NWRSA Conference

Jill P.:

I have a few things to blog about, but I should do them in order.  The week before last found me in Seattle and Tacoma.  I flew to Seattle and hung out with some friends.

I first stayed with my college roomie Tina for a few days.  She introduced me to the Twilight movie, and I introduced her to a new knitting project.  She has been working on a long stockinette scarf for about two years, since a friend taught her how to knit.  She pulled it out again since I was coming over.  I did have to break the news to her that it will never stop rolling. =(  I was able to drag her to a few yarn stores while I was there.  We went to the Fiber Gallery in Phinney Ridge where I bought some Dream in Color Starry and Tina bought some Silk Garden and fixin’s to make fingerless gloves.  A very nice selection.  The next day we went to Hilltop Yarn on Queen Anne.  I think they are moving across the street, so everything was 25% off.  I bought some Shibuiknits Sock to start some (more?!) knee high socks, and more Noro Silk Garden Sock.  I don’t know why I keep buying it.  I haven’t knit with what I have at home, and most reviews are less than enticing.  Plus sometimes I see the same colorways over and over and get bored with them.  I started the knee-highs as part of the Sock Knitters Anonymous Rav. group’s June sockdown.  Here’s part of one.  It’s the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady from Knitting Vintage Socks.  (I’ll do a full post when they’re done).

I was really proud of Tina and her knitting.  She finished one fingerless glove while I was there.  She learned how to knit in the round, do ribbing, use DPNs, and make a thumb gusset!  I hope she manages to finish the other one before I go back in a year!

I then moved over to my friend Michelle’s place.  I suppose she was a grad school roommate!  I stayed at her cute house in Ballard and spent some time with her pets.  Of course I didn’t take any pictures while I was there.  We went on walks, got yummy crumpets and ate some good meals.  She also had a fun barbecue one night I was there.  Thanks to my generous hostesses!  Oh, also caught up with another friend from high school/college.

My Mom and Dad came up to Seattle and picked me up.  We had some lunch and then my Dad dropped us off at the University of Puget Sound campus.  Then it was 3-4 days of the Northwest Regional Spinners Association conference.  This is my first time going.  I became a member just to attend the conference with my Mom.  Since she was driving up from Camas, she brought both of her wheels.  That way I didn’t have to fly up with my wheel.  I took two all-day classes.  One was Spinning Woolen and Worsted with Anne Field, author of the Ashford Book of Spinning.  I worked on my long and medium draw and using a flick carder.  The next day was Spinning Alpaca with Kaye Collins.  Very informative and a fun class.  She gave the keynote speech of the conference, which was a little more spiritual than my tastes tend to run…

We had meal tickets in the cafeteria, which meant three all-you-can-eat meals within 10 hours.  I felt moderately sick for the whole time.  I just can’t stop myself from eating tons of crap.

My Mom pushed me to enter my Muir shawl (previous post here) into the gallery.  I was a little hesitant about it, because it was my first lace handspun.  I knew the yarn was pretty uneven and was worried about the judging.  But I surprisingly scored very highly!  I got a first prize ribbon!  I never really know what those ribbons mean.  I definitely didn’t get the Best in Class ribbon.  On the last night of the conference they announced that I won the People’s Choice award!  It was very exciting.

Here is a picture of me with the shawl, the ribbon, and the trophy!

The “trophy” is near invisible in that picture.  It is a crocheted heart hanging from a wire stand.  It is a revolving trophy so I need to bring it back next year.  I don’t know if I’ll make it again next year, but I’ll at least send it in.  The woman who had it the year before was very sad to give it up.  I just hope I can display it without a cat eating it. =)  I’ve been sarcastic about the whole thing and laughing at how seriously the other woman took it.  But really, it was quite an honor for me.  I am definitely not as competent of a spinner as most of the people in attendance, and still have a lot to learn.  It was pretty exciting and I’m glad that my Mom brought the shawl and “forced” me to enter it.

I am much more excited for my next post!  Here’s a sneak preview!

Jill B.

Oh, Jill.  Have you seen the Hansi Singh book?  It has the Nessie in it, and a lot of the other patterns she sells.  Right up your alley.

Christmas wrap-up

Jill P:

I was home in Camas for about 11 days.  That is the small paper mill town I’m from, which is really so close to Portland it could be considered a suburb.  But we’re on the other side of the river in Washington state.  Last year we had a white Christmas and it had been the first one in something like 90 years.  And what do you know, we had a crazy white Christmas this year too.  The weather has been crazy everywhere.  I was able to fly in in between major storms so the weather wasn’t an issue for travelling.  But unfortunately there were some mechanical problems and I had to sit on the tarmac for a while and then deplane and wait for another one.  My flight ended up arriving in Portland at 2:30am!

All the snow made it difficult to go anywhere except the grocery store.  It stayed like that for maybe five days.  Once I went in to Portland to see some friends from high school and college.  My Dad had to drive me there, and when I was done at the pub he had to drive back and pick me up.  It was like high school all over again.  Usually there’s enough cars around for me and my sister to be on our own, but the snow affected what cars were operable.  Here are some pictures of the snow.

My parents on our walk:

Me on the boat dock of Lacamas Lake:

And our backyard!:

It started raining about a week after I got there, and the snow was almost all gone in a matter of days.  I had a nice time at home.  My sister flew in the day after me, and my uncle was staying with us for the holidays as well.  My Mom got me a few spinning related items.  A padded carrying case for my Lendrum, and also a plying head.  I am excited about using it.  I came home with a lot of stuff as usual, much of it bought for myself in the days after the holiday.  I went to three yarn stores, but I only came back with two skeins of Dream in Color Classy.  Which is really good for me.

I was able to give my Mom her Christmas present!  I used my handspun lace yarn and knit up the Muir shawl.  I used the bead chart on Ravelry and added clear beads throughout.  I added them as I went, using the crochet hook method. 

I had about 800 yds of it, and used all of it.  I was only able to do 12 pattern repeats.  I had to reknit the borders multiple times because I kept coming up short on yarn, and underestimating how much I needed to do all those picots.  There are less garter rows than called for in the pattern.  I didn’t add bead to the ends.

Blocking shot:

I wanted to get some pictures of my Mom modelling it, but I ran out of time before I left. 

I did a lot of knitting while I was at home.  I wanted to make my friend Jere a gift because he’s been very generous with rides to the airport, and he watched Paquito while I was gone.  I used my recently finished handspun Rambouillet/Ingeo yarn to make him a hat and fingerless gloves.  I used the Utopia Cabled Hat pattern by Smariek and the Men’s Fingerless Gloves pattern from the KnitList.  That pattern is listed as using Aran weight yarn, but it really uses sport weight.  I did some gauge calculations, which gave me some trouble.  One of the gloves is a little bigger than the other one and I can’t quite figure out what caused the difference.  Me not taking proper notes on my modifications couldn’t have helped.  My handspun yarn was a 3-ply and pretty dense. 

I hope he likes them.  I kind of want to keep the hat, but I guess I should set it free.  I don’t know if he’s much of a hat person though.

I am also on my second Special Olympics Scarf.  I am looking forward to sending these off.  I want to take a long break from knitting with Red Heart.  I don’t have pictures yet, but they are both scarves from the Knitting New Scarves book.  Of course, no matter what you make with these two colors, it is always going to look kind of crappy. 

I started a sweater too!  Elaine’s Blouse from Interweave Knits Winter 2008.  I finished the body pretty quickly while I was at home, but I’m still working on the sleeves.  I’m just a little into the second one.  I should finish up in the next week, and then need to do the button bands and buy all those buttons!  I have a suspicion that this will not be a flattering cut on me, but we’ll just have to see.

Okay, enough for now!  Happy New Year!

Jill B.