Last Friday I headed over the Cascades again, but this time in Oregon. It was a music getaway weekend with friends, but before everyone arrived, I had a trunk show at The Stitchin’ Post in Sisters.
(photo by Sarah Peery)
We had a great time! It’s always fun to meet knitters in person, and see hand knits up close. The Stitchin’ Post is starting a KAL of my Garland shawl today, so I left a couple samples for the week.
On to music! My new guitar made her debut with my fellow Pie Birds, Claudia and Becky. We played and sang and laughed, a perfect weekend.
The kids dyed eggs while we played more music.
And what does any good yarnie do with that leftover egg dye?
Of course. I bought a skein of white yarn at the Stitchin’ Post. It’s Juniper Moon Farm Sabine, 30% Royal Llama, 30% Merino wool, and 40% cotton. I was hoping for all animal fiber, but this was luscious. I wound off yarn in approximately 25 yard hanks (around my arm, one uses the tools at hand!). We dip dyed it, squeezing out excess dye after each dip, and then microwaved the yarn for 2 minutes to set the color. A quick rinse after it cooled, and then dried overnight. I was going to wind it into balls after they dried, but decided to leave them as mini-skeins to preserve the color runs. Aren’t they sweet?
On Sunday, Claudia and I walked along Whychus Creek. This creek has been restored, and was the subject of the Two Rivers, Three Sisters quilt exhibit that we saw in Portland last year. This panel was my favorite. (Just had to show you, because it took me a while to find this picture in my archives!)
Here it is in real life…
On the way home, we stopped at Black Butte Ranch so I could get a proper picture of the mountains we saw while driving.
Mt. Washington
Three Sisters (Middle Sister is not visible from this viewpoint) and Belknap Crater in foreground
The sight of a snowcapped volcano always takes my breath away. Such beauty in this world, and we get to live in it. :sigh:
In knitting news, I’ve started my Aloha Shawlette for the KAL. It’s going pretty quickly!
How was your weekend? And what are you knitting?
PDXKnitterati 
You go girl! You knit such beautiful things, you really inspire me. Just wondering, why you said you were “hoping for all animal fiber”?
I knew the dyes would work well with animal fiber like wool, because I’ve done that before, but I wasn’t sure it would work as well on plant fiber. But I didn’t have a lot of choices for worsted weight white yarn, so I guessed that 60% animal fiber would be fine. And it was!
>
Love the Cascades! Having spent my grade school years in Redmond and summers camping on the lakes in the mountains, I’m always awed by their beauty.
So gorgeous, and fun to see the change in fauna as you cross over from west to east, and back again.
>
Oh gosh, your eggs are amazing! I have only dyed yarn with Kool Aid but always enjoyed the process. I love your pastel colors. And wow, the mountains are spectacular!
I can’t take credit for the eggs; my friends’ kids did them!
I haven’t dyed with koolaid before, but that would be fun. This was very impromptu. When I heard we were dyeing eggs, I knew I had to bring some yarn. I think they thought I was nuts, but they really liked the results!
>