Friday, September 14, 2012

Twisted in Portland

Just got back from a trip to Portland, Oregon where I was visiting a friend.  What a fun place to visit!  Lots of interesting little neighborhoods with many, many small restaurants (does anyone eat at home in Portland?) and some nice touristy things to do with visiting out of towners such as this:



                                                                   
A visit to the Portland Rose Test Garden in Washington Park, which is spectacular.  Oregon's climate is conducive to growing all kinds of things and roses, in particular, thrive there.
Now we know why Portland is called The Rose City.


                                                                       
A visit to the Lan Su Chinese Garden in the middle of  downtown Portland which is the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China.  What a lovely peaceful place.

This city is home to some serious artsy craftsy DIY folks and it seems everywhere you go there are people making things - furniture, clothing,  jewelry, small cottages from recycled goods, artwork and, of course, needlework.  Trust me, you all would love it.

Of course we stopped to check out the local knitting shops and my friend took me to her local hangout, Twisted.  What a great shop!  This is definitely a must see for any knitter visiting Portland:

                 
                                                                                                                             

                                                                         
That sock display is from Chrissy Gardiner's Indie Sock book.  This is a pretty large shop with a very good inventory of yarn including some interesting hand dyed yarns and lots of samples to give you inspiration.

Saw this Rockefeller shawl in a window and had to include this, although it's not the best photo.  Love these colors!  This pattern is Stephen West's mystery KAL project that everyone has been doing.

                                                                   

I have been working on a sweater for my grandson, but I don't have any pictures to show.  Here is my progress on the Modular Afghan:

                                                                     
Have a good weekend everybody and go check out Andrea's blog to see what other fiber folks have been up to.
                                                                                   

7 comments:

  1. Those roses are beautiful! They're my favorite flower. I'd love to see that sock display in person. I'll have to check out that book for sure. Thanks for the tip. Your afghan is looking very nice, great collection of colors. Have a great weekend.

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  2. I have been eyeing that book for ages now - it's so cool they have a lot of the designs right there... I'm putting it on my Amazon list!

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  3. That's a very nice Chinese garden indeed. There is another very well designed garden in Richmond, BC. I really need to visit them some day.

    Love that sock display! Hope to see you next week.

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  4. Is your friend Michelle from PDXKnitterati? She takes everyone to Twisted that visits Portland. :) I'm kind of a big KnitPurl fan myself. Although pretty much everything in Portland appeals to me, and you seem to have hit some of the highlights. Did you manage to stroll down 23rd? Very artsy.

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  5. I LOVE the new Stephen West pattern and that shawl display is GORGEOUS in his pattern.

    I love the Indie Sock display too. What a fun trip that must have been.

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  6. I hear PDX is wonderful. Have never been.

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  7. That looks like the perfect LYS, I wish I had one that comfortable and open here! The shawl in the display window is breathtaking, the colors! I'm glad to hear that you liked Portland, my parents are thinking about retiring there, so I have something to look forward to.

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