the quacking fiber addict

Arg. Throbbing headache. Short post time. Went to the Portland International Rose Tests Gardens today:


"Wow," says it all. The perfume was intoxicating, the scenery dazzling, and there was a rainbow of roses spread about. My favourite (other than the one above) was Amethyst:


Honest to goodness, that was the actual colour of the roses.

There was also the Shakespearean garden:


Every plant mentioned by Shakespeare in his plays, sonnets, whatever, was planted there. I couldn't help but wander around the beds barefoot, indulging in the feeling of lush grass against my soles.

Speaking of soles - baudelaire is nearly to the heels:


And, ouch, too much sun, too much champagne, and just too much stuff today. Gonna go and be quiet in the dark.

Labels: baudelaire, Portland, socks

My sleep cycle is all wonky after the Harry Potter release party. It's only been a week, so hopefully it'll stabilize soon. In the meantime, I'm surviving off of catnaps.

On Friday, Mum and I went to Forest Park, the largest park in any city in the US. Over 5000 acres of greenery, paths, and an Audubon sanctuary. We took the Wildwood path, which curves along a very steep drop (above a 100 ft straight down), but the sock wasn't too scared:


The dog was tenacious and general pain in the tuckus. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky he didn't try to follow a bird off the trail, down the slope. The area is famous for it's few remaining old growth Douglas Firs - some, I'm told, are up to 8 ft in diameter. The largest we saw was about 6 ft. But, the undergrowth (secondary) was full of maidenhair ferns, Solomon's seal, and teeny-tiny wild flowers. I really do love the PNW, just for places like this:


Growing up in an area that had been lived on, and tamed by humans, for thousands of years (the Cherokee and Iroquois were settled, remember?) meant that I never saw a tree 100's of feet high until moving to Oregon. Seeing hundreds of them for the first time (in 2002), blocking out the sun and dizzyingly tall, was an experience I'll never forget. Even now, thousands of acres of wild forest, old and secondary growth, is awe-inspiring to someone raised on concrete and manicured lawns.

It also impresses (and amuses) the hell outta me that women pioneers settled Oregon wearing corsets and skirts (don't tell me they didn't, cuz they did). I often wonder at the foolishness of it all.

But, anyway, that's enough musing. I know all y'all come for the knitting content.

Today, after sitting through a series excruciatingly off-key Torah readings (oy), meeting some of the local Reconstructionist Shul (I miss East Coast Conservative services so much), and escaping narrowly from a rowdy Bar Mitzvah crowd - I dragged the folks to Lint. If you haven't heard by now that Lint is closing, you probably don't live in the PDX area and don't care.

But, as I do, and the Shul was 5 blocks away, we made a stop. This post definitely qualifies for SSE. 10 balls of Rowan 4-Ply Cotton:




For a pair of spocks with antique, enameled black buttons. I cannot wait to finish them. I just have to finish little D's pair (one nearly done!), and then I can CO my own.

Other than that? I put the spencer-bolero-thing back on the needles, because Opus wants a copy of the pattern - but I have to finish knitting the SBT before I can write a pattern for it. I'm 16 rows away from finishing Clue 2 on the Mystery Stole, and am nearly to the heels on Baudelaire.

And that's about everything. I hope this post was better than the last few... And, thank you everyone for your congrats! This is so exciting.

Labels: baudelaire, designing, Portland, SSE

This post is a bit tardy. I uploaded the pictures last night, but then got distracted by cleaning and knitting that I forgot to finish it. Oops? (It's now 3pm, 7/26/07)

My promise to write better posts is going to be unfulfilled for another day. Sorry. Here's my Baudelaire progress as of yesterday:


And, here's the trekking sock enjoying the sun and breeze on the Willamette:


At around 4, Emm started whining (okay, it was closer to nagging) about the fact that I had promised to take a walk with him. I don't know why the boy won't go on walks by himself, he just won't. I decided to look up the Portland parks service website and decided that we would go to Waterfront Park.

By the end of a 2 mi walk, Emm was whining (he really was) because he was hungry. Sometimes I feel like I have a 5 year old. Anyway. I fed him and we made our way home on a packed bus (where I entertained flashbacks of Naples), and my knitting was covertly watched by a couple dozen people.

So... lemme see. The 'rents came home last night, as the paint fumes were causing Mum to have asthma attacks. They 'ooh'd and 'ahh'd over the new spinning wheel and my progress on the MS3.

And, well, that's about it. I'm going to try and call the Peace Corps again tomorrow (I keep forgetting about the time difference and always manage to call on their lunch break or after closing). Amy Singer will be at the Sip'n'Knit tonight, I've already promised to meet with Opus there.

I guess I'd better bring my camera to make up for the last couple of lame posts.

Labels: baudelaire, family, Portland, socks, travelling sock(s)

I will not post Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers. I could kick him for doing things like that.

We left for the Powell's Harry Potter release party at 8:30 pm - the party was supposed to start at 10. After dinner, we crossed the river and finally found parking. The city of Portland had actually closed Couch St between 10th and 11th! It was insane, in a good way. The Powell's employees estimated that 3,000 people would be there.

Because I didn't finish Mum's robes in time, I finally convinced her to wear mine (I was not wearing velvet in that humidity). Emm and I dressed up as, ah, 'Muggles'. Here we are with Hagrid:







Powell's definitely went all-out for this final release. They hired street performers, set up speakers to play the HP movie soundtracks, and had props set up everywhere. At 12:01 they opened the doors. Since people had started lining up at 9 am, we were closer to the back of the line. But things moved relatively fast.

Relatively. The line, in the end, snaked on itself 5 times on Couch St, wrapped around Powell's City of Books (which is a building the size of a full city block), swept past the front of the line and ended around the corner of 11th and something.

By 2 am, we were at the front of the line and I had finished knitting the first Trekking sock:


I didn't weave in the ends, that would have been insane. About as insane as the people taking pictures of me because I was knitting. In a street (and store) full of people in Wizarding and 'Muggle' costumes, I was the one who was stared at and photographed.

Muggles.

We arrived home with the books at 2:30 pm. I changed and started reading. At 7 am this morning I noticed that I could turn off my ceiling light (because the sun had risen), but refused to get up/ put down the book until I had finished entirely.

I read the last page at 8 am. It's as addictive as the other 6. And good. Really, really good.

Read it.

And now I'm going to go back to bed for a little while. And spin. I want to spin when I wake up...

Labels: family, Portland, travelling sock(s)

Today was one of those disconcerting, existential, surreal days. All day I felt wrong, like I was in the wrong body, living the wrong life. I couldn't knit anything. I didn't want to eat. And everything I touched turned to lead or broke.

Oy.

To make matters worse, the family was snippy again and I finally couldn't take it any longer. I snapped and started screaming. It wasn't pretty. But I've since apologized and sat in my corner trying to psychoanalyze myself.

First thing I noticed? Analyzing oneself isn't the easiest task in the world. Finally, I just admitted to myself that this is all probably part of the frustration of the move, being unemployed and still living with my parents.

Let's add a 'gavault' to that 'oy' above.

But, to make matters somewhat easier on us all, I come bearing more pictures of the Portland parks, and the PNW, from Lake Oswego:




The last one is something pretty cool and amazing (even for the 10-year-Girl-Scout) - a holly tree growing out of the stump of a long-dead cedar tree. Now, I've seen young trees growing out of the stumps of old ones, but they've always been the same type of tree. It was really cool to see a holly paired with a cedar.

And, on top of the pretty greeness, I also come bearing yarn p0rn:


You are looking at the LAST TWO skeins of Shi Bui Sock "Orchid". At the Sip'n'Knit tonight, I saw (omg, what's her name?) walking by with an armload of too-beautiful-to-be-real yarn and immediately asked if those skeins were what I thought they were.

They are. They're also the last two in the store. The other ones in the shipment have been on order for several knitters for the past 3 weeks. Realising this might be my last chance for another month (or more) to get the yarn I've coveted for weeks, I immediately pulled out my checkbook.

And, you want to know something sad?, they didn't even ask for my name or address this time. They have it all memorized. This is a bad, bad sign. And Opus didn't even stop me! Bad girl. She promised last week that she'd stop me the next time I tried to buy yarn.

*sigh*

After buying the yarn, waiting for it to be wound, and knitting a bit, we decided to leave at around 7:30-ish. I hadn't eaten and Opus hadn't eaten what we would call real food. And it was hot in there.

Just as we finished dinner and were leaving the restaurant, the sky opened and lightning laced across the sky in an eerily East-Coast-sort-of-way. The natives were all excited and immediately started counting between the flash and crash. I, instead, though about getting somewhere insulated.

Summer storms in D.C. meant either: A) flash floods, or: B) tornadoes.

But, I managed to get home (damp and frazzled) safe enough to lose my cool. Joy. I'm probably going to be hearing about this for weeks. Oh, well. It happens.

Tomorrow we get to clean the house because the landlord is coming by. Oooh, what fun. I'll even give you the Peace Corps update tomorrow, to keep the next post from being completely boring.

Labels: family, Portland, Sip'n'Knit, yarn p0rn

I haven't knit a single stitch today. But I didn't really feel up to it for most of the day. I was having terrible femm issues earlier (too much information?) and only went out with Mum because I need the exercise. That said, I am really, really glad I went with her to the Hoyt Arboretum:





It's a beautifully maintained place and the flora AND fauna are amazingly varied. After I took the last photo and we were on our way out of our little dell, a hummingbird (still unidentified) flew out of the creek and into a tree. I immediately grabbed Charlie and pointed the bird out to Mum, and I suppose the bird sensed that Mum is a member of the Audobon Society - it flew back down and hovered in front of us (I swear it was inspecting us) for a full minute or two. It was so magical and amazing. I've never seen a hummingbird so close (within 3') without glass between us.

After that, at the Visitor's Center, we met a really cool artist who we exchanged contact info with. Coolness abounds, as she's leaving for the Galapagos in 3 days! I nearly died of envy. The Galapagos islands are on my Top Ten List Of Places I Must Visit Before I Am: Old/ Blind/ Or Dead. *sigh*

Then came the dangers of stepping into a Fair Trade store. Mum and I have killed our older gauze shirts, so we got two. Along with a Panama hat each, a hand-stamped kerchief from Ghana, and a Lantern Moon bag for less than I've seen at LYSes. How cool is that? I now have that medium sized knitting bag I've been needing.

And, last but not least, the knitting content. It might interest you to know that Sock Knitters Anonymous now has 80 members! Woot :D And, I have a question (actually, several). Some craftsters mentioned that they'd be interested in buying my Spox pattern. How does one sell patterns thru Paypal? And how much would I charge? Is $5 too much?

I'm going to go knit, so I don't have to think about it...

Labels: Charlie, le Tour de Fleece 2007, Portland, spindling

Didn't get much done today, but I definitely feel better. It was cool and drizzly and humid all day, making work difficult - humidity and I aren't fast friends. But, we managed to find the dog park at Mt Tabor (no one was there, of course) before taking Charlie back to Lauralhurst. No pictures today, sorry.

After that, and running around aimlessly some more (Mum and I are such experts at getting lost), I got around to meet Opus for tonight's Sip'n'Knit at Knit/Purl. We had planned to meet at 5, grab some lunch beforehand, then go back to the shop. I ended up knitting for close to half an hour - Opus forgot how bad rush hour traffic on the Met can be. More knitting time for me, eh?

I didn't manage to escape the store without spending money (who could?), but I kept the bill down by just getting two balls of Panda Cotton in "Seascape" - I'm hoping it'll be a better match for Pomatomus than the Lorna's was. Cross your fingers for me.

Small point of contention - Mum insisted on picking me up from the gathering. She has this thing about women walking anywhere, alone, at night. It was alright for me to take the bus into downtown, but nothing would convince her to let me take the bus home. Ahwell. Opus found it bemusing. I explained it away by citing the fact that Mum's a Jewish Mother - it's her job to worry about these things. I don't mind it, but other people seem to have difficulty with it. Whatever, I guess we should all be glad she's not their mother. I won't deny that she drives me crazy at times (just look thru the archives), but I'll grant her leeway on this point.

Anyway. Onto the toes of the Seaside socks - looking good. Hopefully I'll get them finished tomorrow and blocked on my sock blockers (woot! first pair). Then I can get to casting on Titania's Revenge... Mmmm, sock yarn.

Labels: Portland, Sip'n'Knit, socks, update

One of the great resentments of my life is my clinical depression. Before it's onset in my early 20's, I had much more energy than I do now. I just did more. Now there are good days and bad days. Today wasn't the worst, but I felt completely useless for most of the day. I've taken two separate 1 hour naps to take the edge off. But, the few times I tried to get things done, they were disastrous. I broke one of my favourite earrings and my earring stand - forcing me to back away from finishing unpacking my room for the upteenth time.

Instead - between naps - I tried to help Mum unpack the kitchen, helped Dad with the finances (mostly by keeping him from throwing them across the room), and took Charlie for a long walk (with Mum) at Laurelhurst Park:


The park is quite impressive for it's size and location - in fact, it made me think of some of the choicer parts of Central Park. There's a large pond with ducks, geese, and a great blue heron that likes to fly around the lake and be admired. The park also has some off-leash areas, Charlie was pleased to discover.

I took a couple more shots of the flora and landscaping - the entire park is located in a bowl, almost a miniature valley, which is probably why it seems so intimate.



Otherwise? Not much else to report. No news from Journey Wheel, no news from the Peace Corps. No new FO's.

But, I have been spinning on my brand-new Spindlewood Co. mini-drop spindle and I loves it muchly. It spins forever and so evenly. St M mentioned to me that some spinners she knew had suggested placing straws on the shafts of her spindles - to make removing/ unwinding/ plying the yarn easier.

We'd both had problems with this concept. She couldn't find the right sized straw, so I decided to go the paper-quill route (Emmos generously donated a piece from her stationary on Saturday for me to make said quill). Unfortunately, the quill kept coming off:


So, this afternoon, I had a brainwave - a rubberband below the quill would hold it on as needed and could be removed easily (unlike double-sided tape, my other idea):


Which meant I got to go back to spinning without worrying about the yarn and quill sliding off of the spindle shaft at any moment. In case you're wondering - the spindle is made from Red Heart wood and a maple burl. The fiber (1 oz) is a Romeldale lamb/ tussah/ silk noil blend from Crosspatch fibers, called "Lily in the Starlight". It spins beautifully and makes for a very soft and lofty lace weight.

At the moment I am dreadfully far behind on my Bloglines subscripts - over 149 posts to catch up on, but I'm down from the 400+ count of three days ago. Going without internet for a couple of days = badness. Hopefully I'll catch up with them within the next couple of days. Of course, all y'all could make this easier on me and not update so frequently ;P

... Just a thought.

Labels: depression, handspun, Portland