Portland Yarn Shops

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Here in the US Memorial Day Weekend is the “Official start of Summer”. So everyone who works a typical M-F job has gone back to work now after the long weekend. I worked this weekend, like I have been doing every weekend for over a year. So now it’s my weekend.

I have been wanting to go do some yarn shopping at some local yarn stores, so I finally went to a couple today. Both were in Portland proper (aka in city limits).

I went to Starlight Knitting Society on SE 52nd Ave – a few blocks south of SE Woodstock Blvd.

The other was CloseKnit on NE Alberta St at NE 22nd Ave.

I had been to Close Knit once before, this was my first time stopping at Starlight. I had driven by Starlight so many times but had never stopped, I decided it was time to stop there and see what they had to offer. I really liked Starlight Knitting Society.

I bought some sock yarn at both shops.

These are the three sock yarns I bought at Close Knit. Teo are a lighter weight sock yarn, and the one on the right is a medium weight sock yarn.

These are the five hanks of yarn I bought at Starlight Knitting Society. The two purpley-pink hanks are the same yarn, I would just need to hanks to make a pair of socks. The blue and greens are all a lighter weight sock yarns and will make great summer socks for getting back into hiking.

Not only was I looking for pretty colors, I am also amazed at the wide variety of weights that are all considered to be “fingering weight” which is the weight most commonly used for socks. The lighter weights require a smaller gauge of needle and more stitches to make a sock, where as the heavier weight yarns require a slightly bigger gauge needle and fewer stitches.

One of the yarns I bought is from Paris France, and another one is from Germany.

I love supporting American Indie Dyers, I also enjoy working with yarn from other places.

Bridgerton Season 2

Hey Everyone!

I recently ordered two hanks of yarn from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. These two hanks are from the new Bridgerton Collection, based on season two.

I ordered the Eloise and Kate colorways, both on the Coquette yarn base.

I wound the two hanks up today. The Eloise hank (the lighter one) wound up super quick, and easy. The Kate hank (the darker one) was a royal pain in the butt to get wound up. It flew off the winder at least once. I had to restart winding it multiple times. The hank of yarn to get wound up was kind of similar to the character in the show it was created after – stubborn, difficult and mind of it’s own.

Of the yarns in this collection, these were 2/3 that I liked and I was actually able to get that I hadn’t already gotten. The Lady Danbury and The Duke of Hastings colorways were brought back from last year, and I had gotten those two. Daphne colorway as already sold out.

Kodiak: The Conclusion

Hey Everyone!

I finished up the second Kodiak sock this morning!

The yarn is from Deep Dyed Yarns, and it this colorway is on the Figment yarn base.

This pair of socks took about a month to knit up, as life has been busy with work, Dr’s appointments (I am on the road to recovery, it’s just a long road), and just life happening.

It’s been a hard month, with a lot of life changes, and feeling overwhelmed, so knitting has been the one thing that has helped me refocus and destress with all the changes that have been happening.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, unknowns and uncertainties. Hopefully over the next few months, as more appointments happen, I will get some answers and things figured out.

While I keep pushing forward to find the answers to my health issues, I will keep knitting and getting back to other healthy coping mechanisms as well. Things that have taken a back seat over the last year like walking and Journaling as well.