Is there an echo in here?

Here are the last two yarns I spun, posed with the last two yarns I acquired commercially.





Alpha B yarns in Beach Glass, my handspun chain plied merino/silk. Not quite the same, but familiar enough in color scheme to match in a project. Likewise here.



Turtle Cove in Who Killed Tangerine and my handspun sportweight sock.



Curious, isn't it?

I finished the fan lace socks. Love 'em, as well I should since it'll be the last pair of "me" socks before I get done with the dread holiday crafting.



I will likely debut these tomorrow. I've started on undisclosed project #1A and will post pictures after the fact. My children are entirely too nosy.

With a sinking feeling, I got a good look at the raglan tee I was doing and I think it's too small. I put the sleeve stitches on holders, then took a good look at the width and I don't think it's big enough. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep going, rip altogether, rip back to the raglans and keep increasing, or toss the whole works in the trash. Honestly, it's gorgeous yarn and I cannot understand why I'm having so much trouble sticking to a project with it.

Anyway.

We went to the Shadyside Arts Festival over the weekend. I did not enjoy it very much. The way it was set up completely obscured Shadyside as a neighborhood, and made it a blinding, pointless succession of white canopies. There was no live music, save a dude on steel drums trying to sell CDs.



Not much in the way of food and beverages either, and what there was, was expensive. There was quite a bit of interesting art to look at, though.



This was an oil painting done from the winning play of the Super Bowl, and signed by the players involved. According to a sign inside, the original was auctioned off for over $10,000 to benefit the Mel Blount foundation. Good cause. The gallery (Maser Galleries) is a permanent fixture in Shadyside, though, and has been for years. They have a lot of very nice paintings, photographs, and prints.

I adored this piece from a festival artist.




She had a number of other pieces involving yarn that were equally gorgeous. I liked them much more than her abstract pieces.



I think that's the shop dog. Awesome pose, though.

These glass pieces were very cool, as were the large metal sculptures.






The heads of the large metal animals moved.





And I am sure that this chaps the ass of every wealthy resident of Shadyside, right on the main street in the business district.


Almost artistic in its own way, eh?

I may have ranted about this before but Shadyside has changed, and not for the better. When I was much younger, in High School and just after, I hung out in Shadyside a lot. It was a very cool neighborhood, Pittsburgh's biggest known Gay community, and there was a lot of ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic diversity. The shops reflected that diversity. Now it's not like that, it's an overpriced hipster enclave where many people tend to operate under the assumption that 1)their poo does not smell bad, and 2) they are the only people on the planet.

(please don't think I mean this of all residents, I don't, but there is a certain element there of white, entitled, very well off, that treats anyone they perceive as beneath them with total disdain. I mean. I had a woman expect me and my cane to walk off the street to get out of her way. She looked dead at me and just kept coming, so I stopped dead. And made some choice comments, after she had to walk around my poor, fat, crippled ass complaining the whole time. Ha.)

It's really a shame because it's a beautiful place with an awesome 2 business districts and some very arty cool people and interesting houses.





I think part of the problem is that houses within a few blocks of the main drags tend to be very, very expensive (half a million or more) for Pittsburgh, and that does not lend itself to much in the way of diversity. There certainly aren't many students living in Shadyside now, like there were back in the day, and there aren't any jazz bars that I can see, which was something I really enjoyed. But it's not like I support their lifestyle in any way, or they care what I think, so it's all good. Just disappointing.

A couple more random photos and I'll be on my way. I have laundry to put away and sleep to get-I did not get much last night and I expect this to be a long week at work.