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.
What’s next?
The hats are done.
Koolhaas Hat 4
Koolhaas Hat (large) – IK Holiday Gifts 2007
Noro Kureyon color 188, ~60g on #7 needles
Painting by John Dempcy
I don’t normally knit the same thing over and over, except socks, but I knit four of these hats, in a hurry. DD went to Alaska and needed hatS. Wasting no time, I knit the same thing four times and in four different yarns.
Here’s the pile of stuff for a teenager going to Alaska and the Yukon with 54 (!!!) classmates for ten days in Spring:
It looked much bigger when I was sitting in the middle of it trying to label everything.
There are the four hats along the bottom:
Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted (green),
Noro Kureyon (purple green),
Noro Kureyon (turquoise brown),
Debbie Bliss Merino Aran (gray).
So, knitting hats and getting DD all geared up and ready for the big Alaska/Yukon adventure sort of took over my spare time for the last few weeks. Now I have a chance to think about what I want to do next. There are the dust bunny issues…but that is not what I want to think about.
Where was I? Poetry In Stitches, Koigu fingerless mittens, that vest I knit last year and need rip, re-write and re-knit, AS vest in Shibui Midnight, the Mason-Dixon Knitting Inspired Dining Room Project (needs it’s own post)
So much yarn, so little time.
…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/>
Variegated
I love variegated things.
It started with these soaps.
I have had these since my mom was guilted into buying them way back in the early ‘70s. Apparently my mom had a hard time saying “No” to the Avon Lady:
(WHAT is with that tree, is it supposed to be the Faberge Bay Tree Egg??)
At first, I didn’t like that one soap with the big white blotch. Then, something clicked and it became my favorite.
Variegated and asymmetrical things appeal to me.
Plants with variegated leaves
Pinto ponies
Patchy dogs
I even love my graying hair.
It’s coming in unevenly and unsymmetrically on my head, which makes it even BETTER.
So. You can imagine which yarns appeal to me.
I love variegated yarn
My Favorite Yarn Of All Time is pictured in my header.
It is currently tied up in a sweater that is waaaaaay too big. I want to pull it apart and re-knit it into something that fits and weighs under 10 pounds, but I am afraid the yarn won’t take the abuse. I don’t spin, don’t own a wheel, should I get a drop spindle to put a little twist back into it? Anyone with experience with this?
On to knitting:
The first Koolhaas Hat is complete.
Koolhaas Hat (large) – IK Holiday Gifts 2007
Debbie Bliss Merino Aran color 325302,
~75g on US7 needles
I say “the first” because on handing it to my teenager for a try on, she said, “You know what would be really cool? A BUNCH of these in different colors.”
WOOHOO! Music to my ears. I don’t usually knit the same thing over and over but I have a deadline, not a lot of time to futz with a new pattern.
I was thinking NORO Kureyon
Okay you must understand, this is a teenager who has made it clear She Likes Solid Colors, she does not like variegated, she does not like self-striping.
(How can this be? :- )
“Let me show you these really cool Japanese yarns…”, I tempted. “They aren’t self-striping yarns, exactly, they kind of…evolve from one color into the next.”, I appealed to the painter…
Color 183. Yes!
Koolhaas Hat (large) – IK Holiday Gifts 2007
Noro Kureyon color 183,
~60g on US7 needles
Next up, a Solid Color Hat (I can be fair)
Yarn Mob
If I had it to do over again…I probably wouldn’t.
I was one of hundreds, no thousands, who descended on Hilltop Yarn on Saturday for their Fire Sale – 50% off EVERYTHING.
As I drove there I contemplated the 1-hour parking spots.
Not likely.
As I drove past, I saw the line that was most of the way down the block, ten minutes before opening.
Well, I was already there.
I started laughing, as I walked past the entire line to get to the end.
Wish I hadn’t drank so much coffee.
The line began to move, it kept moving. And moving.
They let EVERYONE in! It was packed.
Completely packed.
I stood in the doorway and momentarily considered the wisdom of going into a building that was jammed well beyond fire code. Then a space opened between two bodies. Of course I wasn’t going to let those knitters get ALL the yarn.
In I went.
Well, what do you know? All those years of abusing my ears and whatevah at rock concerts paid off. I knew how to get through a crowd.
But it was already slim pickin’s.
I got a couple of balls of cracksilk in blackcurrant, I think I was lucky to get that. I also snagged three hanks of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, two in ecru and one in black.
I turned around and got a sinking feeling (no, it wasn’t the floor collapsing, though the thought had crossed my mind).
“Is this the checkout line?”
“Yes.”
Though the pile of people I was looking at could hardly be called “a line”. It was a room completely full of people all facing west – the direction of the next room with the cash registers and beyond that the front door.
Sigh. I’m not sure, but I think it was about forty minutes later when I got out.
There were jokes, there was camaraderie and balls of yarn being passed and even tossed across the room…and there was some trying of patience, though no one lost their temper or manners, that I saw anyway.
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.
Kaffe Fassett Ready-To-Wear (Am I the only one who didn’t know about this?)
I was looking at the latest issue of the Peruvian Connection catalog, saw this and thought, “that looks like Kaffe Fassett”:
Then I read the description and to my surprise, it WAS.
(why was I surprised, I just said I thought it looked like Kaffe Fassett?)
WooHoo I don’t need to knit my own and weave in all those ends!
Oh wait, check the price…
hmmm, I guess I will be weaving in my own ends for now.
SEE all the Kaffe Fassett items:
Kaffe Fassett designs at Peruvian Connection
And THIS (not Kaffe Fassett, but pretty cool):
makes me think I should give crocheting another chance.
Koolhaas for Alaska
After Madrona on Thursday and Friday, with my head stuffed full of new knitting design concepts and ideas I headed to this place.
Mount Hood.
The weather was incredible weather, clear blue skies. Skiing, sunshine, friends, food, drink. I got to see another great WPA lodge, Timberline. I am always amazed by the big logs in these places. The stair rail finials were all different carved animals, impressive stonework, fireplaces, ironwork, and great light fixtures.
It weirds me out to look out the window and see snow, not snow falling or snow on the ground, just snow, like “we’re buried in snow”. I had just walked into the place and knew there was an open exit, so I didn’t have to go all REDRUM, but I don’t think I would like to wake up, think, hmmmm, what am I going to do today?, look out the window and see that.
I brought my current portable knitting project, my notes and pattern from class with Jean Wong to review, and a new hank of Blue Moon STR along.
After class my head, though not quite spinning, was certainly wobbly. I decided I need to do some fancy thinking about tailoring my sweater pattern before I get started.
Set that aside.
Picked up the current portable project, fingerless mittens in Koigu P529, decided I didn’t like the pattern I was using and would prefer another pattern.
That I had back at home.
Sigh.
Set that aside.
Good thing I brought the STR Mediumweight Braun’s Woods.
I started a swatch.
Yuck! Stripes. Hmmpf. I am still trying to learn how to look at a hank and predict how it will knit up.
Set that aside.
While in Oregon, we hit the Portland REI to do some sales-tax-free shopping. DD is going on a school trip to Alaska and needs ‘a few’ things. By the time we got to “Hats, wool or polyfleece – QTY 2 minimum” I was in no mood to ‘buy’ a hat. Though I had nothing to knit on the three hour ride home, I had a plan: Koolhaas. I even had a stash yarn in mind.
I took a nap
As soon as we got home I pulled up brooklyntweed and the Koolhaas Hat, showed it to the DD-in-need-of-at-least-2-wool-or-polyfleece-hats and she declared it: Cool.
The yarn, Debbie Bliss Merino Aran was OK’d. Cast on:
I have wanted to knit this hat since I first saw it and I have had this odd bit of yarn for a long time. Someone gave it to me as a birthday present. Someone who knew that I knit, but is not, nor has ever been, a knitter. Risky. At last, the yarn has a project.
Knitting In Mind 