A Day in Oakland

Two Wednesdays ago, I went up to Oakland to visit Lesley and her two kids, Emilia and Peter. I had such a blast!

I brought Lacey with me to do a little spinning demo for Emilia and Peter, and brought some undyed yarn and Kool-Aid so we could dye up our own. Emilia is 4, and very smart and bossy. She took to Lacey right away.

First, she "helped" me put Lacey together. She wanted to touch everything -- the drive band, the bobbin. Both kids loved spinning the wheel with their hands.

I let both kids try treadling on their own. Emilia set up her chair in front of the wheel, and started (sort of) to get the feel. When she weighs a bit more, I'm sure treadling will be a lot easier!

Peter got a turn, too. He's not quite 2, though, so he was a bit too short and light to push the treadles by himself. So Emilia and I helped.

I figured the easiest way to demonstrate drafting was to have the kids sit in my lap. I squeezed myself onto the little red chair and treadled while Emilia played with the fiber.

This kid is a natural. She really did get the hang of it there! And she loved showing Peter how it was done (bossy big sister that she is). Here she is pinching with one hand, and pulling with the other.

Peter's still a bit young for drafting too, but he had a blast playing with Kool-Aid.

Emilia's favorite color is orange, so we mixed cherry and lemon together. Peter splashed purple and red on his yarn and made actually a really beautiful grapey-pink!

After the afternoon's fibery activities, the kids napped and Les and I indulged in a couple of delicious slices of Arizmendi pizza.

Lesley and her family live right near Lakeshore Avenue, home of the fantastic and delicious Arizmendi Bakery. I lived right around the corner from Arizmendi when I was in grad school and stopped there almost every day for a Brioche Knot or a baguette with homemade jam.

I lived in Oakland for about six years while I was in college, grad school, and afterward, and it's still my favorite town. It has a terrible reputation, and my mother was terrified for my life the entire time I lived there. It's a reputation not wholly undeserved, considering the awful thing that happened in East Oakland last weekend.

My experience, after living in some really bad neighborhoods and some really nice ones, is that much of Oakland has such a close-knit, neighborly feel to it for such a large city. I miss the neighborhoods, the people, the fantastic food, the yarn shops, the proximity to the hills and to San Francisco. Visiting friends in Oakland is like going home, and leaving again is always bittersweet. Someday, maybe I'll be able to talk Tobin into moving to the East Bay.