Portland & Socks

 My Traditional Norwegian Socks class was my first class.  We got started knitting a slipper out of worsted weight in stranded colorwork.  It’s the kind of slipper you’d want to wear when the wood floors are icy in the middle of January.  Because I’ve done this sort of knitting before, I was able to finish the cuff of the first sock before 3pm that day. 

 I had a wonderful time with Knittymuggins and Troy.  Knittymuggins was my roommate and we had a wonderful time.  We stayed up past my (central time zone) bedtime and enjoyed ourselves in the Market.  As for the market, I did pretty well with my resolution, although I probably brought home more than I needed.  I do have projects in mind for all of it.  I found that wandering around the market hungry was a really bad idea – since there is a 2 hour time difference I felt like I was always hungry.  I hit the Sanguine Gryphon and Blue Moon Fiber Arts booths hard.  I bought a lot of yarn for baby sweaters, as it seems like a lot of people I know are pregnant or just had a baby. 

Friday brought the class on making socks for kids.  The teacher, Sandi Rosner, taught us how to size down adult patterns to fit littler, rounder feet.  I feel like I have a great grasp of this, and I can’t wait to try it out. 

My final class was on Kilt Stockings.  Mary Scott Hoff was a funny, entertaining teacher – exactly what you need at the end of a great weekend.  Although I don’t have any plans to make stockings for a kilt wearer, I do want to make a kicky pair of knee socks for myself. 

 The three of us didn’t just knit and take classes.  We also struck out to explore a little bit of the city.  We took a loooong walk one night (someone might have even called it a death march), and on Saturday we took the train to visit the Saturday Market. Saturday Market is an arts and crafts fair that they have every weekend.  I’m so glad we were able to go as I remember this briefly from a trip I took to Portland when I was 14. 

 I’ll have actual knitting in a later post.  I did knit a little while we were in Portland,especially while I was at the airport.  For now, I’m readjusting to the time zone change and hanging out with the kiddos.