Thorn is Finished!

I had hoped to finish and wear Thorn for the yarn crawl. I stayed up until 1:30am Wednesday night binding off. I used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off after reading some of the other project comments about theirs not being stretchy enough. I used Cat's video to learn it.

Something new learned! Yea!  I'm all about learning new things. After having to pick up the 263 stitches on one side of the shawl and then knit the eighteen rows of garter stitch that I wanted to stab my eyes out from boredom I just so wanted this project done! Done!

The corner of the picked up stitches and the held stitches. It does have a nice corner turn.

The color variations of the handspun yarn. Not terribly obvious when adding in the second skein either.

With the yarn crawl and a long day on Thursday, it wasn't until I got home early enough in the afternoon on Friday that I was able to put it in for a soak. I had forgotten that it bled before, so was surprised to see a pink sink. Oh well. I didn't do an aggressive block on it, since its a superwash yarn. Luckily I have a king-sized bed to spread these larger projects out on and aim a fan at. It spent the rest of the afternoon and until we went to bed drying. It was just a little damp when I picked it up.

Saturday was the earliest I could wear it and it was day three of the Rose City Yarn Crawl. I did have one of the shop people at the Knitting Bee ask what the pattern was. I was also able to use it as an example that thick and thin knitting gets balanced out with the knitting while talking at Pearl Fiber Arts.

Dawn-Marie went out with me last year and wanted to go again. I think she was glad that we weren't trying for a bunch of stores. I took her to four stores. Two knew ones - Knitting Bee and Pearl Fiber Arts and two repeats - For Yarn's Sake and Angelika's.

She found a squirrel pin at Knitting Bee and got a free pattern and at Angelika's we found a cute toddler crochet sweater and then found some nice yarn to make it. (She'll have to go back and get 1 more ball of yarn this next week because of a miscount. But its within walking distance of work so not bad.) She saw a lot of the yarns there and I think may go back again for afghan yarns for her daughters. They have a crochet and knit purse pattern on the same sheet as their free pattern.

At Pearl Fiber Arts I was able to have Rachel talk to her about crocheting in the round. Also introduced her to Judy Becker, since she was in the next chair over. ;-) There was also a new lady, Vicky I think, who was standing there and crocheting in delicate thread in a pattern design out of her head. Caught up with Duffy who is going to do the World Wide Spin in Public event organization this year - yea! Going to try to get Cindy to have a World Wide Knit in Public at her shop.

So Dawn-Marie got to see and hear that we don't shun crocheters and knows that if she runs into a pattern issue she can come to knit night on a Wednesday. I just have to pick her up since she doesn't do night driving. ;-) She also bought a crochet hook while there and got Cindy's crochet cowl pattern - bonus!

Brandon was off helping Jenna with some house projects when I got home, so I asked William for some finished project photos:

I am trying to work with him on how to let his mother know he's ready for a new pose. I got him smirking behind the camera so that helped.

It's light but has good coverage so I think I might use it as a camp shawl. I can either make a shawl pin or just tie it on, so an easy to wear shawl. Since its also kind of a period looking color at 30 yards it would pass.

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.) 

Rose City Yarn Crawl 2013 Day 1

As you know I participated in the Knit Along for the Rose City Yarn Crawl with knitting items from last year's event. I hadn't posted the last item from that the Who Are You? socks that I knit for Carina:

I won a $15 gift card for the Winter Solstice Cracklin Rosie Cowl to For Yarn's Sake and then successfully answered one of the Trivia contest questions and won a $5 gift card to The Knitting Bee. Woot! I'd sold some yarn so had a $40 budget for the event along with another $30 gift card given to me for the Knitting Bee and a found card for Knit-Purl.

Dropped off Brandon at work and then headed to Oregon City so that I could attempt to be one of the first ten people in line at Wynona Studios. I was number 7:

I had planned the night before to start a pair of fingerless mitts for Carina out of the leftover sock yarn from above, and had put some waste yarn in but while there at Wynona found that she had a tiny stitch holder for only .50 - so a purchase and get the pattern, plus my skein of fingering weight cashmere yarn - Score!

I had two rows started and knit two rows there.

All purchases are put into handmade bags - cool!

From there I headed to West Linn and Wool n' Wares but had to wait half an hour before the shop opened. So I sat and knit:

Covered sheep, but the part not covered was pretty dirty

Twin lambs

The car was in for engine work last week and while driving between shops the 'check engine' light came on. So on the way to All About Yarn, I called the shop and asked. They had me stop by, not really a problem since they're a stones throw form the shop. Nothing to worry about and on to the shop:

The table for knitters was all full, so I got my passport stamped and headed on to Northwest Wools (getting a malware warning for their website so not including a link). There was a bit of construction making parking interesting but finally arrived at the shop. I found some pretty fiber to bring home and knit a few more rows to make up for not being able to at AAY:

They didn't know or have labeled where the fiber came from. I think its from Opulent Fiber Arts. Its a gorgeous burgundy.

Went past downtown Portland and headed north to Close Knit and took time to knit again and also stopped into Bolt next door. Found a cute little chipmunk button (thought it was a squirrel at first look) for Larissa.

Next stop was over to The Naked Sheep shop and was able to park right behind the shop car:

Blurry pic of the stitch marker and another for scale of the squirrel button

It was now time to head back to the west side of town and closer to home. So stopped at For Yarn's Sake to use my gift card. I had pre-shopped online so knew what I wanted to get. Some yellow sock yarn to become a shawl:

Enjoyed the Moonstuck chocolate samples they had out for people too. :-) Headed off to my first real yarn store The Knitting Bee and to use my two gift cards there. Went with the idea that since I didn't have a particular project in mind to buy for and couldn't find any black sock yarn to go with the above yellow went with total frivolity and bought these:

Used the $5 card for this, just had to pay an extra $3.75 to cover it. Yes, its mainly acrylic but the colors are so pretty.

Malabrigo Rastita in Cereza, its a DK weight

Any suggestions for a project for these two lovely skeins?

I sat and knit a couple rows and ran into Nori, who came back from Austin Texas to visit and take part in the yarn crawl. It wasn't until I got home and went through my stuff that I found that I lost a $20 bill here. :-( Bit impact for the rest of the yarn crawl. I just had $10 left to spend.

Since it was late, but I still had one more yarn store stop for the day - Kathy's Knit Korner out in Forest Grove. It's owned by Sharon so I got a hug and was tempted by some of her sale yarns but it was outside my budget so headed back to pick up Brandon and home.

Whew! Nine shops with the idea of getting the out lying shops all done so that the next day I could do all the downtown stores.