Oregon

I just got back from our (now yearly) week long vacation up to Oregon.

Why Oregon? Well, it's a lovely place to visit --I hated living there, but that had more to do with the miserable life of a grad student, and not so much to do with the state itself. It's a beautiful place to visit.

I must say that it's gotten a little more diverse since I lived there. When I first moved there in 1990, I couldn't figure out what was weird about the place, something was just a bit off --being from SoCal didn't help. Then one of my friends pointed out to me that there were no 'people of color'...and you might think I'm exaggerating, but seriously, it was the land of Caucasian. Hippy Caucasian, true, with all the rainbow colors only to be found on tattoos and tied dyed clothes.

Anyway, it's gotten much better there now. A little. What other changes? Well lots. There's several malls and even a PF Chang in Tracktown. We drove by the house my friend owned when she was a grad student. She sold it before she left town, but the funniest thing was that she bought the house (with a rentable detached room) for a mere $20K. Even back then, that was the cost of a midsized car. A car. She bought a house for the price of a car. I'm afraid how much the house is worth now.

Yarn shops? I was only able to break away for a little bit to go visit the famed Ben Franklin in Springfield. But that was fun. A Ben Franklin, you say?! Well, this one had Noro, Addi lace turbos, and even cashmere. I got a couple of hanks of yarn (it's a pink color for A), the Knitted Babes book, and several balls of Cebelia only because there's no sales tax.

Once in Portland, I wasn't able to get to any shops. Oh, well. Next time.

So, knitting. I worked on Oakey Dokey, got stuck on the end part, put that away, and worked on a top down cardi (boring but good on windy roads).I also started on Sarcelle. This is with red cashmere that I got in a destash sale. It's a pretty color. The pattern? Well, I'm not a big fan of purling e-cast on stitches. That's a pain. But it's turning out nicely, easy to remember, so I'll keep working on that one.

I also brought Forest Path, but unfortunately, that did not get worked on.

Oh, the weather? It was supposed to be raining the whole time we were traveling, but we were super lucky. We had a bit of sprinkling for a little bit one day. But on our way home, this is what it looked like (picture from moving car in pouring rain).