Thursday, May 17, 2007

PDX

Last weekend I met Rob in Portland for a long weekend. What a funky town! A combination of hippies trying too hard and high end design, all of whom are very, very nice. Very lush, amazing bungalows, lots of funky stores, amazing coffee. Here's my beautiful latte in the lobby of our hotel.
Incredible rhododendrons. And this is one of the less amazing ones.
A William Wegman sculpture. It's the dog bowl, which is a running fountain, on the checkerboard.
A view from our Saturday morning hike. Brad & Julie, our friends out there, kept apologizing for the hike because it wasn't very good. I'm not sure I could handle the beauty of a good hike!
Brad & Julie's amazing house, where we went for dinner and had the absolutely most amazing, melt-in-your mouth salmon I've ever had in my life. Great fun!
Now for the stash. My new cute shoes. You'll never guess the brand. Wanna take a stab?
They're Doc Martins. Who knew?

Some new letter stamps, a rare font apparently, from Office.
Some great fabrics and ribbon from Bolt. They're heavier cottons. What a great store this was! Little, but I would have bought just about every fabric and ribbon in the place. Rob restrained me.

I also went to Lint, a great little yarn shop. I got some Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace (scroll down) in chocolate to make a shawl. Don't worry--it's knit on 7's to get 4 st/inch!

There were lots more great little independent shops, artists, and some great restaurants, as well. We had great weather, though a little chillier than we'd anticipated. Can't complain too much though, since it only rained one night while we were inside eating dinner. Quite a nice little weekend away!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like an amazing place to visit..I had an idea it could be cool from some of the blog sites I visit.

Is the fabric Japanese? There is a line of fabrics I love but no place to get them around here.

Always on the look out for comfy shoes. Are they?

Will you make a shawl with the yarn?

Anonymous said...

The shoes are really comfy!

I have no idea about the fabric, but I think I've seen it on Superbuzzy, so I guess it is Japanese.

I will make a shawl with yarn. Actually, I haven't posted the shawl that I finished just before going to Portland. I've decided shawls are my thing--they're one piece, so no finishing, they're a little more complicated (though I don't do hard ones) and impressive than just a scarf, and they're still portable. I bought the Folk Shawls book, which has several patterns that fit my needs.

Anonymous said...

Are you doing lace shawls??????

Anonymous said...

looks like a very nice place to visit. thanks for the travel blog. love the stamps. very cool font. do you only use stamps on fabric/quilts?? just wondering. cute shoes too. that house looks gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

I *am* doing lace shawls, but lace only in the strictest of definitions. My criteria are that they're rectangular (so no shaping) and the pattern repeat can't be more than about 20 rows. Nothing that I need to lock myself in a stimulus-free room for. This is the first one I did:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTcozy.html

I'll post pictures this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Amy, thus far I've only used stamps on fabric. It's the whole "do I really need another hobby?" thing that keeps me from branching out. Their house was absolutely gorgeous. I, of course, forgot to take pictures of the inside, but the previous owners had made one of the basement rooms into a tiki bar, with bamboo ceilings and walls, the whole deal, with Julie and Brad kept. VERY cool!

Anonymous said...

I just added another picture from our "not very good" hike, sent from Brad & Julie. See how lush it is out there?

Anonymous said...

wow -- WOW! I am rather impressed, with a number of things -- how pretty Portland is, the fact E is knitting shawls (!) and the awesome stash augmentation that you did. I'm dying to go on a trip with a new city to explore. Anyone want to join in??