ideaphoria

THE CHAPTER IN WHICH I GO SHOP HOPPING IN OREGON AND ENCOUNTER KNITTERS FROM SEATTLE

Michelle was the master planner behind the Tigard Knitting Guild's Shop Hop. I'm sure she (and her volunteer crew) put in a staggering number of hours to pull everything together, working with the vendors and with the registered shop hoppers. I think this woman is a paragon of organization. This photo was taken at the first shop of the day, All About Yarn, in Tigard, Oregon, when Michelle was just beginning to enjoy the fruits of her labor.




What might the organization of a Shop Hop entail? First, there was the contact with the shops (Two Swans among them), having them agree to award discounts and special offers to the Shop Hoppers. This information was all assembled into a "passport" for those who registered for the Hop. Michelle and her crew also solicited from the shops samples of the yarns that the shops wanted to feature. I can only begin to imagine the hours that went into creating the little folders for the yarn samples, and then the measuring and cutting of the yarns, and then the winding of the yarns onto the little folders (and winding, and winding). The little folders each have the logo of the shop, a little description about the yarn ("Soft & Inspiring," "Bright & Dazzling," etc.), and then the brand and other pertinent info about the yarn.

The samples were mailed to us registrants about a week before the Hop. The little samples made a very cute package! While I only show two in the photo, there were dozens of these little folders. Another Tigard Guild volunteer had created a little pattern for a little heart pin that one could knit from a few yards of sample yarn. (For more about the yarn samples, visit Heather's blog.)

The morning of the Shop Hop, as Anne drove us to the place where we were to sign in and board the charter bus, I was recounting to her about how my term as newsletter editor for the Seattle Knitters Guild is at its end (our terms are up in October); I've edited the newsletter for two years and am happy to pass the torch on to the woman who'll replace me, although I will stay on the board as Historian.

When we signed in for the Shop Hop, several knitters were there ahead of us. Michelle and some volunteers were signing in people, distributing to us our goodie bags (see the red tote Michelle is wearing in the picture? we each got one, as our goodie bag!), and offering us doughnuts. I saw the line of people and my Inner Shy Person came out. I thought, Oh no, I'm not going to know anyone all day except Anne. But once the Shop Hop started rolling, knitters are all kindred spirits about their passion, and it was no problem to strike up conversations with any of them.

First person I met was Norm. When he found out I was from Kent, he asked if I belonged to the Seattle Knitters Guild. When I said that I did, he said, "Yes, I used to live up that way, and I was the newsletter editor for the Seattle Guild for a couple of years." What a coincidence! "Let me shake your hand!" I said. At left, Norm shops for yarn in All About Yarn.

Our second shop was The Knitting Bee in Portland. This was a brand-new shop in a brand-new shopping center. The shop owner served us mimosas and doughnuts. At this store I met Barb and Lois, fellow Seattle Guild members who'd also gone down to Oregon for the Shop Hop:

Above, Anne examines a shop sample at The Knitting Bee. You see the great sweater Anne is wearing? It's "Slouch" from Rowan's Denim People. This is the sweater that you knit with the darkest shade of Rowan Denim yarn, and then splash bleach onto it to create a one-of-a-kind design. In this instance, Anne knitted the sweater, and her husband artistically splashed liquid bleach (for the lightest-value portion of the design) and gel bleach (for the medium-value portion of the design) all over it, front and back.

I've often admired Anne's fearlessness about knitting anything (and everything!). I was not alone in my admiration of this garment. I swear, at some point during the day, every single one of the other 37 people on the bus came up to her and asked her how she'd made the sweater. Quite the conversation piece.

On the bus, Anne was knitting a Hanne Falkenberg "Mermaid" sweater. (This gives you a little clue as to what the front of her "Slouch" sweater looked like.)

I continued knitting on the edging of the Wrapped in Tradition Poncho (from Wrap Style), and got almost three complete repeats of the scalloped edging knitted. (Each scallop is 20 rows, and this is true knitted lace, where you are working lace stitches on both the right side and wrong side rows -- requires much attention to the chart, as there is no row of plain knitting or plain purling.) As of this morning, I have 19 out of 20 scallops completed, and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to moving on to the next stage of this project!

One of the highlights of the Shop Hop, for me, was stopping at a store in downtown Portland called Knit/Purl. My camera batteries were on their last legs by this point, so I can only describe in words how beautiful this shop was: Located on a corner, the windows were dressed in a color-coordinated way, featuring yarns and bags in a very hip, modern way. This shop is owned by Darcy, a woman with whom Anne used to teach knitting. Darcy wore a sophisticated black-and-grey skirt and top, had a very chic hairstyle . . . the whole time I was in her presence and in her shop, I felt like I could'a been in Manhattan, not the blue-jeans-and-Birkies territory of the Pacific Northwest. Darcy was kind enough to give Anne and me a behind-the-scenes tour of her shop. It was a real privelege!

Another very trendy shop on our Hop was Lint, also in Portland. Designer Leigh Radford teaches there, and the items from her just-published book, Alter-Knits, were on display in the window:

At the extreme left in the photo is a door with a knitted window screen (you might recognize this object, as it was written up in an issue of Interweave Knits). Also in this photo are knitted lantern shades, a dressmaker's dummy decoupaged with yarn labels, and the dummy is wearing an orange tubular scarf that we think was made with Kidsilk Haze.

Anne took this picture of me trying on the wedding crown from Alter-Knits. (I'm also wearing the basketweave vest that I made from Jamieson's Book 2.)

We visited 7 brick-and-mortar shops in all, on Saturday -- and I hope at least a few Hoppers visited Two Swans online from the comfort of their homes that evening.

Posted by Karen at October 10, 2005 12:48 PM