gluttony: the best sin ever. besides maybe lust.

I had a really excellent day today. I have no silver coins to rub together, only pennies, but I am really very pleased. So here is a very long entry, with links and pictures.

For a refresher, I went to the summer fiber market, here written up in the San Francisco Chronicle. Yes, I saw Lily Chin in person (me: is that Lily Chin? It must be, she's sitting next to her book. Huh. ...Tiny Diva.) as well as Joan McGowan-Michael from White Lies Designs (with kits!).

But firstly, it took a long time on public transit, because first my train was ten minutes late, then I had to wait for BART, and then I got slightly lost (I went off in the wrong direction -- the convention center was all of a block and a half from the BART station, and I went in the wrong direction). So after leaving the house at quarter to ten so I could run errands/get Starbucks (the line was too long) before the train left at ten thirty, I didn't get to the convention until twelve thirty. And then it was eight bucks just to get in.

I brought my camera, but I didn't take any pictures of the convention. Compared to other dealers' rooms I've been to (anime conventions, gem and jewelry show, heck, even Black Sheep Gathering) this was pretty tiny. But there was some good stuff to be had, too.

I went in wanting to buy one thing and one thing alone: Nature's Palette fingering-weight yarn in Owl's Clover for the Flower Basket shawl.



And I did. There wasn't enough in all of the dyelots for the amount I wanted, so I bought half and half. I mean, you can't really tell those are two different dyelots, can you?

I also bought a present for an online friend, so I didn't take a picture of that. But rest assured, if she doesn't like it, I'll gladly take it back.

However. I knew that Habu Textiles was going to be there. And I braced myself. A little.

But I still walked away with these:



They're all silk -- there's over 500 yards of the white. The colors aren't really true on the others. They're tweedy purple, wine-red, and indigo, really. I think I'll make a striped top-down raglan cardigan with those three. I mean, it may end up a mini sweater, ultimately, but we'll see.

Since there really wasn't much to see at the convention besides a lot of ladies wearing obviously hand-knit stuff (me: that looks like pink calmer. edged with frou-frou stuff. ....) and too many little poncho thingies (one lady: ponchos are SO HOT. me: ...), I left at about 1:20 -- in and out in less than an hour.

I then decided to take some time to just be in San Francisco, so I stopped at SBC Park, the last place I actually did some knitting (on Monday).

Here's the statue of Willie Mays outside the stadium:



Willie is a cool dude. Everyone loves him. In fact, I bet the real Willie would pose with my sock, but he wasn't there, so I had to substitute.



I'd just missed the two o'clock train, so I had to wait for the three o'clock at Starbucks. While I was there, there was a guy making balloon animals. This guy is fourteen, almost fifteen, and has been making balloon animals since he was six, so this is how he gets some extra cash in the summer. He made some awesome stuff, and was heading to the Giants game to make more balloon creations for people.

I got a monkey:



And a green tea frappucino.

Finally, I came home and this had arrived:



It's a really nice teal color, very neat. The pattern is kind of confusing, but I guess I'll figure it out.

And, lastly, Hush-Hush:




I'm just a few rounds away from finishing it, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it.

And that is that.