Tag Archives: cherry blossoms

Beads in knitting and pink spring!

Posted on March 31, 2022 | 6 comments

Whoa, 21 days since my last post? Inconceivable! I’ve been knitting up a storm, and paring down a to-do list that grew to anxiety-provoking length. It’s better now. On the to-do list were three video tutorials for the project on the needles. No, the project isn’t hard. But sometimes having an extra visual can make things more clear.

Adding beads to your knitting

One of the videos shows how to add beads to your knitting using the crochet hook method, and also using a BeadAid, which is my favorite beading tool. You can click the link above to watch it.

The video also features my bead tin setup. I hope you enjoy it!

Looking south to the Burnside Bridge

This past week the cherry blossoms have come into their full glory down at the Willamette River waterfront. This is the river that goes through the center of Portland.

Looking north to the Steel Bridge

Gorgeous! I went for a walk with friends last Thursday.

And then DH and I rode our bikes down there on Sunday. It’s a nice 10 mile loop from our house.

The magnolia trees are in full bloom, too.

Camellia Wrap

My favorite camellia hedge is also blooming, even more than in this updated Camellia Wrap picture from 3 weeks ago. It’s definitely Think Pink season around here.

It looks like we’re in for a rainy weekend. Perfect timing. I’ll be teaching two zoom classes this weekend: Deep End Brioche Increases and Decreases on Saturday and Sheepy Steeky Coasters on Sunday. It’s not too late to sign up for either one, but the steeks class has homework so you’d definitely need to address that now.

Happy spring! Or fall, depending where you live. Happy change of seasons, anyway…

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Posted in beading, classes, Knit, Portland area fun, tutorial

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Signs of Spring: Birdwatcher and Cherry Blossoms

Posted on April 12, 2021 | 4 comments

The Birdwatcher (pattern by Casapinka) is underway. I moved up to a US5 needle, knit for a while, and steamed it to get an idea how wide this will be. It’s approximately 39” and I’m aiming for 40”. I’m hoping that the stockinette portion will be just a tad wider than the chevroned edge, and I think it will be. Or not! Again, do as I say, not as I do. I like the fabric I’m getting, and it may just have a little less ease than I was planning. I don’t want to go up another needle size, and I don’t have enough yarn to go up another size in the pattern.

There are supposed to be 4 repeats of that chevron pattern, but I stopped at three. The bottom of the sweater is supposed to be 12” to the armhole, and I want it to be 9. I don’t want chevrons halfway to the armhole; I want it to be more of an edging. I think three repeats will be enough! Also, I was ready to stop paying attention. Now it’s just stockinette to the armhole, which is gives me room to think about other things. I’m glad I’m alternating skeins every 2 rounds; I can definitely see a bit of stripeyness as I’m knitting the stockinette section.

My log cabin wrap is done and blocked! I took some pictures in the back yard, but the modeled pictures are coming soon. My sister modeled for me, and we were lucky to catch the last of the cherry blossoms on a neighborhood street. We went downtown, too, but the trees there were no longer very pink!

Just not the right look for the photo shoot. I really have had cherry blossoms on my mind, so I think this pattern will probably be called Cherry Blossom Wrap. Look for it at the end of the week! For now, let me share pictures from a couple weeks ago downtown. This was the hoped for backdrop for our photo shoot, but I wasn’t ready when it was ready.

What are you knitting this spring?

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun

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Dreaming of Spring

Posted on March 22, 2021 | 7 comments

I’ve been haunting the Portland waterfront this month, waiting for the cherry trees to bloom.

The top picture is 2 weeks ago, and the bottom is from March 31, 2019. Hoping next weekend is peak!

This color palette is on point!

Here’s a peek at what it’s becoming. I’m so pleased with this. After my adventure with the Pythagorean Theorem and the hypoteneuse, all is well! I don’t regret frogging those 11,000 stitches at all. I’m just over halfway done with this. Pattern coming soon.

I didn’t get much knitting done this weekend because I was teaching for Vogue’s Virtual Knitting Live. I debuted my new Darn It! class, which was really fun! Mending and even more visible mending. This all started with that sock mending project for a friend; it was so much fun I wanted to share my new skills. I’m teaching it again through For Yarn’s Sake on April 25, registration on this page, soon.

And we also launched Brioche Doctor. This covers reading your brioche knitting, and fixing mistakes. I love that it’s different every time, depending on the questions from my students. We can make this as calm or as crazy as you want! I like having several samples so we can play with it different ways.

April classes are booked; I’m looking forward to teaching Brioche Doctor, Tink Drop Frog, Syncopation, and Log Cabin Knitting for Vogue in April. Sign up for their newsletter so you can be notified when registration goes live.

I’m also teaching a slightly longer Syncopation/Syncopated Brioche class for Bazaar Girls Yarn Shop on April 3. I’ll walk you through flat brioche instead of assigning it as homework, before getting to the syncopated brioche. Class is a little longer than the VKL classes to accommodate this. Register here!

I have classes with Twisted and For Yarn’s Sake in April, too. Sign up for my newsletter for the most complete list of classes, plus knitting news, tutorials, and the best discount on my new pattern releases. I try to keep my Workshops and Classes pages updated here on the blog, but there’s no way to let you know about updates on that.

Knit on!

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Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun

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Portland Cherry Blossom Bridge Walk

Posted on April 4, 2019 | 6 comments

Spring has sprung for sure! April is the prettiest month in Portland. Everything bursts into bloom.

I try to do my favorite bridge walk on the waterfront when the cherry trees are blooming.

The walk is 2.7 miles along the Willamette River. It crosses the Hawthorne Bridge and the Steel Bridge, making a big loop along the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade and Waterfront Park on the west side.

The metal sculpture on the fire station at the eastern end of the Hawthorne Bridge looks like raindrops in a pool. It’s more visible, or less visible, depending on where you are as you approach it.

I’m so giddy that spring is here!

hanami cowl

Way back in 2011, I designed my Hanami Cowl and Wristlets. It’s a super quick knit in worsted weight yarn. I especially love this in a fluffy single ply. Hanami is the name for the spring cherry blossom viewing parties in Japan.

I’m offering 50% off the Hanami pattern with coupon code BLOSSOM through April 15. Mookie would have approved. (Newsletter subscribers get an even sweeter deal…)

Oh! New kitty’s name is Calvin. Calvin LeRoy Purraldi. He’s very sweet, and settling in nicely.

He and Biscuit are working out their relationship. He’s bigger than Yadi was, so she doesn’t try to wrestle with him! (He’s bigger than we thought…ManCat rather than BoyCat.)

Happy spring!

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Posted in Portland area fun

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