Tag Archives: Sisters Oregon

July in the rear view mirror

Posted on August 10, 2025 | 3 comments

July was a jam packed month. Besides San Diego, I also visited Sisters, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. All fun!

I visited friends in Sisters. They took me to the Dee Wright Observatory, a structure built from lava rock. It’s at the summit of the McKenzie Pass in the Willamette National Forest.

Each window in the observatory looks out at a different mountain peak, and there are signs that tell you what you’re looking at.

They also make good photo ops! I don’t remember which Sisters these are. July was a long time ago.

Apparently it’s the North and Middle Sisters! This bronze was cast by students at Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon in 1937, before my dad was a student there.

It was also a music weekend. Becky and I played in church. The other musical group was the Renaissance Sisters, who played baroque and renaissance music on soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders. Very fine work.

The church has a stunning view behind the altar. Is that Middle Sister, maybe?

Banjo welcomes you to happy hour…

On to Seattle!

Four of the five Adagio Babes met for a reunion. We all met through Sonata Piano Camp from 2000 to 2003, I think. We’re not playing a lot of piano these days, but the friendships last a lifetime.

We played tourists on a beautiful day in Seattle.

Mt. Rainier even put in an appearance.

It was a fabulous weekend. I’m so lucky to have met friends through music!

It’s been a little quiet around here, but I’m still knitting. More on that in the next post. How’s your summer? Or winter, down under?

3 Comments

Posted in piano, Pie Birds, travel

Tagged music, Seattle, Sisters Oregon

Quick trip to Sisters

Posted on August 16, 2022 | 6 comments

Summer and time is running so quickly!

I went to Sisters to visit fellow Pie Bird Becky and her family. We went to a concert and made some music. We even remembered how to play our instruments, easy for me (just basic guitar) but Becky plays guitar, mandolin, and banjo, and it’s been a while.

Becky works at Pine Meadow Ranch, the home of the Roundhouse Foundation, which focuses on projects that work with and through the arts. Their four program areas: arts and culture, environmental stewardship, education, and social services. She gave us a tour of the ranch, which is a working ranch and also uses the restored ranch buildings for artists’ residencies.

Interactive art installation that makes colored light and sound when you move under it. Note the tile mural across the way…

Sisters (the town) is named for the Three Sisters mountains in the Cascade Range. The town hosts a quilt festival each summer, and that’s reflected here.

Tile “quilt” on the greenhouse by Kathy Deggendorfer

This year’s quilt garden contest winner by June Jaeger. See the 3 Sisters?

Detail from the quilt; I love the birds, and music notes in the snow creases

And the garden inspired by the quilt. I wish you could see it from above!

A panel from a 7 panel tile mural, designed by Rochelle Schueler and Lynn Adamo

Pencil shaving…as you walk around it, it looks like it unfurls

There’s a lot more art, and sheep and cattle, too. It’s a beautiful and inspiring setting.

I’m home now, setting up classes for fall, and getting ready for the Vogue Knitting cruise and Knit Maine. Time is racing by!

6 Comments

Posted in Other craftiness, Pie Birds, travel

Tagged pie birds, Pine Meadow Ranch, Roundhouse Foundation, Sisters Oregon

Catching up! RCYC, Lantern Moon Retreat

Posted on March 21, 2018 | 3 comments

Still catching up…March began with a trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake to kick off the Rose City Yarn Crawl.

I took two whole pictures. But I had fun! It’s a group trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake with Knitted Wit (Lorajean Kelley), Shannon Squire, and Debbi Stone, and it’s become a tradition, with bubbles.

I didn’t go yarn crawling; instead I packed my bags to head out for the Lantern Moon retreat in Sisters, Oregon on Saturday.

It snowed a little at the beginning of the week, just enough to be pretty but not a problem.

Is showing up at an event wearing the same sweater the same as showing up in the same gown? Nah, it’s way more fun. This is Virginia in her Stopover, and me in mine. (Pattern by Mary Jane Mucklestone.)

I taught a version of my Tink Drop Frog: Lace Edition to two lovely groups of knitters, and also gave a blocking lesson. Susan B. Anderson taught a shawl design class, and a sock class.

Artist Kathy Deggendorfer (left) was our speaker on Monday evening. She told us about her process when painting with watercolors (color first, then lines come after), and how she uses those images on other products or in other media (clay tiles, for example). She opened her studio for us the next day and showed us what she was working on (shhh, it’s a secret). Karin purchased this original watercolor of chickadees, and I went home with a chickadee tile.

Wednesday I had the opportunity to join the retreat students for a block printing class with Valori Wells at the Stitchin’ Post.

I had chickadees on my mind, so I traced a photo off my phone and made a chickadee block for printing.

I was really happy with how it turned out. This was my fourth experience with block printing, but my first with fabric instead of paper. And each time is a little better as I figure out positive/negative space.

The gift baskets were amazing. Here’s a sampling of what was in them, but not everything!

This soap is a work of art, and smells divine.

We had afternoons off to relax (hello, spa!). On Wednesday afternoon I went on my favorite walk in the woods with my friend Becky, who moved to Sisters with her family 2 years ago. Becky is one of my Pie Birds; I love singing with her and Claudia.

Looks like cake

Madrone

Scars of last summer’s Milli fire

Putting this here so I know what to call it next time I’m trying to explain how to find it!

It was a fabulous retreat. If a small (about 30 people), luxurious knit-focused retreat with lots of time to relax is what you’re looking for, you should definitely check this out next year. Thanks to Lantern Moon for inviting me to teach!

3 Comments

Posted in events, Knit, travel

Tagged Lantern Moon Retreat, rose city yarn crawl, Sisters Oregon

OFFF tomorrow!

Posted on September 23, 2016 | 2 comments

Ready? Go! I’ve got my patterns printed, and class samples ready for my Braided Wristlets class tomorrow (Saturday) at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. It’s an all day class, 9:30 to 4:30, so I won’t have much time to play. Which only means that I’ll have to go back on Sunday, which promises to be a gorgeous day. Win! Come to the registration booth at 9 if you want to join us tomorrow.

Here’s my wristlet variation, since you’ve seen the others several times recently on the blog. Instructions for this variation are in the pattern, too.

Last week I was over in Sisters to visit friends who recently moved away. We worked on a song I’m writing; it’s about tumbleweeds, or really about friends moving away. This is number four in the last 2 years. Ouch! The song started in my head after V moved away, but is finally coming together now, a couple years later.

But it wasn’t all music. There was some trampoline time.

And a lovely walk along Whychus Creek.

With a view of the Three Sisters by day…

And night! We took the kids to watch the sunset and moonrise; they were conveniently at the same time and the moon was nearly full. The kids thought they needed to use our phones for flashlights, but the moon was so bright…nope!

Do you use Layout? It’s a free app from Instagram, and it makes great collages. It works great with my iPhone, and the only complaint that I have is that it doesn’t play nicely with my iPad; it doesn’t show me the pictures I’m choosing from until I click the blank space where it should be. But I can work around that.

Hope to see you this weekend, knit and spin peeps!

2 Comments

Posted in events, Portland area fun, travel

Tagged moonrise, OFFF 2016, Sisters Oregon, sunset

FO: Edin cardigan

Posted on November 17, 2015 | 9 comments

I love a good finished object! This is my Edin Cardigan, pre-blocking.

I gave it a light steam block so I could take a photograph for the ChicKnits KAL. Here you can see that the band on the left is unblocked, and the one on the right is steamed a bit.

I love how the whole thing begins at the back of the neck.

I wet blocked it 2 days ago, and it’s still drying in the sunroom.

Almost dry! It relaxed a bit, gaining an inch in width and an inch in length, both of which are good things. (Did I wash and block my swatch? No. But I did swatch, and I use this particular yarn a lot, so it behaved according to plan.)

Here are the details:

Edin, design by Bonne Marie Burns of ChicKnits
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Continental Blue, 4.8 skeins
Needles: Hiya Hiya US 7
Began Oct. 13, finished Nov. 14. Quickest sweater ever for me.

I really enjoyed knitting this; Bonne Marie’s pattern is well written and easy to follow. Edin as a top down cardigan, mostly stockinette except for the lace bands that look like cables. So pretty! Stockinette is great for multi-tasking knitting; I did a lot of reading while knitting this.

I also perfected my magic loop technique while knitting the sleeves. I knit the first one last month in Sisters, Oregon, where my yarn was the same color as the sky.

At least on the first day. The next day was quite frosty in the morning.

While I was in Sisters, I had the opportunity to meet up with Sarah and Paula at the Stitchin’ Post. Good times.

I have 1.2 skeins left of this glorious blue yarn, and I’m planning to make a cowl in the Indie Designer Gift-Along on Ravelry, which starts Thursday. I’ll post about that in a few days.

9 Comments

Posted in KAL, Knit, yarn

Tagged ChicKnits, Edin, Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Sisters Oregon

Over the Cascades, again

Posted on April 23, 2014 | 6 comments

Last Friday I headed over the Cascades again, but this time in Oregon. It was a music getaway weekend with friends, but before everyone arrived, I had a trunk show at The Stitchin’ Post in Sisters.

(photo by Sarah Peery)

We had a great time! It’s always fun to meet knitters in person, and see hand knits up close. The Stitchin’ Post is starting a KAL of my Garland shawl today, so I left a couple samples for the week.

On to music! My new guitar made her debut with my fellow Pie Birds, Claudia and Becky. We played and sang and laughed, a perfect weekend.

The kids dyed eggs while we played more music.

And what does any good yarnie do with that leftover egg dye?

Of course. I bought a skein of white yarn at the Stitchin’ Post. It’s Juniper Moon Farm Sabine, 30% Royal Llama, 30% Merino wool, and 40% cotton. I was hoping for all animal fiber, but this was luscious. I wound off yarn in approximately 25 yard hanks (around my arm, one uses the tools at hand!). We dip dyed it, squeezing out excess dye after each dip, and then microwaved the yarn for 2 minutes to set the color. A quick rinse after it cooled, and then dried overnight. I was going to wind it into balls after they dried, but decided to leave them as mini-skeins to preserve the color runs. Aren’t they sweet?

On Sunday, Claudia and I walked along Whychus Creek. This creek has been restored, and was the subject of the Two Rivers, Three Sisters quilt exhibit that we saw in Portland last year. This panel was my favorite. (Just had to show you, because it took me a while to find this picture in my archives!)