The week as we know it

The glorious days of October have shifted to the changing weather of November. We were teased here this week with a couple of days of unusually warm temperatures then a storm came through with the usual fall rain and chill. The walks through the city are punctuated with the rustle of fallen leaves and the streets have a golden cast under the changing canopy. When I crossed the highest bridge in the city into downtown I could see the brilliant trees peeping through the concrete and steel. It makes me love this city even more.

On the knitting front, the Haruni shawl made the rounds and is on display at Cindy's shop window to help promote Sharon's yarn. A few people asked if it was for sale. When I quoted the price, the askers blanched. It was all dependent upon my getting the yarn again in the color I got for the original and I was not going to shortchange myself for the labor I put into the shawl.

With that project completed my focus is now on getting more things done for the upcoming employee craft fair being held in two weeks. My focus this year is on washcloths out of kitchen cotton and cat sock toys. The cloths are popular and cheap to make. The toys are fun and easy. It won't be a big money maker but it will give me some extra cash that I need to take care of some things around the house.

I have other things planned when the craft show is done. Christmas projects are nearly completed. The carder is waiting to be used for good. Stay tuned.

November

The sentinels of the street have been touched by the coming chill

They dress in yellow, in gold, in copper

Never the same dress as the year before.

They wait, knowing as in years past, that soon the time to sleep will come.

The day has given them a chance to show their glory in the light of the afternoon sun.

In a brief moment, they flash themselves in a symphony of radiance.

The young, bearing only a few shreds of fabric, vie for

attention but are swallowed by the giants in their vast ensembles.

The wind pulls at the hems. Patches open and seams burst.

Soon the colors will fade, their memory burned only in the eyes of those who saw them.

All drop their raiment, building a carpet of fringe and sequins and embellishments tarnished by rain.

A walk under the skirts shuffles the tufts and shreds along the pavement.

The pageant comes to a close.

Spring is here, oh spring is here!

In some sections of the country there are faint whispers of spring being heard but here in Portland the yards are in full riot. The early blooming trees are finishing up, leaving their petals lining the gutter streams. Magnolias, camellias, and daffodils are all open and the bare branches are turning green with sprouting leaves. Saturday was to be clear so the air was filled with the hum and grumble of garden machinery.

It didn't surprise me when I went to my monthly Portland Spinnerati meeting that the turnout was sparse. Sunny days on the weekend are rare in the spring around here. If I was a gardener I'd be out cleaning up the debris of winter and preparing the garden beds. But I opted to be with my fellow spinners for we had a carder demonstration and I had a drum carder to share. It was just as well that I was indoors with all the pollen and grass flying about in the air.

I've been informed by a regular reader that I've been slacking on the blog. The last few weekends have been very busy with knitting up a sample for an upcoming book Judy Becker's publishing. I've watched plenty of movies and tv while knitting on this. I couldn't bring it to knit night so I worked on another special project there. The result of all this is that I have no pictures I can share of the goodies until they are released from their secrecy. Now that those projects are done I've started an Adult Surprise Jacket out of multiple bright colors of Cascade 220. They will be framed with ivory wool yarn from Pendleton which will set them off very nicely. It'll be a good project for mindless knitting as long as I remember to do my decreases and increases in all the right spots.

In the meantime I have some lovely handspun finished up. Black Bunny Fibers Border Leicester blended with mohair and silk in the Hailstorm colorway. I spun the singles from that and plied it with a coordinating strand of Jaggerspun Zephyr to stretch out the 4 ounces of fiber. I came up with 657 yards of nice fingering weight.

Comfortably seated in fall

At last the hot weather has passed and the cool rainy days of fall have arrived. My current office location requires that I use an outdoor parking lot instead of a covered lot, so I'm out in the weather. While there is some danger from crossing a busy street to get to and from the lot, there is the pleasure of walking in the rain with my body bundled in lovely woollens. This weekend I found a pair of boots in the boys shoe section that work wonderfully for the wet weather. All I need now is reflective safety tape all over them to mark me out to cars.

Monday I had jury duty with the county courts. It had been a while since my last jury duty service and this time I didn't want to get out of doing it. I'm a firm believer that even though the duty can be boring and at times really tedious it's important that everyone serves. If I was the person in the defendant's seat, I want people that understand the importance of a fair judgment by their peers. I prepared for a day of sitting in the jury assembly room waiting for my name to be called: crosswords; paper for writing my NaNo; a novel; some singles to ply on my Turkish Delight handspindle. Next thing I know I've been called for a grand jury pool so off I trundle.

For the good part of the day I'm in the pool going through the jury selection process for a case of worker's compensation that is expected to last up to Thanksgiving. As the case progresses I am feeling more and more that I want to be on this case. It was interesting and with my background I would understand much of what was being discussed. But I ended up not getting chosen.

This Saturday there was a gathering and sale by the PDX Knit Co-Op at the Aloha Grange. I went with my array of orifice hooks in hopes of selling a few to get some pocket money for expenses. Fellow spinners from the Portland Spinnerat, PDX Knitbloggers,i and the Northwest Regional Spinners Association came with fleeces, prepared fiber, yarn, and assorted goodies. I came home with 20 oz of California Red wool to play with and washed up this morning.

While there I worked on the mixed mohair locks Karen had purchased, finishing them up this morning. Next weekend I'll be getting the wool/silk single I'll need for plying it up to make a pretty yarn for a scarf or hat. It was a bit of a challenge to spin up the mohair as not all the locks were clean of gum. I'll give the yarn a good washing so that it can get degummed. Any tips on what I should use besides Eucalan or Dawn? I have washing soda; will that help?

My Thanksgiving is going to be a quiet one. No traveling to relatives this year. Instead I'll be spending it with Ruth and John, my good neighbors. With no chorus this year I may even be able to get my holiday letter out before Christmas. That is if I don't space it out. Nudge me before the first of December, hokay?

Fall has arrived

October here in the Pacific Northwest is often our transition month. The beginning will have nice weather with a touch of coolness to the nights, then something will shift and a string of storms will come across the Pacific Ocean to begin the rain that won't quit until May. This year some cold air came down prior to the storms and gave us some frosty nights. I heard a few grumbles in the corridors of my office building but I was delighted because it meant I could wear my woollens made up last year. The wool slippers came out for evening TV watching, the Queen Anne's Lace came out for barring the drafts, and Joe's scarf is ready for those early morning walks from the parking lot to the building. I finished one of the Mini Mochi mittens yesterday and will start the second. I want to knit Beaumont but the gauge is not as fine as the mittens, so I'm going to have to do some math and graphwork to work out something. But if the mittens are done, then I'll have something pretty for my hands.

Worldwide Spin In Public Day

I love September. I most likely have mentioned that in previous years. I'll say it again. I really love September. It means that there will be cooler days coming. The rain will be coming back. The trees will be changing into those gorgeous colors. I look forward to it every summer and treasure it when it arrives.

Today started with a morning washed with Oregon rain. It wasn't going to be one of those steady downpours that we get during the late fall and winter. This was the drizzly soft break in type of rain that warns Oregonians that fall is here and you better start making plans for the coming months. It was a good day for wearing sweaters and I saw my friends adorned with them (February Lady was a popular one amongst the PDX Knitbloggers) when I joined them in Hillsboro for Worldwide Spin In Public Day.**

The event was held at the Hillsboro Civic Center where they have their Farmers Market on Saturdays. The market organizers graciously set up canopies for us so we had lots of covered space for our group. Tami had put together goody bags for the event, which were full of samples from local dyers and breeders. A real treat. Overall we had over 20 folks show up for the event, which attracted a lot of attention from the market goers. Folks with kids were very interested and a few kids got to learn how to spin from Bobbie's CD spindles and "clown barf" roving. Eventually the rain settled down and the sun came out to dry everything off. A very nice way to end the event.

Next weekend is the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I'll be there both days at the PDX Knitbloggers/Portland Spinnerati tent. If you don't find me there, wait an hour and come back as I plan to be there a good part of the weekend.

**Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as the modem arrives.

Sunny skies on a Sunday

Spring is now getting a good shot in the arm this weekend here in Stumptown. Portlanders who were huddling in their jackets and scarves are walking the streets in shirt sleeves and sunglasses, big smiles on their faces as they try to soak up enough sun to neutralize the winter dullness. I've opened up the house to let the skimmia fragrance waft into the house and the cross breeze push the stale air of winter out. The cats are lounging in the sunshine after a good roll on the sidewalk and the bushtits are flitting about in the trees and bushes. A lovely day for sitting outside and knitting or spinning.

Last week at knit night I brought home Susan's carder and processed some of the washed wools I had. I completed the processing on two bags of wool, a merino I had purchased a couple of years ago and the Columbia moorit I got at the Aurora Fiber Faire last year, and now have some lovely batts to spin from.

It's interesting to see the crimp on both being so fine so I'm looking forward to seeing what I come up with from both wools. The merino was my first attempt at getting a wool in the raw after being sheared, washing it and processing it to batt form. I was afraid I had felted it but found to my delight that it had not.

The Columbia was washed and picked but needed carding. I did some experimental carding at OFFF on Deb Accuardi's carder and liked the result. It's a lovely warm brown that should be enough for a sweater when spun up.

And you thought I was nuts

The Yarn Harlot was surprised that there were flowers in bloom here when she came in from Toronto. The garden thinks it's spring. These are the daffodils in the front yard. There have been some nippy days this week, but they're still pushing their way upward. I'm waiting for the andromeda to start its popping of its flowers.

The needles have been clicking away now that the data entry days have passed by. I finished the UO colors hat for the Bossman, who was pleased as punch when he got it. I learned later some were commenting on his Rasta hat. What, there's no red in that! Who said that? I'll set 'em straight.

What's really coming along is the Queen sized QAL. I took one of my extra long circular needles along so that I could spread it out to show how far I've come on it. It's going to be huge. I'm only on row 57 and there are 159 rows to the thing. It's not even fully stretched out. When I showed Dan the artsy sidewise pic, he said it looked like a picture from the National Weather Service. "Warnings are posted for Hurricane Duffy, which at this time is a Category 2 but can easily develop into a Category 5 if that high pressure system doesn't come far enough south to make it veer off to the east."

Still churnin' on

Thanks to all who sent emails and comments of encouragement re: my bout with the Black Dog. Like I said then I get them rarely fortunately and so far doing well with my current regime.

Hints of spring are appearing already. My daffodils are several inches up out of the ground and buds are starting to swell on some of the trees. It's too soon, though. Oregon weather has a tendency to be sneaky. You'll get a stream of days that promise warmth, then before you know it a storm comes plowing in from the Pacific bringing in colder air and days of sog. I don't garden like my mother did but I did learn from her about the Oregon weather sneak. Hopefully it won't be such a destructive sneak that it kills some of the buds on the fruit trees.

Yesterday was a lovely day to head to Woodland Woolworks to take pics of spinning wheels. I kind of felt like a spy up in the wheel room. I didn't want to make a mess or arouse questions. I couldn't get a good light background for taking pictures against so I did what I could and sent the pics off to Judy. Hopefully she'll be able to transform them into a logo for PDX Spinnerati.

I didn't leave empty handed. The Bossman has become quite the Oregon Ducks fan, to the point where he has a Duck jacket. He wears the Dale Sisik hat I made him several years ago, saying it's the warmest hat he has ever had, but it's heathered red with blue stripes. I told him he needed a hat to go with the jacket, so he told me that if I made him one he'd pay me for it. While at WW I got some NatureSpun and started to work on it. It'll be black with green and yellow stripes. I thought about making the Tychus hat but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would make him look like a gnome. So he's getting a watchcap instead.

I'm still working on the Queen Sized QAL and don't have a pic of it. I know -- I should be smacked as a bad blogger -- but I gotta tell ya the grey skies do NOTHING for the purple this yarn is. I beg you to be patient and you will be rewarded. If you're impatient, look at this and know this is a pale imitation. I also have the Christmas sock going on, but the hat's taken over because it will have more of an instant gratification reward to it. I'm hoping to have the cap done by the end of the week. The Christmas sock will come to work to be done during breaks and lunch when the cap is completed.

It was good though to get out of the house Saturday and go bobbing along to Carlton. It was a pretty day with the sun going in and out between clouds. The grapevines on the hills were all bare and the landscape had the look of drear that people tend to assign to winter. The scars of past storms had yet to be covered or removed. But it was also a look of promise, that when the weather changes and the warmth returns there will be fruits to reap. I hope that this section of the valley remains untouched by the developer. The houses of the bedroom communities are fast growing and taking over farms and their appearance adds nothing to the landscape. For me, that is the drear that holds no promise of bounty.

The coming week at the office will be nice with my focus mostly being on the old part of my job that I neglected while working on the big project during December and January. It's kind of like meeting up with an old client you've lost contact with and getting reacquainted. "Well hey there! You're looking a little -- um -- larger than when I last left you. Oh, I see. Well, let's see what we can do about that."

Have a great week!

A taste of Miami

This weekend the Northwest got a flash of summer heat that we don't usually get until August. Saturday's temps were in the nineties and hundreds, but it was Sunday that was truly miserable as moisture came up from the south and shot the humidity up from the low 30s up into higher levels we're not used to. In the evening thunderstorms came through, including one that the carpool had to drive through to return from rehearsal. I figured it was Nature's way of giving those of us who are going to Miami to sing at GALA a taste of what to expect.

Thank goodness for A/C. It made the house livable so that I could take care of a few chores. One was defrosting the little freezer I have. I got rid of a bunch of old food and cleaned the floor while the freezer sat out on the back porch. The water from the drainage attracted some sugar ants but once the water was gone the ants returned back down to their dens. The cats weren't too thrilled with having to walk through the puddle to try to get back in the house from taking refuge in the garden shade.

This summer I don't expect to do much knitting unless it's socks. I ripped out the leg of the first of the Knitters Without Borders socks when I couldn't figure out how I made the heel and the heel of the second one looked much better than the first. I tried doing the two socks on two needles again and after untangling myself on the third row bagged it and went back to my one sock on two circs. I have other sock yarn waiting for me to work up; they'll most likely come with me to Miami.

At home I'm hitting the spinning wheel and working on the pile of fiber I have accumulated over the last 9 months. I have a boatload of stuff waiting for me to work on. The latest I finished spinning up the singles was 5 oz of superwash merino 54s yclept Plumalicious. Those are set aside now to "cook".

I plied up some singles of some of the blended roving named "Vine Maple" from Ferndale Fibers. I'm seeing how I need to continue to practice. I've started a spreadsheet similar to that done by David Daniels of Cabin Cove for my Spinup 2008. The Raspberry Cremosa and the Parade yarn are in; soon I'll add others I've done this year and we'll see how well I do.

Cold Spring

The cold that has lingered here has crept into my bones this morning. A good time to curl up in a sweater and work on the NY Times crossword. My knee is cranky from the drive and spinning later on, so we'll keep it warm.

Ted and Barbara want to know what my haul is from the Fiber Faire. Along with the handspindle, niddy, nostie, and Dicentra fiber I took home the Columbia. The unwashed fiber was lovely to look at but not for me. I would have had it processed. But the Columbia will be mine to play with. I may try spinning from the lock. I have some spun singles waiting to be plied that I can play with on my new spindle.

The pot's boiling. Time for my morning tea.

Just another blustery day in River City

We had a little storm come through, one of those fed by subtropical moisture that comes north and whips us about. It was a strong one that generated hurricane force winds at the coast and threatened to be nasty further inland. It turned out that once it hit the coast mountains the winds cut down quite a bit so we didn't get as much damage in the valley as was expected. But the coast is flooded with trees down and roads closed. One tree in particular, an ancient Sitka spruce that was a landmark for travelers going to the beach, was finally felled. I've been trying to get a hold of my relatives on the coast but the phone lines are still down. I'm hoping they didn't sustain much damage or get flooded out.
Confluence's concert is next weekend in Salem (Saturday) and Corvallis (Sunday). We ran through our music last night and it sounds good. There are a few rough spots but if the chorus is like any other it will pull itself together at the last minute. We're hoping that the weather is cooperative. As for the West Linn Community Chorus, the commute there and other things convinced me that it wouldn't be a good fit, so my Thursday eveningswill still be open.
The knitting needles are going great guns. Item number four is just about ready for felting and number five is getting churned out. I have been taking pictures of the FO's to post after the holidays because some of my readers will be recipients. Of course I could post pictures of all of them and make them guess which one they're going to get, but that wouldn't be nice, right?

Halloween

Last night's party at Ruth's was fun. Most of it was spent watching the third game of the World Series. Most of the party goers were rooting for Colorado but Ruth and I were rooting for Boston, who were able to counter Colorado's threat and the high altitude to win. The theme was pirates so after the game we were watching the first "Pirates of the Caribbean".

I went as a corporate raider, Capt. Maurinda Pocquette of International Acquisitions, LLC. The fact that I was dressed to the nines was shocking in itself. It was fun passing out business cards and talking about my minions out hunting targets.

Knitting update

The Twisted Stitch Gauntlets so far aren't coming along. I found a major mistake (a two row jump in the chart) in the hand then found others where the twists were going in the wrong direction, so I ripped down to the beginning of the hand chart. So far I haven't worked on the gloves since but I'll get back to them. In the meantime I've whipped up more stitch markers and worked on a couple of wips: the Clapotis in Blue Heron rayon and Opal Lollipop socks.

A burst of sunshine

The Portland area got a break from the rainstorms that have been going through recently with a few days of warm sunny weather. The trees are now in their full spray of colors and starting to shed in a great storm of leaves. The storms take down a lot of the foliage so the break gave us a respite from flooded streets due to all the leaves clogging the drains.

It's also cold season in full bore and I've been trying to throw off bug after bug. However, I think there's one that is giving my body a real workout. It's not fun to wake up to a swollen tonsil. Time to bring out the Airborne. Fortunately it's been a quiet time for me so I'm getting the rest.

The pictures of Rhinebeck I've been seeing on the blogosphere have been wonderful. I doubt I'll be able to go next year. What with the chorus trip to Miami and preparing for GLBT Knitcamp West it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to wing a trip out east. But the virtual trip is enjoyable. Dr Mel in his kilt was quite the hit, though I've been told it's because he was center square for Rhinebeck Bingo. You can't argue with those legs though and the fact he made the kilt himself as a first sewn garment.

Next on the hit parade: what to do with Christmas.

Autumn dressing

The neighborhood is full of old trees which most seasons don't put out much color. This year, like last year, we've had nights in the 40's soon after the warmth of September, setting the trees ablaze.

Gearing up

It's hard to believe that next week is the last week of August. My August was going to be lazy and quiet, seizing moments where I could just sit and read or knit whatever I pleased. It didn't exactly turn out that way. An experiment turned into a potential pattern for sale so I've been busy putting that together. Then I got yarn from Judy Ditmore so the pencil, paper, and needles have been busy thinking up patterns for her. I got a call from the chorus' director asking if I would be able to sing with the chorus' small group Influence this Saturday so I lost a weekend to chorus rehearsal last week. I know; I could have said 'no' but how often does one get chosen to sing in the auditioned part of the chorus? I'm thinking it as my audition for the coming season *grin*. Ray gave me the music for the upcoming Tour and holiday concerts for copying, so tonight will be spent with Mr Kinko and his chunking machines. So the summertime lazy days are over for me. While it will be sad to not have those days, I can look forward to my favorite time of year coming up: early fall in Oregon.

I joined Ravelry July 4th (it must have been too much potato salad putting me in a carbohydrate stupor). I'm in the lower 3000's now and word is they're getting ready to load in servers that will be chucking out invites like spam. I had thought of loading in my stash but I'm going to wait until I have a good feel for the site to see if I need to take that time to do it. Perhaps just the labeled items. I have anonymous stash yarns gifted from me that will stay off for certain. It'll be nice to be able to hunt for patterns for them though. What do you do with a hurkin' big hank of handspun that looks like bricks lightly brushed with frost? Or another that looks like a pale child with measles?

Iris investigations

While it was hot and humid and past the prime flowering time, the iris of Schreiner's were still quite spectacular. There were many blooms to view and consider for future purchase (the rhizomes aren't available until later in the year after the blooms are done and energy stored in the rhizome for the next year's blooming). Parasol in hand, I perambulated the public garden and came back with pictures of favorites.