Knittin' the Rails 2012

It's that time of the year again -- not only fiber festival season, but time for a Portland yarn crawl! To make this a green crawl, we hopped aboard the Amtrak to ride northward. Just a small herd of knitters this year, but quite determined in spite of threatening skies. Not a problem, I brought an umbrella and sunscreen -- therefore it didn't rain and we didn't get hot sun, either. It worked!

Here come the train at the Salem station, bringing knitters from Albany to join us:

The Salem contingent awaits their chance to board. It was a crowded train on the way up, but once we all got seated, we were underway.

Mary Scott Huff, author of Teach Yourself VISUALLY Color Knitting, met us at Union Station in Portland, wearing the gorgeous stranded colorwork and felted jacket that she gives instructions for in her book.

First stop, Dubin Bay in the Pearl District, where they always lay out the red carpet for us, or at least a selection of goodies and a discount for yarn crawls. The selection of yarns is lovely, and just for the record, they ship to anywhere in the world that the mail service goes.

A lovely knitting nook with a wide window, as well as a television with sports playing, presumably for non-knitting companions. Today it was decked out with a lovely display of goodies.

From Dublin Bay we went on to Pearl Fiber Arts (formerly Urban Fiber Arts, but apparently someone else went and trademarked the name, alas).

Inside, another tempting array of yarn, including yarn from local growers, dyers, and spinners. The store is preparing to move a few storefronts down, so it's looking an little more sparse than it has in the past, but there was still plenty to tempt.

Some adorable little souvenir spinning wheels:

And some equally adorable knobbly-kneed little felted sheep:

We left Pearl Fiber Arts with 10% off coupons for The Tea Zone, where we had a delicious lunch, including the best grilled cheese panini (with tomatoes and avocado) that I've had in a very long time. I also left with some lovely tea.

After lunch we went to Powell's Books, a vast city of new and used books, where I didn't get a picture, but we made a thorough inspection of the knitting books and came back with a few. After that, we  took the bus across the river and straight to the wonders of Twisted. Let's start with the wondrous wall of sock yarn, featuring local dyers.

They've got some lovely spinning supplies, including these Schacht spinning wheels -- a Ladybug and a Sidekick.

We had a little time to sit and knit while we waited for our bus. Then it was off to the station to catch the train back home.

My haul was modest, but I came back with some choice bits. From left and moving clockwise, I picked up a foam needle felting pad, a skein of pure silk yarn from Blue Moon Fiber arts, a little needle felting kit for making a little elephant, a couple of ounces of Soothing Comfort herbal tea from Tea zone, a skein of hand-dyed worsted merino/bamboo blend from Alexandra's Crafts, a skein of Shepherd Worsted from Lorna's Laces, a bottle of Eucalan lavender, a bit of blue elastic thread, two skeins of turquoise blue Fibranatura Flax linen yarn, and two books from Powell's: 75 Birds, Butterflies & Little Beasts to Knit and Crochet and 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet, both by Lesley Stanfield.

Blue may not be my usual color, but my mother-in-law's hair is thinning and she's feeling embarrassed about her scalp showing through, so I'm making her a few hats, one for summer and two for winter. The summer hat will need the elastic thread, which is why I picked it up.

Tra, la, and I did it all except the books with cash I'd been setting aside for yarn.

Sheep to Shawl 2012

It's that time of year again -- fiber festival season! Some of us went down to the Willamette Heritage Center, a.k.a. the Mission Mill museum, site of the historic Kay Woolen mill and many historic houses, for the annual Sheep to Shawl festival. I didn't get it all in pictures, but captured some of it.

Inside the historic mill itself are the equipment, which was all powered by water power from the mill race that runs under the mill, that once turned raw fleece into finished blankets and wool fabric. These are the spinning machines, all in a row down one side of the mill, with rolls of fine roving to the right.

The carding machines took the cleaned fleece and turned it into carded wool, and to fine roving:

The loom is still fired up now and then to demonstrate how the mechanisms worked. There's white woolen cloth on it that the machine wove:

The old punch clock, where workers punched in all up until the 1960s when the mill finally closed.

The forge, where expert machinists made and fixed parts for the machines.

Outdoors, we met these lovely cashmere goats.

Llamas always look like they're way too cool for this kind of thing.

A teeny yarn bombing -- a mere yarn firecracker -- the sheep statue sported a red scarf.

Though in color, the sheep statue wasn't too far from these Shetlands. The baby boy had a lovely black-and-white face.

I forgot to ask what breed these were, but their long, crimpy locks looked lovely for spinning.

These alpaca youngsters had their first haircut:

The best part was meeting up with friends and knitting the afternoon away. Helen and Andrea at the cafe:

Andrea, Nanci, and her beekeeping friend admire the yarns and animals.

Taking a stand against the war on women's rights

Today, across the nation, people gathered at rallies to support a resistance to the political attacks on women and women's rights -- health care, equal pay, voting rights, and more -- organized by UniteWomen.org. Here at Oregon's capital city, folks gathered on the Capitol steps to make their voices heard. I got about two inches of sock knitted in the few hours I was there.

The crowd was small, in the hundreds, but enthusiastic:

I found a nice seat in the shade with my sign (thanks to Marty Davis for the picture posted on the local site's Facebook page). I had my knitting with me, too, not visible in this pic.

 Here's what I wrote on the back:

 There were signs with pointed messages, like these:

And this, which pretty much sums up the feelings of the folks gathered there:

And these:

The Raging Grannies from Portland came and sang hilarious protest songs. Anyone remember protest songs? What ever happened to protest songs?

Dancers from a mission that rescues young women from street life were there:

More raging grannies, these from Corvallis:

More signs:

And more:

State Troopers were on hand for riot control... well... not so much. We're pretty civilized around here.

This slogan is carved into the front of the Capitol building, right behind where the rally was taking place. I wonder how many of the legislators who make laws in this building abide by this?

It doesn't end there, of course. I'm appalled that we're re-fighting the battles for voting rights and equal rights for women. I'm appalled that anyone thinks there's no need for feminism, "because women can vote and have jobs," as one online critic of feminism whined. I'm appalled that no one from the media, even the local newspaper located just a few blocks away, was visibly present in spite of press releases that went out.

I'm heartened by all the women of all ages who showed up, particularly young women, when five years ago or so I was hearing young women in college, on the brink of a career, saying, "Oh, I'm not a feminist," in a tone that suggested it was a dirty word, that "feminist" means angry, ugly, bra-burning, man-hating creatures instead of rational beings who believe that women should have equal pay for those careers that these young women were going into and equal opportunities, such as going to college in the first place. I'm heartened that the apathy I saw during the Iraq war is changing to, "We've got to do something about this."

We just need to say it louder.

FO: It only took two years...

At last, after a long time-out, my Sailor's Delight socks from the 2-at-a-Time Socks book are finished!

I gave the 2-at-a-time method a good go, but I kept going around both socks with the same yarn too many times and finally lost patience. I put the socks onto DPNs and still worked them two at a time... just not quite at the same time. I finished the leg on one, then the leg on the other, the heel flap on one, the heel flap on the other, and so on. I'd done the same working from a hand-dyed sock blank, so the method was familiar, and still no second sock syndrome to deal with.

I love how the colors spiral around the legs. Alas, they broke into weird pooling on the feet. The two balls in the same colorway and dyelot are slightly different shades. But... they're DONE at long last!

Catching up on FOs, Part 2: And for the folks at home...

Besides the box going to Pine Ridge, I've finished a few things for us at home, too.

Starting with one skein of Malabrigo Rios -- I'd set the skein aside along with a simple "learn to knit" keyhole scarf pattern put out by a local knit shop, thinking I was going to be teaching someone to knit. That someone didn't show up and didn't show up and didn't show up to knitting, so I went ahead and knit the scarf myself. It starts out with a square of garter stitch, then garter and stockinette ridges, then ribbing, then the keyhole, then more garter stitch. I made it a little longer than the pattern suggested, and I think it could be longer still:

There was still half a skein of Rios left over, and I'd been thinking about making a Calorimetry for some time now. After weighing the yarn left, I figured I had about enough. And sure enough, I did.

I used the number of stitches called for in the pattern and knit it pretty tight on US size 7 needles, and it's still a leeeeetle bit looser than I would have liked. The designer must be a fantastically tight knitter. But it'll do. It's got plenty of holes created by turning without wrapping, so the button can slip into any of them and loosen or tighten as needed. Others have cast on fewer stitches to make it smaller. I made this in hopes of doing some beach walking sometime soon, now that spring break is upon us. 

Hubby benefitted from my brain-numb evenings after a long day of teaching. He'd been wearing a woolen cloth scarf that was a bit too short to fend off the winter chill, and requested a scarf if ever I were weaving one again. I pulled out a skein of Poems sock yarn that had been lurking in my stash for some time. It's got long color runs like Noro, though this skein was monochrome in shades of blue. It's a single, a bit thick and thin, and a bit loosely spun in parts and a tendency to fuzz, which made it less than desirable as sock yarn and an absolute bear to weave with as warp. I was casting about wondering, "Is there something I could spray on this that washes out? Something that would control the fuzz and strengthen the yarn temporarily? Something like, oh, like hairspray, maybe." Well, yeah, there is something like hairspray. It's called... hairspray. Liberal applications, and using an empty shuttle to beat in the warm instead of abrading it more with the heddle, got me through the project at last. After washing, the fabric fulled to make a lightweight fabric that was warm. You'd think there was mohair in this, the way it fulls and fluffs, and the way the warp strands kept trying to weld themselves together every time I moved the heddle. I had to keep a wide-toothed comb handy to gently comb and separate the strands. Sheesh, I think I'll pass on that yarn if I ever encounter it again. Soft and nice in the finished product, but a pain to work with.

Here 'tis just as a scarf. I like how the looooong color runs give it subtle stripes.

And here 'tis being worn. It was a long time before he took it off again.

Finally, I was in a swap with the Selfish Knitters and Crocheters, in celebration of Pi Day (March 14... you know, 3/14... 3.14... yeah, we're nerdy that way). Since there must be something pie-like in the box going out, and since every kitchen can benefit from kitschy potholders, I dug some Vanna's Choice acrylic out of my acrylic drawer and made a pair of cherry pie potholders using the Freshly Baked Potholder pattern that I found via Ravelry.

Looks like fun, huh? They're double-thickness, too. The back is the "crust," and the top is the "filling." If I fiddle with it and make smaller bobbles, maybe I could make blueberry pies, too. 

Catching up on FOs, Part 1: Pine Ridge box

Aaaand it's a wrap. I posted winter term grades this afternoon, and I'm mostly ready for the first day of spring term, Monday after next.

So, now I can catch up on posting FOs.

Let's see... last I left off, there were only two scarves for my box for Pine Ridge. I took the leftovers from those and made a third. I warped with brown and tan, and alternated gray and black in the weft:

The pattern in the warm is 1 brown, 2 heather tan. The weft is 1 black, 1 gray. Here's the effect from a distance:

And a close-up of the weave:

Also, I used leftover Cascade Eco+ wool to make a vest using the Vest in Jiffy pattern from Lion Brand:

The scarves and the vest went into the box, as well as a black vest I'd knit years ago using the Midnight Express pattern and Lion Brand CottonEase. It came out too big for me and I thought I'd try altering it, but I never did. Well, it'll fit someone.

All together, this is what I sent off to Pine Ridge reservation:

A public service announcement: Kiva.org

Hey, do y'all know about Kiva.org? They're the microloan site that helps back small loans to small businesses in developing nations. Anyone can be a Kiva lender with just $25. As a lender you earn no interest and take all the risk, so it keeps costs very low and affordable for people trying to make a dignified living in some pretty trying circumstances.

Right now Kiva is giving away free $25 trial accounts. The founder of LinkedIn donated $1 to fund the accounts, and they're going fast. If you'd like to try being a Kiva lender, click the link and it will take you to the sign-up page.

In the five or six years I've had my Kiva account I've made 56 loans so far and had only two borrowers default. Both were women in Kenya who had to flee their homes during violent uprisings. I've been focusing on single moms and widows, since lone women tend to be most vulnerable in developing nations. But there are a wide range of borrowers to choose from.

More FOs: Owlings and Ellies Blankie

This month, for my group's 12 in '12 theme (we're all going to do at least 12 projects in 2012), the KAL theme was critter mittens. I'm not a big mitten fan (except on really cold mornings) so I went for mitts. I wanted to use up some leftover Rowan Cashsoft, so I hit on a pattern called Owlings. It's a take off on the ever-so-popular Fetching mitts, but with li'l owl cables.

Not easy to take pictures of black yarn, but you get the idea, I think? I like these. The yarn is thick and warm. I had to take one owling out (5 stitches) so I could get two mitts out of the small amount of yarn I have, so these are closer-fitting than the would otherwise have been, but even on my big hands (over 8 inch span, folks, I shoulda been a pianist, but three years of piano lessons convinced me it was a hopeless cause) they fit just fine.

Some time over a year ago, folks in the group knit up squares in sock yarn for a baby blanket for one gal who was expecting. The squares got knit, then edged with single crochet, and the person who was organizing the thing finally got them pieced together and got the blanket to me. I added a simple crochet lace border (I only had small amount of yarn so I kept it real simple), then washed and blocked the blankie. Baby is already walking, but at least it's done well before she heads off to college.

FO: Morgan for Me

I made one of these Morgan hats last year for my hubby. When I acquired two skeins of Lorna's Laces Swirl DK in a lovely marled purple with touches of green and blue, I had in hand just the right thing to make a Morgan for me, too.

Stylish, no?

I like how the yarn gives a tweedy effect. An English driving cap needs a touch of tweed to look just right.