First of all, thank you all for your commiseration with me over my extreme dorkiness. 😳 I may eventually live it down. Or not.

I can’t believe how many people raised their hand when Stephanie asked how many people blogged! I had no idea there were so many of us! It would be cool to do a little Portland Portland/tri-county/Vancouver/larger-metro-area/whatever Knitting Bloggers thingy. I’m touching bases with a few other bloggers whose emails and/or blog addresses I have to see if there’s any interest in getting something going.
[ed. 06/11/07 12:01 PM – to be inclusive of a larger territory than only Portland proper. When I say Portland, it’s my shorthand for all this stuff around here within striking distance. I certainly don’t want anyone to feel excluded!]

Did any of you knit in public on Saturday? I did. It was at my normal haunt — Tangle — but it was in public, even though it’s a yarn shop. And a couple of non-knitters did come in. I think.

On Sunday I had lunch with my muggle friend M. She said, did you know today is National Knitting Day, or something like that? I gave her lots of credit for trying, because she was obviously paying attention! And told her that the day before had been Worldwide Knit In Public Day, and I did knit in public, which I do all the time anyway.

On the more changes in PI subject, gentle reader, I’m pleased to announce the return of spell check on comments. Oh frabjous day! I think that’s the last thing lost during the WP 2.0 upgrade that had not been replaced or rewired or recoded or updated. Whew. It’s a really cool spell checker, too. Better than the old one. I think you’ll like it.

Yes, that’s a blatant hint that you should try it out! 😆

Here are the little blue baby socks. The knitting was finished at the Harlot’s book signing, and I did the bind-off when I got home. I think they came out really cute. I’m so pleased that I had some Cascade Fixation in a color that worked so well with the little sweater. I also have some Fixation in a lime green, but I think it may be too green. There really are two socks in this picture.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Cascade Fixation — 98.3% cotton / 1.7% elastic, 100g / 50 yds per ball — in an unknown colorway (might be 2706) — a tiny amount left over from a different project.
• Needles: Knit Picks Classics, US#2 (3mm).
• Pattern: my own standard toe-up sock pattern, just knit really, really small. Magic cast-on. Flap-and-gusset heel. Tubular bind-off.

Next up: finishing the Spanish Lavender Basket Wave socks, another stab at Clapotis #2, Sockapalooza socks – hopefully the yarn will arrive!

This is the lecturn that Powell’s Books provides for guest speakers. Cool, isn’t it? I love the book stack and the faux shelf of books at the top. Just below the faux book shelf is a place where books (I guess most frequently written by the guest speaker) can be displayed during an event. Like Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off, for example.

This lectern is large enough to almost entirely hide Stephanie, except for her head from the chin up.

I’ve missed The Yarn Harlot the last couple of times she traveled to Stumptown. I almost missed her this time.

I looked online to see if there was a bus or something that runs from where I work to Powell’s, because I knew that finding a place to park would be nearly impossible. Portland has this wonderful invention called fareless square. You can ride any of the mass-transit options for free, as long as you stay within this area. I work at one end. Powell’s is at the other. Free ride — how often does that happen? And, it turns out that the Portland Streetcar, which stops only a block from work, would drop me off and pick me up right next to Powell’s. How perfect is that?

Then the only issue was to get out of work early enough that I could ride the incredibly slow charming streetcar and still get to Powell’s in time to get a seat. I did kinda have a clue what was going to happen. 😆

When I arrived at 5:30, there were already a goodly number of knitters in attendance, but I managed to get a great seat.

Powell’s main store is so large (an entire block), and so maze-like that the different areas of the store are painted different colors so it’s easier to find your way around. I’m sure that it’s much simpler for employees, when asked for directions, to answer go through the Blue Room, then down the stairs and through the Gold Room. Stephanie would be speaking in the (I am not making this up) Pearl Room.

But now perhaps they will rename the Pearl Room the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Room.

As I arrived, the intrepid Powell’s employees were cramming as many folding chairs as they could into the open area in front of and to either side of the lectern. Apparently they partially learned their lesson after last year, when they booked her into the tiny Powell’s Home & Garden store and did not even provide a microphone.

By 7:15, Powell’s looked like this. Powell’s tried to limit the audience to a number reasonable for the area provide, and closed the door when the limit was reached. I’m not sure of the truth to the rumors that a few knitters simply bypassed the closed door by taking the elevator. Would knitters do that? 😆 At any rate, by the time Stephanie arrived, it was standing room only, and the aisles were crammed.

I saw so many people! Nurse Knitter was there, T, Lori – she had her socks with her and they look great. I sat right behind Monica, who has cards for her blog! And I saw several people who I met at the Magical Moebius Festival and I love you all and I know I’m forgetting bunches of people and I’m sorry. I’m a dork. Next time I will take better notes. But I kept trying to finish the little baby socks, which were barely past the toe increases when I left work.

Everyone was knitting. I tell you, you’ve never seen so many knitters in one place. And we all had a bunch of fun showing each other what we were knitting. And I, being a dork, just had a lot of fun listening to the snippets of conversation around me:

It was the perfect gray cashmere, so I had to buy it.

This is the third sock I’ve started.

(said very earnestly) Sometimes, when you frog something out, you just need to let the yarn rest a little while and then it almost seems like it’s brand new when you start to knit with it again. It’s almost as good as actually buying new yarn. But not quite.

Stephanie was funny and witty and earnest. I loved her talk about knitting and knitters and the amazing things we can do when we put our minds to it. She started by describing what a worrier she was. Having grown up with a command-performance worrier in the form of my Mama, I laughed and laughed because the description rang so true. Stephanie worried about all of the sheep in the world suddenly losing all of their fleece. She asked us to picture the battles between crocheters and knitters over the last of the yarn. Crochet, you know, is so much faster!

Most of the time, Stephanie had us all in stitches (pun intended). The part about she and Joe attending a swanky cocktail party, and what it meant to admit she was a knitting author, was particularly funny. And there were boos (aimed towards the banks involved) when she mentioned Blue Moon’s problems with their bank over their sock club orders. And the issues another woman had when trying to get a business loan to open an online yarn store. There were cheers when she talked of the amazement from another fund raiser at the speed (72 hours) with which knitters could double the amount donated via Tricoteuses Sans Frontières (Knitters Without Borders). At this writing, an amazing $320,093 has been donated.

There was time for a couple of questions afterwards. Someone asked about the traveling sock taken hostage at BEA by Ann and Kay. Stephanie was pleased to announce that her no negotiation policy had payed after all, and the sock was on its way home.

Then it was time to get in the long, long, long line. And my true dorkiness began to shine.

As I prepared to gather my stuff together, a very nice woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was the magic cast-on lady. I admitted that I was. She said some very kind words about the cast-on and how pleased she was to meet me. And I thanked her and asked her name (which I think was Terry? And if it wasn’t or if I’ve spelled it wrong, please let me know right away so I can fix it, because I’m such a dork with names). I picked my stuff up to get it out of the way of all of the knitters who were stumbling over my purse (I’ve driven cars that were smaller) and my other junk. And the lovely lady came back with Melody (who gave me her card, sparing me from totally humiliating myself by forgetting her name, too).

It turns out that they had come all the way from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, to see the Harlot. So we had Idaho in common, I being born and raised in Idaho Falls and not only knowing where Coeur d’ Alene is but how to pronounce it. Melody owns Harmony Yarn Studio, which looks like such a cool little store. I will definitely visit if I’m ever in the area.

This is so big, for me to meet you, Melody said, can we please take my picture with you? And that rendered me totally speechless and feeling all weirdly cool and embarrassed at the same time, and of course I was happy to oblige. They were both so sweet and kind and fun to meet.

And the picture… it was pretty hot in the Pearl room, and it was pretty humid. Yeah… The incredible expandomatic hair was at it again. When I gasped ohmygod, my hair!, Melody kindly replied, don’t worry. We’ll explain about the hair.

Now… I’ve been trying to explain about my hair for years and years. 🙄 I wish her luck with that. Melody, if you are reading this, maybe you can send me the explanation so I can use it in the future? I’m serious.

And then I went to stand in line. And then I remembered that I had neither taken a picture of the Harmony Yarn ladies or written down the first ones name. And now, of course, it was way too late to do that. And I banged my head against the nearest bookshelf a few times in lieu of kicking my own rear end, because I’m a dork. Harmony Yarn ladies, you were wonderful and I am not usually quite so spacey.

The line went on and on and on and moved very, very slowly. So slowly that I actually finished the baby socks while I stood in line. Babies have such tiny feet, as we’ve already established.

I knit for about 4 hours straight, while waiting for Stephanie, while she spoke, while waiting in line. It was a bit too much for my hands. By the time I got to the head of the line, my hands were hurting and clumsy and my brain was beginning to shut off even more than it already had, if that were possible. Low blood sugar? Yeah… that’s my story for what happened next, and I’m sticking to it.

Stephanie was just as warm up close, in person, as I knew she would be. I said, nice to meet you, and passed over my book calmly, and then gushed can my socks meet your sock? Stephanie giggled and said of course they could, because her tours were really about socks meeting and not about books at all. After some fumbling, I managed to partially untangle the two pairs of socks in my little knitting bag, so Stephanie is holding both the Spanish Lavender Basket Wave socks and the little baby socks, along with her traveling sock.

Book signed and picture taken, Stephanie looked closer at the Basket Wave socks and stroked the yarn a little.

That’s the Rockin’ Sock Club yarn for April — Silkie Socks That Rock in Walking on the Wild Tide. I’m not knitting the club pattern, but I’m pleased with the results. I said.

Or that’s what I meant to say.

Instead I suffered from total brain freeze and said, that’s the… that’s the… that’s the…

Yeah, Stephanie nodded. It’s the Silkie stuff. It looks nicer knitted up than in the skein.

Thank you, I croaked, and began gathering up my stuff because I knew that she was tired and there was still a line of knitters behind me and I couldn’t talk and I needed to disappear quickly into a hole in the ground because I couldn’t make my mouth work along with my brain.

I was carrying my purse (small cars, etc.), my knitting bag containing yarn and various tools, the two pairs of socks on two circs each – now outside the bag, my sweater, Stephanie’s book. My hands were very clumsy, and I kept dropping things. I picked up the bag and dropped the book. I picked up the book and dropped a pair of socks. I picked up the socks and dropped the other socks. I picked up the socks and dropped the bag, and the socks, and my sweater. ohmygod I wanted to just die.

Take your time, Stephanie said. Do you need help?

No, no, no. I’m so sorry. I managed to get out. Then I finally captured all of my errant objects and made my escape.

Ugh. How embarrassing was that? Gentle reader, isn’t that the most extreme case of dorkiness you’ve ever heard of?

I know. It’s the universe’ way of keeping me humble.

P.S. In case anyone wondered, I’m watching the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade right now. It’s raining. Tradition is preserved.

That’s what they’re for, right?

Yesterday, I got caught in the but this is summer so it’s warm madness that happens when we have our little May faux-summer and sometimes hangs around when the weather returns to it’s normal rotten self in time for Rose Festival. Thus caught up in the summer thing, I dressed for summer. I even forgot to put on socks with my sandals (this is the Northwest, gentle reader).

By the time I got home last night, I was cold. Really cold. And I just can’t seem to warm up much. And my nose is running. So today I’m wearing wool socks and a sweater. I’m a slow learner, but I can be taught.

True, my hair is wet and that contributes to my general coldness, but by the time I get to work it will be dry. I’ve found that the heater vents in my car can do double-duty as a blow drier in a pinch. The thought would probably horrify my long-suffering stylist, Carla. So let’s not tell her, eh?

Pics of the baby socks (hopefully) tomorrow.

Evidence of surprise knitting, that is.

A colleague is having a baby in July. Last week it occurred to me that July is in the none-to-distant future, and I’d better get a-knittin’.

This is the Babies And Bears sweater from Cottage Creations, knit in Cascade Sierra in colors 47 (turquoise blue) and 48 (lime green). (Such nice Persistent Illusion colors, eh?)

This sweater was a really fun knit. I love knitting baby things, anyway — they are so little and cute! And I so rarely have a reason to, except for charity knitting. “E” is for excuse also. The Babies And Bears sweater is knit in two sections from the ends of the arms in to the center. The two sections are Kitchenered together up the back while the rest of the stitches remain live. Then the hood is knit starting from the still-live neck stitches and Kitchenered at the top. The trim is added last from the still-live stitches around the edge, and then you bind off at the very end. I hate picking up stitches, and with all of the stitches remaining live until the end, this construction kept the picking up to a very minimum. It was fun, fun, fun!

Maybe, just maybe, there are a pair of little socks in some leftover-and-stashed Cascade fixation in a bright turquoise (ball band long ago lost).

Sorry about the craptastic chair shot. I had to take pics indoors rather than out in the yard because it’s raining.

It’s raining because this is Portland and it’s Rose Festival time.

Similar to the teaser faux-spring in February, we usually have a teaser faux-summer in May featuring a week or so of lovely warm days and clear crisp nights. It lulls even the long-time residents into putting away their winter coats and heaters and digging around in the basement (for those that have them) or garage (for those that don’t) to find the fan that was stashed away last autumn. Then Rose Festival comes and the rains return. It’s not as cold as it is earlier in the year, but it’s not all that warm, either. The jackets and sweaters come back out. The fan goes back to the basement / garage.

The weather sucks until after the 4th of July. Then we have a couple of truly hot, hot weeks. Everyone runs out and buys air conditioners like crazy because, you know, it’s apparently impossible to live through a couple of hot days. And the power demands spikes up while everyone attempts to keep cool. For a couple of weeks. Then the weather moderates and we have lovely 85-degree days all the way into October, with just a spot of rain occasionally to wash everything down. September is Portland’s way of rewarding us for living here through the long, dark winter.

I did turn my furnace off for the season. But I haven’t dragged out the fans yet. And I don’t possess air conditioning (and not likely to get it). So my summer preparation is fairly minimalistic.

PI updates continue, now and again. You might notice a little share this link at the bottom of each post. Clicking on it brings up a little tabbed window — one tab has a list of social bookmarking sites and the other lets you forward a link in email.

Toys. 😀

Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes after my little prat fall last week. I am well on my way towards being as good as new — or at least as goos as I ever am. 😈 . All of you who related your own harrowing tales — Ack! Please be careful, gentle readers!

And greetings to fans of Defect Defect arriving here because they played at a placed called The Knitting Factory… I love my kid, but this might not be the site you were looking for. Google carefully. 😆

P.S — yes, the sweater is for a boy. If the baby were a girl, I think hot pink trim would have been just too cute, don’t you?

There was Cat Bordhi, and food, and knitting, and food, and Kay and Ann from Mason-Dixon Knitting, and socks, and other wonderful knitting bloggers, and the most awesome fun non-blogging knitters you could imagine, and sunsets, and food, and whales, and a wedding to be crashed, and food, and a sweater we all could wear, and yarn (lots of yarn), and I knit a moebius big enough for all of us, and Addi Lace needles, and some of the most gorgeous knitting in the world was there to be fondled and cooed over, and windows to open at night for sleeping to surf sounds, and did I mention there was food? Five times a day there was food. And just maybe there was a little wine involved, too.

The picture is the view out our classroom window on Saturday night. Yeah… it was that good, gentle reader.

I had the most marvelous time in the whole world.

The weather was wonderful for the drives both ways. It was a bit wet on Friday and Saturday, but nobody minded.

I have tons of pictures and lots to tell you and some things I can’t tell you, and I will take the amazing run-on sentence that comprises the first paragraph and parse it into something that makes sense just as soon as I have a chance to breath a little and get my pictures sorted out.

It was a wonderful trip and I was very glad to be home last night in my own bed.

I’m not hopping on the yarn-diet, buy-no-yarn-in-2007 bandwagon that seems to be making the rounds. Those who are, I know, have their reasons for doing so and I respect those reasons. But I’d like a chance to express my reasons for choosing not to follow along.

First, my stash is just not that big. I don’t have a room for my stash or even a closet — I have several large plastic bins that I store on a bookshelf and in a corner of my dining room. Oh… If I knit nothing but lace and socks and maybe a sweater and a couple of hats, and finished up the projects already on needles, I’d have enough yarn to keep me busy this year and partially into next. About half my stash is sock yarn and I am not adding to that collection right now unless I find some unique fiber or amazing color that I really want to try. I’ve joined the STR sock club this year, so I already know that some lovely yarn will be coming my way.

I am usually thoughtful about my purchases. Not always, but usually. Sometimes the thinking goes very quickly — so quickly that it might appear to be an impulse buy. But I do think and consider and weigh what I already have against the desirability of whatever new thing has caught my eye. Even if I buy impulsively, I have a roof over my head and my bills are paid and I have money in savings and buying a skein of yarn does not take food from my child’s mouth (he feeds himself quite well nowadays, anyway).

I’d rather knit a pretty sweater than buy one.

I have learned the hard way that failure to buy a wonderful yarn when it is available might mean that quantities large enough for the intended project are not available when I get around to starting on it. With colorways and even fibers changing quickly from season to season, it’s sometimes best to strike while the iron is hot if a particular yarn is needed (or wanted).

Most of the yarn I have has already been earmarked for projects, even if those projects have not yet been started. Most often I decide what I’m going to knit and only then start looking for a yarn to knit it from. I’ve also learned the hard way that buying yarn in quantity without the actual project in mind usually means that I don’t buy enough.

We are blessed in Portland buy having probably more local yarn shops per capita than almost anywhere else. Each is a unique shopping experience. All carry wonderful yarns and amazing fibers. Whatever you are looking for, be it acrylic or qiviuk; whatever shopping ambiance you prefer; there is something here for everyone. But our LYS exist only because they are sustained by the yarn needs of Portland area fiber crafters. If we all stopped buying yarn for the next nine months, by October we might find that our choices were fewer and some wonderful local businesses were no more.

I love yarn. All the yarn. I feel that I show admirable restraint by not buying all the yarn – even the yarn I don’t plan to knit with. OK… there are those three balls of pink KidSeta. But that was an aberration. Really. For the most part I am content to stroke and fondle and smell and squeeze and simply visit the yarn without bringing it home.

But I will not feel guilty when I do. 🙂