Sunday, December 27, 2009

Tax-Free Yarn Crawl

a.k.a. After Thanksgiving Trip to Portland

Portland

The day after Thanksgiving, Raj and I took the Prius out on its first big trip--down the I-5 to the Rose City. I'm happy to say we made it there and back plus around town driving on a wee 3/4 of a tank of gas (around 9 gallons). Woo hoo!

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But back to the real reason I'm here tonight...

I took advantage of Oregon's status as a sales tax free zone to expand my stash a bit. We went to 3 or 4 different yarn shops, and they were each great in their own ways. I feel a bit deliquent for not paying attention to their names. One was near Pioneer Courthouse Square and two were out in the NW region somewhere. I guess we only went to 3. :)

My loot:

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You might recognize this yarn from my previous post--this is the yarn I used for the fingerless mitts I made for Melisa & Tracie for Christmas. Pink and purple and sparkly--perfect for them!

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I'm a sucker for self-striping yarn, what can I say.

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I'm attracted to the gradual color change in this yarn. Not sure if I will use it for socks or a shawlette or something else.

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The color in the pic is a bit off, the yarn is mostly darn and light gray with a slight red tint in some ares, i.e. relatively manly yarn, destined to become socks for Raj someday.

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Some gorgeous Silk Garden Sock yarn.

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Last, but not least, some worsted merino destined to become a hat for me!

Holiday Recap 1

Phew! Now that I've managed to come up for air after my frantic holiday crafting, let me catch you up on what I've been working on.

Melisa's b-day mits

Melisa loved her belated birthday mitts. Apparently her knitting colleague was very impressed with the, as well, which is always nice to hear.

Our stockings

My first bit of holiday crafting was stockings for Raj and I. I made these out of felted sweaters and an old pair of red cords, and used a couple old Starbucks Aprons as the base. They helped add a bit of holiday cheer to our apartment. I had big plans to use the rest of the felted sweaters and cords for other holiday crafts, but decided to forego these other crafts in favor of things that needed to be gifted. But I saved all the stuff for next year!

I didn't craft very many gifts this year. Fewer than years past. I gave my mom my ketchup plant socks that I finished in November. I made Raj a vest (this gets its own post) and I made fingerless gloves for my sisters.

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The pattern is Susie's Reading Mitts from Dancing Ewe Yarns in Ellensburg (note to self: visit this yarn store the next time you pass through Ellensburg). A fine, simple pattern--adaptable to yarns of variuos weights. The yarn was purchased during my tax-free yarn crawl in Portland the weekend after Thanksgiving. As soon as I saw it in the yarn shop, I knew it was meant to be mitts for my pink-and-purple loving sisters. The knitting was done largely while I was at work. Although I finished up the last one at about 11pm on Christmas Eve. Tracie saw me working on them and asked if I was making a Barbie dress. Hehe.


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The pattern calls for aran weight yarn, but I used sock yarn. I wanted tighter fitting mitts than those called for, so I used the medium-sized numbers with my tight gauge to get the small mitts for Tracie, and the large pattern numbers for Melisa's medium sized mitts.

I made some holiday gift tags last week. I know the holiday's over, but perhaps you could use them next year. I had fun doodling them, coloring them in with colored pencils then scanning them into the computer. I'm using SkyDrive to share them, since I'm not too familiar with other hosting services. If anyone has recommendations of good (free) pdf hosting, I'd be most grateful!



In the next Holiday Recap, some little pjs, Raj's vest, and a glimpse at some of my loot. But first, a rundown of my Tax-Free Yarn Crawl.