Posts filed under ‘Cool Things’
Knitted Skirt Design Class with Carol Lansinger
My pal knit1frog2 and I took Carol’s great skirt class yesterday at
So Much Yarn
Carol Lansinger and her hand knit skirts
I have wanted to knit a skirt for quite a while, then I heard about this skirt class with words like:
“you should take this class before you knit a skirt”,
“now I *know* how to knit a skirt”,
“I love my skirt”.
See janetcharb’s skirts on Ravelry here and here, she brought them to a Seattle Knitters Guild meeting. They were gorgeous. I was smitten. She recommended Carol Lansinger’s class…
It’s a great class.
Carol talked about style. Style in fashion, personal style, designing and knitting style for yourself or others.
She talked about skirts. Knitting skirts, designing skirts, shaping skirts, FITTING skirts.
Knitting ‘butt sprung’*-free skirts.
She had many many samples, it was EXCITING.
*Carol’s term for that unflattering pouf you get in the back of your skirt after sitting.
Now I want to knit several skirts:
(CLICK on PICS to enlarge –
in the new window, you might have to click the ‘expand’ button)
Carol Lansinger’s Rowan Denim Pleated hem Skirt
detail of above skirt
Carol Lansinger’s Lace-edge A-line Skirt
in Euroflax Linen Worsted yarn
Sally Melville’s Nancy’s Skirt (the knitting experience, BOOK 3, COLOR)
in Manos del Uruguay yarn
(lengthened to 22” is very wearable by many)
knit1frog2 being shy
(behind Ruth Sørensen’s Claudia Evilla Skirt
in Kauni yarn)
I think I’ll start here:
Classic Elite Yarns Summer Book 2 Lace Border Skirt
Butterfly Super 10 Cotton in color 3829
CANADA! (Happy 150th Birthday British Columbia!)
THE GOOD NEWS:
I finally made it to the legendary Button Button.
I kept seeing handknit sweaters and admiring the great, perfect buttons and I kept hearing “I got them in Vancouver (hmmph)
Seattle’s not a button town”.
What does that mean???
I wondered what a ‘button town’ was.
Is it filthy with button shops like Starbucks in Seattle
Do they sell buttons *in* their Starbucks???
How many button shops can a city support?
I began asking more specifically and learned that everyone was talking about ONE particular button shop in Vancouver: Button Button.
Wow. I took pictures, but they can’t do it justice.
An incredible variety of buttons and so many of them.
Shelves, trays, DRAWERS full of buttons.
that drawer thing is full of vintage buttons
and it isn’t the drawer thingy
So many buttons, so little time.
It was our ‘family’ vacation; spending two hours in a button shop and missing the 12:55 ferry to Nanaimo was not to be suffered.
I will have to go back with an open mind and plenty of time. I want to look at ALL the buttons.
Two hours probably won’t be enough
THE BAD NEWS:
Button Button is “leaving at the end of August”.
WHAT!?!
New Location: “don’t know, but somewhere”.
I know! it’s August NOW!
She is taking email addresses to let us know where she ends up.
The family did suffer a bit of yarn shopping later in Victoria, though. I waited as long as I could and then casually said “uhhhhh, I’m going to swing by the yarn store…” and started walking toward Beehive Wool Shop. I have been enjoying the Butterfly Super 10 cotton I bought last time so much, I decided I ought to get more.
Butterfly Super 10 cotton color 3829
(I know it looks like the same as 3834, but it’s not!)
DD requested a scarf with a texture pattern. A Soft Scarf. I’m a sucker for a request from my yarn-suffering family.
Misti Alpaca Worsted (in 100g hanks!) color SFN 10
Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria: a great yarn shop, with tons of
bee-uuu-tee-ful yarns. It’s an eyeful just walking in the door. They have things I never see in Seattle, like the Butterfly Super 10 and Misti Alpaca Worsted in 100g hanks.
On top of it all, they are super nice and helpful. When I said DD wanted “something cream colored and soft”, yarn suddenly began appearing in her hands for a squeeze; I think they pulled a ball or hank of every single cream colored yarn in the store and were ready to start making phone calls!
DD went all puppy-faced when she touched the Misti and that was that.
Things I love about vacation:
my family
Canada
reading
the beach
new places
views
playing poker
no computer (surprise!)
Vancouver: The Sylvia, Banana Leaf Malaysian restaurant on Denman, French Connection (WHAT? they were having a “sale” and I have teenagers…), Button Button, BC Ferries
Tofino: Ocean, beach, crab dinner, Ocean Village Beach Resort, The Schooner Restaurant, NW Coast Indian Art, no tv, no telephone, no computer, no radio = reading, knitting, poker, beach-time, family-time.
MacKenzie Beach
time well spent 🙂
crab dinner at the cabin
Ocean Village Beach Resort cabins
Victoria: 150th BC birthday party in full swing!, High Tea, shopping, Beehive Wool Shop, Butchart Gardens, gelato,The Provincial Museum,The Black Ball
Victoria, B.C. Inner Harbor
Butchart Gardens
Butchart Gardens
Butchart Gardens
The Black Ball Ferry (MV Coho)
I’m ready to go back!
New Knitter
This is not a problem. It’s an opportunity.
BFF and a good time to learn how to knit
I expected her to be considerably less mobile and thought that a ‘little something’ to keep her occupied would be just the thing.
I arrived with wine and pie and beautiful yarn…heh heh heh
She picked it up quickly and got cranking right along
respectable first effort in minutes
The next day this arrived in my Inbox:
Ripped and started over all be herself! Cast on and everything
Yay!
Lucky Me
A dear friend visiting from Norway just brought me this.
Hifa 2 (the yarn used in Poetry In Stitches designs)
colors: 6038 Navy, 6085 Forest, 6072 Burgundy, 6053 Black
It’s always lucky to have a dear friend. A friend that brings yarn, well, there ought to be a word for it.
I started Poetry In Stitches 166
This Hifa2 yarn is a delight to knit; when my friend asked if there was anything I would like her to bring from Norway…
I could not resist.
We drove to Portland and I was delighted that she enjoyed The Button Emporium and Ribbonry at least as much as me, albeit for the ribbons, while I go for the buttons.
I did break down and get a couple of ribbons.
The dragonfly ribbon is sheer and delicate The brown and green ribbon, I noticed that each circle was different, then I noticed each circle was a maze, and FINALLY I noticed the flyer right next to the ribbon telling the story of each maze. So cool. And it’s reversible!
I have NO idea what I’m going to do with it.
ribbon by: LFN Textiles
Portland is so cool, people leave their unexpired parking stickers on the pay stations so people can use them if they find them before the time is expired!
Time on the meter, even when there’s no meter
Portland Buttons
Another quick trip to Portland, I finally made it to The Button Emporium And Ribbonry. Once inside, I was overwhelmed, every few seconds I’d see a button I wanted. Fortunately, I had taken a ‘yarn chip’, kinda like a paint chip, but with yarns intended for patterns that include buttons. I wrote the number of buttons needed next to each yarn.
I do better when I know how many, what size, and what color button I need.
pewter buttons for Poetry In Stitches 166
Celtic knot pewter buttons for
Alice (are we allowed to use her name?) St*rmore vest
another future sweater
I did not EVEN get into the ribbons. That was too overwhelming. The fancy ribbons had fancy prices, so I need to have a plan for them. I have some ideas now and I’ll be back there next week.
The Wall Of Koigu and A Clever Design
“What’s next?” turned out to be the Koigu fingerless mittens, mostly because they required the least amount of thinking. Thinking can really slow down my knitting. Some times it even halts my knitting. They’re pictured below in front of The Wall Of Koigu at Knit-Purl in Portland, where they lived in a previous life as hanks.
fingerless mittens
Koigu (KPPPM) color P529
~62g, on #1 dpns
matching nails – OPI “Dominant Jeans”
I was treated to being photographed by The Blogger of Knit-Purl, who is even more delightful in person than on the blogpage.
Not a treat, was me rolling out as the champagne was rolling in! Aaah! that was tough, but I had a three hour drive north and work the next morning. If I lived in Portland, Sip ‘N’ Stitch at Knit-Purl is definitely where I would spend my Thursday evenings.
A Clever Design
I was visiting Portland State University, walking past Stephan Eppler Hall:
The break in the pathway caught my eye, it is part of the building’s rain drain system:
The downspout empties into a bed of stones, which drains out the bottom through the spout on the bottom left:
The spout empties into a channel with an arrangement of granite bricks that allows the water to flow across the walkway through the spaces between the bricks and allows pedestrians to walk without tripping or spashing:
At the end of channel the water falls into a sunken garden with stones at the base of the waterfall:
Each drain is different, each bed of stones is different, each sunken garden is different:
I love a clever design.
…and three days after that
Wednesday:
ETA:
See them three days earlier:
https://knittinginmind.com/2008/03/16/28-hours-later/
and the day before that:
https://knittinginmind.com/2008/03/15/shitake-mushrooms/
Oh, right, this is a knitting blog:
Koolhaas 3
Koolhaas Hat (large) – IK Holiday Gifts 2007
Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, color M120 Limeade,
~77g on US7 needles
Next up, one more hat:
in Noro Kureyon color 188
28 hours later…
ETA:
See the day before “Shitake Mushrooms”:
https://knittinginmind.com/2008/03/15/shitake-mushrooms/
See them GROW “and three days after that”:
https://knittinginmind.com/2008/03/19/and-three-days-after-that/
Shitake Mushrooms
Here’s something DH does in his spare time:
growing shitake mushrooms
(mushroom kit from Fungi Perfecti)
Evolution of Mushroom
His best crop so far prompted perusal of the cookbooks in anticipation of the harvest feast:
Beef Wellington with Shitake
Stuffed Shitake
Beef with Shitake
Chicken Rolls with Shitake
Asian Rice Salad with Crabmeat & Shitake
Monkfish with Shitake Mushrooms and Fresh Ginger
from The Complete Mushroom Cookbook by Antonio Carluccio
and
Mushrooms Favorite Recipes by Andrea Kösslinger & Sibylle Reiter
Ah, Saturday morning, coffee and cookbooks…
ETA:
See them grow “28 hours later”:
https://knittinginmind.com/2008/03/16/28-hours-later/
and GROW “and three days after that”:
https://knittinginmind.com/2008/03/19/and-three-days-after-that/>
Costume Jewelry
When I was little, my mom would let me pick out her jewelry when she and my dad went out dancing. I always always always *wanted* to pick these:
but I would often pick other things because I knew she thought these were a bit too flashy to wear every time and I knew she liked her other things too.
Now that I’m all grown up I can see that the other things are fine, in an elegant understated way, but these are still my favorite.
The earrings are clip-on and unfortunately too painful to wear and I don’t dare alter them. I love beads, but beading is not my thing.
I have attempted to make a matching pair of earrings a couple of times before and never been happy with the results, but I like my latest attempt (new pair below the old pair):
I plan to wear these for a special occasion this weekend along with something my mother would never wear:
Chanel Blue Satin it’s a dark navy blue.
Knitting In Mind 