We rented a lovely home in Bend, OR and spent 5 days discovering the local food, coffee, mountains, sights and of course, the yarn! The home had beautiful furnishings, including a perfect corner for knitting. I am working on my first
Fetching (free pattern on Ravelry)
Fingerless Glove here, and using Dpn's my first time also.
Knitting on Dpn's (Double pointed needles) allows you to knit in a smaller circumference with greater ease. Normally I use circular needles for this, but thought I'd try dpns and was glad to use them on this project.
Especially when I got to the thumb making portion. Shown below at the point where waste yarn is knitted in to hold the thumb stitches. Later on, you remove the waste yarn and pick up the live stitches there for the thumb.That was the hardest part for me.
Shown here after doing the picot bind off-I wasn't exactly thrilled with the look I got, somehow on the bind off. But one glove is done. On to knit the second glove. This pattern is supposed to use only one skein of yarn to do two gloves, but I am finding it hard to believe there will be enough since I am using the
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and I think the yardage is less than her DK weight. Hope I won't have to buy another skein just to complete the other glove!
Voila! One glove complete! The second one I began on the car ride home!
Our house that we rented was so beautifully remodeled and close by Drake Park and downtown Bend.
We took advantage of the great weather to do the loop drive viewing the mountains, including Mt. Bachelor, and South Sister Mountain, and Broken Top Mtn. We are at Sparks Lake here below on a perfect, crisp fall morning with nobody else in sight!
Me here, enjoying South Sister Mountain views reflected in the lake.
Shown with hubby on our scenic drive down to Bend, OR:
Our house was a block away from Drake Park. It was a lovely time of year to be there and the fall colors were really showing.
That's the Deschutes River behind us running through the park. Gorgeous!
My first yarn shop stop at the Old Mill Marketplace was
Gossamer-The Knitting Place, on 550 SW Industrial Wy.
It had some yarn art tied outside to the tree branch! This was a small and quaint shop with some pretty yarn offerings. Though I didn't happen to purchase anything here, it was a friendly and fun stop!
The second stop was at the
Juniper Fiberworks on NE Greenwood Ave.
Inside, the yarn was arranged primarily by color. I had to get used to this at first, but it was a fairly large shop with quite a selection. I found many familiar yarns and took alot of time here to browse. Also, alot of sock yarn available here. I found some unscented yarn wash liquid here as well.
I picked up some Mirasol wool in a new colorway for a second Baby Surprise Jacket! I could've picked out so much more...but I restrained myself.
Later on in our trip, we made our way up to Sisters, OR and stopped at the
Stichin' Post on 311 W. Cascade Ave. It is predominantly a quilting shop, however....
I had looked online and discovered that it also carried YARN!
So I had to go in and peek. They had some really beautiful yarn offerings here.
I ran out of time, but tried to gaze at a few quilts on behalf of my quilting friends!
Connected to the
Stitchin' Post is
Twigs, a cute gift shop. They had my favorite brand of kitchen towel so I snagged one for the road!
Not far, I found
Desert Charm on 123 E. Hood Ave.
This store specializes in naturally dyed and spun fibers. Many from local Oregon farms.
The women in the store were expert weavers and spinners, working on their craft in between assisting customers.
In the same building on the corner of Hood and Elm, I found
Out West Designs -Jewelry and Design Studio & Bead Gallery. This store was a beautiful bead and jewelry place.
I met the owners who were so friendly and welcoming. I stumbled upon some pretty things.
Shown here is the Bead Bar with lots to choose from. Another hobby that could get very addicting!
I came away with lovely poppy jasper and unikite "doughnuts" strung on silk ribbon for my keepsake for the trip!
Of course our trip was filled with great food (and I could do a whole separate food blog on the places we ate in Bend,OR: Blacksmith, Stacatto, Alpenglow...to name just a few!)
But it was also about the coffee! And at Sisters, OR is the original
Sisters Coffee Company. So we had to go in to their beautiful building and get ourselves one of our favorite lattes and a pound of Sisters Blend!
They had a spectacular stone fireplace seating area and it was very cozy.
Aah...Nothing like it!
I was very excited to be here!! :)
Another fantastic coffee we enjoyed in Bend was
Thump coffee, roasted by Stumptown. I was happy to discover there is also a Thump Coffee near us in Seattle,WA on Capitol Hill. It is very good, smooth and rich!
We payed them several visits this trip and also enjoyed their pumpkin bread slabs! (big slices) and their very friendly atmosphere.
If I posted all the "foodie" pictures this would take forever...but I must say that Bend, OR is a scenic, friendly and foodie place to visit. And we hope to go back soon!
If you were paying attention, one beautiful winters night in Seattle, you would've seen this amazing sunset right in your own backyard. You would've stood in awe as it changed and morphed into something spectacular. We called it "Jenny's sunset", in honor of my cousin who had surgery and was in our prayers at the time.
And if you blinked, you entered into a new season of magical snowfall, that closed down our city for nearly a week ... first with its heavy snowfall and subsequent ice storm, then followed by the threat of flooding. I think it is all mom's fault because she made this Christmas card....What do you think?
