Getting into Gear

Hello my lovlies! Let me tell you something; my fiber game has been on point lately.

I've been spinning:

Plying:

Knitting:

And plotting:

And I cannot wait to tell you all about it. Just as soon as I have a just a few less chainsaws in the air...


P.S.

Digdug says hello:

Alyeska in Montana: a photo blog

Hello lovlies! As you may (or may not) have noticed, I have been mysteriously absent recently. And that is because I was in Big Sky Country, also known as Montana.

Went with some good friends of mine, Patrick, Tara, Connor, and Ryan (that's left to right, excluding myself):

Please excuse my face, I was very excited. Everyone else looking like models
while I look like a freaking Animorph...

We took the train from Portland, Oregon to Whitefish, Montana, and I will  tell you that it was the way to go! I'm not a big fan of flying in general, but why even bother with the sky when you can rocket across the ground to the most breathtaking views?

Okay, Patrick isn't super breathtaking here, but in his defense I was snapping pics without permission...
Connor is pretty breathtaking in the background.

It did take about Fourteen hours to get there, which is rough, but we made the most of it. And when we walked out of the Whitefish Train Station on the other side, it was like walking out into a snowglobe.

I was seriously hoping we'd get snowed in and never have to return...

We went out into Glacier National Park (which has been on my bucket list since I was 12) and we were treated to some spectacular views:

And we would have never made it to and fro without Patrick's spectacular snow driving!

I love Tara looking all pensive in the background.

As Connor, myself, and Ryan are all Oregonians, we probably would have killed ourselves driving in this much snow. Tara (Ms. North Dakota/Utah) probably would have been fine captaining the ship, but Patrick (Mr. Pennsylvania) did us proud!

We ate good food and drank good beer!

Connor looking very "Portland Chic" while wearing my Cathedral Grove
(which we will discuss in just a second) 

And Ryan not liking my sticking a camera in his face.

I even tried skiiing! Of the Cross-Country variety. I will inform you now that I was not good...Turns out those bastards go both ways, and they endeavor to make you do the splits! I fell down pretty good, fattened my lip and did this to my knee...

Not pretty but you can literally see the tread of the skii
bashed into my innocent knee!

We watched the Winter Olympics (cheers to all the participants), we drank lots of booze, and we frolicked in the snow.

But what I really want to tell you about, my lovlies, is the knitting... Oh my, the knitting was good.

Tara and I of course, brought lots of projects to Whitefish with us, but that didn't stop us from visiting the LYS Knit n' Needle on our first day in town. There I was completely overcome by the pattern Cathedral Grove by Faye Kennington. There were several kits in various colorways so I had to pick one up.

It knit up like a dream.

The colors, the pattern, everything was perfect. It took me TWO DAYS to knit. And those weren't even full days, those were partial days where I spent a good chunk of the evening drinking heavily and watching the Women's Free Skate Olympic Event. If you look back at previous pics from this post, you'll see that Cathedral Grove was a crowd favorite. I'm pretty sure that everyone tried it on at some point. And it was perfect for those Snowglobe days where the flakes swirled around you like they were trying to take you away! I can't remember a single occurrence where my ears were cold in the 15 degree weather.

In fact, I enjoyed the Cathedral Grove kit soooo much, that we swung by the Knit n' Needle again on our way out of town and I picked up another Faye Kennington kit called Alpenglow.

The colorway I chose was more mauve, pink, and goldenrod, but it'll be gorgeous all the same. I also picked up some yarn in a different colorway so that I could knit my older sister, Adaira, a Cathedral Grove of her own... Shhhhh, don't tell her, lord knows she won't read it here...

Now, I know that this blog post is a bit more wordy than my norm, but I wanted to be sure to mention Alyeska... For those of you not in the know, Alyeska is a pattern that is currently sweeping the nation. And for a good reason:

It is freaking gorgeous!!! It's a pattern by Caitlin Hunter that calls for a yarn that is made by PDX dyer Ritual Dyes who is really really amazing. Tara and I were both enchanted by this pattern so we're both giving it a go at the same time. I bought my kit from Starlight Knitting Society, but Tara, like a true craft Goddess, dyed her own colors. I went for the green, but you can literally use whatever colors strike your fancy.

This is the green mohair section at the yoke of mine, it's a lot of fun.

I don't have any pictures of Tara's Alyeska, so I would check out her blog The Sweet Crafterlife. Wicked name, right? She might post pictures of it soon. Even if she doesn't, it's a swell read.

We're both hoping to finish our Alyeska's in time to wear them to the Knot Another Fiber Festival in Silverton, Oregon this April. We're even instituting an "Alyeska" night so that we can continue to encourage and support one another until our sweaters are complete!

Okay, so that was a lot of info, not going to lie! I encourage you to follow the links, check out the good knit gear, and work on your own Alyeska's! Tara and I are about to embark on the Rose City Yarn Crawl, that will probably be the topic of discussion in my next post. Take care, my lovelies, and may your stitch count always be exactly what it's supposed to be!

Deadlines

Lately my spirit-guide, Tara, and I  have been putting a lot of time and effort into honing our respective crafts. I am a knitter, spinner, crocheter, and Tara is a knitter, spinner, dyer, quilter, seamstress-extraordinaire. Now, those are a lot of hats to change between, but we're managing it without losing steam, or dedication.

Part of how we're further focusing on our craft, is that we've started to go to festivals, crawls, and classes. About two years ago now, Tara and I decided to attend the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival  (OFFF) which is held in Canby, Oregon every September. We had such a blast with the fiber, and the alpacas, and the people, that we decided to make it part of our regular itinerary. In fact, we've already started plotting our bucket list of crafty events for the whole year!

One of our many friends from OFFF

March has us participating in the Rose City Yarn Crawl (which we attended and completed last year as well), April will bring us the Knot Another Fiber Festival, and September will bring us back around to the OFFF.

Each time Tara and I attend one of these crafty events, I find that both our friendship and our dedication to our craft just gets stronger and stronger. It's an amazing feeling to be surrounded by people who all have the same passion, and who know the struggle of dropping stitches, and not finishing projects, and dropping stitches, and running out of yarn, and DROPPING STITCHES!

But all that being said, I've had one insurmountable problem in attending these events... I can't bring myself to wear anything that I've knitted. Tara rolls up in wonderful hand-knit socks, and scarves, and dresses she's sewn herself, and it's wonderful to see her light up with confidence when people compliment her talent and skill, but I can't manage to put myself out there like her.

So in name of growth and furthering of my craft, I have given myself two deadlines to complete by the Knot Another Fiber Festival, which I will then wear to the festival. One of which is the Raglan Sweater.

I've now split off the sleeves and am just working on the body. 13 beautiful inches of stockinette stitch to complete before I come back to knit the sleeves. I know it looks a little bit... lumpy right now, but hopefully that blocks out.

The other one is another Clapotis by Kate Gilbert.

I'm using a beautiful yarn from Indie Dyer Collective In The Deep Hue Sea. I picked it up at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival (Which has been renamed as the Knot Another Fiber Festival) last year and it has been on my "to knit" list forever. This particular skein is the lace-weight version of the colorway Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Between the name and the colors, I couldn't not get it... I actually got one skein on one day of the festival (which I'm using for Clapotis now), and then went back to the booth on the last day of the festival and got myself another skein, because it was so pretty and squishy. I"m a sucker for pretty and squishy.

So I'll let you lovelies know how the progress on those goes. I'm feeling pretty good about their progress now, as I have another 89 days to make sure these are off the needles and blocked. Keep your fingers crossed for me...

P.S. Here are two things that made me stupid happy recently.

Digdug got a new dragon toy that's as big as he is.

My degree finally came in the mail. I'm officially a graduate.

Muscle Memory

Hello my lovelies!

Today I've been thinking a lot about starting new things. New knitting projects, new video games, new workout regiments, just "New". Let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with "new". I will never be the person to tell you not to try the new thing (unless the new thing is eating copious amounts of Taco Bell, that I simply cannot condone).

But there is something to be said for the old and the familiar. I have re-read the Harry Potter books dozens of times, I've watched Jurassic Park so many times that you wouldn't believe me if I told you the number, and I tend to make the same comfort food recipes over and over.

When it comes to knitting, my dears, the familiar pattern that I keep coming back to is a basic, top down Raglan sweater.

This particular pattern can be found here.

 There's something about the neat little shoulder increases and the uniformity of the stockinette stitches that just sends me to a happy place... I've knit many over the years, from sock weight to bulky, from toddler size to one large enough to fit a beluga of a man. They're just a peaceful little garment.

I've been working on a new one, just for me.

It's not much yet, but I think one day soon it might actually resemble a sweater.

Out of all the Raglan sweaters I've ever knit, I have never ever kept one for myself. I think it'll be nice, maybe just this once, to make something just for me... 90% of the knit wear I produce ends up going into the Christmas bin for gifts come the holidays. I like to knit fun, bright, exciting things, but I'm not one for wearing fun, bright or exciting things. I think an off-white pullover will suit my style just fine.

The point is, my sweets, that new and shiny things are great, but sometimes you just need the old and familiar. Sometimes your brain just needs a little break, and you can rely on muscle memory to take you to a happier place.

P.S. because he seems to be a crowd favorite, here is Digdug being adorable:

Stay well, my lovelies.

New Year, Same ol' me

Hello my lovelies, hope you all had a wonderful New Years celebration! I, myself, got to spend time with some of my closest friends playing board games, drinking, and eating good food (Cheers to Connor for the vegan burgers he made, they were amazing!). I didn't get much knitting done, but that might not be a bad thing. Knitting and champagne don't always mix well together...

With the new year, at least for me, there always comes a sense of wanting to be better. Wanting to do more and follow through on projects and just be more organized over-all. That manifested itself on New Years Day with me digging out my entire stash and attempting to get organized. The first step, of course, was to throw everything on the bed.

Digdug thought I was making a bed for him...

And once I started sorting and organizing into weights, fiber contents, project ideas and whatnots, I found something surprising... I had two projects filed away in the stash that were mere rows away from being finished. Of course I immediately had to stop cleaning and finish said projects.

The first was a cable hat that I cannot remember when I started or what the yarn is or who is responsible for this beautiful pattern.

Does anyone recognize this pattern?
I hate not giving credit when it's due...

This lovely thing was just lurking in the stash, all the cabling finished, just needing some responsible soul to close it up and give it a good blocking. So that's exactly what I did!

The second project just waiting to be finished is a bit embarrassing... I remember working on this project while sitting in Mr. Walker's chemistry class... Sophomore year... Of High School. For those of you not in the know, that would have been approximately ten years ago. TEN. YEARS. I have been sitting on this project for a damn decade. My procrastination level is over 9,000.

The project itself is none other than the wonderful Clapotis by Kate Gilbert. All I had to do was cast off and give it a block. So I threw that off the needles and immediately into the sink.

Post block, this thing is lovely.

It's squishy and bouncy and makes me feel very, very French. While I'm wearing it I feel like I should be on a balcony overlooking a Parisian market, chain smoking and day-drinking wine. Or maybe that's just what I normally want to be doing... Who knows.

And it just wouldn't be New Years without a start on a new project:

Any guesses on what it's going to shape up to be?

Themes

I think that if my life was going to have a theme, it would be: "Well that shit didn't pan out, did it? Ya dummie..."

That's not to say that my life is bad, I absolutely love what I've accomplished! But coming back here, home to my dear, sweet blog, it always slaps me in the face how different my life is than I thought it would be. I guess no one ever knows how things are going to shake out, I just happen to have a published internet log of all the directions I thought my life would go and almost none of those things worked out.

But I've never had a problem with starting over, now have I?

That's not to say that things have been easy. I'm embarrassed to admit that after losing my little family, I spiraled a bit and did some things that I'm not proud of. Selfish things, only designed to make myself feel better for a little while. I would apologize if I thought it would mean anything, but what could I say? "Hey, sorry I was a total bitch but I was really, really sad." Doesn't seem like it would do the trick. All I could do at the time was keep my head down and keep breathing.

I'm doing better now though! I finished that Legal Studies degree out of sheer spite (I swear, spite is what got me through my darkest of moments), however I'm not currently working in the legal field. Turns out I happen to be really good at turning a wrench, and landed an amazing job (with awesome benefits, I might add) at a Semi-conductor company. It's a bit complicated but the short version is that our company helps make micro-chips. One of the perks of the gig? Connor works upstairs for the same company!

Connor, Tara, and myself in Vancouver BC

We're all still solid friends, of course. I guess some things don't change after all? Tara and I still have the best crafty conversations, and we've really been inspiring one another to pursue our passions! She taught me how to spin and I help her carry her spoils back to the car whenever we go to a fiber festival! I think it's a fair trade.

Due to Tara's wisdom I've developed skills I never would have pursued otherwise. I've found quite a lot of happiness in spinning, and seem to be doing okay at it so far.

After plying, before washing

After washing, drying, and winding.

 We already have passes to the Knot Another Fiber Festival that's taking place in Silverton, OR this April. We've been debating on which classes to take. There are just so many good ones to choose from... Let's just say that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Judith MacKenzie are high on my list of people to learn from.

And I still knit, of course:


I'm a sucker for gradients...

And Christmas knitting for 2017 went swimmingly. I got a lot of love for the presents handed out this year. Lauren and Sarah are finally old enough that I don't have to worry about them washing their hand knits, or setting them on fire or anything.

There's also the guy. Or should I say, there's two guys... There's my wonderful partner, Ryan, who has supported me in all of my endeavors for over a year now:

And then there's Digdug who, although he's a recent addition to the household, is already a crowd favorite:

Pretty sure he's half Pomeranian, half Muppet.

Between these two handsome devils, good friends, and good fiber, I'm doing better than I have in a long time.

Stay tuned for the next episode: "Is she actually back to blogging or is this just a fluke?"