The Knitty by the Bay

Yes, that's right, I've escaped Anchorage for a week in San Francisco, and a wonderful, wonderful week it was! Besides the wine, the walking, the boutique chocolate, the meetings with old friends, the fabulous meals and bracing breezes from the bay, there were some knit bits:
Doesn't the sculpture in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency look like a giant multistory ball of yarn? I confess the idea never occurred to me when I lived in SF, but that was before I became a knitter.

One of the places we visited was the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. It's more like a little gallery with a single show at a time. When we were there the exhibit was about the intersection of needlework and computers, an import from Sweden. Therefore, if you blow up the photo below of a quilt of embroidered squares, you still may not be able to read it unless you're fluent in Swedish.

But my favorite was the crocheted black and silver computer cosy. Swedish here, too.
And I managed a visit to the most acclaimed knit shop in the city, Imagiknit.
I can see the reason for the acclaim. A double storefront, 4+ giant walls of yarn that look like this:
It is overwhelming. I really needed a half a day to take it all in and all I had was a couple of hours. So I escaped with only a single skein in hand, but had a feel and a gander at a whole bunch of yarns I had only seen on web sites, met some new ones, and had dozens of inspirations which I promised myself I would act upon only after making progress on the Heap. If you're ever in SF it's worth whatever time you can spare to see the place. Let me share one of the inspirations with you, though.

Go back to their web site and scroll down to the thrummed hat. My thrumming ambitions just changed focus. Is that or is it not totally an Alaskan hat? I love it! And can't you just imagine the fleece from some wild multicolor roving? Who says fleece has to be sheep-colored?

And they have a feature that I've never seen in any LYS or web site--every yarn is tagged with not only skein weight, yardage, and price, but the price per yard. What a concept! You can immediately calculate the price difference of alternate yarns for a project! I think it ought to be a requirement. Or at least, one of the cool iPhone apps ought to include it.