One Row Karma Scarf

I finished up the One Row Karma Scarf last night. I soaked it in hot water and got a few extra inches out of the soak. It's only 46 inches long so drapes around the neck and a decent length down the chest. It's intended for a teenage girl, so hopefully it will work for her:


Today there was spinning at Panera Bread again. We had three spinners and one knitter. A nice mix. ;^) I plied up the Abstract Fibers BFL in the Shady Glade colorway. Lovely greens and blues. I decided to also n-ply this yarn and I think it came out nicely. It's resting on the bobbin and will come off tomorrow and have a nice hot soak and see how much there is to play with.

I then started in on the last of the Abstract Fibers sample - Superwash Merino in the Autumn colorway. Mine is lacking in the green and so if I wanted to I could call it Sunset another colorway she has that just lacks the green. ;^) The colors are coming out really vivid. I think I'll also n-ply this one.

Before going to the spinning group I had knit one of the Cranes for the Knitnotwar that Knit/Purl is doing for the month. I'm going to use some of my leftover Cascade 220 from the Cascade Lizard Ridge blanket. It's a nice quick easy knit that just needs to be felted. I'm going to use these as a break in between scarf projects. ;^)

I had also started another project that will be nameless until after it is given since the giftee is also known to look at my blog, reading, I'm not sure. So that safe rather than sorry thing. Why am I mentioning it then? Because they use the same needle size as the cranes. I'd started it and then put it on the craft table so it wasn't visible while I was gone. Silly me, I left the needles with the yarn.

I had stopped at Jo-Ann's on my way over to Haggen's to try to find a copy of the Simply Knitting magazine. They were all out of them, or they hadn't yet come in. I did use my 40% off coupon to get a copy of Interweave's Piecework. They had been advertising the Baby Inca Hat. Interesting article on knitting two socks at once - inside each other, I don't think I'm ready for that. No knitting needles meant that I did a lot of socializing - fondling finished projects - knit and spun and looking through the magazine. Rachel had also brought along some 'free yarn' from Debby Accuardi. I picked up a couple of sock yarns:

A sock kit - pattern, yarn and beads:


Tiggywinkleknits also had given me an almost full skein of Paton's Beehive Baby Sport in white so that I can make Ruby the Snowgirl a husband. I'll also make her another friend, since the pattern is a grouping of three. ;^)

Tomorrow there's knitting with the Insomnia group but even better than that, a book signing at Powell's! Patricia Briggs is in town again for her new book Bone Crossed. A Mercy Thompson book out in hard back. I of course have had it on request to be shipped from the SciFi Book Club for a month now. They of course wouldn't ship it out until its release date of the 3rd. Anyone seeing where I'm going with this yet? Yes, the price I have to pay for getting it cheaper (saving $11 off the list price) is that it will probably arrive on my doorstep on Friday. It at least shows that it shipped today where it hadn't yesterday, so more likely arrival is Saturday. I do have a book for her to sign (all the other ones were done last year) and it will be fun to hear her do a reading and the Q&A. Might even get to say hi to another local author - Lili Saintcrow, she often comes to these events too.

Tuesday Tidbit

I plied the hydrangea roving and have started on the Shady Glade BFL sample. Here's the finished Hydrangea Yarn:

The single above and then I N-plied it for the following:


Approximately 23 yards of light fingering weight yarn. I'm thinking it should make a nice coffee cozy.

I've put lots of inches on the One Row Karma Scarf. I may be able to finish it later tonight. I still need to do some work on the baby alpaca so we'll see. (Would like to comb it with the mini combs or the dog combs whichever feels best.) I had used the dog combs to comb out the Shady Glade similar to the previously combed Hydrangea. There's a full ounce of it so I'm planning to do two singles and then ply together. Though I do like the color block results from n-plying the Hydrangea....tough decisions to make. First that alpaca.....

All Crawled Out.....

I'm not a morning person and I've had a lot of them lately. ;^) This morning was another one but it had a fun reason so worth hauling myself out of a warm cozy bed.

Arrived at Orenco Station (not the actual stop but the businesses nearby) to find Bobbie, Angela and Karen already there. We added in Noriko before getting on the train. Picked up Sara and baby Connor at the Sunset Transit station. Bobbie and I knit out way into town. She worked on a mini-hat and I worked on the Karma One Row Scarf. I added an inch and a half to what I had cast on last night.

We got off at the China Town stop and walked past the closed Chinese Gardens and zig-zagged our way to Union Station. We had an hour to wait for the Seattle train. We were early because last year they arrived twenty minutes early - that didn't happen this year. I pulled out my yarn event book and had those present sign it. I got Joan Schrouder's and Deb Accuardi's signatures, they're already 'famous'. ;^) Joan tried tempting us with knitting in Hawaii or the Swiss Alps. There's also a spring retreat in Newport that she'll be teaching at.

I had helped Rachel carry one of the two bags of fiber samples that Susan (Abstract Fibers) had sent along to give to the Seattle knitters. I did scoop up a half ounce of merino in Hydrangea that is a pretty pink/red with black. Then after the Seattle Knitters had their chance in the two bags, and to help Rachel combine the bags, I looked through and got two samples of SW Merino in Autumn, two BFL in Shady Grove and another Merino called Crater Lake (they're all in my 'stash' at Ravelry if you have access, if you don't you'll see them soon I'm sure).

From Union Station we headed out to Dublin Bay. My first time in there. It's a nice sized store with lots of lovely yarn. Some in shocking sizes to scare your credit card. ;^) I was doing well at resisting the yarny calls until Bobbie waved around this HUGE bundle of roving at us. There I was with a chocolate finger in my left hand and a ripe juicy strawberry in the right and alternating bites (yes, getting my chocolate covered strawberry experience) and she's waving roving to be fondled. It's from Kerry Woollen Mills in Ireland. It's 100% organic combed wool. Bobbie found the one and only natural available and I was lured into getting a lovely Purple that isn't as shocking at the other Easter Egg colors they had on the shelf. It's a pound of roving that was $17 but we got a lovely 20% discount so that dropped it to under $14. They claim that there's enough to spin into a sweater.



From Dublin Bay we zig-zagged up the streets to head to Cupcake Jones (there was a brief stop at the Tea Zone for bubble tea for a couple members) and some delicious cupcakes. I picked up a mini one for the dogs (oatmeal and apple with a cream cheese frosting): (sorry about the flash glare on the frosting). Then I picked out following minis: Peanut Butter & Jelly, Gingerbread Cookie and Caramel Latte:
The only larger cupcake I bought was the Peter's Chocolate Mint one:
I resisted temptation and didn't start eating them. I wanted to save for later. It's next door to a Ben & Jerry's, how decadent can you get?!

We then found our way to the well hidden Knit Knot. It's a tiny little store that is owned by a dog and looked like it had some nice earrings and scarf pins (from seeing them on some of the Seattle ladies). It was a bit crowded and hard to see all their yarns. Bobbie and Kathleen did get an awesome deal on an acrylic-mohair yarn that has futures as shawls.

There was a call for Cacao and some drinking chocolate, so a lot more zig-zagging finally found us there. We were able to have a shot or a cup (some decided a shot would have been more than enough - I'd already learned that one) and sit and relax for a bit and catch our second wind. We'd lost Camille and Noriko along the way by that time. But found them when we arrived at our next destination - Knit/Purl.

I truly looked for some Malabrigo Worsted or any other worsted that was under $20 for a future as some manly scarfs but was unsuccessful. Sandy B and Sara did oohh and aahhh at my knitted mini-samples. I'm assured that I'll be invited to the next Yarn Sampling. I think the photos will also appear on their blog too since Sara took photos.

Bobbie and I kept Kathleen company while she popped next door to Josephine's Dry Goods store to pick up some material to make some skirts. Isn't it nice that there are people out there that still make their own clothes? Kathleen was wearing one of the lovely skirts that she had made too. We then walked a couple blocks over to meet up with knitters waiting at the Starbuck's (Susan and Michelle). Fondled a Leyburn sock, made a mental note to do the twisted top if I do the sock out of the Doctors Without Borders STR. Then realized that food was needed if not that, then time to head back home.

Our group of eight ended up going in two directions. Bobbie, Sara and I to walk the couple blocks over to catch MAX back home and the rest of the group (Susan, Rachel, Angela, Karen and Michelle) to go to Dublin Bay. Kathleen I think was going to get a ride to get back to her car.

I must say that Connor did really well. He chilled in his chest carrier, nursed when able, napped, and flirted and had a high end diaper change in the hotel. It wasn't until near the end of the day that there was a slight crankiness that was easily distracted into chewing on a toy and flirting with grandparent types on the train. I never would have thought an eight month old could spend the whole day like that without a major blowout. Cool kid. ;^)

I had intended to cop out and just get fast food but since I needed to pick up dog food at Nature's Pet I popped over to the New Season's Market and picked up some olives from their olive bar (very cool!), a mini loaf of sourdough bread and some homemade chicken alfredo. William and I'll eat a much healthier dinner that way. If he's lucky, I'll share halves of the mini-cupcakes. ;^)

My batteries are running low so I'm going to grab dinner and veg in front of the box and try not to fall asleep too early.

Oh! We're talking about doing a Portland to Seattle Yarn Crawl for late spring/early summer. Wonder how many yarn stores they have easily accessible from their train station?