Rose City Yarn Crawl, Portland’s premier yarny event, begins today, March 4, as usual. But it’s not business as usual, because the crawl is going virtual this year, with an extended crawl March 4-14.
I usually kick off the crawl at For Yarn’s Sake with owner Anne Lindquist, Knitted Wit dyer Lorajean Kelley, and designers Shannon Squire and Debbi Stone (Ravelry link). This year we toasted virtually in a Zoom we recorded last night. You can see our chat online on the For Yarn’s Sake RCYC page here. And you can find our trunk shows for the crawl on the same page. I’m featuring 7 designs. Six are new this past year, and Lucky Star is an older favorite that Features Knitted Wit’s yarn.
My Half the Knit Sky design is being offered as a yarn kit with gradient yarn from Huckleberry Knits, another Pacific Northwest dyer. Quantities are limited, so if you want a kit, now’s the time for action! These colorways are Practical Tactical Brilliance and Made you Blush (shop exclusive for For Yarn’s Sake). Pattern is sold separately from the kit through Ravelry and Payhip. Many of our trunk show items are in the shop so you can see them up close, too.
Check out the Rose City Yarn Crawl site for ways to participate and win prizes. And you can even visit the stores in person; it’s just not required this year. This may be the first year in a long time that I’ll be able to visit all eight participating shops, if only virtually!
This colorway is called Made You Blush, and it’s an exclusive at For Yarn’s Sake. It’s paired with Manos Alegria in Pewter in the kit. You can start your gradient ball at the white end, or the pink end, knitter’s choice! Test knitter Ann is now a sample knitter, and she sent it to me for blocking. You may recognize my fence.
The other kit features the Practical Tactical Brilliance colorway, which is a favorite of mine. Scarlet says that she made the new batch a little bluer than this at the end, to be even more like the aurora borealis. I can’t wait to see it. The contrast color in this kit is Madelinetosh Twist Light in Stormborn. Both kits go on sale on March 4.
Rose City Yarn Crawl begins on March 4, and runs through March 14. I’ll pop up another post with a link to my trunk show when it goes live. There will also be a recorded Zoom interview with my other trunk show buddies, Knitted Wit (Lorajean Kelley), Shannon Squire, and Debbie Stone. I just wanted to show you the pretty pink shawl!
Fall is here, and last Monday was a perfect day for a bike ride in the Columbia River Gorge. I went with some friends to bike through the Mosier Twin Tunnels, out past Hood River. They’re just on the other side of the Cascade mountains, the dry side, but it was a glorious day all around.
Eighteen Mile Island
The ride isn’t terribly long, maybe 8.5 miles out and back, but it’s hilly! It’s on a dedicated bike/pedestrian path that follows the old Columbia River Highway. You can see the (not that new) Columbia River Highway, Interstate 84, down below.
Eighteen Mile Island from the other sideBreathtaking diagonal geology across the river on the Washington side
This section of the old highway was abandoned in the 1950s when the new highway was built closer to the river. It was restored for recreational use in 2000.
Standing between the tunnels, looking east through the east tunnel
It felt so good to get out for a while!
We stopped for refreshment at Thunder Island Brewing’s new digs in Cascade Locks. They used to be down on the water, now they’re up on the main drag. Great view from the deck!
Cascade Locks is on the wetter, greener side of the Cascade mountains
It’s windy and rainy today (Sunday), but the forecast is for cool, drier weather this coming week. I’m on Day 4 of work; I spoke about blocking for the Puddletown Knitters Guild on Thursday evening, and have been teaching for Vogue’s Virtual Knitting Live all weekend. Busy busy!
I have a couple new Zoom classes through For Yarn’s Sake. We’re doing Petite Brioche on Sunday October 25 (I love teaching new brioche knitters!) and Braided Wristlets on Sunday November 8.
Braided Wristlets is one of my favorite classes to teach. It dips into beginning colorwork knitting, tonal contrast, yarn color dominance, and of course, the very fun herringbone braids. Links to the For Yarn’s Sake classes are here. Are you ready to learn a new skill?
First up: Shall We Dance. Learn how to tame your skein with planned pooling! Space dyed yarns can be so pretty in the skein, but so jumbly when you knit them. Learn how to tame the color monster with planned color pooling. This Aran weight cowl in your choice of three simple stitch patterns will give you a quick jump start into planned pooling. Make the colors dance by adjusting your tension.
Instructions are given so you can find your magic number to cast on, in order to make the colors pool.
Scarlet Tang of Huckleberry Knits dyed a special 2 Ply BFL Aran for this class at For Yarn’s Sake. We have two colorways, Rock Candy (rainbow) and Legion of Boom (blues and greens, Seahawks colors). The class is this Sunday, May 19; register by phone or on the website. Hope to see you there!
My other new class is Next Steps in Brioche at Northwest Wools. I’ve taught four beginning brioche classes there since the beginning of the year. It’s time to move on to the next thing: increases and decreases! We’re using my Heliotrope Cowl and Heliotrope Hat patterns. Class will cover increases and decreases, and fixing mistakes. (Not that we’ll make any, right?) This class is on Friday, May 31. Call Northwest Wools to register, 503-244-5024.
So glad I finally played with planned pooling, and I’m still deep in a sea of brioche! What new techniques do you want to learn?
Space dyed yarns can be so pretty in the skein, but so jumbly when you knit them. Learn how to tame the color monster with planned color pooling. This Aran weight cowl in your choice of three simple stitch patterns will give you a quick jump start into planned pooling. Make the colors dance by adjusting your tension!
Instructions are given so you can find your magic number to cast on, in order to make the colors pool.
The Huckleberry Knits 2 Ply BFL Aran was specially dyed for this project. I used all of the skein, and the cowl measures 32″ x 8″.
I consulted with Scarlet Tang of Huckleberry Knits to come up with colors and a yarn base that would work well for a class. We chose her Rock Candy and Legion of Boom (Seattle Seahawks colors) colorways, shown here on her Willow fingering weight. (My first planned pooling cowl is on the left, knit with ancient Lorna’s Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies in Cat Bordhi Aha!, purchased at Sock Summit 2011.) We’re using a 2 Ply BFL Aran which isn’t one of her usual bases, but I love it! It’s soft and lovely to knit. This yarn will be available at For Yarn’s Sake, and I’m teaching a planned pooling class there on Sunday May 19.
I also knit a version in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Plushy. This skein has more yardage, but I chose to finish the cowl at 33″ x 6.5″, using 60% of the skein. It’s bouncy and fun to knit with, but a litle harder to get accurate measurements because it’s so wonderfully springy!
The pattern for Sophie’s Rose is now available through PDXKnitterati! (See bottom of post for launch sale info.) This is an asymmetric triangle, knit from the small point to the sweeping ruffle.
I designed this for Anne Lindquist at For Yarn’s Sake, using two very special yarns. The main color is Sophie’s Rose, the semisolid brown with raspberry pink accents. MadelineTosh dyed this custom color in honor of Anne’s new granddaughter, Sophie.
The coordinating color is Knitted Wit‘s Madge, on her Merino Single Fingering base. The theme is a garden trellis interspersed with rows of roses.
The big ruffle makes it really fun to wear. I wore it to Madrona last year, and lots more since then.
This pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. To celebrate this pattern launch, I’m offering 20% off through January 15, with coupon code ROSES.
If you want a kick start with this project, I’m teaching a Sophie’s Rose class on Saturday February 7 at 10 a.m. at Twisted in Portland. We’ll go through the trellis stitch and the rose rows, and also talk about the ruffle. I taught this class at For Yarn’s Sake last year, too. The instructions for these stitches are in the pattern, but sometimes it’s more fun (and easier to visualize) in person,
Happy new year! Are you casting on something new today, or trying to finish up last year’s project? Either way, I hope you have a chance to get some knitting in today. There are serveral cast on parties around town; I know Twisted is having one at noon, and Lorajean is having one at the Knitted Wit studio from 11 to 2. Being the contrarian that I am, rather than casting on I think I’ll try to finish my Honey Cardigan. Apparently I set it aside last year when the weather changed, but the body is done and it just needs sleeves and finishing. I could use a new sweater about now. It’s cold out!
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 