Portland Walk: Lair Hill Neighborhood

 

Earlier this week we took a walk through the Lair Hill neighborhood. It sits below the Aerial tram (which we have yet to take) up to the OSHU Health Center. The bottom of the tram begins in the recently developed South Portland area. We did some walking through that area a few months ago, blogged about it here. Our walk this week took us to the edge of the neighborhood, with a nice overlook on that area.

  

Chicken coops are allowed in Portland but we live downtown so it's not something I'm used to seeing everyday.This coop had five chickens and was a pretty nice size. Black and golden, and fairly interested in me as I taking pictures. Maybe it was close to feeding time?

 

So Portland-y: Moss & Graffiti. As the leaves were falling off the trees this year, we've noticed little lumps of moss are falling too. There hasn't been much snow yet this year, but there are little balls of moss all over the ground. The garage door on the left gives you some idea just how much the moss takes over here. The tunnel is from a pedestrian underpass that was a little wet and dark, fortunately it was not a very long tunnel. And it made for a very Portland looking shot of Chuck.

 

Most of the homes in the neighborhood looked historic, but we did pass this modern condo building near the end of our walk, the Lair Hill Condos designed by Rick Potestio. There's a post about the project on the Portland Architecture blog.  On the right is an historic 1890 building known as the Corkish Apartments. My googling to figure that out lead to learning that there was recently a fire at the landmark, which might explain why we saw evidence of some work going on.

We walked back through the city, past some of the PSU buildings. I've walked past this one several times, but I don't think I've stopped to take pictures before. These are some large books! And I also can't help but wonder how they decided which books to use. It's bright and colorful, and makes me want to go home and read.

First Knitting of 2011: Lavalette Shawl

My first knitting project of the year is a triangular shawl. The pattern was the Lavalette Shawl by Kirsten Kapur. I haven't made one of these triangular shawls yet, somehow. Okay, I admit, for a long time I thought of it as one of those kinda weird thing that knitters like to make that looked like a bandanna. But I've come completely around. I'm a little tired of rectangles, and  I've done a lot of people watching. I've noticed people wearing (knit or not) things that kind of looked like triangular shawls and noticed that they can look quite cute and useful. Now that I've finished one I don't think I would mind having several more, and there are a lot of cute patterns out there...

 

The Yarn: I grabbed some very cheap & on sale yarn at Joann's a few weeks back. At $2.50 a ball with no sales tax in Oregon? Worth it just to play around! It's Deborah Norville's Serenity Garden in Hibiscus, which is "100% Dralon Microfiber." There are two things I don't know in that last sentence, who the heck is the lady staring at me from the yarn labels and what the heck is meant by Dralon microfiber.  Regardless, I enjoyed working with the yarn, which I was doing on US size 7 needles. The recommended needle size is US 3-5, and I found that the larger size made the fabric feel light and drapey. It reminded me just a little of working with bamboo yarn, which is soft and a little slippery, although obviously, not as luxurious as bamboo.

First a Sock Attempt: I actually attempted to work on a pair of socks and got a pattern repeat or so through the cuff before deciding the project was a little too frustrating and not enough fun with the tools I had. US Size 1.5 needles in wood. I've broken too many wood needles this size and smaller. I guess that's not a hugely common problem, but for me it either comes from checking my progress by trying socks on too many times, attempting tricky patterns that end up making me bend the wood til it snaps, or the fact that my hands are a little sweaty from time to time, wearing down the strength of the wood. I have some other theories about that too, but none of these things are habits I plan on changing. So, I decided with that attempt that I was going to officially give up trying to use wood needles below size 3 or so. So no more socks for me for a bit until I get myself some metal needles. I suspect this will lead to a mad hunt for metal needles in the near future because of an overwhelming desire to make some more socks, but so far so good.

About the Yarn Color: I wasn't sure if I was going to like this yarn in the end. It was a little splitty and difficult for the sock pattern, but I have gotten kind of used to yarn that's a little splitty, so that didn't bother me much especially with the larger needles. I'm also usually skeptical of any variegation or striping yarns. With one solid color, I know what that's going to do in a pattern: be solid! So throughout this project I was trying to decided if I was going to like the diminishing stripe effect. Now that it's done, I do think it's nice:

The other day I took the shawl out for a stroll. I found more reasons to like the triangular shape, it tucks right into the front of your jacket so nicely. Or, as used by bandits, is very easy to pull over your face if your face gets cold. Or you could just flip it around and show it off, as I've done here; for a knitter, that's pretty satisfying thing to do. 

Books I read in 2010

Emma Nolan's favorite books »

Just to round things out this is my last 2010 recap. (see photos, knitting and music here and here.) These are the books I managed to read last year, amidst studying for my exams (note the inclusion of two of my awesome study guides here, grumble), moving, etc. The handy widget generated by goodreads.com, which includes the Harry Potter book I finally read and finished last night. It technically shouldn't be a part of this list, but I couldn't figure out a way to exclude it from the widget. Anyway, I've committed myself to doing even better this year by reading at least 25 books! My favorite by far last year was Zeitoun and I enjoyed re-reading Pride & Prejudice, which I am pretty sure I read in high school, but I guess I am old enough now not to quite remember things like that!

Also I should mention our TV favorites. We didn't do a lot of movie watching this year, and most of that was older stuff on Netflix trying to catch up as I suspect will be the case next year. But there was quite a bit of good TV in 2010. My favorites being Boardwalk Empire (yay two golden globes last night!) and Treme (No golden globe nominations even!?! I'm annoyed but not surprised...) Two cancelled shows (both currently available streaming on Netflix): Party Down and Better Off Ted. And 2010 will go down in memory as the year that Chuck admitted that Glee was an entertaining show. He was going to have to watch it with regardless...so I'm glad he's finally enjoying it too.

What I listened to in 2010, Part Two: Old

  

Lhasa (also known as Lhasa de Sela) - The Living Road (from 2003) Website
I started out last year re-listening album because of the unfortunate news that Lhasa died of breast cancer on New Years day last year. It's a fantastic album, one my Aunt initially loaned me a copy of, and I never get tired of it. I wish I had managed to see her sold out show at the Triple Door when we lived in Seattle, but I didn't manage to get tickets. It was really sad to hear of her passing.

Au Revoir Simone - The Bird of Music (from 2007) Website*
*be warned their website does start to play music without prompting.
I also wanted to mention this album because I was asked to pick out music for the wedding in SC this fall. So for some time, I was happily listening to any and everything in our collection with any hint of being appropriate. I mentioned that the first track from this album, "The Lucky One" would be cute processional song, but not really knowing if Matt & Janie had a plan for something else; I wasn't expecting them to agree to it. They really loved it, and it worked out perfectly for the big day. Now that I'm posting this I'm noticing that the cover even looks like the setting from the lake, even more reason this album is probably going to me get a little teary-eyed from here on out!

The rest of this post focuses on "old" artists that released new albums this year. I suspect that this means that I won't be able to find as many links to streaming audio for this post, since these artists are already established, but I'll try.

 

Belle and Sebastian - Write about Love Website Stream Album
Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights Website Appearance on WNYC's Soundcheck
These both came out fairly recently, in the fall, so I'm still getting into them, but on the whole I think I'm enjoying these both more than I thought I would. Belle & Sebastian have consistent sound that I like, so I was expecting it to be pretty good, but I think I'm into this album a little more than I am usually into their music. I am Antony and the Johnsons fan of our household, it's not really Chuck's type of thing. He does have an unusual voice and it's probably not for everyone. This album features a duet with Bjork, perhaps returning the favor for Antony's appearance on her 2007 album, Volta. It's the 8th release from Belle & Sebastian, the 4th for Antony and the Johnsons.

 

The Gossip - Music for Men (rel. 2009) Stream
Thank goodness for Beth Ditto of the Gossip. She's so awesome. This release is from 2009, but I was still listening to it all year this year. Heck I'm still listening to all their other albums too. Just thinking of the video for Long Distance Love makes me want to be at a roller rink right now.

Stereo Total - Baby Ouh! Website
The cover might give you some idea of the feel of this album. 2007's Paris-Berlin remains my favorite album from them, but the fact there is a song about Andy Warhol fits so well with their overall aesthetic, and as usual it features many blips and beeps that get stuck in my head well after listening.

 

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening Website

M.I.A. - /\/\/\Y/\ Website*

*yes, this one autoplays too. You also get to watch a video of the track "born free"

This is the third release from both of these artists, and I'm noticing they've been releasing their albums on the same schedule, 2005, 2007 and 2010. That might make some sense, we saw them together at the Showbox in Seattle in 2005. If you've been a fan of MIA on twitter of facebook, it's been an interesting year.

 

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way Website*
*auto-plays music. Their christmas track "ain't no chimneys in the projects" actually
I first heard Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings from Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW, and this is their 4th release. Sharon Jones once worked as a corrections officer at Rikers Island, but now she's making great Funk/Soul music with the fabulous Dap Kings (who were featured on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black.) Their music is consistently great.

She & Him - Volume Two Website (player in upper left)
Zooey is pretty cute. We got to see these two live together at the Pritzker Pavillion this year and they had a great chemistry on stage. Sure M. Ward wore his sunglasses the whole time, but he looked very cool doing it. For some reason I still feel partial to Volume One (maybe it was the cover of "You've Really Got a Hold On Me") but Volume Two is growing on me, and I usually get more excited about songs after seeing them performed live.