Recycling Sheep: Santa Barbara

Graeme has been away for a long term and so when school finished 2 weeks ago I was finally able to fly out and join him for his final week in Santa Barbara, California (Yey!). All the time he has been there Graeme has been protesting that "It's actually not that warm". Well I can testify that while not being much more than 25 degrees celcius because of the cooling sea breezes and mists, it was certainly warmer than the 12 degree highs we were treated to in the North East the two days before I left. I was finally able to wear my skirts and shorts which I hadn't even bothered to get out of the winter boxes at home.

It was lovely to see Graeme again after so long and I was finally able to see his charming appartment and to give him credit he had put effort into raising it above the "bachelor level of cleanliness" it was advertised as having. I won't go in to any detail but the toilet stopped working properly the day after I got there, which was more than a little inconvenient and I'm pretty sure the landlord was convinced I'd done it. Anyway, here are some of the highlights of the eclectic decor:

Poodle lamp in the badroom.
Tasteful oriental lamp in the living room.
This exciting plaque of two knights in combat, just outside the entrance.

While G was hard at work I visted all the sights of the city he hadn't got round to. Santa Barabra has no buildings higher than 4 storeys and the ones in the centre are all build in Spanish Colonial revival style using adobe bricks (dried mud bricks) like this.

So, the whole place feels a bit more European than other American cities. The old mission still exists although most of the original buildings were destroyed during an earthquake in the 1920s.

I also visited a couple of knitting shops although the one that sounded and looked most interesting (Loop and Leaf) was shut because the owners had gone on holiday. How inconsiderate. I visited the Knit and Pearl Boutique and had a couple of good chats with the owner. I was chatting so much I forgot to take photos of the shop, which is a shame as it was my favourite one of the trip. I also bought some sock yarn and some yarn to make a jumper for G which has long been promised.

I visited the local craft store which was fairly sole destroying in a Hobbycraft type way but less up market. I made a brief visit to Cardigans, which was a little out of town. This store looked really charming and had a group of ladies who were sitting round and knitting. Maybe I'm just shy but I felt a little bit like I was intruding here. They talked to me a bit, but I didn't really feel like I could sit and knit with them. The shop had a collection of really expensive luxury yarns, including a lot of British stuff. If money and mass were no object I would have indulged, but I didn't want to blow $60 on some Tilly Tomas yarn when I could get a whole lot more for that. So I just bought some sock yarn and left it at that.