Portland Yarn Crawl

Yesterday was fantastic!!! I got a ride to the train station in Seattle at 5:15 in the morning with Charisa and Carol, two new friends I'm glad to have met:Charisa (on the left) organized the whole Portland Yarn Crawl... She had very professional looking name tags for all of us, had called ahead to arrange discounts at the yarn stores (or a free skein of yarn at one,) gave us all a bagel & cream cheese breakfast and walking maps with details about each stop in Portland, checked us all in when we got to the station, and even planned some get-to-know-people games and door prizes. Not having to worry about all the little details made this trip even more fun for all of us... Thanks Charisa!!!

Here's a pic of one of the train cars (everyone's looking down because they're knitting!)On the train ride down we chatted with the other knitters getting to know each other, found out what other people were knitting, talked about different yarns and our other fiber-related hobbies, and buzzed about how excited we were about shopping for yarn! We picked up more knitters along the way south of Seattle and even met some when we got to Portland - there were almost 40 of us! I was really glad to be sitting next to my friend Laura - She was working on a beautiful cabled sweater for her daughter, Olivia, and I was starting a pair of socks. She and I hung out with Pamela and Sarah for much of the trip, who are two of the most delightfully hilarious people I have ever met!When we stepped off the train, the four of us (actually five, but I don't have a picture of Susan - she was super nice as well. Knitters generally are wonderful folk to wander around with...) decided to get some lunch at an artsy lounge called The Tea Zone. Here I am trying to "look scientific" at Sarah's request... Our tea was served in beakers, and our server from New Zealand gave us minute-glass timers to let us know how long to steep our tea. I had a chocolate cinnamon latte along with a chicken curry empanada and salad which were all delicious! They were playing very interesting music like from some post-modern ballet, and had some funky lighting... it was kinda surreal, but we certainly did enjoy ourselves. :)

Next we were off to the yarn stores! Knit Knot Studio was our first stop and it was great getting to know Elizabeth, the store owner, who is from Poland - she was extremely kind and helpful and we loved hearing her stories. There I bought Elsebeth Lavold's 2nd book of Viking Knits and a nifty kilt pin that was hand-made locally - very cool.

We then walked down to Knit-Purl who was launching a new sock yarn called Shibui and gave us a free skein! They seemed to have a huge collection of sock yarn there, and I picked out some Koigu since I didn't have any in my stash yet.

After that, Laura and I decided to take the street car to the end of the free zone and walk the rest of the way to Dublin Bay...

It was quite amusing trying to explain to the "muggles" why we were in Portland, and shouting "Hey knittas!" when we'd run into some of the group while out and about. It was cold, but not quite raining so we had a joyful, brisk walk along the shops to our destination which was well worth it. I liked the atmosphere at Dublin Bay the best. They even had cookies and hot cider there to warm us up! While I was picking out yarn, they told me that the maker of Hand Maiden yarns is the mother of the woman who makes Fleece Artist yarns, and that her sister makes the Perl Grey shawl pins they sell in their shop display case... I was drawn to all three! I picked out a skein of hand-dyed "Moss" Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit yarn which is 70% angora rabbit and heavenly soft, a skein of "Paris" Hand Maiden Sea Silk (70% sea silk, 30% sea cell), a pewter celtic brooch, and some celtic knot buttons. Here's a pic of all the spoils:

And a close up of the yarn:

Now that we'd blown our budget, Laura and I headed over to Powell's books just for the experience. (I did end up buying a book there, but non-knitting related...) We hung out in the art gallery and knit near the "rare book" room. See? I really am using sock yarn and knitting on two circular needles! (I've got a very good start and they are looking rather nice, but I'll wait until they are a bit longer before taking a photo of them.)

We walked over to Whole Foods and got snacks for the journey home before swinging by Cha, Cha, Cha for some scrumptious enchiladas. Then we made our way back to the train station to meet up with the others and enjoy the rowdy ride home - I'm sure we walked well over 3 miles yesterday. This time, we filled the whole train car by ourselves... ... which was awesome because we all wanted to "show and tell" what we had bought. Giddy with the excitement of it all and exhausted from getting up so early and all the walking, we laughed and joked all the way home... some of us knit, some of us snacked, and some of us just kicked back enjoying the ride. I arrived back at the house around 11pm. What a fabulous trip - I can't wait to go next year!