Knitting in Oregon

A few more pictures of my trip to Oregon with some knitting info as well.  Portland was having unusually warm weather when I was there and so we decided to head for the coast.  Somewhere out there is the Pacific Ocean:

                                                                                                                                                     

Stopped in Cannon Beach, which is a charming coastal town that reminded me of the old TV show Murder She Wrote;  expected to see Angela Lansbury coming down the street at any moment.  No Angela, but we did discover a really nice yarn shop, Coastal Yarns:

                     

   
I was expecting a tiny little place but this is quite a nice welcoming shop, with a lots of interesting inventory from yarns to books and knitting bags and a big table to sit and knit with the locals.

Back in Portland we stopped by Knit Purl, which is a beautiful shop filled with Madelinetosh yarn and offering lots of interesting classes:

                                                                             

     Taking pictures of the local artwork in the Pearl District:

   

This weekend is the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.   My friend will be going with her knitting group and I can't wait to hear about it and see her pictures.

Here's my progress on my Modular Afghan:

Have a good weekend and Happy Fiber Arts Friday !
                                                                                                                                                                                                  

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.
                                                                                   

Happy Fiber Arts Friday

It's Fiber Arts Friday and the start of Labor Day Weekend - hooray!  Going over to Santa Cruz to hang out at the beach, check out the new Monterey Bay Marine sanctuary there, and perhaps do a little wine tasting and knitting.  The more wine tasting, the less knitting so we shall see how that goes.  In the meantime, here is what I have been up to:

                                   

                                                               

Knit these socks for my daughter with Austermann Step.  She loves the colors and so do I.  Looks like something you might see in a Harry Potter movie!

A while back, for those who follow my blog intently, you may remember I fell in love with the Modular Afghan displayed in last winter's Webs catalogue.  It was made with Noro's Taiyo and I dropped everything and ran to my computer and promptly ordered the color shown, plus an additional order of the same yarn in a pink colorway for an afghan for my daughter:

                                                                           

Of course my intention was to start knitting these immediately, but, well you know....

Anyway, I have now started the one for my daughter and it has turned out to be as much fun as I thought it would be.  It's been fun watching the colors develop and since each piece is joined as you go along, there will be no sewing together at the end.

                                                                                             

For anyone who might want to try this, the pattern is in Knit Noro and there are several projects on Ravelry if you want to see what others have done.

Have a great weekend and check out what others are up to on Andrea's blog.