Visiting Richmond

Today I had to take my son to Richmond, north of Berkeley, for a class. So I did a bit of research and found some fun things to do out there. After dropping him at the class at Douglas & Sturgess in an industrial area, my daughter and I had a lovely brunch at Salute, which is in Marina Bay (an excellent name). The restaurant is right on the water, so we sat in an outdoor patio and enjoyed the great view and food. Then we drove into Historic Pt Richmond, where quaint buildings and interesting shops are clustered around a small park and public library. Afterwards, we visited the Bone Room in Albany, a truly unique business that sells bones, insects, and all sorts of other cool stuff. Next door, they recently opened a gallery to sell related art. It was an interesting, fun day!

Alameda Antique Market again!

Yes, this is my favorite thing to do every month. My big purchase (bottom photo)was a wool crocheted blanket from the 1940's, the woman who sold it knew the name of the woman who had made it (Guadalupe, they called her Lula) and her daughter (Marjorie) who had recently died in her 90's. A few seams need to be resewn, but it's otherwise in great condition. Aren't the little dress potholders cute? $3 each! Plus a baby bonnet, purse, and heart pincushion made of crochet thread, such fine work. I'm using the little basket to hold all my crochet hooks. The blue rocking chair is made of clothespins! The pink plastic thread holder was actually purchased at last month's antique faire, one of the "shelves" is broken off so I need to figure out a good way to attach it again.

What I did on WWKIP day

I had a lot of fun crocheting and knitting in public for WWKIP day. I began at Peets, sitting and knitting with friends as usual on Saturday morning. But then I went to San Mateo's Central Park and met a few people there--it was windy and cold, so most of the knitters had not shown up yet. But we had to leave because the next stop was the San Mateo County Fair, to volunteer at the Men Who Crochet booth. The photos show some of the entries in the fair--not many! But there were a few good pieces.