Totally Tubular and My Personal Tour of San Francisco

The new Knitty is up; this issue has lots of socks and hats and other small things. C'mon, don't you need a sock monkey hat or a pair of angel wings?

Several months ago I bought some yarn at Artfibers in San Francisco (one of my favorite yarn shops). The yarn was sort of a tube-shaped ribbon, and the girl at the store showed me a really nifty way to begin a new ball of tubular yarn. You sort of stick one end into the middle of the other...or something. It seemed so simple at the time, but now I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. Anyone know??

And speaking of SF, I'm off there again tomorrow, this time for with Thing 1 for a back-to-school treat (we have year-round school here, so she starts 2nd grade next week!). We're going to stay at Fisherman's Wharf and do touristy stuff that a 6 year old will love (eg, Pier 39) and that I would never do on my own. And this makes me think about the fact that each of us enjoys a place in our own unique way. For me, for example, a perfect tour of San Francisco would eschew cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead, I would do some or all of the following:

• visit Artfibers and Imagiknit
• eat my way through the Ferry Building, especially on a farmers market day, and buy stuff at the craft booths across the street
• browse for books at City Lights
• enjoy a view from somewhere; I especially like views of the Bay Bridge, which I think is unjustly overshadowed by the flashier Golden Gate Bridge
• browse on Union or Chestnut Streets
• spend a lot of money at Flax (the paper room alone can keep me busy for an hour or more)
• eat someplace ethnic
• hang out at Ocean Beach; maybe a beer at the Beach Chalet while I'm there
• do something that is truly Only in San Francisco--Beach Blanket Babylon, maybe? Tea in Golden Gate Park at the Japanese Tea Garden? People watching in the Castro? Get winded walking up a sidewalk with stairs? Shop for cheap trinkets in Chinatown?
• visit a museum. I haven't been to the new de Young yet, but SFMOMA is a longtime favorite
• eat dim sum, preferably with a Chinese friend
• ogle the cute Italian waiters while drinking espresso at Caffe Trieste
• pick up a real estate magazine and remind myself that the valley's not so bad

Where to stay for this dream trip? Hotel Triton or Hotel Vitale; Hotel Argonaut's very nice, too, but not close to anything on my list.