PDXKnitterati

Going back in time: I started the Portland Yarn Crawl with Sharon and Cathy from Lantern Moon. We had a tentative itinerary for the day, which turned out to be too ambitious. But we had fun trying.

We started the day at Close Knit. It was crowded with lots of knitters and yarn, and beautiful display garments that made me want to knit a lot more. I picked up Interweave’s Knitting Traditions special issue. It’s beautiful, full of history. I’ve seen some of the content before, in issues of Piecework, but overall I think there’s enough there to justify the $14.99 price tag.

Ann gave me my first peek in a raffle basket. Up ’til now, I’ve been posting other people’s pictures of them! Lots of great stuff in there.

We met Susan from Texas, who fell in love with this Lantern Moon Sapa Messenger bag. I think it went home with her. I love the embroidery on these; it’s very traditional, and Lantern Moon provides a way for this handwork to continue.

After Close Knit, we made our way to the Naked Sheep Knit Shop. We found Brad there, knitting with really big Lantern Moon needles. Brad is owner Cheri’s husband, and he’s the creator of the Portland Yarn Crawl logo.

He’s also in charge of the yarn bombing outside the shop. (Check out the cute car, too.)

I really liked his sweater, and was trying to figure out how the garter stitch stripe tucked behind the stockinette. Cheri clued me in: slipped stitches! She made the sweater; isn’t it fun?

We took a lunch break at ¿Por Que No? on Hawthorne, and then headed to Happy Knits. And how could you not be happy in here? A lot of beautiful yarn, including a ton of MadelineTosh. Sarah was wearing a sample of the Caireen Shawl from Knitty. Hers is knit in MadelineTosh Pashmina, which is sport weight 75% superwash wool, 15% silk, and 10% cashmere. It was so lovely that I bought a skein (the purple skein called Curiosity that you see her holding) to make this shawl.

But I only bought one skein, and when I looked at the Ravelry project page (knit by Lise, menagerie on Ravelry), I found out that she used 1.2 skeins. I’ll have to ponder where to skimp…and while I was poking around on Ravelry and Knitty, I found another shawl by the same designer (Susanna, IC), Annis, which is also very pretty. Not sure there’s enough for that, either, but a girl can dream…

From there we went down the street to Yarn Garden, which always feels like home to me. Way back in the 1960’s and ’70’s, my uncle had a salon in the easternmost storefront of this building. Michele Beauty Salon, named after me, his first niece. Sweet, huh?

I met Annie, the Yarn Garden blogger. She’s owner Jo’s daughter, and completely charming.

We had hoped to get out to the west side, and then south to King City, but by this time it was 4 p.m. and we needed to get to the reception at Pico Accuardi Dyeworks by 5. Time to wrap this day up! This was my first visit to their new space. Stevanie and Deb were fabulous hosts. Deb made an assortment of chocolate truffles. (Do you know she owns a restaurant, too? Check out Gino’s in Sellwood.)

Lorajean (Knitted Wit) shares space with Pico Accuardi, and she was there, too. She and Teri were having a good time re-skeining yarn.

I met Christina, who was buying my Pacific Shawl pattern. (Thanks for hosting my patterns, Lorajean!)

I also met Donna, of Plover Designs Jewelry. I bought a pair of earrings from her, after seeing how pretty they were on Deb. No picture, they’re a present for someone. I already have one of her shawl pins; I test drove one at TNNA, and it kept my shawl where I wanted it, and was good looking, too.

We met up with Phyllis Howe, organizer of the yarn crawl. It was sweet to meet her in person! She and Sharon talked knitting.

And that’s the sum total of my yarn crawling. I made it to 7 out of 20 stores. I’m going to have to try harder next year…but I had fun!

I’m feeling contrarian, and working backwards in time. Here’s Saturday first, Friday to follow. (Too much work on Sunday, no crawl!) Saturday’s crawl was solo for me. I only had a little time in the morning/early afternoon, and I wanted it to be efficient.

I started my day by dropping off some patterns at Twisted, which was full of happy knitters.

Anna Cohen was there with a trunk show for Imperial Stock Ranch. I hadn’t really checked out their yarns before; they are down to earth and woolly. I especially liked the roving, which is 2 strands of pencil roving used together. It’s fairly unspun (because it’s roving), and it knits up into a lofty wonder. I didn’t buy any yet; I have to think of something fun to knit with it so I can justify getting some. Yes, I’m still not stashing!

I loved the packaging on this Imperial Stock Ranch kit. It’s a needle felted necklace kit, so the sturdy clear plastic box lets you see the fiber and a great picture, and is wrapped with string…and a cowbell…that rings. Cute!

From there I went downtown to Urban Fiber Arts. I love Cindy’s focus on local products. Sharon from Stitchjones Mosh Pit was there with a trunk show. Lots of lovely yarn and fiber! Her crimson Glam Sock was calling my name, such a rich saturated red.

Duffy (FiberQat) was there with her wheel, spinning a beautiful merino/silk blend from Knitted Wit. I admired the colors, and then realized that they were the same colors as the Lacy Infinity Entrelac Infinity scarf I was wearing. No wonder I liked it.

I hung out and knit on my current secret project, in Knitted Wit’s Bling yarn. It was a Knitted Wit love fest for a bit!

I saw these beautiful yarn bowls there. They are larger than some of the ones I’ve seen before. Monica (MonicaPDX) and I decided that it would be cool to have a double wide bowl, with two places for yarn to come out, for fair isle knitting. We suggested it to Cindy. We’ll see if it happens!

And that was it for Saturday. Sunday was too busy to crawl. I’ll tell you about the five stops I made on Friday in the next post. Did you crawl? Where did you go? What did you get?

Are you planning to crawl? There will be 20 local yarn stores participating in the second Annual Portland Yarn Crawl this coming weekend. (Yes, we have an abundance of yarn stores here in the Portland area!) The event is Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 6.

I don’t know if I’ll make it to all 20, but I know that I’ll go to a few. The lure of the raffle baskets is strong! Lantern Moon donated the baskets, and they are stuffed with all sorts of goodies from the other very generous sponsors. For every LYS you visit on the crawl, you get a chance to win the raffle basket at that store. If you visit all 20 stores, you have 20 chances to win!

I’m still not a yarn stasher. But I can always use more tools, magazines, chances to win…and I know I’ll see other knitting friends along the way. Hope to see you, too!