Yarnie Adoption

Wow what a week. I started school and then there was just no time to do anything else. That's not to say that I haven't been doing other things, but there really should not have been enough time.

For those of you wondering where I am, I'm taking an intensive Russian summer program at the University of Pittsburgh. It's almost full immersion five hours a day five days a week. I'm behind my classmates and struggling a bit, but I love it. Russian is such a beautiful language. One of the things I'm really excited about is the Friday afternoon singing class. I know it sounds lame, but it is taught by a woman from St. Petersburg and it really is going to help my pronunciation a lot. And on Wednesday afternoons we have Kino (movie) Wednesday. This week we saw Sonny (English translation) which won all sorts of awards last year. It's excellent. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes movies.

Plus, I'm taking classes in the second tallest academic building in the world, the Cathedral of Learning, which is gorgeous.

I love this city. Pittsburgh is just a really fun place to be. My lunch breaks are spent sitting on a park bench outside knitting (because I eat too fast). The side of the cathedral I sit next to is across the lawn from this beautiful chapel. Such a nice view to relax in front of.

On Thursday I used my student ID to get my free bus ride over to Knit One, the yarn store Mom and I found last week. I spent a nice hour just sitting and knitting on the couch with some lovely ladies. Rochelle, the woman we had met previously, introduced me as "Faith. We're adopting her." This is why I love yarn shops. For the most part they welcome you in to their community and make you a part of their family.

Speaking of yarn loving communities, today was World Wide Knit In Public Day. This is the day that around the world knitters grab their knitting and go to the park, coffee shop, or anywhere else they want to sit and knit. Some cities do coordinated events and lucky for me the Pitt event was held next to the Cathedral, a short walk from my apartment! It was held by the Three Rivers Crochet group (they welcome knitters too). They gave me one of the warmest welcomes I've ever had.

These are crochet socks worn by Christine, who was working on another pair while we were there. I'd never seen crochet socks before, so I had to snap a picture.

And did I mention that they had a raffle? They had enough for everyone and when your ticket was pulled you got to go pick something off of the table.

These two darlings are from Sheep Shop Yarn Company. I picked them because there is over 300 yds per skein and they are 30% silk / 70% wool. And the colors are so fun! I was certainly surprised to find out when I got on Ravelry that this company has actually gone out of business. That makes this yarn even more valuable and me even more excited to have it. I'm already making plans for what to knit with it. I think the green is going to have to be a scarf, maybe Ysolda's Scroll Lace from WLK2.

We'll see. For now I have to run. There is much homework to do and things to accomplish and yarn to play with.

And remember, needles are for knitting. Which apparently mesmerizes tourists when they are on campus tours.