To Portland and Back

Whew! We're back from our second road trip of the summer. Another 1,500 miles on the old auto. We had a great time, and there were a few craft-related activities, so here's a quick post.

First off, here's the photo of my new McCall's sundress on the veranda at the Ashland Springs Hotel. My chilled white wine is on its way. Thanks again, Graca! I felt comfy and breezy while watching Two Gentlemen of Verona that evening.

There are a couple of nice fabric stores in Ashland. I stopped by Sew Creative while I was there and bought a jacket pattern.

They teach a class on making this jacket, and if I lived in Ashland I would so be there. They had a few samples made up in the store and it looked like a nice, light layer that you could use some fun fabrics for. And easy to boot! I'll have to toss the stash to find a good trial fabric.

From there we headed up to Portland and spent a night at The Benson Hotel. Built in 1913 by a lumber baron who did not stint on the mahogany.

Stop by for a dink in the bar, the cocktails are mighty fine

While in Portland I made a swing by Bolt Fabric, where I treated myself to Jalie 2908. I figure if I'm going to try sewing a pair of jeans, this is the pattern to start with.

We didn't try the salad wraps across the street, but they looked like they had something for everyone! Here are my fabric purchases; few but lovely.

The purple is from Sew Creative in Ashland and the blue print is from Bolt

From Portland we headed up the Columbia River to Hood River and the Columbia Gorge Hotel, another of our favorite old hotels.

Just outside Hood River is an alpaca farm run by Foothills Yarn and Fiber. They also have a little store on site where you can buy alpaca yarn spun from the little guys right outside.

The aplaca had just been shorn, so they looked like little Einsteins. They had a sign saying to keep your pets in the car because they have a flock guardian dog on duty. Sure enough, it was a Great Pyrenees like our Zoe. Only his name was Charlie and he was about twice her size. Poor guy was not enjoying the heat. You could see him thinking, "Don't make me stand up and bark at you..."

I got a skein of their alpaca. Couldn't resist, it was so soft. I think it's enough to knit up a super-warm cowl for winter.

I was thinking this trip would be a bust for thrift-store patterns, but I came upon a box of Vogue American Designer patterns from the 90's in a little antique store across the river in White Salmon, Washington. At two bucks a pop, I'll give them a whirl!

Now to get to sewing!