Crawling through the streets . . .

I always love getting together with the PDX Knit Bloggers and other knitsibs; thanks to chance meetings at a YarnHarlot book signing, we've created a lively, active fiber community in Portland. Now, thanks to Ravelry, our community is much larger and more diverse. It was through a Ravelry forum that I discovered that a whole whack of Seattle knitters were planning on S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement Xcursion) in Portland. And the PDX Knit Bloggers, not being your usual shy-type of knitters, jumped at the chance to meet other knitters and take part in a yarn shop crawl. So last Saturday, despite the unusually cold, wet (OK, so "wet" isn't really all that unusual here) weather, a small group of PDX Knit Bloggers were seen hanging out at Union Station.



Even this small group started attracting attention. OK, so it was mostly from some children who wondered what we were doing. But hey, we even found one little guy who was using some brilliant blue Lion Brand Homespun on a knitting loom! His big brother was appropriately mortified by the younger one knitting in public. We, of course, made sure the little guy got big kudos and encouraged him by telling him that we know a guy who has is an amazing knitter and even designs sweaters.



I'm really sorry this didn't come out better. Would you just look at that bag of Kerin's? She said she designed this on the day she had an argument with the IRS. Nothing fixes a bad mood quite like Hello Kitty. In hot pink, of course!

Pretty soon, the Seattle group showed up. There were more than we expected!



That's Charisa on the left, in the hat, trying to corral this bunch. But they were movin' fast; these gals had shopping to do!



Try as she might, Charisa just couldn't get these gals rounded up. It was an impossible task. Like herding cats. Or nailing jello to a tree.

In the end, everyone broke up into smaller groups and headed for the Streetcar and the local shops. My first stop was Dublin Bay.



Bad blogger that I am, I forgot to take pictures until after the first wave had cleared out. This is Chrissy Gardiner taking advantage of the lull in the storm to knit a few rows. I hadn't been to Dublin Bay before, so I was as anxious to check it out as the Seattle group was.



It's really a great shop and they made us feel very welcome with a 20% discount if you were wearing your name tag. They had out coffee, tea, cookies, and scones on the coffee table, a movie on the television, and wonderful comfortable seating.

Want to see the souvenirs I bought there?



The ball of sock yarn was in the sale bin; I couldn't resist pink sock yarn with sparkles. I blame it on the influence of that Hello Kitty bag. And hedgehog buttons! Why did no one tell me about these? I met up with Duffy at Dublin Bay; since she was a late arrival, I hung out on the comfy couch with a cup of tea until she'd had a chance to scope out the shop.

From Dublin Bay, we caught the Streetcar and headed for Knit Knot Studio. As we were waiting for our ride, Melissa called to warn us that the small shop was a madhouse. Apparently several of the small groups wound up there at the same time and overran the place!

So, we just stayed on until we got to Knit Purl; birthplace and homeland of the PDX Knit Bloggers.



That's LYS-worker extraordinaire and intrepid knitter Terisa behind the counter; she's one of the first PDX Knit Bloggers, too.



While not quite overrun with knitters, there were certainly lots of free-range fiber addicts.



Some appeared to be in shock at the "wall of Koigu".

Knit Purl gave everyone a skein of their ShiBui sock yarn; I took the turquoise as it reminded me of the color of their logo.



I bought two skeins of Fleece Artist SeaWool in Ebony colorway. I had intended to make Jeanie for myself, but when I unpacked my goodies at home, ToolMan said, "God, that's really nice yarn! It'll make great socks! And I really like those colors." I didn't have the heart to tell him that they weren't for him. I don't really need another shawl and he was so enthusiastic, that I hate to disappoint him. But, I might go back and exchange one skein for another color. After all, knitting one pair of ebony socks is tedious enough, but TWO pair? No way!

By mid-afternoon, the Seattle gals seemed to be doing fine on their own, and the PDX Knit Bloggers were wearing thin. So we retired to Starbucks for warm drinks and some knitting time. Actually, this was the first time all day when we really got a chance to catch up together.



From left: Judy, Kathleen, Duffy, Melissa, and Angela. After we'd had a chance to catch our breath, we all headed our various directions home after a long day of crawling through the streets of Portland. But what a good time we had doing it!

Gettin' a groove on . . . .

I finally feel like I'm getting back in the groove. I started feeling a little run down early in December; I'm not sure if it was starting the new job or the holidays or what, but by Christmas I was really starting to feel worn out and by the end of the year, I knew a sarcoidois flare was coming on. After going on that little fiber jaunt with Duffy, I knew a flare was definitely underway. I tried the rest of the week to just struggle through it, but by last Friday, it was just too much so I wound up in the ER getting a prescription for prednisone. By Sunday, I was feeling back to my old self and finally today, I think I've got my groove back on.

Even though I have the yarn for a test knit job and I'm anxious to get started on it, I knew I just wasn't up to it until the steroids kicked in. So, I've been knitting these on the train:

I know, I know, I did a whole bunch of these not too long ago, but those were all given away and when I reached in the drawer last week to get a dish rag, every single one had a hole in it! So, back to the Ballband Warshrag pattern and cotton yarn. And they make for very good commute knitting.

Remember that fiber from Butternut Woolens that I was spinning? I took Kathleen's advice and plied it into two 2-ply yarns, starting with the same end, and am I glad I did. Just look:

Since my spinning wheel doesn't have a large bobbin and flyer for plying, I couldn't ply this on the wheel; I had to do it using my drop spindle. The advantage was that I could really control the twist doing it that way, but I was worn out after standing almost 5 hours to get all this plied!

I'm REALLY happy with the way this came out; there are long stretches of the same color ply with sections between with 2 colors of ply. I'm not sure what I'm going to knit with this; it's 80% merino, 20% silk so whatever I do with it will be soft and comfy. I have a little over 440 yards, so I'm thinking maybe a mobius or small shawl that I can wear in the office. With all the colors, it will go with just about everything I wear. I'll have to contemplate the dilemma while I'm working on the test knit.

Now, where did I leave off . . . .

I finished that pretty roving from Butternut Woolens. In fact, the singles are still sitting on the four bobbins, waiting to be plied. When I pre-drafted the roving, I split it into four equal parts, lengthwise. And I took care to spin each of the bobbins starting from the same end of the roving. So all four bobbins are in the same color sequence.

Now, here was my dilemma: How should I ply them? Originally, I planned on Navajo plying them to keep the color sequence. Sure, I'd wind up with only 1/3 of the length of the singles, but I'd be able to control the color change pretty well. And, I've never Navajo plied before, so I'd have to practice on some cheap "store bought" yarn first.

Then, I saw some beautiful candy-colored yarn that Dave Daniels plied barber-pole style, which looked just too yummy to pass up. But that would likely knit up into a wild riot of color with no particular sequence, thereby losing the impact of the various colors.

Then, last Wednesday night at SipNStitch, Kathleen suggested I make two 2-ply yarns, maintaining the color sequence in both yarns, then turn one of the yarns "other end up" and knit something like the Kauni sweater. BRILLIANT! (I'm tellin' you, these "knitter people" are some smart folk!) So, I'll make my two 2-ply yarns and then hunt for a pattern that really shows off the color sequences. Maybe a hat that would be felted? Or a bag? Hmmm, may have to do a little pattern shopping on Ravelry.

Speaking of Ravelry, if you are a knitter or crocheter and haven't signed up yet, then what the hell are you thinking? Go there and do that NOW! You have to sign up and wait your turn, but boy howdy, is it ever worth it! You simply cannot imagine the vast creativity, inspiration, and advice available until you browse around the site the first time. I'm a bad Raveler; I don't keep my notebook updated with finished objects, stash, works in progress, pictures, etc. But I'm in those forums almost daily. I've gotten inspiration, found free patterns, read tons of tips and techniques, offered help, made friends, and discovered some really wonderful blogs and podcasts on those forums. No matter what subject or niche you're looking for, there's probably a forum on Ravelry that's a perfect fit. And it's all free! So, go sign up for a membership. And when you get in, give Jess and Casey some money; these two kids (and Bob, the dog) have worked their tails off (Yes, pun intended; sorry, Bob.) and deserve to make a buck or two.

One of those Ravelry forums is where I read about a group of Seattle knitters who will be taking the train down into Portland next weekend for a yarn shop crawl. MonicaPDX saw that post and said, "What they need are local guides" and I said, "Amen, sistah!", whereupon I proceeded to round up some PDX Knit Bloggers (not that it took much convincing) to join these tourist knitter and show them the fine yarn shops we are fortunate enough to have right in our own backyard. Now, if I can just remember to not only charge the camera batteries, but to actually TAKE the camera with me next Saturday . . .

On Saturday, Duffy and I went to Fantasy Fibers in Canby to check out their Mystery Batts. I bought two batts, and Duffy bought several to share with friends. I didn't get pictures, but Duffy has some on her blog so go over there and look. See those two big batts that I bought? I paid less than $15, for both batts! The pictures really don't do the colors justice. The darker one reminds me of the agates you find on Oregon beaches; all dark greens and browns and caramel, with just a few streaks of cream and red and orange to lighten them up. The other one is various shades of gray, from dark to light, with just a few strands of burgundy red. I'm really anxious to see how these spin up.

Then after Fantasy Fibers, we drove over to "Yarn Mecca of the West", aka Woodland Woolworks. One simply cannot drive south of Hillsboro and NOT go there; it would be a mortal sin. I was on the hunt for some dk weight yarn for a test knitting job I picked up in another one of those Ravelry forums. Crafty Diversions emailed the pattern to me last week and I knew WWW would be the perfect place to pick out the yarns to knit this. Ok, so I'm not getting paid for this test knit, but I do get to keep the finished object, so it's almost as good as being paid.

And now that I finished ToolMan's latest pair of house socks, I need a new project.



There they are; house socks made from yarn I spun myself!



The specs: Dragon Waste purchased at OFFF last summer, spun into 2-ply tweed and 2-ply solid. Knit from the toe up, starting with Judy's Magic Cast On, then using my own "perverted heel". I'll have to explain that to you someday. I'm pretty pleased with these; the yarn bloomed pretty well after they were washed and dried. ToolMan says they're about half a size too long, but he did deem them "not droopy like the other ones."

He put on his new socks right after finishing up this lazy kate for Duffy:



That picture's a little fuzzy, and the color really isn't accurate. Here's a better one:



Duffy reports that the rods were too big for her bobbins, so he's making another set with thinner rods. Then he's going to start on an idea for a hat blocker that Kathleen came up with. She's a smart cookie, that Kathleen. He needs an Etsy shop, that man.

And last, but certainly not least, the latest report from the parental units back east yielded this:



My dad loves pitching horseshoes, and takes it very seriously. Just look at that, would 'ya? Ranked 8th nationally! In our family, he's always ranked Number One; even before he started pitching shoes. Way to go, Dad!