The Polka Dot Debutante

Today was our knit group. We meet twice a month at Abundant Yarns and it is such a nice shop. The owners are super helpful and they also have a great cafe. I'm really much more of a quilter than a knitter, but I go for the company. We are a happy group that likes to laugh and eat what we shouldn't. And what sucks me in time after time are the wonderful yarn displays. Sometimes I just can't help myself and end up coming home with some new project. This time it was yarn for a baby cardigan for my neighbor Ingrid. She is 8 1/2 months old and soooo adorable. Pictures of the cardigan will be forth coming. I mean, how long can a sweater for an eight month old take?!

A friend invited me to a lecture by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a knitter who writes books about knitting. Now, I've never read her books but several people have told me that they are wonderful and very funny and that she has a great blog. So I checked it out and thought, good fun, why not. Well apparently Stephanie is the ROCK STAR of the knit world. The lecture was at the World Forestry Center and it was packed! Standing Room Only packed. She was very funny and I really enjoyed her lecture. She talked about the stupid things non-knitters say to you when they find out that you knit. (Reminds me a lot of the quilt world as well) Funny stories about what other authors say when they find out that she writes "knitting humor" and does quite well at it, thank you very much. It was quite funny.

I enjoyed looking at the crowd as well. So many beautiful sweaters, so much knitting going on. This woman next to me was knitting like crazy and never once looked at her hands! I was so jealous. And during the question and answer period at the end of the lecture, one fan came up and sang a song. Awesome.

A very creative, wonderful friend of Susan's, Kaaren Beaver, invited us to a catered dinner before the lecture. We got to meet interesting, creative women and eat really great food. What more can one ask for? :) Many thanks to Kaaren.

The day started out pretty virtuously. Vivienne and I went for a 5 mile hike at Silver Falls State Park. It was cooler today and we started at 9am, but even so, we were sweating hard by the end of it. So we decided to head over to Silverton and have some coffee before heading home. It turned out that the best coffee shop is right above the new yarn/quilting store. Who knew? We really didn't plan this.
Turns out to be a fantastic yarn store and a darling quilt shop. They opened in June and have some unusual things that I haven't seen here in Portland. Figured I'd give them a big plug in case anyone is heading to Silverton or wants to plan a day trip. It's a cute little town and there were several other shops that looked pretty deadly, especially this shoe store with these great boots in the window. Thank goodness they were closed!

The shops are Snippets: Sewing Bar and Lounge, The Purl District, and Stomping Grounds. They are all in the Wolf Building at the corner of Main St. and Water St.

And here is the quilting half of the store. They are really new and still getting in fabric. What they do have is great.

It also turned out that this weekend was the big Silverton Arts Festival. It is in their big town park and there were over 70 vendors. We managed to get into some trouble there as well. There were some great potters and we just had to get a few things. It was a fun day for sure.