PDXKnitterati

Saturday is Worldwide Knit in Public Day

Posted on June 16, 2016 | 4 comments

Do you have plans to knit in public on Saturday? I do!

I’ll be at Colonel Summers Park in Portland for Knit Picks’ Knit Pick-nic. I’ll have a little trunk show there, and my knitting!

It will be a fun-filled afternoon of crafting with a showcase of local designers, sneak peeks of upcoming exclusive collections, prize raffles and giveaways! Just bring a lawn chair or picnic blanket and a crafty project, and we’ll have a grand time.

Hope to see you there! Now I just have to figure out what I can knit in public (simple, and not super-secret knitting). Off to check the stash…

Saturday, June 18 2016
Colonel Summers Park
Shelter B
SE 17th Ave & Taylor St, Portland OR 97214
1pm – 3pm

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Posted in events, Knit, Portland area fun

Tagged knit picks, WWKIP Day

Snagged! and fixed

Posted on June 14, 2016 | 4 comments

You’re a knitter. You wear knits. And you’ve probably had that doomed feeling when you feel your beautiful knit garment catch on something and PULL.

In my case, it was my beautiful Twin Leaf Crescent. I wore it for the first time on Sunday, and when I was taking it off, it got caught on the hook at the top of the zipper of my dress. Ouch.

It looked a lot worse than this when I first saw it; there was a three inch loop of yarn sticking up on the wrong side, and the row of stockinette stitches was all compressed. I fixed half of it before thinking to take a picture. That’s the purl side with the compressed row.

I started from the center of the pull, and eased out the excess yarn back into the stitches they had come from. I just guessed how much to put into the first stitch next to the pull, but it would have been easy to adjust a stitch or two over if I had guessed wrong. The whole process was pretty simple, because the yarn had blocked the kink of the stitches into the yarn, so I could tell just how much yarn to pull back into each stitch. Yet another reason to block!

All better! I’ll be sure to actually hook the hook on the dress next time. I was lazy, and it caught me!

4 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged fix sweater snag, snag

Yarn, and a beach

Posted on June 9, 2016 | 8 comments

A little more road tripping…last week found me in Sarasota, Florida. DH had a company meeting/anniversary celebration there, and the Plus Ones were invited. I was happy to have the Gulf of Mexico as my view for a few days.

While I was there, I met up with Trtlgrl, Rachel, who just finished her RCYCMKAL 2014 Rosaria the day before. (The power of a deadline!) She moved from here to there last year? year before? so it was nice to see her again. Test knitter, Turkish Delight spinner, friend. She gave me these sweet stitch markers that she made. More here, if you want some too.

We went to A Good Yarn, the LYS in Sarasota. What a charming shop!

I was intrigued by this particular wall of yarn. These are dyed by indie dyers in custom colorways for the shop.

The blue green that you see on the upper right is called Gulf of Mexico. Owners Susan and Murray Post have found a perfect way to make Florida souvenir yarn. Many of the colors come from underwater photos taken by Murray. Two skeins came home with me.

This one is called Clam, and it’s based on this photo of a Tridacna, a giant clam in Fiji.

Tridacna, photo courtesy of Murray Post

I know exactly what I’m going to design with this gorgeous DK weight silk/sea silk yarn from Handmaiden. Stay tuned. There are two other projects in the pipeline first. Deadlines!

This silk blend fingering weight yarn by Anzula Yarns is called Sea Tulips, and it’s based on this picture of Feather Duster tube worms. (We just don’t use the word “worm” when naming yarn colors.)

Feather Duster tube worms, photo courtesy of Murray Post

I’m not sure what this will be yet, but I’m guessing a shawlette. We’ll see. The color is gorgeous.

Check out the knitted reef behind Susan and me!

Thanks to Susan and Murray, and Rachel, too, for a fun afternoon. Here are a few more pictures from the trip. I can pack a lot of fun into four days, including cross-country travel time. Now headed back to my lair to finish the Twin Leaf Crescent adaptation. Time to knit like the wind! And write patterns…

Sunrise

Sunset

Cloud monster!

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Posted in Knit, travel, yarn

Road tripping

Posted on June 1, 2016 | 4 comments

It’s been a multi-craftual couple of weeks.

I went to a piano retreat at Icicle Creek Center for the Arts at the Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort in Leavenworth, WA. No, I”m still not playing the piano, but it was a chance to hang out with the far-flung Adagio Babes, so I made my own personal retreat. I brought my guitar and yarn, and worked on singing and knitting. Pretty awesome. And the piano music was so beguiling I came home and played some, too.

My practice room: the Meadow Stage, with Sleeping Lady watching over. See her profile, forehead to the left, chin to the right, boobs to the right of that?

You can see her better here. The setting was inspirational!

I’m working up a 100g version of my Twin Leaf Crescent Shawl. The pattern rights return to me in June, and I want to include two sizes. Right now it’s only written for Black Trillium’s five mini skein, 165g gradient kit.

I’m using a 100g ombre gradient from Canon Hand Dyes. It’s very different because it’s one long shading from Lavender to Blush. So far, so good. I’m on the crescent shaping, and we’ll see if there’s enough yarn to make it work, or if I have to do a little more magic. Yarn chicken, it’s my life!

In between music and knitting, I took a little hike with friends. Not very long, but a respectable elevation gain.

Before I went to Icicle, I stopped in Ellensburg, WA to visit V. A very belated birthday visit. I made this double wrap bracelet for her: Beads, leather cording, silk thread.

There was enough left over for me to have a single wrap for myself. Win!

Even better, we went to the bead store, and I showed her how to make them. Double win!

Went to an art show and fell in love with Hita von Mende‘s paintings. This is her Crossing the Bar, 30″ x 30″. Wish it would fit over my fireplace, but it won’t…

What’s new with you?

4 Comments

Posted in beading, Knit, music, piano

Tagged ellensburg, Icicle Creek Music Center, Leavenworth, Sleeping Lady

Braided Wristlets Class Debut, singing, and more

Posted on May 17, 2016 | 3 comments

I had a super busy weekend, and knittingly, this was the highlight.

I taught my new Braided Wristlets class at Twisted. I designed this pattern to be a workshop in herringbone and other braids, two color stranded knitting, and color dominance. We did cover all these things, and had a great time, too. And I made a good start on another one of these for me.

I’ll be teaching this class at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in September. It will be an all day class on Saturday, September 24. Come and learn new skills with me!

But the weekend wasn’t all knitting. Sunday was Pentecost, and I organized and led music with the Pie Birds for worship. (The Pie Birds are a 3 part harmony group with guitars and mandolin: My friends Claudia and Becky and me.) So much work, so much fun. We sang Somewhere to Begin for the prelude; link provided if you want to give a listen. We closed the service with Turning of the World, with the congregation joining in.

We had a guest chorus from the Randolph-Macon Academy in Virgina sing for us. What a talented group of young people! They sang We Sing and All Creatures of Our God and King (not the version you might expect). Really wonderful. And they joined our choir for Spirit Come Down; it was so much fun to have all these voices singing with us.

I needed a recovery day on Monday!

3 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, music, Pie Birds

Tagged braided wristlets, OFFF, Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival, singing

Bird update and Mother’s Day

Posted on May 9, 2016 | 3 comments

It’s just like sending your kids off to college.

One day you think they’ll never be ready to leave. (Yesterday, Mother’s Day)

Should I stay or should I go? (This morning)

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I was at the window this morning when Mama Bird came to visit. I stopped the video so I could adjust the exposure, and Junior took off! I went out and checked; the nest is empty, so both survivors are off to new adventures. So relieved after last week’s drama.

If you missed the first part of this bird saga, click here for more.

My kids came over yesterday and helped me clean out the garage. It’s a Mother’s Day tradition that they come help with gardening or firewood splitting or whatever, and then we cook. The garage was pretty grungy. Now it’s much better.

We did some gin tasting, and had lemon orzo pasta salad and Vietnamese chicken for dinner.

A fun day of work and play.

And they gave me this beautiful Emma bag from Grace’s Cases. It’s designed to stand up by itself. It’s tall enough for a folder of class handouts, roomy enough for class samples, and well organized with several pockets inside. This will be perfect for when I don’t need my entire rolling suitcase of samples.

How was your weekend?

3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged birds, mother's day

Roundup: Classes, baby birds, knitting

Posted on May 6, 2016 | 7 comments

Work first, then play:

I’m teaching a class on the Fern Shawlette tomorrow (Saturday May 7) at Twisted, 2 to 4:30 pm. A little lace, a fun sideways shawl construction, and beads!

Next Saturday (May 14) I’m debuting my Braided Wristlets class at Twisted, 2 to 6 p.m. We’ll cover simple stranded knitting, yarn color dominance, and several kinds of knitted braids.

And next week Sunday (May 15) I’m teaching Elongated Novelty Stitches at For Yarn’s Sake. Put some pizzazz in your stockinette! Come take a class with me; it will be fun!

No time for class? This is a reminder that my Over the Rainbow Cuffs pattern is 20% off through May 8 (Sunday) with coupon code RAINBOW.

While I was in Santa Barbara, a pair of house finches set up house in the willow wreath on my front porch. Not the best place for them, but what can you do after the fact?

The eggs hatched on April 24.

Four days old.

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It’s been sweet to watch these little peepers for the last couple weeks.

But on Wednesday this week, there was a predator attack (guessing it was a crow), and two of the hatchlings were killed. I was pretty bummed. I know it’s nature and all, but these are my surrogate pets, right outside my dining room window. (Yes, I miss Mookie.)

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On Thursday, the two surviving chicks climbed out of the nest and up on/into the wreath. I’m not sure they were ready, but I think it’s pretty gross in the nest. I’ll spare you the details. The parents are still on duty, taking care of these two.

Finch baby and mom

Feed me!

Finch baby and dad

Feed me!

I’ve been knitting and keeping an eye out the window. I hope they learn to fly soon; I worry about them!

I’m knitting with this yarn from Alexandra’s Crafts. It was two strands knitted into a blank and gradient dyed for a matching set; I had a hard time winding them. I tried to ravel and wind at the same time, but perhaps I should have rolled the two strands into a single ball and then rolled two balls from there, maybe? In any case, it’s very pretty.

These beads I pirated from my collection turned out to be not quite right, so I found the perfect beads.

But I can’t show them to you in the knitting, because I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this project yet. I can tell you that watching the colors slowly change has been mesmerising!

Whew, long post! What are you doing this weekend? Mine is going to be busy, busy, busy…

7 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, yarn

Introducing: Over the Rainbow Cuffs

Posted on April 29, 2016 | 5 comments

I had so much fun knitting my new Over the Rainbow Cuffs with these:

Knitted Wit’s Gumballs (fingering weight 45 yard mini skeins) in the Going to the Chapel version of her Resplendent Rainbow theme. I knew I wanted twisty cuffs, and at first they were going to be short, and maybe have a matching hat. But then I decided I wanted longer, more elegant cuffs, and from there it was a slog of deciding how many stitches and how many rows to make the pattern repeat do what I wanted. I only started these four times. Or five. Or six. It’s a blur.

Have you ever noticed that a double rainbow reverses the order of color between the rainbows? Purple at the very top and the very bottom, red in the middle. When I decided I wanted longer cuffs, that meant a double rainbow. I had to rip out the original red beginning because it needed to be purple! Roy G Biv would have given me the wrong order. (Yes, these are things I think about.)

These were a fun quick knit, once I figured out the double rainbow color sequencing and the row height. I like that these are longer than my usual cuffs. More rainbow fun! They’re fingering weight yarn, so they’re just right for transitional spring/fall wear.

These are a pretty quick project; I knit them on my trip to Santa Barbara.

This cast on was the last, and it was the winner! Even if it was full of sunscreen.

It’s not easy to take a picture of your own hands! This required a tripod, camera with timer and near field wi-fi, iPad to remote control the camera. I’m behind the tripod, weaving my arms through the legs. The things I do, for the love of knitting.

The pattern is available through Ravelry downloads here. Use coupon code RAINBOW for 20% off the $5 price, through May 8, 2016. Have fun!

5 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged knitted wit, Knitted Wit Gumballs, Knitted Wit Sixlets, Over the Rainbow

Mookie, 2000 – 2016

Posted on April 23, 2016 | 12 comments

It’s been a sad week chez PDXKnitterati. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Mookie a week ago Thursday. She was 16 years old, and part of our family for 12 years. She was the best cat ever.

Mookie was a reluctant knitwear model, but she loved being around knitting.

She brought a lot of joy to our family.

Although knitting was our favorite craft, we also dabbled in non-knitting projects.

Our kids are grown, but they have truly lost the last bit of their childhood with the passing of the family kitty. There is a cat-shaped hole in all our hearts. I still find myself looking for her in the house before I realize that she’s not here.

Princess Mookie Nguyen, 2000 – 2016

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged cat, Mookie

Santa Barbara getaway

Posted on April 16, 2016 | 3 comments

Earlier this month, I took a gal pals trip to Santa Barbara. We were celebrating a birthday (not mine).

Santa Barbara is a cute town! It’s the county seat for Santa Barbara County. The county courthouse is gorgeous.

There are 360 degree views from the clock tower, and a view into the clock fromt the inside, too.

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This mural depicting the history of the area is in the meeting room. Click to embiggen; it’s worth it.

The Santa Barbara Mission is also beautiful, and is next to a rose garden.

Santa Barbara is right on the water. We watched surfers, paddle boarders, and dolphins? Porpoises?

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Pelicans are bigger than I thought.

The Channel Islands are right across the water. These are not the islands of Channel Island cast on fame.

We spent a day on the beach at Carpinteria. The fog rolled in during the afternoon, so it was warm and cool at the same time. The water was cold! I re-designed this knitting project three times on this trip. It’s finally done, pictures in an upcoming post.

There are a lot of wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley on the other side of the mountains behind Santa Barbara. We took the opportunity to sample the local offerings. But first, aebelskivers (pancake balls) in Solvang, a Danish-themed town.

And these boots were quite tempting, too. But on to the wine!

Too much wine for Figgie?

Millie reminded me of my Mookie.

While we were tasting at J Ludlow in Los Olivos, we met fellow tasters Lori and Bob. Bob makes his own moonshine, distilled from merlot. He shared some moonshine with us; this one was cinnamon flavored. It was DELICIOUS. Thanks, Bob!