129 Plethora of Patterns

At Pearl Fiber Arts with Bonne Marie Burns
Listen here.

Latte: Karen is working on Vivian by Ysolda Teague. She is shaping the sleeve in seed stitch in a way that makes the increases invisible. Very impressive!

Abby has done a lot of knitting on Color Affection, and is almost finished with Brickless. She has no socks on the needles - ack!

Karen's Vivian Sleeve

Brewing: Abby feels like Dr. Gemma of the Cogknitive Podcast, who sounds like she wants to knit everything right now, and that’s how Abby feels, especially about shawls! Abby is looking forward to starting a pair of socks using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel (which is fun to say!) using the self striping sock yarn she purchased at OFFF. Abby’s also looking forward to knitting Bonne Marie Burns’s Alby from ChikKnits. It’s a great holiday knitting project that only takes 245 yards of yarn!

Take a Bite: If you had one or more hours added to your day to do whatever you want, but you need to add something new, in other words, you can’t say “more knitting time” or “more spinning time”. What would you do with that found time? Karen would like to learn a few languages and how to smoke meat. Abby would like to design knitwear and learn to play the saxophone. Her inspiration was Lene Lovich. How about you? What new thing would you do with more time?

Lene Lovich, saxophone inspiration

Coffee Cart: Abby went to Pearl Fiber Arts with the smart, talented and charming Bonne Marie Burns (Chicknits). Pearl is a great place to go for locally indie dyed yarns. Rachel of Wanton Fibers was having a trunk show and a skein of Prodigal Lace (50/50 Baby Camel and Silk) caused Abby to have what Fairy Godmother Mary refers to as a “retail accident”. Abby plans to make Stephen West’s Tripartite from this luxurious yarn. In passing, Abby mentioned that Chicknits and Ysolda Teague sweaters are some that she trusts implicitly. Karen also feels this way about A. Karen Alfke’s patterns.

Abby also talks about Community Warehouse, a fantastic Portland organization. She is going to participate in this year’s Chair (and table) Affaire. 

Sofa: Abby recommends (again) the documentary about New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. On the recommendation of Linda Holmes of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, she began watching The Good Wife, which, so far, so good (no pun intended). Abby also is reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and is loving it.

128 McGyver It!

Narcissa Socks. Link to podcast on the right.

I'm  baaaaaack!

Latte: I'm still knitting the Lady Grey Shrug and I love it!

I'm plodding along on the Color Affection shawl. Very slowly.

I am racing through Martina Behm's Brickless and loving every moment of it. I was inspired when I saw Laura the Joy of Cooking Fairy's Brickless in progress when she visited. 

Segue into Events: Laura visited during OFFF and the "Oregon Monsoon of 2013". At OFFF I purchased some self striping yarn from Fly Designs and two skeins of Super Sock from Abstract Fiber in the color "Portland" -- naturally. 

I had, by the way, the pleasure of joining my San Jose friends virtually, via FaceTime. It was a blast, and four of the five of us were knitting Brickless!

Grande: I finished the Narcissa Socks. A fun knit and a lovely pair of socks. I enjoyed using Crazyfoot yarn and I think it will wear very well.

Bitter Cup: I do NOT know how to fix the Clapotis I was knitting. I ran out of yarn near the beginning of the decrease section.

Brewing: I've unpacked my yarn and organized my stash into a large Ikea shelving unit; it makes me so happy! I filled a crystal bowl with leftover sock yarn and I'm hoping it will inspire me to finally put together yarn to knit Leftie, another Martina Behm pattern. 

Sewing Table Home Depot Hack (I added the shelf)

Brewing morphed into Caffienated, I was so excited!  Yes, that is the McGyver theme!

After much frustration and a great deal of effort, I gave up on truly repairing my sewing table and McGyvered it with a Home Depot hack for under $30. Now I can sew! I also used an Ikea hack to create a semblance of a standing desk, which has improved my life at work. 

Finished standing desk Ikea hack

I purloined from the Knitmores the idea of my "year". It's the Jewish year 5774, and i have declared for Abby 5774 that I will learn The Brioche Stitch. I have the book and have signed up for the Craftsy class with Nancy Marchant. I also have decided to learn double knitting, because I want to knit the Null Hypothesis Scarf from Needles & Artifice. 

Sofa: I went to see This is The End which I enjoyed, and which led me to revisit the TV show Freaks and Geeks. I recommend Freaks and Geeks highly! I have also been watching Homeland, Masters of Sex and Scandal. I also must mention that I "foisted" the movie Bridesmaids on Laura. Finally, if you haven't been watching the TED talks ("Ideas worth Spreading"), hurry up and watch some; they are amazing.