Thread Stash

Some days you just get lucky. A recent trip to a local thrift store resulted in a purchase of I'm-not-saying-how-many balls of Cebelia DMC thread, size 10, in four different colors, at 30 cents each. 30 cents! Most of this will end up at an upcoming knitting retreat.

Yes, I left some at the store.

Really.

I did.

Hail to the King!

In this case, hail to king bolete, Boletus edulis, commonly known as porcini mushrooms. A friend who is a devoted mushroom hunter found a lot of porcini at a secret spot that he will not reveal. We are fortunate that he kindly shared two porcini with us. These, he said, are two of the smaller ones.

Earlier this year, we found morels in our front yard. Sometimes we find chanterelles at local farmers markets.

Good eats!

Warming a Cold Shoulder

How do you warm a cold shoulder? With a shoulder shawl. This one is the Gracie pattern from Myrna Stahman's "Shawls and Scarves." I made it with about 600 yards of hand-dyed worsted-weight yarn on US10 needles. It came out 18 inches long down the back.

Shoulder shawls are the perfect solution when you need a little warmth on the shoulders but not too much.

Yes, the lawn is brown. Water is for the tomatoes. The grass will revive on its own.

Wool and Wine

Oregon's Yamhill Valley has much to offer, especially for those interested in wool and wine. Start with Woodland Woolworks in Carlton for all things knitting, spinning and weaving. Yippee!

Then the wine areas, such as Domaine Drouhin Oregon's manicured vineyards.

The tasting room manager gave us an informative tour of the vineyard and winery, which concluded with a comparison tasting of the winery's Oregon and French wines. Our friend Michael took very seriously his job as wine taster and research assistant.

At the Carlton Winemakers Studio, we tasted one fabulous wine after another from several wine makers. A dinner at the studio featured J. Daan wines, made by the young and talented Justin Van Zanten and his wife, Megan.

A Shocking Pink Skeleton

The first time I saw Donna Druchunas's book "Arctic Lace," I knew I would have to knit her Skeleton Scarf, but I knew it would not be in qiviut.

For me, this scarf screams, "Drama!" What's more dramatic than bright pink? The yarn, from deep in my stash, is wool, very fine. It's a deeper pink than the photo shows, almost a shocking pink or darker hot pink. US3 needles. I made two changes from the pattern: I used centered double decreases instead of left-leaning, and I knit four pattern repeats instead of three.

Landscaping

Last night, the charming and talented Sonya from Yorkshire Yarns invited me to talk about my favorite pattern, the Landscape scarf from Fiber Trends. Little did she know that I can talk about this pattern for a long time. I've blathered in the past about how much I like this pattern, and welcomed the opportunity to blather to a new audience at Sonya's Monday night knitting and crochet group. Fortunately, Sonya's shop offers a stunning selection of yarns suitable for this pattern.

In short, I like the flexibility of this pattern. I've made it with lace weight, fingering, sport and DK; with solids and variegated; with wool, cotton, tencel and blends. I've made it with as little as 250 yards and as much as 500. I've made it with and without picots. I've made it with beads instead of picots. I've made it with tassels.

The scarf also offers an opportunity to shop for beautiful and complementary shawl pins to fasten the tails in front.