Violently Domestic

Flee

9 January 2012 · 7 Comments

So I’m fleeing the country on short notice once again.  Well, compared to previous flights, this one is actually with a huge amount of notice…whole days in fact.  The summarized version is that I’ll be in Toronto this Saturday.  It’s been a shockingly long time since I’ve been to Toronto, the last time was way back in November 2007.

Now in 2007 I was a very new knitter.  How new?  Well, consulting my ravelry notes, I see that I took my very first sock ever with me on that trip in 2007.

Even back then I knew that Toronto had a certain reputation as a yarn store haven.  But I didn’t really have the resources (wasn’t yet a ravelry member…found yarn stores a bit intimidating) to properly appreciate it.  All that’s different now.  Yarn stores no longer scary.  Putting ‘town name’ and ‘yarn store’ in google before leaving for a trip is now standard practice.  But more importantly, I have you guys and can shamelessly ask you what your favorite yarn stores in any given spot are.  So, Toronto, Saturday, any suggestions?

ETA:  Lies…it turns out I’m telling you all terrible lies.  It seems I was actually last in Toronto in February of 2009.  But it was for just long enough to have lunch with a friend and buy one wee ball of yarn…not anything resembling a proper visit.  This will be a rather longer trip (a few nights rather than a few hours) and afford much more opportunity for socalizing with wool.

The Stars Did Not Align

5 December 2011 · 3 Comments

We’re actually pretty good at the short trip thing.  We don’t overpack (for one or two nights we just share a super tiny rolling bag).  We understand the importance of snacks.  We have the music situation well under control.  I know all about the care and feeding of car knitting.  We have a system.  Usually, it just sort of works.  But this weekend…this weekend we never quite found our groove.

It started when we woke up on Saturday and found the furnace had given up the ghost.  We have a service plan through our gas company, so we called them and said ‘help.’  They assured us someone would call within 24 hours to arrange a service visit.  We figured we might as well spend those 24 hours somewhere warm, so we headed off to Pittsburgh more or less as planned, though a bit later than we had hoped.

Once there, we stopped in at East End Brewing.  We had a few of their growlers that we thought they might want back.  We’re thoughtful like that.  Though somehow we ended up refilling two of them tasty things and bring them back home…we’re like that too.  Thus supplied, we swung by Natural Stitches (conveniently located just up the street).  I did a bit of stash augmentation (oh Madeline Tosh, your colors weaken my resolve), and we headed off to find dinner.

The plan had been to go to Embury.  We try to go there every time we visit Pittsburgh because they have amazing cocktails.  We drove, parked, walked…only to find a construction site.  The restaurant was gone, and another was taking its place (apparently they’ve moved and will reopen later).  This was more than a bit frustrating, especially as their website made no mention of being closed or of having moved.  Undaunted (or, rather, quite daunted but also quite hungry) we set off to make other arrangements.  We found another option.  They had food.  That’s really all I can say about them.  Or no…I can say that between the unnamed restaurant and the car was a lovely establishment called The Milk Shake Factory (link to the yelp page because the actual page makes lots of terrible noises).  There we found exactly the right sort of chocolate to make up for some of the mishaps of the day.

After that, we headed out to the hotel (getting only moderately misplaced along the way) and turned in for the night.  Now generally, I try to exercise a certain level of decorum in what I tell you about my personal life.  My policy is that you’re not here for the details of my marriage, my digestion, or my finances.  But now, I will break with tradition and tell you something private.  At home, The Boy and I sleep under separate covers.  We each have our very own duvet, and I firmly believe (as does he) that this is one of the keys to our relationship.  At hotels, we usually manage to rig something up so we still each have our own covers.  We neglected to do that this time.  The result was more or less what you might imagine trying to sleep next to an angry badger in a burlap sack to be like.  No one got much rest, and I’m pretty sure we both need rabies shots.  (Please note, I am not casting aspersions on The Boy’s character, I am every bit as much the angry sleep badger as he is…it’s why we don’t share covers.)

After a less than restorative evening, we went downstairs for breakfast.  We returned to our room and noticed that the gas company had not yet returned our call.  I called them again.  They allowed as how someone should have called us.  I agreed completely, then pointed out that alas, no one had called us.  They agreed that this was less than optimal, but had no solutions.  We discussed a variety of possible approaches to this problem and settled on the oh-so-popular continue to wait method. They did eventually call back…with the news that we would need to call again on Monday morning to try and set up an appointment.  Keen.

We packed up and headed out to Ikea.  I managed not to buy any furniture, though I did get an awesome desk pad, a very knitterly blanket, and some marvelous purple trays.  Then we hit up Half Price Books.  I found two new stitch dictionaries to add to the shelf, and The Boy fed his ever-growing collection of sci fi books with really tacky looking covers.  After a quick lunch, we headed over to Knit One.  I restrained my yarn lust (though I did finally lay hand on a few of The Fibre Company’s yarns, and now I know I need to use them in future–there was one skein that I would not have been able to resist if there had been more than one in stock…yummy stuff).  We stopped in at Caliban Books and did our part to stimulate the local economy (and may possibly have tripped into a little game store right next door too).  Commerce complete, we headed off to dinner.

While we were sitting in Church Brew Works we came to a realization.  We were tired.  Really really tired.  Last week had been long.  The night before had not been restful.  It was at least two hours until the concert started, then another hour until the band we wanted to see went on.  Add in another hour or two for the show and you’re up to five hours.  Then of course there was the two and a half hour drive home (earliest likely arrival time, 2 am).  We ran through the math in our heads a few times, thought about what we had on our schedules for this coming week, and did something shameful.  We left without seeing the show.  We just got in the car and came home.  We were tucked up (under lots of covers, as the furnace still wasn’t working) by ten.  I think this may mean I am officially old.  Somehow, I’m comfortable with that.

So with that, I’ll leave you for now.  But I will come back shortly to show you the new sock.  Because despite the otherwise questionable voodoo of this weekend, the sock I worked on seems to be coming out well.

Dash

2 December 2011 · 3 Comments

We’re sneaking off to Pittsburgh for an evening over the weekend.  There’s a concert (shocking I know, so unlike us).  Along the way we’ll visit a yarn store (or two), a book store (or three), and just perhaps the odd brewery.  There’s a plan, and there will be a report when we return.  The only thing we don’t have lined up is restaurants…any suggestions?

And because this is the sort of blog post that is certain to elicit the suggestion that I start using twitter…all I can say is I’m working on it.  I’ve never been what you’d call an early adopter of these things.  I am, shall we say, resistant to change. There’s some grand plan that involves updating this website and adding twitter stuff into it.  The plan got put on hold while the KCC website got beaten into submission.  But it is the next plan scheduled to come to fruition.

But in the mean time, we’ve got several meals to eat in the greater Pittsburgh area…so tell us where to go!

Sock Summit Part VI, In Which We are Refreshed

3 September 2011 · No Comments

I realized the other day that I never quite finished writing about the second half of our trip to Sock Summit.  Since this is my blog, and since I totally use it as a substitute for the whole scrapbook/travel journal/calendar thing organized folks did in the pre-internet days, I’m going to swoop in and do it now before I forget.  Though I warn you, this half of our trip was a bit less yarn-drenched than the first.  Feel free to wander away if you’re not interested.

On Sunday morning we got up and set out.  We stopped by the Sock Summit market for just a moment so I could pick up the things I knew I’d miss if I forgot them.  We headed out to Cannon Beach for lunch (and crepes), and then ventured north.  We stayed in a spot called Seabrook, which is an odd but charming place.  It’s a planned community right on the coast.  It’s being built in stages, and isn’t finished yet.  Most of the houses are available to rent for vacations.  It’s nice to have a whole house to spread out in rather than a single hotel room, and it’s great to have a kitchen and a washing machine.  All the houses are new and attractive.  But the whole thing has just the tiniest hint of a Stepford Wives vibe.  It’s fine to stay in for a week or two.  I’m not quite sure I’d want to live there as it stands now.

Monday morning we stopped by Pacific Beach to splash in the water.  The first surprise was that you could drive right on the beach.  And not in a ‘this is likely crime but there is no barrier to prevent it’ sort of way but rather in a ‘there are posted speed limit signs and this is totally legal’ sort of way.  It was odd, yet somehow entertaining.  The next surprise was the fog.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  I’ve read accounts where people talk about getting lost in the fog and always thought them rather over exaggerated.  But this…this I could see getting lost in.  The final surprise, and by far the best one, was the sand dollars.  They were everywhere.

I’d seen quite a few almost-whole sand dollars on our trek around Hug Point.  I’d picked up one or two, but they got smashed during our ill-advised venture.  I’d never seen whole ones on a beach.  Here there were dozens and dozens of whole ones and hundreds of smashed ones.  There were even a few live ones.  The live ones had a coating of wiggly purple spines (soft, not prickly), and they tickled if they touched you.  I made the executive decision that the live ones probably didn’t like being out on the dry sand and spent the walk chucking them back into the water–but not until taking a picture of one or two of course (click to see the bigger version and check out the wee spines).  They have that cool-yet-creepy vibe that only sea life and bugs can pull off.

Later that day we went into Olympia.  We had lunch at Fish Tale Brew Pub, popped into Canvas Works yarn and fabric store, and finished up the afternoon at Browsers’ Book Shop.  All three were excellent establishments.  Lunch was delicious and the beer and cider were very good.  The yarn store was beautiful, spacious, well stocked.  Even more impressive, they talked to both me and The Boy and didn’t assume he was just there to hold my shopping bags or fund my purchases.  They worked on the theory that either or both of us could be knitters which was very refreshing.  The bookstore was full of tempting goodies (even after having been to Powells a few days before), and both The Boy and I found some things to bring home.

Once again, this has gotten overly long and wordy, so I’ll have to come back later to talk about the last few days of our trip.  Apparently I run towards the chatty side.  Who would have guessed?

Siren Song

12 August 2011 · 1 Comment

So I’ve been led astray.  The siren song and subtle sparkle of some wee glass baubles have sidetracked me.

While we were out in Oregon and Washington we saw lots of glass fishing floats.  Not on the beach (because you know I would have snatched those up half a heartbeat), but in stores.  I’m hesitant to buy them in stores.  They’re pretty and all, but the ones in the stores somehow don’t have the same sort of backstory as one you found on the beach would have.  I will just have to keep looking and hope I find one some day (such a hardship I know).  But you know, the look of them still appeals.

So I hatched a plan.  The plan involves beads and that cording I bought on the trip.  I have no idea how well the plan will work.  So far, I have a promising swatch and an awful lot of beads jammed onto a string.  It could be the start to a genius creation, or the beginning of my descent into madness.  I’ll keep you updated.

p.s. I did not take the picture of the box of floats.  It can be found here.  I believe it is available for public use.

Lest You Fear I’d Forgotten

8 August 2011 · 4 Comments

I did actually do some knitting on the trip.  Not much mind you.  Between the classes, the beach stomping, the rampaging up and down the coast I didn’t have much time for knitting.  But I did finish up the first sock and start on the second.  And even more important, I totally took advantage of the biggest tree stump I’ve ever seen (easily twice as tall as I am and plenty big enough for you and three of your closest friends to climb inside) to snap a quick picture.  See?  All swoopy and soothing and sanity-protecting. They are likely to be called Rampant.  If you want to test them, you can volunteer here.