Apr
Yarn Harlot visit
Posted by Emily in contests, books, events, charityJust in case you haven’t already heard, the Yarn Harlot is coming to Portland, courtesy Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and fun is sure to be had.
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the beloved Yarn Harlot herself, will be at the World Forestry Center (Miller Hall) on April 22 at 7:00 pm. She is sure to keep us laughing and knitting as she shares her knit wisdom and wit. We are celebrating the arrival of her new book, Things I Learned from Knitting…Whether I Wanted To or Not. She will be signing this book and her other titles. Doors open at 5:00 pm for book sales and seating. There will be plenty of room and books so, no worries, reservations are NOT needed. A very special Socks that Rock lightweight will also be on sale! All profits from book sales go to Knitters Without Borders.
In addition, BMFA has put together an “Inexplicable Knitting Behavior Scavenger Hunt” to celebrate the Harlot’s visit and, since Earth Day is April 19, the Earth. Click here to see all the details of the Scavenger hunt. It is a printable pdf. Basically, on either Saturday 19th (Earth Day) or Tuesday 22nd (the day Stephanie is speaking) you and some knitting buddies are challenged to run around town taking pictures with a sock in progress at assigned locations. It is sure to be a blast and, for participating, you get a cool pin custom made for the event.
Mar
Knit for a Cure
Posted by Emily in yarn, socks, knitting, charityWe have received the “Booby Sock Kits” from Trekking/Skacel! The kit includes a limited-edition Breast-Cancer-Awareness-Pink Trekking yarn, a pattern incorporating a nipple-shaped toe, the Breast Cancer Ribbon, and beads, AND Skacel is donating all net proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Center. Come on by and snag one of these kits ($20.00) before they are gone, and Knit for the Cure!
Mar
Bear mitten incentive
Posted by Emily in blogging, knitting, charity
Attention all bear mitten knitters! Tess, of the blog TessKnits.com, has offered to give first 25 people who knit even one bear mitten (and show her some kind of photographic evidence) before the end of March 2008 a free pattern from her line, Polar Bear Patterns! She’s got lots of cute patterns, like a felted Easter basket or felted dog bones. Check out her blog post for all the details. Yet another great reason to get cracking on those bear mittens. Yes, they’re large, but use chunky yarn and you’ll be done and enjoying your Polar Bear Pattern in no time!
Mar
Another bear mitten
Posted by Emily in patterns, knitting, charityA quick update to share an adorable photo that my mom sent me. She knit up a bear mitten! And, appropriately, this photo shows it being modeled by my parents’ lovely and talented Golden Retriever, Ozzie Bear. He’s a gentle giant himself at over 100lbs, but still swims in this mitten. Thanks, Mom!
If you’re interested in the bear mitten pattern, you can find all the details on our bear mitten page.
Feb
KGW link
Posted by Emily in the shop, knitting, charityFound the link to the KGW video, thanks to my mom. Although she says, “The best part is that when the clip is playing, there’s a fast forward slide so it can be ‘all Emily, all the time’.” She’s biased, of course. You can tell because she also wrote that she loved, “getting a good look at your new hair cut. I love it. ( I see that this topic is thoroughly covered in your blog and associated comments.)” So true.
But I digress. Here’s the link:
http://www.kgw.com/video/animals-index.html?nvid=221536
Feb
More mittens
Posted by Emily in patterns, knitting, charityWe’ve been receiving a lot of calls and emails regarding the bear mitten story on KGW that aired on Monday evening. While several had to do with my outstanding hair, most were inquiries about the mitten pattern and where to send finished booties. So, we’ve created a bear mittens page, and it should answer all your questions. Enjoy!
Feb
Bear bear toes
Posted by Emily in the shop, patterns, knitting, charitySo a few weeks ago, I got a very strange phone call one morning. I can’t exactly recreate it, but it was from Linda, Public Relations Specialist at the Oregon Zoo. What did she need? Well, help writing a knitting pattern. So far so good. What kind of pattern? Well, mittens. Again reasonable. Then the odd part. Mittens… for bears… in Asia.
It definitely crossed my mind that this was a prank call. In fact, my college roommate way back when was a master prank caller and this is exactly the sort of brilliantly edge-of-the-plausible thing that she would have crafted. But, no, Linda from the Zoo is totally legit (and incredibly nice) and the real story of the cold-toed Asian bears is just as sad as it at first seems odd.
The organization directing the bear mitten effort is the Animals Asia Foundation, a Hong Kong-based charity dedicated to ending cruelty and restoring respect for all animals in Asia. The images in this post are from their blog. Right now, they need mittens for the Malayan Sun Bear.
Any zoo folks reading this are welcome to correct me, but my understanding is that bears are rescued from inhumane conditions where they are destined to become parts for traditional medicinal remedies, snacks, and the like. The AAF’s blog goes into more detail about the stories of the bears - be warned it is not for the squeamish. As you might imagine, the bears usually need veterinary care and (also not a big stretch here to imagine) they must be anaesthetized to receive this care. It’s important that they stay warm and comfortable during the process but, just as for humans, bears’ extremities are the first things to chill. What they need is HUGE mittens to help their paws stay warm while they’re asleep.
So, I did my best to write up a pattern, and a few days later a whole group of Oregon Zoo volunteers came and started knitting bear mittens. What fun! Tracy Barry from KGW 8 came and interviewed everyone and the story is going to be on Monday’s evening news.
The first finished mitten is below, thanks to Jennie!
So to recap:
1. Knit a mitten for bears in need! Check out our bear mitten page
for the pattern and where to take finished mittens.
2. Watch us on KGW 8 tomorrow evening!
Dec
Blanket drive update
Posted by Emily in charityTime is almost up for those of you knitting a blanket for the Baby Love Blanket Drive. December 15 is the deadline for dropping your blankets off here at Twisted. Your hard work will help keep babies warm who might not have a blanket to call their own otherwise. Not that, technically, they’re calling anything anything as newborns, but you get the drift.
For those of you who are google-obsessed, the Baby Love Blanket Drive is the seventh item to come up when you google “blanket drive.” However, if you’re doing things like googling “blanket drive” then my guess is you’re procrastinating and not working on your blanket. I’m just saying…
Nov
Success!
Posted by Emily in charityWe wanted to report on what a huge success the Portland Grows a Cure fundraiser in support of histiocytosis was yesterday. We cannot thank enough all our wonderful customers (one calling in from as far away as Rhode Island!) who came out to support this great cause. Just here at Twisted, we raised $125 that will go towards researching a cure for this deadly childhood disease. No word yet on an event-wide total, but Laurel from Bella Stella (the event organizer) stopped by and said it had been an incredible success all around. Thanks to everyone!
Nov
movie night tonight
Posted by Shannon in events, movie night, charity
jack and joan have settled into a fairly domesticated life after their high adventure in columbia, but tonight, we visit them as they embark on a new adventure, rekindling their former life of intrigue and adventure in jewel of the nile, the sequel to last week’s romancing the stone. this film will round out our foray into the wild world of michael douglas and kathleen turner.
from hollywood.com:
“Six months after their first adventure Joan Wilder takes an assignment to do a biography on an evil desert ruler, eventually finds herself in hot water over a precious jewel, and Jack Colton comes to the rescue.”
and, from rotten tomatoes:
“According to legend, Catherine Zeta-Jones was 15 when this movie was made.”
Gregory Weinkauf, New Times
come on over, get out of the rain, and watch a mindless romantic-comedy-80’s-adventure-flick with us!
and remember, tomorrow we participate in Portland Grows a Cure, donating 10% of our sales to histio research.
