Other than the business I was there to attend to, the trip was great. I met a friend on Wednesday for a trip to Knit Happens. It's really a cute little shop. I had heard so much about it from other bloggers that it just seemed too good to be true. I'm always amazed when small shops manage to pack a ton of yarn into a place and not have it feel crowded and junky looking. (I'm amazed, because this is what I attempt at my house and it always looks crowded and junky looking.) Anyway, yes, it's a small shop, but they have great stuff - Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Trendsetter, some pretty cool sock yarn that I forget the name of, and tons more.
Who was in the shop when we arrived? None other than Wendy! I approached her and mentioned a mutual friend and we chatted for a few minutes. I didn't introduce myself - which I didn't think about until later, so I'm sure she thought I was some weird blogger stalker.
I was looking for a cabled baby sweater pattern and the clerk (I think it was one of the owners) gave me a stack of Miss Bea books to page through. Found just what I was looking for here
. If you haven't seen the Miss Bea books - go look, they're wonderful, very well written and the pictures are just so damn cute!
On Friday, I had the whole day to myself! As an aside, my boss always apologizes to me for making me travel to these meetings. Um, right...5 nights alone in a hotel room, eating fabulous meals in places where the Hub and kids would never cross the threshold, and a whole day to do whatever I want...I laugh at him every time.
Anyway, back to my Friday. Started off at the Textile Museum. It is, by far, my favorite place in the city. The people are so nice and the exhibits are well organized and interesting. There was a group of school children there while I was going through. I could hear these kids wherever I was in the museum (it's a very open design). They were having the best time trying on wrappers from different parts of the world and figuring out how they looked best. Every now and again, the docent would shush them a little, but they were having such a good time. It was a lot of fun listening to them.
Took the metro over to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. This place is huge!! Three floors of art by women. I must admit, I was a little disappointed when I first went in. I love paintings as much as the next person (okay, maybe a little less), but how many of the Madonna and Child can one person look at?
They do have a great exhibit running right now called Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers. It features women designers from Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. There were paintings, photos, textiles, furniture - all kinds of things. It was a very nice exhibit - well put together and interesting.
After that I was exhausted and wanted to go someplace to sit down and eat. I kept telling myself, "you haven't been to the third floor yet" - that's where parts of the permanent collection are. So, I went back up the stairs and saw this:
It's The Springs by Lee Krasner. I know it doesn't look like much on the screen. In person, it's 43 x 66 inches and just fills your field of vision when you stand close to it. What I most love about museums is how close you can get to the paintings and really see what they're made from. This painting is lovely and I've found something new to go visit while I'm in DC. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who returns to visit things I've seen in museums. My other favorite is a Rodin sculpture called She Who Was the Helmet Maker's Beautiful Wife on display in the Hirschhorn. You can go see her for yourself
here.
There's more, but I've gone on a bit long already. I'll be back with pictures of what I've done in this busy, catch up week.
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