PDXKnitterati

odds and ends

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 6 comments

Remember my angst about my non-gelling ginger plum jam? I opened a jar this weekend, and it’s perfect. Somewhere between the week after I made it and now, it gelled perfectly. Tastes great, too. It’s a mystery, but I’m happy with the outcome. I even sent some home with family at the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

I’m working on a new shawl design with this beautiful yarn from Knitted Wit. It’s from her Community Supported Yarn club from this past summer, a vibrant green luscious merino/cashmere/nylon blend. I charted this out in September after taking a lace shawl design class with Sivia Harding. It took several tries to modify a lace pattern for the center panel so that it didn’t bias like crazy, and then I set the project aside. After all that, I chose a different lace for the center panel last month. When I picked up the project last week, I decided I didn’t like the new center panel after all, so I ripped it out today, only to find that I couldn’t knit from my previous chart.

Mostly because there was another piece of work on my desk, and my chart. Oops. But we’re back in business and I think I’ve got it figured out. Now I actually have to knit it and see. It looks promising…

And just a reminder, I’m having a pattern sale now through December 3, $1 off any of my pdxknitterati patterns, no limit. That’s 17-33% off, depending on the usual price of the pattern. Enter the code giftknit at checkout. Here’s a link to my Ravelry design page so you can see what I have. Most of my patterns are quick one skein projects, so there’s plenty of time to make a gift for someone, or for yourself. Or your cat…

Edited to add: I just found out that if you use the buy it now button from my pattern pages, it doesn’t give you the opportunity to use the coupon code. You’ll definitely want to go to my Ravelry design page so that the checkout options come up before sending you to Paypal!

6 Comments

Posted in Knit

Traditions, adjusted

Posted on November 27, 2011 | 11 comments

It’s Sunday afternoon, Thanksgiving weekend. I haven’t knit a stitch in five days. But I’ve played hostess to a house full of family, and it’s been fun. CollegeGuy was home from Orlando for the weekend, and it was great to have him around. Now he and all the guests have gone back home, so I’m taking a moment to catch up.

I haven’t hosted Thanksgiving in nearly 20 years. We used to round robin New York, St. Louis, Chapel Hill with DH’s family, but when we moved back to Portland from New York in 1995, Thanksgiving landed semi-permanently at my in-laws’ home in St. Louis. This year, I asked to have Thanksgiving here, so that the freshman CollegeGuy could come home for the holiday. I think he appreciated the chance to be home and see his friends, most of whom stayed on this coast for school. Our niece is in London for a semester abroad, so she joined us via skype on Thanksgiving afternoon.

I made the traditional meals on the traditional days. If it’s Wednesday dinner, it must be brisket. If it’s Saturday lunch, it must be minestrone. Saturday night is always turkey, redux. I didn’t want to rock the boat too much since I had absconded with Thanksgiving, but I snuck in a few changes. We had sausage/potato/kale soup on Thursday instead of sandwiches, bourbon caramel sauce with our apple pie, and I tried a new bourbon cranberry sauce (see end of post for recipe).

Friday was sunny and lovely, so we headed out to wine country for open house weekend. We went to Brick House Vineyards for a tasting. Lovely wines in a lovely setting. And I set up this picture (the family picture is another Thanksgiving weekend tradition).

On Saturday, I took MIL and SIL shopping on trendy/funky Mississippi Avenue. I found this knitted frog dissection at Paxton Gate. High school biology would have been even more fun this way.

I’m so happy we were able to host this traitional autumn celebration here at home. Same same, but different! What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

Bourbon Cranberry Sauce

1 pound fresh cranberries
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup bourbon

Mix cranberries, sugar and cinnamon in bowl. Transfer to 9×13 baking dish.
Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Stir, bake another 30 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to bowl and stir in bourbon immediately. Refrigerate. Enjoy!

11 Comments

Posted in recipe

Tagged bourbon caramel sauce, bourbon cranberry sauce, thanksgiving

Holiday gift knitting, a gift, and a sale

Posted on November 25, 2011 | 10 comments

Do you knit gifts for the holidays? Do you start early and end late? Do you get stressed out by your lengthy list of unfinished gift knitting? I’m getting stressed just thinking about it, which is why I don’t knit gifts. At least, not on those terms. I do my gift knitting under the radar, so it’s never expected. If I think someone might like what I’m knitting, it turns into a gift. But if I don’t finish the project in time, I give something else. No stress!

But I have a gift for you. You can use it to knit for yourself, or for someone else. My As You Like It Cowls pattern is now free for download through Ravelry. The pattern is for two cowls that can be worn three ways. This one is my favorite. It’s a simple broken garter rib stitch.

You can see the stitch pattern better here. And some crazy pooling/flashing, too.

The other cowl is a 3×1 rib. I originally designed this set of cowls for a fundraiser knitting party for our high school foundation at the beginning of 2010. It’s a quick project with bulky yarn. Chewy! I hope this helps you with your gift knitting.

Not a cowl person? I’m also having a pattern sale, now through December 3, $1 off any of my pdxknitterati patterns, no limit. Enter the code giftknit at checkout. Here’s a link to my Ravelry design page so you can see what I have. My current favorite is my Pippi Earflap Hat. I knit two of these last week, the first because I needed a sample for my trunk show (I had given all my Pippis away as gifts), and the second because it was fun!

And this design is seasonally appropriate…

Snowflake Christmas Stocking

Soooooo, are you knitting gifts? Under the radar? What’s on your list? Have fun!

Edited to add: Edited to add: I just found out that if you use the buy it now button from my pattern pages, it doesn’t give you the opportunity to use the coupon code. You’ll definitely want to go to my Ravelry design page so that the checkout options come up before sending you to Paypal! Thanks.

10 Comments

Posted in Knit

Stash

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 17 comments

Do you have a stash? I try not to stash yarn, so most of my stash consists of yarn left over from projects. But I did encounter a Stash of a different kind this weekend. Stash, the lovely new yarn shop/social space/gallery in Corvallis.

Sonia invited Lorajean (KnittedWit) and me down to do a dual trunk show at Stash on Sunday. It was my first PDXKnitterati trunk show! As I packed my basket of samples, I realized just how much I love designing pretty things, and how many pretty things I have. It was even more fun when I laid all my samples out on the table and saw what I’ve done over the past several years.

(An obligatory pic with Lambert/not Lambert. I forgot brown Lambert on my desk at home, but I always have Baa-bette in my tool kit. She’s a little grubby after 5 years, but still serviceable.)

Dawn came to visit, and picked out colors for a Ziggy Hat. You can pick your own colors through Lorajean’s Etsy shop. Check out Dawn’s Traveling Woman sweater; it’s perfect.

We did some knitting at the table during the afternoon, and I did demos on purling back backwards (so handy for entrelac) and thrumming. Amy learned to thrum!

I had a great afternoon with Sonia and Lorajean. I “met” Sonia through her blog when she lived back east, and was so happy to meet her in person when she moved to Corvallis last year. I’ve known Lorajean for several years; we met at knit nite but the details are fuzzy! Like wool. Knitters are the nicest people.

If you’re in Corvallis, or just passing through, I hope you stop in at Stash and see Sonia. She has lovely yarns and a great space. Check out her Ravelry group to see what’s on the event calendar!

And how was *your* weekend?

17 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged stash, trunk show

Community knitting project

Posted on November 16, 2011 | 7 comments

Leigh Radford, designer and author of several books including One Skein and One More Skein, is spearheading a community knitting project, and you can be a part of it.This is the Albers Stash Blanket from One More Skein. Leigh says:

Please join me in knitting blankets to be donated to those in need this winter! Knit and send me one panel of the Albers Stash Blanket. I’ll be gathering a team to assemble and complete the blankets. Blankets completed here in Portland will be donated to P:ear, Cascade Aids Project, and Raphael House. If enough panels are completed…, I would love to expand this list of recipients and will include non-profit organizations outside the Portland-metro area.

If you’d like to coordinate your own effort and donate a blanket within your community, please send me photos of your work in progress and completed work as I’ll be posting photos of everyone’s efforts as this project progresses.

Due date: Panels need to arrive in Portland/OR by January 31, 2012.

You can find more information on Leigh’s Facebook page. Questions? Not on Facebook? You can email Leigh at OneMoreSkein@leighradford.com.

I ran into Leigh at Twisted last weekend, and she passed on this panel to me. Leigh mentioned that she has started several panels and passed them on to other knitters. Lantern Moon has generously donated some needles so that Leigh has multiple panels going.

The pattern is simple, and is available through Leigh’s Facebook page. I’m happily knitting away on it, and will go into my tiny stash of leftovers (I’m not a stasher, remember?) and see what the next color will be. It might be a challenge; I’ve worked mostly with jewel tones, and this is not!

Would you like to be part of this project? You don’t have to knit an entire blanket, or even an entire panel. You can organize your knitting friends to complete a blanket, one panel, or even just get a panel from Leigh and knit on it for a while and send it back. But the more you knit, the more stash you use, and that means that more blankets will be donated. I hope you’ll join us!

7 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged albers stash blanket, community knitting project, leigh radford

The Thrill of the Thrum

Posted on November 14, 2011 | 8 comments

Autumn is definitely here, and it’s chilly. I’ve been experimenting with wooly ways to be warmer, and my current infatuation is with thrummed knitting. Here’s its latest incarnation.

Thrumster is either a cowl or an earband, depending on where you like your warmth. Or do both! Me, I don’t like messing up my hair, so I got DH to model the earband. I’m all about the cowl.

Things look pretty straightforward from the outside, but the inside is where the action is. These babies are *warm*, because they have thrums knitted in. So cozy!

What are thrums? They’re bits of fleece that you work into your knitting. Thrummed knitting originated in northeastern Canada, where they know how to deal with cold! I’ve written a pattern for this thrummed earband and cowl set, and it explains all about the art of the thrum. I’m also teaching a class on thrumming at Twisted next month on Tuesday, December 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. Come learn a new technique with me!

Not in PDX? The pattern is for sale through Ravelry. I made a video tutorial, too.

What’s your newest knitting technique? What did you knit with it?

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged cowl, earband, thrummed knitting, thrums, thrumster

oops

Posted on November 13, 2011 | 9 comments

at dinner the other night:

Me: That’s a beautiful sweater you’re wearing. Someone must really love you.
DH: This one? I think it’s store bought.
Me: Why do you think that?
DH: It has a tag in it.
Me: What does the tag say?
DH: I don’t know. I never looked.
Me: Go in the bathroom, take the sweater off and look right now.
DH: No. Um, what does it say?
Me: Handknit by Michele Lee Bernstein.

duh.

and the view out my home office window today:

It’s kind of like living in a tree house…

9 Comments

Posted in Knit

Why is it that…

Posted on November 11, 2011 | 4 comments

…as soon as I get past the heel turn on my sock, I lose interest?

(basic ribbed sock in Knitted Wit’s Bling)

(basic stockinette bed sock in Malabrigo worsted. toasty, if I ever finish!)

It suddenly feels like an endless project, as if I’m knitting for Sasquatch. And that’s just the first sock..

(not really a footprint, just a curious formation in the Hawaiian lava, I hope)

In other news, I’ll be over at Twisted tomorrow from 10 to noon for a reception for Created in Oregon: A Knitter’s Datebook 2012. The trunk show is already there, and will be there through Sunday. My Rockaway Beach Beanie/Cowl is there, along with 11 other fabulous designs from Oregon designers. Come on by!

4 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Created in Oregon, knitter's datebook, trunk show

Getaway!

Posted on November 5, 2011 | 6 comments

I went on a little getaway last weekend with friends that I met at piano camp in Vermont years ago. We don’t play the piano as much as we used to, but we’re still friends and still get together, even though we’re scattered up and down the west coast. This time we headed further west than usual, to the Big Island of Hawaii.

There were beaches.

There were spectacular sunsets…

through rose colored glasses, even. (Really they’re charcoal shade lenses, but they really enhance the pink.)

We went to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where we saw petroglyphs…

and old lava flows.

(Doesn’t this one look like melted faces?)

(End of the road, apparently)

The ocean has carved out this arch from the lava rock island. This is the Holei Sea Arch. And Lambert.

Kilauea is a live volcano!

(Come closer to the steam and sulfur dioxide! The ring road around the crater was closed. Too much sulfuric gas.)

There were good things to eat…

and drink.

(utterly frou frou!)

And there were good friends to share it all.

But not much knitting!

6 Comments

Posted in travel, Uncategorized

Tagged hawaii, kilauea, volcano

This Little Ziggy on KnitPicks

Posted on November 3, 2011 | 7 comments

It’s up! This Little Ziggy has debuted on KnitPicks. It can be knit for sizes 2T and 4T. Do you have a cute little munchkin who needs a little Ziggy pizazz?

Also in the KnitPicks department, I’ve heard from some of you that my Lacy Entrelac Infinity Scarf is in the current KnitPicks catalog. I haven’t received mine yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing it!