ink n paper, hooks and needles

It seems that fall has arrived in Oregon.  I'm always amused by the way our weather changes around here.  We have some beautiful, hot sunny days, then three days later, it's dark, windy and pouring rain.  I'm not complaining, by August I'm usually looking for the cooler days to appear.  I love the Pacific Northwest, quirky weather and all. Hopefully, the fall weather is inspiring you to pick up needles, hooks or looms and work with some yarn.  If so, please come to the next Jefferson Knit Crochet meeting this Saturday from 10 am to 11:30 am.  We meet the third Saturday of every month at Jefferson Baptist Church on Highway 99E in Jefferson, Oregon (click  here  for a map).  We're open to all skill levels and have supplies available to share if you're new to the hobby and aren't sure what you need. In case you can't join us but are in the mood for some inspiring fall designs, here are a few free patterns for you to try. Knitted  Natural Leaf Wrap  th

I finished Mom's scarf and got it in the mail to her.  I'm a little late with the update so she's received it already and she loves it.  It's knit with Kollage Yarns Luscious that came in a kit with a pattern called Cannon Beach. I'm not sure you can tell by the picture but the yarn is truly a beautiful color. I was a little worried about the end result because the yarn didn't feel very soft to the touch when it was in the skein.  It turned out that worrying was a waste of energy (and, really, when isn't worry a waste of energy).  It came out soft, silky and with a lovely drape. You can see the project on  Ravelry  if you'd like to know more about the yarn or the pattern.

I hope everyone's Fall season is off to a great start and that you're finding time to work on some yarn projects. I'm busy working on a scarf for my Mom's birthday - which was last week.  I sent her a snapshot of the ball of yarn as a hint.  She understands.  After all, she's known me my whole life! I've also got another  golf club cover  (the link will take you to the first one) started for her and I'm working on a crocheted  afghan  for my oldest. In the midst of this, my sister told me that she loved the  wrist warmers  I made her for her birthday.  She wants some for Christmas.  She thinks maybe black.  And brown.  And pink.  I guess I'd better get those needles clicking! Speaking of crochet, apparently,  today was National Crochet Day!   I only found out because a yarn store in Salem posted a note on their Facebook page.  Thanks,  Tangled Purls!   If you've never been in the shop before, I encourage you to give them a visit.  The

I have joined the Pinners on Pinterest.  At first, I wasn't sure if I would ever use it or not but it turns out to be fun and a good source to add to my crafting/knitting/crocheting queue.   (Yeah, because I need a longer list of things I want to do!)  I found a  blog post  that explained how to use Kool Aid cubes to dye yarn.  I thought it looked like something I would enjoy. I had two skeins of bare Windsor Farms Angora Frost that seemed like a good candidate. I was a little nervous about how it would come out though so I only used one skein.  I just realized that the skein is only 200 yards so now I'm sort of bummed that I didn't do both.  I've been searching around though and I think I'll be able to come up with some patterns for 200 yards of fingering weight.  The project options would have been much better if I had done both skeins, though. I didn't follow the blog post instructions exactly because we aren't having hot sunny days in Oregon right