Field Trip

On Thursday, Neal and I packed an overnight bag and headed to Wilmington to visit our friend Kate.  My other best friend Andree met us there and the four of us headed to Philadelphia to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Kahlo is one of my all-time favorite artists, and I was so happy that Kate had heard about the exhibition on the radio and let me know about it.  There are not that many Kahlos outside of Mexico, and so I've never actually seen one in person before.  Finally being able to see so many was a beautiful and emotional experience for me.  It's amazing how much detail just doesn't make it into printed copies of her paintings.  For example, in the image to the left, it's rather hard to see the half-insect, half-flower creatures flying above her head, even in a larger reproduction.

After the museum, we had entirely too much food at a place called Cebu, located in a grandly-decorated old building with high ceilings and intricate skylights that was probably a bank at one time.

On Friday we spent much of the morning at the Booth's Corner Farmer's Market eating a vast sampling of dishes prepared by my favorite Cajun chef, Don Applebaum of Cajun Kate's.  If you ever find yourself in that area on a Friday or Saturday, I urge you to stop by and have some of his marvelous gumbo and/or some deep-fried macaroni and cheese (with crabmeat and tasso ham) and tell him his Web site looks great! (Full disclosure - I designed it. And I do think he's a fabulous chef.)

In knitting news, I've gotten four of my little Christmas gift projects done and have enough yarn to make at least four more, but I've put them aside to start the Saundra Throw from Berroco's Family Tree Knitting Collection.  Although the pattern says it is knitted on straight needles, don't be fooled - hexagons can only be knit in the round on circulars or dpns (although those are straight).  I read through the pattern several times until I comprehended that were I to knit the pattern using regular straight needles, I'd end up with a series of large triangles, and that's not right.  It's also pretty frustrating not to have a better photo of the finished object.  There are a few pics of the throw as a backdrop, but none of them show a complete hexagon.

I'm using some Brooks Farm Four Play that I have, two balls in a coppery shade.  It's not enough to make the throw as written, but I can surely get a nice shawl out of it.  Or a couple of interesting doilies at the very least. :)