Monthly Archives: September 2016

Belated OFFF report, onward!

Posted on September 30, 2016 | 3 comments

It came; it went! The weather was perfect at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last weekend.

On Saturday, I taught my braided wristlets class. A lot of fun in such a small piece of knitting!

Sunday was my play day. Here’s my small haul, which I’ll explain as we go. Picture does not include the sheep cheese and goat cheese; they’re in the fridge. Or the tea.

That little wooden yarn ball? It’s really a needle minder, but I bought it to use as a shawl pin. It’s magnetic, so it doesn’t poke through my shawl. It worked great on my stockinette based shawl. I bought it from Maria, A Needle Runs Through It. I bought one of her needle minders for my bead tin last year. Very handy.

Speaking of my bead tin, I’m upping my game with this tin from Miss Purl. It goes with my sock monkey tool bag.

It’s all set up with my other needle minder.

Raya at Blissful Knits had this cute mini bar setup. I bought a couple minis to swatch with.

Such happy colors!

I bought this sparkly fingering weight gradient from Stephania at Three Fates Yarn. Just because I liked it.

And I loved the cheery color pops on this Aran weight yarn from Lorajean at Knitted Wit. Colorway is called Macaron. Yum! I’ve knit with Lorajean’s Aran before, my long Snowy Woods Cowl, and I love how “chewy” it feels to knit with. This will be a quick hat for someone, I think. Or a short cowl. Or…

I was pleased to see Andy Hayes of Plum Deluxe. This was his first OFFF. I love his teas, and was running low on my favorite, so I bought it (Oregon Breakfast Tea) plus two more. The strawberry Earl Grey is fantastic.

I visited the exhibit hall, and saw two very impressive blankets. This one has wool from 30 breeds.

And here’s the key.

This blanket is a little more fanciful.

Anna took my Fern Shawlette class last year, and entered it in the exhibition this year. She did a very lovely job.

Back out to the lawn!

Tami (right) was helping out at Stacey’s booth, Fierce Fibers (formerly Thoroughly Thwacked). Tami was spinning from the fiber around her neck. Nice!

Stacey has been playing with gradients. These laceweight cakes are lovely. They’re actually all the same, just wound inside out or outside in. It really makes a difference in how you see them.

I noticed the Aloha Shawlette that Sharon Spence (StitchJones) knit, hanging in the booth. I originally designed this using Sharon’s yarn. It all goes around!

I loved this chicken spinning wheel.

These handmade brooms by Squire Brooms were quite a hit. Kirby is watching her broom being made, and she even got to help with the sewing.

Ready to ride! Or sweep…

The Turkish spindles from Jenkins Woodworking are always gorgeous.

And what’s a trip to OFFF without a trip to the barn?

Icelandic wool on the hoof. Let’s bang out another sweater!

Alpacas, Suri and huacaya.

Whew! So much fun. And now I’m off to teach at the Sheeper than Therapy Retreat in Three Rivers, CA.

Catch you on the other side!

3 Comments

Posted in classes, events, Portland area fun

Tagged OFFF 2016

OFFF tomorrow!

Posted on September 23, 2016 | 2 comments

Ready? Go! I’ve got my patterns printed, and class samples ready for my Braided Wristlets class tomorrow (Saturday) at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. It’s an all day class, 9:30 to 4:30, so I won’t have much time to play. Which only means that I’ll have to go back on Sunday, which promises to be a gorgeous day. Win! Come to the registration booth at 9 if you want to join us tomorrow.

Here’s my wristlet variation, since you’ve seen the others several times recently on the blog. Instructions for this variation are in the pattern, too.

Last week I was over in Sisters to visit friends who recently moved away. We worked on a song I’m writing; it’s about tumbleweeds, or really about friends moving away. This is number four in the last 2 years. Ouch! The song started in my head after V moved away, but is finally coming together now, a couple years later.

But it wasn’t all music. There was some trampoline time.

And a lovely walk along Whychus Creek.

With a view of the Three Sisters by day…

And night! We took the kids to watch the sunset and moonrise; they were conveniently at the same time and the moon was nearly full. The kids thought they needed to use our phones for flashlights, but the moon was so bright…nope!

Do you use Layout? It’s a free app from Instagram, and it makes great collages. It works great with my iPhone, and the only complaint that I have is that it doesn’t play nicely with my iPad; it doesn’t show me the pictures I’m choosing from until I click the blank space where it should be. But I can work around that.

Hope to see you this weekend, knit and spin peeps!

2 Comments

Posted in events, Portland area fun, travel

Tagged moonrise, OFFF 2016, Sisters Oregon, sunset

Enabling your inner knitter

Posted on September 13, 2016 | 1 comment

Looking around the blog universe, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s clear that I’m not the only one who feels euphoric about September knitting. Social media is full of posts about new cast ons. I’m here to enable you! I love teaching people to be the boss of their knitting. I’ve filled out my teaching schedule at Twisted and For Yarn’s Sake here locally; you can see my classes on my teaching page here.

I’m also looking forward to teaching at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival on Saturday, September 24. We’re making braided wristlets, with several kinds of braids worked in, as well as lessons on color and yarn dominance, and managing your yarn for stranded knitting. Class description is here; “out of stock” just means that pre-registration is over. You can sign up on-site at OFFF; class starts at 9:30 a.m. Come a little early if you want to pick up yarn from Knitted Wit for this project; she’ll have these colors kitted up for you.

And I’m really excited to be teaching at the Sheeper than Therapy retreat in Fresno, CA, at the end of the month. We have a full slate of fun classes for the weekend: Log Cabin Squares, Braided Wristlets, the Tilt Shift Wrap, and Photography with iPphone/iPad. Looking forward to it!

All in all, September is a knitting whirlwind. I love it! What’s on your needles? Are you going to OFFF?

1 Comment

Posted in classes, events, Knit

Tagged classes, OFFF, workshops

On your mark, get set, September!

Posted on September 8, 2016 | 4 comments

I love September. It’s my birthday and wedding anniversary month. Lots of good celebrations are ongoing.

September is also the beginning of knitting season. I knit year round, but somehow September knitting feels more special. And I’ve been quite inspired this past couple weeks, finishing two shawls and charting out two more. The two finished shawls are variations on a theme. I noted that the bind off was too tight on the first of these in a previous post, so I had to tink the entire edge after the shawl was dry, and re-knit the bind off. I still need to re-block the shawl.

I want to share my favorite elastic bind off with you; this bind off makes your edge as stretchy as the rest of your knitting.

Elastic Bind-off
K2. * Insert left needle into fronts of these 2 sts from left to right and knit them off together through the back loops (like making an SSK). One st bound off. K1; repeat from * until one stitch remains on right needle. Cut yarn and fasten off.

I’ve already used this on my second shawl, and blocking went much better! Tight bind offs haven’t been an issue for me previously, but the new-to-me construction of these two shawls requires a really stretchy finished edge. As I’ve said elsewhere, I make the mistakes so you don’t have to.

The next two shawls use another new-to-me construction. I’m almost done swatching the first chart, and I’m in love. I’m not quite sure how I want to publish these four pieces yet, which is why you haven’t really seen them. The two finished ones are out on a design submission, and the two planned ones will be out on another submission. If they aren’t chosen I’ll self-publish them in October, either individually or as an e-book collection, maybe? What do you think? I’m looking forward to sharing them with you no matter how I do it!