Just a quick note: The STP (Seattle to Portland) yarn train is coming Saturday, January 15. Portland knitters, come meet and greet the Seattle knitters! Check the links on the yarn train page for a brochure and coupons to local yarn shops. Here’s what happened last year.
There will be lots of knitters swarming the local yarn shops, especially the downtown ones that are easily accessible from the train station. Hope to see you around!
And I haven’t forgotten…I’m working on TNNA posts, right now.
I went to the TNNA trade show with Lantern Moon, and it was busy, fun, mind-blowing…the list goes on. I went wearing four hats: LM blogger, PDXKnitterati blogger, designer, yarn shop teacher. I was inspired in all of these aspects of my fiber life! We went down to Long Beach on Thursday, and landed during a gorgeous sunset.
The Lantern Moonies (10 of us) all stayed in this house across the street from the beach. It was much more congenial than staying in a hotel. And you really get to know your fellow Moonies when they’re also your fellow roomies!
On Friday I helped set up the LM booth.
I visited my friend Lorajean and her baby O. Pico Accuardi Dyeworks was there, and they were also distributing her yarn line, Knitted Wit.
And at the end of the day, it was time to kick back with some knitting!
There were some knitting lessons for two new knitters…more on that later.
I have had a copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac forever. It’s an inexpensive little thing; I think it cost $6.95.
There’s a new commemorative edition, with writings by the Yarn Harlot and, oh, I don’t know who else because I haven’t had a chance to open the book yet! I’m on my way to TNNA with Lantern Moon. I’ll update from there…
Seeya!
Posted in book review, Knit
Just to be clear, we did make it back in time for Christmas. It was theTeen’s last appearance as guitarist/liturgist in the Christmas pageant run by the youth. He’s a HS senior, and I’m having empty nest syndrome already…
(incoming flock of angels, just had to share)
But not so much empty nest syndrome that DH and I didn’t abandon him to his own devices for a week so we could play and Christmas shop in Hawaii. DH and I took a ‘ukelele class with this guy one afternoon.
It was easy to pick up a few chords, and as I tell my Pastries, three chords makes a simple song. Since there are only 4 strings, it’s a bit easier than guitar. I can play a barre chord! DH fell in love with the instrument, so I offered to buy him one for Christmas. We shopped here, based on the recommendation of one of my guitar buddies.
Lovely instruments, but we weren’t quite ready to buy.
We went to a show at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center and saw slack-key guitarist George Kahumoku, Jr., and Daniel Ho, who sings, plays piano, ‘ukelele, slack-key guitar, and I don’t know what else. Both of these talented gentlemen have won Grammy awards for their work. Uncle George even let us hold them for a photo op.
When we came home to rainy Portland, it was time to jump right back into Christmas week activities. We finished our uke shopping at Artichoke Music, our favorite local music shop. (We bought our first guitars there many years ago.) There weren’t a lot of ukes in stock (a run on ukes for Christmas, who woulda thunk it?), so we ended up buying a Fluke. Interesting construction, made in USA, big happy sound. It’s very sturdy and DH will be able to take it on his many travels. A winner!
Here’s one knit related thing in this post. Sharon won this vintage learn-to-knit booklet in the white elephant gift exchange at the Lantern Moon holiday party. I love the expression on the knitter’s face.
What’s your favorite knitterly gift this year?
Time flies!
DH and I escaped the pre-Christmas bustle and spent a week on Maui. It was warm, and mostly sunny. Perhaps not the most knitterly weather, but I managed, somehow. Here’s the view with and without knitting.
It was a perfectly relaxing week, which was just what we needed. The guidebooks all say that you should go up Haleakala (the volcano) to see the sunrise. You’d have to leave at 3 a.m. to make this happen, and drive a long winding road. In the dark. We decided that the only way we’d see the sun rise over Haleakala would be from our front porch. The sky was glorious just before sunrise.
And the sun itself wasn’t half bad looking, either.
We did go up Haleakala one afternoon, and it was beautiful in the crater. There are so many colors of sand and rock! We hiked down a bit; coming back up was a lot more work. We started at 9700 ft., but I forgot to check my iPhone altimeter to see how far down we had gone. (Yes, there’s an app for that.)
On the drive back down, the clouds had come in and the sun was shining on the water in a most hazily glorious way. I couldn’t tell where the horizon was because of the clouds. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at, because it was so bright, so I just took pictures and hoped for the best.
Here’s my other favorite sunset of the week, down in Wailea.
More in the next post…
If you read my other blog at LanternMoon.com, you know that the new ebony and rosewood interchangeable needle sets have come in to the warehouse. I’ve been knitting with a prototype of these needles. The joins are really smooth. My yarn doesn’t catch on them, and I haven’t had any come apart while knitting with them. (This used to happen to me with other my Boye aluminum interchangeable needles, a long time ago. I’ve become a wooden needle convert since then.)
The needle tips I’m knitting with are the new Featherlight wood, which is certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council. The interchangeables won’t be in this wood, at least not for now. I just happen to have gotten lucky and borrowed these to play with. Check them out.
I knit my Mini Mochi fingering weight Infinity Entrelac Infinity Scarf with the size 4 tips.
And I’m now knitting another Noro DK weight version with the size 7 tips.
I like them a lot. They’re not quite as slick as my ebony needles, but I like the slate gray color and slight texture on them. I haven’t been knitting too much this week; the view is a distraction.
Stay warm!
Midnight! Time to consult random.org for the winning numbers:
Commenter #4 is the first winner, and Alexandra (bloepper) would like to knit the Mini Mochi version. Congratulations! Check out Alexandra’s yarn bombing activities at her blog, Strickbombe. She’s in Germany!
The second winner is Commenter #11, Courtney. Courtney said yes to either, so she gets the Noro Silk Garden Lite. Congratulations! I’ve met Courtney in real life; she took my Christmas stocking class last year. Courtney, this scarf is even easier than the stocking. The yarn does all the colorwork for you.
Thanks to all for your nice comments. I’m glad you like Infinity!
Knit on…
Sorry, but that always sings in my head when I’m cooking for Hanukkah dinner. We had it on Saturday, and it was a lovely gathering. Mmmm, brisket and latkes.
We celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas at our house, so there’s a little of everything going on. I haven’t had a big Christmas tree in several years. DH and the kids don’t care if we have one, so we don’t! I like my little music tree on top of the piano; I put up my favorite ornaments and I’m done. I guess I’m a minimalist at heart.
The stockings are up in their usual knitterly glory.
I like streamlining my decorating so I have more time for fun with friends and family, and for knitting. But not gift knitting; I abhor deadlines. That doesn’t mean there are no knitted gifts, just no gifts on deadline! The first knitted gift has gone out in the mail…(a Pippi hat, if you must know).
Yesterday I had a discussion group for new parents about keeping and making holiday traditions. I started with a story about CollegeGrad. He was 3 or 4 when we started talking about the Christmas story. One day he came to me, talking about how much he loved Little Baby Jesus. Yesss! He understood the Christmas story! Well, maybe yes, and maybe no. He was actually talking about little baby cheeses, which were one of his favorite things to eat. Indeed. I brought some of this cheese to class as a prop and a snack. Becky (fellow Day Old Pastry) decided she would use the wax wrappers to make a real Baby Cheeses creche.
The story has come full circle…
How’s your holiday preparation going?
I wore the Mini Mochi Infinity scarf yesterday, doubled as a cowl. It was perfect for the chilly, rainy day: a soft warm cloud of coziness.
TheTeen took some more pictures for me, because I didn’t love the ones we took before. I had been in a hurry to catch the last bits of daylight on the last non-rainy day this week, and although I didn’t love the pictures, they were all I had. I like these better, so I swapped them into the pattern, and into my previous post.
And I also played with the cowl/hood look. I like it!
I haven’t knit a stitch since I finished on Monday. I’m not ready to start the two design projects I have in my head; I’m too busy this week to put that much thinking into it. I just want to knit something. It’s too strange having empty needles. I think I want to knit another Infinity! I love entrelac; each little square or triangle is like a mini-project. They go so fast, and you can really see your progress. I’ll knit a shorter version of the Noro Infinity in the same yarn. I already have the yarn; I bought a bag of 10 balls at Sock Summit last year. I used four in the original, three are going to a contest winner, and that means the last three can be mine!
Knit on…
We were away for Thanksgiving weekend, and I had some time to knit. There was even a little snow.
It was cold enough that a tiny snowman might need a scarf.
The snowman is wearing the fingering weight version of my new Infinity infinity scarf, in progress. No, I’m not repeating myself. It’s named Infinity for the infinity symbols on the center rectangles, and it’s an infinity, or loop scarf. Here’s the first version, in DK weight Noro Silk Garden Lite.
It’s really long!
It doubles up to make a wonderfully cozy, drapey cowl.
I finished the fingering weight version; it’s knit in Crystal Palace Mini Mochi. I knit it shorter than the Noro version, and I love the length. It doubles to make an airy, light as a cloud cowl.
I’ve been dying to show these to you, ever since I finished the first one! The pattern is available through the Infinity pattern page.
To celebrate my new design, I’m giving away two copies of the pattern, along with yarn to make your own Infinity. One will come with 2 balls of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi (in the green and purple colorway shown) and the other will have 3 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite (as shown above). The Mini Mochi is enough to make the scarf as shown, and the Noro will make a shorter (but still plenty long) scarf (I used 4 balls for the sample, but I think it’s longer than it needs to be). Do you want one? Leave me a comment and let me know which one!
Don’t wait to buy the pattern if you want it now. If you’re a winner, you can choose a different pattern from my collection, and I’ll send it when I send the yarn for Infinity. Of course, you can knit anything you want with the yarn; I won’t send the knitting police after you if you choose to knit something else!
Contest closes next Tuesday, December 7, at midnight. Go!
PDXKnitterati 