Posted by: Nysssa

I needed a mental health day, Springviolet was celebrating Christmas.  Why not meet up and knit and have some lunch before heading to fiber nite?

We decided to meet at our Tuesday night spot, Higher Grounds, where we’d feel comfortable sitting and knitting and waiting while we ran whatever errands if we couldn’t meet when we wanted to.  I sat by the window, had some chai, and worked on my Destroyed Cowl.  I had to park in a two hour spot, the ‘unlimited’ parking was all full, but it would hold me over for a while.

Springviolet arrived, also ordered some chai, and set about winding yarn for her Robot Hat.  I lameneted my lack of EVER using Manos.  I should fix that soon.

In any case, my parking spot was about turn my car into a ticket, so we decided to peruse the neighborhood for some food.  Koi was our first choice, for some sushi to celebrate Springviolet’s vegetarianism, but it looked closed.  So we decided to look for Honey’s Sit and Eat, a local hot spot that we’d both never been to, but had heard much about (especially about the hours long waits that occured for brunch time on the weekends).

We forgot where it was exactly, so we drove around Northern Liberties for a little while and finally found it.  I grabbed the first parking spot I saw (and could have found a closer one, but it is what it is).  We walked in and there were only a few tables taken, apparently we had good timing.  We were seated, and given the breakfast and lunch menus to order from.

Springviolet picked the chorizo omelet.  I’ll let her describe it for you, but I know she ate all of it :)

I had a shrimp po-boy sandwich and an order of brussell sprouts.  The sandwich came out open-faced, and in my effort to consume less bread, and because I had no idea how to pick it up to put it in my face, I ate with a fork and knife.  The sauce was delicious and I ate more of the bread than I intended because I wanted the sauce.  The shrimp were cooked perfectly and were spicy and nice.  The sprouts were also very good.  Very garlic-y – and a tad undercooked for my preference, but I still ate them all!

We agreed that we probably wouldn’t wait to wait in line for hours on the weekend, but it was definitely worth coming back during the day when you could walk in and sit down.

The placemat which had ads and a map of local businesses, and we still had several hours until fiber night, so we decided to try out the Random Tea Room, just a few blocks away on 4th Street.  We walked, since it wasn’t worth getting my car in case we weren’t going to stay there.  The sign outside advertised a $1 house Chai, so we went inside to investigate.

It was cute!  There were a few people there using laptops, and talking with the proprietress, and the whole room smelled like chai.  There was room to sit and we ordered tea (I got my first taste of pu erh, and I believe Springviolet got honeybush).  We decided to sit an knit, so I went back to the car for my project and found a parking spot right in front, refreshing my two hour parking time from the previous spot where I had parked from Honey’s.

There was a sweet Boston Terrier sleeping nearby, and while the chairs weren’t set up great for face to face conversation, we were able to sit and chat and drink and knit comfortable for a few hours. 

We commented that a 2-hour time limit cafe crawl would be a lot of fun for the sooner than later future, if we could manage to coordinate it, where we’d visit small local spots, eat/drink and knit for two hours and then move along to the next one.

We finally tried the house chai, which was very tasty and I purchased two ounces of another loose tea (the minimum, even though tea is priced by the ounce)  for my Pollyanna partner. 

I kept the placemat – there are few more places on it that we have to visit!

Posted by: Nysssa

You may remember the Septa strike in Philadelphia.  Perhaps you live here and couldn’t get anywhere.  Perhaps you just heard us complain about it.  If you don’t know, long story short is that our public transit workers went on strike, leaving commuters stranded and drivers vying even more ruthlessly for Philly’s famous parking.

So what are knitters to do without a good way to get to or from our beloved Higher Grounds but find a more transit-less friendly location for our mid-strike dose of sanity?  We decided we’d go to T Bar, located at 117 South 12th Street,  and online at www.tbarteas.com

It has seating, food, tea, and we can get there without being affected too much by the strike, great!

Or not.

We were able to snag some semi-comfortable spots near the window, and I went up to the counter to order a beverage and a sandwich.  I’m not the best at decision making and hadn’t been there before, so I decided to ask the barista for a tea suggestion.  I didn’t want caffeine, or anything else that might keep me up, so I smiled nicely and asked for a recommendation.  Apparently, it was an inconvenient question.

“What kind of tea do you recommend?”  I asked.  I’m pretty sure I was being friendly.  I try to be friendly with people who are making me things that I will be putting in my mouth.

“It depends on what kind of mood you are in.” Well that’s great.  I’m starting to get cranky – do they serve cranky tea?  I don’t have a mood, I just want a good cup of tea that someone else finds enjoyable so I don’t have to think about it or make a decision.

“Well, what is your favorite?” That is more specific, right?  I want to know what he likes.

“It depends on what kind of mood I’m in.”  Well, damn, that’s helpful. I’m trying to give you money here, emo boy!

“Ok, well, what are you drinking tonight?”

“Rooibos Bourbon”

“That’s decaf right?” (Yeah, I walked into this one)

“Well, not really decaf, because that implies that there is caffeine in the tea to begin with…” (Now, readers, I know that rooibos isn’t caffeinated to begin with, but I just wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything sneaky in it that might keep me awake, and phrased my question in an improper way – but you should have seen him recoil with fear at my lack of proper terminology)

“Sounds great.  I’ll try it.”  I also ordered a Thai Chicken Wrap, because I like to eat, and it had peanut sauce on it, and I love peanut sauce.

I paid, sat down, and admired Jo’s tea pot and cute cup of tea.  How nice.  My tea came out in a paper cup.  Oh, I didn’t know there were options.  I wanted fancier dishes.  Oh well.  I sipped the tea.  It was FABULOUS.  Really really good.  I’m glad emo boy was in the mood for it.

Then my wrap came out and it looked very pretty.  I took a bite.  It was chicken. And some lettuce.  And a hint of maybe some peanut sauce that thought about coming out of the bottle but just didn’t feel like it that night.  Oh well, it was food.

Andrea has by now arrived, and has ordered herself some tea and a tasty something, and she gets a pretty tea pot too.  Our wonderful emo salesboy didn’t even try to sell me more than one cup of tea.  Whatever.  I know I can resteep my bag and have a second cup later anyway, if not two.

Andrea sits down, starts eating, and Jo decides that perhaps she should eat food too.  She heads up to the counter, talks to emo boy, then comes back with a package of cookies.

“What did you get?”

“Nothing, they turned the grill off and aren’t making any more sandwiches tonight.”

It’s maybe 8 pm by this point, at the very latest, and I really think it was more like 730.  They close at 9.

I give Jo the second half of my not so impressive chicken wrap, and she too is underwhelmed.

We sip our tea, chat, and knit, deciding at least we were comfortable and knitting and therefore not tearing our hair out or wanting to attack anybody.

Then the cleaning started.  First there was sweeping, and the moving of chairs onto tabletops.  We look at the time, we check on the door.  They are open until 9, we aren’t crazy.  Then the mop and the mop bucket comes out.  And then the bottle of Pine Sol.

Now, I love the scent of a freshly cleaned room that has been mopped down with Pine Sol.  When it’s properly mixed with water and I’m not sitting, visiting with friends, trying to drink my tea, and knitting.  However, this was not properly diluted.  This was more like most of a bottle of Pine Sol and very little water.  And it’s at least an hour if not more until the store closes, and we are obviously settled in and planning on staying for a while, and we’ve all made purchases and aren’t just squatters taking up space.

We stuck it out until almost 9 pm.  But the the smell of Pine Sol and the obvious desire of the staff to have us leave so they could close up and go home chased us away.

So, if you want a nice cup of tea, I would say that as long as you know what you want, and what kind of mood you are in, and don’t want a suggestion from the staff, stop in and grab a cup and leave before it’s time for them to clean something and give you headache as well.

Posted by: Nysssa

I love socks. Hand-knit socks, store knit socks, ankle socks, knee socks, fishnets, tights, you name it. While I was fooling around on Ravelry the other day, someone posted a fabulous picture of some knee-high fishnets that I fell immediately in love with. Said they were from a site called Sock Dreams (www.sockdreams.com). I figured I’d never be able to afford them, but what the hell, might as well look.

Well, let me tell you, Sock Dreams is definitely a sock heaven. The prices are reasonable, like reasonably reasonable. And guess what – any internet orders are shipped free. FREE! No minimum order, though you wouldn’t have trouble filling your cart with the goodies you can find there.

I went ahead and placed an order – some fun knee socks, a sexy fishnet lace up anklet. Got my order confirmation. Then, a few hours later, got my shipping confirmation, with delivery confirmation number! I figured it would ship Monday (this was a Saturday afternoon), but Monday morning I checked the DC number – and it was already out for delivery. From Portland to Philly – ordered Saturday an delivered Monday. For free.

I have two pet peeves about the site. One is that you can’t track your order history on their site. The other is that they don’t have a wish list.

They do have gift certificates though! If you want to know what to get me – email me a Sock Dreams GC – I will definitely find something!