Tag Archives: Cannon Beach

Life’s a beach

Posted on August 27, 2020 | 9 comments

I was lucky to get away for a bit this past week. Walking on a beach on a cool sunny day is a great way to clear one’s head. And the lack of things to trip on make walking free and easy, unlike walking on sidewalks in town.

One of my favorite beach walks is south of Cannon Beach, beginning at Tolovana and heading south to Jockey Cap and Silver Point. It’s much quieter down that way, away from Haystack Rock.

Further down the coast, north of Rockaway, looking back to see Twin Rocks. (I do love monoliths.)

I spotted this sea lion on Nedonna Beach at the South Nehalem Bay Jetty.

Looks like someone needs a cuppa coffee! He did swim back out to sea after this.

Lots of jellyfish on the beach, some big and some small.

I saw the Big Dipper each night, and managed to catch it with my iPhone. Turn up your screen brightness if you need help to see it.

And I finished knitting Half the Knit Sky for my KAL, just in time. (See how I snuck the knit sky in with the night sky?) Now it’s time to block. If you’re knitting along, post a picture by August 31 for the last round of prizes.

It was a lovely getaway. Back to work!

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Posted in KAL, Knit, travel

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On the cusp of fall

Posted on September 4, 2018 | 2 comments

Oh, Labor Day! Farewell summer, welcome fall…

I ran away with my knitting last week. Good thing I brought more than one project; I lost at yarn chicken on this Mitered Crosses Blanket square. I just needed 2 more green garter ridges, probably about one yard of yarn. I considered using the red as an accent stripe, but it would have been too much. One garter ridge, yes. Two garter ridges? Christmas! I had to finish at home.

This is for a group blanket project through Mason Dixon Knitting. #mdkteamblanket2

My other project is a slipper sock. I’m using 4 50g balls of KnitCircus Ringmaster Panoramic Gradient (worsted weight), colorway Thanks for all the Fish, to double strand the socks. They are glorious. (Picture from KnitCircus site, since I forgot to take a picture before I started knitting.) I finished the first one at the coast. Good thing it was time to go home; I was out of knitting!

No real sneak peek on the sock yet; the excitement is on the cuff! I knit mine using the magic loop technique, and Biscuit thought that was pretty interesting when I tried it on. I’ll be looking for test knitters soon. Would you like to knit slipper socks? They’re really quick! This one took me one day.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach

It wasn’t all knitting last week. I love walking on the beach. This one was a solitary walk, just me and the seagulls.

Lone sea star at Chapman Point

I saw a lone sea star. Five years ago, there were hundreds of sea stars here. Sea star wasting disease killed many of them, but they’re starting to come back. I’m glad.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach

It was a perfect getaway.

Now I’m swinging into knitting season! I have several new designs coming soon. The first is this cowl, which is also designed with KnitCircus Ringmaster Gradient, this one in Fig and Prosciutto. Look for it later this week.

Fall brings more teaching opportunities, too. I’ve got my schedule mostly set at Twisted and For Yarn’s Sake; you can see it here.

There’s still room in my Favorite Shawl Shapes class at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (pre-register by Sept. 8).

And a few knitters’ spots left at our Nymphaea Fall Retreat (Nov. 9-11).

What are you knitting this fall?

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Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design, travel, yarn

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Two steps forward at the coast, one step back at home

Posted on January 23, 2018 | 5 comments

I finished this hat on Saturday evening, but changed my mind about the crown shaping. About to start that again.

In other news, happy birthday to DH! I decided to get cases for his autographed baseballs. They’ve been rolling around in a drawer for 30 years, so it’s about time we did something with them. Top to bottom: 1984 Portland Beavers (AAA farm team for the Phillies back then, and DH’s first job in baseball); 1986 World Champion NY Mets (DH’s first year working in Major League Baseball); 1968 St. Louis Cardinals (boyhood home team).

My Saturday stranded colorwork class was full, and my Sunday class was cancelled, so I ran away to the coast overnight.

Sasquatch lives! The ocean was rough, and the wind was intense, but the coast always clears my mind and brings me joy.

What’s bringing you joy this winter? I’ll have more joy when these hats are done!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, travel

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Introducing: Cannon Beach Accessories Collection

Posted on December 7, 2017 | 3 comments

I’m so pleased with my newest design, the Cannon Beach Cowl. It just rolled off my needles because the yarn knew what it wanted to be. I love it when that happens!

And then there were fingerless mitts too, because why not?

Both the cowl and mitts are knit in the round from the top down in worsted to Aran weight yarn. The patterns are available individually, or as an e-book collection that includes both patterns. The pieces feature two slip stitch patterns, one resembling seagulls, the other resembling waves. Cannon Beach, Oregon, is one of my favorite places on earth, and the cozy cowl and mitts are just right for a stroll on a breezy beach.

The cowl was inspired by the loveliness of a yarn, Woolfolk Får. This is a beautiful merino wool chainette yarn. When I saw it I knew it wanted to be a very soft cowl featuring a stitch pattern with long floats to show off the construction of the yarn.

The pattern is also pretty but very different in more conventional yarns like single ply Malabrigo Merino Worsted, or a plyed yarn like Malabrigo Rios.

The cowl instructions include three sizes, from a cozy 22″ neck warmer to a larger 24″ cowl. The circumference and height of the cowl are easily adjusted.


Small cowl shown in Malabrigo Merino Worsted


Medium cowl shown in Woolfolk Får


Large cowl shown in Malabrigo Merino Worsted

The mitts are written for one size, 7.5″ in circumference, and will stretch to fit an 8″ palm. Because of the large number of stitches in the seagull and wave stitch pattern, sizing should be altered by changing needle size.

The patterns are available for $6 for a single pattern, or as an e-book of both patterns for $10. Ravelry page link is live!

Subscribers to my newsletter will receive a coupon code for 20% off the single patterns or the e-book. Not a subscriber? Subscribe by clicking this link, or letting me know in the comments below.

Thanks to tech editor Amanda Woodruff, test knitter Ann Berg, and model Erin Hocraffer.

Sunset at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach…a little chilly, needs a cowl!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

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Just enough yarn

Posted on June 10, 2014 | 1 comment

It’s so satisfying to have just enough yarn…

just enough indochine

There was just enough in this ball of Lantern Moon Indochine to finish my project, leaving only 18 inches to spare. Glad I didn’t have to rip out that last repeat. I’ll show you what I made, but first I have an idea to coordinate with it. Soon!

A little more beachiness before moving on. What’s got the seagulls all in a twitter on top of Haystack Rock? Oh, just a couple of eagles looking for lunch…

Just before this, all the common murres took off in a big cloud, fleeing the rock. Apparently they’re the first course for lunch because they’re easy pickings. The gulls eventually ran the eagles off, but it took a while.

I finally found a good clump of starfish; I was getting a little worried that they weren’t as much in evidence as they were last August.

starfish clump at haystack rock

There’s an epidemic of starfish wasting disease on the west coast this year, and it’s made its way to Oregon. I hope the starfish don’t all die out. The ones I saw looked healthy.

One more sunset!

haystack rock sunset gulls

Haystack Rock and Needles at sunset

cannon beach sunset

Back to my knitting, again! The pink Bling is back on the needles, round 2.

backyard knitting

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Posted in Knit, travel, yarn

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Lantern Moon Indochine yarn…and the coast

Posted on June 5, 2014 | 8 comments

I forgot that I have a little ball of Indochine, Lantern Moon’s 100% silk sport weight yarn. Cathy gave it to me when I was on my way up to Madrona in February. I meant to use it in class, but didn’t, and then it got tucked away when I got home. This is a sample color; I don’t see it on their website now.

I brought it to the coast to play with. It’s lovely and luminous; it catches the light and shines it right back at you.

Indochine

My impression so far: This is a gorgeous yarn. It’s 100% silk. There are 12 individual strands, three groups of four. Even with all those strands, it’s not splitty to work with at all, and knits like a dream on a US size 5 (3.75 mm) needle. I tried it first on a 7 hoping for a loose lace, but the stitch definition is much better on a 5. So far, I love it. It comes in 50g/134 yard skeins; Lantern Moon shows it on their website for $19.50/skein. A bit spendy, but oh, so lovely! I’m trying to make a little one skein project out of it; I sure wish I’d brought my yarn scale with me. I guess if there’s not enough, I’ll just have to frog it and have the pleasure of knitting up this yarn again in another incarnation. But for now, I’m counting on the magic of blocking…

I brought four design projects to play with, and I’ve charted three, but this one is the one that has captured my attention. Doesn’t everyone take their knitting on vacation? It’s not Paris, but Cannon Beach is pretty sweet this time of year. I didn’t bring a kite; this is the next best thing.

indochine kite

I found these tiny sand dollars on the beach; that’s my anniversary ring next to them for scale.

sand dollars

I decided to chase the sunset last night, but it wasn’t an original idea.

haystack rock sunset chasers

It was worth it though. I used my Lumix GF6 for this next picture. The rest of the pictures are iPhone5, except the sand dollars, which was iPad. Different toys, um, tools, for different reasons.

sunset haystack rock

And I took a panorama shot with my phone, which turned out nicely, too.

haystack rock sunset pano

Back to my knitting!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, travel, yarn

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Oregon Coast August

Posted on August 26, 2013 | 11 comments

You never know what you’re going to get, weather-wise! I had a quick getaway to Cannon Beach with friends last week. Wednesday was a glorious day. Breezy sunshine made it perfect for a visit to Haystack Rock.

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The tidepools were full of starfish, anemones, and barnacles.

starfish

And that evening’s sunset added a rosy glow to everything, including the sand.

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I even had some knitting time on the beach.

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On Thursday morning I woke at dawn to chase the moonset, but the sunrise was too early for me to capture what I wanted from the moon. You can barely see the moon directly above the seagull; the sky was already too bright. It was a nice walk, though!

cannon beach moonset

The day turned out to be cloudy and cool, but it was great walking weather. We headed north in the late afternoon. The mist around the rocks at Chapman Point made everything seem a wee bit magical. And these horses and their riders made me feel as if we had stumbled into another time.

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Horses

Horses 2

Despite the mist, up close everything was crystal clear.

anemones

stars and anemones

We explored a small cave, and this arch through the rock.

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I love getting out and looking at things with my camera in mind. It makes me see everything a little differently. And my camera lately is just my iPhone5. Lightweight, always with me, great photo quality.

What are you seeing these days? Are you ready for fall?

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Posted in Knit, travel

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