knitting = hand art

The academic life is only rarely tinged with glamour. But on occasion, even a graduate student will get to jet off to a cool conference. And that's how it came to be that I had a splendid long weekend in Zurich.

In Switzerland, I found things like Swiss people:


And lambs. And garden gnomes.


And even though it was a solid work trip, I did get to wander around the city for most of Saturday. The very first thing I did was track down a gorgeous yarn store called "Hand-Art" on 10 Neumarkt in the old section of Zurich. It was visually stunning, with all the yarn organized by color, floor to ceiling, around one tidy room. I got my heart set on a ruby-hued silk/wool yarn, only to be told rather curtly (ah, cultural differences) that they didn't have any more of it. So no purchases, but it made for a pleasurable hour of browsing. And I had a fascinating conversation with another shopper there (Swiss, but working in Chicago) about the youthful, hip spirit that pervades the US knitting scene and how it has yet to blossom in most European countries.

As for my travel knitting, I dug out a long-abandoned cashmere lace scarf to work on. Although boring, it required very little space in either my bag or my brain. I made some good progress -- here's a glimpse now, and hopefully I'll have it finished and blocked within the week!