Tag Archives: portland bridges

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!

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!

6 Comments

Posted in Portland area fun

Tagged cherry blossoms, portland, portland bridges

New year, new knits

Posted on January 4, 2016 | 2 comments

I frogged my prototype Twin Leaf Crescent on New Year’s Eve, and cast on New Year’s Day.

I’m looking forward to re-knitting this yarn into the shawl it wants to be. The twinleafkal2016 is going on in the Ravelry Black Trillium Fibres group, if you’d like to join. The KAL runs through March 31, but in order to be eligible for prizes, you’d need to cast on by the end of January. I’ll be knitting along with everyone over there.

New Year’s Day was sunny, bright, windy and cold! We had a lovely walk on my favorite riverfront path.

Two days later we had snow, and then freezing rain on top of it. I saw this Buddha in a neighbor’s yard.

He looked serene, but maybe a little lonely, so I brought him some friends.

Waiting for things to thaw out. Everything is coated in ice. (Bird pic courtesy of Son2)

Speaking of snow, I’m looking forward to releasing a new take on Snowy Woods soon. I just can’t get enough of those lovely trees! It’s been to the tech editor, and just needs someone else to knit it as a confirmation. Soon!

I have one other project on the needles right now, an easily memorizable cowl design that can be knit in public or at knit night, no crazy charts to follow or beads. This balances well with the Twin Leaf Crescent, which needs a little more attention.

What’s on your needles this year? Is January Selfish Knitting Month for you?

2 Comments

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

Tagged portland bridges, snow, twinleafKAL2016, winter

Portland outdoors, knitting, Tigard Knitting Guild

Posted on August 20, 2015 | 7 comments

It’s been a warm dry summer here, which makes getting outdoors a pleasure. Yesterday we climbed a volcano. Within the city limits! Mt. Tabor is an extinct (or maybe just dormant?) volcanic cinder cone, with an elevation of 636 feet. We wanted a short, spur of the moment hike close to home, since we were getting a late (noon) start. This was perfect.

You know most of my hikes involve waterfalls. This will have to do. This is one of the three open air reservoirs on Mt. Tabor, where part of the city’s water supply is held.

There’s a nice view to the west toward downtown, looking out at Portland’s newest bridge, Tillikum Crossing.

DH and I saw that bridge the other day, when I took him on my favorite bridge walk. The reflection of the bridge, and him, on the Portland Opera building was pretty cool.

This was the fifth time I’ve done this walk this summer, and I just noticed the cool sculpture on the fire station. See the concentric circles? They come into focus as you walk eastward on the Hawthorne Bridge.

If you’re looking for more fun free things to do around Portland, the Oregonian just ran a feature today. I’m feeling pretty savvy, because I was already doing some of those things!

Other than that, I’m knitting, knitting, knitting. I took a little detour from my gradient project to work with this lovely yarn from Knitted Wit. There’s a deadline for this design project, so it has moved up to the front burner.

I’m speaking at the Tigard Knitting Guild tonight, talking about blocking. You know I love blocking! Click the link for details. You can visit the guild twice before joining, so if you’re local, come on by.

Onward!

7 Comments

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

Tagged mt tabor, portland, portland bridges, tigard knitting guild

20k stitches later…

Posted on August 1, 2015 | 3 comments

Edit: it’s 40K, not 20K. I was thinking about the 16 row repeat, but it’s 32 rows. Math! But it’s bound off and done. Ends woven in; here are the orts:

It’s just the way I imagined it. I love it when that happens. I’ll show you next spring…

20k is a lot of stitches! It’s fairly regular knitting, so this was a good project to read a book by. Reading does slow my knitting down a bit, but it’s worth it to entertain both my fingers and my mind. I just read Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. It was a pretty good read, the stories of two women, one current day and one the personal history of an orphan in the 1920’s/1930’s. The current day portions feel like a YA novel, and the older portions were a fascinating look into a chapter of history that was new to me. But the ending of the book seemed like it was thrown together; after so much detail it seemed like there was a sudden push of the fast forward button. Still, a good read.

While not knitting, I’ve revisited what is now my favorite Portland walk. It’s 2.7 miles around the Willamette River waterfront, along the Vera Katz Eastside Esplanade and Waterfront Park on the west side. I walked it with a friend on Thursday morning and was captivated by shadows under the Hawthorne Bridge.

I went back Friday with another friend because I wanted to capture the moving shadows. They’re a little cockroachy, aren’t they?

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View from the other side of the Hawthorne Bridge: PacMan-esque shadows #pdx @sue.tangomango

A post shared by Michele Lee Bernstein (@pdxknitterati) on Jul 31, 2015 at 3:56pm PDT

Do you Instagram? I love it. I’m pdxknitterati over there, too. Come follow me for more fun pictures!

Here’s a little more Portland eye candy…

I’d never noticed the details on the Burnside Bridge turrets. Zoom in to see the detail under the windows. I love the leaf/flower? at the bottom, too.