Rose City Yarn Crawl 2013 Day 2

Another day of taking Brandon to work early and this time headed into Portland. The plan was to start out at Opulent Fibers and use a $10 gift card there. I had planned to get eight ounces of fiber but with the loss of the $20 was reduced to coming up with a little extra so that I could get an even four ounces. I was early and then waited inside the building until 9:15 then gave up when still not open. Sign said 9am. :-(

Since it was right on Division it was only logical and the other early opening shop, to head to Yarnia. Then I waited for the shop to have a bunch of other early crawlers empty and found that the machine was in use. First time seeing that!

Look close to see the yarns going to the machine

So off to Twisted, though I'd be early and miss the lamb coming into the shop. I have in the past either found parking on either side of Broadway or a side street on the same side as the shop. This time I went to the other side of the and around the block to find this:

How cool!

I had originally planned to get four Hexi-puff skeins and bring in a couple of finished hexi-puffs to get free skeins, but since my budget was less, had to figure something else out. I had been tempted the last time by some Brown Sheep Lanaloft and it was less expensive than I had seen in another shop, so picked out a pretty red and then was tempted by a skein of sparkly red mini:

They had some lovely snacks too! I was able to get some gorp and a tangerine to keep up my energy for the rest of the day.  The ride over to Happy Knits was quick and I was able to get a spot in front of the Barley Mill. I wasn't the only other early bird there, the car in front of me had a couple crawlers and saw others standing outside. Made me think of the Mervyn's commercial with the woman at the door going - open, open. ;-)

Yarn Garden is just a couple blocks down the street on the other side of the street, so an easy walk down the hill. I didn't have them planned as a place to shop, but found some cool fiber art:

Do you see me? ;-)

They also made some fun post cards that can be sent in the mail. I saw a pic of all four, Rachel tells me they are $2 each, here's the one I did see in the shop:

Gossamer isn't that far away. They have yarns and fibers and kits for needle felting. Picked up an apple slice and some lovely cheddar cheese to nibble on and ran into Rachel and Stacey finishing up their crawl. It was a store that Rachel had planned to shop so she was trying to find something. These were a temptation:

Sheep!

They also have a nice selection of embroidery floss 

Some cute samples of their needle felted items. There's little gnomes in the house and angels or fairies hanging.

From here I had thought to head north across the river back to the west side, but changed my plans because I wanted to end it differently from last year. The mapping program took me a different way than I would have come up to get to Angelika's, but that was kind of cool. Learning new ways to get around is always fun!

I had originally planned to buy this at Angelika's, to go with the yellow from For Yarn's Sake to make this. After some searching, I decided to get a ball of Cascade Fixation since I've used it in the past and able to get a pair of ankle socks from one ball. It's in a plastic shrink-wrap to keep the ball band on so please forgive the pic:

Another loop around and the phone map directed me back onto the freeway and back off to go to Knit Purl. I had to circle the blocks looking for a parking space. On the loop back I found a spot across the street from the shop, so dared the parking ticket to go in. They checked my cards and one was empty and the other had $4.15. The challenge - to find something without spending much more. I found Sara, the organizer of the Rose City Yarn Crawl busy uploading photos from her camera to her laptop. Chatted with her before finding a small bottle of lavender scented Eucalan that I just had to pay .10 more to get. You can never have too much wool wash!

It really would have made sense to go from Knit Purl to Pearl Fiber Arts, but I had decided I wanted to end at Cindy's shop. This meant driving down to Dublin Bay as my next to the last stop of the crawl. I found another parking space right on the corner around from the shop and saw that the street in front was full so dared the parking meter gods again and parked without paying for the meter. Looked around the shop and spotted this cute little sheep (I have had it in my queue, now want to knit one):

Nibbled one of their tiny little cupcakes and confirmed that their Downtown Abbey marathon were DVDs on the TV. It wasn't currently playing so went back out to the car. I had noticed this loud rhythmic pounding sound when pulling up. Found it here:

Not sure what its doing to the roof of the apartment building, but glad I don't live in that building!

This really isn't a parking space - at ALL

Turning the corner puts you on 11th Avenue so its just going back down the alphabet to Hoyt and Pearl Fiber Arts. I signed into her iPad to register for the shop prize baskets and received my final stamp to my passport - yea!

Isn't that pretty?
It gets me entered into the Grand Prize Basket drawing

Cindy was worried that I would get a $60 parking ticket for daring the parking meter gods, so had me fish out some coffee coins to feed it. In return I had told her about the free cupcake available from Cupcake Jones. She downloaded the coupon on to her phone and I took them both over - its a block down and around to the shop.

These are our Caramel Mudslides - devil's food cake, kahlua pastry cream filling, irish cream icing, house made caramel drizzle and chocolate coffee crumble on top

Rachel and Stacey had beat me back to the shop with their completed passports. We all chatted for a bit and I realized I was fading from hunger and since my meter had expired headed towards home. I was heading up the hill from the tunnel and realized I had left my cupcake in the shop! Horrors!! A quick call to Rachel and she kindly offered to drop it off on the way to dropping Stacey back at her house (she lives in the  housing community over by the 'new' Witch Hazel elementary (they tore down the old one a year after William graduated and went to middle school.) 

Seattle to Portland Yarn Crawl - Year Two

Saturday was a damp day. Thankfully it we were between wind systems and it was just a mist or periods of no rain. I carpooled in with Shelia and we met up with other carpoolers outside of the parking garage, passed out name tags and gave some to Cindy to share with others who planned to hang out at Starbucks in the Governor Hotel Lobby.

A few of us hopped on to MAX rode a few blocks down and picked up the Streetcar headed to Union Station. We arrived early enough to hand out name tags for waiting Portlanders. Then the Seattle people arrived and chaos ensued. ;-) They said hi to us, we got a copy of their handouts, they picked up their VooDoo Donut Bacon Maple Bars - if pre-ordered.

We opted to go to Dublin Bay first because Shelia had never been there before. Last year was my first time and I haven't been back since, not that they aren't a great store! Sara, Shelia and I all found prints that we came home with. Here's mine:

It's tiny at 3-1/2x5 inches, but its what I was willing to spend. I saw the little border collie in it and thought of Greta's Mellie. 

From Dublin Bay we stopped at Hot Lips for a slice of pizza and some free samples of their pop. I had a vegan slice with spinach, mushroom, tomatoes and onions. I didn't know about the broccoli and hazelnut with butternut squash sauce that a few others got. Shelia's was interesting with sliced pear and ham. We were thus fortified to head over to Cupcake Jones. Rachel had picked up a Starbuck's Red Velvet Cupcake so was on a mission to do a taste testing. I opted not to buy one, even though purchase of the Red Velvet cupcakes were having a portion of the proceeds go to Haitian Relief.

Since we had gotten the handout from Charisa that contained a coupon for a free Powell's bag, we *had* to swing by and get ours. They are the same size as the grocery bags that stores offer to reduce using plastic bags. It's a nice navy blue with green lettering. Mine is now with my other grocery bags ready to go back out to the car.

We had a further walk from Powell's to Saint Cupcake but it was worth the walk! Sara found a vegan cupcake for her son C with food allergies, so always a bonus. I spoiled Rachel's standard cupcake purchase with buying the last of the Red Velvet ones as well as a carrot cake. The frosting on both are great. I ate the Red Velvet one last night and need to eat the carrot cake one still.

We had a six block walk back east to pick up the Streetcar that would drop us off in front of Knit-Purl and Josephine's Dry Goods. On the way were a lot of Victorian style houses, these were the ones we saw first:

Rachel claimed the one on the far right. I liked a couple further down, but didn't get pictures of them unfortunately. I'll have to take Brandon for a walk to Saint Cupcake and take more pictures in the near future. ;-)

There was a trip into Knit-Purl where Sara and I picked up our store sample commissions. Sara's is a lacy shawl and I have a cowl in some luxurious silk/cashmere. I think some yarn was bought by others, but I didn't bring my store card so will have to wait until I return the cowl.

Rachel looking over her Red Velvet Cupcake purchases, can you tell which one came from Saint Cupcake?

We met up with Cindy, Duffy, Judy and Susan. Susan apparently had some of her yarn samples that she brought back from TNNA. She also found out this week that she'll have a booth at Madrona. If you're going check out her Abstract Fiber booth.

Dueling cameras with Duffy:

Rachel with cupcakes. Judy has her pretty Entrelac Noro Silk Garden (I think) wrap over her shoulder.

Cindy with her pretty wrap on the left, Susan and Tracy to the right.

Shelia helping a lady who happened to *not* be a yarn crawler get started on a scarf. The lady was staying at the hotel and saw all the knitters so brought her stuff down and got a little help getting started. Shelia's awesome that way.

From Starbucks we headed over to the Button Emporium. This was my first time in there and it was impressive the amount of trim and buttons they had in their little store. Rachel found some angelina in a corner too. Shelia found buttons to go with three sweaters she has yarn for. I only have one sweater started and not sure if I'm going with that pattern, so not really ready for buttons. It was still fun to look though!

Since I was in the button store, I lost track of time and missed the wedding I was supposed to be attending up at the zoo. Shelia was done by that time and not heading over to the next stop - Happy Knits, so she offered to drop me off at the zoo on her way home. I then waited in the drizzle for the wedding party to exit the zoo. We then headed over to the reception site.

There were a number of games of Jenga at the reception (they had games on the tables - we picked the table because of the game) and some food. Talked to the bride and groom and after some white cake with chocolate chips and fudge headed out. Brandon found the directions to head over to Kennedy School and met back up with Rachel, Owen and H, along with Angela and Sara. They were just about to get their dinner, so we had milkshakes and some tots. Got to see the special 'lava cake' that was all part of the J.R. Tolkein birthday celebration. By that time all the walking, sites, people and food caught up with me and I started to shutdown. Spaced out saying good night to Rachel, Sara and Angela and headed out to find the car and get us all home.