Travel in Pictures

I love travel. There's nothing like exploring a city that you have fallen in love with and always discovering treasures in every street.

Oregon Winter

by Jeanne McGahey

The rain begins. This is no summer rain,
Dropping the blotches of wet on the dusty road:
This rain is slow, without thunder or hurry:
There is plenty of time – there will be months of rain.


(this is a bubbling fountain in the summer)

I love TeaZone on 11th near Glisan, the little Ace Hardware store on Glisan, and Tea Chai Te on 23rd, and Pearl Bakery on 9th and the Whole Foods downtown and the Infants Story Time at the Library (and the awesome children's Librarian who helped us out so much!) and the poems on the MAX and the Pony Club gallery that displayed Amy's art, the little "Resting Garden" where I stopped each day...



On one walk, I stopped into a new Yarn Store on 11th, Urban Fiber:



Although the space is small, it was full of unusual, local yarns and accessories. There were so many beautiful fibers to choose from, and the prices were good. I fell for the cashmere blend in The Road to China and got enough for two winter scarves:



In the front, to the left of the door, is a cosy space with comfortable chairs for a small group of people to sit and knit - very friendly! Even the accessories were unique - I didn't think I would see anything new, but ended up with a nice little bag of unusual items. A friend of the owner makes the stitch markers, and they even have little lace markers. Since I knit on mostly small needles, this is the kind I like. I liked Urban Fibers and would like go to one of their knit nights or other group activities!

Another favorite of mine is Twisted, up on Broadway. This is quite a long way from the Pearl district where I am (I take the Gresham train) but is so worth the trip. When I visited this time, they had moved the enormous stock of fingering weight (sock) yarns across the entire right hand wall. The Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarns of all types - not just STR but also Silk Thread, Seduction, Peru, De-Vine, WooBu, Laci, and Geisha - covered two sides of the corner. This may not seem unusual to those of you who get to go to the Sheep and Wool Fairs and Sock Summits and Knitting/Spinning/Dying retreats where Blue Moon yarn fondling is rampant. But for someone who usually only views it online, this face-to-face encounter was pretty mind-blowing.

It was educational too. They had almost all of the new colourways and they were all different. It was amazing to see several skeins of the same colourway with none of them looking exactly alike. Often, there were two in the same colourway that were like fraternal twins, with the same depth of colour, but never more than two. I really had a jolt of realization of what “hand-dyed, two at a time” meant! It was amazing, and amazingly beautiful! And I realized that when I see a photo of a skein example online and expect the skein I order to look just like it, I am truly on the train to Looney Town, headed for City Central! Because - they are all different! Of course the colourways have a definite family resemblance, but none are identical twins. None. But each one is so beautiful! (did I say that already?)

Getting to choose the exact looks and depth of colour that I wanted was so much fun. I got a Spike that had a deep blackish red (the other two skeins had a lighter black) and a Drusilla with a lot of nice grey-mixed-with-red, and a Paula Mae that had an incredible little touch of light blue in one spot (one of the other skeins had that and third seemed to have no blue at all).



I also went crazy over the other yarns, especial A Verb for Keeping Warm. This yarn uses natural substances to dye their yarns so the colours are subtle and soft. There was so much to choose from that I stood back, on the other side of the store, to view the wall as a whole and then picked out the two skeins that my eyes kept going to again and again. It was quite funny, because, although they looked different from a distance, they turned out to be the same colourway!



Here is The Peacock's Wild Plume in Metamorphosis, the sport weight yarn with 70% Superwash Merino and 30% Silk... and The Peacock's Wild Plume in Annapurna, another sport weight in 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Nylon. So Soft!

Okay, so I got a little carried away with all the yarn love, but you know that I'll use it and lots of lovely cosy clothing will result. So it's a necessity, right?

I also visited Knit/Purl on Alder and 11th which is a lovely store but very inconvenient with a stroller and a sleeping baby and I have to say that, although my several experiences before the baby were great here, this time they followed me around like I was going to tuck yarn into my carriage. It was embarrassing. And although they opened and held the door for a couple of people ahead of me who were carrying their packages out, they actually stood right near me and smilingly watched me struggle with the heavy wood-and-glass door, the stroller, and my bag (with the Rowan book I had just purchased) as I tried to carefully back down the one big step out of the store without tipping over, and they never even stepped forward to hold the door! I didn't buy any yarn there, although there was a lot I wanted. I'll go back sometime when I'm over the sting of that experience and can visit on my own. Because I really do like the store and I know that sometimes people don't think to help until after the opportunity is over.

Now it's time to actually create something with the yarn I bought. Right now on the needles are a pair of Veylas in Indigo Moon black (from Twisted) and I'll also make a hat from this... I found two scarves in the newest Holiday Vogue (they have a section with several lace scarves) that will be perfect for the cashmere Road to China yarn, and as for the STR... The Paula Mae will be stockings for Jule, the Spike will be knitted ribbed pants for the baby, and the Drusilla will be for me. The Annapurna cashmere blend from A Verb for Keeping warm was going to a Peak's Island Hood, but there is not quite enough yardage, so I need to re-think that... There is the Holly Berry Cowl in the latest Piecework magazine, and although it's gauged for lace weight, I might be able to adapt it... So many possibilities!

Twisted in a good way

I visited the yarn store, Twisted, again, even though I hadn't planned to go way out there again on this trip. Now that I knew where to go, it was smoother, but still several blocks of walking up Broadway after getting off the MAX and finding my way through the Lloyd Center... I had to go back though, because they had forgotten to charge me for the tea we had at our last visit and it was eating at me... I had to back and pay it!

I'm so glad I did. I think my "sock knitting mojo" was calling me the whole time. They were having a Sock Sale to celebrate a neat sock class they're going to be running. All sock yarn was 10% off and sock accoutrements had even deeper discounts! How could I not fall to this temptation?

I know, this is inexcusable stash enhancement!



The golden wheat skeins you see are for the person who's been checking in on my cat, who needs drops in her ears twice a week. This person has also been cleaning up after her, so deserves a really nice treat. I got her Indigo Moon and Black Trillium Fibers sock yarns...

Black Trillium is a new company for me. I discovered their Blue Faced Leichester sock yarn at Twisted. It is unbelievably soft and the colours are incredible. On top of that, BFL socks are supposed to be especially hard-wearing because the fibers are so long. Here I have 2 black and red, two grey and white, one grey tweed, and one deep seaweed green, and one deep blackberry - a kind of combination of blood red and deep purple... Other skeins shown include an Artful Yarns sock skein in a beautiful fall colourway (I've forgotten the name) and a Chewy Spaghetti skein in my usual blues and sea greens :).

I also indulged in some really tiensy sock blockers - one infant sized that I figure I'll be able to use for 2 - 3 years, and one child sized that I think will last until about age 8 or so? The baby blockers were only $5!! Twisted does online orders too, if you're interested....



Things here are going well. This is a bustling, lively city and the part where I am is beautifully green and full of gardens. Sometimes the view out of the big picture window is very interesting. Take last night, for instance. Since the apartment buildings in this section of town are non-smoking, people often gather across the street under a spreading shady tree to smoke. Yesterday someone put out an old red couch for their own smoking convenience. It was used all day for this purpose. But when night fell, and the apartment-dwelling smokers were cosily inside, another purpose emerged... A homeless couple, with their belongings in bags and sacks, moved in and proceeded to sort, and squabble.

We had all gathered to watch The Neverending Story and Wolverine when the beginnings of a real fight broke out. The very tall hefty man had taken off his shoe and was threatening the very slight, short woman with it. We saw him push her down and raise his fist and thought that some intervention was called for. B yelled "Hey" out the window to let him know he was being watched (this caused him to immediately lower his arm and step back but muttering, yelling, and threatening all the time while the woman pursued him) and S called the police for the woman's protection. While we waited, the couple continued fighting and then finally wandered into the neighbour's sheltered yard for a make-up session.

A few minutes later the police arrived and, finding the clothes and belongings on the sidewalk, began to search the yard. We turned out the lights and peeked out through the fan blades. Sure enough, they found them under the bushes and herded them out to the sidewalk. They sent the woman in one direction and the man in the other, with a verbal warning. As the police walked back to their cars, one said to the other "I was hoping a call would come in - it's been a quiet night." so we felt we had done our duty for all concerned.

At midnight, when I looked out, a lone figure was wrapped in a blanket on the red couch under the trees, silently sleeping. I predict that couch will not stay there for long.

Rose Petals and Gingerbread

We had a chance to visit the Portland yarn store Twisted a couple days ago. It was a long ride on the MAX and then a long walk down Broadway, but so worth it! If you have a chance when you are in Portland, you really should go. It was probably the friendliest, most welcoming yarn store I’ve ever been in. We were there for a couple of hours, had tea and ate peaches for lunch at their table (which they were fine with - they have a big washroom so we could make sure our hands were clean for browsing afterward), talked with both of the ladies there about all kinds of things - not just sales talk, and looked at everything in the store 2 or 3 times. It was relaxed but they are seriously FULL of yarn and patterns. I don’t know how they get so much into their space. It’s very pretty too with lots of comfortable chairs. When we left, a book club was on the couches discussing their latest read!

I got several skeins o yarn - all from local dyers, including of course Blue Moon Fiber Arts. These are Gibson (the top one) and Gingerbread Dude... aren't they perfect fall colours?



I also got skeins from Black Trilium Fibers, and Indigo Moon...

There are so many rose bushes in people's gardens in Portland. Whenever we walk, and we walk a lot, we stop a million times to smell the different rose petals. Some smell like strawberries! On 23rd St in the Alphabet District, we stopped at Alotta Gelato and I got Rose Petal Gelato!



It was wonderful.