Morning :: Cedar Ave.

Knitting update

In December I found myself on a sheep farm! My friend Chloe's aunt and uncle are living on Dancing Lamb Farm in NY state and we got to tour the farm, meet the sheep, and take home some raw wool. I'm hoping to process the wool like I did the last time I got my hand on some raw wool, but I don't have the resources I did back then (tools to borrow and a spinning class to take at the Craft Center at UC Davis). So we'll see how long the wool stays nice and stinky in its bag, it may be a while.









I'm currently working on another Baby Surprise Jacket, for my new baby cousin, Ezra. I made him this little blanket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop when he was born in August, but I'm excited to be making another BSJ, and this time creating stripes as I go. I'll post when that's done, hopefully in the next month or so.

Finally, M and I were visiting Jaja in NYC last weekend and I dragged M into The Yarn Company on the Upper West Side. It's a great little store that felt nice and welcoming, and I picked up this cute book. West Knits, Book Two by Stephen West. It has lots of cute patterns that are unique and actually wearable, I can't wait to start the Splitbark mittens or Loxley hat/scarf!

Morning :: breakfast reading

Morning :: lunch cart

15th St. Philly

Morning :: Love Park fountain, Philadelphia

Morning :: Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Looking northwest from the tenth floor of my office building.

Morning :: plastic bags

Morning :: Organ

A Walk in the Wissahickon

M and I did a little hometown exploring this weekend. We joined a hike in Wissahickon Valley Park led by a volunteer Trail Ambassador from the Friends of the Wissahickon, a non profit that works to improve the park. We learned about the history of usage in the park - the mills that used to line the creek, the geology and quarrying, and the amazing structures that were built by the WPA during the Depression.

The Wissahickon is one of five watershed parks in Philly, and we've spent some time exploring it in the past. This time we drove to the far northwestern edge to walk along Forbidden Drive, so named because at the turn of the century they decided not to allow cars on it.

The Wissahickon is home to some incredible features, including this covered bridge, the only one left in a major American city.

There are also two statues set into the hillsides along the creek - this is the "Indian" statue, sculpted out of marble in 1902 and meant to depict a member of the Native American tribe the Lenape, looking westward at the departing members of his tribe as they are pushed out of the area by the colonists. He has a feather "war bonnet" on, which is historically inaccurate for the Lenape.

After being locked up in my office in front of the computer for the winter, it's nice to actually be out in the park exploring and learning about it!

Morning :: Love Park

Morning :: 47th Street

Morning :: City Hall

Morning :: South Street bridge

From my bike commute today.

Morning :: lamp

Morning :: bedroom window

Resolutions

I'm making some common ones - exercise and time management. I was out at a work holiday party last month and I started talking to the wife of one of my coworkers. We were chatting about our morning routines and I laughingly admitted that I set my alarm for 6 am every morning and hit the snooze for an hour and a half. Her joking response was "so you start out every morning disappointing yourself."

Wow. It was a joke, but it hit me hard. I set my alarm every morning with a good intention that I never follow through on. It's a small thing, but it sets the tone of my day and it's a simple thing to change. So with that floating in my head this holiday season, here are the concrete things I plan to do differently in 2012:

• Get out of bed when the alarm goes off at 6am. Duh. I've been doing it for two days now and I actually arrived at work this morning at 7:50 AM (see the evidence in the picture above, taken in the front room as I was leaving the house). This means that I can leave at 4pm and get an extra hour to an hour and a half of stuff done in the evening. It's a new year's miracle.

• Do something good for my body every day. Even if it's just a brisk mile and a half walk on my lunch hour or twenty minutes of sit-ups in the evening.

And that's it. Just two little, manageable resolutions. With just two, I think I can manage not to disappoint myself.

P.S. I was greeted upon leaving the house this morning with a little dusting of snow, which promises to melt by mid-day. Mother Nature, let's have much more of this please.