WWSIP Day 2010

It's come around again, World Wide Spin In Public Day! It seems like last year's event was just yesterday! How did a whole year go by?? I got a little more spinning done today than I did last year, so that's an accomplishment! But I probably spun only a half ounce of fiber. I worked on a Merino/Tencel roving from the Knitted Wit. I had brought more fiber with a pipe dream of getting more done, and a drop spindle for spinning the sample fiber from the goody bag. Oh well. I got a lot of chatting done with my friends and occasionally with someone passing by. This event really got the public's interest! We were at the end of the farmer's market, so I didn't think we would get a lot of people, but we really did! From little kids, to the eldery to dogs dragging their owners in! A nice man even brought us cupcakes from a local vendor! Cool!! Christine from Upstream Alpacas came with a bin of fiber! She included a coupon in our goody bag and once I felt her baby alpaca roving, I had to by some! I bought 4 oz of her Pacific Dusk colorway - it's blue, pink and purple dyed over a grey alpaca roving! I also won a door prize! The table was full of fun prizes to pick from and I walked away with the "101 Designer One Skein Wonders" book (I think Gail donated it, so Thanks Gail!)

Unfortunately I didn't get any pix of myself this year, except this one! And LeeLoo is taking up most of the frame.



So, I hope Tami posts a couple on her blog.


Check out my awesome goody bag - it was stuffed to the brim with fiber samples from local fiber artists and other fun things:



Handmade pink flamingo bag (probably made just for me ;) ) from Duffy
Raw alpaca fiber from the Cupcake Factory
Merino/Silk from Dicentra Designs and a coupon for Cindy's new shop donated by Cindy of Urban Fiber Arts
BFL, a pencil and a coupon from Knitted Wit
Merino from Stitch Jones
Corriedale, a pin, and a coupon from Pico Accuardi Dyeworks
Baby Alpaca and a coupon from Upstream Alpacas
BFL from Rogue Adventures
A generous sample of Rosemary Spearmint soap from Peace of Soap Company
A Handmade i-cord distaff made by me!

Black Sheep Gathering!

As you may remember, I was in labor last year during the BSG and did not get to attend. I think I made up for it this year though! Check out all the fiber I got!


1 Jenkins Kuchulu spindle in borneo rosewood with a redheart shaft
1 (huge) Alpaca/Wool batt from Superior Fibers
1 mystery batt from Fantasy Fibers
2 bags of assorted Wolf Creek Wools fiber from Sweet Grass Wool
1 handpainted roving from StitchJones (that I actually bought before the show, but I’m counting it anyway)
a goody bag from the Knitmore Girls podcast


Before we even got through the parking lot, I ran into my friends Jamie and Blas who own Urban Fauna Studio They drove up from San Fran for a speaking engagement, and made a side trip to BSG.

Once inside, I headed straight to Stitch Jones' booth to say hi to my friend Sharon. Then the shopping began! My mom and I each got a bottle of hand lotion at Lost Valley Alpacas in Sweet Peaches. At Fantasy Fibers, I snatched up one of the last mystery batts they had in stock. Across the way at Crown Mtn Fibers there was a Knitmore Girls podcast meetup. I have been friends with Jasmin and Gigi since Stitches West last year and they love seeing Hazel!

After the first hour (which seemed like 10 minutes to me) my mom, Owen and Hazel took off to find lunch, leaving me to shop. I met up with Cindy, and she and I enabled each other into getting the mini Jenkens spindles and then she enabled me into getting some fiber from the Sweet Grass Wool.

Again I time warped another hour and the four of us found a park in Eugene to have our TJ's picnic lunch.

Then it was back to the BSG, but this time we focused on meeting the animals. Ohh, was Hazel enjoying this. She got a kiss from a Shetland Sheep, and she got to see cute Pygoras, BFLs and Romneys. Not to mention the Alpacas in the the Alpaca barn! She used her new walking skills to lead us from stall to stall. On the way to the Alpacas we ran into Lisa (slumpyfumbler on Ravelry) and she enabled me to get the HUGE batt from Superior Fibers.

Before we knew it, it was time for the market to close and for us to head home. I am beat!

An Evening With Franklin Habit

Well, it wasn't the musical production or chorus line that I had pictured in my mind, but it was an hour of comedy that only Franklin could provide :) He talked about lace knitting from the Victorian era, the lace he knit for his niece Abigail and read two of his essays "Knittin' with a whip" and "Immortality" (this one made me tear up a little). He also had a trivia section where the prizes were the totebags from Interweave knits and Knit for you cards (thanks for the card Monica). The highlight of the night for me, was when Franklin brought out his Leaf and Nupp shawl to show off, and I had mine along, and he gushed over it and said that his shawl looked anemic compared to mine! I was over the moon when he said that!!! Overall a fun evening, and thanks to Knit/Purl for hosting him!


Fun swag, and he signed my book too!

WWSIP Day

World Wide Spin in Public day! Had fun spinning with my knitsibs. Actually, I was more like a bee flitting from person to person talking, that I didn't get much spinning done. I did ply my blue/green roving from bel tine farm (a roving that I bought a year ago at Black Sheep Gathering, my very first roving purchase!!) I re-learned how to use hand cards (that were actually dog brushes). I even bought an alpaca fleece from the trunk of Carissa's car - hehe to anyone else it might have looked more like a drug deal.


Hazel and I in our matching February sweaters - a picture I've been waiting months to get!


Alpaca/Merino/Silk
4oz, 200 yds, fingering weight


Goody bags for the first 20 people! All donated by local fiber artists! clock wise from the bottom left:
Raw alpaca fiber from the Cupcake Factory
NZ Romney/Perendale roving from Woodland Woolworks
Gotland Lamb locks that Shelia shipped home from Sweeden
BFL from Dicentra Designs
Corredale and BFL from Knitted Wit
unknown fiber from Stitch Jones
I gave away the rest to a lady who was just learning how to use a drop spindle.

Ravelry Meetup

This evening was the Ravelry meetup at the forestry center. All the cool people were there!

The first 350 people got this awesome schwag bag:


Inside was a skein of Berroco Vintage, a Namaste reusable bag, Lantern Moon post-it holder, and the Odenwald sock pattern by Stephanie fan der Linden


I found some people I knew to hang out with: Sara, Carissa, Tami, Bobbie,Camille and Lisa from Australia



Carissa didn't want to drag her knitting pattern along, so she wrote it out in sharpie on her wrist. I think she has something going here and wish I had thought of it myself


Check it out I got a picture with Jess of Ravelry and BOB!

I think I was a little too excited about holding Bob!


Turtle tat!!

There was a drawing for some awesome door prizes, alas, I did not win :(

WWKIP Day re-cap

This year's Worldwide Knit In Public day was way more fun than last year (and I thought last year was fun).

It was held at the Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro. Tami organized the event this year and she did a phenomenal job! She was able to get 3 LYSs to sponser the event - Kathy's Knit Corner, The Knitting Bee and All About Yarn. Not only was there "door" prizes, but there were these awesome Swag Bags (for the first 40 knitters). At knit night last week we got a preview of the bags and what was in them and I really really wanted to make sure I got one.

Owen and I arrived early to the event to see if there was a need for set up help. Not really because they had it under control, however, I took a roll of tickets for the door prizes and handed them out to people - later I found out that the store had their own people that could have handed out the tickets, but I had fun doing it, so oh well! Owen went and found us some food at the farmer's market and then we all waited until 10am when we could snag our bags! You would not believe how fast the line formed! I was at or near the front and got the coolest bag made by Sara and all this stuff inside:

3 knitting patterns - 2 by Kathleen and 1 by Cindy
3 discount coupons from the above mentioned LYSs
Yarn samples from Stitch Jones, Fearless Fibers, Frog Creek Fibers and Abstract fiber
Fiber sample from The Cupcake Factory
and a Stitch marker from Girly with a twist


Look how nice the bag is inside! There are some pockets to hold needles and also a tab for keys or something




I admit to being a fiber piggy. I traded out my abstract fiber yarn for a cupcake factory sample, and at the end Carissa gave me 2 more! I am excited to try them out, her colors are really pretty!


My mom eventually showed up to the event, but did not get a bag...she didn't believe me when I told her she needed to be there early! OH well.

As for the knitting in public part, I worked on my Cookie A. sock (Sam) from her book Sock Innovation in Nodding Violet colorway from Blue Moon. I actually didn't get much knitting done because I was talking so much to everyone, and as of today I ended up with negative done, because I had to rip it all back to the cuff from messing up the cables so much. When will I learn that I need to have a plain pattern to work on when I'm going to be talking a lot???

There was an unofficial yarn swap going on where if you brought yarn you could take something from the pile. I brought in a few odd balls of stuff I knew I wouldn't use, and the remnants of some past projects. I walked away with two cones of a purple glitzy yarn to use in core spinning.

The door prizes were pretty good this year - lots of yarn and books. I won a Rowan pattern book, that was cool!

For lunch Owen went and got us some pizza from the farmers' market. And sadly, at 2pm we all had to leave (due to a wedding).

I didn't actually take pictures at the event, because I was not thinking, but you can check some out at Cindy's blog, I might even be in a few!

Even though I'm on a "fiber diet" I couldn't resist a few sample baggies of fiber - I got a bamboo and a fiber made from milk! Cool! Both are from the cupcake factory.

Saturday's Purchase

no purchases today, but i got an awesome free swag bag from the knitmore girls! jasmin and her mom are the nicest people. also met the hizknits podcaster and he gave me one of his buttons.

Chocolate Swag

Last Thursday was a chocolate sampling night at Whole Foods market, we went to the one in downtown Portland. There was a $5.00 donation for the passport and then you could go to the different places around the store that were sampling chocolate items! There was even a 5 minute back and neck massage (that was worth the $5.00 right there) courtesy of Pearl Medspa - in addition they gave out gift cups with lotions and a gift coupon towards a lazer treatment. Pacifica Candles gave everyone a Mexican Cocoa candle. A local chocolatier was handing out bars of chocolate, but there is no label so I don't know who it was!! Also throughout the store there were stations of chocolate bar samples, my fave was the Newman's brand dark chocolate orange chocolate. A local band was playing jazz music in the produce section and handing out free cds to promote the jazz festival in Portland.

Some of the tastings included:
Chocolate mousse in chocolate cups with fresh berries on top
Chocolate chocolate brownie
Chocolate beer floats (I had mine sans beer)
Chocolate dipped bananas and clementines

The most serendipitous moment of the evening was running into Camille at the massage station. We ended up walking around to the different tastings and hanging out! That was fun :)