MishMash

Today there were a couple of hours of spinning at the Spinnerati meeting and having great conversations about spinning. The whole woolen spinning and worsted that we all tend towards (or do I have that backwards in my head?). The fun of blending things with the drum carder.

I had picked up Sara and Cindy for the ride down. While at the meeting I passed on a free 15 inch LCD monitor to Arianne, but still had Michele's in my car. Michele, due to other commitments wasn't going to make it to the meeting, but got her address and with Sara's iphone help navigated there to deliver. Since we were so close, we couldn't resist a stop in to visit Twisted. So many lovely yarns and patterns to tempt a knitter. I kept my wallet in my pocket and just fondled various yarns.  It was cool seeing Michele's hat in person, as well as her patterns for sale.

What was really cool was stumbling across something that I had knitted being used as a sample display:

It's the Dundee Boheme that I had knitted to show off Susan's sock yarn as something other than socks.

Afterward we were blown home by the east winds - burrrr! I dropped off library books I picked up (since it was our carpool meeting place) and turned around to head over to Brandon's aunt and uncle's house to visit with his visiting father. Saved some holiday postage by also delivering his dad and step-mom's gifts to them. Yea! His step-mom wasn't up, she's a real estate agent in the Bay area and had showings to do. In this economy, you have to take all your money earning opportunities you can!

I've been working on the second leg warmer. Yesterday we were at Judy's house to help her decorate and put up her tree along with a dinner. So less knitting time between the various weekend events. I should be able to finish it before bed since I'm on the last 12 rows.I held the finished one up next to Kaisha's leg and it was a little long for her. That's why that tie is going to be handy if that's also the case for Bailey.

November Spinnerati

I picked up Cindy, missed Beth at the Hillsboro Main Library, and headed down to the Portland Central Library for this month's Portland Spinnerati meeting.

Duffy had planned to share some of her learning from the class she had at SOAR with Judith MacKenzie McCuin. This caused our big circle to break up into two circles - one listening to Duffy, the other having separate chats. ;-)

Pics:

Rachel excited and ready to learn ;-)

 

 

 

 

Everyone else saw the camera and made like they were really busy. We came back together as a bigger group for the last half an hour. Duffy's group said that they did learn a lot. I'll catch her on a Wednesday night when I'm in a learning mood. ;-)

I took 18 cupcakes with me and came home with 6. Those that ate them and were commenting, did say that they were yummy. I agree! The boys will suffer through and help eat the rest. There were 14 people attending, so a pretty good showing. Hopefully more people will be able to attend the December meeting in a couple of weeks, again on a Sunday.

I finished up one bobbin of the Spinner's Hill Purple and started the second bobbin. Hope to get the rest done this week. Not sure what I'll spin up next. I have some lovely fibers just waiting to be spun up, I feel truly fortunate!

PS: for those of you who read yesterday's post, the pics have been updated. I got rid of the dark or blurry photos and swapped out with ones I took this afternoon taking advantage of the late afternoon sunshine. Check them out. ;-)

Spinning, Mitten, and Cupcakes

I spent a some time this afternoon spinning with some Spinner's Hill purple - corriedale, finn, rambouillet:

Trying for more of what the colors look like than the washed out flash. There's Portland Spinnerati tomorrow, so I'll finish up this bobbin and start on the second.

Portland Spinnerati's first anniversary meeting is tomorrow, so I'm bringing some Carrot Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting:

I thought the carrot cake recipe was kind of seasonal without going for the pumpkin option.

Thought I'd share the backside of the mitten, its cool how the strands do the opposite of what is on the front:

Brandon went to the Winter Bazaar that was at the Washington County Fairgrounds. They had vendors there and he saw the same one I got my spinning basket from and thought I needed one for knitting.

Long quiet week

Still trying to recover from Sock Summit. Getting to spend all that time with all those knitters! All those fiber fumes from the marketplace. Can anyone truly recover from that experience?

Monday night we headed over to the airport to pick up Judy, Brandon's mom from her trip visiting back east. I didn't have to drive so made sure to grab yarn, needles and a pattern. Someone forgot to check on flight status so we had 2 hours to entertain ourselves at the airport. Saw a few shops, checked with Trtlgrl to find out if she wanted a cute turtle packback we saw in one store. The little turtle actually detached from the backpack and was the softest chenille. Then wandered through Powell's for a bit. Decided that the wait deserved a Jamba Juice so crossed the concourse for those and found a table. I was fully prepared to entertain myself with knitting but suggested that Brandon go get one of the travel Cribbage games I had seen in Powell's. Off he went for it and we played for the next hour and a half. We now have it in the car for future trips.

I got a couple of inches knitted and then realized after getting home that I had gotten my right side and wrong sides mixed up so had to frog that work and start over. Sigh. I blame it on the yarn. Simple Yet Effective Shawl, even an idiot can mess it up. ;-)

The correct view!

Since someone hadn't gotten the broken part on his car fixed while he was driving his mom's car, that meant that my car for was used for the week. Sigh. So no Wednesday spinning, but did get to go to Haggen's. We are a happy noisy bunch, especially when getting to ogle others Sock Summit purchases. Some really nice yarns found their way into new stashes.

I finished up my second Hydrangea sock to find that Sock Summit knitting and lack of sleep impacted my socks. I have two different heel flaps. I could have sworn I was reading the pattern while knitting them but clearly two different flaps. Then again if anyone is that close and says anything, I'm doing what Lucy says - kick them in the face. That Lucy she is a riot! Judy assures me that if I were to knit them at the same time this wouldn't be a problem - she's right of course. LOL


With these socks done, I have hopes of casting on the Orion socks soon.

Saturday I picked up Angela and we headed downtown to go the monthly Portland Spinnerati meeting. Luckily I must have planned for bad traffic because at one point I was thinking we were going to be 20 minutes early and we ended up arriving just a few minutes late. Tammy made mention of reading about the closure of one of the lanes and redirecting of traffic but didn't remember about it until in the middle of the backed up traffic. ;-)

Michele was lured into the darkside as Sandy Kay (Knit/Purl) called it, by Leila's Turkish drop spindle, she saw it at the Ravelry Meetup and the next day went and bought one of her own. It was the magic of creating a center pull ball that got her and then after feeling and seeing yarn appear under her fingers I think we have her well and truly hooked. ;-)
Depending upon how much spinning happens we may have to get her setup with a shoebox lazy kate for the plying step before the next meeting or at OFFF.

We had a larger group than normal with several new people there. I'm terrible about names so don't have any to share. A few photos though:




After Spinnerati, Angela and I put the wheels back in the car and made the trek the few blocks over to Knit/Purl. I needed to get the pattern from Sandy Kay that I'm going to do a store sample out of the Habu Raw Silk she gave me at Sock Summit. She also let us take home a sample of Happiest Girl Dyeworks that they had been giving out in the booth. I brought home a pretty red one called Gypsy Petticoats:
I think a little wrist warmer should use it up nicely.

One lady in Knit/Purl asked about Sock Summit. She didn't come because she doesn't knit socks. After a stunned moment I mentioned the 150 booths in the marketplace but couldn't possibly depress her by the demos she also missed out. I just left her with hopefully there would be another one here in two years. She still seemed surprised by that thought. Why?