My Best Girl

I don't think words are necessary here...It's just one of those cat picture moments. Brahms says "hi".

Something Finished, More to Go

It didn't take me long to finish this sweater out of Noro Matsuri. It was the last past of getting the colors evenly distributed on the sleeves did take some patience. I'm happy with the results. In fact, I have it on as I write this!
Now that's done, I'm working on finishing up my other UFO's. Thing is, they all take charts of one sort or another. That leads me with the dilemma of needing a more mindless project. That next leads me to the dilemma of taking on YET ANOTHER project. What'a girl to do....
This is my friend Elizabeth's sock that she cobbled together using a long repeat colorchange yarn and a self-striping yarn together. Sock two is on the way....This photo doesn't even begin to do the colors justice.
And, one of those Gotta Have It fall folliage shots taken while I was waiting for the Sunday Knitting gals to arrive this week. The colors seem to have come out just overnight this year. Quite sudden.

It Was an Idea

So, it wasn't MY idea, but that's probably just as well.

Some years ago when I got my copy of Stitch n Bitch I looked at that circular needle holder and thought, "My, how simple and useful!" But it meant taking out the sewing machine and that's been progressively harder to do. No good reason. Just impatient with that particular process.

On Monday I got over myself and gave it a try.

What happened is that they all curled forward making the thing look like some kind of evil sea monster. I walked around my rooms, trying to find a place to hang it and I found I just couldn't bear to look at it.

In a last-ditch effort to make it work, I took some old, large gauge Aluminum, straight knitting needles in the bottoms of several of the slots to make it lie flat. It's all pined in place right now and hanging on my door to see what becomes of its shape in the next few days.

It's Friday, Does it Matter?

This is fiber that I got in Sweden that was carded into thin sheets...

All of my days closely resemble the others these days.

Changes?

Turned on the heat and took off the screens.

Went to a Portland Knitter's Guild meeting.

Started working on a new Portland spinning guild, Spinnerati.

Things that are the same?

Taking pictures of yarn

Mailing out yarn

Spinning yarn

Knitting

Tea

Fiber or Not

My first cashmere, plyed with silk

Well, I'm starting a local, downtown Portland spinning guild with buddy, Bobbie. We're not calling it a guild because I think for some new spinners that name can be intimidating. But it's all about trading information, community and teaching, regardless of what you call it.

What we are calling it is Portland Spinnerati!

As I sit here, drinking too much tea, destashing on Ravlery and knitting and spinning like a wild woman, I realize that I'm on quite a role. The job market has tanked even further and this is my version of productivity. Two weekly knitting groups and a spinning guild. Not a bad contribution to society in spite of it all.

Manic? Do I sound manic? ::::::turning off CNN:::::::::switching on the Soundscapes music channel::::::::

As usual, I wake up in the morning and turn on the news, wondering what the hell is already going on. These days I forget, or resist turning it off. What's up with that. The pundits just keep spewing and I am a deer caught in the headlamps, a fish on the hook.
I need to take back my brain. Oh yeah, meditation.
I'm also obsessing about my older cat, Brahms. She quite clearly has dementia, amoung other things. She's cold but can't remember where the heating pad is that's on for her. She can't remember that I moved the bed so that she can hop up from either side. She still comes up the same side and jumps right over my head. One day she's gonna miss. I won't cuss her out though. She's my baby. She gets confused and I just lead her in the right direction.

I love her so much it makes my heart want to burst.

New Destash

10 skeins for $26

4 mohair blend $18
2 Cascade Quatro wool $12
Misc luxury skeins $13

3 skeins $13
6 skeins $18
7 Skeins $28
2 for $7
2 for $7

4 for $21
1 for $5
1 for $5
6 for $23

9.5 for $24

All prices include US postage

My friends joke that when I do a radical destash, you never notice a different in my apartment.

Plus, I still have two big bags of other stuff to distash on Raverly under Knitfemme. Lookie see, will ya? I've got lots of blue and black mohair!

Hmmmm. That said, here we go again. A new level of reality on what I will really use.

Going OFFF Again

The big weekend started with a little get together with some friends we RARELY see.
Richard, against the backdrop of a favorite diner, The Roxy.


The fabulous Gary, taking pictures as I was.

Barb and Duffy taking photos at the same time! (Roger was so animated, his picture just came out as a blur.)

Here is Barb, in front of her Journey Wheel, showing a youngun' how to spin fiber by just rolling it on your knee.
Here's Bobbie, organizer extrodinaire and queen of the buttons.A lot of folks LOVE these baskets and buy them in the bunches.
This is the first time I've bought kid mohair locks, dyed. I'm not a big mohair fan but the kid is much softer.
This is the same fiber, picked by hand into clouds for spinning.

Deb bought this sweet bunny, but much to her and our sadness, Liesel didn't make it through the night. To her left is Michelle LB and Tammy on her right.

This is my little old wheel going home, safely in the backseat, all strapped in.

This is the only picture of me knitting in my newly finished cardi, posted in the Oregonian knit blog.

Projects are Bustin' Out All Over!

It has come to my attention that my UFOs have reached critical mass.
In an effort to stave off knitting disaster, and make myself look like an aimless, slovenly knitter I have taken on the task to plow through as many as I can.

Here we have some finished Merino inpaled with a swawl stick that I picked up a the the TNGA show.

This is the start of my spinning the fiber I got in Sweden. It's really got a lot of noils, and I'm using it as texture to my advantage

This is my Prepster jacket. The first garment that I've ever crocheted, featuring buttons made by my dad many years ago.
This is a sweater that should be done today, from IK Fall 2003, Lace-Edged Raglan by Deborah Newton, knit in Ella Rae Classic
This is the first completed Nutkin sock in Wollmeisse, with the second to be finished this week.
This is sock one of a design I'm working on, using Araucania Ranco Multi.
This is something I haven't touched in a while but will go back to next week, a Trident Lace sock by Gardiner Designs in Koigu.

There are other major UFOs out there, but these are the ones I am plowing through right now, before I'm allowed to start something new.

Yah!

Crafts in Sweden

This is "Old Linkoping", kind of like a local Colonial Williamsberg recreated village right in the main city limits

I liked the architecture and this red paint on many of the buildings is particular to Sweden, iron ore, I suspect.
Here is a nice tea garden within the village, overrun with sparrows, searching for leftovers.
Very interesting sunburst design above carriage entry door.
What I mostly knitted on was this sock, Nutkin knit in Wollemeise. I took the picture in bright late day sunshine and it just didn't nearly translate in a picture.

This is my final installment on the Swedish trip. I didn't mean to let this go, but I wanted to cover the most important part to my readers, which was the fiber related stuff. I put off the trip to this craft museum/store: Hemslojden (HemSLAden). Before I knew it, it was my last day, a Saturday. Little did I know that shops there close early on Saturday or I would have set out earlier for this adventure.

Simply, it was heaven. I'm sure that many folks who visit this place just love to look around and there's probably not that many actual crafts people who make it to this corner of paradise.

They had some localy produced wool yarn, some roving meant mostly for felting and some linen embroidery kits. The needlework in terms of costumes used so many techniques, including hand felted wool used as trim for mittens and such and then embroidered. Just amazing!

This is what I ended up buying: green heathered locally spun mohair wool blend, still a little oily, some red wool for spinning (a bit rough) and two 50 gram batts of what I expect is Polwarth! These sort of details were unavailable at the shop.

It seems from the abundance of old spinning wheels in second hand shop windows that spinning is a familiar thing to Swedes, but not something that many people actually do there today. Nothing like the US. We've got it going on, people! Of course, learning and being inspired by their tradition is what it's all about though.

This is the onsite barn/cafe with freshly made waffles.
Me, having a blissful moment knitting at the crafts center. When I was taking the picture above of my fiber purchases, a woman who works there, Gudrun actually came over to talk to me. In my whole THREE WEEKS in Sweden, it was the first and only time a stranger came over to talk to me. And, did we ever talk. It was great fun and she was excited to talk about knitting and spinning.

Leave it to the fiber folks to make the connection.

I also ended up purchasing two sweaters from a second hand shop. The tan one is at least 20-40 years old and the other is an old Dale of Norway that was really worn (but not worn out) and needs a little repair. Both fit perfectly and I'm excited to put them into use this Fall.

Livin' la Vida Linkoping

I was first introduced to this town through an American's blog, Linkoping Livin'.
It was cold and rainy and a Saturday I think when we took a walk to get out of the house and came upon this gated courtyard spilling with music. It was a small operetta with a mixture of Verdi and Gershwin and more. Apparently the mayor's wife is an opera singer (in the fur coat) and the mayor joined in as well (in the black hat behind her).
The best part is that there was a small orchestra who was first in one room of this building, and then moved from room to room to change the sound and emphasis of action. Interesting concept, especially since it was cold and REALLY rainy.
This is the fella who did something galant to create this settlement of Linkoping. Look at that face! I'd run too.
A really old building.

Directly above these bikes is a speaker system. Every hour, it plays the sound of a Jackdaw bird, dying a terrible death. Yeah, like the soundtrack from The Birds. These birds have made a mess of the town squares, in particular this one and the only thing that seems to keep them at bay if this awful sound. Of course, I was sitting here alone, wondering what the hell??? I didn't see any birds and couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. When it was explained to me I thought, okay, how bad can these birds be?

The next week, at sunset we were walking towards the square and saw masses of these large, raven like birds it honestly, it WAS scary. We changed our path down a side street to avoid confrontation with the feathered masses of menace.

Here, a mixture of the old, next to the new architecture.
A lovely cafe to enjoy, but oh, the stairs!