A whirlwind weekend

This weekend went by so quickly and was so full of activities that I need another weekend to recover!

Thanks to Twitter, quite a few patterns and products and fun things cross my path that I may not have found otherwise. On Friday, Tina tweeted about a lovely crocheted beret pattern she had found and I had to check it out.

A few clicks later, I had purchased the pattern for Julep from Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark of Piebird Design. A quick look through the stash yielded a perfect sock yarn for the project -- Fortissima Colori Disco Socka in a pretty turqoise. The color and sparkles in this yarn are prefect for the person to whom I intend to gift the hat. A few hours later, I was almost finished with the project and I finished it up over the weekend. Ya gotta love crochet for knocking out a quick project!

I took Saturday off from the shop so that I could attend the Community Sock Club meeting at Gino's in Sellwood. Deb Accuardi of Mt. Hood Fiber hosts the club, which includes locally dyed yarn, a locally designed pattern, and a gourmet luncheon of fresh, mostly local ingredients paired with wonderful wines. I'm not a member, but this month I was the designer so I got a chance to attend. Boy, do I ever wish I was a member! The luncheon was superb -- absolutely one of the best meals I've had in a very long time.

Susan of Abstract Fiber provided the yarn for the sock I designed. When we were asked to do the December installment for the club, we quickly agreed that it would not contain any reference to the holidays since we wanted an all-season kind of sock. Instead, we opted for a distinctly Northwestern appeal. I suggested an evergreen, sort of snow-on-cedars kind of approach. Susan added her flair and came up with a lovely yarn of greens and brownish-orange and deep blues, drawing on inspiration for where land meets river and sea in Astoria, Oregon.

Mirroring that theme, I wanted to incorporate the land/river/sea themes into the sock. And thus was born Astoria. A winding path of twisted stitches meanders down the sides of the leg, much as the Columbia River meanders to the sea. Between is a field of knit/purl textured triangles, representing the lush evergreens that cover the hills of Astoria. Texturing on the heel flap continues down the bottom of the entire foot, providing a soft cushion similar to moss you'll find in the forests here. It also helps make the socks more durable for those of us who tend to wear out the soles of our socks first.

For now, the pattern is only available to members of the Community Sock Club. Next year, it will be available to a broader audience.

Thanks to Deb for the opportunity to design this sock and to Susan for creating such a lovely palette to work with!

Sunday was Spinnerati at the downtown library. It was a small group this month, what with all the activities for the holidays happening, but we still had a great time. I made some more progress on the lovely cashmere/silk roving I got at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. It's a challenging fiber to work with because it's very slippery and has a short staple, but I'm getting the hang of it. Pics to follow when I've made more progress. :)

In between all of that, I ran the roulette table at parties on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. See why I need another weekend?

Hope wherever you are it's warm and cozy!