I spent last week in northern California and due to having limited internet access took an unintentional blog break. My apologies, I am working to catch myself up on your lives, projects and what-not. But I wanted to share some of my doings with you, as most of them are of a somewhat crafty nature that you may or may not be interested in.
So here is my list of things that I did and things that you can do as well if you find yourself in northern California and you are crafty (if you are celebrating your birthday, that sort of helps too).
Pebble Beach, California. Wollmeise Gloria Cowl.
Start and finish knitting a Gloria Cowl (details here) to give to a friend for her birthday. My friend is named Kathy, your friend can be named something else.
Artfibers in San Francisco, California.
Have your friend (Kathy) take you to local-to-her yarn shops like ImagiKnit and ArtFibers. Acquire pretty things that make you smile.
If you are bloggy, take the opportunity to meet up with a knit bloggy friend and her beau. Especially if said knit bloggy friend is a birthday twin and is like some sort of long lost crafty twin of sorts. Apologize profusely for exposing your knit bloggy friend to your tired tyrannical toddler.
Rangsiwan meets a very tired Little Sir.
Because you can, go to a fabric store, there are lots of them in San Francisco. If for some reason you, like me, are planning some sort of novelty quilt requiring 21 shades of silk dupioni, you should go to Fabrix like I did.
And since there is a Kinokuniya in San Francisco, you should go there and buy some Japanese craft books, especially if you can not decipher Japanese. It makes crafting interesting.
And because you neither speak nor read Japanese and you bought a bunch of books written in that particular language, you should probably get some written in English (or whatever your primary language is) just to balance things out.
Whether you are crafty or not, you should take time to smell the roses (or whatever flora is at your disposal).
Pacific Grove, California.
And don't forget to take time to experience wonder.
Jellyfish at Monterey Aquarium in Monterey, CA.
When you return home, get giddy about the books you received for your birthday from friends near and far.
Utilize the book about pies as soon as possible, you know, if you are so inclined.
Pineapple pie, a very sweet sweety pie.
So yes, good trip, I have a few more trips to California scheduled for the summer, but I am thinking they will not be as acquisition-friendly as this one, a birthday celebration is a great way to justify stash enhancements of all sorts. While I usually kick off my birthday celebration on Cinco de Mayo and count up to my birthday (are you not doing this as well?), Special K suggested that we start the celebration on my actual birthday this year and add 8 days to it, isn't he sweet? So with that said, I am still celebrating. Though right now, I am trying to get my back to stop hurting after incorrectly lifting heavy boxes of books and documents at work. I am also going to think about happy things, like friends in Philly having lots of fun. And knitting, because I can do that lying down.
Hey, happy knitting, quilting, sewing, or pie baking!