Author Archives: pdxknitterati

Hello, Beautiful

Posted on December 14, 2011 | 12 comments

Where have you been all my life?

Remember this bag from the January TNNA show?

The Lantern Moon Bali Weekender has arrived from Bali. (So new it’s not on the website yet. The Bali Overnight is similar, with a different needle punch design.) They made it to the Lantern Moon warehouse last week, so I made a beeline over there and brought one home. Did I need another bag? Ummmm, yes. This one.

It’s rather gorgeous, isn’t it? The needle punch work is exquisitely lovely.

And the bag is a great size for travel, or a big knitting project. Or several small knitting projects, which is what I’ve got in there right now. (A pair of slippers, a cowl, and some fingerless mitts, in case you’re wondering.) There’s lots of room left.

What’s your perfect knitting bag? I think I’ve found the one for me!

12 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged bali weekender

knitchat, and selfish knitting

Posted on December 12, 2011 | 5 comments

Are you on twitter? Do you know about #knitchat? It’s a twitter chat that’s usually on Thursday evenings, 6:30 p.m. PST. I drop in when I can. (I’m @pdxknitterati on twitter; follow me!) Natalie Kilkenny (@cloudynatknit) is the organizing force behind #knitchat; you can read more on how it works here. Last Saturday, we had the first ever US/UK knitchat. It was fast moving and fun! One of the topics was “What’s on your needles,” and the conversation veered to gift knitting and selfish knitting. Apparently December is all about gift knitting, and January is Selfish Knitting Month.

Apparently, I’m ahead of my time. I’ve always been precocious! The siren call of the thrum was strong; I had to have Thrumbelina slippers for myself, right now! The pattern isn’t available outside the Single Skein Club until March 1, but it’s my design, so I already have it. I cast on a week ago Saturday at Twisted, and finished Wednesday night. It’s a quick knit.

I love this combination, Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Velvet Grapes, and Knitted Wit merino roving in Beaujolais. It’s a little more subtle than the sample pair. These are really soft and cushy!

I also want to knit some as a gift. I chose this Madeline Tosh merino, not realizing it was superwash. I don’t think it matters, because I’m not planning to felt the slippers.

I may have also bought another color, because it was so hard to choose between them.

I also have one more selfish knitting project lined up. Lorajean gave me some of her DK Polwarth/silk in Beaujolais for some of my Hugs and Kisses Fingerless Mitts. Lorajean was knitting a sample last Saturday, and it was a perfect combination. I’m currently having a love affair with deep winey red purple, and I need some new mitts!

It may have to wait until January, the traditional Selfish Knitting Month for those who spend December frantically gift knitting. But since I only have one quick gift to knit, I may get to it sooner. Should I feel guilty about my selfish knitting? I definitely know that my recipient will appreciate my work, and I won’t felt it, either!

5 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged knitchat, selfish knitting, thrumbelina

Thrumbelina

Posted on December 2, 2011 | 5 comments

It’s December! And I have something to show you. If you’re a member of Twisted‘s Single Skein Club, you may not want to look until you’ve picked up/received your package. I’m throwing in a gratuitous kitty picture so you can avert your eyes and not scroll down.

Ready for the real deal?

This is Thrumbelina, my design for Twisted’s Single Skein Club this month. Thrumbelina is a thrummed slipper, filled with fluffy woolly goodness. These babies are cushy, comfy, and warm! The thrums will eventually felt down and be a custom fit for your foot.

I love how these are all business on the outside

And a party on the inside!

Wouldn’t you love to put your foot in these?

You can, if you’re a member of this year’s Single Skein Club. If not, the pattern will be for sale March 1 here through PDXKnitterati and also through Twisted. The purple pair you see in the pictures are knit with Malabrigo worsted in Velvet Grapes, and they went to Twisted as the sample. The SSC offering is black Malabrigo worsted with either beaujolais or wintergreen roving for the thrums, dyed by my friend Lorajean Kelley of Knitted Wit. I think I’ll knit myself a pair, too. I have a skein of Velvet Grapes and a merino knot of beaujolais, and I think they’ll make a delicious pairing.

This is the last year of Twisted’s Single Skein Club, but fear not! Next year they are offering a new club in its place, the Mad About Tosh Club. All yarns are from MadelineTosh, including an exclusive Twisted color one month.

I’m really pleased to have had two designs in Twisted’s Single Skein Club, my Thrumbelina Slippers and my Breezy Market Tote last year. Shannon & Emily are absolute loves to work with. I enjoy teaching in their sweet shop, too. Speaking of which, I’m teaching a class on thrumming next Saturday, December 10, from 10 to noon. We’ll be starting Thrumster earbands or cowls. If you’re a SSC member that wants a little extra help, or just want to learn how to thrum because it’s chilly out and you want to add that special pizazz to your knitting, contact the shop to sign up!

I’ll be in the shop before then, though. There’s a Knitted Wit trunk show through Sunday, and Lorajean will be there from 1 to 3 tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 3). Stop by and say howdy. I will!

5 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged thrumbelina, thrummed knitting, thrumster

odds and ends

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 6 comments

Remember my angst about my non-gelling ginger plum jam? I opened a jar this weekend, and it’s perfect. Somewhere between the week after I made it and now, it gelled perfectly. Tastes great, too. It’s a mystery, but I’m happy with the outcome. I even sent some home with family at the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

I’m working on a new shawl design with this beautiful yarn from Knitted Wit. It’s from her Community Supported Yarn club from this past summer, a vibrant green luscious merino/cashmere/nylon blend. I charted this out in September after taking a lace shawl design class with Sivia Harding. It took several tries to modify a lace pattern for the center panel so that it didn’t bias like crazy, and then I set the project aside. After all that, I chose a different lace for the center panel last month. When I picked up the project last week, I decided I didn’t like the new center panel after all, so I ripped it out today, only to find that I couldn’t knit from my previous chart.

Mostly because there was another piece of work on my desk, and my chart. Oops. But we’re back in business and I think I’ve got it figured out. Now I actually have to knit it and see. It looks promising…

And just a reminder, I’m having a pattern sale now through December 3, $1 off any of my pdxknitterati patterns, no limit. That’s 17-33% off, depending on the usual price of the pattern. Enter the code giftknit at checkout. Here’s a link to my Ravelry design page so you can see what I have. Most of my patterns are quick one skein projects, so there’s plenty of time to make a gift for someone, or for yourself. Or your cat…

Edited to add: I just found out that if you use the buy it now button from my pattern pages, it doesn’t give you the opportunity to use the coupon code. You’ll definitely want to go to my Ravelry design page so that the checkout options come up before sending you to Paypal!

6 Comments

Posted in Knit

Traditions, adjusted

Posted on November 27, 2011 | 11 comments

It’s Sunday afternoon, Thanksgiving weekend. I haven’t knit a stitch in five days. But I’ve played hostess to a house full of family, and it’s been fun. CollegeGuy was home from Orlando for the weekend, and it was great to have him around. Now he and all the guests have gone back home, so I’m taking a moment to catch up.

I haven’t hosted Thanksgiving in nearly 20 years. We used to round robin New York, St. Louis, Chapel Hill with DH’s family, but when we moved back to Portland from New York in 1995, Thanksgiving landed semi-permanently at my in-laws’ home in St. Louis. This year, I asked to have Thanksgiving here, so that the freshman CollegeGuy could come home for the holiday. I think he appreciated the chance to be home and see his friends, most of whom stayed on this coast for school. Our niece is in London for a semester abroad, so she joined us via skype on Thanksgiving afternoon.

I made the traditional meals on the traditional days. If it’s Wednesday dinner, it must be brisket. If it’s Saturday lunch, it must be minestrone. Saturday night is always turkey, redux. I didn’t want to rock the boat too much since I had absconded with Thanksgiving, but I snuck in a few changes. We had sausage/potato/kale soup on Thursday instead of sandwiches, bourbon caramel sauce with our apple pie, and I tried a new bourbon cranberry sauce (see end of post for recipe).

Friday was sunny and lovely, so we headed out to wine country for open house weekend. We went to Brick House Vineyards for a tasting. Lovely wines in a lovely setting. And I set up this picture (the family picture is another Thanksgiving weekend tradition).

On Saturday, I took MIL and SIL shopping on trendy/funky Mississippi Avenue. I found this knitted frog dissection at Paxton Gate. High school biology would have been even more fun this way.

I’m so happy we were able to host this traitional autumn celebration here at home. Same same, but different! What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

Bourbon Cranberry Sauce

1 pound fresh cranberries
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup bourbon

Mix cranberries, sugar and cinnamon in bowl. Transfer to 9×13 baking dish.
Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Stir, bake another 30 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to bowl and stir in bourbon immediately. Refrigerate. Enjoy!

11 Comments

Posted in recipe

Tagged bourbon caramel sauce, bourbon cranberry sauce, thanksgiving

Holiday gift knitting, a gift, and a sale

Posted on November 25, 2011 | 10 comments

Do you knit gifts for the holidays? Do you start early and end late? Do you get stressed out by your lengthy list of unfinished gift knitting? I’m getting stressed just thinking about it, which is why I don’t knit gifts. At least, not on those terms. I do my gift knitting under the radar, so it’s never expected. If I think someone might like what I’m knitting, it turns into a gift. But if I don’t finish the project in time, I give something else. No stress!

But I have a gift for you. You can use it to knit for yourself, or for someone else. My As You Like It Cowls pattern is now free for download through Ravelry. The pattern is for two cowls that can be worn three ways. This one is my favorite. It’s a simple broken garter rib stitch.

You can see the stitch pattern better here. And some crazy pooling/flashing, too.

The other cowl is a 3×1 rib. I originally designed this set of cowls for a fundraiser knitting party for our high school foundation at the beginning of 2010. It’s a quick project with bulky yarn. Chewy! I hope this helps you with your gift knitting.

Not a cowl person? I’m also having a pattern sale, now through December 3, $1 off any of my pdxknitterati patterns, no limit. Enter the code giftknit at checkout. Here’s a link to my Ravelry design page so you can see what I have. My current favorite is my Pippi Earflap Hat. I knit two of these last week, the first because I needed a sample for my trunk show (I had given all my Pippis away as gifts), and the second because it was fun!

And this design is seasonally appropriate…

Snowflake Christmas Stocking

Soooooo, are you knitting gifts? Under the radar? What’s on your list? Have fun!

Edited to add: Edited to add: I just found out that if you use the buy it now button from my pattern pages, it doesn’t give you the opportunity to use the coupon code. You’ll definitely want to go to my Ravelry design page so that the checkout options come up before sending you to Paypal! Thanks.

10 Comments

Posted in Knit

Stash

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 17 comments

Do you have a stash? I try not to stash yarn, so most of my stash consists of yarn left over from projects. But I did encounter a Stash of a different kind this weekend. Stash, the lovely new yarn shop/social space/gallery in Corvallis.

Sonia invited Lorajean (KnittedWit) and me down to do a dual trunk show at Stash on Sunday. It was my first PDXKnitterati trunk show! As I packed my basket of samples, I realized just how much I love designing pretty things, and how many pretty things I have. It was even more fun when I laid all my samples out on the table and saw what I’ve done over the past several years.

(An obligatory pic with Lambert/not Lambert. I forgot brown Lambert on my desk at home, but I always have Baa-bette in my tool kit. She’s a little grubby after 5 years, but still serviceable.)

Dawn came to visit, and picked out colors for a Ziggy Hat. You can pick your own colors through Lorajean’s Etsy shop. Check out Dawn’s Traveling Woman sweater; it’s perfect.

We did some knitting at the table during the afternoon, and I did demos on purling back backwards (so handy for entrelac) and thrumming. Amy learned to thrum!

I had a great afternoon with Sonia and Lorajean. I “met” Sonia through her blog when she lived back east, and was so happy to meet her in person when she moved to Corvallis last year. I’ve known Lorajean for several years; we met at knit nite but the details are fuzzy! Like wool. Knitters are the nicest people.

If you’re in Corvallis, or just passing through, I hope you stop in at Stash and see Sonia. She has lovely yarns and a great space. Check out her Ravelry group to see what’s on the event calendar!

And how was *your* weekend?

17 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged stash, trunk show

Community knitting project

Posted on November 16, 2011 | 7 comments

Leigh Radford, designer and author of several books including One Skein and One More Skein, is spearheading a community knitting project, and you can be a part of it.This is the Albers Stash Blanket from One More Skein. Leigh says:

Please join me in knitting blankets to be donated to those in need this winter! Knit and send me one panel of the Albers Stash Blanket. I’ll be gathering a team to assemble and complete the blankets. Blankets completed here in Portland will be donated to P:ear, Cascade Aids Project, and Raphael House. If enough panels are completed…, I would love to expand this list of recipients and will include non-profit organizations outside the Portland-metro area.

If you’d like to coordinate your own effort and donate a blanket within your community, please send me photos of your work in progress and completed work as I’ll be posting photos of everyone’s efforts as this project progresses.

Due date: Panels need to arrive in Portland/OR by January 31, 2012.

You can find more information on Leigh’s Facebook page. Questions? Not on Facebook? You can email Leigh at OneMoreSkein@leighradford.com.

I ran into Leigh at Twisted last weekend, and she passed on this panel to me. Leigh mentioned that she has started several panels and passed them on to other knitters. Lantern Moon has generously donated some needles so that Leigh has multiple panels going.

The pattern is simple, and is available through Leigh’s Facebook page. I’m happily knitting away on it, and will go into my tiny stash of leftovers (I’m not a stasher, remember?) and see what the next color will be. It might be a challenge; I’ve worked mostly with jewel tones, and this is not!

Would you like to be part of this project? You don’t have to knit an entire blanket, or even an entire panel. You can organize your knitting friends to complete a blanket, one panel, or even just get a panel from Leigh and knit on it for a while and send it back. But the more you knit, the more stash you use, and that means that more blankets will be donated. I hope you’ll join us!

7 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged albers stash blanket, community knitting project, leigh radford

The Thrill of the Thrum

Posted on November 14, 2011 | 8 comments

Autumn is definitely here, and it’s chilly. I’ve been experimenting with wooly ways to be warmer, and my current infatuation is with thrummed knitting. Here’s its latest incarnation.

Thrumster is either a cowl or an earband, depending on where you like your warmth. Or do both! Me, I don’t like messing up my hair, so I got DH to model the earband. I’m all about the cowl.

Things look pretty straightforward from the outside, but the inside is where the action is. These babies are *warm*, because they have thrums knitted in. So cozy!

What are thrums? They’re bits of fleece that you work into your knitting. Thrummed knitting originated in northeastern Canada, where they know how to deal with cold! I’ve written a pattern for this thrummed earband and cowl set, and it explains all about the art of the thrum. I’m also teaching a class on thrumming at Twisted next month on Tuesday, December 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. Come learn a new technique with me!

Not in PDX? The pattern is for sale through Ravelry. I made a video tutorial, too.

What’s your newest knitting technique? What did you knit with it?

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged cowl, earband, thrummed knitting, thrums, thrumster

oops

Posted on November 13, 2011 | 9 comments

at dinner the other night:

Me: That’s a beautiful sweater you’re wearing. Someone must really love you.
DH: This one? I think it’s store bought.
Me: Why do you think that?
DH: It has a tag in it.
Me: What does the tag say?
DH: I don’t know. I never looked.
Me: Go in the bathroom, take the sweater off and look right now.
DH: No. Um, what does it say?
Me: Handknit by Michele Lee Bernstein.