I love Portland! It’s such a great city, for many reasons, and one of them is its totally artsy vibe. Portland recently had 14 local yarn shops participating in the 2016 Rose City Yarn Crawl. Some of my impressions:
This week’s Camera Lucida challenge made me smile as I thought of this picture I had taken of the body of my Itty Bitty Giraffe (pattern by Susan B. Anderson). The combination of color and shape was so evocative of pears (which I love as a design element), that I just had to take this picture.
This week’s theme: ‘Hidden’
- kept out of sight; concealed;
- difficult to find, lying beyond what is obvious or avowed.
Share with the world your latest discovery…something that made you smile…something that was concealed from the naked eye…something that inspired you!
Finished giraffe:
Check out Julia’s weekly photo challenge here: Camera Lucida – Hidden.
Sketches. Used to capture and make more concrete the wispy impressions of design ideas. Or used to convey them to others in a third-party submission. Some of these morphed into something else, perhaps recognizable to you. Others, well, they were just thoughts. A look into a sketchbook.
This lovely 12 minute documentary on a collaborative effort to share and promote the fiber industry in the Pacific Northwest is excellent. It’s beautifully filmed and informative. I think it will strike a chord with those who are passionate about our craft – and with those who love fiber.
This 12 minute documentary film describes the state of the niche wool industry in the Pacific Northwest. And how the Pacific Northwest Fiber Web is making a difference in bringing together the sheep farmer, wool mill owner and processor, the yarn shop owner, and the wool artisan in this venerable and age-old agricultural industry…
This film was commissioned by the Northwest Cooperative Development Center and was grant funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Community Development fund.
~from the film’s YouTube page
And we have color in the Colorwork Tee! I’m at a place in the design where I can just start working from the needles (as opposed to drawing out a chart first). I am excited to be working with Bronze again as well as to be adding in some Marine. Unfortunately last weekend I got ahead of myself and divided for sleeves too early, so a lot of time was spent placing stitches back on the needles.
My younger son claimed this green Wayfarer The Wayfarer Hat as his own. I think it fits his style…
Jen finished her hat and posted this pic on her Ravelry page. Love this picture!
Also over the weekend, DH and I went to the Coast and the weather was perfect for hiking and photography. Here is one picture of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. More pictures will follow in a future post.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by! I hope you have a joyful week!!!
The last six weeks have been a whirlwind. Finally now I’ve enjoyed a few moments to catch my breath, to reflect, and to look forward to possibilities for the new year. Not to go into too much detail right now, as the upcoming designs are still shadowy and lurking around in my brain, waiting to take form…but I wanted to share with you the palettes I will be playing with…and I’m sure that other ideas will crowd in and push some of these further down the line, but for now, here are some possibilities for 2016.
These are a few of the skeins I picked up at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival in November. I believe they will become a two-color yoked sweater, with the green as the main color. I haven’t decided whether the yoke will be striped, a stranded design, or some sort of mosaic knitting. I’m sort of picturing a honeycomb type of pattern using slipped stitches for the yoke – maybe.
These yarns are also set aside for sweaters, perhaps with a lace or cable panel. I couldn’t decide on color, so picked up both:
I also want to experiment with an allover lace pattern for this lovely Shibui yarn. You can see the ready-to-wear sweater that’s inspiring me in the upper corner. I may or may not knit the linen and the mohair together. The colors are amazing in real life.
And I am so thrilled to be working on the colorwork tee again. Christmas knitting, among other things, took me away from it. But I’m back! And my tension is more even now. Woot! I am hopeful that testing can begin on it once I have placed the sleeves on waste yarn and joined for the body.
Other possibilities: fingerless mitts related to the colorwork tee, fingerless mitts inspired by this design inspiration session with friend and fellow designer Marie Greene, a pencil skirt related to the The Wayfarer Hat and the Passport Mitts, and, possibly, a cabled home decor project using Weston Hill Farm cottage spun yarn.
On a related note, I am hoping to attend Rhinebeck New York Sheep and Wool Festival in October and the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival in November. I have written before on how wonderful fiber festivals are: Fiber Festivals as Travel Destinations. I hope also to hit the Rose City Yarn Crawl March 3-6 and the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Barn Sale this summer.
I would love to hear from you if any of the above colorways/palettes speak to you. And are you planning to attend any fiber-related events this year? So many possibilities!
Continuing the theme of travel and exploration is my newest pattern, The Wayfarer Hat, a companion to the Passport Mitts. A wayfarer is one who travels, especially on foot. Johnny Appleseed was a wayfarer, as are those who travel the Camino de Santiago. To my mind, a wayfarer is a wanderer, one open to what the road may bring, an explorer. Here then, is The Wayfarer Hat:
This hat is fun to knit and stylish to wear. The pattern is written for four sizes, fitting head sizes 18-25 inches. It is written for a snug fit and includes modifications for a more relaxed fit. It calls for Malabrigo Yarn Arroyo, a lovely sport weight in amazing colorways.
This is the original snug fit, worked in Malabrigo Yarn Arroyo in the colorway Indiecita:
This is Leanne’s lovely Wayfarer, knit in the Malabrigo Arroyo in the colorway Lavanda, relaxed fit:
This beautiful Wayfarer was knit by Alex, using madelinetosh Tosh DK in the colorway Cousteau. The madelinetosh shows the stitch definition beautifully. This is also the relaxed fit.
Martha’s gorgeous Wayfarer (relaxed fit) and Passport Mitts, at the Oregon Coast. Malabrigo Arroyo in the colorway Aguas:
I am offering an introductory special for The Wayfarer. Follow the link and enter the coupon code Wayfarer20 here for 20% off the regular price of $5.00. This code is good through 11:59 pm Pacific Time January 9, 2016.
Or, purchase Passport Mitts and The Wayfarer Hat together for the discounted price of $8.00, no coupon code needed, here: Passport Mitts/The Wayfarer Hat Set. If you have previously purchased one of the patterns, this link does not work and you will need to purchase the second pattern singly on Ravelry. In addition, it does not work if you have received one of the patterns for free.
I hope that you will check out this pattern. It was a joy to design and it is a joy to see it become a reality at the hands of other knitters. Thank you for letting me share it with you!
We wrapped up the Passport Mitts Knitalong (KAL) in my Ravelry group last month. We had a lovely time, with over 900 posts in the knitalong thread (meaning we’re chatty) and 13 finished pairs of mitts during the six weeks of the KAL. You can see all the lovely mitts as well as the prizes that were won here, in the FO (finished object) thread. I hope you’ll hop over there and take a look.
Here are some of the beautiful mitts, photos used by permission. Each of these knitters does beautiful work!
Joyce made two pairs, one for her daughter and another for herself, using Berroco Folio. She took a couple of pictures at the family farm:
I love this photo Heather took of mitts she was making with Lorna’s Laces Honor, in the colorway Gobsmacked (how perfect is that for a colorway name???):
Meg used Rowan Felted Tweed DK, in the colorway Scree. I also used Rowan Felted Tweed for my mitts, and loved the lightweight yet warm fabric it created:
Blue was a popular color for these mitts, and the other major contender was orange. Jen made beautiful mitts in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light in the colorway Candied Yam, perfect for these pictures she took around Thanksgiving:
Alex made mitts in both of the popular choices, being the top finisher with three completed pairs of mitts! She made two pairs in Ella Rae Lace Merino DK in Orange and a pair in Classic Elite Yarns Inca Alpaca in the Navy Heather colorway.
Melanie made this stunning pair of mitts using Lion Brand LB Collection in White. It is amazing how white and natural yarns make cables pop. She bound off in pattern, which makes the top edge look like pearls. It’s not written that way in the pattern. but it is a wonderful modification.
Melanie wrote the following when she posted her finished mitts, and allowed me to share it here:
I completely love these mitts. Carol, this pattern is so classy and tasteful and beautifully written! I used Lion Brand 100% superwashmerino that I can only order from their online store. I ordered quite a bit of it several years ago, so this beautiful pair was knit from stash. The yarn shows awesome stitch definition, which is a perfect match for these mitts. The only problem I have is that I decided to make these for a friend… And now I want to keep them.
Thank you so much to everyone who participated. Your work is lovely and inspiring!
As a follow-up, my friends Leanne and Martha requested a hat pattern to go along with the Passport Mitts. We are currently testing the Wayfarer Hat, and the pattern will be available soon. The hat is written with the option to make it as a close-fitting beanie or to modify it for a slouchier fit. Stay tuned!
Something big is happening on Ravelry, the 3rd annual Indie Design Gift-a-Long! The Gift-a-Long (GAL), a collaboration of 335 independent knit and crochet designers, features a week-long sale and a knit-a-long/crochet-a-long (KAL/CAL) through the end of the year. There are tons of prizes, for ongoing games throughout the GAL and, at the end of the GAL, random winners drawn from among those who have posted pictures of their finished objects.
All 335 designers are here. There’s one post per designer – most posts include a photo indicative of the designer’s style, and each post has a link to the designer’s Ravelry page.
This bundle shows all the sale patterns. The sale ends November 27, 2015 at 11:59 P.M. EST.
I love this infographic! It’s amazing the amount of effort, talent and enthusiasm being poured into this event!
I am hoping to have the time to make these lovely mitts, Carry On Fingerless Mitts, by Cheryl Chow:
I think these mitts are a lovely design, and I love the muted colors Cheryl used. The pattern is clearly written and the mitts look to be a fun project. I can’t wait to go hunt through the stash to find the right yarn. Also very cool, Cheryl is another Pacific North Westerner, hailing from North Bend, Washington!
Knitting friends, I hope you’ll come check out the Indie GAL. It’s lots of fun and is a wonderful way to meet some new designers.
These are my patterns which are on sale through 11/27/15 11:59 P.M. EST as part of the GAL (see details, here), and they’re also prize-eligible patterns:
See you at the GAL 😉 …
The 2015 Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival was wonderful! Amazing, inspiring, fun, local(ish), lovely – a great success!!! Held November 6-8th at the Fort Dalles Readiness Center, this was truly a first-class event.
I traveled up with my good friend and fellow designer, M.E. Greene, Olive Knits. We had so much fun on our road trip, seeing the beautiful Oregon countryside on the way up and back, and waxing rhapsodic about the entire experience on the way home.
I was fortunate to be able to take three classes. On Friday afternoon, I took Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s class, Knit Smart. Stephanie is a kick in the pants. If you have read any of her books, you might imagine that she could be a stand-up comedian. She’s the same in person…she has that comic timing thing down pat. At any rate, the class was an overview of knitting principles: basic concepts that we may or may not have picked up in today’s less formalized approach to knitting education. Most interesting to me were learning about the components of knitted fabric: courses and wales. I was also interested in causes of consistently loose or tight knitting.
…OK, well. My pictures of that class are completely blurry and useless. So instead, I’ll send you to Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s website. Her take on her visit to Oregon is hilarious and spot-on at the same time!
The Saturday classes I took were near and dear to my heart. Marie and I took two classes from a favorite sweater designer of both of ours, Norah Gaughan. Her designs are amazing. I particularly enjoyed slide shows in which she shared the inspiration for many of her designs. The classes were Creative Geometric Design and Knitting Polygons. So much fun! Norah was a sweetie and her classes were such fun, too.
Next, we got to work with the fleece we brought to come up with our own creative design based on geometric shapes. We learned that fleece is great for this because it drapes in much the same way as knit fabric and so is great to use for templates. Here I am – this one is going to have a square neckline.
In the afternoon class, we worked with fun shapes such as pentagons and hexagons. You can see them in the edging of the sweater I’m modeling below. It’s one of Norah’s, which I borrowed just for this picture. I wanted to take it home with me! It fit like a dream. Marie and I were total fangirls!
The other two things I love about Fiber Festivals as Travel Destinations are the people – both new and old friends – and the fiber.
This festival was no exception! Saturday night there was a banquet, with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee as the keynote speaker. I got to hang out with Marie and these two friends, Leanne and Martha. The four of us met for breakfast Sunday, as well, and had such a lovely time! 
Stephanie’s keynote speech was very inspiring, and funny, of course. She began by mentioning the propensity of some to aver that many of us are “addicted” to knitting, yarn, and the fiber arts. As you can imagine, there are many appropro comparisons. But in reality, we knit because we know it’s good for us. It makes us better. We are happy when we have faced and overcome something that is a challenge to us. That’s what’s great about knitting, there’s always something new to learn and to try. It’s also why I love designing!
Finally, here’s my stash enhancement:
I just can’t wait to get my hands into this beautiful yarn!!! Can’t wait to see what it will become!
The trip home was filled with chatter, with exclamations about the inspiration we had garnered from the instructors and speakers. The landscapes on the drive home seemed especially beautiful – sunlight through rain creating such depth of color. So blessed to live where there is such beauty.
And finally, the whole festival was done so well. Everything was top quality, from the venue to the marketplace to the slate of instructors and the banquet. I’m already thinking about the CGFF 2016!
knit equals joy 