince&Co Tern) and a patch and t-shirt from Purlin’ J, as well as some gorgeous clothes from Cut Loose which Lesley carries in her shop.

    Thanks to Lesley for inviting me to teach, and everyone for being so awesome! I had a fantastic time.

    P.S. This is unrelated, but while I’m thinking of it – my favourite de-pilling tool, Gleener, has given me a coupon code to share with you all! Use code LAURA10 to receive 10% off until December 25, 2015 – it makes a fantastic gift as well.

  • a rainy Friday

    fi-cuff

    I started a pair of mitts in the same pattern as my peeries hat, but it was too small even for my tiny wrists! If it had been the same number of stitches in straight stockinette or ribbing it would’ve been fine, but stranded colourwork alwyays decreases the stretchiness and inner circumferences of the piece with all those floats.

    peerieshatsm

    Here’s a picture of the finished hat that…is kind of terrible. My head isn’t shaped well for this style of hat, plus it’s a medium and I wear a large! (I have big hair AND a big head.) I promise to get MUCH better photos before I release the pattern ;)

    I’m off to the train station shortly to head to Prince Edward County for the Wool & Wine in the County Retreat! Send me some good travel vibes? Despite the amount of travelling it looks like I do, I actually get pretty anxious and nervous about leaving my house, especially on my own! Eeep!