J-Pop festival, Gorilla BBQ, model store

Here's a bit of what I've been doing lately--yesterday, we visited the J-Pop music festival in SF's Japantown. I'm including just one photo here, but there were lots of people in costume walking around, and the craft booths were fun to peruse also. I bought a small kit to make crochet squares to donate for Earthquake and Tsunami relief in Japan.

The red train car is where my favorite take-out food is, Gorilla Barbeque. There's no place to eat inside the car, it's all kitchen and a little counter for ordering. But it's near the beach in Pacifica, so there are plenty of outdoor places to eat.

Finally, we also visited a traditional "model" store in SF, Franciscan Hobbies on Ocean Avenue. It has been there for years. I never knew there were so many different magazines about model trains!

Wood sculpture and breakfast on the Coast

My son's first attempt at wood sculpture came out very nice. The oil finish really brings out the grain and he polished it so it is totally smooth, lovely to touch. My crochet lace scarf also came out quite nice, if I do say so myself. We had breakfast at the 3 Zero cafe today at the Half Moon Bay airport, the row of mailboxes across the road is a typical rural scene.

Seen at the Alameda Antiques Fair

I snapped just a couple of photos at the Alameda Antiques Fair yesterday--the red and black blanket is entirely crocheted, really gorgeous workmanship. The vendor had two matching blankets, he wanted $120 for both--he said they were crocheted in South America. Unfortunately, they were made with a scratchy wool that I could not imagine actually wrapping around myself!
The other shot shows some amazing woven chairs and hats, they look African but the vendor wasn't around for me to ask questions about how they were made or where they came from.

The Japanese Garden in Portland Oregon

I went to the Sock Summit last week and blogged about it on the Knitting Today! magazine website. But after the event was over, we spent a day doing other things in Portland. First, we took the MAX train to see the Japanese Garden, which is lovely and has a great view of snow-capped Mt. Hood. The MAX station there is underground, and has an interesting display of the soil that was removed from the area when it was built (ancient timeline). The Rose Garden is just across the street, but we didn't have time to walk through it, because we had to get to Powell's books! Just outside the store, we had a quick noodle lunch--it was delicious. I also ate at Burgerville several times because there was a location right across the street from our hotel, near the Convention Center. Also, the food is excellent and inexpensive--what more could I ask for? We had one great dinner at the Oyster Bar downtown, but I didn't get a good photo of the outside of the restaurant.

Hummingbird captured on film!

I was wearing my new crocheted hat yesterday when I heard a LOUD buzzing/humming sound--it was a hummingbird, checking out the hat to see if it was really a tasty flower! The yarn does have bright spots of pink in it. Luckily the bird decided not to harvest pollen from my head and went for some nearby flowers, instead.

Oakland Fiber Festival!

The second year of the Oakland Fiber Festival, the weather was much better (not so hot as last year) and there were a lot more vendors. I volunteered to teach crochet in the morning and then walked around the festival, managing to buy three skeins of yarn and a few back issues of crochet magazines. We ate lunch at an excellent Greek restaurant about a block away on Grand Avenue, and also browsed through a nice used bookstore (I found a book of botanical art that I didn't already have, all California plants). The other photo shows a sweater I started last year and finally finished last week!

Alameda Antique Market--getting bored yet? Not me!

Another first Sunday of the month, another antiques market in Alameda. It was very hot, even the vendors were melting (the ones that did not have canopies over their booths), but I still managed to bring home a vintage wool crocheted blanket with matching pillow, both for $25! I have not seen one in this pattern and colors before. The other photo shows the crochet trimmed pillowcases, vintage magazine, and a couple of crocheted potholders that I also found.

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.

Rainy day in Union Square, San Francisco

We did a whirlwind shopping trip to San Francisco on Saturday, running between the raindrops that suddenly came splashing down in the middle of a sunny day! I snapped a couple of pictures of Union Square and of a kiosk that was selling very cute knit and crochet animal hats. I used my two Macy's credits to buy a purse--I wanted to buy shoes, but the store was mobbed and there were not enough salespeople to get shoes in my size, so I gave up. At least I didn't have to "try on" a purse! The traffic was crazy, mobs of cars on the street and people on the sidewalks. Can there be such a thing as too many tourists???

San Francisco Fine Art Fair at Fort Mason

This year's San Francisco Fine Art Fair was not the most awesome art show I have ever seen, but it did have some very interesting things. Just one textile artist (I bought her catalog) and some wonderful photography.