Last Thursday

So last night Big Alice and I went to Last Thursday on Alberta Street. I had heard people talk about Last Thursday before, but didn't realize how big of an event it is! I'm not really sure how to describe it... it's a combination craft fair and swap meet, so people are selling all kinds of things. The art galleries in the area also stay open late. There are people everywhere, including street performers. We must have walked over 10 blocks, and we didn't even see everything!

Also went to Cork since my friend Shelly has paintings on display there. We got to try three wines for $5 which was fun. Cork also has a decent selection of wheat beer, so I got a Japanese hefeweizen to try. Which means tonight is pizza and beer night :)

Scrapbooking and Gifting

I haven't done as much knitting or spinning this week, but got inspired to do some more scrapbooking. It's more of a journal than a photo album, but it's been fun to put together pages and figure out what information I want to include. It's interesting how my crafting goes in cycles... Last weekend I got a couple of quick knitted projects done, and before that was mostly spinning... Still catching up on taking pictures though!

Also starting to think ahead to what kind of projects I want to make for holiday gifts. The holidays always seem to come faster than I can knit ;) and I don't think many of my family members would like to receive a skein of yarn. Maybe I should work on teaching everyone to knit instead of trying to knit them all socks... there's an idea....

Next I'm hoping to channel my creativity into cooking. It's been too hot to do much baking this summer, and I'm starting to look ahead to what I want to make for fall. Also looking ahead to a crazy 45 hour work week when internship starts, so need to come up with better ideas for what to make for lunch and dinner. Especially for days when I won't get home until after 9pm! I think I'm also trying to cram in as many craft projects during summer break as possible ;) At least I can knit on the train, but not so sure about spinning on the train yet. And scrapbooking is pretty much out unless I'm at home.

Sock Summit Stash

Still learning the best way to upload pictures to the blog, so hopefully this will work! There are also more pictures in my Flickr Photostream

First is the green fiber I got from Spinner's Candy on the last day of Sock Summit (she had a buy 2 get 1 free special, so I also have a blue braid and a grey one). The wool feels spongey which is kinda fun, and I like how it looks spun up.


Also a couple of skeins of sock yarn I got from CraftsMeow. I think this was my first purchase at Sock Summit. I had admired both of the colorways in the Dye for Glory contest on ravelry, so they had to come home with me ;) Hoping to make some witchy socks for Samhain.

Inspiration

I'm feeling more inspired to keep up with blogging. I've been reading Larissa and Martin John Brown's Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together which has some stories about blogging and knitalongs. There are also a few patterns that I would like to try :) I got to meet Larissa at Sock Summit and at an event at Powell's last week which was cool.

I've also been inspired reading friends' blogs (and I need to update my blog roll if anyone wants to check out their blogs). And I've had a few people link to me, so I feel like I should write something in case anyone wanders over here...

Now that I have a whole month of summer vacation I also have more time for blogging and crafts. Finally finished knitting a pair of socks out of sock-weight yarn and am working on a few birthday presents. And starting to think about holiday knitting since I tend to get carried away with projects for my family... And having fun spinning (I've tried BFL, milk protein, merino, and merino/bamboo blend) and plying different colors together for new effects... Guess I should take a break from making stuff and actually take some pictures ;) Maybe later...

Sock Summit

Sock Summit was fabulous... I made some new friends, visited with other friends I hadn't seen in awhile, bought too much yarn and fiber, learned some new techniques, and even got to help some new sock knitters turn a heel :)
Also procrastinated writing my last paper for summer term, which is why this update is so short.

Spinning...

Last weekend I (finally) decided to take a drop spindle class. I had been wanting to learn how to spin, there was still space in the class at Knitting Bee, and I needed somewhere air-conditioned to spend the afternoon... so it worked out well ;)

Seemed like a lot of things to learn in a two hour class, and I felt like I was just starting to get a feel for what the fiber and spindle feel like. Then I had school all last week, and there wasn't really any time to practice.

Today I pulled out one of the fiber samples I had gotten in the Phat Fiber box, and decided to try spinning to see what I remembered. Now I think I'm hooked ;) I think I've learned that playing with the fiber too much just leads to over-spinning, and it didn't seem to take much to turn the fiber into yarn. And I was using a fabulous organic wool sample from Extreme Spinning, so it was probably easier to spin than the roving we used in class last week.

So now I'm looking at what other samples I want to spin! I also have some nice Abstract Fiber samples I got during the yarn crawl last winter...

Also thinking about knitting another sock so I can have a pair to wear to Sock Summit next weekend! Finished the other one a couple of weeks ago, and haven't gotten motivated to knit the other one. But I would like to have a pair of socks to wear to Sock Summit, and the only other socks I've knit are house socks which will be too warm to wear!
I didn't actually get tickets for any events or classes, but am looking forward to checking out the marketplace and sock museum. A little scared about the number of crazy sock knitters that will be descending on Portland in the next few days though... I will also be volunteering at the Marketplace on Friday and assisting in a beginning sock knitting class on Saturday :) Should be lots of fun knitting and spinning adventures now that summer school is over!