Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

I went to Oregon Flock and Fiber yesterday and oooh, that place is sooo dangerous. The drive was fine - about 70F when I arrived in Canby, found a parking place, and stepped into the 4-H building. First stop was Blue Moon Fiber Arts - I just love their colors. Found a gorgeous skein of kidmo-silk in laceweight in my color - a magenta/beet root red colorway called "Backstabber".

Next picked up some crocheted scrubbies for pots/pans. I haven't had much luck making them myself, but they are very handy to have on hand.

Much of the same as last time I went - lots of fiber for spinning, and knitting. Interlacements was there again and what beautiful colorways! Also, stopped by Hokulani Farms to look at their cashmere yarn. Just $25 for a skein of fine laceweight yarn - 450 yds. The owner designs her own patterns, and most take only 1 or 2 skeins. Where can you get a cashmere scarf for only $25 ? She had a fabulous collection of bold colors. My color ? Dahlia.

Sudan Farms was there and offering lamb kebabs. I had two - they were soooo good. Yum!

Village Spinners & Knitters was there from California - huge selection of books but not much yarn. I did find a special Addi needle that has a US 6 knitting needle on one side, and a size C crochet hook on the other. What a find!

Progress on the Drop-stitch Wrap: Completed the one front triangle, finished the 2nd rectangle on the other side of the wrap, and have just started the second front triangle (decreases). It still feels luxurious.

Ravelry and progress...

Checked my Ravelry status today...wish I'd found the list earlier.

Found you!
You signed up on September 8, 2007
You are #31816 on the list.
17888 people are ahead of you in line.
1804 people are behind you in line.
40% of the list has been invited so far

I finished knitting the panel, and started on the front triangle. Need to take a pic and post..'til later.

interesting discoveries

Unpacked my 6ft bookshelf, into 3 file boxes, prepped one more box to bring to Powell's and sorted by German silk-painting books for donation. Now I'm using the shelf to sort the other clutter. I filled another box with cardstock and fancy paper and friend David brought it down to my garage, along with 3 boxes of books. Sorted through 3 more boxes of old (2003, and 2001) receipts; and found some even older from 1999 from Germany and Singapore. More for shredding - 2 bags; and 2 more for recycling.





A guy came by today and bought my Adirondack rocker and chair; so, that's dealt with. I wasn't looking forward to moving those. The umbrella and stand are still available. Hopefully, someone will need one before fall is over.

Still lots of crafts to sort through. Some interesting discoveries today - found an old Dava Bead Purchase card to add to my collection - getting closer to that $100; found a bag of feet for my sewing machine (yay! I've been looking for this for a long time) AND found a library book that I've had for a long time that is due back this month.

Also, found 2 new groups on yahoo while looking for places to sell the previous crafts I loved. One is a new group starting a Portland Knitting Guild in NE Portland. I joined up; seems no further than the Tigard Knitting Guild. The second group is a group of Portland Knitters that blog...interesting. As I do more sorting and packing to ready for my move, i'll probably blog more about me than about my knitting...we'll see, I hope to keep making time for the knitting.

Work on the wrap has temporarily stalled. I knit about 7 or 8" of the first panel on the right (shown previously partially worked). The pattern says to go for 14", and I have about 7" or 8" which seems enough to go around my shoulder. I'm not sure whether to continue going and make it droopy...since it's my first one, but I'd hate to try to rip it back if it's too big. Close Knit's knit night is tomorrow, so i'm planning to go back and see if someone else there knows if I just have skinny arms, or if I'm not measuring in the right place. It's hard to hold up the wrap to myself in the mirror and measure at the same time.

Thursday's progress...

This wrap is really addictive - last night I stayed up late again to knit a few more rows.


Since last post, I complete the height of the back (13"), and put the left stitches on a holder. Now, I'm knitting the panel on the right side, which will fold over my shoulder to the front. I am really loving this yarn. It is soooo soft, and the colors are so inspiring as I form the knitting stitches.

Today, I had a busy day - I really drove all over town.
My street was being sealed, so I had to move my car to another part of the neighborhood last night, then had a nice walk to my car this morning.

I met some friends for dim sum downtown (whoa -Fong Chong is getting expensive!). Then, went to the post office, the bank, and to Powell's warehouse to see if I could sell some more books. I'm really trying to lighten my load as I have been "collecting" craft books for a while now and the value of those just drops like a stone. The lady at the warehouse was really nice and bought several of my books - I brought 3 file boxes in and 2 came out. Yay!

After that, I went to the library (another haunt) to pick up holds. Last-minute Knitted Gifts is a book that was on hold for me; and one I've never purchased. Some pretty simple patterns in there, but interesting all the same. Also, looking at "Knitted Accessories" by Claire Crompton.

After the library, I headed home - my car needed an oil change really badly (I mean really), but Hwy 217 was backed up, so I went to costco to pick up my new "emerald green" contacts - the first ones were called "cry blue" and had me almost in tears, they were so clear, I couldn't identify them in the case! These ones are much better.

Next to Goodwill to drop off a small toaster oven that had been rattling around in my car all day. Then, I really did make it to a different Jiffy Lube for the oil change - they were so quick, I barely made it through a row of knitting on my wrap! and they had a special sign out - so I saved $8. Sweet.

Finally came home about 6:15pm; the barriers were removed, and I have a new ashphalted street - black, but dull (not sticky, which is a good thing!)

So Inspiring!

Last night I went to Close Knit for a class with Iris Schreier and her new book "Lacy Little Knits":




















In just a short 2 hours, we learned how to make this long stitch wrap -made a swatch, and started with our real yarn...




















The teal turned out better than expected. Here is the before and after:















I think I had maybe 3 inches done by the end of class, then came home and knit for a couple of hours. The yarn is called Silk Rhapsody - it's hand painted silk & mohair. It is soooooo luxuriously soft to knit with, that it knits up very easily and quickly. I'm zooming along with my addis, and after this, i'll probably be spoiled for yarn.



I was a little worried about that mint color in the skein itself, but it balances the brightness of the teal and the darkness of the brown nicely. In this picture, it looks almost white. I've so fallen in love with this yarn!

Germany Trip

Finally downloaded the pics from my short trip to Germany at the beginning of August. I arrived on a Wednesday and left on Saturday. Just a quick trip for an interview (unfortunately, I didn't get the job). Here are 2 pics taken from the castle in Burghausen (SE Germany)in Bavaria of the Altstadt (old town):



Now for the rolling countryside...it was a bit misty that day.



Next to the museum at the end of the Burg. The ceiling beams had these cool carvings on them:











There was also this cool looking table and chair set:







and a beautiful tapestry:










Also, more stairs leading to a deck at the top. What a spectacular view!





This picture was taken standing on the roof, looking back at the rooftops along the length of the Burghausen castle.

Then, looking down on the town and the River Inn.

There were a series of metal sculptures near to the museum in the Burg.
This was one of them. Both man and mutt are marking their territory.






This was the second one I saw.


A view of the town again, walking back towards the entrance. This is the view from Burghausen, Germany looking to Austria.

The next two pictures were taken from the Austrian side of the river which you can get to in 5 mins from walking/driving across the small bridge that leads out of the Altstadt (old town).

The first is looking back up at the castle.
The viewpoint where I took the rolling hillside pictures is located at the far left hand corner of this picture - you can just make out the small railing.



The second shows the Altstadt from the austrian side of the river.

Current Project

Started another project - another Branching Out scarf using Elsbeth Lavold's Angora - in green - from my stash! I already knit one ball, and I've started the second. I love forming the leaf lace pattern as I go. The yarn is an olive green color.

Feeling lighter already...

I went to Powell's today and sold some used books - 1 box of 3 for $36 cash. sweet; and I'm feeling lighter too...This on top of a few sold on Friday for $25.00.

Now I can definitely afford to take the Iris Schreier class at Close Knit on Tuesday. We're making a Long Stitch Wrap from her new book "Little Lace Knits". The class is $80 and includes 2 skeins of her Art Yarns' Silk Rhapsody (ohhhh, this stuff is luxurious!), and her new book ($19.95). What a deal! I went in Friday and picked up the book and the yarn - yum! It's a bit hard to see here, but the skeins are primarily teal, dark brown, chestnut brown, and a light green mint color. The mint is not really me, but the teal and dark brown are definitely my colors.