So, I like Portland...

The man with the over-amplified guitar stops strumming as I pass:

"Hey, you, that's my coat!"

"I'm sorry?" I stop. I'm a glutton for crazy person conversations. I regularly approach picketers and soap-box preachers. By myself, by choice. That's another story.

"Yeah, that's my coat!"

"This is your coat?"

"Yeah!" People are starting to watch. "Remember, you came to my house last night, you punched me in the face, and you took my coat?"

"This coat? With the flower?" My friend Claire made me this awesome fabric flower I wear pinned to my lapel. "Is this your flower?"

"Hell yeah. Now gimme back my coat"

"Sorry, man... I like your coat. I worked hard for it. I'm totally keeping it."

He smiles. Apparently I've passed my standard Portland insta-banter test. "Alright." He picks up the guitar, the impossibly loud guitar, and I continue my walk home.

I love this city. I love it for its wackos and its artists and its incredible walk-ability. I love the lost little girl feeling I get from wandering, the countless tiny neighborhoods, the chalk on the sidewalk, the posters on the walls. I love the man with the blanket and the police on their horses and the churches on every corner, filed neatly between the Planned Parenthoods and strip clubs. I love that everyone talks to me, for whatever reason... I'm so thankful that everyone talks.

The girl with the acid wash skinny jeans stopped me on the street the other night to tell me she liked my outfit. Why am I the only person with passive-aggressive karma? God is cool.

Wish you were here. Wish I could walk with you.

love.

Forest & Frill & Spring in the air...

Today is the most perfectly lovely day in Portland. I spent the morning in full on spring cleaning mode, and then Boyfriend, Doggo, and I hit Forest Park for a mini hike/photo shoot. Introducing the Forest & Frill Cardigan:



Pattern: Forest & Frill Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Bulky, held double for the knit body and single for the crochet edging... Clasp is from the Button Emporium here in Ptown.





This is officially the first non-scarf FO that I've been brave enough to wear to work... and I think it went over well! I like it, anyhow... Took a few tries to get it perfect. The body was pretty bunchy, but I managed to force it into submission, and the armholes have been re-crocheted a few times to get them to stop looking so little girl ruffly (is that how you spell ruffley? ruffly? I dunno). Anyhow, done and done.

Doggo wants me to also share with you the terrible thing that happened to him today:


What can I say? It's muddy in them there woods.

love.

Baby Sophie's Things

Here are the promised pictures of Baby Sophie's Shower Set. They are Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweater (appropriate for a February Baby Shower, no?) and the Pea Pod Sweater from Kate Gilbret's Pea Pod Set... also some Saartje's Bootees, because I've been dying to make them. Yarns are GGH Scarlet (purple cotton) and some old school Lion Brand Wool Ease (undyed stuff) The buttons were an Etsy find... gotta love Etsy. Without further ado:





On the subject of babies, please continue to pray for little Riley... she seems to be doing so well, and I have to believe it's because she's surrounded by so very many thoughts and prayers and so much love.

Hugs!

Rant.

I understand that the following may expose me as the not-so-hipster not-one-of-the-cool-kids girl that I am, but I don't care. It simply has to be said.

People.

Please, please, please, stop sagging your skinny jeans. Please.

I understand that skinny jeans have persevered through fad status and general unflatteringness to become a remarkably lasting trend. I understand that boys in tight jeans have a certain rocker appeal, and that some girls with remarkably low body fat actually look quite appealing in them. I get that they're convenient to tuck into boots, or wear under tunics, or just look all Ashlee and Pete'd out. But for the love of God, people, don't sag them.

Sagging your skinny jeans does every wrong thing possible for the human body. Lately, it seems I am surrounded by assless, carmel-apple shaped teens and twenties, in acid wash no less, who look as though they've forgotten to do laundry and had to borrow their ten year old brother's pants for the day. It's the ultimate in cruel fashion - cruel to those of us on the sidelines, and to the fairly decent figure of the poor sucker with the crotch of his denim leggings suctioning his knees together.

You know the scene in Mary Poppins where Dick van Dyke is dancing with the penguins and pulls his pants down to waddle? THAT'S WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE! Only less goofy and Dick van Dykey charming and just basically more dumb.

Commit any other fashion crimes you need to. Wear your mini skirts and Ugg boots with pride, bring back the worst of the eighties with your flourescent yellow and crimped side pony. Live in velour jumpsuits. But for God's sake, people, for ALL of our sakes, please... pull them up. Just pull them up.

An Updaty Blog

Caper and I are having the perfect rainy Saturday (this Wednesday), complete with knitting, Chinese food, and Casablanca on the internet big screen. I thought it would be nice to post a little updaty sort of blog, so here goes.

First, in keeping with the recent theme: more knitwear!

Pattern: Brulee Scarf (linked on Ravely) Yarn: More yummy Beaverslide McTaggert Tweed

Coziness Factor: off the charts.
Easy pattern, too... all garter stitch with a little beginner crochet to dress up the ends... and a darn good excuse for cute buttons.

Congratulations to Dan and Mel on their amazing new apartment. It used to be a bakery, and is complete with awesome painted wood floors and beadboard walls, the world's cutest (pink!) retro double oven, and interior stained glass windows. I'm a jealous, jealous girl. But I can't think of any two who deserve it more!

This weekend at work we had the pleasure of hosting Edric Woo, the designer for Tara Keely... I was nervous that having him in the store might be awkward, but he was soooo much fun! I think we were all a little smitten (funny how the presence of someone male in a bridal salon sends all the girls into a tizzy). The brides loved him, his work is truly beautiful, and he's a darn good bowler. Pamela took some great pictures... hopefully I'll get copies soon. In the meantime, here's my favorite gown from his latestest collection: Pretty Pretty Prettiness Edric, thank you for being such a blast! We love your work around here.

I also got to drive to Albany this weekend for Heather's baby shower, which was an honor, and fun, in spite of all the usually baby shower silliness. Heather is the world's most perfect pregnant person, and I can't wait to meet little Sophie! It was good to see Heather and Kamala... funny how you sometimes don't realize how much you miss someone until you see them. I'd like to show you pictures of the set I knit for Sophie-Muffin, but I've maxed out Flickr for the month and am too cheap to pay the yearly... March 1st!

Katelyn and Mikey were also here last week, and we played games and had fun. I feel like we've seen a lot of them in the last few months, and I'm glad, and I hope it continues! Nice to have a brother in the family.

And, let's see, today I worked the stock market for the very first time (wow, go me), and sold a pair of shoes to Buffalo Exchange for $2.45, which I used to buy an iced caramel machiatto from Kale, whom I love and miss working with. Kale, kindly come crash on my couch again sometime soon. Ooo, also today I got word from Tamara Leeper that she might be coming to town!!! I'm pretty dang excited about that.

How's that for mundane updaty blogging?

That's all. Blessings and hugs.

"You're not the person I thought you were..."

Tonight Caper and I were walking around the city, listening and thinking, as we do best at night while walking in the city.

I was thinking about how it feels sometimes as though I've lived several lifetimes in my short life. I have been the sort who changes things so drastically, blows massive holes in my routines again and again just to see where the pieces fall. Funny, really, because though I think I've grown as a person, I don't feel I've really changed much... just changed my surroundings, trying to make something fit.

I lose myself, always, in the transition... I become someone I'm not, forget who I was, and take six months off from my life to dabble in a new idea of what I could be. But I seem to return always to the same girl I have always been... hopelessly optimistic, shamelessly geeky, equal parts self-conscious watcher and know-it-all. I try to balance this me with the new setting and often feel the need to start the whole process over again.

Sometimes I think I had it right before I started trying to figure it out.

Strangely enough, I think Facebook worsens this cycle... suddenly I'm faced, daily, with every person I've known in every lifetime I've lived, everyone who has known me in every different phase, and I can watch them. I know how they are, where they are, what their new dog likes to chew, how they wear their hair. It's living my whole life all at once... a different person to all who know me, and different version for every year. Karyn 2.0, 3.7, 8.4...

I am always trying to be her, the girl you thought I was. That girl, the one who I've always been, the one I've always been running away from, she's the one I'm chasing. I'll keep trying to become her, get back to her. She trusted the answers... she knew exactly who I am.

Saturday Gratitude and Cheap Scarves

It's Saturday night, which means I'm exhausted. Saturdays at the bridal salon are 7 hour marathon runs for me... a breakless, heavy-lifting, chaotic whirlwind of a day. I'm grateful for the way the time flies, and the chance I have to really connect with people with my job. It's a blessing to use my stressful day to magically make someone's planning process a bit LESS stressful... everything comes full circle.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to have a job that I love, given the state of our country and our economy. I certainly don't make much more than I need to get by, but I'm able to get by, and enjoy making a living, and I'm just humbled, and grateful, and thrilled. I play dress up all day long, and there are tears, and champagne, and I get to make other women feel beautiful and special and pampered... it's awesome. I'm a lucky, lucky kid.

But in light of our current economic crisis, I present the two dollar scarf: made with (on sale) KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Kettle-Dyed (1 skein) and one beautiful left-over button. Pattern is Mustard Scarf...find it on Rav.



Cheap and dead sexy... I'm in love with this little scarf, and am wearing it everywhere.



(this is me trying to model. the more observant of you will note that I'm cracking up)

Today I am grateful for a job that is stable and makes me smile, for the tears of happy moms-of-brides, for cheap yarn, a new president, a boyfriend who tirelessly takes photos, the world's best dog, happy-hour manicures and glasses of wine, beautiful, intelligent, inspiring friends, and a family that constantly expands my definition of love.




And buttons. I do love me some buttons.

hugs.