Category Archives: Portland area fun

RCYC 2016 Day 1

Posted on March 4, 2016 | 2 comments

The Rose City Yarn Crawl started off with a bang. Or more accurately, a POP! I spent the day at For Yarn’s Sake having a multi-trunk show with dyer Lorajean Kelley of Knitted Wit, and fellow designers Shannon Squire and Debbi Stone. Owner Ann started our morning with a bubbly toast. Let the crawl begin!

It was fun chatting with knitters about designs, and steering them towards (more) yarn. Trunk shows are a great way to see knits up close and personal, and even try them on.

Mo is planning to knit her very own Summertime Blues. She’s not the only one. Seeing the drape and swing of this poncho in person is a game changer!

Melinda brought her cashmere-infused Rosaria (2014’s mystery knit) to show me. I love her colors.

Sunday once again dyed her hair to match her completed mystery KAL. Awesome!

Henry knits color work scarves, flat, with recycled yarn.

Debbi and I love our dumpling bags by Binkwaffle. They’re reversible, and just the right size for a single skein project. The bonus is that it comfortably sits on your wrist, which is helpful if you don’t have pockets to stash your yarn. Ann has these bags in the shop, but ours are from last summer’s TNNA show.

I love Shannon’s sock wheel. Her dad made it for her. I’m impressed! I have some of his sock blockers, but the sock wheel is so far beyond that.

What’s next? Friday I’m doing a trunk show for Lantern Moon’s retreat, and then I’ll hit a few shops for the crawl. Saturday is free for crawling and on Sunday I’ll be at Twisted from 1 to 4 p.m. If you see me this weekend, say hi!

Throwback to 2014’s crawl.

I know Rachel is missing the crawl; on Wednesday she posted on my FB that she wished she could be here. She moved to Florida last year (sunny and warm!); it’s a little out of range, though. We miss her, too. She’s one of the Turkish Delight OFFF spinners!

2014 RCYC rest stop with Rachel

Knit on, my lovelies, with bubbly if you must! Are you crawling this weekend? If not, what are you doing instead?

2 Comments

Posted in events, Portland area fun

Tagged rcyc 2016, rcyc2016

Rose City Yarn Crawl and trunk shows

Posted on March 2, 2016 | Comments Off

It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year: Rose City Yarn Crawl! This year there are fourteen participating shops in the metro Portland area. The crawl begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 3, and ends at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. Are you ready?

I’ll be at two shops with trunk shows this year.

2014 trunk show with LJ and Frances

On Thursday, I’ll be at For Yarn’s Sake from 10 to 4 with fantastic local dyer Knitted Wit (Lorajean Kelley), and designers Shannon Squire and Debbi Stone. It’s a party!

Last year at Twisted

On Sunday I’ll be at Twisted from 1 to 4 p.m. Stop by and say hello!

Comments Off on Rose City Yarn Crawl and trunk shows

Posted in events, Knit, Portland area fun

Tagged rcyc 2016

New year, new knits

Posted on January 4, 2016 | 2 comments

I frogged my prototype Twin Leaf Crescent on New Year’s Eve, and cast on New Year’s Day.

I’m looking forward to re-knitting this yarn into the shawl it wants to be. The twinleafkal2016 is going on in the Ravelry Black Trillium Fibres group, if you’d like to join. The KAL runs through March 31, but in order to be eligible for prizes, you’d need to cast on by the end of January. I’ll be knitting along with everyone over there.

New Year’s Day was sunny, bright, windy and cold! We had a lovely walk on my favorite riverfront path.

Two days later we had snow, and then freezing rain on top of it. I saw this Buddha in a neighbor’s yard.

He looked serene, but maybe a little lonely, so I brought him some friends.

Waiting for things to thaw out. Everything is coated in ice. (Bird pic courtesy of Son2)

Speaking of snow, I’m looking forward to releasing a new take on Snowy Woods soon. I just can’t get enough of those lovely trees! It’s been to the tech editor, and just needs someone else to knit it as a confirmation. Soon!

I have one other project on the needles right now, an easily memorizable cowl design that can be knit in public or at knit night, no crazy charts to follow or beads. This balances well with the Twin Leaf Crescent, which needs a little more attention.

What’s on your needles this year? Is January Selfish Knitting Month for you?

2 Comments

Posted in KAL, Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun

Tagged portland bridges, snow, twinleafKAL2016, winter

A couple more OFFF finds

Posted on September 29, 2015 | 3 comments

I taught my Fern Lace Shawlette class at OFFF, and showed my students my Altoids tin bead management system.

I’d noticed that my Bead-Aid wasn’t sticking to the top of my magnet as well as I would like. The enameling on this magnet from my kids’ magnet set was pretty, but interfering with function. When I saw needle minder magnets from A Needle Runs Through It in the Knitted Wit booth, I had to have one.

I chose the sheep. Of course. These are actually meant for cross stitch, but they’re perfect for Bead-Aids, too. Maria also makes beautiful project bags. Go check out her Etsy shop!

Perfect fit, and the magnet is super strong so my needle is NOT going to get lost. If you want to make one of these to corral your beading equipment, all you need is an Altoids tin, magnet, Bead-Aid, and a short bead tube. If you want to get fancy, put a piece of fun foam or bead mat in the bottom so your beads don’t rattle so loudly. Keep most of your beads in the tube, and pour out about 20 at a time. If your tin gets dumped, you won’t lose ALL your beads!

What else did I get?

From local dyer Alexandra’s Crafts, this a gradient dyed sock blank made up of two strands of fingering weight knit double. Normal knitters would knit perfectly matching socks.

Me? I don’t love knitting socks, but I love fingering weight accessories. This will be some kind of scarf/stole, shading from one end to center and back out again. It’s Duffy’s Fault. I don’t know what the thing is yet, but Duffy made me buy it, and that will be the name. Eventually. Other deadline knitting has to happen first. Queue it up!

I have a new design coming out October 1. It’s a fun Portland designers group project, and I’m really looking forward to showing you one of the many things I knit this summer.

I also have a new shawl design coming out, probably next week. I’ve knit it in two sizes, both in gradient yarns, and also a non-gradient version. They’re like children; I can’t decide which one I like best!

My needles have been super busy, and now you get to see at least some of the fruits of my summer. Soon…

3 Comments

Posted in beading, Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun, yarn

Tagged A Needle Runs Through It, Alexandra's Crafts, Bead Aids, bead tin, OFFF 2015

OFFF 2015, SuperMoonEclipse

Posted on September 28, 2015 | 8 comments

Well, that was quite the weekend! Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival was wonderful, as always. I taught two classes on Friday: Athena Entrelac Cowl and Fern Lace Shawlette (sideways shawl construction). My students were all great, and they all got it. I’m looking forward to seeing pictures of their lovely finished projects someday.

I went back on Saturday and Sunday for shopping, hanging out, and general mayhem. Here’s a whirlwind tour:

The weather was perfect, sunny and cool enough to show off your favorite knitwear.

Lots of friends to catch up with:

Lorajean Kelley of Knitted Wit

3 M’s: Me, Michelle, and Melissa in the Knitted Wit booth

Leigh Anne in the Carolina Homespun booth, trying to decide whether she should take up spinning

Sari Peterson with her grands at her booth. Her DH makes beautiful spindles. Sari teaches spinning, and I think I may need some lessons! First to refine my spindle technique, and second to try a wheel. Not that I want one. Just curiosity about how they work. Honest. (Heading down the rabbit hole? Over to the Dark Side?)

Christina making lace on the lawn

Laurinda Reddig, crocheter extraordinaire and fellow OFFF teacher

I love it when I see my designs in the wild. This is Cindy with her beaded Fern Lace Shawlette.

Beautiful Turkish spindles in the Jenkins Woodworking booth

Some new things I fell in love with:

Francisco Bautista’s beautiful hand dyed, hand woven rugs. Read more here.

His son was weaving on Sunday.

Jodie McDougall’s beautiful buttons.

I bought this single cowgirl button for a special project (how could I not, since I was wearing my cowgirl boots?). Jodie explained how she makes her buttons, and had samples to show the process. Gorgeous.

There were animals, of course. This is my favorite look.

Good hair day, or bad hair day?

The weekend was capped by the eclipse of the full harvest moon supermoon.

I took these with my point and shoot, which has the best zoom in my limited collection of two cameras. A little blurry, but I was really happy to get any pictures at all. These were taken from the new Tilikum Crossing bridge (I just realized I’ve been spelling it wrong. One L!) My kids and I had a delightful evening chasing the moon.

The weekend was made complete by music and mimosas with friends.

How was your weekend? Did you go to OFFF? See the eclipse? Do tell!

8 Comments

Posted in classes, Pie Birds, Portland area fun

Tagged blood moon, eclipse, harvest moon, mimosas, OFFF 2015, supermoon

Presenting…Kilter!

Posted on September 24, 2015 | 6 comments

Kilter…

Off Kilter?

Both!

Presenting Kilter, a hat with maximum stretch due to the alternating stockinette/reverse stockinette sections. It looks great any way you wear it: centered on your head, pulled down over your ears, or tilted down over one ear, beret style. Knit in sport weight yarn from the bottom up, the top of the hat features a twirly, swirly square, so your hat is always slightly off-kilter! Kilter makes a great chemo cap, or a fun hat at any time.

Kilter is a simple project, great for multi-task knitting. I designed it as a chemo cap, but it’s cute on everyone. It takes less than one 100g skein of sport weight yarn, so choose something delicious!

You can find the pattern for Kilter on Ravelry. To celebrate this pattern launch, I’m offering it at 20% off the normal $6 price through October 1.

Are you going to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this weekend? I’m sure you can find the perfect yarn for your Kilter there! I’m teaching tomorrow (Friday), Athena Entrelac and Fern Lace Shawlette. I’m shopping/playing on Saturday and Sunday! Hope to see you local knitters out and about.

6 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun

Tagged kilter hat, Knit, OFFF 2015

Portland outdoors, knitting, Tigard Knitting Guild

Posted on August 20, 2015 | 7 comments

It’s been a warm dry summer here, which makes getting outdoors a pleasure. Yesterday we climbed a volcano. Within the city limits! Mt. Tabor is an extinct (or maybe just dormant?) volcanic cinder cone, with an elevation of 636 feet. We wanted a short, spur of the moment hike close to home, since we were getting a late (noon) start. This was perfect.

You know most of my hikes involve waterfalls. This will have to do. This is one of the three open air reservoirs on Mt. Tabor, where part of the city’s water supply is held.

There’s a nice view to the west toward downtown, looking out at Portland’s newest bridge, Tillikum Crossing.

DH and I saw that bridge the other day, when I took him on my favorite bridge walk. The reflection of the bridge, and him, on the Portland Opera building was pretty cool.

This was the fifth time I’ve done this walk this summer, and I just noticed the cool sculpture on the fire station. See the concentric circles? They come into focus as you walk eastward on the Hawthorne Bridge.

If you’re looking for more fun free things to do around Portland, the Oregonian just ran a feature today. I’m feeling pretty savvy, because I was already doing some of those things!

Other than that, I’m knitting, knitting, knitting. I took a little detour from my gradient project to work with this lovely yarn from Knitted Wit. There’s a deadline for this design project, so it has moved up to the front burner.

I’m speaking at the Tigard Knitting Guild tonight, talking about blocking. You know I love blocking! Click the link for details. You can visit the guild twice before joining, so if you’re local, come on by.

Onward!

7 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun, yarn

Tagged mt tabor, portland, portland bridges, tigard knitting guild

20k stitches later…

Posted on August 1, 2015 | 3 comments

Edit: it’s 40K, not 20K. I was thinking about the 16 row repeat, but it’s 32 rows. Math! But it’s bound off and done. Ends woven in; here are the orts:

It’s just the way I imagined it. I love it when that happens. I’ll show you next spring…

20k is a lot of stitches! It’s fairly regular knitting, so this was a good project to read a book by. Reading does slow my knitting down a bit, but it’s worth it to entertain both my fingers and my mind. I just read Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. It was a pretty good read, the stories of two women, one current day and one the personal history of an orphan in the 1920’s/1930’s. The current day portions feel like a YA novel, and the older portions were a fascinating look into a chapter of history that was new to me. But the ending of the book seemed like it was thrown together; after so much detail it seemed like there was a sudden push of the fast forward button. Still, a good read.

While not knitting, I’ve revisited what is now my favorite Portland walk. It’s 2.7 miles around the Willamette River waterfront, along the Vera Katz Eastside Esplanade and Waterfront Park on the west side. I walked it with a friend on Thursday morning and was captivated by shadows under the Hawthorne Bridge.

I went back Friday with another friend because I wanted to capture the moving shadows. They’re a little cockroachy, aren’t they?

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Here’s a little more Portland eye candy…

I’d never noticed the details on the Burnside Bridge turrets. Zoom in to see the detail under the windows. I love the leaf/flower? at the bottom, too.

Apparently we’re copying Paris with love locks.

Along the esplanade.

Time to write up a pattern, and cast on for the next one! I already have it plotted out…

What’s on your needles?

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun

Tagged portland, portland bridges, Vera Katz Eastside Esplanade

Pink…yarn, wine, and a PDX bridge ramble

Posted on July 17, 2015 | 4 comments

I’ve just bound off and blocked a new design project.

Such pretty leftovers! And they kind of go with my wine.

I’ve loved every moment of knitting with this gorgeous gradient kit from Black Trillium Fibres. It’s Lilt, an 85/15 superwash merino/silk blend. Very nice. I’ve been intrigued by gradients recently, but this was my very first adventure with one. I’ll be back for more.

It’s a gorgeous day for blocking outdoors. And after my bird poop blocking incident, I’ve devised a way to protect my knits. I can’t show you what I’m blocking, but here’s the scoop.

I had a roll of this fiberglass screen material in my basement. Once upon a time, I was going to make simple screens to put in our casement windows when they were open. Long story short, it never happened, and then we replaced all the windows a few years ago. (54 windows. Ouch. Love the new ones.) So I cut off a piece and laid it over my blocking project. I put a few extra pins in the project to hold the screen up above it, and a few more pins to hold down the corners. Perfect! And no bird pooped on it…this time.

Steel, Broadway, Fremont Bridges

We’re having a very lovely summer in Portland. I walked the downtown bridge loop with a friend the other morning. It’s 2.7 miles from the Hawthorne Bridge to the Steel Bridge on the East Side Esplanade, over the Steel, along Waterfront Park on the west side, and back over the Hawthorne.

Play me!

A picture perfect day. And we also took a little side trip to see the new Tillikum Crossing bridge, which is scheduled to open September 12. It’s for pedestrians, bicycles, and light rail. No cars. So pretty.

Yellow plums are ripe; there will be some plum bourbon jam in my near future. What’s on your needles or in your kitchen this summer?

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, Portland area fun, yarn

Tagged black trillium fibres, blocking, bridges, Lilt, PDX

Tiny harvest is tiny

Posted on June 24, 2015 | 11 comments

The blueberry crop is still going strong, despite the best efforts of the birds and squirrels to make me share. The new raspberry plants have given me almost a dozen berries. I wasn’t expecting any this year, so it’s all bonus.

I ate the first raspberries immediately, and then I saw Sue’s raspberry post. Wish I’d seen it earlier. What a great way to make a tiny harvest special! I had to try it. Click the link for her gorgeous photo.

No, they’re not giant raspberries, but isn’t it cool how close my iPad can get without zooming?

Monday we went for a short hike from the Hoyt Arboretum up to Pittock Mansion. I always think of hiking as something you do elsewhere; it’s so nice to have very local options. This is inside Portland’s city limits.

Maidenhair fern

Why hello there! (What kind of flower is this?)

And of course, any outing with Sue, Mimi, and Kelly means food! We had lunch at Pho Tango in Hillsboro. Fabulous!

Bun bo Hue

I always thought the vegetables were garnish, just eye candy, but Mimi says you eat them wrapped around the spring roll. That makes a spring roll way more interesting.