Portland = Craftyland

Dear Shayne,

As I mentioned in my last post, Portland Oregon is super crafty. Love. It! Here are just a few ways that Portland spoke to my crafty soul this past weekend...

At Powell's City of Books (a book lover's dream, I tell ya -- it's a city block of books, four stories tall. No joke.) they had marked certain books in the knitting aisle with a little tag:


What is it, you ask? Well... it's an indicator that that author (as well as many others in the aisle) is a teacher at the upcoming Sock Summit:

(If "Sock Summit" sounds familiar, it's because I've raved about this event before... here, here, here, and here! I actually never finished that original sock and I'm pretty much resigned to never being an actual "sock knitter," but it's a really cool event for anyone who knits... even if they don't knit socks!)

The coolest part about it? Sock Summit does not start for another 3 weeks. And they're already marking books for it at Powell's. I'm super excited about Sock Summit and this just fueled my fire even more. Thanks, Powell's!

Beyond Powell's, when we walked the lovely streets of Portland, we were simply bombarded by crafty happenings. We walked by Oblation Papers & Press and saw this amazing display of ribbons:


They have giant letterpress machines in back, churning away all the time. Let's see some more of those ribbons:

(Sorry, Shayne, didn't get a shot of the other side with the pinks and purples -- you'll just have to go there yourself!)

We continued to walk around and stumbled upon... Crafty Wonderland!


Last time I posted about Crafty Wonderland, it was a monthly craft show. And now it's an all-the-time shop! It's crammed full of good stuff, Shayne. It's like walking into Etsy.

I bought this fabulous tote bag there, made by Snap Design out of Portland (of course):


It's vinyl and I absolutely love the stitching:


Check out this awesome quilt that was hanging in the window:

B E A U T I F U L !

When we were walking another day, we saw the Button Emporium and Ribbonry:

(Sorry about the crappy photo. Trust me when I say it looked super sweet.)

Unfortunately, they weren't yet open for the day. But I'll be in Portland again at the end of the month, so I'll be sure to stop by when I'm there.

As we continued walking just a bit further, we also saw Knit Purl. A yarn shop, of course. Again, we were too early for them and no photo this time but you gotta trust me: everywhere you go, it's Craft! Craft! Craft! in PDX.

love,
kelly