I didn’t end up taking many pictures of Portland at all. Towards the end of the day, I thought about all the pictures I should have taken, like yarn shop signs, the garter stitch coat in one of the shops that was super cool, the entire wall of Koigu, the super cute store owner with the heavy, eastern european accent, etc. But I didn’t. Here’s what I’ve got-
Katie and I on the train on the way down to Portland from Seattle.
Although we walked all over downtown for hours and hours, we did hop on a streetcar for a few blocks.
After lunching at a psychedelic teahouse and hitting the three yarn shops on the “tour”, one of them twice, we went to the infamous Powell’s Book Store. I was going to link it but the website is pretty lame, and why exactly they have a naked chick on their home page is beyond me.
Supposedly, they’re the largest independent bookstore in the world. Or something. I don’t know. It was huge. I knit on a bench in the art gallery upstairs while Katie shopped for books, and I missed Nate terribly, knowing that he would have loved it. Then Katie found me and knit a little herself.
We ate chicken enchiladas at Cha Cha Cha (how cool is that?) before heading back to the train station for the ride home.
The tower says “GO BY TRAIN“.
And that was it. I bought some sock yarn and completely delicious silk mohair laceweight that isn’t too fuzzy. Something that I’ve found to be quite unusual.
It was a great time.
Clark got a much needed haircut this morning. He looked a little wary ’til I held the buzzing clippers to his head, then he grinned and was quite enthusiastic.
For awhile.
But I had to finish anyway, and by the end, he wouldn’t look at me.
Also this morning, I knit Liv’s watchband. Finally. I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I cleaned the kitchen and in the process, uncovered the watch parts and needles I’d set out to do it. I’d decided to keep it simple and make it stretch over her hand, as opposed to reincorporating the buckle.
I was going to do an interesting stitch pattern but there were so few stitches, it ended up looking better in plain ol’ garter stitch.
Last night, I nearly finished carding batts for Clark’s sweater. I carded 7, have one in process, and one more to do after that. I have one skein completed, at about 240 yards.
There’s a lot of single still on the bobbins, but I think I’m going to fill them up again before plying another skein. I hope to get much of it done today, because the rest of the week is going to be busy at the girls’ school.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Oh, poor Clark. He looks very handsome now thought. And speaking of haircuts…did your daughter trim her own bangs? They look like they now end…abruptly.
=)
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:38 am
How come you thought the Powell’s website was lame? I think it’s pretty cool! And I did not see a naked lady. I’d love to go there and browse…lots of used and out of print books!
The watchband looks great! How did you get it to stay on her? Did you knit it with elastic yarn?
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:47 am
I couldn’t find anything that talked about how it was “more than the average” book store. Even the “about” page was boring, so for blog purposes, it was lame. And I think the featured blog button on the home page has a picture of a woman who doesn’t appear to be wearing any clothes. It doesn’t show too much flesh or anything, but it looks stupid to me, and it’s placed right where your eyes go first on the page, so it was the first thing I saw.
I used Koigu and made it small, so it stretches over her hand and then snugs around her wrist.
Yes, Liv did cut her own bangs completely off months ago, and now they’re growing out. I didn’t know about it ’til they started growing out and my sister-in-law noticed and said something. It’s getting more and more noticeable now.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
OMG – your batts always look so amazing! I bet they are a dream to spin… Poor Clark – my boys used to hate getting haircuts when they were babies, but now they actually sit still for me and like the “tickle” part when I buzz the back.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
The trip looks like it was so much fun. Hopefully I can do it next year. I’m going to plan for it!!!
Poor little clark. My kids all kind of freak when it’s hair cutting time. Connor couldn’t tolerate the sound of the scissors so we had to up clippers which made such a mess and he always had hair in his mouth and eyes because he would trash around so much…so…we bought….a flowbee. Okay..usually all the infomercial stuff is really bad but I’m telling you..this thing is a life saver!! I would never cut girls hair with it but for short boy/men cuts it is PERFECT! It sucks up all the hair too so there isn’t any mess and it’s all in the vacuum. I have cut John’s, Connor’s and Jaiden’s hair with it for years..and someday when Riley has hair…I’ll cut his too 🙂
I LOVE the batts you did and can’t wait to see the rest all spun up and the sweater made. I am SO in spinning envy. My friend Kristy and I went to the Starbucks on Sat. to meet her swap pal and it was the eastisde spinners guild meeting. Oh…the drool. Oh…the heaven watching everyone spin. I came home and announce to John that when I hit my first major goal weightloss that instead of a date night…I wanted a wheel. He agreed! Woohoo!!
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
The watchband looks great. It sounds as though you had a lot of fun on your knitting tour too.