Category Archives: events

VKLive Seattle postponed; pattern sale and local classes

Posted on March 9, 2020 | 4 comments

It’s official: Vogue Knitting Live Seattle has been postponed. With the COVID-19 outbreak hitting the Seattle area particularly hard, this is a wise decision.

Teachers, vendors, organizers, and participants have prepared for this show, so it’s disappointing that we won’t be together. The vendors, especially, have invested in preparing inventory, and it won’t be sold next weekend. The vendor list is still up; if you’d like to support them with a purchase, you can see who they are here. I see names of some local favorites on the vendor list, including Knitted Wit, Hazel Knits, and Despondent Dyeworks.

As for me, I’m having a pattern sale to help make up for a lost work weekend. You can get 20% off my patterns on Ravelry with the code POSTPONED through March 15, 2020. Knit something fun!

In the meantime, if I can gather enough people, I could do a Petite Brioche beginning brioche class here in Portland on Saturday, March 14, from 10:30 to 12:30, $25. It would be at Fremont United Methodist Church, the same building where Puddletown Knitters Guild meets.

Or would you like to learn basic entrelac, knitted flat? The notes for this class are the foundation of my upcoming Minerva Cowl or Scarf (no worries; it’s been tech edited!). Class would be from 1:30 to 4 pm, same venue, $30.

I know it’s short notice, but I’m game if you are. Leave a comment to let me know if you’re interested in either or both classes, and I’ll let you know if it’s happening by Thursday.

For now I’ll be home, transforming my Rose City Yarn Crawl goodies into new designs for you.

And for Bisquee and Calvin. We need to keep the kibble supply rolling!

4 Comments

Posted in classes, events, Knit

Tagged local classes, VKLive, VKLive Seattle

Rose City Yarn Crawl 2020

Posted on March 8, 2020 | 2 comments

Fun, as usual! If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook (PDXKnitterati on those, too), you may have seen a lot of these pictures already. But I find it easier to search for pictures here on my blog, so Future Me is thanking Today Me for archiving these here.

I started the weekend with a trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake with Knitted Wit (Lorajean Kelley), Shannon Squire, and Debbi Stone. It’s become a tradition! Thanks so much to Ann for having us, year after year.

Shannon and LJ swear that they didn’t plan to color coordinate their clothing, but here they are. And their color orbit is so strong, the shawl on the wall is part of the fun, too.

This year’s mystery KAL was designed by Marie Greene. I love it! Carrie’s is lovely.

TJ embellished the edge of hers with eyelets and beads to use up her remaining yarn. Perfect!

Kim showed me her Zen Rain Shawlette. I designed this for Sock Summit 2011. Many happy memories there!

Paula took my Brioche Pastiche class 2 weeks ago, and brought her finished hat wth her. I love the colors and the squishiness; she did a great job!

I showed Julie how to use her phone’s camera filter to check for good tonal contrast so her colorwork will have some pop. Do you know the camera filter trick? Use the Mono setting (alas, they’ve done away with Tonal) to make sure you’ll be able to see your colorwork! This is a gentle contrast, but enough to show off her colorwork knitting.

Someone (I’ve lost your name; let me know if you see this) had an advance copy of the new Vogue Knitting magazine (on sale March 10) and told me that my picture is in it! It’s from VKLive Columbus from my Fancy Stitches class; I’m showing off my Aloha Shawl. My 15 seconds of fame continues…

It’s hard to knit at a trunk show, but it’s really easy to frog! I brought the too big version to frog so I can use the yarn on the smaller size. Frogging the mohair and fingering together was surprisingly easy, and I just balled it up together since I’ll be knitting them together again. It’s really hard to separate them!

It was so nice to chat with so many people on Thursday.

Kathryn and Stash

Alissa from El Rey Knits podcast

More fiber friends!

I went back to For Yarn’s Sake on Friday to get more DK Gradient from Scarlet of Huckleberry Knits. In my hand: Vivace. I love it, but I also ordered another ball of Practical Tactical Brilliance for my current entrelac project. It’s the same color as my Aspen Leaf scarf pictured above.

I also went to Knitting Bee to see DKGraham’s wooden stitch markers and pins. So cute! And so is she. We’re going to get together to knit some brioche and plot some pins or…

One more store on Friday: I met up with Thao from Nerd Bird Makery. I love her pins and T shirts; I have several. We live in adjacent neighborhoods, so we’re going to get together and knit…brioche, of course.

On Saturday I went to Twisted and Pearl Fiber Arts, but the yarn fumes must be getting to me…I forgot to take pictures! But I *did* remember to order some sparkly yarn from Stacey of Fierce Fibers for a project I’ve been dreaming about for a couple years. It’s TIME!

I’m staying home today to catch up with my life and house; it’s been a very busy couple months. Did you Yarn Crawl? I hope you had fun!

2 Comments

Posted in events, Knit, Portland area fun

Tagged RCYC 2020, rose city yarn crawl

Trunk Show at Rose City Yarn Crawl next week!

Posted on February 28, 2020 | 3 comments

This picture popped up in my Facebook memories: 2014 was the year of the first Rose City Yarn Crawl MKAL, and it was my Rosaria. The Yarn Ball was the perfect place to show off a lot of them, all at once!

Rose City Yarn Crawl 2020 is Thursday through Sunday next week, March 5-8. I’m having a trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake all day on Thursday, come see me! I’ll have my latest designs for you to see in person. Also at trunk showing with me: Knitted Wit, Shannon Squire, and Debbi Stone. It’s our tradition to kick off the crawl together at For Yarn’s Sake. Hope to see you there!

You can see all the details for the Yarn Crawl here. I’m trying to decide which trunk shows and shops I need to see, and put them into some kind of order. What’s your plan?

3 Comments

Posted in events

Tagged RCYC, rose city yarn crawl

Red Alder 1.0

Posted on February 20, 2020 | 13 comments

The first ever Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat is in the books, and it was fabulous. It followed in the footsteps of Madrona, but it was its own thing, created from scratch, and ever so wonderful.

I arrived to see Red Alder’s Becky with her finished Petite Brioche (note how she has diagnosed and fixed the WS of her brioche rib by watching the video for continental knitters) and her Clematis hat work-in-progress. This all came about due to an Instagram conversation last week! (In case you’re new here, my Petite Brioche is a free beginner brioche pattern with video tutorials, link here.)

I taught 4 classes: Herringbone Braids and Beyond, Athena Entrelac Cowl, Brioche Pastiche, and Fixing Lace Mistakes.

This is always my favorite moment in the Tink Lace class, if just for the shock value. The students always get over it…eventually. And then they fix it!

Krista brought her finished Brioche Pastiche to show me. It looks great!

And Joan brought her finished Dotty Cake hat to show me, too. I just happened to have mine with me because I used it for a sample in my Herringbone Braids class. Serendipity!

The market had lots of familiar faces, and some new ones, too.

I’m seeing Lorajean (Knitted Wit) and Shannon more on the road than at home! Last month at VKLive NYC, this month at Red Alder, next month at VKLive Seattle/Bellevue. This is their first Madrona/Red Alder show. And we’ll have our annual Rose City Yarn Crawl mega-trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake with them and Debbi Stone on Thursday, March 5. See you there!

Rebecca from A Hundred Ravens yarn showed me some beautiful colors on a yak base, and others on merino.

Greenwood Fiberworks had some gorgeous mini-skein kits.

Foxy Stacey and Cindy were flaunting all the colors at Fierce Fibers. I re-acquainted myself with a few gradient colorways that have me daydreaming again. This was the first Madrona/Red Alder show for Fierce Fibers, too.

There was a lot more in the market; this was just a tiny taste.

Besides teaching, I took a class on Knit 1 Below with Harry Welles. It looks like brioche; it just uses another way to get that result. It was interesting, but I’ll just keep knitting brioche…you know I’m smitten!

Evenings were fun, too. Here’s Red Alder’s John in fine disco gear from the Friday night Fiber-In. I’ll leave you to search the web for Harry’s crochet pants.

Clara Parkes gave the keynote at the Saturday banquet, about wool, of course!

There were some yarn winding shenanigans before the banquet; Mary Scott Huff needed a swift so I stepped in. I still say this beautiful color from Fierce Fibers is NOT pink. Terra cotta? It has a lovely brown undertone.

The hotel Murano features a different glass artist on each floor; I finally got up close and personal with this piece, which I’ve admired on their key cards for years. I didn’t realize how subversive it is! Susan Taylor Glasgow’s statement says, “My life and art are the result of homemaking gone awry. I have the luxury of exploring the complexities of domestic life from the safe distance of my studio.”

Happily ever after, cooking, ironing and vacuuming…ha!

I’m so glad the inaugural Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat was a success. Lots of smiles! I look forward to this event again next year.

Moonrise over Tacoma, first night.

Moonset over Tacoma, last morning. And that’s as much Mt. Rainier view I had all weekend!

Did you go to Red Alder? What did you love?

13 Comments

Posted in classes, events, Knit

Tagged Red Alder 2020, Red Alder Fiber Arts

Syncopation encore, and VKLive NYC

Posted on February 2, 2020 | 9 comments

I finished a third version of my Syncopation shawl just before VKLive NYC. I wanted to wear it there, and I did!

This version is a size/shape between the original shawl and scarf, so a bit wider/less deep than the original shawl, and not as long and skinny as the scarf. I scrunch it a bit at the neck so the point will fall at center front; rolling the scrunch means that some of the reverse color from the other side shows at the neck, which I love.

I’ve added instructions for this size/shape to the pattern, which is available on Ravelry. If you purchased the pattern, you should have received an email letting you know about the update so you can download the latest version. Or if you’re one of my new brioche students, you can just buy it now…

I wore it a lot! I was wearing it when I met up with Ann and Kay from Mason Dixon Knitting in the Knitty City booth, and when I saw Lorajean and Shannon in the Knitted Wit booth, and when I was teaching on a slightly snowy Saturday. It’s a good travel companion, easy to put on and wear.

Bright lights, big city! The NYC show was BIG, with a very different feel than the Columbus show. We were at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, with classes all over and a market on TWO floors.

Here’s a view from the balcony; take this and multiply by two. It was packed with product, and with shoppers.

I taught 5 classes to great students. And I gave my lecture, Blocking: It’s Magic. Once I figured out that the computer wasn’t touch screen, my PowerPoint presentation went very smoothly! (So used to my iPad; I forget…)

This sign was going up during the day, and I decided the question needed to be: Who’s Afraid of PDXKnitterati!

This is my new Aspen Leaf Scarf (pattern coming soon). The colors from Huckleberry Knits have Hamilton-themed names: Practical Tactical Brilliance and When You Said Hi I Forgot My Dang Name.

This picture is as close to Hamilton as my scarf was going to get.

On a whim, I tried to get a ticket to Hamilton in the cancellation line. I got THISCLOSE; they ran out 2 people ahead of me. But it was fun hanging out for a bit, chatting with people from Atlanta and Honolulu who were hoping to get in.

I wasn’t on the hunt for yarn this weekend, which made my limited time in the marketplace a little more manageable, but I really wanted a knitty souvenir. I bought this swatch necklace from Porterness Studio; it’s perfect! I’m wearing it all the time.

Happy tired teachers at the end of the last day. And more random photos below.

Mochimochiland

Carol Milne glass art

GettingPurlyWithIt Nancy

IndieUntangled

Safiyyyah, aka DrunkKnitter

I stayed overnight, and took a walk in Central Park and down Fifth Avenue the next morning before going home. Such a gorgeous day!

Wollman Rink

Carriage Ride

Ice rescue ladders

Down gown in the Bergdorf window. I could have used this; it was cold!

Oh, here are a couple flyover pictures that I love:

Jack Frost artistry

Cloud shadows over a great lake

And now, on to the next thing…let’s GO!

9 Comments

Posted in events, Knit, pattern design, travel

Tagged NYC, Syncopation, VKLive, VKLive NYC

Jump on this: Red Alder

Posted on January 29, 2020 | 3 comments

Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat is coming right up, February 13-16. Registration closes February 1. There are still spots in some classes, and a very few hotel rooms have opened up at the Hotel Murano, too. Rooms must be booked by today, January 29, for the Red Alder rate, by emailing Nichole; See Red Alder’s registration page on their website for more info. There are also other hotels listed on the Location page.

I’m teaching:
Brioche Pastiche (full)
Fixing Your Mistakes: Lace Edition (one spot left)
Herringbone Braids and Beyond
Athena Entrelac Cowl

Come knit with me!

3 Comments

Posted in events, Knit, travel

Tagged Red Alder Fiber Arts

Wishing you sweetness and knitting in 2020!

Posted on January 2, 2020 | 4 comments

Wishing you a happy 2020; I hope it brings you much joy.

We had a delicious family Christmas with my side of the family. Hosting Sis not pictured; she’s behind the camera.

We celebrated Hanukkah on the 10th night. Yes, I know Hanukkah has 8 days, but I believe in celebrating when you can. It’s better than not celebrating!

Mom-in-law was here for this Hanukkah/New Year’s Eve celebration, and we made this Chocolate Cloud Cake. It was fun to make, and it looked and tasted divine. The picture isn’t particularly artful, because everyone wanted to eat the cake instead of wait for me to style it. I can’t blame them. This is going into my repeat file, for sure. Link here. Oh, it’s flourless and gluten free, too!

I hope your 2020 is full of sweetness, and knitting, too.

4 Comments

Posted in events, foodies!

Tagged Chocolate cloud cake

Indie Design GAL 2019 kicks off with pattern sale

Posted on November 25, 2019 | 3 comments

It’s the sparkliest time of the year: The Indie Design Gift-A-Long starts on Tuesday! I’m one of 286 participating indie designers this year.

The Gift-a-Long is a multi-designer event through Ravelry to help you kick-start your holiday gift-making. It begins with a pattern sale, and then the fun and games begin on Ravelry, with KAL/CAL activity and prizes. Here are a few of my patterns that are included in the coupon sale portion of the GAL; you can see the rest (there are 20!) in the GAL bundle on my Ravelry designer page.

The pattern sale runs from Tuesday, November 26 at 8:00 pm US EST – Monday, December 2, 2019 at 11:59 pm US EST. The coupon code is giftalong2019 and it’s good for 25% off any of the participating patterns from all the designers.

The KAL/CALs will run from Tuesday, November 26 at 8pm (US-EST) through New Years Eve December 31 at midnight (US-EST). Check out the Ravelry group for all the details. Your project with any paid pattern by a participating designer is eligible for prizes, not just the patterns in the sale.

You can see all 286 participating designers in this thread. I’m having a good time looking through the list and picking patterns I want to knit! Eventually. Or at least in my mind…

I don’t really gift knit for the holidays (too much pressure), but this is a great time to stock up on patterns for the knitting year! And participating in the KAL at a relaxed pace sounds good to me. How about you? Are you a deadline gift knitter?

I’m hosting this Thanksgiving year, so I’m in a whirlwind of prep. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

3 Comments

Posted in events, ravelry

Tagged GAL2019, giftalong2019, ravelry

VKLive Columbus

Posted on November 8, 2019 | 7 comments

VogueKnitting Live Columbus was my first VKLive event, and it did not disappoint. I had a great time teaching, and seeing friends old and new.

My flight was early, but a snow delay in Chicago meant I missed the teacher meeting on Thursday night. Happy Halloween! That meeting is a great place for first time teachers to get to know the others, but Marie Greene of Olive Knits helped me catch up. Thanks, Marie! (We go way back to her blogging days when she used to live in Nebraska.)

The hallways were decked with samples from Vogue Knitting. Very inspiring; let’s knit more!

I taught Herringbone Braids and Beyond: Braided Wristlets on Friday morning, and met Kim, who I know on Instagram. It’s so nice to meet friends in person, finally.

I gave a lecture, Blocking: It’s Magic, in the afternoon. My PowerPoint presentation worked just the way I wanted it to, hooray! Well, almost. My Microsoft fonts didn’t carry over to the MacBook it was running on, but all the words were there. I win! The first time for anything always makes me nervous.

I had lunch with Kim and Colette at the North Market, and was sadly too full to have Jeni’s Ice Cream. Don’t worry, I made up for it the next day. Boozy Eggnog and Darkest Chocolate, a winning combination.

This is how I felt after teaching and lecturing on Day 1. Woot! This statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger is outside the convention center; I’m not sure why.

I taught my Athena Entrelac Cowl, and Knitting and Designing with Favorite Shawl Shapes on Saturday. Those shawl shape knitters were really on the ball; they had lots of great questions and ideas.

On Sunday morning I taught my Brioche Pastiche Hat class. And my AV did not fail me. I brought speakers and we even had sound for the videos, yay! I had two backup plans, but they weren’t necessary. Now that I know what the equipment is, I’m good to go for VKLive NYC in January.

Along the way:

I met Nancy Marchant on Saturday, which gave me a chance to thank her for changing my knitting life. Her brioche books are the best! And she’s so down to earth; I really enjoyed talking with her. I love her advice for fixing brioche mistakes: Don’t make any!

I had a moment to chat with Franklin Habit. I have always been impressed with his classes; he’s consistently well prepared and has a great presentation style. We’ll meet up again in February at Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat. Registration begins November 9 at 10 am; come knit with us!

The market was packed with beautiful yarn, bags, buttons, and more. I loved this display at the Freia Handpaints booth. I want to wear this with a tiara…

Nancy had a couple samples she wanted to show Tina, including Bonfire from Leafy Brioche (on Tina). Perfection :sigh:

Michelle and Shelia (owner) at Urban Girl Yarns were charming and had lovely yarns, too! I’m not a stasher, or I would have indulged. My current work pile said no!

I did buy some interesting knitting needles; they’re made by Prym. They hav a drop shaped tip to avoid splitting yarn, and then transiton from round to triangular for better ergonomics. They have a good bit of flex to them, too. I’m looking forward to trying them. No picture yet; it’s too dark this morning.

Also exhibiting in the market: Melinda K. P. Stees from Image Knits. Melinda uses Photoshop to analyze photographs, and then uses fine gauge machine knitting to create gray scale images. Each stitch is a pixel. This kitty will have eyes duplicate stitched in golden yellow. Check Melinda’s website for more images.

It works in blue, too. This eclipse stunning. And check out the hands behind the eclipse.

Daniel was in my brioche class, and showed me his experiments with crochet grid to make a more stable fabric that isn’t as super stretchy as brioche. He’s made blankets and is working on a vest. Inspiring and fascinating.

And since this blog is my journal, I’m reminding myself what I wore this time around…

Clara Parkes kept me in good company on the way home. I finished this book on my last flight, and highly recommend it.

On to Vogue Knitting: Destination Portland next Friday! I’m teaching Brioche Pastiche, and it will be fun. But first, a creative weekend with friends.

How is your November going? Mine is…busy!

7 Comments

Posted in classes, events, Knit

Tagged VKLive Columbus

A belated OFFF report

Posted on October 22, 2019 | 5 comments

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival was fabulous, as always! This late September event never fails to delight.

I had a full class for my Brioche Pastiche hat on Saturday morning, very fun. The power of group learning is strong! And then I met friends for lunch and zipped around to see the sights.

I love the real-ness of Icelandic wool, and you can’t get more real than this! He’s from Ten O’Cock Farms in Beavercreek, OR.

A bunny parade brought some bunnies out of the barn so they wouldn’t be overlooked. So soft.

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And there was shopping. This lazy kate was strangely mesmerizing. The woodworker, Dave Yocom, has been coming to OFFF for a long time; I’ve been admiring his bowls for years.

I bought this DK weight gradient (Practical Tactical Brilliance) and speckle (When You Said Hi, I Forgot My Dang Name) from Scarlet Tang of Huckleberry Knits. I’m having a grand time trying to make an idea come to life; we’ll see if it pans out.

And I bought two more shawl pins from One of a Kind Buttons. I love these little clay pins; they stay nicely in my shawls and help keep me together.

The day was swiftly drawing to a close, so I went to see the kids running their kids (ha!) through the goat obstacle course. Very fun. How had I missed this event for so many years?

At this point in the afternoon, the skies darkened and the thunder and lightning began. I made it to my car in time for torrential sleet-filled rain. Whoa. September fun!

I went back on Sunday afternoon because I wanted to see the judging results upstairs in the pavilion. This was the Grand Champion winner, and I think it won by a mile.

A 100% silk knitted lace shawl. Coleen Nimetz raised the silkworms, unreeled the silk cocoons, spun and plied the yarn, dyed it, and knit this masterpiece.