A Quick Post Before Adventure

An early post usually means, we're off to an adventure. Newport is our next stop and I'm super excited to experience 60 degree temperatures during our current heat wave in Oregon. After driving around my younger son to the dentist yesterday during the heat of the day...I'm ready for a cool off.

I started testing a pi shawl and I didn't like how the how the lace was knitting  up, so I started on a dk weight yarn and then used smaller needles for the lace weight yarn. The test is using Yarn Pond, so I get to track my progress differently. If you're ever considering a test...here are all the different platforms I've used to test for others:

• Ravelry
• Facebook
• Slack
• Yarnpond
• Messenger

I've enjoyed each of the platforms for different reasons. Yarnpond is brand new to me, but I'm tempted to try it to run a test for my own pattern ideas. There are fees to run tests on this site.

Lastly, I wanted to highlight a beautiful set of patterns: Jana Huck's Dots Collection.

I'm not a a shawl believer, yet I still make them. The textures in this collection are great. In addition to the dots, there are stripes and a lovely use color.

I'll update once I have some good pictures, check back in on Sunday. Have fun :).

Christmas in July!

Now that we're in the second half of July...I'm reminded of the Christmas in July sales. This fun idea to encourage summer spending is a great reminder to get the holiday crafting moving. By holiday crafting I mean holiday decorations and birthday/Christmas gifts for the second half of the year.

This is an awesome time highlight some fun holiday patterns that I want to make before Halloween and Christmas.

I'm hoping to make these lovely doilies for my mother-in-law in time for her birthday in October. I don't have any orange crochet thread...hmm...

First is Boo! by Marsha Glassner

Second is Jack-in-the-Web also by Marsha Glassner

For Christmas...there are so many fun decorations. I'm hoping to have the wall hanging granny tree and a Santa doily completed. There are tons of candy cane covers and neat wine holders too.

Here is Dawn's Vintage Granny Square Christmas Tree

Another cool event is that the pattern that I tested for one of my favorite designers is live this week. It's a great mindless knit that can have a great impact. The luxurious pattern yarn with mink in it so lovely and light. Check out Sophrosyne by Francois Danoy. The image below is my test knit. The images above are the lovely pictures from the designers.

Aside from this crafting fun. My older son turned 9 years old this week while at Cub Scout camp. My babies are getting so big. We kicked back into gear with ice skating this weekend and my little kiddo actually skated on his own. Soon they will be all grown up and I won't know where the time went.

It's going to be a hot week in Portland. I hope you stay cool this week. Happy crafting.

Caravanserai is live!

This will be a quick post. A pattern I tested has gone live this week and it's so lovely. Check out Caravanserai.

Have a great week and happy crafting.

The Enchanted Forest Fibre Yarn Arrived!!!

Although it was last Sunday, I had to post about the lovely visit from Karen of Enchanted Forest Fibre. She is an indie yarn dyer in Norway, who was in Portland. She personally delivered my belated mother's day treat to my Meetup Tigo Knitting Group.

This is about 700 grams of yarn (enough for 7 pairs of socks). Karen knit with us and I had a blast.

I've already started playing with the beautiful yarn. I'm working on a last minute doily as a centerpiece for my table tomorrow. I'm doing my best to write down the pattern. Would anyone be interested in testing the pattern? You don't have to use fingering weight yarn or a D/3 (3.25 mm) hook. Larger or smaller would be fine. There are matching coasters that go with the central design and the coasters mimic snowflakes so there is some opportunity to use this as a winter decoration as well.






I'm hoping the lovely new yarn will be great inspiration.




Work is going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks, so I'm trying to take a breather this weekend. Cleaning and keeping the little kiddo busy seems to have taken up most of the time, but it's been fun :).














For this week I'm so hopeful that I'll be able to make some progress on my Karoo Vintage square. Three sections have been released and I haven't made it through the first one yet. In my defense, two were out when I started, but I'd like to catch up so that I'm not so far behind when the fourth section is released.

Lastly, I finished another test today and am happy to take a break from testing as well. This is the Unicorn Shawl by Kayla Powell. I love the chevron stitch pattern.

Happy crafting and have a great week.