Meet-Ups and Milestones

The Meet-Up

I've waited far too long to write about the new yarn store I visited recently with other PDX Knit Bloggers.  A group of us went to Yarnia in SE Portland (thanks to Tiggywinkleknits and Toolman for driving!).  Yarnia is unique in that you don't just find a couple of skeins to buy.  You find dozens upon dozens of these cones. 

You can then combine up to six of any cones to make a completely unique yarn that includes all the fiber types, colors, and weights that the purchaser prefers.   The bookcase above shows only a small, small variety of what the store has to offer.  Definitely check their website for more pics and info.  The basket below contains my choices. 

The two magenta pinks and the purple lurex (shiny strand) became this bulky weight yarn.  It's a combo of a silk blend, an acrylic boucle and the lurex for a little dazzle.  It kind of reminds me of Indian Sari Silk yarn.

The other three cones plus one I added after I took the picture became this blend.  It is four strands:  one light pink linen/cotton, one ecru linen/cotton, medium pink rayon and one pink lurex strand.  The overall effect is a light lacey type of yarn that will one day become a lovely summer shawl/wrap......once I figure out the pattern, that is.  I've been combining lace edging and insert patterns but haven't hit the mark quite yet. 
That's okay, though, 'cause I've got a few projects this month that I am really very excited about.  For one, the above mentioned Tiggywinkleknits sent out the call to the PDX Knit Bloggers for donations for a charity auction benefitting a very brave young boy named Thomas who is battling cancer.  I designed a not too complicated pattern from my stitch dictionaries for an evening wrap that hopefully will bring a few dollars for this boy and his family.  This family needs all the support it can get.  If you're in the area and want to attend the dinner and auction, click on Thomas' name for his website and check the "Events" section for all the details.  

Secondly, I'm also really excited about my first venture in test knitting for a local pattern designer.  Not gonna say who, not gonna say what.  Suffice it to say that I think the buying public will really like this pattern when it finally comes out and that I will be posting photos galore at that point.  

Soooooo......back to the needles for me.  I've got some work to do :-)!

I Blog In My Head Every Day

I was having that conversation with Tiggywinkleknits at Knit Night last night.  During the course of any day, I'll usually see/read/hear something that I feel is blog-worthy.  Unfortunately, with two small children, sitting down and completing that process can be a little challenging.  But, in my head, I blog every day.  

So, what have I learned recently?  That there is a small price to be paid when one joins a knitting group that includes several spinners.  While you may steadfastly announce that spinning is of no interest to you, after watching others in your group create lovely yarn in beautiful colors you may find yourself in a daze standing in front of the drop spindles and roving in your local yarn store.  I now own three drop spindles and have been drooling over the spinning wheel in my favorite antique store.

My first attempt at spinning was less than successful.  While I spun up a couple of thick single yarn strands with okay results, my attempt to ply them together resulted in this tangled mess.
Luckily, with practice, I got better. 


This hank was particularly satisfying.  I started by separating the roving into two equal batches.  The first batch was relatively thick but the next batch came out so much thinner that I could actually ply three strands.  The color combinations really worked out well.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to get a hat out of this amount of yarn.  
 And for my final thought........Happy Valentine's Day to you all!  May it be filled with goodness and lots of chocolate.  Oh wait, chocolate and goodness are the same thing.  

Pixie Dust

A lovely little red-haired girl we know recently had a birthday.  I wasn't quite sure what to get for her until her aunt mentioned that she likes Tinkerbell and carrying purses around the house.  So I combined those two things together and made her a Tinkerbell purse.  It's basically a rectangular tote with a squared-off bottom.  I was really happy with the way it came out and will definitely think about using this idea again for other little girl birthdays.  For all the supplies I went to Joann's.  The sparkly green fabric was in the "prom dress" section and worked perfectly.  I was very lucky and found the green and hot pink flower trim to add a little extra color and texture.  The icing on the cake was the iron-on Tinkerbell patch.  I used the glue gun to make sure that it didn't come off, though.  

And since it's been very cold and snowy around these parts, I knit up a little hat to go along with the purse.

She'll be the only toddler in town with a "ladies who lunch" look about her.  

Please Stand By

We have been experiencing technical difficulties.  For a few weeks now we have had trouble downloading photos from our camera.  Luckily, the Incredible Digit Husband got it working last night.  So on with the show. 

I have been very lucky.  I say this because the knitting group which I have joined, PDX Knit Bloggers, is filled with wonderfully creative and smart people.  Once a week I get to sit with this group and soak up their creativity, vibes, brainwaves (whatever you want to call it) through osmosis.  So again I consider myself lucky in getting to participate with this group in the PDX Yarn Crawl organized for a large group (35!) Seattle knitters.  

Not only did this group come to check out our local yarn stores, but their fearless leader Charissa arranged for discounts at said yarn stores for all who participated in the crawl.  We started out at Dublin Bay Knitting Co. (www.dublinbay.net) where I found these buttons and this lovely yarn (on sale!). Our next stop was Knit Knot Studio (www.knitknotstudio.com).  This shop is a little on the small size and by chance a few of the small groups wound up here at the same time....totally overwhelming the space.  The owners couldn't have been nicer, though, and everyone was so high on yarn fumes that no one minded waiting. While waiting, I fell in love with the Rayon Metallic yarn from Blue Heron Yarns (www.blueheronyarns.com). It's the center yarn in the pic below.  

Trust me when I say that this photo does not do this yarn justice. 

Our next stop was Knit-Purl (www.knit-purl.com).  I love going to this shop.  The people are always so helpful and, more importantly, fun!  There is the lovely and talented Theresa (who I hope wouldn't mind being sideways at the moment...gotta fix this). 

Plus a whole lot of amazing yarn!  They recently received a shipment of Kauni yarn in many different color combinations - all beautiful.

I narrowed down my choices and bought a skein of Malabrigo Chunky in blue and one of Shibui Knits DK Alpaca in a medium green shade called Wasabi.  Appropriate since sushi is one of my favorite foods and I really needed a second skein for the scarf I'm currently knitting.  Also included is the free(!) skein of Shibui Knits Sock Yarn that I received just for being a member of the yarn crawl.  

For a knitter to come to Portland and not visit Knit-Purl would be a mistake.  The window displays alone are enough to get you into the shop. 

Then, having shopped 'til we dropped, the PDX Knit Bloggers hit Starbucks for a little refreshment.  From left to right, with their blog identities, are Judy (persistentillusion.com), Bobbie (tiggywinkleknits.blogspot.com), yours truly, Duffy (fiberqat.blogspot.com), Melissa the hidden one (teaknit.blogspot.com) and Angela (girlywithatwist.wordpress.com).  

So with plenty of yarn in my bag and caffeine in my system, I made my way home with plenty of ideas for a new project.  There's just silly little problem of finishing the other projects that I have going all at the same time.  

 

 

Tooth Fairy Alert

The mystical and mysterious figure known as the Tooth Fairy has visited our home for the very first time.  The Incredible Digit Girl is now minus one upper front tooth - with a little help from the neighborhood dentist.  Unfortunately, the tooth had to be pulled because of an infection.  The wacky part of the story is that the infection was caused by an injury that occurred in July of 2006! (Imagine the sound from Scooby Doo when those crazy kids go back in time to explain the story).  

It was a sunny summer day when our sweet girl fell mouth-first onto the bottom of our desk chair.  The kind of rolling chair with the base of five "arms" that extend out.  Did I mention that the chair is made out of very hard wood?  Combine all those together and this is what you get. 

Luckily, it didn't take too long for the swelling to go down and the tooth only discolored a tiny bit over time.  So imagine my surprise when I found an abscess last month on her gums over the same tooth.   The dentist ultimately determined that the tooth would have to come out.  So yesterday, with a little help from a red clown nose dispensing a low level of nitrous oxide, the infected tooth was removed.  

The Incredible Digit Girl calls this lack of a tooth the "open door" in her mouth.  Sympathetically, I let her join me for Knit Night with the PDX Knit Bloggers last night.  She even joined in the knitting with her small round knitting loom.  It was an enjoyable evening.  Our resident songbird Duffy made the excellent tip that Digit Girl could now slurp spaghetti through the new opening in her teeth. To top it off, I let my girl pick out a hank of hand-dyed Merino goodness in the Xanadu colorway (you know you just started singing the song - imagining yourself as Olivia Newton-John on roller skates) from Sharon aka Stitch Jones (www.stitchjones.com).
This picture doesn't really do the yarn justice. Check out her website for a better pic of this yarn and all her other lovely products.

And now back to the real world where two small children would desperately like to eat breakfast.

New Year Catch-Up

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Belated Happy New Year!  An appropriate greeting for my first post of 2008.  2007 went out with a bang.  Since Thanksgiving, we've had friends and family visiting us here along with a trip to sunny Florida to visit with some of the Incredible Digit Grandparents.  Of course, leaving the rainy and snowy Pacific Northwest in winter to visit sunny beaches is absolutely not a hardship.  Ironically, one of the places we visited in Florida was ICE! at the Gaylord Palms Resort.  This is a really spectacular exhibit of ice sculptures created by the same Chinese artists that create the Harbin Ice and Snow World every January in China's Zhaolin Park.  My brother-in-law treated us all to the experience and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Although, the Incredible Digit Girl was not too cheery by the end.  Since it's an indoor display, the indoor temperature is a whopping 9 degrees.  Although the organizers do provide some toasty warm parkas, our Digit Girl got progressively colder and crankier the longer we stayed.  I couldn't get even a grin out of her by the end of the tour....as evidenced below.  

A chipper child doing her best Thumbelina impression. 

A happy boy going down the ice slides. 

A cold and cranky girl and impatient boy posing with Santa on his home turf. 

In contrast to my daughter looking and feeling "blue", I have found out that I am orange.  I was visiting the blog of a fellow PDX Knit Blogger, Girl With A Twist, and found a survey she had posted titled "What Color is Your Soul Painted?".  Since I'm usually intrigued with all kinds of colors, I took the test.  I like that I'm on the "warm" side of the spectrum. 

What color is your soul painted?

Orange

Your soul is painted the color orange, which embodies the characteristics of balance, heat, enthusiasm, flamboyance, playfulness, aggression, over-emotion, danger, desire, strengthens the ability to concentrate, attraction, adaptability, and stimulation. Orange falls under the element of Fire, and symbolizes glory and fruits of the earth.

Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Merry Christmas!

We at the Digit household hope that your Christmas was wonderful!  We have spent a very low-key day just enjoying the warmth of our home.  Even more warm as we got a light dusting of snow in the middle of the day.  

This month has absolutely flown by.  Between traveling and welcome visits from family members, I have been very lax in my postings.  I do have lots of new pics to share:  kids, knitting, travel, and Christmas.  I'll get those up soon - along with a few new videos. 

For now, hope you all are having a relaxed evening with friends and family.