We’ve had quite the snowy weekend in Portland. It started on Thursday, and it’s melting today, Monday. Portland is not known for its ability to deal with snow. It doesn’t snow that often here. It’s not cost effective to have a lot of plows that we’d rarely use, so it’s best to just stop and enjoy the snow.
If you really have to get somewhere, you can always use your skis. These are my 30 year old skis and old school three pin trap bindings. And my Pippi hat.
I did a lot of knitting. I finished a shawl (post coming soon), blocked two shawls, and knit an entire hat. This time I used 3 colors instead of four, and I like it.
I made sure there was food and water for the birds.
It’s snowing in Portland, which doesn’t happen often.
I actually wore a hat today, which doesn’t happen often, either. It’s all about the hair, you know.
This is my Pippi hat, and I love it. I designed this hat during a snowy week in Portland in 2008. DH said I looked like Pippi Longstocking in it, and so it was named.
My current Pippi isn’t either of these colorways, but it’s too dark to take a picture. Suffice to say it coordinates with my jacket. Do you like it? I think you should knit one, too, so I”m putting the Pippi hat pattern on sale for 20% off through February 14. Consider it a Valentine’s Day offering! My Hugs and Kisses Fingerless Mitts pattern is also on sale. Both of these patterns are $4 instead of $5 through Valentine’s Day. If you want both, please make two separate transactions; I can’t get the Ravelry cart to discount both in the same transaction.
It feels like I haven’t been knitting much lately. I’ve been impatiently waiting for some yarn I ordered, and kind of at loose ends while waiting. I guess I must have done some knitting, though, because I have two FO’s to show you.
This sweet little cowl is called Buttermilk Sky. It’s a design by Bonnie Sinnott over at Blue Peninsula. I was the lucky winner of her pattern and this sumptuous Blue Sky Alpaca Silk last November.
This was a quick and easy knit, and the yarn was so nice to knit with.
Haven’t you seen clouds like this?
Thank you, Bonnie!
My other FO is a variation on my Pippi hat. I taught a Pippi hat class last month at Twisted, and started a hat as a demonstration model. Since I was nearly done with it by the time classes were over, I went ahead and finished. I love these colors together. One of the colors in the stripe sequence on top isn’t the same as in the previous blue/green/white Pippi, but I was working from stash, so this is what I have. I also got distracted and didn’t follow the chart for the last colorwork pattern; oops. Class was fun; everyone learned to carry two colors in their knitting, and also how to make i-cord and half double crochet. A success!
My special order yarn came in this week. More on that in another post…
The annual Seattle to Portland Yarn Train arrived in town on Saturday, bringing Seattle knitters down south for a yarn crawl. I couldn’t meet the train because I was rehearsing with the Day Old Pastries, so I met up with Kathy at Knit/Purl.
I met Kathy last summer at the Sock Summit Ravelry party, and we’ve been bloggy friends ever since. She was with her friend Chandria, and Denise, whom they met on the train. I offered to take the three of them across town to Twisted, my usual stomping grounds. But first, I needed to check in at the PDXKnitbloggers’ home base at the Starbucks kitty corner from Knit/Purl.
Susan was just back from TNNA, and she had a samples of her entire new Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn. Judy was trying to choose two coordinating colors for a design project. It was difficult, because they were all gorgeous!
We did make it over to Twisted. As we pulled up, my phone picked up a text message. It was a tweet from Twisted: “Love Stinks! Spend your Valentine’s day hexing your crappy ex with our Voodoo Doll kits! (Then go on a date with someone way hotter)” That made me laugh out loud. We went in asking for the voodoo dolls, and here they are, modeling in front of the wall of sock yarn.
Kathy bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran to make a Pippi hat. It will be her first color work. Fun!
I also ran into Debbi and her friend Susan, and Sharon (but I forgot to take her picture, sorry).
All that yarn shopping is exhausting! We had a very late lunch at Costello’s, down the street, and then headed to Yarnia. I’d never been to Yarnia before, so this was an adventure for me, too.
Yarnia is like Build-a-Bear for knitters. You choose thin fibers/colors you want to put together, and they are wound off together onto a cone to make the yarn of your dreams. Denise was in heaven! She got exactly what she wanted for a shawl project. With sparkle in it, of course. Here’s the winding machine in action. (There’s a cone of shiny stuff on the floor, feeding into the yarn on the cone, but I didn’t realize it when I was filming.)
There wasn’t time to visit any more yarn stores, so I chauffeured the happy knitters back to the train station. And I realized then that I didn’t buy any yarn at all! I’m just not much of a stasher. It was a fun day.
Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the States. Are you participating in any MLK Day activities? I’ll be at a workday for the Backpack Program; they provide weekend lunches for needy children at a local elementary school. (For some children, a federally-sponsored school lunch is their main meal of the day, and there is no school lunch on the weekend.) The Day Old Pastries will lead some singing at the event. If you’re local and looking for something to do, it’s from 1 to 3 p.m. at Woodlawn United Methodist Church, 1425 NE Dekum, Portland, 97211.
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.
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