Birthday Purchases

My sister Jennifer gave me a gift certificate for Amazon. I found out that I could make purchases through them of JoAnn products. So picked up some Naturally Caron.com yarns to make a Summer Chevron top with it. When it was delivered I found that I had made a small mistake in one of the yarns. Luckily I have a spring green I can substitute for the Berry Frappe. (I was going for the bamboo blend because they have more yardage and would make nice summer wear.) The colors are cream, berry frappe and taupe:


With the money the parents sent and in preparation for the Spinning Handpainted Socks class with Janel Laidman at Sock Summit I ordered to 8 ounce bundles of superwash Merino 62 roving in white. I'm going to let Sara play with the dyeing since she recently did a day long class in it. There was also an 8 ounce bundle of Romney-Perendale for only $8 so that got included along with a little bottle of oil for the bobbins on the Lendrum (it doesn't need oil elsewhere).

The color is dark grey and fawn for the Romney-Perendale.

I picked up more yarn that can also be made into a Chevron Sweater in Susan Pandorf's Destash Sale. It's some Jaeger Aqua a cotton DK weight. The colors are white,aqua and chrome:

Busy Weekend!

Friday afternoon Kim W. dropped off some pink and purple superwash roving that she had tried to spin. She's the one that loaned me the Louet S51. She's cleaning her stash room and asked if I could spin it up for her. It's very pink:

I started working on a Pure Soysilk Soliel top for mom for her birthday. Her actual birthday was Wednesday. With working I had a good portion of it done before Saturday when I saw her, but not finished. She flew up from Sparks, NV Friday afternoon. I got it to the point of just needing to seam up the shoulders and do the crochet Sunday night. I could have had it done on time if work and then doing activities with her hadn't interfered. (Okay, poor planning on my part!)

Here it is all done:


Saturday was shopping and lunch at the Streets of Tanasbourne and then chatting at Magnolia Park. Sunday William and I drove over and picked up mom and Aunt Mary and we drove up the gorge, took the scenic highway to try to visit Multnomah Falls - no available parking, very busy! So we headed further east and then crossed over the Bridge of the Gods to Stevenson and checked out Skamania Lodge. We then stopped back in Cascade Locks for ice cream before heading back to Gresham. Chatted for a while then headed home.

Monday morning I was up early so I could meet up with Cindy with her large black Starbuck's coffee to carpool to Twisted's 2nd Anniversary sale. They announced they were giving away goodie bags to the first 50 customers. We got there at 9:30am and there was already one person in line. Very quickly there were more people in line:

Goodie bag contents, Wine cozy pattern, pen that also has a tape measure, four cedar balls for stash safety, tip protectors, a Soak sample and a ruler:

I went with a purpose. To obtain Ochre Malabrigo Sock yarn for the Orion sock pattern. To take advantage of the 10% discount I found some size 6 glass beads and a bronze clasp that I think will look nice with the planned future February Lady sweater. Purchases:


After the Twisted trip I met up with mom, Aunt Mary, William and his friend Luke and we headed to Seaside. Mom's cousin Patty lives there so we combined a visit at her place of business for lunch before heading to the shops and the beach. Some salt water taffy did come back home too. Beach views:

Forgot!

These were dropped off at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks:


Each of them received a tag identifying who knitted them. Now to find them on the quilts at Sock Summit!

I was also really, really good. I went into a new yarn store and did not walk out with anything! May not be able to say that on Monday when I go check out Twisted. ;-)

Knit Not War - 91 Cranes Still Needed!

Knit-Purl still needs 91 cranes to make up the needed last 300 of the 1000 for KnitNotWar anti-war campaign.

The cranes take just a couple of hours to knit. A quick felt trip and then a few stitches to make them crane shaped and you're done. These are great stash busters if you have odds and ends.

They're trying to do the installation on Wednesday July 1st. Have time for a crane or two? I made 16. I might be able to whip out a few more, after I finish the project for Mom.

I'd love to offer a prize as incentive to participate, but if you're like me you're saving for Sock Summit, or Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. ;-)

Some progress made

I did manage to get Dad's Sockin Thuja Sox done before Father's Day. We didn't get down to Salem though, so they'll be arriving via mail. They came out well I think:



Last Wednesday I finished spinning up my Alpaca Direct Silver Alpaca singles. I plied them up Sunday as well as the mohair sample that Sharon had given me. The alpaca is ~359 yards of lace weight. Not sure what I'll do with it. I just really enjoy the spinning process and learning with each one. Sharon's sample has already been swatched so that she can have it as a sample.




I've worked on the shop sample, the Bonsai Swing Top from Mother-Daughter Knits. I just have a portion of the last skirt panel to do and then I can pick up the stitches to do the top. It should go fast from that point. I've just had these other projects with deadlines interfering.

Such as the need to have something done by Saturday for my mother who is arriving on Friday afternoon. Hence the Pure Soleil Top in progress (started Tuesday afternoon):


Last photo, the blocks turned in for the Doctors Without Borders quilts to be auctioned off at Sock Summit:

Migraines Suck

I had a migraine while working on Friday, woke up with one on Saturday. It thankfully put itself at an ebb during the WWKiP event but returned in full force after I got back home. Sunday again woke up with another. I had high hopes for Monday but again woke up with the pain.

Excedrin Migraine was a little useful. Making sure that hypoglycemia reaction wasn't the cause of the headache was also part of the attempts at a cure. There were also a few Tylenol 3 with codeine tablets as well as Vicodin tablets. The first few days they were left side migraines and then they flipped to the right side. What's up with that? What might be up is that I know that my neck is out of whack and things are showing up as migraines.

I have had series like these, but when one of the days is also your birthday, it really sucks. I had hoped to do things like get out of the house and have lunch somewhere. Go check out Twisted for the first time. I suspect that this may have actually been a good thing for my pocketbook!

Today I woke up with the absence of pain. It's been a relief. Too much time at the computer though I suspect may trigger something so I may be a little 'distant' cyber-wise over the next week.

The boys took me out to a nice dinner last night at Marie Calender's. My choice. I love their pot roast dinner. Afterward since we were so close to the GoodWill that Tiggywinkleknits has had awesome luck in finding men's sweaters to recycle into yarn I asked for an attempt. There were a number of possibilities a couple of them were sure things but honestly the yarns were scratchy and not something I wanted to recycle. Instead I found a navy cardigan that says its 100% lambswool and has a tiny hold near a seam and a very soft grey striped sweater that I know has wool but can't read the content label - I think its in Chinese. Here they are:



I hope to have Bobbie take a look at them either tonight or Wednesday. Then start making them into 'new yarn'. If it looks like I'll just get scraps out of them, I can return them to GoodWill for an exchange with their tags. Each were only $4.99 so not a huge investment.

Now back to work on socks, tops and samples.

World Wide Knit in Public Day

We had a successful day! Some of us planned to arrive an hour early to setup canopies and tables so that we'd be ready when people started arriving at 10am. Surprise! People must have been eager to get their goodie bags because we had a lot of other people also showing up early.

I took pictures and others took pictures. The coolest thing was that the Center took pictures and then burned them to a CD for us. I popped all of my pictures up on a Picassa Web Album for easy viewing.

World Wide Knit in Public Day, June 13, 2009 Hillsboro Oregon

We had 50+ knitters, crocheters and spinners there. Wow! I think we could have had the largest number of people participating. Wonder if it was the knowledge of 40 goodie bags? Bobbie did an awesome job of luring people in to the wonders of drop spindling. We'll see if any of them show up to our Wednesday morning spinning group at the Grange. ;-)

Peggy has posted about us on her Oregonlive blog. JoAnn of the Hillsboro Argus joined us and not only knitted but learned how to drop spindle. Here's her article on our event. (I'll also connect it up to the icon on my sidebar for future reference.)

Cindy brought one block and I had a block for the Sock Summit Doctors Without Borders Barn Raising Quilt blocks project Larissa Brown has going. Cindy also completed a block (even with me challenging her and dragging her off to help out with things) at the event.
Cindy's blocks:

I made a block out of leftover Bollywood by Stitchjones. I'd made a baby dress for Rachel's Trtlbby:



I took the samples that I received in my goodie bag from Fearless Fibers (the denim blue), Frog Creek Fibers (Stormy Sound) and Abstract Fiber (Improv) and made up a block. I still had leftovers from the Improv sample so I whipped up another one.


ETA: I've challenged other goodie bag recipients to whip up some more blocks from their samples. Hopefully will have a lot more photos to share on Thursday. (Wednesday is their deadline.)

I'm putting together thank you cards for the three local yarn stores that gave coupons and door prizes for our event - All About Yarn, Kathy's Knit Korner and The Knitting Bee. If you were a winner, do please consider sending them one too! I also have one going out to Glenn & Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center as our location host. I'll be asking about using their location for next year's event. Yup! I'm already planning!

Wonder if next year the local eatery businesses will be willing to do coupons? 50+ people enough to make it worth their while do you think?

WWKiP Day Teasers.....

We're just a couple of days away from World Wide Knit in Public Day on Saturday June, 13th. A whole bunch of really awesome ladies have provided goodies for 40 or so first lucky people to come to the event.

Debby made up 20 project bags.

Our second Deb sent in sock yarn samples for people. Pretty blue ones to tease you into buying more.

Sharon has some various color worsted weight samples.

Amanda, Emily & Jessica also have some sock yarn samples in rich, vibrant colors that will make your toes curl to sock made out of them.

Angela shared stitch markers so that your knitting has jewelry while you're working on your project.

Bobbie helped out in a big way with sets of matching buttons and then photocopying of patterns in full color for Cindy and Kathleen.

Still have more bags coming from Sara and Susan forgot her samples in her packing list trying to head out Thursday morning to TNNA. Sara will be delivering them to me on Friday at the shop and Susan is giving me an opportunity to visit Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks for the first time to pick up her samples. Rachel is going to go with me to keep me from buying. ;-)

Still here? ;-) Here's what we have so far:
Emtpty bags...
Bags being filled
Part of the bag filler crew (Cindy, Rachel, Angela, Karin, Kathleen)
Some of the things that are in the bags (more still to come!)

In case you were working, check out the AM Northwest clip of Larissa and the Barn Raising Quilt squares that you can bring on Saturday to our event.

Catching Up?

I've gotten things done this week, but I feel like I've gotten nothing done.

I have managed to spin up two ounces of lovely silver alpaca from Alpaca Direct. It's stuff I got from Christmas money my mom gave. It's going to be a lovely yarn I think:


I also have gotten the Borscht Greenjeans cardigan to the point that the armholes are on holders and I'm starting work on the body. Whew! Still kind of looks the same as the previous picture though, so no use wasting space for it.

I picked up somethings from Kathleen Wednesday night: four ounces of light natural brown Louet Coopworth Roving (she got it for working for Morgaine, Carolina Homespun at TKGA); scarf/stole pattern to test knit with some of Stitchjones pretty Marine Blue yarn - plus the sample she did; the pattern she's giving to put in the goodie bags for WWKiP day.

I finished sock one of dad's Sockin Thuja Sox. I found out Wednesday that I don't have to have them done on Saturday, I have until Father's day to get them done. So have two weeks to get the second one done is good right now. Here's what the finished one looks like:



I did though immediately cast on for sock two and get a few rounds going. That way I can have it as a project to work on in the car Saturday.

Also found out on Wednesday that there is going to be a birthday party for Jenna - three weeks later than her actual birthday. So I thought I was off the hook to knit something and now I'm dangling precariously on the hook. I did get the baby doll top cast on and through the sleeves done. I just cast off the sleeves and have the upper body to do and then switch yarns. I think I'm going to hold the Bollywood double, but may still change my mind. I've done a number of modifications that you can check on Ravelry if you're really curious. I plan at least one more major modification but that you'll also have to wait to find out. ;-)


Sharon was really nice and gave me a purple mohair sample to try spinning. It's about an ounce of grape kool-aid silkiness:


I still need to finish the Bonsai Swing Top. I'm taking it with me Saturday for the car ride down to Salem. I'm going to be knitting at birthday parties because I have too much to do not to be knitting! ;-)

We had a really good wind storm followed by a cool thunderstorm here tonight. I videotaped the trees being blown in the wind but haven't done more than move it off the camera. Let me know if you're really curious and I can see about getting it on YouTube this weekend.

So to go along with the title - no I don't think I'm catching up and getting everything done that I had hoped to have done by now. Maybe next week?