I spent last weekend at a friend’s family house on the Alsea River, near Waldport on the Oregon Coast. There were four of us hanging out and having fun.
Trailing Leaves sample
I finished one of my Trailing Leaves samples, and started another. I need two of them for yardage requirement information, since the first one isn’t knit according to the current version of the pattern.
I beaded a new ankle bracelet, and re-strung an older one with shiny new metal bits.
Salad is always more delish with fried halibut on top!Looks sea-worthy, yes?
I started a second sample for Trailing Leaves, and found a clumsy join in the yarn (two unrelated colors together), so I started over.
The top one is the first clumsy join. I found the second (middle) one when i was casting on again. And the third (bottom) one? I was about at the same point I had been before. What are the chances of 3 joins in the same ball? And with a gradient, it really matters.
I decided that I wasn’t going to start over again; it didn’t look like the color was that different.
But it was; see where the dark blue starts again after the first pale bit at the bottom? It all works, but it could have been a bit more graceful. Hoping I don’t find any more joins! Next time I use a gradient like this, I think I’ll just rewind the whole ball before starting.
Alsea River
It was so nice to just be away with no to-do list!
I was supposed to be away this weekend, too, but my classes at Sitka Center at the coast didn’t fill. When we scheduled it, I didn’t know that it would be the same weekend as Flock Fiber Festival in Seattle, which is a big draw. I thought about going to Flock this weekend, but I really just needed a weekend at home.
Currently knitting in the backyard, with Cheetos. Perfect.
My friend Linda’s yellow plum tree is having a stellar year, which means I was invited to pick plums! Last year there were only 20 plums, so I’ve been out of my favorite jam for quite some time.
I picked 8 pounds, enough for 2 batches, 22 half-pints of jam. This is the basic Sure-Jell jam recipe, with the addition of 1/4 cup of chopped candied ginger, and 1/4 cup of bourbon. Yum!
Calvin approves
Orange jam, orange cat! I made jam, and then ran off to Sisters, Oregon to visit friends.
We had some time at Suttle Lake, which was lovely even with a bit of wildfire haze from somewhere not too nearby.
The Pie Birds
And we sang at B’s church on Sunday. It’s so nice to get together to sing songs of hope, joy, and peace.
The friends, including a birthday girl
Now I’m home and knitting another sample along with my test knitters. And more yarn has just arrived for what I’m hoping will be the perfect brioche/assigned pooling combination. More on that soon!
A hot dry weekend is always better under the trees!
It was our very timely ladies’ camping weekend. We went to Panther Creek Campground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, just north of Carson, Washington.
Rocks in Panther Creek
The water in the creek is clear and cold, perfect for a bracing dip on a hot day. The rocks are such pretty colors, too.
Panther Creek Falls
Panther Creek Falls is a twisty drive of 4.7 miles up the road, and then a very short hike. You can go down to the bottom of the falls. Stunning!
Panther Creek Falls, from the bottom
What a gorgeous beetle.
Tai chi
The tent pad at the vacant site next to ours made a great tai chi space.
I played with beads (ankle bracelets)
and I almost finished this project. We’ll see if blocking makes the brioche patterning show up better in the green section. Super fun to knit.
We also played games and just had a great time hanging out. It was a perfect weekend with friends.
How was your weekend? Hot? Do you knit when it’s hot? I always knit!
I took a little road trip down to Albany, Oregon on Saturday to visit Black Sheep Gathering. This year is the 50th year of this fiber festival, but it was my first time ever. I wanted to take a class with Galina Khmeleva, master lace knitter. We’ve been at many of the same festivals, but I’m usually teaching instead of taking classes. This was my chance!
Orenburg lace is knit with 10 different motifs, combined in many ways. It’s usually on a garter stitch background. Some motifs have patterning only on the right side rows, and some have patterning on both right and wrong side rows. All the stitches are either knit, yo, k2tog, or k3tog. There’s no directionality to the decreases; the work is so fine that it really doesn’t show.
We didn’t have time to knit through all the motifs, but the magic is really in the combining. We knit our swatch samplers with Jaggerspun Zephyr, a laceweight blend of wool and silk, 1120 yards/100g. Skinny, but not hard to knit with. I knit my swatch on US 2 needles, and I loved the stitch definition.
Handouts!
Galina gave us enough handouts to keep us busy for years to come. And she regaled us with many stories of the history of Orenburg lace, and more.
Orenburg shawl
Gossamer web, indeed!
Orenburg warm shawl
The Warm Shawl is a heavier version of Orenburg lace. Simpler patterning, but it’s not really that heavy, either. It’s knit in pieces and grafted together with a special grafting method, which was the subject of the next day’s class. Alas, I was not staying over.
I did visit with the sheep in the barn, and also viewed the fiber work exhibits.
Sorpresa, a Valais Blacknose sheep
Look at this beautiful wool! This is Sorpresa, a Valais Blacknose sheep from Honey Hoof Ranch.
Even horns are beautiful.
There was a sheep to shawl exhibit from 9 am to 2 pm.
Carding, spinning, plyingWeaving!
And the fiber work exhibits were beautiful.
This shawl by Lucy Swift was my favorite piece in the exhibits.
All right, back to knitting! I’m knitting another sample of the leafy brioche cowl now that I have it figured out. I need to decide if I want to publish an assigned pooling/algorithmic knitting version in addition to the regular one. More on that later…
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!
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 