Braiiins

Wow, I had a great and productive weekend! Friday night I stayed over at Harvey's house, knitting up a storm and watching Lost. I got a good 5" or so done on my sweater, up to the bust shaping at least. Saturday morning was spent knitting a bit more, then a visit to ImagiKnit in San Francisco. I can't believe I've never been to this shop before! Amazing fibers, and so well organized. The first huge room is for yarns of 50% or more animal fiber, while the second huge room is for 50% or less animal fiber. And the colors! I couldn't resist buying a huge squishy hunk of Schaefer hand dyed, in colorway Elena Piscopia, from their collection of yarns inspired by memorable women. At 600 yards, it will make a nice vest or shrug, or an immense claptois. I also bought some Noro cotton and rayon cord, which is gorgeous crocheted! I think I'll have to go back there and purchase a couple more skeins for my mother who will probably crochet something much more amazing than I ever could.


Around 2, I met Matt downtown for a Brain Machines build. It's bascially a set of goggles with LEDs that pulse or blink patterns in conjunction with tones. The patterns correspond with brainwave sequences to bring you into a relaxed meditative state. The patterns are stored in a firmware which can be edited to make them longer or shorter. The build was pretty easy, we each purchased a kit which included all LEDs, caps, resistors, and a chip which runs the firmware. I pretty much finished mine, but still have to make it pretty with fake fur - I'm envisioning a helmet sort of thing. I did try it out for a bit, and can say for a fact that it relaxed me and got rid of my headache. I'm going to go through the full sequence when I have a spare 10 minutes or so.




Sunday we left at 8 am (grrr) to drive up to Sacramento to visit Two Rivers Cidery. Normally I don't drink at all before early afternoon, but Vincent, the owner and brewer, is truly an artisan. Everything we sampled was amazing - Pear, Pomegranate, a wonderful blend called Seiser of apples and honey, and my favorite, Gravenstein apple cider. Oh, I've missed Gravensteins! I was born in Graton, an unincorporated part of Sebastepol, and growing up in the North Bay has led to a real appreciation of this wonderful fruit. Gravensteins are classified as an heirloom fruit, as they are not grown anywhere else in the country. Sadly, land owners in Sebastepol and Santa Rosa are favoring vineyards over orchards these days, so gravensteins have been falling off the radar as of late.



Though this was a hectic weekend, I did manage to get some knitting done, and even crocheting! I made a bowl with the wonderful cotton cord and am going to make a belt with the second skein. Yay!