Psychic Knitter

Where have I been? Besides sewing up a storm, I have been knitting a lot of squares of late, a bit too boring to post pictures of until you put them together. My two friends and I have been making afghans for the volunteer organization we belong to. We all used to go to the weekly meetings and knit and chat with fellow volunteers, but we found that it was getting harder to attend the meetings due to some pretty full schedules of our own, so we decided to work on squares on our own time and then meet to assemble the afghan. The latest afghan was so much fun to put together! I actually created the color theme for the afghan so that I could knit the daisies for it. These are the smaller afghans designed for children. The larger ones are 39 squares which seems a bit daunting to us (two of us knit) so we leave the big ones to the group.
 I am now working on the next one which is a Harry Potter theme. It's the Griffindor colors of maroon and gold. I'm hoping to add a Griffindor lion on one of the squares. I like the idea of doing the Harry Potter themes because they can be used by both girls and boys! At the moment, I am furiously knitting some I cords for little bags I'm making for my Etsy Store, Toadwerk and also hoping to complete "the other mitten" which will then become part of a nice winter set for myself. More soon!

 This last weekend I did a vendor gig with my Etsy craft business, Toadwerks. Toadwerks specializes in making tarot cloth, knitted tarot bags and handkerchiefs. It is the tarot bags that have in the past month, had me longing for a Martini, or four, on a daily basis. Sadly, I could not afford the luxury of chilling out, when I needed to rev up my one woman production line. The paradox is that I sorely needed to chill out as the days got closer to the convention. I don't want to say that I was hard to live with, but I'm just saying that the cats were cutting me a wide path when they saw me coming. The day before the convention, as I was sewing on one machine while my embroidery machine was whirling away, I looked up and saw that my cat Gypsy was eying the embroidery machine and getting a bit closer to it than I was comfortable with so I went over and picked her up. Thinking that I was going to feed her to the machine, she did a kitty freak out that ended up with me having four nice long scratches going across my hand. Being the craft warrior that I am, I threw some ointment on my hand, wrapped it in gauze and continued on. My efforts and sacrificial blood letting, were rewarded with good sales on both the tarot cloths and the bags. More importantly, I was able to learn more about what the customers prefer in terms of colors and themes.It was fun to be able to sell my products in person to a target audience. Best part? It's Martini time once more! Cheers!

On this TBT I am going back just two weeks ago when I was on a trip to Portland Oregon. I had the good fortune to be there just a few days before the Rose Festival which means that the rose gardens were in full bloom.It occurred to me, as I was sitting and knitting under a beautiful pink rose tree, that I had just finished a fun summer shawl that could well have been inspired by the colors I was seeing in the rose garden. I used a ball of Freia Hombre Lace in Melon which I purchased at Rose City Yarn Crawl. The only thing that would have made the day more perfect would have been a Cosmopolitan Martini in hand.

My love affair with Portland Oregon continues and the feeling is mutual I know, because The Rose City greeted me with warm sunny days that lasted (just 2 rain days) for over two weeks.
 I finally got to attend the Rose City Yarn Crawl this year! I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had. Suffice it to say, that I came home with enough yarn to knit with for the rest of my life! I am hoping to use it up this year so that I have an excuse to shop until I drop, again next year! I got to visit some old favorite yarn stores like "Close Knits", "Happy Knits" and "Pearl Fiber Arts", and to discover many fun new stores including my favorite new store, "Twisted"! Twisted has a real Portland  feel and look to it and the staff is very fun! The following is a picture tour of my yarn crawling through the Rose City...

It began with joining the RCYC Mystery Knit Along! I finished my shawl in while in Portland and blocked it in the hotel room. It was fun to see everyone's interpretation of the shawl. I should have taken pictures!

I picked up my bag the day before the yarn crawl started. I even ordered ahead to make sure I got one.

The goods! A basket full of local yarn!!

I discovered Black Trillium at their trunk show at The Knitting Bee. I was surprised that I stopped at just 3 skeins, but it was only my first day. The skein on the left is called "Hedwig" and it will be a shawl. http://blacktrilliumfibres.com

At Twisted I was able to decide on just one beautiful handmade yarn bowl from JAMPDX.. I really wanted at least three of these beautiful bowls.

I joined in on the Friday night party that Happy Knits hosted. Lots of good food and drink AND Three Fates Yarns in all of her awesomeness. I bought this pack of gradient pinks to make a polka dot cowl!

I'm glad I was dedicated to making it to all 15 stores on the crawl. If not I would have missed Wool n Wares in West Linn. This friendly shop offered the weary yarn crawler bottled water, candy and oranges, not to mention the Knitted Wit Trunk show! Her color selection was incredible and beautiful. I bought some of her mini skeins that she calls Gumballs, to coordinate with the skeins I chose. I also picked up a few skeins of some lovely local alpaca and a few other goodies as well.

For Yarn's Sake in Beaverton had author Larissa Brown there on Saturday. She was signing her new book "Beautiful Wreck", a tale of  time travel back to Viking times. Lavender Sheep was there with some specially hand dyed yarn especially made for Larissa's book. I finally managed to pick out a skein. Luckily they also had special small skeins in little bundles so I got one of them as well

It wouldn't be Portland without Voodoo Doughnuts. Northwest Wools (Portland's oldest yarn store) had the pattern for the yarn crawl and this nifty kit which was a must have. I really had to resist the urge to ask, why not pink? :)

At The Naked Sheep Yarn Store I got to sit with author Anne Berk and learn Annetarsia! I hope I remember! If not, I have the book