Bits and Pieces from San Francisco

North of Golden Gate Bridge

The trip to San Francisco was quite an adventure. Like all adventures, there are good parts and bad parts. Fortunately for me, I got the bad parts out of the way at the beginning.

I've done a reasonable amount of air travel in my day. I'm not a high flying frequent flier, but I'm used to airplanes and air travel out of O'Hare. And this trip started the way it was supposed to. I got to the airport around 9:30 am on Friday and was all ready for my 11 am flight across the country. We boarded on schedule and I was happily anticipating an afternoon of swatching and fibery goodness while John finished up his conference obligations.

But this was not to be.

Before take off, the pilot let us know that there was going to be a little delay while they checked to make sure that a particular maintenance item had been taken care of. We waited a bit as this was attended to, and then we got the all clear and headed on our way. So far so good.

About 30 minutes into the flight, I was yawning and thinking about taking a nap when the pilot announced that the equipment that maintained the cabin pressure had failed or was failing (apparently this was what they had been concerned about at the airport, and had been told was taken care of) and we would be turning back for Chicago. If there's anything that makes you wake up quickly its your pilot telling you that something is wrong with your airplane.

Now, before I go on, I should remind you of a couple of facts about this flight. 1) it was a very full long distance flight bound to SF from Chicago with a lot of jet fuel 2) you can't land an airplane carrying too much fuel without a serious emergency (which apparently we didn't have -- even though the reason we turned back was because the O2 masks were about to drop), and 3) only 1/2 an hour our from Chicago, we hadn't burned very much fuel at all.

So you can guess what comes next. We flew back towards Chicago and the pilot came on again to tell us that we were going to have to circle Rockford until we had burned off enough fuel to land. We flew in circles around Rockford for an hour. I think I saw the same power plant go by the window five or six times. And then we landed at O'hare again at about 1:30 pm. The time we were supposed to have arrived in San Francisco. Sigh. So much for a nice afternoon in San Francisco.

To give American some credit, they did have things taken care of, and we were off the ground again by 3 pm. It was a very deja vu feeling since we left from the same gate both times. The passengers deserve a lot of credit, too. With the exception of 2 people, everyone else was well behaved (although there were a lot of people taking advantage of the bar next to the departure gate). I got a little bit of a chuckle out of the pilot as he came over the intercom "Just in case anyone is concerned, this is not the same aircraft...".

Fortunately, the second trip out went without a hitch. But the moral of this story? It's bad karma not to go with your hometown airline. I shoulda been on United...

John and I stayed in "Grand Hyatt" downtown in the center of the shopping district. The good karma part of the trip is that I was staying just three blocks away from Art Fibers.

Art Fibers, I have to say, was worth a trip to SF all on its own. It's its own very special place. The folks in the shop were friendly and helpful and the fiber was a treat to touch and work with. One of the nicest things about this place is the little sitting area and the free swatching balls. Like a yarn? Grab it, swatch it and then you can get help from the staff putting together a custom designed sweater. If I lived in San Francisco, I would be in this place more than I should be. The yarn isn't cheap, but you do get bigger discounts, the more you buy.

I wanted to try a couple different yarns, so I decided that I would try for a trio of summer tops. Here's the yarn I came up with:

Yarn So Good You Could Eat It: From Left to Right, Chai, Biscotti and Mousse

I set out on this mission with a goal towards making some things that I could wear in the office. So the colors that you see are a little more subtle than I would normally pick. But not quite as subtle as they appear in the picture.

Chai in Color #16

Chai is a handpainted 100% Tussah Silk yarn. Hopefully as I start working with it, I will be able to capture it's true colors better. It really leans towards a deep charcoaly grey, garnety purples and reds, deep ocean blues and teals. It is a buttery soft yarn that you just have to feel to believe and that has a special sheen that I usually associate with mohair. The yarn comes 165 yards to 50 g and knits up at roughly 22 stitches/28 rows per 4" on a 4 mm needle. It has a lovely uneven texture that makes the fabric airy without being too revealing. This is destined to become a little top with short cap sleeves, a V neckline and a bit of a frill at waist.

Biscotti in Color 5B

Biscotti is 100% nylon. Neither photo captures it's colors very well. The group shot is a little dark, the up close shot is a little light. It is a dark yarn that appears almost black until you get up close to it and realize that it has blue, green and brown undertones. I am hoping to make a simple sleeveless shell with a ballet neckline out of what I bought -- perhaps trimmed with some of the Phildar Reliefs (a yarn with a similar texture) that I got from Becky a while back. This yarn comes 83 yards to 50 grams and knits up at 14 stitches/24 rows to 4" on US 10.5 needles. It's a soft yarn that knits up into a interesting textured fabric (much like the Tai that I knit with last summer).

Mousse in Color #3

But perhaps my favorite purchase is the Mousse. Mousse is a boucle ribbon yarn that appears to be the younger cousin of Rowan's Cotton Braid. It's a 20/30/50% Linen/Cotton/Nylon blend. There are a whopping 193 yards per 50 gram skein. The recommended gauge is 22s/33r to 4" on 5.0 mm needles, but I liked the tighter gauge that I got on 4.0 mm needles, so I will be doing a fun summery tank top with a lace edging on the smaller needles.

I'm likely to start with the Mousse. I just can't stop touching it, and I think it will be the most practical for the summer. The top is going to be K2Tog YO lace up to the waistline, after which it will be solid. It's going to have a scoop neck and wide shoulder "straps" so that it will be work friendly.

After my trip to Art Fibers, we did a good bit of meeting with friends, eating, shopping and bonding with big trees. In spired by all the wonderful chocolatey goodness I've seen on Mariko's blog, I couldn't resist bringing these home with me:

Chocolates from RichArt

I think they are almost too pretty to eat -- but I will make the ultimate sacrifice since the "instructions" tell me that they are at their best up to a month after purchase. This batch is full of nutty fillings -- hazelnut, praline, etc. You can find out more about these decadent little French goodies here.

The trip back from SF to Chicago was uneventful and calm. We got in around midnight Monday night and between work and school and programming I've been on my toes since my return. My needles have been conspicuously silent since I have a lot to do before I leave for San Diego on Sunday to soak up some sun while John attends a geek meeting.

My Palm programming project is due next Tuesday, and I hope to have it all but completed before I get on the plane to San Diego. I'm going to be skipping KIP tomorrow night in hopes of getting some good progress made (it's hard to program and socialize at the same time). I wish a good time to everyone else, though, and will definitely be there for the next meeting on the 17th.

P.S. I'd love to hear about "must see" or "must eat" things in San Diego. I'm going to be there from Sunday to Thursday afternoon and should have a lot of free time.