I’m on my way to an Emotional Support Chicken. I’ve been seeing these pop up in my Instagram feed, and they’re all really cute. I bought the pattern last month, but I wasn’t inspired to actually knit…until Franklin Habit announced a chickalong on his Patreon. Sold!
My chicken will be mostly purple, because it takes about a full skein of worsted (200 yards), and that’s what I have in a full skein. It’s Malabrigo Rios. My stripes will be that blue/purple and orange/purple; I don’t have enough of either color for all the stripes, so I’ll need to choose one for her body stripe and one for the 2 stripes near the neck. The orange stands out more, so maybe it should be by her face, but there will also be a yellow (?) beak and red comb and wattle. Too much excitement all together? Would the blue/purple be better by her face?
This half of her tail is almost done, then I’m on to the other half. This is definitely a short row eggstravaganza, but it’s wrap and turn in garter stitch, so no big deal. I’m working on a name for her, maybe Egglantina Rose, or Aubergine (a shade of purple, and also EGGplant!).
Beignets, ben-dYAY!
What else have I been up to in my nearly 3 week radio silence? DH and I went to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Lots of music, and we made time for beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, and crawfish-stuffed beignets and cocktails, too.
I went hiking with a friend in the Columbia River Gorge yesterday; the wildflowers were beautiful on a perfect spring day.
Catherine Creek trail, Mount Hood in background
So much variety.
I’m also still knitting my brioche and assigned/algorithmic knitting shawl. It’s a really fun knit, but I haven’t had a lot of time for it in the past couple weeks. Now I’m back at it, and I have chicken knitting, too. Which isn’t the same as yarn chicken. Yet.
What’s on your needles? Are you tempted by the chicken?
I’m teaching a weekend workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology August 10-11 on the Oregon Coast. The setting is lovely, nestled among the trees on a slice of land on Cascade Head near Lincoln City.
This knitting workshop offers several ways to make your plain knitting fancy! Drawing inspiration from nature, we’ll start with elongated fancy stitches that evoke the beauty of flowers, stars, butterflies, and bees.
Moving forward, we’ll delve into the art of color pooling, a hot technique that is the current darling of indie dyers.
To add a finishing touch, we’ll learn herringbone and other braids to elevate our knits to new heights. Join us for a creative journey where you’ll learn to infuse flair into your knitting, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Sound fun? Register here. The workshop fees are for the workshop only; you’ll need to book lodging of your choice. It’s a wonderful relaxing weekend away. I taught a brioche workshop here last year, see that post for a taste of the experience.
I’ve run away to the coast with friends. Apparently the unofficial first year for Crafty Moms was 2003 with kids and husbands, and the first year with just moms was 2004. This is the 21st year? Egad.
I have my knitting with me, but this is a great opportunity to explore some other fiber fun, too.
On the way to Rockaway, we stopped at Latimer Quilt & Textile Center in Tillamook to see the Homage to Audrey Moore, founder of the Damascus Fiber Arts School near Portland, Oregon.
Homage to Frida, Feeling Pink, Summer Days (Audrey Moore)
These are pieces from her series, The Ladies. They’re tapestry weavings on a Navajo style loom.
There are many pieces by Moore, and many pieces by her students. Reading their comments on their own pieces gave a good idea of her teaching style: Suggestions, comments, but she’d let you figure it out yourself. Perfect.
Besides the exhibit room (you can tell that it was a school auditorium at one point), there are two other large rooms. One is full of looms and other fiber fun, and the other is full of quilts and even more fiber fun. Some of it is for sale, and some are just for exhibit.
Loom RoomOn the loom
I found some beautiful hand painted roving for sale by Mary Torrey of Manzanita. It’s 75/25 BFL and silk.
Wait, I don’t spin! Why do I want roving? Well, I saw a reel on Instagram where someone was using a Lemonwood mini minder to hold her roving while spinning. I commented on it, and Veronica from Lemonwood offered to send me one. I love it. It’s so much more ergonomically friendly than throwing roving over your elbow and hoping to keep it out of the way of your spindle!
Heart Heart Heart Mini Minder
I love how the hearts look like knit stitches.
I think the Mini Minder is really meant for holding a cake of yarn so you can knit or crochet while you walk (or not); your yarn unwinds off the outside of the cake. I’m usually knitting 2 color brioche, so that wouldn’t work for me. For a one skein project, sure! Many of my assigned pooling projects would love this. And you can take it off the spindle at any time, too.
Thank you to Veronica for the Mini Minder. She offered it to me with no expectation of a review, positive or negative.
I thought I’d practice with old fluff on hand. The Mini Minder works great; it doesn’t unwind before it needs to. Clearly my cop winding skills could use some work; I got distracted and suddenly I was off. Oh well; this is practice, and my new roving awaits!
Cordsmith i-cord maker
I also took some time to play with the Cordsmith that I bought at VKLive NYC. If you need yards and yards of 3 stitch i-cord; this may be your jam. It’s a little fiddly to get started, and then it starts rolling along. Occasionally I accidentally drop a stitch off the needle, and have to figure out how to get it back in sequence. Practice is helping, for sure.
I don’t actually mind knitting i-cord on double pointed needles. Also, I’ve made i-cord on any number of stitches on dpns, 3, 4, 6… And my usual fake way to make a cord is to cast on a big whack of stitches, and bind off on the next row.
It was lovely when we arrived yesterday; Carole and I walked up to the jetty and were pleased to see sea stars, and a seal frolicking in the waves.
Sea stars and anemones and barnacles, oh my!Zoom in to see everything!
There are several bald eagles hanging out here. They like this post outside the house. Sorry for the blur; I can’t get close!
I hope you’re having a fiber fun weekend, too. And food. OMG so much food when we get this crew together! Delicious.
I don’t stash a lot of yarn, which means I don’t shop for a lot of yarn while I’m at fiber festivals. But here’s what followed me home.
Red Alder stitch markers Red Alder 2024 colorway from Greenwood Fiberworks
Organizers John and Becky gave me a sweet goodie bag that included Red Alder stitch markers and two half skeins of Red Alder 2024 sock yarn from Greenwood Fiberworks. This was a thank you for redesigning my Aspen Leaf Coasters into red alder leaves for my brioche class. I also made coasters for John and Becky. I’ll be adding the red alder leaves to the pattern eventually, in case you need red alder leaves, too.
Aspen and red alder leaf shapes
I’m never quite sure what to do with variegated yarns unless I add a tonal or speckle to tone them down, so I went to the Greenwood Fiberworks booth to find something suitable.
Carolyn (Greenwood) suggested this beautiful Violet semi-solid.
Sandpiper minis and Contempo
I was also looking for something to go with this set of minis in Sandpiper; I traded a copy of my Brioche Knit Love for the minis at Oregon Flock and Fiber in 2022, maybe? She suggested this Contempo variegated. I think it might end up as brioche, somehow.
Although these two skeins look pretty nice together, too! I’ll let all those ideas sit for a bit while I work on other things.
Knit stitch necklace from Birdie Parker
I may not stash a lot of fiber, but I can’t resist knit-adjacent lovelies! This is my new necklace from Birdie Parker. So many beautiful things to choose from, but I finally did.
I love my new entrelac print leggings. They go perfectly with my 31 year old sweater that’s still going strong!
Myrna Stahman
The last thing I brought home: 2 copies of Myrna Stahman’s book, Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves, which are a masterpiece of lace knitting. She is downsizing the last of her print copies, giving them away. I have 2 signed copies, one for me and one for the Puddletown Knitter’s Guild.
Okay, that’s my Red Alder takeaway. Red Alder Fiber Arts Festival is a lovely event that includes knitting, spinning, weaving, and more; save the date for next year: February 13-16, 2025.
Reminder: Puddletown Knitter’s Guild is having a get together as part of Knitting for Food. We’re raising funds and doing some charity knitting, as well as enjoying the company of other knitters. And we have great prizes, including the Myrna Stahman book.
including in other people’s media content! That’s pretty fun. And a great way to discover new podcasts/people to follow.
Erica’s Whale Conga Line
Erica of the “Bootie and Bossy Eat Drink Knit” podcast was a test knitter for Whale Conga Line, and talks about it in this episode of her podcast at about minute 26. This podcast series is lovely. This episode about a family gift stole my heart; I’ve subscribed and really enjoy the series.
Screenshot
I was interviewed at VKLive NYC by the fabulous people at Gosadi, a big sponsor of VKLive this year, also about Whale Conga Line. I’ve pinned the bit on my Instagram here.
Kim’s Brioche Pastiche hat with taller crown
And Kim of “Knit Together with Kim & Jonna” talked about taking my Brioche Pastiche class at VKLive NYC (I’m at about minute 36). It’s a great recap of her entire time at VKLive; she does a great job of making you feel like you’re there. Here’s a link to the episode on her YouTube channel. I watched it while working on my newest design; it’s like having a knit group in your iPad. Wonderful! I just subscribed.
Where am I next? Trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake for Rose City Yarn Crawl on March 7, 10 am to 3 pm. Hope to see you there!
I had a great time at Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat. I taught 4 classes, took 2 classes, and learned a lot from all of it! I was pretty brioche- and pooling- centric for all of it.
Let’s talk stitch mounts!
With conventional western style knitting, the right leg is on the front of the needle. This is true for both English throwing and continental picking methods. Both stitches are worked through the front loop, and the yarn wraps counterclockwise around the needle.
With eastern combined knitting (usually continental, yarn in left hand), the knits are formed conventionally, and the purls are wrapped/caught clockwise, resulting in the purl stitches mounted with the left leg on the front of the needle. For knitting in the round, the purl stitches would need to be purled through the back loop so the bottom of the previous stitch isn’t twisted. If knitting flat, the back of the purl stitch is a knit stitch, and it would need to be knit through the back loop to untwist the stitch.
Amanda in my beginning brioche class is a continental Eastern Uncrossed knitter. This means that she makes her all of her stitches with the yarn going clockwise around the needle (both knits and purls), which results in the left legs of all her stitches mounted on the front of her needle.
It took a little thinking, but we figured it out, and I made a video for 2 color Eastern Uncrossed brioche in the round.
Eastern Uncrossed brioche rib in the round
That helps me teach, and that helps knitters not have to change their knitting style when learning brioche. Win-win! Now I’m thinking about eastern combined knitting in the round; there are a couple ways to think about that purl stitch. I’m saving that for another day.
Color Blocked Brioche
I took 2 classes from Xandy Peters. The first was Color Blocked Brioche. If he had named it Brioche Intarsia, would I have signed up? Probably not! But color blocked intarsia in brioche is fun. Food for design thought.
The other class was Stitch by Color. I didn’t bring the right yarn for this; my yarn just has one pop color, and sprinkles (not enough) of other colors. I’ve been on the pooling train for a year, and that’s the way I was thinking. What I really should have brought is a space dyed yarn that has longer stretches of several colors. Then I could pull out one color to accentuate, or eliminate (by concentrating it on the wrong side of the work). Here’s an example from Xandy.
Stitch by color!
All of these colors are in the yarn; the pink and red you see on the left edge of the work are emphasized on the wrong side behind the yellow and gray, and vice versa. A great way to accentuate what you like, or hide what you don’t like! We learned some fun pooling stitches, too.
I helped my classmate recreate her dye skein so she could see where the color repeats were made.
Mt Rainier sunrise
That’s the teaching/learning part of the wrap up. There’s still the shopping! I came home with a few treasures. Still trying to catch up from Red Alder AND VKLive NYC!
These are my finished designs of 2023; there are still 3 in the hopper that will be published in 2024. Assigned pooling was definitely a big part of my year! Pooling is a Cinch, Firefly Trails, Fanfare, Starfall, and the Star Flower Shawl were my pooling pieces.
I started the year with the Aspen Leaf Coasters, which were a brainstorm off my re-worked Aspen Leaf brioche scarf for Knit Picks. Because what if you only had to knit one leaf instead of a whole scarf?That was a fun idea, and I designed them so I could use them for a class on brioche increases and decreases. (I’m teaching it at Red Alder on February 16.) I finished the year with the Aspen Leaf Brioche Cowl (center bottom) because I love that leaf motif. I’m back to my beloved brioche and leaves after my assigned pooling detour.
27 finished projects in 2023
I counted up all my projects for the year, and there were 25 FOs. Two were from other designers, the Sink Mates mini washcloths by Lorilee Beltman, and the Buggiflooer cowl adapted from the Buggiflooer Beanie by Alison Rendall (for Shetland Wool Week). The other 23 were from my own designs.
I knit several of these pieces more than once while developing or revising the designs. I love second (and third) chances, don’t you?
Ebb and Flow in variegated, long gradient (pink), mini skeins (blues/greens)
I designed Ebb and Flow to use a souvenir skein of Moss Fibers yarn from Knit Maine 2022. Then I knit it again with the long pink gradient. I loved the color, but I think the yak/silk blend doesn’t have enough bounce to help it hold its shape (it didn’t help that I made the neckline wider, but that was a good thing to learn for the design). And then I knit it with mini skeins, and that was awesome.
I knit two more Starfall cowls for the upcoming knit along with Knits All Done/Yarn Snob, and found that a bigger, fuller star was ideal based on Keith’s dyeing patterns, along with an extended lace edging due to his generous yardage. (I had to knit through an entire skein to make sure there would be enough.)
Second chances can add a lot to an experience, whether it’s knitting or something else. While we were on vacation this month in Hawaii, we took advantage of two second chances. I had gone rock hopping with the kids at Wawaloli Beach in 2018, but we never came to the wave crashing tide pools that were pictured in our guide book.
Wawaloli Beach tide pools…found ‘em!
These are great for wading, if you’ve got kids. The calm pools that we saw before were full of interesting sea life, including shingle urchins.
It was definitely worth going back and doing it again for the short Coastal Trail; the tide pools were full of interesting fauna. Why do sea urchins put things on themselves? Camouflage, maybe?
Looking back from 1871 Trail at lava shelf/tide poolsLooking north, 1871 TrailGoats!
I was a little sorry to learn that we were going to be on vacation during the new moon, which meant no moonsets. But after several days of waking at 5 AM by accident, I decided to have my coffee in the dark on the lanai.
Orion, December 15 (amazing to capture with iPhone)
The sky was perfectly clear, and I saw Orion setting over the ocean. A green shooting star dropped from his shoulder. I saw six more meteors in the next half hour as Orion sank to the sea. Apparently the Geminid meteor shower happens at this time of year, who knew? Gemini is near Orion in the night sky. There is also an Orionid meteor shower, but that one peaks in October.
Do you knit/do things more than once? I do! And learn a little more each time.
(I don’t have the photoshop skills to make it look like this orca is leaping from the water behind DH, so I’ll just let you imagine that it’s happening, while he obliviously checks his social media accounts. It’s a running joke.)
Icy Strait Point is at the lower end of Glacier Bay; you pass by going in and out. There used to be a cannery there dating from 1912, run by the Hoonah tribe. The town of Hoonah is about a mile away. Icy Strait Point as a cruise port was built specifically for the cruise trade, and is only open when a cruise ship is in port. There are three restaurants and a gondola ride to a higher gondola for a zip line tour. And a cannery museum and gift shop (of course). I was particularly interested in seeing the cannery museum, so I could show DH just what it was I was doing way back when.
This photo felt nostalgically like cannery home…
Our cannery on Kodiak Island canned mostly red (sockeye) and pink (humpies!) salmon. I never knew what the fish looked like; I worked up in the egghouse processing and packing salmon roe to send to Japan. I could identify which kind of salmon the eggs came from, though! The chum/keta eggs were the biggest, and you could sample the brined eggs right off the conveyor belt.
There was no reference to salmon eggs in the cannery museum, so I had to be satisfied with the fish cannery displays.
After the salmon heads were removed by machine, pullers removed the egg/milt sacs, and then the slimers cleaned the inside of the fish (oh, the sliming knife…). The butchering machines were known as Iron Chinks, because they replaced Chinese workers at the beginning of the 20th century and made the canning work much faster. Yes, it’s an offensive term. That’s history. I heard it when I worked in the cannery, and we heard it referred to in a cannery documentary that we watched at a museum in Ketchikan.
18 year old me, in the egghouse
We (my friends and family) always called them lines: How many lines are we running today? We could process anywhere from 40,000 to 120,000 fish per day, given enough overtime. We made our money on overtime, and there was nowhere to spend it. The cannery was the only thing on Alitak Bay at the end of Kodiak Island; we arrived for the summer by seaplane from Kodiak, and lived in bunkhouses and were fed in mess halls. We made friends and had dance parties! I worked in the egghouse for five summers, and that’s how I paid for college.
Cleaning the fish (not real fish here!)Canning lineRetorts, or pressure cookersLabels display
It’s a very far leap from egghouse girl to knitting designer/teacher!
On to Sitka!
St Michael Cathedral
Sitka was the capital of the Russia’s Alaska colony from the 1700’s until 1867; it was called New Archangel. This building is a reconstruction of the original 1848 building which burned in 1966. Sitka is still the Seat of the Diocese of Alaska for the Russian Orthodox Church. This building is part of the Sitka National Historical Park, as is the Totem Trail we visited.
Bicentennial Pole
The Bicentennial Pole stands in front of the Visitors Center. It was carved by Duane Pasco, who won a contest to depict 200 years of Pacific Coast Indian cultural history. Read from the bottom up: The Native people before the arrival of Europeans, Raven and Eagle (the Tlingit moieties or clans), the arrival of Europeans (see the firearms?), and the top figure representing the Northwest Coast Indians of today.
History Pole depicting the first people to occupy the Sitka area.Cormorant Memorial-Mortuary Column
I thought this was a raven, but further research indicates that it’s most likely a cormorant. It’s a recarving by Tommy Joseph; the original pole was obtained in 1903 from a Tlingit village (that sounds ominously colonial, and it probably was).
We actually went the wrong way on the Totem Trail loop, so we didn’t see as many totem poles as we had planned to. But it took us to a footbridge over the Indian River, which was full of salmon headed upriver to spawn. Or perhaps they were spawning right there.
Helpful interpretive sign!
Walking to and from the Totem Trail, we saw salmon jumping in the water.
Back to the boat!
The VK knitters joined the Holland America knitters meet up in the art studio. This is on the 11th floor, off the Crow’s Nest lounge which looks out front.
The next day we visited Ketchikan, which was my favorite town. (Glacier Bay was my favorite stop overall.)
Creek Street, on Ketchikan Creek
I liked that you could see how the town had grown up on the creek, and that they have tried to preserve it. The green house is a preserved bordello, Dolly’s.
We saw salmon heading upstream, and a hungry seal planning its dinner.
I had a great visit at the yarn shop, Fabulous Fiber Arts and More. We also visited the Tongass Historical Museum, which showed Alaska’s history as a Native fish camp, mining hub, salmon canning capital, and timber town.
Can you tell that I like science, history, and museums? The National Parks app was a great help on my phone. Cruise ports are full of souvenir and jewelry shops, which don’t interest me. But I can figure out how to have a good time anyway!
We spent the rest of that day cruising to Victoria, British Columbia. We were in port from 8 to 11:30 pm, so we opted to stay on board and pack. The next day we spent at sea headed back to Seattle, so it was time for another knitting class. Ana and I swapped students, and we now have more brioche knitters, and Portuguese-style knitters too.
Knitting and looking for orcasDutch 75 (French 75 with Dutch gin and a sexy ORANGE twist)
This bit of brioche was my social knitting for the cruise. It’s not hard, basically brioche rib with just a little bit of thinking at the edge. It turns out this is just a swatch; I’m playing with a design idea and the rib needs shaping, and a different needle overall. But it was great to have on this cruise.
I really enjoyed this trip! I hope you enjoyed the travelogue. Onward!
I had the pleasure of teaching on the Vogue Knitting Alaska Cruise earlier this month. I hadn’t been to Alaska since working five summers in a Kodiak Island cannery to pay for college, so I was looking forward to seeing more of the state, and not being covered in fish slime.
We sailed on the Holland America Eurodam, which can accommodate 2000 passengers. This is a nice sized ship, not overwhelming, but big enough to have lots of options for dining and amusements.
Veranda stateroom
DH came with me on this trip. Can a marriage survive a week sharing a room this size? Sure! Just don’t make me share a closet! One of us is tidier than the other…
With co-teacher Ana Campos
It was still summer when we sailed out of Seattle, and we made the most of it!
Happy knitters on the aft deckWe love brioche!
The next day was spent at sea, which meant there were no distractions from knitting class. Except for the orcas that we missed because we weren’t watching for them.
Laura began the increases and decreases by the end of class, and she finished her hat before the end of the cruise. Well done!
Lunch and knitting
This was the one day that the seas were a bit rough (because we were on the ocean rather than in the Inside Passage), so I treated myself to a lovely lunch of ginger ale and some random pretzels from my travel bag (Alaska Airlines, maybe?). And Dramamine. Yum! Things smoothed out a few hours later.
Juneau was our first stop, the next morning. Friends Tim and MJ were on this cruise with us too. Tim was in our wedding 41 years ago. Time flies! My two goals for Juneau: To visit a yarn shop for qiviut, and to see the Mendenhall Glacier. I’m a science nerd.
Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls
It takes 200 years for ice to move from its beginning as as snow on the Juneau Icefields to the terminus of the glacier at Mendenhall Lake.
Stunning. It really is a river of ice. And it’s huge.
It’s an easy walk to Nugget Falls. The visitors give you a better sense of how big the glacier and falls are. I met a man the next day who had taken a dip into the lake below Nugget Falls; he’s a fan of ice baths. Brrrrrr no thank you! But he did help me spot mountain goats with my binoculars.
Iceberg with ice birds (zoom in)Touch it!
It’s someone’s job to put glacial ice samples under the sign every day. These are the things I think about…
The next day we cruised Glacier Bay. This is a national park and preserve, and park rangers came on board to narrate the day. This was my favorite day of the trip.
Fairweather RangeReid Glacier inletLamplugh GlacierGilman (left) and Johns Hopkins Glaciers
The face of the Johns Hopkins Glacier is 250 feet high.
We saw several calvings (ice falling from the face of the glacier)
The Johns Hopkins Glacier has been off limits to cruise ships for most of the summer, to protect the harbor seal pupping grounds. The pups spend their time on ice floes, safe from predators. This visit was the first for the Eurodam since the beginning of summer.
See the pups? (hi-res photo so you can zoom in)Better?
I took this last photo through my binoculars, and cropped it. All for you, dear reader!
Selfie (ussie?) on the veranda with Johns Hopkins Glacier
All in all, a spectacular day. But the fun wasn’t over. The Eurodam serves tea every afternoon at 3 pm, so we had a Knitters’ Tea. Bonus points if you decorated a hat (supplied by VK) for it.
And it happened to be my birthday, so there was a bit of cake, too.
Happy birthday to me, with an Indonesian happiness song from the wait staff
This post has gone long, so I’m going to end with this glacier day, and begin another post with salmon, another Alaskan treasure.
I had a great time on the Vogue Knitting Alaska Cruise on the Holland America Eurodam. I taught brioche classes, had fun with other knitters and DH (my plus one), and visited some cool towns and glaciers. But I know you’re here for the yarn, so I’ll start with my three yarn shop visits.
Display case at Changing Tides, and is that a JaMPDX yarn bowl?
Our first stop was in Juneau. I made a quick scouting trip as DH waited for me in a coffee shop before our tour to Mendenhall Glacier. Changing Tides (Instagram link, formerly Seaside Yarns) is right in the port area. They have yarn and lots of fabric for quilters, too. Local dyers Juneau Woolies and Alaskan Yarn Co. are featured here.
Qiviut, or qiveut
I try not to stash a lot of yarn; I’d rather shop for each project as I go. But I knew I wanted to get a skein of qiviut, musk ox fiber, while on this trip. You can buy qiviut yarn in its natural brown color, but this lovely Violet called my name. Qiviut is very soft with a lovely halo. Stitch definition won’t be great, but that’s not the point. It’s lightweight, warm, and cozy, and it packs down to nearly nothing. This skein is 200 yards of fingering weight, and it will be a simple cowl, eventually.
Qiviut facts, click to embiggen
Changing Tides also had a little goodie bag for VK cruisers: a mini skein, postcard, and tea. Sweet!
In Sitka I stopped at the Raven’s Hook, a small arts and crafts store with yarn and other craft supplies. No qiviut here.
My favorite thing here was the yarn dyed by Raven Frog Fibers in kits for the Glacier Bay Beanie by Nancy Bates. I resisted because I knew I’d never knit the hat (I don’t wear them very often), but oh how I coveted that blue yarn! I’d love a whole skein of it, please.
In Ketchikan I visited Fabulous Fiber Arts and More (formerly The Hive on the Creek). This is an easy walk from the dock.
They have an inspiring wall of yarn from Raven Frog Fibers (and more twisted hanks in the cubbies below), including the Glacier Bay Beanie kits. I still resisted the beanie, but I swear it was following me!
Raven Frog’s Garden Wall colorway was swoon-worthy.
Fabulous Fiber’s other featured indie dyer is Robin’s Nest Fiber Arts; Robin is one of the owners of the shop. She dyes very pretty yarns on interesting bases.
I fell in love with this Robin’s Nest color on a sparkle base, but Rhoda found it first. Clearly it’s her palette; it goes with what she’s wearing! And no, Rhoda wasn’t on my cruise; she and Jen were on a different ship, the Royal Princess. We ran into each other in both Juneau and Ketchikan. (I first met Rhoda and Jen at VKLNYC last February.) Like the beanie kit, I think they’re following me!
Juneau meetup
They were out of qiviut here, so I’m glad I bought some in Juneau while I had the chance. That’s my lone Alaska yarn souvenir.
My other cruise souvenir? Covid-19! After we got home, I poured myself a glass of bubbly. It didn’t taste like anything. Nor did the cherry tomato, chocolate chips, and pistachios I tried after that. Uh-oh. (Breakfast on the ship was delicious that morning.)
Guess which one is mine? I feel like I have a cold; it’s not terrible. I’m hoping I can taste/smell things again soon!
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 