Damselfly’s Delights

Did The Groundhog See His Shadow?

2012-02-02T14:06:00.001-08:00

Happy Imbolc, Candlemas, Groundhog Day or whatever you celebrate on this cross-quarter day of the Wheel of the Year! We don’t actually have groundhogs around here but I did smell skunk last night. Wonder if that counts? It’s nice today but not as brightly sunny as it was yesterday. Yesterday was so gorgeously brilliant and relatively warm. We put on our sunglasses and walked up to my LYS where I picked up the free replacement 5mm tips for my broken Addi Lace Cliks. I love a company that stands by their (expensive) product and a big shout out to Francesca at Three Bags Full for facilitating! Now we’re back in business again. And I got to keep the unbroken tip so I have a spare.

Next we have a Finished Object. Yay!

Sweat Skirt

For: me

Completed: January 2012

Fabric: Remnant of cotton sweatshirt fabric left from last year’s Green Tunic, 60” wide by 24” long, olive green.

Notions: 1” waistband elastic; sewing and serger thread, green.

Pattern: Self-drafted straight skirt with partial elastic waist. Patch pockets pattern from Lekala 5089 which was my inspiration for this skirt. I left off the back seam and used elastic instead of a waist tie.

Comments: I’m very happy that I was able to get this skirt out of such a small piece of fabric. Now it’s all used up! The pockets gap a little even though I used stay-tape on the opening edge. Likely this is due to the gathers from the elastic that ends at the inner pocket edges but I don’t think it’s really a problem. I always wear my tops outside which covers a lot of sins. The skirt fits well and is very comfortable and casual. I hope it gets lots of rotation in my wardrobe. You can’t tell on Debbie Double but it hits a little above my knee.

Then backing up a little, on Tuesday I went to Dressew. Danger, Will Robinson! I wanted to see what they had for bra-making supplies. Well, good and not-so-good. They have pretty much everything you need – except that nothing matches:

Channelling in only one colour (magenta!), the right elastics in many colours but not a single set of matching ones, bra hooks (black or white), rings and sliders (black, white, clear plastic), and even underwires (which I hope to avoid using). I even lucked into a quite large remnant of white powernet, enough to make many bras. I was really happy to find out that yes, it will take acid dyes as will the white hooks because they are nylon and lycra:

Works too well actually! I meant to get a much lighter violet but I think I went a bit overboard on the amount of dye and got brilliant blue. Also, notice that I take the dye well too:

Hole-in-the-glove syndrome. Ooops. Even after doing the dishes, a shower, hand washing etc. the nail is still blue. Next I need to test dyeing the elastics. If they also dye well then I can get ugly colours and make them coordinate better in the dyebath. Now I just have to make my first Franken-bra! I’m not cutting into the good stuff yet.

Of course I couldn’t just waltz in and out of Dressew without tripping over more fabrics. Besides the powernet, I found these:

At the bottom-left is 2 metres of Italian viscose/nylon in black with a shiny silver-sprinkled face and above it a length of nice woven crepe in a dark brown unknown fibre (probably poly). These were also remnants and very cheap. On the top-left is some fabulous copper/black crinkle that was totally an impulse purchase. It goes with the crepe nicely. I see this lot as a slip in the black, a brown bubble skirt lined in the remaining black and a buttoned crinkle shirt. The other pile on the right is .5 metre of red quilting fabric to make bias binding for an apron, red cotton double-knit destined for a t-shirt and charcoal terry-lined sweatshirt fabric for a new dressing gown.

The latter one was the only fabric I actually had planned to buy. You see, I saved this pattern from 1988:

Yes, that is a size Small. Originally I made this version of the long cuddly cowl-neck sweatshirt (like the one in yellow on the pattern envelope):

Yup. I made it wayyyy back when the pattern was new. Amazingly it still fits. Not So Small! Hmmm…why do you think I might want to finally replace it? I mean, it’s totally pilled and threadbare and sports many claw pulls from dear cats who are no longer with us. It’s been a mere 24 years as my only dressing gown. Yikes! About time for a new one, yes?

Anyway, I decided that the fuzzy side of the new fabric should go on the outside. I think it’s much cosier when my hands can feel it and the smooth side is actually softer in contact with my body. I also unearthed some black cotton/lycra ribbing from the stash for the collar and cuffs. It’s all cut out already and I’ve started sewing it together. The old garment is heading for the trash, poor thing. It’s had its day.

I’m so enjoying all this wardrobe replacing and refashioning. Makes me super-happy to have nice things to wear. Even if I can’t stop buying more fabric. Please remind me that I have enough to last me for at least the coming year of sewing? I’m going to try not to buy any more and to work from the stash. The only legal sewing purchases will be notions (zippers, thread, bra hooks, elastic) for the rest of 2012. And that’s only if I don’t have what I need already lurking about. I promise. I hope. Urp!

Make Do & Mend

2012-01-30T12:17:00.001-08:00

Yup. I’ve been up to my old tricks, fixing stuff just so I don’t have to go buy new ones. I’ve been repairing my shoes. First I finally got some slipper soles to fix my poor 2-year-old slipper socks. These are by Boye:

They’re suede leather with fleece insoles and little holes punched all around. Although they come with a simple pattern for both knitted and crocheted slipper socks, I just stitched my old ones in (after sewing up the holes in the bottoms - again!):

They fit perfectly! Even if they are rather blindingly white. One repair down.

Next I tackled my Birkenstocks. The cork soles were starting to come apart badly especially at the toes. I used some ShoeGoo which is great stuff! Stinky but effective. I poked as much glue into the cracks as possible using a bamboo skewer, lightly clamped the toes and waited until that layer dried. Then I wore a vinyl glove and used a finger to “paint” the whole of the exposed cork with another layer of Goo. They are much more stable and although they look a little funky (shiny!) are going to last a lot longer now:

Then I fixed my poor old Blundstone Wedges. They don’t even make this style anymore. Maybe because of the crappy soles on these things. They were pretty much worn through and cracked right to the inner soles:

There were actual caves under there! Even though it cost nearly as much as new boots to get complete new soles put on, I would have done that except that the elastic gores are also wearing out. So not worth a major repair job. Instead, to extend their life a little longer I Gooed ’em:

That’s two layers and I just might add one more to be good. I put a lot of kilometres on these bad boys! They’re the only black Blunnies I have at the moment. The other two pairs are brown and red which I love, but black is my go-to colour for shoes. Yeah, I know. I wear such elegant footwear, don’t I?

Now that I’m on a roll, I just might resurrect my ancient and extremely comfy rubber boots, locate the holes that I know are there and fix them too! My poor wellies deserve some TLC too. I’ve only had them for about 30 years or so. The spiders will be sad to be evicted, I’m sure.

So instead of buying new shoes, I bought a bra-making kit from Bra-Maker’s Supply (Hamilton, ON) instead. The pattern:

This is the Classic Bra by Beverly Johnson. I like this style a lot and hope to get some good use out of this pattern. In the package I also got two bra kits with all of the supplies. Here’s the chocolate one:

Isn’t it yummy? I lightened up the photo a little so you can see the details. There are two different fabrics, one for the band with lots of stretch and one for the cups with minimal stretch. There’s also 5 different elastics: under band, top band, trim, strap, and channelling. The hardware packet includes a 2x3 hook closure, sliders, rings and a bow to finish it off. I also got a similar kit in black.

Lastly the most important part of the package:

The BOOK! (Yes, I know it looks like a CD but it takes up less space that way.) It’s really detailed, 235 pages, and I’ve been reading madly. Learned a lot too even though I’m only half way through. However, I’m still afraid to cut out the fabric yet! I keep vacillating on the size. I already traced off the 36C which matches my current bras but I think I really need the D. I do know that like most women I’ve never ever ever worn the right bra. So I guess I’m just going to have to jump in and cut a single D cup, sew it together and try it on. That’s the only way I’m going to find out. And even then, there may be surprises. Oh well. There’s always more fabrics being made, right? Or I can always cut it down. I think I’ll start with the black one. I don’t want to mess up the chocolate. I’ve never had a chocolate bra before.

Whilst I’ve been studying and dithering, I did manage to cut out the Sweat Skirt from the 24” of fabric length left over from my Green Tunic. I was so happy that I was able to get the big pockets that I wanted too! I didn’t think I had enough but squeezed the pocket pieces in between the front and back pieces by folding the fabric differently. Bad ASCII version: <_> instead of < Anyway, you get the drift I hope. Now I need to go sew.

Miscellaneous

2012-01-27T12:51:00.001-08:00

If you need another review of the Dennic Chunman Lo patternmaking book there’s a really good one here. I agree with her evaluation 100% and she’s a much better writer than I am! There’s also a lot more pictures. Enjoy.

Also thanks muchly for the lovely comments on my recent FOs! To the Knotty Spinster: the link to the Hitchhiker’s Ravelry page was there but it was a little invisible after I changed the text colour. Sorry about that. I always include a pattern link if one is available. Try this one http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchhiker instead. Unfortunately it’s only available through Ravelry but you can buy it separately or together with 3 other delightful shawlette patterns. I want to knit them all. Eventually.

So I have been slowly working on my Embers Cowl now that I’ve fixed the last major error. I had accidentally missed one of the three stitches in an SSSK several rows down so I had one extra stitch that confused the heck out of me for awhile. Found it with good light and a lot of patience! Now I’m zooming along again and just about finished the 3rd repeat whereupon I need to change needle tips to a smaller size to narrow the cowl at the top. I love my Addi Lace Cliks, especially when I can use a cable that gives me a 16” length. Perfect for this qiviut cowl. Isn’t it pretty?

I can’t tell if the colour is accurate for you. It’s a dark warm red. It looked good on my camera but needed tweaking on my screen. I may have gone too far! Hope not. It’s so luscious.

Gotta go cut out my skirt. I now have a pattern and the leftover green sweatshirt fabric from my Green Tunic. Let’s hope I can fit the pattern on the fabric. It’s going to be tight! A cliff-hanger…

Patternmaking Books In Review

2012-01-24T14:46:00.001-08:00

Today, kiddies, I’m feeling like a discussion on patternmaking (aka pattern drafting or pattern cutting) and pattern fitting is in order. As you all know (or are beginning to suspect) I have a lot of books. Also way back in the Dark Ages I took sewing and pattern drafting classes, so I think I’m a little bit qualified to comment though I am reminded why I quit sewing when things weren’t working out so well. However I recently feel that my understanding has undergone several quantum leaps. I’m re-energised and really enjoying my return to garment sewing. All because I’m now finally getting the kind of results that make me happy. Now if only I could get my young skinny-minnie body back. Sigh. Oh well.

No, I was not inspired to take a new patternmaking course. I figure that the amount I have spent on books is actually less than that would have cost – plus I’d probably still need to buy books anyway. Also I have discovered that no one single source has all the information that I need to really comprehend the techniques. There are a lot of publications out there, particularly new ones with good photos and illustrations, that really helped my understanding. The advances of the internet search engines and the generosity of sewing bloggers with their tutorials have also contributed. And let’s not forget PatternReview, BurdaStyle and the Stitcher’s Guild Sewing Forum online. Just ask and someone will answer. Resources that I sure didn’t have back in the day.

I’ve found that sewing books come in several categories. There are the ones that are trying to inspire you to get started making your own clothes, with included patterns or cutting diagrams and garments that have relatively simple lines and fitting. These are great if your body shape and style are compatible. Some titles are Design-It-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch, Twinkle Sews by Wenlan Chia, I Am Cute Dresses by Sato Watanabe and Simple Modern Sewing from Shufu To Seikatsu Sha. There are lots more coming out and many are translations of Japanese books. The drawback is that if you have a larger figure especially in the bust, there will be issues. You need to learn how to fit the garments to your body and decide whether the style will look good on you. These issues usually aren’t discussed in any depth in these titles. More research! Always.

If the simple garment approach isn’t working for you, then you need to deal with more complex patterns. Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit by Steffani Lincecum uses existing garments to create a pattern that you can then play with to get different garments. How to Use, Adapt, and Design Sewing Patterns by Lee Hollahan gives you instructions on adjusting commercial patterns or creating basic blocks to then manipulate further. Working with commercial patterns is also the main focus of a number of fitting books. The ones that work best for me are Fit For Real People by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto and Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina. Other older but excellent ones are The Perfect Fit from Creative Publishing International and Fantastic Fit for Every Body by Gale Grigg Hazen.

You really need these fitting skills because the industrial-level patternmaking books don’t actually consider body shapes outside the standard ones. The first book of this type that I bought back in the 1980’s was Metric Pattern Cutting by Winifred Aldrich. (This book is still available, updated to the 5th edition.) Although the styles are dated in my copy, the information and the many line drawings are very helpful in seeing how the basic measurements work to create blocks (slopers) and thence how to go from there to get different styles. Of course that still wasn’t enough information for me so I recently bought the large and expensive Patternmaking Made Easy (Second Edition) by Connie Amaden-Crawford. This book is a college-level course in itself! And well worth the outlay. But then I heard about a new book that seemed really interesting and perhaps a good balance to Connie’s. It also got good reviews from others in the business.

Patternmaking by Dennic Chunman Lo in my opinion is quite fabulous! Artsy cover dress aside, it has a more organic and holistic perspective on what can be a pretty dry exercise – even while the focus is on building skills for the fashion industry. I’ve really only read about half the book so far and already had several ah-ha! moments. Yes, there are standard measurements but the mathy bits relate to them in a way that can be extrapolated to different sizes. There are practical applications and there are also inspirational (or what I consider fantasy) garments. There’s even a chapter introducing CAD-CAM pattern cutting. This book may not include everything you might want to know, but it does explain why better than any other text I’ve seen.

Lastly there are the books exclusively for “inspirational” patternmaking: Pattern Magic, Pattern Magic 2 and the soon-to-be-released Pattern Magic: Stretch Fabrics by Tomoko Nakamichi. These books document amazing imagination and skill in creating flat patterns for unusual garment shapes. Pure fun.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to free myself from the limitations of the offerings from commercial pattern companies. Not only do they not fit correctly, they are mostly very far from my style. So far I’m finding my new personal blocks are truly time-saving devices! My next effort is to reverse-engineer my shoulder princess blocks back into a regular darted bodice and skirt. It’s actually not hard. After that I will need to break down and finally make an actual muslin to test it. And then on to…gulp! Pants! If the worse comes to worst, I always have my favourite pair of yoga pants to trace. Heh. Yes, I believe in cheating. OK, it’s not cheating. Whatever it takes to get the desired results. Tracing, frankenpatterning, drafting, tissue paper confetti. I’m all over it.

Rainy Weekend

2012-01-23T16:58:00.001-08:00

It was windy and rainy pretty much all weekend so, apart from a quick foray for groceries during a gap in the weather, we lazed around reading and drinking copious cups of tea. OK, I always drink copious cups of tea. But I didn’t even get out of my jammies yesterday and T-Man finished an entire book in one day. Talk about relaxing!

Unfortunately though, T is starting to feel quite stressed about his job. The American-owned company he works for is in Chapter 11 and even though he plans to retire very soon, he’s feeling the tension in the workplace. He has stomach-aches and heartburn. Something needs to settle out now so he can get out of the holding pattern. Even though his head is in a confident place, his tummy isn’t listening.

Even though I’ve been super-lazy, I do have some FO’s to show off. First up:

Hitchhiking to Saturn

For: me

Begun: December 29, 2011

Completed: January 12, 2012

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Galaxy Saturn, colourway 1576 (Janus: rusts/tan/peach), dyelot 34976, 75% superwash wool/25% nylon, 420m = 100g. Purchased at Dressew for $.99!

Needles: Addi Lace circular, 3.25mm.

Pattern: Hitchhiker by Martina Behm. Purchased as one of a trilogy of 4 patterns. (No that’s not a typo!)

Comments: After one of my weavers’ guild members showed up with a Hitchhiker knitted from her lovely handspun, I just had to have this pattern! It’s not so much a shawlette as a triangular scarf. An easy pattern to knit. I didn’t even need the row counter after a couple of repeats. Very nice for highly variegated yarns. I used only one ball of yarn and got 35 points which is slightly smaller than the 42 points achievable with a 150g skein of Wollmeise. It’s still 6 feet long though so still long enough to wrap around nicely.

Next we have some sewing:

Cowl-Neck Tunic

View Full Album

For: me

Date: January 2012

Fabric: Rayon-lycra double-knit, black, purchased from Dressew. Approximately 1.5 metres of 60” wide fabric.

Notions: Gutermann sewing thread and serger thread, black.

Pattern: Began with Vogue 8699, View B:

Modified: I used my new basic shoulder, armhole and sleeve blocks to get a better fit than the original. Kept the neckline and hem as-is. I had to shorten the collar by 1” because I ran out of fabric. I also stitched it on by skewing the underside over 4” to give a more bubbled look to the cowl. I like the look that gives. Makes me feel very “Marcy Tilton”!

Comments: I used both the sewing machine and the serger to put this top together. The sewing went very quickly and easily. It fits very well although I’m currently carrying a little too much post-holiday fluff around the middle! Need to get serious about doing something about that.

I can foresee using this pattern as a basis for several new tops with sleeve, collar and hem variations.

Notice that in the photos I’m wearing the matching black Banana Skirt and a new necklace. Want to see it closer?

Camel Necklace

Completed: January 2012

Materials: silk, rayon and cotton threads, all dye samples or other leftover bits; buttons and beads from the stash; polyester upholstery thread.

Pattern: Camel Necklace, technique from a class project by Jannie Taylor (weaver, San Luis Obispo, CA).

Comments: One of our Spectrum members, Cathie, took this class at a recent conference and shared the results with the group. The Camel Necklace took a lot of work to make but all the materials were from my (admittedly copious) stash. All it cost me was the time to put it together. We had to make tassels, wrap cords, stitch buttons and add beads to join things together. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Not. It took me one session to make the tassels, one to make the wrapped cords, 2 Spectrum meetings and one final session to finish it up.

I blocked it afterwards by spritzing with water and combing out the tassels and then leaving it to dry. Looked much better! Now I’m a very well-dressed camel.

So what else is new? I’m halfway through the latest pair of socks for my daughter-in-law. She has holes in the first pair I made her. I’m also plugging away on my qiviut neckwarmer, the Embers Cowl. I made a mistake somewhere so I need to sit down and take out a section – again. It’s not a complex pattern but somehow I keep screwing it up! At least I can fix the errors eventually. After all this is qiviut. 100% musk ox down. Nearly $100 for a single tiny little ball. Scrapping the project is not an option. Am I weird to think this was a nicer birthday gift than any old gold and diamonds? Not that anyone who actually knows me would ever give me gold and diamonds. (Hint: silver and polished rocks. Heh. Or better still, vicuna and qiviut.)

On the sewing front, I’m continuing to refine my basic block patterns for both stretch and woven fabrics. Not moving very fast but then it’s not a race, is it? I also ordered a bra-making kit from Bra-Makers Supply in Ontario. I got the CD bundle which includes the book on CD (searchable!) plus a pattern and the materials to make 2 bras, one black and one chocolate. I have long wanted to learn how to make my own bras because I can never get them to fit me properly and I hate the options available. I want colourful fabrics but I also want them simple: no padding, wire or frou-frou lace and bows. More on this later, you can be sure.

I’ve also been reading one of the new books that I bought with my Chapters/Indigo gift certificate that I got for Solstice from Milord and Milady Daughter. Yes, I spent more than the value of the certificate. Why do you ask? Oh – moving right along. The book is Patternmaking by Dennic Chunman Lo and it’s a keeper. As soon as I’m done perusing it, I’ll give you a review.

Have I made up for lost time yet?

I’ve Been MIA

2012-01-19T12:17:00.001-08:00

Sorry about that! My sister had a wonderful visit. We spun yarn; we dyed yarn; we knitted; we shopped; we ate and drank. We did not take photos. Oops. She and her family are now in San Diego and will soon depart on a (very safe) cruise to Hawaii. And I’m left here in the Deep Freeze! It’s been ridiculously cold for the last few days with a skiff of snow. I’ve shovelled, or more accurately, swept – twice. Tomorrow it threatens to warm up and rain it all away again. Winter in Lotus Land is very unpredictable. Either we’re complaining about the grey and the rain or we’re complaining about the wee bit of ice on the streets and the need to clean off the sidewalks before 10am (city ordinance). No pleasing some people.

On the crafty front, I’ve finished a few items but haven’t written them up yet. I have some photos (yay!) but they’re still in my new camera. I have also recently received an email from a weaver with many questions on an article I wrote for the now-defunct Weaver’s magazine way back in the dark ages of the ‘90’s. I do NOT remember the details and so far I haven’t located either the article or my notes. She wants to weave it this week. Ummm…

Doing well here, aren’t I?

I have to admit though, it was a lot of fun to spend some quality time with with my sister, D:

She’s two years younger than I am but we only met 20 years ago. (We are half-siblings and were both adopted out separately. It’s a long story.) But right away we discovered that she loves many of the same things that I do. She had a loom, a spinning wheel and angora bunnies. Me too. (Though I no longer have the bunnies.) Interesting, doncha think, in light of the fact that we both grew up in different families in different cities? Genetics. However, she resembles our mother and I don’t. Genes are funny things. Heh. Doncha just love her beautiful silver hair? Envy.

So for the first time ever with nearly a week to ourselves, I managed to give D a few pointers on her spinning. She was rusty but reasonably competent. The problems she was having was with her Louet S-90 wheel (yes, just like mine!) which needed a new drive band. I set her up with a piece of S’getti String (round plastic lacing) but it wasn’t a total solution for her because it kept jumping off the whorls. It worked well enough though to get a number of skeins spun so she could learn how to dye-paint them. We went to Birkeland Bros for some wool and Maiwa Supply for dyes so she can do more spinning and dyeing when she gets home. She also spent time at Maiwa deciding on some of the beautiful Ajrakh block-printed duvet covers and coordinating pillow cases for her guest house in Haida Gwaii. So fabulous.

And there was even more shopping. We went on a pilgrimage to Voyageur Soap and Candle in Langley. D makes her own soap and other bath items so she had mail-order experience with this company but had never actually been there before. She picked up some potassium lye which can’t be mailed to her and a bunch of cute soap moulds. I managed to squeak out of there with only a few new jars for cream and lip balm. Somehow I keep giving them away. Don’t know how that happens.

Interestingly, although D can crochet she was unfamiliar with knitting (as was our mom) so after she dye-painted her yarn in fun bright colours we had a knitting lesson. Because she was already able to crochet, I showed her how to knit Continental style which is the way I’ve knit since I learned from a German friend in the ‘70’s. I never wanted to go back to the English method that I learned as a child and now I can barely knit that way any more. At least Continental uses the same tension system as crochet so it’s a little easier to learn for someone with those skills. After a period of awkwardness and a few mistakes, D was doing pretty well. I know she was having fun because she packed up her yarn and knitting to take with her on the cruise!

Now the house is much too quiet. Last night I slept like a log for about 11 hours and feel much brighter. Obviously we aren’t used to having guests in our little house! They were great anyway and didn’t mind the rather primitive conditions. We only had D’s husband and teenaged son for one night but they’ll be stopping through on the way home again.

And I need to get back to accomplishing something other than food, laundry, dishes and entertaining. Tonight is my weavers’ guild meeting. Hope it doesn’t snow like it’s supposed to. I’d like to get home safely before it warms up and turns to rain tomorrow. More anon. Maybe even with pictures!

A Couple of FO’s

2012-01-10T12:48:00.001-08:00

Trying to make up for lost time here!

Madder Rose Shrug

Begun: December 6, 2011
Completed: January 8, 2012

Pattern: Shawl Collar Vest by Amanda Berka, free pattern from Unicorn Books & Crafts. Knit largest size: 40”.

Yarn: Handspun wool, dyed in the roving with alum/home-grown madder root, spun DK/light worsted weight 2-ply. 4 skeins, approx. 324g = 848yds total. Had a small amount left over from these.

Needles: Addi Lace Cliks, 5mm. Switched to Addi Lace circular, 5mm, part way through after difficulty with Clik tip.

Comments: My yarn was somewhat finer than the called-for worsted but I used the same needle size and the unblocked piece came out very close to the correct size. It relaxed quite a bit after blocking. The finished shrug is more drapey and oversized than the other versions on Ravelry. I didn’t put the button in that I’d planned because it didn’t end up in the correct place. I’ll just pin it closed with my shawl stick.

Obviously I broke down yesterday and put Debbie in front of the dining room window to try to get some pictures. They aren’t ideal but they’re better than nothing, no? Of course today it’s sunny! I also tried a new plug-in for Windows Live Writer – a Flickr image importer. I can’t make cute drop shadows on them though. At least I can use the pictures that are already in Flickr. Doesn’t save any time but it’s a little less duplication of files. Of course, I’ll still need to insert some photos the other way so you’ll see both varieties.

Yoke Dress

Completed: January 4, 2012

Pattern: Self-drafted using my basic stretch blocks and Style Arc’s Laura Dress as inspiration.

Fabric: Black/gray novelty slinky knit, purchased at Fabric Depot in Portland, OR. Used about 1 yd of my 2-yd piece. Contrast yoke and sleeves used scraps of black rayon/lycra double-knit, purchased at Dressew. (At least I think these are proper fabric descriptions! I never keep good enough notes when purchasing. You’d think I’d know better, huh?)

Notions: Gutermann sewing thread, black. Serger thread, black.

Comments: I really like this simple t-shirt-dress. It’s comfortable and yet a little dressier than my usual garb. I used both the sewing machine and the serger to put it together. I’m happy that the top-stitching doesn’t show on the pockets because they are probably a little wonky! They are a single layer of the contrast fabric inside and utilising the dress front as the top layer. I stitched both layers together from the back so I could see where I was going. The top and bottom edges of the opening were zig-zagged through all layers from the outside at the seam line to reinforce. I probably should have used a proper facing instead of turning under and topstitching the opening. It’s functional though. I like having pockets. My inspiration didn’t have any.

I could have made the front yoke slightly wider and the shoulders are a tad wide, whether from the neckline stretching out a little or a need for another tweak of my basic stretch bodice blocks. I may have added too much when I adjusted the shoulder width. However I did stay the shoulder seams with lace so they shouldn’t stretch at all and I stay-stitched the neckline before applying the narrow facing. I used a strip of crosswise stretch but had to piece it. That’s how short of fabric I was at the end!

One last garment left to go out of the “4-2-5 Collection” (4 garments from 2 pieces of fabric, 3 metres of double-knit and 2 yards slinky). This one is the Cowl-Neck Tunic based on Vogue 8699, but heavily adjusted using my shoulder-princess block to fit me better in the shoulders. It’s nearly done and I should have it finished today. Only need to apply the collar and sleeves and twin-needle the hems. I’ll be sure to double-check the fit of the shoulders before sewing the sleeves in permanently this time.

Quick & Dirty

2012-01-09T11:02:00.001-08:00

Just a drive-by post since I can’t get a photo of my new Yoke Dress or my now-completed Madder Rose Shrug. It’s been dark and rainy and I just couldn’t get motivated enough to cajole T-Man into taking pictures. I wish that I had an area in my house that’s clear and bright enough for photo shoots but no. Apparently I have to cover every single wall with something. I have a couple of folding closet doors that would work but they are too far away from any window. I am not a fan of flash but much prefer real daylight. Of which there isn’t much around here this time of year. Standing out in the rain is not exactly an option. Sigh.

Then there’s the question of how to take the pics. He’s a dear man but T is not much of a fashion photographer. And I’m not much of a model either! I’ve tried using a tripod and timer but it’s not an improvement. I almost always look wooden and stupid to my own eyes. Not much better than Debbie Double except that I have a head and arms. And more than one leg. I quite envy the great photos that other bloggers seem to manage to get. Props, motion, liveliness! Perhaps I might do better if I really cared enough to try harder. Ya think? It’s hard to justify the time and effort though. I just want to get on to the next thing!

The jury is still out on whether or not I really like how the shrug turned out. I wasn’t able to put the button in because it fell in the wrong place at the seam lines. I’ll probably pin it closed instead. The way this sweater is shaped and constructed it feels to me like there is too much back and not enough front on it. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. I’ll get back to you on this when I try wearing it a few times and the jury finishes deliberating.

Meanwhile I didn’t get much else accomplished this weekend. I was in Reading Mode, having perused a metric tonne of new-to-me sewing blogs and finished most of a historical-fantasy paperback. I even have a pile of dirty dishes to wash today to prove that I was a layabout. Except for yesterday when we walked downtown to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Excellent – though I feel like I’ve seen that movie somewhere before? But somehow Mikael looks a little bit like James Bond this time. Doesn’t have his moves though. Go figure.

So if you don’t hear too much from me in the next while it’s because my sister is coming on Thursday to visit for a week. We will be spinning, knitting, eating and shopping. She lives in heartbreakingly beautiful but isolated Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands) and goes a little nuts when confronted with a city’s worth of options. Can’t blame her, can you?

Go do something useful, Damselfly!

Defining My Style

2012-01-05T09:15:00.001-08:00

I’m heading out to a Spectrum Study Group meeting today. We’re continuing to sew on our Camel Necklaces. If I ever get it done I’ll be sure to show it off! Meanwhile, the Madder Rose Shrug is still drying on the mats unfinished. But I am wearing my finished Yoke Dress. Show-and-tell to come.

Since I only have a short while to write today, I’m just going to muse on what does and doesn’t constitute my personal style. Such as it is! I’m thinking in descriptive words. First, what I’m drawn to.

Shape:

practical
unstructured
artsy
layers
drape
skim
pleats/tucks
asymmetry

Colour:

black
gray
brown
green
rust
muted
earthy
geometric
botanical

Texture:

plain weaves
ribs
knits
devore/cloque
wool
linen/hemp
rayon/tencel/bamboo
elastic

Then, the things I tend to avoid or that don’t appeal:

bright prints (unless I printed it myself!)
lace
ruffles
full gathered skirts
peplums
jeans
pastels
white
very shiny
glitter/sequins/jewels
too oversized
tightly fitted
elegant/dressy

I have no need for office-appropriate clothing so nobody tells me how to dress except myself. And I’m well past the age of caring what other people think, assuming I ever did. I always joke that after wearing school uniforms for 9 years in my childhood, I’ve been overcompensating in the opposite direction ever since! So it’s down to practicality on one hand and my imagination on the other. That leaves quite a wide space to explore, doesn’t it? Even taking into consideration all those bulleted lists up there.

So reminiscing about my school years inspired me to leave you with a blast from the past. This was me at barely 15 in my Grade 10 photo (circa 1965, my first year of public school) wearing the second dress I ever made for myself.

Aren’t I cute? It’s a sleeveless jumper in a napped cotton twill and I still remember having the devil of a time getting the back zipper in correctly. I had to pick it out twice! Too bad there’s not a better picture available but most of my childhood photos are long gone. (Very long story.) Also note the hairstyle which is somewhat similar to my current one. Except my bangs are shorter now since I like to be able to see! I still have a fondness for turtleneck t-shirts too. Guess some things haven’t changed much, have they?

Blog For All Reasons

2012-01-04T11:17:00.001-08:00

Anybody who has been dabbling here in Damselfly’s Pond for any length of time has, I’m sure, come to realise that I tend to flit around from one project to another. There’s always a knitting project - or several - on the go. Occasional forays into spinning and dyeing, both botanical and synthetic. A little gardening, some blather about family and vacations to visit trees/rocks/water, and a goodly smattering of opinions on everything. (Except maybe religion and politics. My mommy warned me they could be rather contentious subjects.) Lately I’ve been Sewing Obsessed. Kinda. Did you notice?

And it’s starting to really pay off! I’m definitely getting to where I have some control over that biggest of bugaboos: fit. Yay! I feel like it’s been a college education course to learn the skills though. Apparently I have more than the average number of “fitting issues”. But I’m finally figuring out how to compensate and each time I make a garment I’m fine-tuning my basic shapes. Kind of wearable muslins. I now have a basic front, back and sleeve for stretch fabrics that I’m pretty happy with, plus an armhole and sleeve for wovens. My shoulder princess bodice is getting close to perfection but the armhole princess needs a little more work. What I don’t have yet is a basic skirt block which hopefully shouldn’t be too hard to do. And then…pants. Which frightens me quite a lot! I want two types: for wovens and for stretch fabrics. Pants are tricksy at the best of times and I don’t have the best of shapes to fit them on. I’ve got the Pants for Real People book however and as long as my sewing mojo sticks around, I know I’ll get to it. Eventually. Ultimately I’m trying to wean myself away from buying any more commercial patterns. If I have to adjust the fit anyway, I might as well start with something that fits and add the design features to it. Saves money, if not time. And hopefully I get a better result.

Meanwhile, I have one and a half more garments to sew from the two pieces of fabric I cut out awhile back. I’ve already made the Black Banana Skirt and the slinky Sleeveless Tunic, both blogged here. Yesterday I started sewing the Yoke Dress which uses both the black rayon ponte and the black/gray slinky fabric. For inspiration I ~~swiped~~ ~~knocked-off~~ borrowed Style Arc’s Laura Dress:

However, I used my own stretch pattern blocks and drafted my own pattern. The front yoke on their dress is actually a straight line! Who knew? Mine is curved and with a little of the bust fullness eased in. It’s also a little more fitted and has pockets. Not to diss Style Arc but I like my version better. (She says rather smugly.) I should have it finished up today. Then one more garment to go in the black ponte, a cowl-neck tunic with long sleeves. Not bad: 4 garments from just under 5 metres of fabric. Only tiny scraps left. BTW, the Thread Catchers that I made work a treat! The one on the serger catches the cuttings as I sew. No muss; no fuss. I need a tailor’s ham now…

While I’m on the sewing subject, I’ve been reading sewing blogs. Of course! I’ve probably mentioned this before but there are quite a few of the younger ones who are totally enamoured of the “retro” look of the ’40’s, ’50’s and early ’60’s. I don’t know if it’s the Mad Men craze or just a new-found desire to look super-girly as an abrupt change from the ubiquitous jeans and a t-shirt. I hope they don’t harbour any illusions about the limited role of women in those eras. I grew up during the latter part of those decades and I, for one, have no desire to go back there. Which is probably why that is sooooo not my style. But if you have somewhere to go to in a red lace-encrusted wiggle dress and killer heels, then go with my blessings! Just don’t try to run for the bus, ’kay?

What I enjoyed a lot were some good tutorials (for techniques like zipper applications, linings, full bust adjustments), some excellent and occasionally humorous writers and the fact that few patterns fit any body right out of the envelope. Here’s just a few of my favourites in no particular order:

And many more. Check out other people’s blog rolls. You never know when somebody will resonate with you. Or there’s the social sites for sewing folks:

http://artisanssquare.com/sg/index.php (my fave, but I’m rarely there)
http://sewing.patternreview.com/ (especially good for pattern reviews, of course)
http://www.burdastyle.com/ (a younger, cooler international crowd)

And for fabulous drool-worthy garment inspiration, this person shares a lot of my personal taste (but that’s OK if it’s not yours):

http://pinterest.com/karyna/

Thanks to Shams for sharing Karyn’s Pinterest page. BTW, you can still see things even if you aren’t a member of Pinterest. As long as you don’t mind the site’s popup hanging around!

Bottom line, I sew for both recreational and practical reasons. I hate shopping and can’t find what I like in stores that fits me, suits me or that I can afford. If I make it, I get pretty much exactly what I want. Or a near-facsimile. Works for me.

Off to sew.

Production Time

2012-01-03T11:03:00.001-08:00

The Holidays are over! Yay! It was really a lovely time spent with family, catching up with their lives, playing with the little ones and eating far too much good food. Now it’s time to get going and get some serious crafty stuff done before I must begin planting seeds and readying the garden for this summer’s produce. This is always a nice quiet few months for me. The weather is crappy, the days are dark and there’s nothing dragging me out and about. As long as I can avoid catching any bugs (touch wood) I can hang in my studio and play to my heart’s content.

Of course I’ve had an uncontrollable urge to cast on for some new knitting projects. Last week I cast on for plain socks out of the leftovers from the Sucky Baby Mitts:

These will be for my poor daughter-in-law who has holes in her first pair that I knit for her years ago. While trying to learn to knit her own socks, she hasn’t been able to get much past the ribbing. I can do them in my sleep! And it’s nice to have a portable project that is also fairly mindless.

Obviously from the photo I didn’t get far on the socks yet because I, um…got distracted. I couldn’t help myself and cast on for the Hitchhiker Shawlette by Martina Behm with some Regia sock yarn in the Saturn colourway. The colours remind me more of Arches National Park in Utah than the planet. (The pattern was apparently named for the book, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.) Anyway, I loved this pattern when I saw one at my weavers’ guild knit from handspun wool. It was such a cool shape: long and narrow with a single sawtoothed edge. In garter stitch it shows off a variegated yarn to perfection. And we all know I need Yet Another scarf/shawl/shawlette/thingy, don’t we? Of course. Here’s what it’s looking like so far:

It kind of looks like a dragon’s tail, doesn’t it? However, I’m calling it the Hitchhiking To Saturn Shawlette.

For some silly reason I decided to use my Kollage Square cable needles on this project, which are supposed to be 3.5mm but fit in the 3.25mm hole in my needle sizer. I might have reviewed these needles before but I’m going to reiterate that I like the square shape and love the dark bronze colour of the long tips, which are just a smidgen too blunt for my taste but ok for non-lace projects. What I don’t like at all is the cable. It is way too flimsy right where it attaches to the tips. See:

Note the sharp bend on the left there. As the knitting gets heavier, it drags down on the cable and gets harder and harder to slide the stitches smoothly onto the tips. It’s annoying and slows down my knitting speed which already isn’t particularly quick. Apparently it wasn’t just me who was annoyed either because now they have the option of somewhat firmer cables. However that doesn’t help the two sets I already own! This is the needles’ last chance to prove they are functional, at least for some types of projects. If not, I’m donating them elsewhere. They weren’t cheap either. Sigh.

That’s not all the troubles I’ve been having with knitting needles either. One of my new Addi Lace Clik tips has somehow gotten the spring stuck way down inside and now doesn’t hold onto the cable. I’m not sure whether it’s a defect or my fault. Pooh. I’ve contacted the shop where I bought them for options on what to do. I like these needles too! I want to use them. And I’m not particularly hard on things. I still use kitchen appliances that I got as wedding presents over 40 years ago! These needles shouldn’t be so delicate anyhow. They’re tools – not decorations! I’ll let you know what happens when I hear back from the shop. I’m not going to walk there in the dumping rain today to inquire in person.

After I changed over to my regular Addi Lace circular, I finally managed to finish knitting my Madder Rose Shrug that I was working on. It’s currently washed and blocking on the mat. Might take awhile to dry with all the rain we’ve been having. I also found a button that I think might work. I didn’t want to just pin it closed but will leave a small slot in the ribbing seam to accommodate the wooden button. So far I’m quite happy with this sweater. I pinned it on Debbie Double to check and it seems to fit fine – but that was before I blocked it. Only a very little bit of madder dye pinked the wash water too which makes me happy. The handspun wool ended up somewhat streaky but I don’t really mind. It’s handspun, after all, and dyed with madder roots from my garden. I think that’s pretty awesome.

One appliance that didn’t last 40 years is my poor digital camera. I loved this thing that allowed me to take photos so easily. It was a pretty good camera, not top-of-the-line, but with all the functions that I need as an amateur who just needs to document projects and holidays and such. I carried it everywhere as evidenced by all the scratches on its housing. Now nearly 6 years old, my Panasonic Lumix LZ3 has a lens iris that often won’t open all the way and pits and dust inside the lens that can’t be cleaned. Sadly it’s not worth repairing. Technology has moved on.

Luckily we received $15 worth of coupons for Best Buy and they also had the new Panasonic Lumix LS8 that I wanted on sale. Best of all, when I went to get it there was a returned camera that had already been opened for $40 less than the sale price! The final total came to less than 1/3 of the recommended retail price. Guess it does occasionally pay to shop on Boxing Week, huh?

So this new Black Beauty has a better lens as well as much higher resolution and super zoom features. Lots of auto-magicals! It’s taking me awhile to learn all its tricks. Some things are similar to my old guy and some not. So far I’ve only taken the photos you see in this post (except of course for the camera pic!) which have been reduced for web. More experimentation will ensue.

Yes, I buy my own presents. Am I spoiled or what?

Twenty-Twelve

2012-01-01T08:55:00.001-08:00

Just a quick one to wish you and yours all the best in 2012! Thanks for hanging around with me as I muddle through life and craft. Blogs are kind of going out of style in favour of Facebook and Twitter but I’m sticking around. I like this format for working through my projects and expressing my thoughts. This May will be my seventh Blogiversary. Scary, huh? Time flies when you’re having a good time!

So we went to bed at our usual ridiculously early time last night but got woken up at midnight by the clamour. The boats in the harbour were having some kind of game trying to see who could hold their horn the longest. It went on for at least 10 minutes! Neighbours yelled and banged on pots and pans and an amazing amount of firecrackers and fireworks went off. Did they save them all from Halloween? It was awhile before it was quiet enough to get back to sleep.

My dear French-Canadian sis-in-law tells me that she’d never heard of banging pots and pans until she came out to the west coast. I remember doing it as a very small child here. Obviously our traditions are different everywhere! But nearly everyone follows this calendar and celebrates on the same day. What traditions do you find important to bring in the first day of the new year properly? I don’t seem to be a big upholder of any cultural traditions, perhaps because I’m such mish-mash of cultures myself (French/Bohemian/Alsatian by blood but brought up in a Scots/Canadian home). T-Man is English/Scots/Canadian but he also lacks any serious traditions. So we just spend New Year’s Day with family.

Oh, and before I forget – thanks for all the lovely comments on my Minoru Jacket! I wore it out a couple of times in the wind and a sprinkle of rain and it performed to perfection. I was warm and dry and comfortable. Happiness.

Begin as you mean to go on! I’m looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish this year. I’ve already started on my Relegation goal.

Happy New Year!

The Week Between

2011-12-29T11:36:00.001-08:00

To me, this is kind of the breathing space between holiday chaos. T-Man is working at home for 3 days and gets tomorrow off again. We need to go grocery shopping because the cupboards are bare! We’ve been staying as far away from the shops as we can get over the last few weeks but can’t hold out forever. Maybe if we go early enough on Friday morning we’ll avoid the crowds.

Christmas was lovely especially with all the little kids around. Nephew and Niece-in-law hosted the thundering hordes for The Feast and there were lots of willing hands to help. Especially her poor mom (voluntarily assisted by my Québécoise sis-in-law) who did a fantastic job in the kitchen. Their new house has lots of room to spread out and a plethora of toys to amuse the little ones. I’m sure it took them awhile to recuperate afterwards however!

The gift situation has mellowed a lot in the last few years. I flatter myself that I’ve had some influence in concentrating on the children and perhaps one’s immediate family rather than trying to lavish on every single relative. The kids were indulged and everyone seemed happy. Moving right along. It’s Stargazer’s fifth birthday today and I have no idea what he might want that he doesn’t already have. I have a few days’ reprieve before we see them to come up with something. At least his parents have finally started celebrating his birthday when it really is – instead of in June (half-birthday) or in conjunction with his big sister (August). He’s old enough now that he has opinions on it for himself. Happy Birthday, Stargazer!

So what have I been up to – besides holiday indulgences? I finished my jacket!

Minoru Jacket

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For: me

Completed: December 27, 2011

Pattern: Sewaholic 1103 Minoru Jacket

Fabric: 100% polyester water-resistant mini-check, black, 60” wide/2.2M.
Lining: 100% cotton batik, blues, 54” wide/1.5M.
Interfacing: medium-weight fusible, 1M.
Notions: 30” separating zipper, black; 18” zipper, black; 2”-wide elastic, 2M (had about 30” left); polyester sewing thread, black.

Comments: For a change I only needed a couple of simple adjustments to this pattern. I used size 14 but went to a 16 at the waist. I also needed to chop 3” off the sleeve and tapered to a size 10 at the cuff. I used the elastic measurements for a 16 (waist) and 10 (cuff) to match. Otherwise it fits very well although there isn’t a lot of room for layers underneath. Being fully lined, it’s pretty warm by itself and the outer fabric cuts the wind completely.

The instructions were pretty good except for a couple of missing seam allowance numbers (note: typos!) and a few things that could use more detail. I was a little confused about what to do with the top of the zipper tape to make the transition smooth at the corners. Plus I’m pretty sure I didn’t use the right seam allowance for the slightly wonky zipper and the lower hem was more like 3” than the stated 2” before turning down the top fold. It will be interesting to see Tasia’s sewing process step-by-step during her sew-along starting in a couple of weeks.

This was really a lot of sewing! It took 2 sessions to get the pattern traced, 2 sessions to cut out the fabrics and interfacing and 4 sessions to sew it together. A session is anywhere from 3 to 5 hours and is as long as I can work without getting tired and starting to make mistakes. I went slowly and carefully on purpose and the completed jacket looks good but unfortunately not perfect at close inspection. I definitely like how it looks on me though so it was worth all the work. I haven’t been able to find anything comparable in the stores at any price. Total cost: ~$60.

Season’s Greetings!

2011-12-24T15:47:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I know there’s been some backlash against that phrase but at least this way one can cover all the myriad bases. I live in a city that is a complete cultural, religious and ethnic mish-mash. The only way for everyone to get along is to learn tolerance and appreciation of our differences. So many celebrations happen in this time of the year and whether it’s Diwali, Chanukah, Christmas, Yule, Winter Solstice, Saturnalia or Sadeh, they’re mostly based on lighting up the darkness and good triumphing over evil. Works for me.

So I wish you all Peace, Joy and Happiness – whatever you celebrate this season! Big hugs from the denizens of Damselfly’s Pond.

We’re off shortly to a fondue at my brother-in-law’s for Christmas Eve and tomorrow is the Big Turkey-Fest at our nephew’s. And then…peace. At least until New Year’s! Maybe I’ll even get my jacket finished someday soon.

Making Christmas

2011-12-23T12:17:00.001-08:00

OK, it wasn’t actually Christmas but close enough. I spent rather a frantic day yesterday getting ready for our Solstice Dinner at Milady Daughter’s. I made chocolate bark with almonds and craisins, shortbread cookies, a large green salad, and 8 greeting cards, plus wrapped 5 sets of little jammies. I cleaned up the kitchen. Twice. And I managed to get it all done by 4pm. I was going to take photos but ran out of time and light. And energy.

Of course that wasn’t nearly as frantic as Milady Daughter’s day. She somehow managed a yummy turkey dinner with all the trimmings! She rushed home from work at lunchtime just to get the turkey in the oven and rush back to work. Their nanny helped out during the day with some of the housekeeping and prep which was a blessing – along with looking after Rosebud. And I supplied the green salad, cookies and chocolate while Nana supplied the dessert. T-Man supplied the wine and the kids supplied the entertainment.

And they were very entertaining too. Super-Princess really got into the Disney karaoke while her brother learned how to go bowling with the Wii. Super-Princess gave her little cousin Rosebud the gift of a cool jewelled necklace she made for her which was very well received. Presents and cards were exchanged and the Grandbeasties even liked their jammies which they promptly tried on. Perfect fit for all. Yay.

We had such a good time that we didn’t get home until after 11pm which for us is kind of like 1am for most people. Today I have a migraine. Bleh. But it was lovely to spend time with our kids, grandkids and of course, T-Man’s mom. She’s the last of our parents so that was 4 generations together for our Winter Solstice celebration. Now on to the actual Christmas at our nephew’s and then, ummm…we kind of slipped and said we’d host New Year’s Day at our house. Yikes! What were we thinking? Must have been all those Holiday Peace and Love fumes, huh? Don’t think that’s what caused the migraine though.

Welcome Back, Sun!

2011-12-22T09:08:00.001-08:00

I got to see quite a lot of sun yesterday too because it was glorious and clear all day. Forecast has it as a repeat today as well. Lovely!

I was glad it was nice (if a little frosty) since I had to walk up to the dentist for a cleaning yesterday morning. I did my Christmas shopping. Quit laughing, you lot! Yes, I broke down and bought new jammies for the Grandbeasties and their two littlest cousins. I couldn’t help myself. They were cute. And on sale. Now of course I have to wrap them. I also have to bake shortbread, make a salad and 7 greeting cards. Today. Tonight is our Winter Solstice Dinner at Milady Daughter’s.

The best part of yesterday though was the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. This was the first time in years that we’ve been able to go. Either the weather is awful or we’re having our annual dinner on the same day as the festival. We were lucky this time. T-Man and I had a quick supper, dressed warmly and walked down to Leg-In-Boot Square on False Creek, one of a number of meeting points. From there, at 6pm or so the crowd split with some going to the new Creekside Community Centre and the rest parading to Granville Island. We decided to go in the latter direction even though it was farther away from home. Unfortunately we hadn’t built lanterns this time and our old ones were toast so we just stuck T’s bicycle lights on us, T’s on his hat and mine on my purse, and set them to blinking mode. Better than nothing! Next year we’ll probably make elaborate lanterns and it’ll rain or something.

Along with the rest of the crowd, we followed the big lanterns and drummers along the seawall. It was a slow walk – at least for us! Other groups joined in along the way and we finally ended up near Performance Works on Granville Island. Here we were entertained by the Vancouver Morris Men, the Carnival Band and the Vancouver Fire Collective. The latter did a spectacular fire dance on the hill at Ron Basford Park, complete with dancing dragon and a fiery rising sun. It was lovely! It was chilly but we kept ourselves warm with a tot of the brandy we’d wisely brought along.

Both Performance Works and the False Creek Community Centre were open with stories, songs and dances going on inside. But instead of heading indoors when the outside entertainment was done, we headed home satisfied that we’d welcomed the sun back properly. (Besides, 5:30am comes awfully early!) This is my favourite holiday event and I was really glad we could participate this year. Then it was a long dark walk home, especially for me after all the walking I’d already done, but we made it. Walking is warmer and just as quick as waiting for a bus anyhow.

Sorry I didn’t take any photos. First it was dark. Second it was crowded. And third I just wanted to enjoy and not worry about getting good shots. Use your imagination. Or better yet, have your own Winter Solstice celebrations! It really has nothing to do with faith or religion. It’s an actual scientific phenomenon.

Guess I’d better get busy on my chores. Time flies much too quickly. And I would like to get to a little sewing sometime today. But it’ll probably have to wait till tomorrow. I’m at the point where I have to put the lining in my jacket. Exciting!

Year-End Review

2011-12-20T11:20:00.001-08:00

Since it’s nearly Winter Solstice (for us it’s tomorrow night, Dec. 21 at 9:30pm PST) which is my idea of the true end of the year and beginning of the next, I’m going to list what I’ve accomplished this year.

Today I got out my notebook where I record my craft projects.

I spun:

1000 yds of 2/ply worsted weight yarn

I knit:

12 pairs of socks/slippers
2 pairs boot buffers
3 pairs of mitts/gloves
7 scarves/shawls/cowls
6 sweaters
4 baby bibs

I sewed:

1 quilt
2 pillowcases
1 top
2 skirts
3 tunics
2 dresses
2 shorts
1 capri pants
1 baby bunting
2 thread catchers

I dyed:

lots of yarn
wool fleece
1 old blanket
1 t-shirt
1 sweater
1 set of 6 napkins

That’s more than one project per week finished. I also read, cooked, gardened, walked, camped, babysat and of course, cleaned. I’m sure there’s a few more items in there that I haven’t mentioned but that’s good enough for purposes of this review. I’m pretty happy with everything I did. I learned a lot about fitting and sewing which was one of my big goals. And there’s always more to learn. It’s never-ending. Yay!

This was a much better year health-wise than 2010. Of course it wouldn’t have taken much to be an improvement because you might recall that last year was the Year of the Itchy-Peelies! Brrrr….horrors. I don’t want to think about that. I’ve been getting lots of exercise and my immune system seems to have behaved itself pretty well. I only vaguely remember having one cold/flu thing and it really wasn’t bad as these things go. Otherwise I’m feeling pretty fit and well for someone who’s heading into that time of life that has been erroneously labelled “old” – obviously by someone young. I’m not old; I’m just reaching my stride! We’ll discuss “old” in another 20 or 30 years or so, OK?

Oddly nothing momentous happened this year in my family. It was our 40th wedding anniversary in July but T-Man and I celebrated it quietly by ourselves. No births, deaths, marriages, divorces or whatnot. Just a steady progression of life and growth and learning and production. This is good. I didn’t really need another stressful year.

Now 2012 is coming up as a new journal of blank pages. We’ll see what gets written there as we move on into the New Year. I’m looking forward to the next week or so of family feasting and visiting and then the quiet and peaceful creating time of January and February. Moving right along. Have I mentioned that time moves way too fast? It really does. Guess that means I’m having a good time, huh?

My New Year’s Word

2011-12-19T11:02:00.001-08:00

As I’ve said before, I don’t know if my Inspirational Word for the Year really helps me focus or not. Maybe I just pick them because I was already heading in that direction anyway! Regardless of its true efficacy this will be the fifth one I’ve chosen: 2008 was Contentment, 2009 was Harmonize, 2010 was Conserve, and 2011 was Acceptance. I think I did pretty well this year working on accepting things as they are instead of how I wish they would be. One aspect of that has enabled me to get out of the rut I was in and inspired me to to revamp my wardrobe. I sewed some new pieces, rediscovered old ones and enjoyed finding ways to combine them into outfits that please me. Also I’m feeling much less anxious about some things that are out of my control. Life is good.

Hmmm…I guess it really is helpful to have a goal to work towards! So I’ve decided that my word for 2012 will be Relegation. I need to work on sorting, purging, delegating, and generally cleaning up our Stuff. With T-Man planning to retire our lives will definitely change in this upcoming year. We both will benefit from deciding what is important and what needs to be jettisoned. Our house is not large but it has a lot of storage areas. Out of sight; out of mind! After 33 years of occupation, I’m sure there are things that we don’t need to keep any more. Our needs and pursuits have shifted and changed over the decades. It’s time to reassess so we can move forward freer and lighter.

On the other hand, I’m not going to let go of The Multiple Stashes! Those are the materials for many of my future projects. I might sort them out somewhat and perhaps weed out the junk a little but since we’re going to be on short financial rations after retirement I’m going to have to shop from my stashes as much as possible. It’s kind of fun actually. I’ve had some stuff so long I can’t remember where I got it or why. That means it’s now free to become something completely different than my original intention. Whatever that might have been!

In crafty news, it’s Sewing Central around here. I’ve been ignoring the several garments already cut out and ready to sew. Instead I’ve succumbed to the lure of the Minoru Jacket which is all cut out and I’ve started sewing it up. I found when cutting out the pieces that I could have gotten away with less fabric. I had more than half a metre left of the water-resistant polyester outer fabric so I could have gotten away with just over 2m, say 2.1 or 2.2, instead of the 2.7 that I purchased. I might still be able to get a vest or something out of the leftovers though. And the lining turned out to be wider than I thought and the pattern pieces fit closer together so there’s still half of the 3 metres left! Not sure what I’ll make with 1.5m of batik quilting cotton but I’m sure I’ll think of something eventually. That brings the actual cost of the jacket down to less than $60 total.

The sewing is going even better than I’d hoped – the shell fabric holds a press at least long enough to get it stitched and there’s lots of top stitching to hold it down. I was a bit concerned about the one exposed raw seam on the inside of the hood but found that I could use a lighter flame to seal the edges so they don’t fray. The collar’s zipper got a little glue on the separating part to prevent it from coming open. I used Aleene’s Jewel-It which dried clear and seems permanent and is washable. I also shortened the opening slightly so the separating end will be inside the collar and not visible on the outside. I had a little trouble gathering the neckline into the collar because the fabric is a little stiff but finally got it looking pretty good. Hopefully more progress later today. Photos to come.

Unhappily my crafting has been going more slowly than I’d like. I’ve been having some stiffness and pain in my right hand middle finger. Probably our old friend, Arthur Itis. I’m trying not to knit (hah!) and to baby it a bit and it seems to be improving. You sure don’t know how much you actually use a finger until it hurts! I was having trouble pouring tea from the pot until I switched to holding it with my left hand. And we won’t even discuss how hard it was to clean the bathroom yesterday. Apparently squeezing out a sponge is a big no-no. Sheesh. At least it’s pretty much ok when sewing. Also unfortunately there’s my left shoulder which has been bugging me for a couple of months on and off but it seems to be improving as well. I don’t think that is caused by knitting but more by the way I sleep. And of course the degenerative disc disease in my neck that’s been plaguing me for over 10 years now. I’m trying to work on my posture and exercises.

Which reminds me – it’s my turn for the elliptical trainer relay game that T-Man and I have been playing. It seems to be working to keep us motivated. Off to listen to a podcast and run away to nowhere…

Gift Given

2011-12-16T10:18:00.001-08:00

The weavers’ guild Christmas party went really well and was a lot of fun. I got to knit for awhile at the executive meeting and then spent an hour or so working (not hard - mostly yakking) in the library. We library people got upstairs just in time to put out our potluck finger food and join the circle of chairs. I brought celery stuffed with Herbie fresh cheese (from Little Qualicum Cheese) just to be sure there would be something that was veggie. As opposed to all the tiny quiches and crackers with spreads, not to mention the many sweets! As usual the grapes were swimming in the cantaloupe juice on the fruit plate so I couldn’t have any. (I’m allergic to melons.) I indulged a little in the carb-loaded goodies but I really should be more careful. I’m starting to put on a little fluff again after being stable for a number of years. I think it’s mostly because I’m not paying as much attention and eating more of the things that I should avoid. It’s not like I’m not getting enough exercise!

So anyway, now I can show off my gift for the exchange.

Leafy Necktie

For: gift exchange

Begun: December 10, 2011

Completed: December 12, 2011

Yarn: handspun 3-ply sport weight wool, hand-painted colourway “Fall Leaves”.

Needles: Addi Lace Clik, 4mm tips, 16” cord.

Pattern: Posh Neck Scarf by Classic Elite Yarns, free pattern. Ravelry link; pattern link.

Comments: I wanted to use up this handspun 3-ply which has been lurking in the stash for so long I don’t remember making it! This was the perfect pattern but it only used up half the yarn. Perhaps I need to make another one. It’s a very quick knit. I needed a fast gift for my weavers’ guild Christmas Exchange.

I made the buttonhole larger because I was afraid the end wouldn’t fit through but think I could have left it as a 2-st buttonhole. Why do the instructions include a button? It’s not illustrated with a button. I think it’s also a bit long if you want a tight loop around your neck. The centre rib part could be shortened by a couple of inches. Someone on Ravelry suggested beginning at the narrow part just above the leaf so that the join isn’t at the back of the neck. I didn’t find that it showed very much at all, but that could be because of the variegations in the hand-painted handspun.

My scarf was won by Anita. I hope she enjoys it! She’s a handspinner and knitter too so I know she will appreciate the work. In turn, from Solveig I got a nice blank card (with handwoven fabric and buttons), a small soap and a pair of little balls made from Japanese chirimen fabrics as a decoration. She didn’t make any of these herself though. Sorry it’s too dark to take a photo. Is it just me or does everyone have a hard time actually using those nice art cards? For one thing, I so rarely send anything in the mail these days. Even birthday greetings to my siblings are emails. Yeah, I know. Bad Damselfly.

Speaking of which, I guess I need to go wash the two days’ worth of dishes that are piled all over my kitchen. I’ve been avoiding the housekeeping and being lazy instead. Only when the kitchen is clean will I allow myself to head up to my studio where my Minoru Jacket is waiting ready to be cut out. (So exciting.) Sometimes you just have to be firm with yourself, don’t you?

Obligatory Seasonal Complaint

2011-12-14T11:46:00.001-08:00

So how’s it going with you? Are you fed up with the holiday prep yet? Are you anxious and stressed? Or serene in the knowledge that you’ve got it licked this year. As you might know if you’ve been reading here for awhile that I am Mrs. Damselfly Scrooge and I bah-humbug all over Christmas. Not really, but I just can’t deal with the hype and the inflated expectations so I just ignore as much of it as possible. Although I was brought up Catholic, I haven’t believed in religion of any denomination since I was 13. (I won’t go into why because I know I’ll offend someone.) So the “real” meaning of Christmas is lost on me and all I can see are the huge overwhelming sales pitches and the unrealistic expectations. Bleh.

This year though it all seems a little subdued in some ways. The free biweekly newspaper still comes with pounds of flyers but I’m not seeing as much over-the-top decorating and in-your-face marketing going on in the shops. Even the seasonally-appropriate music isn’t nearly as annoying as usual. And most actually waited until well into November before ramping it up. Even folks putting up the lights in my neighbourhood seemed to happen later this year. Of course I just might not be noticing these things since I’m making a concerted effort to stay away from shopping malls! Either that or I’ve finally developed a more serene attitude.

OK, Yearly Rant Against the Inevitable over. On to the latest Finished Object.

Sucky Baby Mitts

For: Rosebud (1 year old)

Begun: December 2, 2011
Completed: December 12, 2011

Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett, colourway 4455 (ember), dyelot 32636. 210m = 50g. Used about 15g.

Needles: Clover Takumi dpns, 2mm.

Pattern: My own, created on the fly. See my Ravelry page for pattern instructions.

Comments: These are so cute! I had a special request for mitts to keep Rosebud’s hands warm on winter walks in the stroller. She still sucks her thumb so I thought a fingerless version would work best. Since I couldn’t find a pattern that I liked, I just made these up as I went. I didn’t like the thumb treatment at first thinking it was too tight so I pulled it out to fix it. Now the thumb openings are more similar to my favourite Jacoby Mitts. The high ribbed tops can keep her hands warm but still be folded down for finger access.

So far these haven’t been put to the baby test! They also need her auntie’s mitten clips to secure them to her person. However, if they work out OK I may be making more pairs. At least they’re quick now that I have a pattern.

So why do you think she might need sucky mitts?

I can’t talk – I sucked my thumb until I was 12.

I’ll post the second FO sometime after I gift it tomorrow. Which reminds me - I need to package it up still. I’ve also been plugging away on my Madder Rose Shrug. It’s the only knitting going right now so unless I cast on for something new, this is it! At least I’ve gotten into the body and established the rib pattern. It needs a marker to distinguish the centre stitch turning point and then it’s pretty mindless.

In sewing news, I’m ready to cut out the Minoru Jacket. I spent awhile tracing off the pattern first. It was refreshing to need so few adjustments but I don’t like to cut up the original pattern sheets. The Sewaholic patterns come in sizes 0-16 with all sizes on each pattern piece. That makes for a lot of lines to follow for your size. Plus the print is quite light and the lines are fine so it was easier to trace off my size, including my waist-widening and sleeve-shortening, onto fresh tissue. I could mark the seam allowances and check the measurements while I was at it. I also traced a pattern for the inseam pockets that I want to add.

In tracing off the pattern I was even more impressed with Tasia’s pattern-making skills. The reason why the lining pieces are printed separately is because they are not exactly the same as the main pieces. The lining has a little more width and the armholes are cut a little higher to prevent the outside from puckering. Elegant. The instruction sheet is pretty succinct but the illustrations seem clear. If anyone feels nervous about sewing this garment up, Tasia will be having a sew-a-long in the New Year. Her sew-a-longs are really well illustrated and she takes you through everything step-by-step. I’m not going to wait though. I want this jacket asap. I think I can handle it on my own. Heh.

Unfortunately my Minoru (which I immediately recognised as named after a park in Richmond, BC, and yes, I’ve been there!) is going to have to wait until later. I have to go get my hair cut and fetch some groceries first.

Sorry. I’ve Been Busy

2011-12-12T11:27:00.001-08:00

When last I posted, I was preparing parts for a camel necklace. Unfortunately it’s still mostly just parts! My Spectrum Study Group had a delightful meeting last Thursday at the fabu West Van seaside apartment of one of our members but we didn’t really accomplish much sewing. I got 3 of the 14 tassels sewn on and that’s it. Since I’m not likely to get back to it until the New Year when we plan to work on our necklaces at our next meeting, I’m not showing anything off just yet anyhow.

Moving right along. I was fantasizing that I’d use the camel necklace for the weavers’ guild gift exchange on Thursday but no way, José! It has eaten way too much of my time and effort to casually give it away to a random recipient. Instead I had to come up with another alternative which I’m struggling to complete in time. Unfortunately I’m not blogging it until after the meeting. Some guild members read my blog! Don’t worry. It’s good. You’ll like it. <waving hello!>

So what can I talk about? On Friday after T-Man finished work we walked all the way downtown to Dressew to find fabric for this pattern:

Yes, that’s local designer Sewaholic’s latest pattern, the Minoru Jacket. So cute! And I don’t have to do much adjustment to it because size 14 nearly fits me! Amazing. I merely widened the waist out a tiny bit to the size 16, shortened 3” off the sleeves and narrowed the cuff to the size 10. Yes, I have short arms and skinny wrists. Yes, these sleeves are very long. They are still long on me even after shortening them but no longer practically dragging on the ground. Oh and I’ve drafted some inseam pockets too. (The inside breast pockets are great but I need to be able to put my hands in!) If that sounds like a lot of adjusting to you, know that this is totally minimal in comparison to what I have to do to The Big 4 patterns. Tasia is a genius. (But she could have added the pockets for me. Just sayin’.)

BTW, I forgot to mention that I bought the pattern at the cute little Spool of Thread sewing lounge. Co-owner Lily told me that Tasia had brought the patterns in personally while wearing her spiffy orange version of the Minoru. How cool is that! She also told me that my favourite shop for outdoor fabrics, Outdoor Innovations, was moving – away from my ’hood at 17th and Main and nearer to them at 1005 Kingsway at Windsor. Since the shop was right in the midst of the move and I wasn’t sure yet exactly where it had relocated, that killed my plans to buy fabric for my jacket right away that very day.

Instead I waited for the opportunity to see what Dressew had to offer. The advantage was that I could get the zippers, interfacing, elastic and lining all at the same time there. And Dressew has the best selection of zips, but even so I couldn’t find a match for the separating zipper in a non-separating style for the collar (where the hood hides inside). I ended up with a separating one which I hope to be able to convert. As for the fabrics, I got these:

That’s a water-resistant (I tested it!) polyester fabric in black with a tiny black-on-black check, which should be ok even though the pattern isn’t recommended for plaids or stripes. Yes, it’s kind of crinkled. It came that way! It’s a permanent effect. At least I’ll never have to worry about scrunching up and wrinkling my jacket. Heh. The batik cotton lining looks so much like something I could have made myself but I know it’s very likely not dyed in the real indigo I would have used. Nice though. It was twice what the outer fabric cost – plus it’s narrower and more yardage is needed! Oh well. I love it and that’s the main thing. This is going to be a great wearable rain-repellent jacket that fits me properly for under $100. Works for me. At the same time I also got a few metres of a soft charcoal jersey knit. I couldn’t resist. It’ll be some kind of t-shirt top thingy. Or two. Charcoal gray seems to be My Colour of late. Am I trying to blend into the perpetual twilight around here?

Speaking of twilight, while we were walking home over the Cambie Bridge there was such a fabulous full moon that everyone was stopping to take pictures. I only had my iTouch which isn’t great for dim lighting but Hipstamatic always makes things look cool anyway:

Too fun. And yes, it’s a long way home uphill. Carrying fabrics, tea and coffee from Murchies, and a few groceries as well.

On Saturday we went to the Winter Farmer’s Market and got a few yummies like Herbie fresh cheese, monster-sized eggs and a mixed variety of mushrooms. Then we went to Cob’s bakery and got some of their high-fibre breads. So good! Yesterday we spent several hours babysitting the bigger Grandbeasties while their parents went to a Christmas musical. We took them to the little local park where it was sunny but cold. Even so, Stargazer insisted on taking off his shoes and socks so he could climb up the slide with his “sticky feet”. Of course his big sister had to try it too but it didn’t take long before she decided that it was indeed too cold to run around in bare feet in December! He was harder to convince. Took even longer to get him to put his coat back on too. After we got home he was finally admitting to being chilled. Hope he doesn’t catch anything because of it. We were trying to make a point with the nearly-five-year-old that maybe warm clothing is a good idea. Silly grandparents, aren’t we?

So I still have the second Sucky Baby Mitt to finish. I’m a bit concerned that the thumb isn’t wide enough though I haven’t seen Rosebud to test it out yet. And the Madder Rose Shrug isn’t much bigger than you saw the last time. Good thing I’m not trying to keep up on the Holiday Hamster Wheel of ~~Doom~~ Joy that everyone else seems to be on. But where does the time go anyway? Insert picture of hourglass with sand running here…

Naughty Knotty

2011-12-07T14:48:00.001-08:00

I plugged away diligently yesterday and finally finished these:

Dark o’the Moon Gloves

For: me

Begun: October 19, 2011

Completed: December 6, 2011

Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL, colourway 325, dyelot 19214, dark blues/purples, 420m = 100g. Used about 50g, leftovers from Dark o’the Moon Kneesocks.

Needles: Blackthorn carbon fibre dpns, 2mm

Pattern: Knotty Gloves by Julia Mueller. Free pattern on Ravelry.

Modifications: I used smaller needles than the pattern called for to make small enough gloves for my little hands. I also made the wrist ribbing ½” longer than the pattern.

Comments: The pinky finger needs to be ¼” lower than the other fingers to fit properly on me. I knit it shorter to compensate but the gusset doesn’t touch the web between my fingers. Otherwise, these are very nice gloves. A lot fiddly to knit – but then gloves always are. The dark yarn, dark needles and dark days didn’t help!

It helped a lot to work on both gloves alternately. I knit a finger and tried it on until it was nearly at the tip of my finger, then knit the other to match before doing the tip decreases and finishing them both off.

Black needles, dark yarn, fiddly pattern, winter’s lack of light, old eyes – not a great mix! I’m rather stubborn however. Especially when my hands are cold.

Now I’m working on the Sucky Baby Mitts for Rosebud. They’re currently a little farther along than this:

I’m making these up as I go so I’m recording the pattern on its Ravelry page – a little at a time as I finish a section. The pattern won’t be complete until the mitts are!

What else? Oh yeah, I couldn’t resist casting on something not so teeny and a lot more mindless:

The pattern is the Shawl Collar Vest by Amanda Berka in handspun yarn from wool dyed in my home-grown madder. Since I only harvest it about every 3rd year, it’s pretty precious stuff! I have 4 balls that don’t quite match in colour so I’m using the redder ones for the collar and bottom ribs and the slightly lighter orange ones for the body. Hopefully that will look deliberate or better yet, unnoticeable. Also I hope I have enough yarn because when this is gone, there ain’t no more!

This yarn is somewhat thinner than the aran weight the pattern calls for – even lighter than worsted but I’m using the same 5mm needle size with it. The fabric is lighter but it seems to have enough body to hold its shape in the ribs. I’m knitting the largest size (40) to hopefully compensate for the not-quite-accurate gauge. Although I don’t think this shrug style needs to fit exactly anyway. This is the first project on my new Addi Lace Cliks and I like them a lot! Very smooth, exactly the right pointy-ness for me, and stable joins that don’t pop apart or catch on anything. Happiness.

I’m off to play with my Spectrum Study Group tomorrow. We’re making camel necklaces. I need to make 14 small tassels and locate some coordinating beads in the stash and I’m procrastinating…

Catching Up With December

2011-12-05T12:28:00.001-08:00

Well we had a lovely time with Rosebud on her First Birthday – in spite of missing her nap plus the four nasty immunisation pricks she got at the doctor’s and feeling rather grumpy as a result. Rosebud’s grumpy is most babies’ normal! She’s usually incredibly easygoing. Her birthday party on Saturday also went very well and she had a great time showing off her new crawling skillz while playing with her cousins. Her other grandparents made it over from Victoria so we made sure to let them have lots of time with the Birthday Girl. We live much closer and get our baby fix often so were quite willing to share. It was nice to see family and friends and to finally meet Rosebud’s new nanny now that Milady Daughter has returned to work. Good to know our littlest grandbeastie is in capable hands. And no, I didn’t take any photos. T-Man did but hasn’t shared them with me. It’s hard to get good pics in a milling group of bodies. I’m much better at photographing inanimate objects or scenery. People are difficult.

We also managed to fit lots of walking in this past weekend. Here’s a few photos from Saturday’s walk down to False Creek. I got a few new lenses and film for the Hipstamatic app on my iTouch so I thought I’d play with it! It somehow makes the ordinary look fantastic.

Sleeping mallards.

A view of Cambie Bridge from Habitat Island. We’ve nicknamed 3-Million Dollar Island because that’s apparently what it cost to put it in. It’s only a couple of years old now and people have only recently been able to access it. Birds and fish are liking it a lot so far though.

Bird houses on a snag tree, Habitat Island.
Unfortunately couldn’t catch the seagull on the top in the fog!

Snowberries in profusion.

The weather was chilly but sunny so we took full advantage. Also avoiding any yard work while we were at it! Well, most of it anyhow. We did put the water garden into the greenhouse and moved the barbeque up to the top deck in its place. Now T can grill while mostly remaining out of the weather. I wonder why my poor shoulder has been sore lately? Does lugging toddlers and other heavy items around have anything to do with it? Anyway, we enjoyed some barbequed honey-garlic pork ribs that we picked up at Granville Island for dinner last night. Yummy.

I’m still knitting fingers on my Dark o’the Moon Gloves but I also slipped up and cast-on for a pair of mitts for Rosebud. It was a special request from her mom so her hands won’t get so cold on walks in the stroller. I decided to make them thumbless so she can suck her thumb (important!) but still tuck thumbs in if necessary. Also the tops will be open and ribbed long enough to cover her fingers but can be folded down if she needs her fingers. I’m really not at all sure if she’ll be content to wear them but we’re experimenting here. Since they’re pretty teeny and fast to knit it’s not a big deal if they don’t work out.

As soon as I’m done the Sucky Mitts I’ll be looking to cast on a new and hopefully more mindless pattern. I haven’t wanted to start anything for the last while in case it distracted me too much from the gloves. It’s been hard to finish them because I can only knit on them for short spurts in broad daylight. I really want to get them done asap now since my last pair are looking rather ratty and I need some replacements. Baby, it’s cold outside! Frost in December. And more than one day in a row of sunshine! Who’d a-thunk it?

Same But Different

2011-12-02T10:27:00.001-08:00

I liked my thread catcher so much that I made another slightly smaller one:

Thread Catcher Too

For: my studio

Date: December 1, 2011

Materials, Notions and Pattern: Same as Thread Catcher

Mods: The bag and lining pieces were cut 11” x 8”. The fabric for the flat piece was slightly smaller than the original because I used a bit of black muslin that I had sampled on with Shiva Paintsticks.

Comments: This one sits right at my sewing machine.

It already has threads in it!

It’s the littlest grandbeastie’s First Birthday today! Yay! Unfortunately today includes getting some immunization shots at the doctor’s. Poor baby. However we get to babysit while her parents go out to a party this evening. Her own party is tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Rosebud!

Quick Sewing FO

2011-11-30T11:35:00.001-08:00

Just a short post (well, shorter than usual anyway) to show off my latest project.

Thread Catcher

For: my studio

Date: November 29, 2011

Materials: cotton muslin, sample pieces shibori-dyed in alizarin with rust from bulldog clips; lining – vintage heavyweight cotton, black; non-woven fusible interfacing.

Notions: Nylon webbing, black (recycled from an old backpack), Gutermann polyester sewing thread, black; nylon string-trimmer cord.

Pattern: Pincushion Thread Catcher from Kathy Beymer, free tutorial here.

Modifications: I didn’t stuff the pincushion but interfaced with stiff fusible interfacing and topstitched the edges. I used recycled nylon webbing for the straps. The bag was pretty much as instructed but I used string-trimmer cord for the boning. I also stitched a decorative band around the top edge of the bag.

Comments: The decorative band was a little sloppy! I ran out of bobbin thread while stitching and backtacking with the black thread on the muslin showed more than I would have liked. Oh well. It’s functional anyhow and a nice reminder that my machine does have some interesting stitches that I never use.

The reason that I didn’t stuff the pincushion was so that it remained flat to fit underneath my serger which sits on an old mouse pad to keep down the vibrations and noise. I tucked it underneath the mouse pad in the exact spot to catch the strips from the cutters.

Now I want to make another smaller one for the sewing machine!

This is all part of my ongoing efforts to make my sewing experiences more comfortable and convenient. I’ve already noticed a big difference since I put a hook on the side of the sewing table right beside the sewing machine for the small scissors. Now I can access them easily and not lose them among the debris or have them get knocked on the floor with the risk of damaging either me, the floor or the scissors themselves. I don’t like them actually attached to me which might have been another option. I’ve tried wearing them around my neck but they seem to get in the way too much. And any connecting string or elastic or whatever just annoys me when I go to cut something.

Yesterday I also pinned up my press cloths to the wall near the ironing board using bulldog clips and pushpins. I have a teflon sheet, a square of silk organza, and an old baby diaper left over from when my kids were small. However judging by this article from Threads, I could probably stand to make a few more options!

Another project I want to get to eventually is a pressing ham. I have the sawdust – thanks to T-Man’s woodturning! And of course the appropriate fabrics are somewhere in the stash boxes. I just have to do it. Eventually.

But right now I have to go wash a mountain of dishes that has accumulated because I actually forgot to do them yesterday. I managed to get carried away looking at the clothes on the Navabi website. Go here and select your country, unless you can read German. I clicked the Canadian one just to see the prices. And then go to the Lagenlook Boutique. These clothes are very much my style though I guess not in my budget. Or probably not even in my size since I’m at the lowest end of their size scale and a lot of the garments are made in one or at most 2 general sizes. However, I can ~~steal~~ ~~knock-off~~ borrow the ideas with abandon now that I have some basic patterns to work with that really do fit me. The photos have a zoom feature that allows me to see sewing details in most of the garments – except the really black-black ones! The style photos on the model are a bit annoying though when they cover up the top I’m trying to view with another top, a handbag and the model’s hair. Don’t you agree that she should really get a more stylin’ haircut and funkier shoes so she looks like someone who actually wears these clothes? Or is it just me? The story of this company is interesting though. It’s here.

Japanese Indigo Seeds Success

2011-11-28T12:10:00.001-08:00

If you’ve been reading along, you’ll recall that my first experience this year growing Japanese indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) was really successful. I also had really good results extracting and using the dye. I got several harvests during the season and could probably have gotten one more but unfortunately I was away on holiday and then didn’t have time when I got home in October. I used a very similar technique to the way I do woad - going from picking all the way through to dyeing in one continuous session. A couple of my friends came over to help each time and we dyed a variety of items and got good blues, though most of them past the first dip were fairly light, much like my usual results with woad. The continuous session vat is not very concentrated. But very pretty anyway!

Japanese indigo is obviously easy to grow and easy to use but the most worrisome thing for me was producing my own seeds for next year. The plants started to bloom in early September but the weather was getting cooler. In October we had a few light frosts so I picked a couple of stems that were well along in bloom and put them in a vase in a sunny window inside. They did well and even started rooting in the water. So later I picked a larger bouquet and added them to the collection.

Yesterday I noticed that there were some mature seeds but also some of the flower stems were getting an infestation of aphids and the leaves were turning blue and drying out. They had to go so I chopped the flower stems off:

Some were starting to dry out but some were still very immature. I spent quite a lot of time carefully popping out the hard seeds from the flower heads between my fingernails:

Some stems had quite a lot and some very few or none at all. As I sadly suspected! The shiny dark brown mature seeds are 3-sided and about as large as a sesame seed:

I didn’t find very many in total but I'm pretty sure I have enough for next year. Perhaps a teaspoon’s worth:

I didn’t bother to clean the chaff off them all but no matter. I also have some seeds left from the ones I got by mail last February from a fellow enthusiast in Virginia. Even if germination is poor the second year I feel like they will be a fall-back if mine aren't good enough.

I was really glad that I'd brought some flower stems indoors when I did. My poor plants are now just a pile of bluish goo after we got an inch of snow last week!

Poor things. In contrast the woad right next to them survived just fine! Next spring I plan to try a few Japanese indigo plants in my greenhouse along with the tomatoes to see if that protects them better on their way to seed. It's quite amazing to me how long it takes for the flower heads to mature – 3 months. I guess it was just too cold for them to grow quickly. I heard about one person who kept running out each evening to put sheets over her crop and then removing the sheets each morning after it warmed up some. I could also try that I suppose although my dye patch is out along the boulevard where people walk by with their dogs so sheets might be rather vulnerable to tampering or destruction. We also had quite a few really strong winds this fall so they would have had to be very well secured. It is another option to consider though. Hey! I have a portable cold frame I could have used but never thought of it until just now. Next time.

It was a near thing but I’m happy to have at least a few home-grown seeds from my first crop of Japanese indigo. It’s a lovely dye and worth the space in my little dye garden. The next chapter of this story will resume in the spring.

Meanwhile I also have a Finished Object to share:

Autumn Gauntlets

For: me

Begun: November 20, 2011
Completed: November 25, 2011

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks Stripes, colourway 1009 (oranges, browns, gray, black), 166 yds = 50g. About 1 ball out of the 6 that I purchased at Michael’s on sale.

Needles: Clover Takumi bamboo dpns, 2.25mm

Pattern: Jacoby from the Berroco Design Team, Ravelry link here, free pattern here.

Modifications: I used the same cast-on as the kneehighs: cast-on, k 2 rows plain, change to 2/2 rib for the remainder of the cuff. I also made the cuff slightly longer. Otherwise, as she wrote.

Comments: A quick and easy but very useful fingerless mitt pattern. I didn’t try to match the stripes and went for a staggered effect just as with the knee socks. It took the rest of the 3rd and 4th balls of yarn left from the socks with very little left over. I still have 2 more balls of this yarn. Maybe a hat?

In other crafty news, the Dark o’the Moon gloves (using the Knotty Gloves pattern by Julia Mueller) are coming along. Still slowly but growing. I’ve decided that I need to pull out my poor sad Oatmeal Jacket because it just doesn’t fit properly. I think I’ll try to re-jig the pattern again and start over. I still can’t guarantee this will end up a wearable sweater but I’m nothing if not persistent. At least most of the time.

I have more sewing to get to as well. I don’t mind taking my time and hopefully doing things right, rather than whip something up quickly that either doesn’t fit properly or doesn’t hold up over time. I’m still exploring my new/old style, a different way of putting things together, more deliberate and less expedient. It does mean that I have to change more often! One outfit to go out walking. Another to rake leaves in. Light and comfy for my 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer. More layers when it gets cold in my house. However it’s much better than the old yoga pants and a t-shirt which was my usual uniform for the last few years. More me. Besides, the yoga pants are wearing out and NOTHING FITS ME in the stores. I’m obviously not the manufacturers’ “target audience”. (Who really is?) So I’m my own personal bespoke tailor instead. Take that, Ready-To-Wear!

Clothing Revamp

2011-11-26T17:17:00.001-08:00

I dove into my clothing drawers the other day, clearing out the no-longer-wearable and sorting and refolding the leftovers. I even vacuumed out the dust and waxed the runners under the drawers. Now they open so easily that I nearly yanked a drawer out onto my feet! Have I mentioned that our dresser and bureau are old, the former 1950’s vintage and the latter an actual antique from the turn of the last century. We also keep some items in a trunk that once served as the boot of an early jalopy. T-Man’s mom gave it to us when we married to be revamped with paint and upholstery and it’s been part of our bedroom furniture ever since. Even the closet wasn’t immune from the sorting and dusting process, though we haven’t tackled the stash that’s upstairs in my study’s big closet yet. That’s where we keep the seasonal stuff that rotates down to our bedroom and back and also the costumes and other garments that we just can’t part with but rarely (or never!) wear. I’m saving that area for another time.

Anyway, in the process I came across 2 cotton jersey cardigans, one blue and one black, that I’ve had for several years. I realised that I couldn’t wear them because the front plackets were all skewed:

Can you see how rippled the fronts are? How about unbuttoned:

It’s doing a funky wave! I discovered that the reason is simple: the cotton jersey shrank in the wash but the stiff grosgrain ribbon that binds the inside seams of the plackets didn’t. So I picked them off, discovering that they weren’t even necessarily the same length!

Then I re-pinned them back in without stretching and there was at least an inch left over:

(I did the black one first.) After re-stitching the ribbons in properly the fronts lay much flatter and smoother:

And now they are both wearable again:

No more skewing and twisting and bubbling. Yay! The fix wasn’t hard at all, just a little time-consuming. A good lesson in pre-washing fabrics before sewing them too. I wish manufacturers would do that but of course that would be cost-prohibitive. They’re supposed to plan for shrinkage when drafting the patterns but of course it doesn’t always work out correctly. Especially when I have a tendency to machine wash warm and dry hot.

So there were quite a few things that ended up either in the salvage pile or in the garbage. More of the latter, especially from T’s drawers! They hadn’t been sorted in quite a few years and there were shirts with frayed collars, jeans and sweaters with holes, dress pants that no longer fit and t-shirts with faded and pilled neckbands. Lots of garments that hadn’t been worn in so long they were seriously dusty! Now I can happily get his jeans in their drawer without a fight. I saved a bunch of t-shirts to be cut up and snipped the buttons off the garbage shirts. And I even inherited a nice long-sleeved polo shirt that neither of us can remember where it came from and could never have fit him properly. However it fits me fine except the sleeves need to be turned up. That’s normal for any ready-to-wear because my arms are 2” shorter than most people’s anyhow. The buttons do up the guys’ way, but who cares? Score.

Now we know where the gaps are in our wardrobes and what we don’t need to buy again until something wears out. He needs more long-sleeved sport shirts and perhaps a pair of twill pants. I need a few more skirts, tunics and dresses – which I’m working on sewing! I do not need any short-sleeved t-shirts or leggings. Neither of us need any new handknit socks right now either. Might not stop me from making more though. Heh.

I kind of wish the Urge To Purge would hit me more often. Truth to tell, it’s much harder to get T-Man to join in and I won’t touch his stuff by myself. Absolutely verboten. And of course it’s only fair. I’d certainly hate it if he tried throwing out anything of mine! (As if he’d live to tell the tale.) Just one of our Rules for a Happy Marriage.

Attitude Of Gratitude

2011-11-22T11:45:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I know it’s not Thanksgiving (at least here in Canada – we already had that in October) but today I am truly grateful. I’m very thankful for a warm dry house with electric power and running hot water. Last night we had a huge wind and rain storm that took out trees and power lines all over the place. T-Man and I woke up around 3:30am to a crashing sound. We still haven’t located the source though it sounded like a tree branch. At least it didn’t damage anything that I can see. I’m also grateful that T has an alternative to riding his bike on the littered roads without functioning streetlights and can instead drive the car to work. Most of all, I’m glad I didn’t have to go anywhere this morning. Traffic out there is a zoo.

Storm over. Moving on. A Finished Object!

Autumn Kneehighs

For: me (Yes, the photo is out of focus. You try taking a picture of your own feet and legs in the kind of low light we get this time of year! At least they’re finally dry. Took 2 days.)

Begun: October 27, 2011
Completed: November 20, 2011

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks Stripes, colourway 1009 (oranges, browns, gray, black), 166 yds = 50g. About 2.7 balls out of the 6 that I purchased at Michael’s on sale.

Needles: Clover Takumi dpns, 2.25mm

Pattern: 110-31 Long socks in ”Fabel” with foot in rib or stockinette st, free pattern from DROPS Design. Ravelry link, DROPS link (the one on the Ravelry page is incorrect).

Modifications: I knit the middle of the 3 sizes with these mods: CO 80, follow patt until piece meas 9” before dec to 64 sts (k2, SSP, p1 around), k2/p2 6” to a total leg length of 15”, heel st on 26sts, regular heel turn, pick up 14 sts on heel flap, cont on 38 instep sts in rib and rest in st st, dec gussets to 22 sole sts (60 sts total), cont until foot is 7”, divide into 30 sts for top and 30 for sole and knit a reg toe, graft toe.

Comments: I didn’t try to match the stripes and went for a staggered effect. So why do most knee sock patterns have you make a leg only about 12” long? I’m only 5’3-1/2” and I still need 15” from knee to heel flap or they’re always falling down. I also have pretty skinny legs (at least from the knee down!) and used smaller needles than the pattern called for. These fit just exactly right.

Next I need to mention the eMag from Interweave that I downloaded a few days ago. This is the Winter 2011 issue of SpinKnit. (Link is for the PC version but there’s also one for Mac so don’t feel left out.) As the third issue in this series, I think this is a great way to present spinning information. Including videos is the best way to demonstrate techniques that you just can’t get across in words. Unfortunately the “knit” part of the equation gets kind of short shrift with only a few patterns in PDF format. However, there are lots of other avenues to get knitting patterns whereas spinning info is rather more limited.

This issue does include the delightful Sara Lamb dye-painting her lace-knit shawl. (Pattern included.) I’ve done this type of thing before and it takes supreme guts to dab dye all over your knitting that may have taken months to accomplish. The results are really interesting though and an effect that you can’t get any other way. Hope it inspires a few projects! One day I’d like to try this with natural dyes. I’ve already done it on a silk scarf but not on my knitting. Yet.

I think it’s lovely when your hard-earned expertise is validated by a well-known instructor with real skills. That’s how I felt when Stephanie Gausted spun a number of different fibres besides cotton on a tahkli exactly the way I do it! She didn’t spin cashmere though which I’ve done. <smirk>

And then there’s the story of the Imperial Stock Ranch in Oregon and the development of the Columbia Sheep. We’ve been both north and south of the 30,000-acre ranch on our travels but not in the exact area. However, the Deschutes River is the one we camped above at Cove Palisades State Park on our way home last time. And note the view of Mt. Hood behind Dan Carver in his interview. We drove right by this volcano! I feel like I’ve definitely experienced the land that this family loves and cares for. I’ve spun Columbia fleece too and it’s lovely stuff.

Another theme in this issue is silk and I loved watching the silk worker in China reeling the silk with a funky old foot-powered machine. Contrast the way the industrial machine works and the homemade setup of Michael Cook’s system and they all accomplish the same end: beautiful reeled silk yarns. There’s a lovely little tabletwoven band pattern included to make from some fine silk.

SpinKnit and Colorways are definitely my two favourites of Interweave’s eMags and I know I’m going to continue to get them because I get a lot of satisfaction from the interactive contents. Even if I do have to install them on my big desktop computer instead of my little netbook! The eMags are in a different (more common) screen ratio and it’s just too much scrolling to be comfortable. Besides, Bluet the Netbook’s sound quality isn’t great and I have to use earphones to hear anything. It’s much nicer to watch the big screen and listen to the big speakers. Less portable perhaps but I’m not complaining. I’m just lucky to have options. Attitude of gratitude again!

Just Had To Share

2011-11-21T08:37:00.001-08:00

I’ve always been known by my family and friends as having a warped sense of humour. I can’t stand most comedians. Sitcoms leave me cold. Don’t bother telling me a classic joke. But it’s not that I don’t find things funny. Some things are absolutely hilarious to me! For instance, I discovered photos of Anna Hrachovec’s Gnomes vs Snowmen exhibit (recently at gallery hanahou in NYC) and I’ve been laughing about it ever since. Anna is the creator of Mochimochi Land and the author of two books of patterns for her cute quirky knitted critters. If you want a good giggle – assuming your sense of humour resembles mine (and, of course, Anna’s) in any way – download the PDF catalogue of the exhibit here so you can see the whole story. Then you’ll appreciate why I’m considering carrying around a scarf in case I see an aggressive snowman.

Moving right along…I finished my Autumn Kneehighs. A photo will be coming as soon as they are dry enough to model after their bath. Takes forever this time of year! And then there’s the low light situation as well. Gotta wait for sufficient natural light. Anyway, the socks look absolutely silly without a leg in them. All skinny and disproportionate. But they fit me just right. So of course I immediately cast on for matching gauntlets. I use my original pair of Jacoby Gauntlets all the time so since I have lots of yarn left over, I’m making another pair. They work great on their own but even better as an extra layer over my hand-knit gloves.

Speaking of which, I’ve started plugging away again on the Dark o’the Moon Gloves. They were hanging about mostly because the socks were easier to work on while reading at the same time. The dark yarn on my Blackthorn dpns is hard to see and they’re both teensy besides so these things take concentration. I’m nearly done the tricky cabled cuff part though on both gloves so things should go faster now. At least until I get to the fingers!

So T-Man went back to work today after taking some time off that was owed him before the end of the year. It seems really quiet around here now! I was getting used to having him handing me cups of tea, making breakfast, reading beside me in bed, fixing things, vacuuming up the dust buffaloes, and encouraging me to go on long walks with him. We’re practising for his retirement and it’s getting closer by the week. We’re both getting rather impatient.

Winter Kicks Fall’s Butt

2011-11-19T18:28:00.001-08:00

We’ve been having a slap of winter weather around here – right on top of the fall leaves, some of which haven’t even fallen yet. We also had a hailstorm yesterday on top of the inch or so of snow and a lot of the resulting mess hasn’t melted away as it usually does. Hardly anyone shovelled their walks either, thinking that it would all just go away by itself like it usually does around here. But it didn’t. This made walking rather treacherous today and I almost fell a time or two. Weirdly, most of the snow is in our neighbourhood. A half-kilometre in any direction and there’s barely any trace left. At least the sun was shining! I can still hear the cars crunching by on our street though.

Anyway, we did our civic duty and got out to vote in the municipal election, snow or no. There are people in the world who are giving up their lives for the right to vote in a democracy so I think the least we can do is make use of the freedom we have here in Canada. Your local government is the one that affects you most directly too. Water, streets, rescue and safety, parks, community centres, libraries – somebody’s got to run it all for us. Besides, if you don’t vote then you can’t complain about them not doing it the way you think they ought to. The right to bitch about our leaders ranks pretty high on my list of democratic freedoms and I try not to ever take it for granted. Wonder how many of the Occupy folks are voting today? Oh, all right. I’ll stop with the politics now since I try to steer away from that stormy sea on this blog. Just vote when you have an election going, ‘kay? Rant over.

So, I finally have a couple of semi-decent photos of my recent sewing. First finished is the Sleeveless Tunic:

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The inspiration came from a garment I saw awhile back on Fawbush’s website. (Love so many of their clothes!) This is a simple shape like an oversized undershirt that’s quite a bit wider at the hem, just two pattern pieces that I self-drafted. The fabric (detail, left) is one that I bought at Fabric Mart in Portland, OR on the way home from our vacation. It’s a kind of slinky knit in black with a graphic pattern in light gray somehow knitted into it. I cannot figure it out! I originally thought it was printed on but it’s not. It’s very spongy and extremely stretchy but has good recovery. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to sew and doesn’t ravel. This pattern only used a yard of 60” wide and I have another project which also uses this fabric. I had 2 yards total so it’s exciting to get two garments out of it.

I ended up making a seam down the back (photo right) due to tight pattern placement on the fabric since I was cutting out both garments at once. The seam actually helped to make it easier to hem the neckline which was V-shaped at the back. I only used the sewing machine and not the serger to put together this quick top: a small zigzag for the regular seams and simple twin-needle hems. Since the fabric was super-stretchy I made sure to carefully stay-stitch the neckline and armholes before hemming. I had some trouble with the twin-needle stitching as one thread kept shredding and breaking. Turned out it was the needle and after changing to a fresh one, it sewed just fine. I luckily had a spare in the same 2.75mm width.

If I make this pattern again I’d like to add pockets! I didn’t have enough fabric for them this time. Either inseam or patch pockets would be really useful.

The second garment that I finished on Thursday was Banana Skirt Too, the second version I’ve made from BurdaStyle magazine, 07/2006 #125.

I love my heavy gray double-knit one so I decided I needed a black one as well. This fabric is a rayon/lycra knit and a lighter weight than my gray skirt fabric. It also creases easier as you might be able to tell from the photo! However, it’s very swishy and soft as well as quite stretchy. Very successful as a skirt. I had 3 metres so the rest of it is going to become a long-sleeved cowl-neck tunic and the contrast yoke and sleeves on a dress from the remainder of the above novelty slinky.

This skirt is really simple, just one asymmetrical pattern piece cut out six times. I forgot that you needed to cut each piece right side up though so they’re all going the same way! Luckily the fabric is identical on both sides or it would have been a disaster. I marked the pattern clearly so I won’t forget next time.

This time I used the serger more than the sewing machine and serged a wide 3-thread stitch to join the pieces and also along the top edge before folding it over and multi-stitch zigzagging a casing for the elastic. This is different than the way I did the elastic on the gray skirt but still simple and quick. The hem was cover-stitched. I decided in this case it was worth the effort to change the serger over to the cover stitch – though it’s quite involved and takes a few minutes to do it. Now I have to change it back again before the next project. It’s not hard but because I don’t do it often I need a cheat sheet to remember all the steps each time!

This skirt goes with everything and I’ve already worn it several times. Which is probably why it’s so wrinkled.

All-Sorts

2011-11-14T09:04:00.001-08:00

In my youth when I had more of a sweet tooth, I used to love liquorice all-sorts. Haven’t tasted them in years. I can imagine it though. Unfortunately this post doesn’t have any liquorice in it but it does have lots of different items.

Firstly, I forgot to mention our adventures at the Circle Craft Christmas Market last Wednesday. It took place in the huge new section of the Vancouver Convention Centre and was very nicely done. It took hours to go through all the booths but T-Man and I managed to do the whole thing, with only a short break for perogies and Ukrainian sausage to fortify us. It was lovely to visit with several friends in their booths: Yoriko Oki, Laura Fry and her husband Doug, and Carmen of MelonHead Knitwear. There was a really good mix of crafts this year: jewelry, glass, ceramics, wood, metal, leather, clothing, accessories, and food plus some unique items such as the pebble art pictures from the beaches of Nova Scotia and the freaky iron sculptures by Jim Nodge. I thought there was a larger-than-usual number of clothing artists and lots of hats. Many artists were using a least a portion of recycled and repurposed materials in their work which was great to see. But what’s with the multitudes of pet clothing and accessories? It would have been fun to try on some of the garments (not the doggie ones!) but since I wasn’t going to buy them and the rare changing rooms were just a curtain, it wasn’t worth the effort. Good to see some pieces that would look good on many body types though.

Of course T enjoyed the lampwork glass. We agreed the best by far was Lori Steel of Dragonfly Organic Arts. Her pieces have a depth and complexity but are not at all frou-frou. Like her company’s name: organic. Love. However, we didn’t buy. We were on a mission – to find two plates for our everyday dinners. Do you know how hard it is to find a potter who makes plates? Nice practical plates? We were nearly done exploring every isle without success when we came upon Matthew Freed’s booth. He’s a local artisan that we hadn’t discovered yet and we both loved his work. So we bought these lovelies:

Those are hand-painted lines, not decals. The glaze is slightly matte and includes many colours while looking neutral gray in most lights. I love the little pinches on the edges and the size is not too large. Best of all he signs his work on the back so we can’t forget who made them! And if we decide to get them later he also makes matching bowls in different sizes. We’ve already had a couple of meals on our new plates and we’re both very pleased. At least they aren’t boring white like all the commercially made dishes we’ve seen lately!

It was really fun and inspiring to see what everyone is making these days. Of course we don’t give Christmas presents so that wasn’t our purpose in going. It was our brand of entertainment. Afterwards we were hungry again so we went to Steamworks just down the street for a beer and a plate of bagel chips and crab dip. Yum. A very nice date.

What else? Oh yeah. I got to test out my black Boot Buffers yesterday:

We went for one of our usual long walks and although they slid down a little they stayed in place pretty well and were very comfortable. Saved my striped tights from damage too which was the whole point. Unfortunately the first set of Boot Buffers in handspun green yarn are too short and too tight so I’ll have to revise them to match the black ones. I also promise to get a photo of the Boot Cuffs in action eventually. They haven’t had their test run yet.

I also managed to finish cutting out Garment Number 4 so now I’m on a sewing jag. Don’t you like my new beach pebble pattern weights?

I keep them in a basket near my cutting table and they work really well while pleasing my eye with their colours and shapes. Best part is they were free – a reminder of our recent holiday. Some are from Jackson Lake in Wyoming and some are from Whidbey Island in Washington. Farthest east and farthest west that we went, from fresh and salt waters, all glacier-smoothed. There’s a kind of natural poetry there, doncha think?

Anywho, I managed to squeeze a long-sleeved dress, a long-sleeved tunic, a sleeveless tunic and a skirt from 2 pieces of 58-60” knit fabric, just over 5 yards in total. I think that’s pretty efficient, don’t you? Except that the last pieces didn’t interlock very well leaving a lot of unusable scraps. I did have to fudge just a little and shorten the cowl on the long-sleeved tunic by an inch. Don’t think it will matter because I’ve decided to skew it to make it more interesting. You’ll see what I mean. I also originally wanted to self-line the contrast yoke on the dress but since I ran out of fabric I’m going to go with just hemming the neck with cross-grain strips instead. Improvisation is good. The patterns are all either self-drafted or much-adjusted from the originals. Wish me luck that they will fit properly.

Rescuing A CPW

2011-11-12T12:01:00.001-08:00

T-Man and I had an adventure yesterday afternoon. First I’ll list the changeable weather: raining hard all morning, stopped in the afternoon, then hail along with a crash of thunder, wind picked up to gale force for a short time as finally the sun came out but it was still quite windy all evening. I mention this because it was quite spectacular! The wind was so strong that it created a blizzard of fall leaves and nearly denuded some of the trees in moments. We were due to walk down to a newbie spinner’s house to check out her borrowed spinning wheel. Luckily the timing worked well and we missed the worst of the wild weather!

However, on our walk down to Strathcona (one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city) we saw a parked car that had been squished by the weight of half a sweetgum tree that landed on it. The police were there taping it off since the tree covered the road. Who knows if the poor owner even knew yet of his/her car’s misfortune. Elsewhere we only saw a few small branches down while the wind was making the most amazing drifts out of all the gorgeous leaves. They were literally dancing! So fun to watch. Sorry I didn’t take a video.

Now lets talk about the wheel. E didn’t know what she had acquired so T and I didn’t have a clue what to expect. I was surprised to see a Canadian Production Wheel, stamped (in a number of places on the table) “Frs. Bordua, St. Marc, RC” and including the letters FB on the cast iron support for the mother-of-all. Obviously they wanted you to know who made it! Unlike some wheels where it becomes a sleuthing ordeal requiring Holmsian skills to deduce the provenance. To wit: I never did find out anything about the decorative little parlour wheel I have.

This one was easy-peasy. This morning I just googled the name and it pointed right away to an antiques website with the answer:

“The makers of this spinning wheel were a well-known Canadian family. The two brothers, Francois and Frederic, and Frederic's son Theodore, were builders of this style of Canadian Production wheel (CPW) in the late 1800's and early 1900's. These were made in Quebec, Canada (Ste Hyacinthe, Ste Marc, Ste Charles).”

I borrowed a photo from someone (since I forgot to take one of E’s wheel). This one is quite similar:

Isn’t it lovely? Distinctive characteristics are the large wheel diameter, iron treadle and mother-of-all support, wire footman and bent wire hooks, and a non-functional knob on the end of the table. E’s wheel had a little damage to the wheel rim and treadle bar but was otherwise in pretty good shape. The only real problem was that the bobbin was entirely seized to the flyer with old gunk. It took a while to loosen and clean it and we didn’t want to force the whorl off since we weren’t really sure how it was attached: pressure-fit or screw-threaded. It turned out to be screwed on and T finally got it to release so he could scrape the flyer’s rod and the bobbin ends clean. A lot of oil was applied to all the parts and a new double-drive string put on and now…she works just fine!

The tension adjustment is a bit fiddly. You have to turn a wing nut on the mother-of-all’s iron support to loosen the whole mother-of-all and then manually twist it closer or further from the wheel. Then tighten the wing nut back up again before it slips out of position. However, since it’s a double-drive wheel it doesn’t need such delicate adjustments as, say, a Scotch-tension would. It has quite a definite draw-in and a large ratio so it was made to produce fine strong weaving yarns quickly. However the bobbin is quite small and there’s only one of them (of course!) so a lot of winding off will be necessary. E will have to learn the skills to conform to the wheel rather than the other way around. Good practice.

Isn’t it satisfying to give an old wheel a new life? I was really happy that it wasn’t a “junker”! That has happened all too often when someone asks me to help them get an antique wheel going. Either something is broken or missing or it just doesn’t work well because it wasn’t made by someone who knew what they were doing. There are a surprising number of “decoration” wheels out there. Often lovingly made by a woodworker without the necessary knowledge to make sure it functions as it should. I once came across one without even an orifice for the yarn to travel through! It was just a solid rod. The wheel treadled around but that was the limit of its abilities. So sad. I have a junker in my closet right now and just haven’t gotten up the guts to dispose of it yet. I certainly wouldn’t wish it on any poor spinner. It’s impossible.

Of course missing or broken pieces can be repaired but you have to decide whether it will be worth the effort first. T-Man has always promised that one day he’ll restore the little parlour wheel. It has a quite a lot of damage including fancy turned bone pieces to repair and a bunch of little dangly bobbles missing under the table. Unfortunately I never got the distaff that the original owner promised to locate. We’ll have to imagine what it looked like to reproduce it. Might be a fun project for him after he retires.

Boot Buffers

2011-11-10T11:27:00.001-08:00

Granny Time with Rosebud, the Littlest Grandbeastie, went really well yesterday. We had a very fun time together! We played with toys, practiced important skills like “put it in the box” and “walkies holding hands” and “I stack ’em and you knock ’em down”, and snuggled while she had her bottle. She even napped for an hour. Such a sweet baby. Hard to believe she’ll be a year old next month. Time flies, huh?

So I think I’ve solved the tights-eating tendencies of my new boots. I found this pattern on Ravelry by Joan De Lurio. She calls them Boot Buffers. I scrounged around in the stash and tested the pattern with my old green handspun and came up with these:

Perhaps a little snug and maybe too short. This yarn isn’t bulky enough. These may get frogged after I test them out for awhile to see if they slip down. So then I scrounged around some more and came up with 2 different black worsted-weight yarns and modified the pattern a little:

I used both yarns together, added an extra purl stitch between the ribs and repeated the rib pattern one more time to make them a little longer. So far I like them better than the green ones. I still have to darn in the yarn ends.

I also saw that someone had made more of a fold-over cuff version so I invented these on the needles:

I used a skein of hand-dyed gray worsted wool and 5.5mm needles. I hope to get photos of these in my boots so you can see how they work. The wider cuff edge folds over the outside of the boot top and the rib hugs my leg inside the boot shaft. But I’m not yet sure how well they will stay put during a long walk. They are currently in Test Mode. I’d certainly rather chew up old yarn than new tights.

In other news, the important thing we accomplished yesterday was to get our credit union accounts unlocked after Tuesday’s lost wallet fright. They were very good about it and made sure T-Man showed his ID before reinstating everything. Just in time too – we had to go pick up the Westphalia after getting her windshield with the new rubber gasket replaced and needed to pay the $200 insurance deductible before they’d let us take her. The broken headlight lens has also been replaced so apart from needing a good wash, she’s all fixed up now. That was an expensive couple of rock pings we picked up on our vacation! At least the insurance paid for most of it. Unfortunately it’s getting harder to source parts for a vehicle that’s nearly 23 years old.

Later this afternoon T-Man & I are off to Circle Craft’s Christmas Market. This is a huge and rather prestigious craft sale that includes demos and entertainment and we haven’t been for a couple of years. At least I’ve already bought the tickets online so we can’t procrastinate this time! We have no plans to buy anything at all but we love to play lookie-loo. Besides, I know at least 2 of the vendors personally so it’ll be nice to say hi. Have I mentioned that I used to work at Circle Craft in their Granville Island shop? I recently realised that was over 20 years ago now! Yikes.

Crisis Narrowly Averted

2011-11-09T07:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I lost my wallet. It dropped out of the zipper pocket on my backpack. I had just gone to the grocery store only 3 blocks from my house, paid for the groceries, carefully zipped up the pocket on my wallet, shouldered the pack and walked home. It fell out somewhere on that homeward journey.

I’d just gotten in the door and put my pack down when I noticed the pocket was flapped open. My wallet was gone! I looked everywhere including going all the way back to the store with T-Man. Nope. Nothing. Panic.

After walking all the way back home again we started calling to put holds on the credit cards and block my credit union accounts. There were cheques in my wallet which caused the advisor on the phone to suggest the block. Now we were effectively penniless! I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to figure out which replacement cards I needed to apply for first. I carry a lot of my life around in that wallet. Makes me rather vulnerable I think.

A couple of hours later T went to turn on the front porch light. You know, just in case a Good Samaritan had returned my wallet? And there it was on the porch beside the front door. Even though the bills and bus tickets were gone, as far as I can tell the rest is all still there – including several dollars in change! You can imagine my relief. The credit cards are reinstated but I have to go in today to get them to release my bank account in person. Besides I need to withdraw some cash.

So this was an expensive and stressful lesson. I’m not very happy with this backpack. I’ve only had it for a few months and the zippers are metal and hard to zip up but they unzip way too easily! Besides it’s already looking ratty. I’m on a hunt for a better one. Meanwhile I’ve moved my wallet to a different pocket. Hopefully it will be better behaved in future.

Now I’m totally nervous to see what happens next because this is not the first of these incidents of lost possessions! A month ago T-Man lost his wallet, discovered while we were out when he went to pay for a purchase. Luckily it was at home in his computer chair. Next he lost his cell phone while we were out shopping. After backtracking our route he located it in a store where it had dropped off and been turned in. Whew. Then just a short while before my wallet went walkies, he found he’d misplaced his house keys. We found them in the basement near his bike where he’d dropped them after coming in the day before. He was wet from the rain and was stripping off gear to hang to dry. Enough already! No more lost items, OK?

I’m done. I have to babysit the Littlest Grandbeastie today and she’ll be here soon. Apparently she’s all rashy from some virus. Poor baby. Wish me well. I may be taking her to a doctor’s appointment. In the rain.

Presents!

2011-11-07T14:12:00.001-08:00

Who needs that stinkin’ old holiday that comes near the end of December?! We got presents right now! Lots of them – mostly purchased by ourselves but that’s OK. At least we get exactly what we want, right?

Firstly, I actually got a real birthday present:

Yes, that is a teeny ball of 100% Qiviuk 2/14 (laceweight). Squee!! From my dear MIL who got it for me when she was on a trip to the Arctic. And it’s such a luminous burnt red embers colour. Love. At only 218 yards it’s going to become a neckwarmer. Probably this one. With beads of course.

And I get to knit my neckwarmer with my new set of Addi Lace Clicks interchangeable needles! More squeeI haven’t really worked with them yet but I think I’m going to like them. For one review go here. Don’t miss her review of the original Addi Turbo Clicks too for a discussion of the connections. (BTW the reviewer is Kyoko whose kimono jacket pattern I admired in the latest Knitcene. Small world, huh?) If that’s not enough of a recommendation then you might try Clara’s post on Knitters Review. Do note that the new Lace Clicks are nickel-coated like the Turbos though, not brass like her review set.

Personally, I like the tips. Nice and pointy but not too sharp. I’m OK with the fact they’re nickel-plated instead of brass. I like the fact you don’t need a tool to connect things and the joins seem pretty secure. I don’t mind the short tips. I’ve got very small hands anyway and the fit within my grasp just fine. I like that the sizes start at 3.5mm, one size smaller than other interchangeables, but I don’t like the fact they skipped sizes between US 10 and 11. In metric sizing there are actually 3 in between 6mm and 8mm! Apparently there are 6.5mm and 7mm tips available separately. I’ll order them if I find I miss those sizes. I don’t especially like the super-long connector. I’d rather have 2 shorter ones instead. And there are no included stoppers. I use stoppers a lot in my Denise set but here those are also a separate item, adorably called Heart Stoppers. The case is elegant but rather larger than it needs to be. The real negative of course is the price, equivalent to nearly 3 sets of Denise or 8 or 9 regular Addi Lace circulars (which BTW I use all the time). But with 8 sets of tips and 5 cords the Clicks give you many more options. Can’t do good work without good tools! That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Now I can ditch a bunch of old stiff needles that I never use unless I’m desperate. I like the tips on my old aluminum Aeros but hate the horrid plastic cables. Anybody want ’em before they hit the thrift store?

More spoilage! I’ve been looking for some in-between boots for awhile. Something higher than my Blunnies but lower than my shiny black pirate boots. Something a little casual and funky and perhaps brown. I finally found some that I like:

Josef Seibel’s Bergamot boots. Unfortunately they aren’t brown, though with all the gold hand-stitching and golden-tan lining they give that impression in some lights. They’re actually supposed to be black but look more like a super-dark gray in bright daylight. They also are not waterproof which would have been a deal breaker except that they were marked down twice from $199.99 to a final cost of just over $60 including tax! I have a waterproofing product that should help but I just won’t wear them in the rain if I can help it. Though the heel is a little high for me, they’re very comfy. My only quibble is that the top of the zipper stitching chewed up my new tights. The inside flap doesn’t quite reach the top to cover the rough edges there. Definitely something to watch out for. Perhaps that’s why they were on deep discount? I need to take them to my cobbler to see if he has a solution. Or maybe I’ll just take a nail file to the area and see if I can soften it up. Also maybe knit a cuff to cover it. Need to hunt for a appropriate yarn and make up a pattern.

And that’s not all! T-Man and I have been reviewing our current television-watching habits and realised changes need to be made. We usually spend dinnertime eating in bed watching TV on his computer screen. Besides the crumbs in the sheets, this seems rather silly. We have a perfectly comfortable living room. It even includes a nice woodstove which hasn’t gotten used for the last few winters because we weren’t in the room with it. So why were we watching the computer? The truth is we only had an ancient and rather tiny CRT television and (gasp!) old VCR system in the living room so we’ve been using the PC’s Media Center to record shows instead. When you go to bed at 9pm you almost never get to watch them when they’re actually broadcast. And then because they were recorded on the computer we had to watch them there too. In the bedroom. And with only one chair and no room for another, we sat in bed which is naturally comfy (pllows! blankets!) but the computer screen is a little too far away for good viewing. And we ate dinner there too because that’s the only time we get to watch TV. Something had to change to get us out of this rut.

So T decided now is a good time (before he retires next spring) to get a PVR and a new flat-screen HD-TV. Since we have nowhere in the living room to hang it on a wall, we got a 40” Sony LED screen and put it on the table at the back of our handmade couch – right where the old TV set was. It’s big enough that we can see it comfortably from our chairs (a big improvement right there) but it’s not too overwhelming. I think he wants to screw the base down to the wood for security though. (Grandbeasties have a tendency to jump around. Funny how that happens, eh?) Now we just need a course in how to use the darn PVR remote! You need a computer science degree to figure it out. There are too many buttons and none of them are intuitive. I’ve been a competent computer user for 30 years and I’m not stupid but it’s like learning to use a complex program all over again! Who designs these things? Did they test them on real people or just fellow techies? Even T, who helps people with their technical problems for a living, had to call the cable company’s support line for assistance in getting things set up properly. No wonder the store offers to hook things up for you for an extra fee. Most people probably need all the help they can get.

Now I’ve got one DVD I need to review for you. After I’ve watched it on the new screen of course! I’ll give you a hint: there are natural dyes involved.

Do I feel totally spoiled now? Yes, I do!

Is It November Already?

2011-11-01T10:29:00.001-07:00

I learned a new word: backblogged. That’s what happened when I wanted to blog my fabulous holiday but it was sooooo much work to do. It took me a long time to choose the photos (out of 1000) and format them, write up the travelogue, check forgotten facts and post. It had the effect of stopping me from posting other things because I was holding off until I’d completed the trip posts. Now that I’ve finished them, I’m finding it much easier to blog more often. Blog dam broken; flood ensues.

So, we survived the Zombie Apocalypse. We were attacked by a small dragon:

…though who’s eating whom here? Drive-by trick-or-treating granddaughter (and her silly Grampa-Monster). Her parents got the candies and we got to play with the mini-dragon for an hour. Fair trade.

We didn’t get very many trick-or-treaters at the door even though the weather was clear and not too cold. I think a lot of parents are substituting local events and parties for the door-to-door schlep. Too bad because we really enjoy the kids, especially the little ones. Now we have way too much candy left, even though we doubled up on them while passing them out. At least they’re ones we like ourselves! But we’ll have to ration them rationally. Heh.

T-Man and I also spent a good deal of time yesterday afternoon roasting and peeling some of our chestnuts. It was windy all day and the neighbours were doing a good job of picking up the nuts outside our fence so I got the ones inside our yard. Technique: cut an X in the shell (so they won’t explode), put on a cookie sheet and roast at 425F. for 20-30 minutes until skins loosen, cool just until you can handle them without burning your hands, peel while still hot. They were really yummy right out of the oven. All we ended up having for dinner were chestnuts and some cold leftover barbequed pork ribs eaten on the run. Weird, I know. But just about then the knocking at the door started so I didn’t have time to cook anything else. Chestnuts are filling and nutritious anyway. And, if I can beat the neighbours to them, free. We won’t talk about how much work they are to roast and peel! Nope.

Shifting gears here, I want to talk about 2 new magazines just out from Interweave.

knit.wear is a new publication, one of the thicker and pricier editions. I couldn’t find it in my favourite magazine shop so I used a 25%-off coupon and bought the digital download (PDF) instead. At least the file is on my computer and not in cyberspace like the one magazine I have on Zinio. I prefer personal control over these things instead of trusting that an online service will stick around in case I need a pattern years after the publication date. It’s not like a gossip or fashion magazine that gets stale almost immediately! And PDF is easier to see on my little netbook than the eMags in Adobe Air format which I have to read on my desktop computer because they aren’t formatted for this screen shape. This is exactly the printed magazine right down to the page numbers and advertising. Page spreads are split into singles though which sometimes looks a little odd.

Enough of the technical stuff, let’s get to the content! The esthetic of the cover speaks to what’s inside. There are some very lovely wearable sweaters in this new issue! They are generally restrained and elegant and use a lot of plain stockinette and add texture rather than colourwork for interest. I also like that they’ve expanded some of the construction details with a special focus on grafting seamlessly. Lots of illustrations make the how-to clearer. They have allowed 144 pages so there’s plenty of room. My fingers are itching to knit Pam Allen’s Tern Vest but there’s too many other projects to finish first.

Definitely a keeper – as long as I can continue to access the PDF file format and don’t lose the file! It will be interesting to see if/when they publish another issue. I’m betting soon because this should be a popular magazine with knitters.

The winter issue of Knitscene is just out too and also a keeper. There’s quite a few sweaters that I’d definitely like to make! I particularly like the cover sweater by Romi Hill and the kimono jacket (Uxbridge) by Kyoko aka Cotton & Cloud. This magazine is supposed to be for the younger edgier knitter but I find many of the styles appeal to me too – definitely not the target market! Now I just need to spin and knit faster so I can make more sweaters.

Speaking of which, T-Man has been getting a lot of use out of his new sweater. He loves it! And says so frequently. That makes me very happy. Totally worth all the work it took to make a man-sized handspun sweater. Unfortunately now he wants another one. I should have learned my lesson after I knit his first pair of socks, shouldn’t I?

The Zombie Apocalypse Is Upon Us!!

2011-10-31T09:07:00.001-07:00

OK, maybe not a full-blown ZA but I’m sure I saw some undead types out there. And superheroes, unicorns, princesses, fairies, lions and tigers and bears…oh, my! I love Halloween, not just for the little ones but I’m even glad more adults are getting into the act of dressing up and embracing their alter egos, both dark and light. Unfortunately it’s starting to become just another marketing opportunity – like that other holiday in December. Don’t wreck it for me, people! Keep it Unreal.

Yesterday T-Man carved a really nice little Jack the Pumpkin King and we’ve got our goodies all ready to hand out. My favourite part of this is eating the roasted pumpkin seeds. They’re half gone already. Yum. We broke down this year and bought a disposable light for Jack at the dollar store instead of a candle, even though T insisted he’s going to miss the smell of burning pumpkin. Heh. I’d rather not start a house fire myself.

In crafty news, I’m totally bummed with my Oatmeal Jacket. I’ve been struggling with the darn thing since the beginning of September! I finally thought I had finished the body and sewed the shoulders together…backwards. Then I tried it on (inside out) and it…doesn’t fit at all on the shoulder and neckline area. It’s much too wide even though it’s on gauge for a medium. Pooh. Now it’s in time-out yet again while I decide whether or not to frog it right back to the armholes and try again or whether to give it up as a total loss. The jury is still out. Now I know why there are only 9 projects on the pattern’s Ravelry page and a number of them have modifications or aren’t finished – including mine. But it looks so cute on the original model! Deceptive little bugger. Grump. Grump.

Progress is also slow on the Dark o’the Moon Gloves. The Knotty Gloves pattern and the knitting of same are working out just fine except that it’s dark yarn on teensy black needles and hard to see without good light. Not evening knitting for sure and also needs too much attention to read while doing it. For me, that slows down the production considerably.

Instead I’ve been knitting with this yarn that I bought for $.97 a ball at Michael’s the other day. (Thanks to darling Sharon’s influence! Hi, Sharon!) Aren’t these just my colours?

I’m using a ribbed long sock pattern from Drops and so far my Autumn Kneehighs look like this:

Too bad they aren’t ready for Halloween but I can’t knit that fast! This Patons Kroy Socks Stripes yarn is considerably thicker than usual for sock yarn and the yardage per 50g ball is only 166 so I got 6 balls. And for less than the usual cost of just one ball! Hopefully that will also be enough for some fingerless mitts to match. We’ll see.

Off to work in my studio for awhile today. I need to get brave and finish some pattern drafting for new sewing projects. More anon.

Happy Halloweeeeeeennnnn!!!! Watch out for the zombies, OK? Apparently they want to eat your SKEINS!

Geezer Geyser Gazers: Part Five

2011-10-27T13:05:00.001-07:00

I’m going to try to finish this up today. Quick before I forget where I’ve been and what I’ve done! I have lots of great photos and memories but putting them in the right order and getting the details right takes some research.

Where did we leave off? Oh yeah, Grand Teton.

Day 16 – We left Coulter Bay and travelled south to the cute little touristy town of Jackson, Wyoming, where they have huge decorative arches made out of…elk antlers. Everywhere. It’s kind of cool in an icky sort of way. I’d personally rather see the antlers on the elk! Here we turned west and were finally on the homeward run.

Right out of Jackson we groaned up the very steep Teton Pass and into Idaho and over another pass then down onto the prairie. We drove and drove past sage brush and farmland and finally reached volcanic land again. This time instead of a caldera we were on a huge multi-level lava flow called picturesquely Craters of the Moon. The campground was located in the midst of huge black cinder rocks:

Very different from anything we’d ever camped in before! They had a really interesting visitors’ centre and we learned about the successive volcanic lava events that created this huge area. We also learned the difference between pa-hoe-hoe and a’a lava. Bet you thought it was all the same, huh?

Day 17 – It was really quite hot here so we geared up accordingly for our day driving around the loop road and walking the trails to check out the volcanic features: sunscreen, hats, water and heavy boots. Cinder is sharp!

First we hiked up a cinder cone:

See the trail? It’s there. It’s also higher than it looks:

A view from up top. We checked out some smaller spatter cones:

You could climb up and peek inside these two. There were black paved trails everywhere:

…because they definitely want to discourage you from trying to walk on the lava rocks:

Miles and miles and miles of this. Complete with caves formed by collapsed lava tubes:

We peeked into a couple of these. There are some that you can explore but you need a permit and we didn’t have one. Also I hate caves. Except tame ones and these aren’t. This goes in for many yards and is bigger than it looks. Wish you could feel the cold air emanating from it!

This day was also T-Man’s birthday but since we were in the middle of nowhere our celebration was somewhat subdued. He didn’t really mind of course. We’re almost always away on vacation on September 25 so he’s used to not getting cake and presents. I was knitting diligently on his sweater though which apparently was satisfactory.

Day 18 – Another travel day. We were heading home so we weren’t planning more than one night anywhere from here on. We crossed the rest of Idaho and then into Oregon to a place we’ve stayed before, Farewell Bend:

That’s Idaho over there on the other side of the Snake River and an egret with his neck tucked down standing on the gravel bar. Is he in Idaho or Oregon, Pacific or Mountain Daylight Time? Does he care?

Day 19 – A long travel day where we took some scenic smaller highways through the middle part of Oregon where we’d never been before. This narrow canyon goes through the badlands and the John Day Fossil Beds. We didn’t have time to check that out though.

After getting a little lost in the town of Madras, Oregon, we finally wended our weary way to Cove Palisades State Park. In the middle of the prairie farmland the Deschutes River dug an impressive canyon:

It’s a really busy place in summer but here at the end of September it was winding down so we could only stay at the upper campground, not down by the water. Our elevation made for a pretty impressive sunset view though:

Yes, that’s a volcano in the middle there, Mount Jefferson, one of the line of volcanoes down the West Coast. We saw quite a number of them this trip including Three Sisters, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier and of course the closest one to home, Mt. Baker. We passed very close to Mt. Hood.

Day 20 – This was shopping day in Portland which I already blogged about here. But before that we spent a little while checking out the rest of Cove Palisades. After packing up we drove down, down to the river and along the narrow edge and across a little bridge to the other side where we found these neat petroglyphs:

Apparently they had moved the rock from its original spot when the river was dammed and flooded the area. There were some tempting trails and another campground (closed) but we needed to get moving. So we drove back across the bridge and up, up to the level land and navigated our way back through the confusing side roads to Madras. From there we headed north and neatly bypassed Mt. Hood and into Portland from the southeast.

After hitting the fabric store and the book store we crossed over the Columbia River into Washington and found a campsite in the damp woods at Seaquest State Park, on the road into Mt. St. Helens. We’ve been there a number of times before so we just rested after our long day.

Day 21 – Now back in very familiar territory we zipped up the I-5 freeway to Olympia and made a slight detour left towards Shelton and T-Man’s shopping stop at Frantz Glass. From there we continued up the west side of the Hood Canal to Port Townsend.

Unfortunately this year we were too early for the fun Kinetic Race parade. But we managed to score a campsite in Fort Worden which was a definite coup because it’s incredibly popular. We played hide-and-seek in the fort’s concrete bunkers and checked out the vintage lighthouse:

We also spent half an hour watching river otters, a mom and her youngster, playing:

Impossible to get a better shot of them because we didn’t want to get too close.

Day 22 – We couldn’t get another night at Ft. Worden so we drove down into the old downtown area of Port Townsend to check out the shops and then caught the ferry over to Whidbey Island. There were lots of campsites available at Fort Ebey.

After a walk along the cliff and down to the beach, where I picked up a load of Whidbey’s nice smooth rocks, we staggered back along the road with bulging pockets. We stopped to watch the local parasailing guys practice their liftoffs and landings:

This grassy promontory is a popular spot for that activity for some reason. There wasn’t quite enough wind though so there were some pretty spectacular fails. Crazy people.

We followed our usual custom of having a celebratory glass of wine in the late sunshine on the bench on the cliff above the water. Another couple were doing the same thing a short way down and a fellow walking the trail asked whether someone was serving! It was funny but maybe you had to be there…

Day 23 – Last day. It’s only about 3 hours home from Whidbey so we had plenty of time. It was a fairly painless 15 minutes or so at the Peace Arch border crossing. Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Geezer Geyser Gazers: Part Four

2011-10-26T14:31:00.001-07:00

I’m dithering today. It’s really noisy outside because they’re finally paving the street that they chewed up while replacing the water mains. I was going to go get my hair cut and run some errands but it’s raining so I decided to wait until tomorrow when it’s supposed to be much nicer. Meanwhile I should be doing the laundry and the vacuuming. Instead you get the next instalment of the GGG 2011. Bet you thought I’d never get around to it, huh? Oh ye of little faith(ful).

Day 14 – If you remember back to the last GGG post, we were still in Yellowstone and camping at Madison Junction while exploring the Old Faithful area. The next day we went back south again to catch up on things that we missed. First we visited the Fountain Paint Pot area:

It’s huge but not nearly as exciting when you can’t sense the heat, the smell of sulphur and the “blub-blub-blub” of the boiling mud. The colours were really subtle and pretty. These dead trees have “bobby socks”:

The minerals have slowly seeped up into the trunks and caused them to remain standing when they would otherwise have fallen and decayed. There were lots of other features in this area to see too, which we did and then we headed to the Midway Geyser Basin for more.

You couldn’t really see the biggest geyser here, Excelsior, due to the huge amounts of steam in the early morning air. It apparently was a regular geyser in the late 1800’s but broke itself and didn’t erupt again until 100 years later in 1985. It blew up rather spectacularly for a couple of days and hasn’t gone again since. Who knows when it will erupt again? BTW Excelsior eats hats. At least according to the number of them that we saw lurking in the bottom of the pool between the steam clouds. Fascinating.

The prettiest thermal feature here (among many) is Grand Prismatic Spring, in gorgeous green and turquoise surrounded by its huge bacterial mats. It’s the largest spring of all at 200 feet across:

You can’t get a photo of the whole thing, even if the steam would blow off for awhile. Unless you can fly above it!

After Midway we stopped at Biscuit Basin which includes this pretty and very deep pool:

It’s called Sapphire for obvious reasons. Then we went back to Old Faithful and saw a few more things that we’d missed the day before. This one is Anemone Geyser, which has 2 vents:

It’s just a little guy…er, geyser, but it erupts every 7-10 minutes and is quite entertaining to watch. First it’s just a hole which slowly fills up with water, then starts to bubble, eventually spouting about 8 feet in the air awhile, then subsiding and finally disappearing with a sucking sound. The other vent alternates with bubbling up but it never gets very high. Fun!

Another good one was Sawmill Geyser:

This one pumps up to about 50 feet and swirls around with a grinding sound. It’s usually erupting about 30% of the time so it’s easy to catch. One that we didn’t catch for the second try was Daisy. Elusive wench. We were too late again. After watching Old Faithful erupt yet again, we headed back to camp for a another night at Madison tired but exhilarated.

Day15 - Of course we weren’t getting out of Yellowstone without a whole lot more hot stuff! We had missed the Black Sands Basin the day before (parking lot was full – of bison!) so we thought we’d finish up the area before we headed further south to Grand Teton, which was only short drive away. Somewhere along the way we stopped to watch this grand moose:

No, we weren’t that close! More like:

Moose scare me more than bears do! We continued east over Craig Pass and crossing the Great Divide several times to West Thumb, a funny name for a section of the huge Yellowstone Lake.

Apparently this bit is a later addition to this gigantic volcanic caldera. We never even saw the main part of the lake at all! And yes, there were more hot springs and geysers here too. The most interesting were several geysers in the lake itself:

This one’s called Lakeshore and apparently sinter cones don’t usually form underwater. One of these cones called Fishing Cone, was once used as a fishing spot where one could catch a fish and then cook it in the boiling water right there! Unfortunately this trick is no longer allowed. Darn.

After West Thumb we finally turned south toward Grand Teton National Park. We got a campsite at Coulter Bay on Jackson Lake. It was quite empty being nearly the last day they were open this season. Pretty lake:

This is only a wee corner of it, an isthmus that connects that near-island to the mainland. I managed to collect some nice glacier-smoothed rocks here for my pattern weights collection. However we were a little disappointed with Grand Teton for some reason. The mountains were rather decorative. I’m sure their name (which loosely translates as “big titties” believe it or not!) was coined by some love-starved French trappers. Cracks me up. (Apparently I’m still 12.) But we found that the supposed trails were bad or non-existent, even to get from the campground to the lake. And they wanted a ridiculous $3.75 for a shower in separate tacky “Does” and “Bucks” rooms in the laundromat. Ugh. We stayed dirty. We did manage to successfully shop for souvenir t-shirts for the grandbeasties in the gift shop though. And then we left early the next morning.

Here is where I’m going to leave the tale for now. That was only two more days and it took quite awhile to tell it! I’m starting to forget what we did and in what order now so I’d better finish up before the whole trip becomes just a distant memory. And a bunch of pretty pictures.

In craft news, I’ve been spending inordinate amounts of time making patterns for the next couple of sewing projects. I now have what I think is a satisfactory basic dartless bodice pattern that I can use for a number of garment shapes. At least I can use the armholes and shoulder lines and check the body widths to make sure there’s enough room without having to redraft everything every time. Franken-patterns here I come! Next I need to add darts for a more fitted bodice. And make a basic skirt pattern. And scariest of all, a basic pants pattern. I have a satisfactory one for stretch pants but not for wovens.

I’ve also been knitting a little on my Oatmeal Jacket and a lot more on the Dark o’the Moon Gloves. These are knit using the Knotty Gloves, a free pattern by Julia Mueller. I’ve gone down to my usual 2mm needles though for small enough gloves for my tiny little hands. I’ve gotten this far:

And the other one is nearly that long too. I’m quite liking the pattern so far. Nice long cuffs. Yay.

Some Finished Objects For Your Perusal

2011-10-24T11:12:00.001-07:00

Today we have some actual FOs! Yay!!! First up, there’s sewing in which my self-drafted shirt pattern came out eggzakly the way I wanted it. I’m so happy! Can you tell?

Batik Shirt

(Pay no attention to the hair that needed cutting last week!)

Completed: October 19, 2011

Fabric: Hoffman Bali Batik, 100% .rayon, 45” wide/2 yards, purchased at Fabric Depot in Portland, OR. (Still have 1 yard remaining out of the 3-yard piece.)

Notions: very lightweight gray non-woven fusible interfacing, 7 – 1.5cm buttons, Gutermann sewing thread: brown.

Pattern: self-drafted v-neck shirt with wide, straight hem that hangs in a curve in front/back and points at sides, plus large patch pockets.

Comments: This gorgeous batik called to me in the store after I thought I’d finished loading up the cart with bolts of fabrics. It’s such a lovely colour combination of golds/olive/maroon/black and blends right into my wardrobe. Then on the way home I saw a shirt in Port Townsend that inspired this project.

I washed the fabric in the machine on normal in warm water and dried it in the dryer on regular heat. I didn’t want any surprises in the washing machine later! However I was surprised when it came out of the dryer completely wrinkled but it easily ironed flat again with some gentle steam. A nice heavy rayon plain weave and a little slippery and stretchy on the bias. I used my new smooth rocks collected on our vacation for pattern weights.

I used french seams and lots of topstitching plus a very lightweight interfacing cut in narrow strips to stabilise the neck and pocket edges and a wider width for the front facings. I also used self-made bias binding on the neck edge. It looks very nice on the inside, marred only by the sloppy serging on the armhole edges. Because this fabric takes a good crease it was easy to press all the turned hems and have them stay put while stitching. The buttons were a smooth deep burgundy on top but the underside was more interesting, darker and with pockmarks giving it an earthier look. So of course I used that side up.

This shirt fits me absolutely perfectly! I think I’m getting the hang of this fitting thing at last. The only drawback is that there isn’t room under it for more than an undershirt so it will be best for warmer weather or with a sweater over top. I’ve already discovered a few good layering options in my collection. It does crease a little when I’m sitting but it’s not bad at all for rayon.

Further laundering will be much more cautious than its initial treatment. I plan to wash my new shirt on gentle and hang to dry, pressing while still damp. This should help it last longer. I’m certainly not going to take it to the dry-cleaner! Ick. There’s a good reason why I wash everything before I sew it – so I can continue to wash it without worry. I’m always amazed at how many garments are labelled dry-clean only when if the fabric (and trims) were properly pre-shrunk in the first place, it would handle a gentle washing just fine. I even machine-wash wool and silk. But then I’m brave.

Speaking of wool, next up is the sweetheart sweater that I’ve been working on since August:

Handspun Brownstone

For: a very lucky and appreciative T-Man

Begun: August 15, 2011
Completed: October 22, 2011

Pattern: Brownstone by Brooklyn Tweed (aka Jared Flood), size men’s medium.

Yarn: my handspun NZ Corriedale yarn, natural black, worsted weight 2-ply, approximately 100g skeins (full bobbin), 125-150 yds each, 7.5 skeins or around 1000 yds. Wool was teased, carded on Pat Green Deb’s Deluxe drum carder with production drum, spun on Louet S-90 wheel, with middle whorl (8.5:1 ratio?), plied same.

Needles: Denise interchangeables, Addi Lace circulars, Clover bamboo dpns. Sizes 4.5mm (main), 3.75mm (ribbing).

Notions: 2 – brown wooden toggles, brown sewing thread.

Comments: This was a major undertaking! Not only a man-sized long-sleeved pullover sweater but knit completely out of handspun yarn too. I originally bought this lovely black fleece (really a very dark brown) from Penelope Fibres for the class with Anne Field but changed my mind because I wanted to use Canadian-sourced fleece for that instead. (Oh darn! The black fleece was coming to live at my house instead! Awww…) It was quite pricey as these things go but very uniform in colour and texture. Unfortunately it also had quite a number of grass seeds which I had to pick out in the teasing. Otherwise it was a clean perfect fleece. I was surprised at how easy it was to keep a fairly even yarn – although it’s much heavier than I’m used to spinning. (Good thing too because there’s another sweater out of this in the works! For me this time.) I tried valiantly to keep it soft but durable. Hope I’ve succeeded! Although I had washed the fleece carefully, the yarn needed a good hot wash in Power Scour after it was spun to get out some remaining grease. This treatment also set the yarn nicely and fulled it just a teeny bit.

The pattern was wonderfully clear and only needed a tiny tweak (slightly longer sleeves) to make it fit T perfectly. I love the short rows that extend the back and shoulders to keep it from riding up plus the back of the collar to make it snug the neck. So elegant. Swoon. And it’s all knitted in one piece so there’s only a tiny bit of seaming to do. Jared is a genius designer. I used a spit-splice to join on new yarn and you absolutely can’t tell where these joins are. Of course the slight unevenness of handspun hides a multitude of sins. Heh.

The gauge seemed to work out just right. I needed smaller needles than the suggested sizes. It was obviously worth knitting swatches before beginning! Apart from smoothing the stitches and softening it up a little, there was no change in measurements after wet-blocking. T says it’s nice and warm and he plans to get a lot of use out of his new sweater this winter.

Sidetracked

2011-10-18T11:14:00.001-07:00

This is another one of my diversionary posts. Real life is getting in the way of my GGG tour report but I decided to just go with the flow. I’ll get to the rest eventually. Promise.

Meanwhile, back home life continues galumphing along. Have you seen how pretty the Japanese indigo flowers are?

Tiny soft pinks on red stems. So far the plants are holding up ok even though we’ve had a few light frosts in the mornings. Today promises to be quite warm so I’m hoping it will encourage these flowers to get on with seed production. Quick before the anticipated La Niña-induced cold weather sets in. Last year we had unusual killing frosts in November.

Speaking of dye plants, I’ve managed to chop, dry and package a second large bag of weld so now I have lots. It’s really an easy-to-grow dye plant with good light-fast colour. Too bad so many people are not fond of yellows. And it’s such a brilliant lemon-yellow too! Cooler than marigold or coreopsis yellows. Weld makes a great base for clear greens and a brightener for madder oranges. It’s a tall plant in its second year and all parts (except the thickest stems) contain the dye so you don’t need many plants to supply a year’s worth of colour. And a lifetime’s worth of seeds! Luckily they have dye in them too so I just include the extras in the pot with the leaves, flower heads and thinner stems.

While the weather has been good T-Man and I have been trying to get lots of exercise. We’ve walked a lot nearly every day running errands. Other people drive to the shops while we take a couple of hours longer and just walk. It’s a great way to enjoy the neighbourhood and the changing seasons. The gallery opening I had mentioned on Friday featuring Jorie Johnson’s felt creations was fun. We followed it up with fish and chips at Tony’s since we were already on Granville Island. I’ve had a craving for fish and chips while we were on our vacation. Not a particular specialty in Montana or Wyoming. Beef, yum! Halibut, not so much. So nice to have a craving satisfied, yes?

We didn’t walk on Sunday though. Instead we took the bikes on the van out to the Pitt Meadows dykes. There’s a whole complex of flat dyke trails out there, unfortunately gravel rather than paved but mostly not too bad. It was sunny though a little cool in the shade and we rode nearly 12 k in total. It was lovely:

And quite rural with farms full of blueberries and cranberries as well as ornamental trees and greenhouses full of bedding plants. The blueberry bushes are just getting really colourful:

Gotta grab these days while you can, right? In crafty news, I’m back knitting on the Handspun Brownstone sweater:

I’ve already used most of one of my newly-spun balls of wool and am cruising up the shoulder area toward the neck. Of course this means I’ve taken the Denise needle tips off the Oatmeal Cardigan again:

I did finish the back first though. Can you see the difference in the pockets which have been washed and blocked and the main sweater which is still in its just-off-the-cone state? The pockets are lighter in colour and much softer and more cohesive. It’s quite a dramatic change. If I’d known before I started, I might have skeined off all the yarn and washed it first. At least it wouldn’t be quite so dusty and smelling of machine-spinning oil. However, now that I’ve gotten this far there’s no point. It might change my gauge too much. I’ll carry on when I’m done T’s sweater.

So what else? I’m slowly sewing up my Batik Shirt. I’ve been having a lot of fun figuring out new combinations of old and newly-sewn clothes so I’m looking forward to adding this piece to the collection. No photos yet unfortunately. And I have lots more fabrics and ideas to work on too. Never a boring moment around here, is there? Not to me anyhow! This afternoon it’s back to the garden for some more fall clean-up.

Geezer Geyser Gazers: Part Three

2011-10-14T12:43:00.001-07:00

Finally! Here we are again with the next instalment. Where did we leave off?

Day 12 – This was another moving day in Yellowstone. We woke up to freezing temperatures in Norris campground and shivered our way through getting dressed, breakfast and packing up. By then it was warming up considerably and we were starting to remove clothing layers. T-Man used the public phone to make a reservation at Madison campground so we didn’t have to rush to get there.

It’s only a little more than 13 miles from Norris to Madison but there are several stops of interest on the way. We joked that Yellowstone is a place of hot and cold running waters everywhere. On the maps in the book that I got at Norris (Yellowstone Treasures by Janet Chapple – invaluable) the hot stuff is printed in red and the cold ones in blue. Sometimes the hot and cold are running into each other:

That’s one of the Chocolate Pots on the Gibbon River. It does look for all the world like a giant bubbling chocolate fountain due to the iron content that stains everything dark rust. The river appears deep indigo blue over the rust-stained rocks on the bottom.

A little further down the road is the Artist’s Paintpots. A trail leads to a loop that takes you around and up to a viewpoint where you can see the delicate colours:

Each pool is different: pink, orange, green, blue. We spent ages watching a huge mud pot blub like a lava lamp. We also watched a small pool that went from calm to little bubbles to a roiling boil and back to calm – all within the space of a few minutes - then repeat. Fascinating.

For the cold selection, we enjoyed the stop at Gibbon Falls:

Not as spectacular as Yellowstone Falls but very pretty in the morning sunshine. We also checked out Beryl Spring before getting set up in the campground at Madison Junction. Even with our reservation they tried to give us a very unsuitable campsite where we hung out in the road and had no space to put up the awning. So T had to go back and get it switched to something better. They seem to save any good campsites for the “big busses” which I think is a little unfair. We all pay the same amount.

We relaxed a bit for the rest of the day, apart from a stroll along the rivers. Here the Gibbon River meets the Firehole River and becomes the Madison. Remember the Madison from earlier where we camped at the spot where it plus the Jefferson and the Gallatin rivers become the Missouri? Here is much earlier along in the sequence:

The rivers are very good fishing apparently, judging by the number of fly fisherman about. We saw quite a few good-sized trout swim away from us as we walked along the bank. Supposedly it’s due to the high calcium carbonate thanks to the geothermals. We even found a lovely warm spot at the edge of the river where several ladies were sitting and dipping their toes. Probably waiting for their fishermen.

Day 13 – This was the big geyser day. After securing our campsite for another night we drove south the 17 miles to Old Faithful. Of course there were lots of other things to see on the way! First we took the one-way loop road past National Park Mountain through the narrow canyon to Firehole Falls. Next we checked out the Lower Geyser Basin where we stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot loop walk. Clepsydra Geyser was doing her thing:

Apparently she rarely stops but pauses when Fountain Geyser nearby is active. There’s water spraying about 20 or 30 feet high there. Not as huge as these things go but pretty spectacular anyway. There were many other pools and geysers too including the paint pot, bubbling mud tinted with iron oxides.

We skipped some of the stops, saving them for later, and headed to Old Faithful Village. There are several lodges and shops there including the spectacular Old Faithful Inn built of lodgepole pine, stone and wrought iron in 1903-4. It’s a National Historic Landmark for good reason! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a really good photo of it, inside or out. I just stood in the lobby with my mouth hanging open looking up!

There’s also a brand new visitors centre too with educational displays and listings of the times when the few predicable geysers in the Lower Geyser Basin are due to go off. The question everybody asks “When is Old Faithful going to go” has the joking answer “About 15 minutes after the benches are crowded”. Really it’s more like an hour to an hour and a half apart. We managed to catch it several times over two days:

See the rainbow caught in it? So lovely. However, if that’s all you see at Old Faithful you’re missing a ton of good stuff! The boardwalk trails criss-cross to the best sights. The bison were enjoying the green space between the geothermals:

That’s Castle Geyser in the background. It’s so very old that it has built itself quite a cone of geyserite. Unfortunately we didn’t see it erupt. However we did see Grand Geyser:

Which was quite spectacular – even more so than Old Faithful. We lucked out on the timing for this one since it only goes 7 to 10 hours apart and got the bonus of 3 for the price of one. You can just see Vent Geyser in front there and in between is the bubbling Turban Geyser. The neat thing about Grand is that it has huge bursts that rumble and roar. You think it’s done and it starts again spraying 200 feet in the air! It can do this up to 4 times but we only saw 2 on our visit.

There are other sights to see besides geysers here:

This is Beauty Pool which apparently is losing some of its colour. Still awfully pretty though. I loved the interesting patterns in the bacterial mats that occur either around the pools or in the runoff areas:

All different from each other. This one is Crested Pool:

It has a deep centre and a ring of white geyserite. And I think this pool is our favourite:

It looks for all the world like its name, Morning Glory, and is about 20 or so feet across and very deep. It also is losing its colour but is even prettier than Beauty.

We walked our little feet off and still managed to miss Daisy Geyser’s eruption. By this point we were getting tired so we walked the paved bicycle trail back to the village and had an ice cream. There was always the next day to explore some more.

However we couldn’t stop ourselves from driving the Firehole Lake Drive one-way loop on the way back to Madison. We saw a bunch more interesting features including a whole steaming lake complete with paddling geese so it couldn’t have been too hot! This handsome raven posed for us:

There are more ravens in this area than crows. They are big and cheeky and we watched one try to pick apart a pack on somebody’s motorcycle while the owner was elsewhere. It was a trick a number of them had learned because we saw it happen a couple more times. Don’t keep your snacks in something the ravens can undo! Smart birds though.

Well, I’m going to have to leave this to go make lunch for T-Man. Only got through 2 more days! Not to worry. It will go faster when we’re on the way home. More to come.

In other news, I got the garlic planted and most of the fall rye seed in. The weather has been cool but sunny and the soil is moist so it’s perfect for gardening. I’ve nearly finished spinning 2 more skeins of yarn for T’s sweater too. We’re off to a gallery opening tonight: Felt by Jorie Johnson at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island.

A Drive-Thru Post

2011-10-12T11:47:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I know everyone is waiting for the next instalment of the GGG report. However, I’m having complications. My camera has decided that it doesn’t want to work with any of my available batteries. I also just got a new upgraded version X4 of Paint Shop Pro and it’s…different. Just enough different to take me some time to figure out how to process photos the way I want. Plus I’ve run out of yarn for the Handspun Brownstone Sweater so have to spin some more before I can finish it for T-Man. And in between I’m sewing up a shirt in the rayon batik fabric that I bought in Portland.

At least it’s been raining enough that I’ve been discouraged from gardening. I have more fall rye to plant, along with the garlic and some spring bulbs. Every time I try to get outside it starts to sprinkle. The soil is much too wet to work with anyhow. I’m holding out hope that the currently blooming Japanese indigo will mature into seeds before frost. Right now I have enough leaves from it and also the woad that I could do a vat of each but I’m not sure I’ll get to it. Oh well. I’m running out of things to dye anyway. I have the rest of the weld in the basement and am slowly chopping it up with the kitchen shears. I have to do it in short bursts or it hurts my hands and gives me blisters. I will have lots from this year’s harvest and there are more first-year plants in the garden so I won’t need to plant any more next spring. Have several teaspoons of seeds though! Anybody want some? How about woad seeds? Oh yeah. It’s supposed to be a noxious weed. Not nearly the PITA that lemon balm, feverfew, cornflower, oregano and alyssum are in my garden! Even raspberries that keep popping up in the pathway. Woad is pretty well-behaved in comparison.

So this is all you get for the moment. Sorry about that. I’ll get to the next part of the GGG as soon as I can. Meanwhile, go do something creative! I’m off to spin.

Geezer Geyser Gazers: Part Two

2011-10-06T13:58:00.001-07:00

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.” - Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

So true. And I really do try to remember that every day. I can’t say I’m a huge Apple fan (though I love Ruby, my iTouch) but I do believe ol’ Stevie came up with some great devices that literally changed the way we work, play and communicate. Gone too soon – he was 5 years younger than me. RIP, man. Cancer sucks.

Anyhow, I’ve been heating up the pixels to a boil and trying to organise, edit and recall what the heck I took pictures of and where for the next instalment of the Geezer Geyser Gazers road trip. It’s really hard! So many exciting things I want to include but either the photos don’t do it justice or it’s just Too Much Information. Regardless, I’m going to give you something rather than be paralyzed by my indecision.

Where did we leave off? Oh yeah.

Day 10 – Yellowstone, the highlight of a pretty amazing trip! This was the first national park ever and it’s one of the most special places in the whole wide world. Most of it is in Wyoming but a strip on the west is in Idaho and one on the north is in Montana. It’s huge (3476 sq miles to be exact) and mostly undeveloped but all the good stuff is easy to get to by road and/or short trail. There are 5 park entrances in total depending on which direction you’re travelling in. (At the gate they charge you $25 for a week’s permit which also includes Grand Teton.) From where we left Three Forks, Montana, there are 3 roads you can take to get there. Two get you to the “side door”, West Yellowstone, while the farthest one goes in through the north end, which of course is the one we took. We meandered through the cute little tourist town of Gardiner and through Roosevelt’s Gate (Teddy laid its cornerstone himself) into the park. We hit it just at the right time of year, when the crowds are less but the weather is still perfect. Or almost perfect. It went below freezing several nights in a row but heated up to toasty warm before 10am. Talk about your contrasts.

There are limited places to stay in Yellowstone and some campgrounds were already closed for the season. We dove into the first campground we came to, Mammoth Hot Springs, (which is the only one open all year) and at not-even-noon-yet just managed to snatch one of the last available campsites. We weren’t far from the main Mammoth centre but it was a stiff uphill climb (and we only found the trail later) so we drove the 180-degree switchback instead. Once there we were amazed at the large herd of elk that had taken over the lawn of the lodge for a siesta, complete with large buck nibbling the grass, and an equal herd of tourists snapping their pictures while being kept to a respectful distance by park rangers. So funny! We had just mentioned that we hadn’t seen any elk on this trip yet.

Even more amazing were the travertine (calcium carbonate) terraces just above the tiny town. See it way down there:

They were steaming sulphurous vapours and super-hot water was pooling and pouring down the levels like very elaborate (and stinky) marble fountains:

A complex system of boardwalks and staircases lets you see the lower section up close and a loop road gave us access to the upper terraces. This is the only place in the park that has this type of feature though we saw a lot more of the sinter (hydrous silicon dioxide aka geyserite) which here is in little walls forming pools that are either empty or full of very hot water:

It looks like snow, doesn’t it? Especially with the dead trees embedded in it. Colours are added by bacteria that live even in the super-hot water. This was our introduction to the geothermal areas in Yellowstone and we were definitely impressed. Everyone who thinks that Old Faithful is all it has going for it are so wrong!

Day 11 - We woke up in the morning to an odd sound and peeked out the curtains to see that the elk herd of yesterday had wandered down to the campground and they were just outside the van:

Photographed through the dirty window. I wasn’t going out there! Turns out the odd sound was this:

Mr. Very Large Bull Elk trumpeting his success at having attracted such an immense harem! Can you imagine how the poor guy in that little orange tent felt? He crawled out later after the herd wandered further away looking just a bit dazed.

After that exciting awakening we packed up and travelled about 15 miles south to Norris Junction. On the way we stopped here:

Roaring Mountain is right on the road and it was really steaming in the cool morning air. It actually does make a roar with steam vents all over it. The pool in front was dry but apparently sometimes fills up with hot water. You never know where you’ll come across steam vents in this park. Even at the side of a river. There are many areas where you aren’t allowed to walk for your own safety. People have been killed here by stepping in the wrong place. They even occasionally have to move the boardwalks when it gets too hot under them.

After securing a campsite at Norris, we decided to take a side trip to the eastern area, about 12 miles away. Yellowstone is actually a huge volcano caldera and has a large loop road that goes all the way around to the best sights:

This is apparently the most photographed waterfall in the world, in Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. So of course we dutifully took our turn with the cameras! The canyon is quite spectacular and we took advantage of trails on both sides of it including right up to the top of this same waterfall. We also drove further south to Canary Springs and Mud Volcano:

That’s about 15 or 20 feet across just to give you some perspective. It “blurbs”! There’s a number of other geothermic features here too including this favourite:

Dragon Mouth Spring. It roars and puffs out steam so that you might think a dragon lived in the cave! Across the road Canary Spring is bright yellow from sulphur and is the most acidic pool in the whole park. You had to watch out, even the parking lots have hot spots here:

When we got back to Norris, it has its own geyser basin so we went to check it out too. This an overlook of the lower section, Porcelain Basin:

The pale colours are delicate on the white geyserite and acid-leached lava: greens, peaches and yellows from the bacterial mats, turquoise blues in the pools from refracted light. Coupled with the sounds of steam vents, including serious one that roared like a jet engine, and droplets of water condensing like sprinkles on your head, it was a most amazing place and we followed the boardwalks everywhere. The upper section, Back Basin, had lots more pools and geysers, including the well-known Steamboat Geyser, which steams and spouts innocently but is actually the world’s largest – except that it hasn’t gone off since 2005. No, it didn’t do it for us while we were watching either. Another one, Porkchop Geyser, was a continuous spouter until 1989 when it exploded. Now it’s just a steaming pool with jagged boulders. It was fascinating to learn that every feature has an individual character and that they change! Maybe today, maybe in 1,000 years. Or 100,000.

Gee-whiz. Here I’ve only gotten through 2 days’ worth this time! There’s so much more and we haven’t even gotten to Old Faithful yet. More when I get the right photos sorted out. I’ve got to get out to the garden while the getting is good. I managed to get the greenhouse cleaned out and the dead summer squashes and cukes composted. Much more awaits and Ruby is all charged up with podcasts to listen to as I work.

Geezer Geyser Gazers: Part One

2011-10-04T14:14:00.001-07:00

T-Man and I finally got all the packing, cleaning, gardening and organising done on Friday, September 9th. He had to work (from home, luckily) but we were dying to get going so were ready to leave just after 3pm. Of course rush hour was starting to gear up and the driving was somewhat hairy until we got well out of town. We were both excited to be finally on the road anyway.

Day 1 - Our first destination was good old familiar Manning Park. We got there around supper time and since we were both pretty tired we didn’t get very much of a walk and opted for early bedtime. The weather was still quite warm as it was for most of our trip. It didn’t seem like summer was winding down at all: no leaves changing anywhere we looked, not even the telltale vine maples or trembling aspen.

Day 2 – We were off down the Crowsnest Highway 3 to Kettle River. Summer was still in full swing here too. There were lots of people playing in the water, floating down the river on air mattresses and fly fishing hip deep. After watching for awhile we went for a walk on the railway bed. Here’s a view from the gently peeling steel bridge that once carried trains across the river:

Day 3 - We decided to take a shorter jump than originally planned so we drove along the Crowsnest and sidestepped to Champion Lakes. The weather was downright hot so we took our improvised swimming gear to the beach:

Even T-Man went in with the fishies (an event nearly unheard of!) but I didn’t get a picture to prove it because I was already in the water:

I think I was imitating one of the Western Painted Turtles that these lakes are known for. It was refreshing but I am definitely out of swimming condition.

Day 4 – We headed for the south-eastern corner of BC and a new provincial park for us: Kikomun Creek. We got a little lost trying to find it because my information had the names of the roads incorrectly. There were signs of course but not were we expected to find them because there’s actually 2 ways in whether you’re heading west or east but only signs from the east side. Anyway, it’s a big park in open Ponderosa forest with a number of lakes including a large reservoir. We stayed at the largest of the 3 campgrounds and rode our bikes several kilometres down to the reservoir to check out the rest of the place. I was very happy for my electric assist on the way back up, I’ll tell you! After we got back to camp the yellowjackets (pesky wasps!) were really annoying so we repaired down the trail to Hidden Lake with our chairs, books and glasses of wine:

This was the view. Lovely huh? This lake also has turtles and there’s a marked Turtle Crossing on the road to warn drivers so they don’t get squished. We didn’t see any though, even the next morning when we hiked all the way around the lake before we left. We did see loons though.

Day 5 – Finally out of BC and into Alberta to Waterton Lakes. We stayed here for two days in the campground right at the lakeshore next to Waterton Village. Incredible views, hot showers and herds of deer galumphing through. The funniest sight was about 4 deer blocking the campground entrance while several vehicles waited for them to shift off the road. And waited. And waited. Animals have the right-of-way here and they know it. They were in no hurry at all to move! At least it was funny until it was our turn to get blocked the next day. But not by deer.

So we got a bear…er, tourist to take our picture at Cameron Falls, which is right in Waterton Village:

Day 6 – From the village we drove up the Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake, the source of their pretty waterfall:

Believe it or not, in this photo you can see 2 provinces and 1 state. We were standing in Alberta, the top of the peak to the right is BC and those mountains in the middle are actually in Montana. What? You can’t see the dotted line that goes across the last bit of the lake? Me neither. Also those green meadows are prime grizzly bear habitat so the trail ends before the end of the lake (still in Canada) so as not to disturb them. I don’t think the bears care which country, state or province they’re in though! We didn’t see any bears at all on this trip, which is unusual but not a bad thing since we camped and hiked in an awful lot of bear country. We didn’t really want to run into one.

We saw lots of other critters anyhow. Including the flock of willow ptarmigan that stopped us on the road on the way back down. They were walking across v e r y s l o w l y until somebody gave an alarm and they all scooted off at a run into the shrubbery. Hilarious! We’d never seen ptarmigan before. Sorry we didn’t manage to get a photo.

Day 7 – This was the day we headed over the border into the US at cute little Chief Mountain Customs located in what seems like the middle of nowhere. This time we remembered to ask for a passport stamp which is a special bear design. After we got them, the officer teased us that we’d have to pay for it but he was just joking. Brat. T almost believed him for a minute.

At least he didn’t ask about any of the van’s possibly contraband contents. We were very happy that I’d packed so much food because we hadn’t had a chance to shop for groceries anywhere except for the fruit and a few veggies we got in Keremeos on Day 2 and for which I had a customs-acceptable receipt. All we bought was lots of ice when we filled up the tank with gas. There are no Safeways or anything out there in the mountains! Lots of coffee shops and rustic hotel restaurants however but we never go there. By the time we got into Glacier National Park at Many Glacier campground we were getting a little low on perishables and out of meat entirely. So I made vegetarian chilli instead. Can’t keep a good cook down even if she only has two propane burners and a cooler.

This was the first time we’d been to Many Glacier and it was lovely. The campground tends to fill fast in summer but we were there just before they turn off the water for winter so although it was busy, it didn’t always fill up by evening. The weather was a little iffy with wind and a light sprinkle of rain at one point. We needed jackets unless we were actively hiking. Which of course we did along the side of Swiftcurrent Lake:

And continuing all the way around Pauline Lake. A lot of the trail was pretty empty of people so we did the occasional loud clapping thing to alert any bears. Happily there weren’t any obvious ones around!

Day 8 - Yes, Many Glacier (no ‘s’ at the end for whatever reason) has many glaciers around it:

Also lots of interesting trails to hike. We did a couple of the easier ones in the two days we were there. We missed the moose that many people saw but did see mountain goats. They were so high up across the lake that I couldn’t get any half-decent photos. They were just too far away so we contented ourselves with watching them with binoculars. We saw a number of delightful waterfalls too.

Day 9 – We reluctantly left Glacier early to carry on farther south in Montana towards Yellowstone. Sort of midway between we stayed at Missouri Headwaters State Park. This is where good old Lewis & Clark discovered the spot in 1805 where 3 rivers: the Gallatin, the Madison and the Jefferson join together to become the Missouri River. It’s a beautiful area and virtually unchanged, though it was once the site of a proposed Gallatin City that never quite materialised. Here’s the haunting remains of the hotel:

Much older indeed is this ancient pictograph from a small cave nearby:

The accompanying sign didn’t really add anything to the story but does help you to see the degraded image better:

Poor guy has a hole in his tummy! That’s gotta hurt. The cave was around to the left in this interestingly holey rocky outcropping:

We also climbed up on the back side where there’s a relatively easy trail and a bench at the top with quite a spectacular view of the entangled rivers.

So here we are – just over a week into the trip log and I’ve barely showed you a fraction of the things we saw. Just hit the highlights or it’ll take me nearly as long to describe it as it did to do it! Part Two coming soon. We’re finally getting to the geysers. Yay.

The Wanderers Return

2011-10-03T12:48:00.001-07:00

What an amazing vacation. We had a fabulous time! Henceforth we are to be officially known as Geezer Geyser Gazers. Heh.

But, HEY – what happened to summer? When we left it was hot and dry but now it’s raining and cold. I had to put another blanket on the bed because we were both freezing. Guess it’s autumn now for reals, huh?

One clue is our Canadian Thanksgiving coming up in just a week. (Squashes photographed at the popular vegetable stand in beautiful and productive Keremeos. Too bad we were just starting out our holiday so we couldn’t indulge in very much of the yummy goodies available.) We will of course be spending next Sunday with a goodly chunk of the extended family. And we have many tales to tell.

We drove through 2 provinces and 5 states in total. I can’t tell you how many kilometres that was because the VW van’s odometer is busted but judging by the layers of bug bodies pasted on the poor vehicle, it was a lot! We also lost a headlight and dinged the windshield enough that it will have to be replaced. At least the awning is still intact this time! The weather was nearly perfect apart from a couple of cold mornings and a couple of sprinkles of rain. We saw plants and animals and birds and rivers and rocks and learned about such exciting subjects as spatter cones, lava tubes, pahoehoe and a’a lava, geysers, hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, travertine, sinter and bacterial mats. Incredibly fascinating! I have over a thousand photos of my own and another 500+ photos and videos of T-Man’s to go through before I can show you some of the highlights of our adventures. Lazy Damselfly didn’t do anything much on the computer while we were gone except download all our photos from the cameras to back them up. It was a jam-packed 3 weeks, let me tell you. And with no Internet.

Even though we did lots of driving, I didn’t get nearly as much knitting done on the road as I thought I might. Of course I always bring way too much with me! Just in case, you know. I did get a goodly chunk of my Oatmeal Jacket done – but stopped because I’m thinking it might be too big across the shoulders. Boo-hoo. I need to try it on Debbie Double and reassess. Being a double seed stitch and slow to knit I’d hate to have to frog the darn thing. Instead, I started on T-Man’s Handspun Brownstone sweater and now have the sleeves and a portion of the body completed. However I only had 6 skeins of yarn spun up and will definitely need more soon. I see lots more teasing, carding, spinning and plying in my near future! I figure it’s going to take at least 5 or 6 more bobbins-full before I’m done. It’s coming out lovely though. Jared Flood not only designs great patterns but he also writes easy-to-follow pattern directions. Self-published patterns have the potential for greater clarity because the page numbers are unlimited. No need to be edited down to a magazine or book’s limited format. It’s quite refreshing.

In other crafty news, we managed to make time to shop in Portland on the way home. I went to Fabric Depot for the first time and was both overwhelmed and disappointed. It was at least 1/3 quilting fabrics which are quite lovely but not really suitable for my garment sewing. Many, if not most, fabrics were on sale but I found it a little confusing since the sale prices weren’t reflected on the bolt’s printed price. I went in there mostly interested in wools and linens but ended up skipping them as too expensive. (I’d rather support a local business if the price is so similar.) I discovered Cuddle Minky fabrics which are microfibre stretch fleece fabrics – but didn’t buy any. The one I wanted most had a short nap on one side and a fleecy side on the other. I thought it would have cost around $60 for enough yardage for the coat I would love to make so I passed on it and of course now I’m kicking myself. I just wasn’t sure how to sew with this stuff and didn’t want to make a very pricey wadder out of it! Yards are shorter than my more-familiar metres, BTW, which I found a little annoying. Yes, 4” makes a difference.

All was not lost though. I did manage to spend over $200 in spite of my shock and awe! I got 7 pieces of fabric, mostly only 2 yards each but on a couple I went for a whole 3 yards. I’ve already washed and dried them and was happy with all but the one that was 40% off, unknown fibre content, and the last 3 yards off the bolt. It’s a heavy woven twill, dark red-brown and it sadly came out of the dryer quite wrinkled and abrasion-marked. I’m hoping after a good steam press it will still be usable. A Bali rayon batik I got coordinates nicely with this fabric so I’d like to make a bottom piece (skirt and/or pants) to go with a loose shirt in the rayon. The ponte knits (a gray cotton/lycra and a dark brown rayon/lycra) came out great though as did the wild black-on-gray graphic printed slinky, the dark brown microfibre suede knit and the dark gray woven poly-microfibre. Not exactly sure what everything will become but some ideas are starting to gel in my tiny mind. Yes, I know I already have a number of pieces of fabric that still haven’t become anything. Yet. Is there a time-limit to these things that I haven’t been informed of? Didn’t think so.

Of course we also made our usual Portland Pilgrimage to Powell’s book store. I was thinking that I wouldn’t find much that I wanted (quit laughing, you lot!) because I usually buy my books online at Chapters/Indigo at a discount. However, I forgot that Powell’s is a great source for second-hand and remaindered books. So I stocked up on a few older books on fitting and sewing. I was glad that I’d earlier bought a copy of “Pants for Real People” at Fabric Depot though, because Powell’s didn’t have that one. I’ll try to remember to do a review after I get a chance to read these books. I seem to be all about the sewing these days, don’t I?

Not to be outdone, we also stopped at Frantz Art Glass for T-Man. Located near the airport in Shelton, WA, it’s a bit tricky to find the first time. T thinks it’s more exciting than any candy store! He controlled himself very well though since he still has lots of supplies left from the last visit several years ago. We’re both stocking up on tools and supplies for his retirement. Seriously. Soon.

Further up the road in Port Townsend, I ogled the funky clothing and shoes in The Clothes Horse and breezed through Diva Yarn and Wynwoods Bead Gallery, whereupon I accidentally succumbed to the lure of a couple of new Japanese bead shapes: peanut seed beads and TILA squares with 2 holes. And I haven’t beaded anything in forever either! I’m thinking stitched embellishments? Or is that just an excuse to buy new sparklies? Do I need an excuse? Nah.

OK, I need to get to work around here. Since we got home on Saturday I’ve already done 6 loads of laundry and put away a bunch of stuff. It’s my first day without T around in a month so it’s taking some adjustment. So quiet – except for the city workmen who were supposed to have finished the street work beside our house before we got back. It’s too wet to garden. Yay! Or maybe that should be Darn!But there’s lots more to catch up on. It’s been awhile.

Off And Running

2011-09-09T08:12:00.001-07:00

Just a quickie to say…man, I’m totally exhausted! I’ve cleaned and watered and weeded and laundered and vacuumed and packed and…now I want to leave before it all needs doing again. As soon as T-Man is finished work we do a last check and then it’s Holiday Time!

The weather is perfect for camping – at least so far. We’re heading east first to Waterton/Glacier, then south to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, then west to Craters of the Moon, west some more to Portland, north with a side-trip to Mt. St. Helens, north some more on the west side of the Hood Canal to Port Townsend, ferry to Whidbey Island and then on home. At least that’s the plan. Subject to change depending on weather and such. (Hopefully no exploding awnings this time!) Since I likely won’t be stopping anywhere with reliable wi-fi, this is the last post for 3+ weeks. Pictures when I return.

Meanwhile the old homestead will be checked as frequently as possible by Milady Daughter. She gets any leftover produce from the garden – except my precious butternut squashes which aren’t ripe yet anyway. Though I think there’s already enough summer squash ready for her to make relish which will make her happy. Most of the tomatoes are still green so she’s going to get all that ripen while I’m away. Sigh. Big waste of time for the small amount I got. I didn’t even get enough to make a batch of sundried tomatoes like last year. Oh well. Every year is a different story.

Off to finish packing. Here’s my pretty moth orchid which surprised me by re-blooming. At least the flowers last long enough for me to enjoy them when I get back.

Back To School – But Not For Me

2011-09-06T11:20:00.001-07:00

I’m thinking of my grandbeasties today – the bigger ones at least. Stargazer will be starting full-day kindergarten – a big step for him. He won’t be 5 until the very end of December so he’ll likely be the youngest in class. He has had some experience with playschool a couple of days a week, but I feel fulltime is hard for kids who haven’t been in daycare. I really hope he has a good experience and enjoys the learning. His big sister Super-Princess is off to grade two. She’s still struggling a little with reading and writing but her math skills are excellent. Her problem is mostly with an innate embarrassment about making a mistake. This year she should be able to get over the hump and make friends with words. It opens the doors to learning everything else.

Oddly instead of having weather that smells of fall and back-to-school, we’re having some of the warmest and sunniest days of the entire summer. It’s almost making me wish we weren’t heading inland on Friday where it’s actually going to be hot! We aren’t fooled though. We’ll be in the mountains where it could change into winter in the blink of an eye. I’m wisely packing enough clothing for any eventuality: shorts, skirts, sunhat, sandals, pants, fleece vests, raingear, boots, woolly scarf, gloves, undershirts, longjohns, turtlenecks, hoodie… Good thing I have an expanding suitcase. Comfort trumps fashion any day.

In crafty news, my knitting these days seems doomed to difficulties. I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve started a new project just to have something on the needles for those rare downtimes in the Packing Frenzy. In case you missed it, it’s the Ardsley Jacket, a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn and it’s a cutaway shape in a double-moss stitch with pockets, collar and i-cord edging. (Ravelry link, pattern link.) I’m using a cone of 2-ply oatmeal tweed wool that I found in the weaving stash. No idea where I got it but it was probably transferred from somebody else’s stash. Anyway, for certain it’s rather…ahem, vintage. I started knitting the pockets as a swatch and needed to go down a needle size to 5mm to get gauge in this moss stitch. So far so good:

No, it’s not really crooked, just my camera angle. And it’s also not yet blocked. Wanna see the i-cord edge up close?

I think it’s quite cunning! I had to go down 2 needle sizes to 4mm dpns and then pick up only the front loop of the bind-off stitches to get it to work properly. I also picked up the stitches on the pocket one at a time with the end of the dpn as I went along so the next stitch was in place to knit it together with the last i-cord stitch. It’s much easier than trying to knit 2 tight stitches together from 2 different needles. I like the finish the i-cord gives even if it is rather tedious to knit. I’ll have lots more practice before I’m done this sweater!

However while knitting the second pocket I discovered a break in one of the yarn plies. Then another break about 8 yards later. I started winding off to see what was up and after a couple more I think I’ve come to the end of the breaks. If not, there will be a few joins in this sweater! Par for the course when using vintage wool. This type of damage is often caused by carpet beetles rather than moths. They dig in to one spot so the yarn breaks in the same place as the cone unwinds. The critter is long gone though so there’s no need to give the cone an “arctic vacation” in the freezer. I’m getting a sweater for free except for the work of knitting it so I’m not really complaining too much. This project is coming with us – among others. I’d hate to run out of knitting halfway through the holiday. There unfortunately aren’t a lot of yarn shops where we’re going. (I am going to try to get to Fabric Depot in Portland however. It’s reputed to be the largest fabric store in America. Sounds good to me!)

Yes, I know I should be spinning for T-Man’s Brownstone Sweater but first I have to card more wool. And I can’t start knitting it until I wind some cakes from the washed skeins that I’ve spun so far. I plan to spend the rest of the day upstairs. Cleaning up the studio/study area and packing the knitting supplies, patterns and books to read is my Big Job for today. I have been skipping from one project to another for ages so it’s quite a mess up there. Add teasing, carding and spinning the fleece and it’s dirty as well as messy. Wish me luck. I’ll try not to get distracted with all the possibilities in my personal Fibre Heaven.

Off I go!

Labour Day Weekend

2011-09-05T21:05:00.001-07:00

We got off to a good start on Saturday when we went for a drive in the old VW van to Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. This trip accomplished several things: a drive to test the new fan belts in the van (in case they need adjusting), a walk in the same park where we spent the later part of our wedding day 40 years and 2 months ago, a chance to finally spread my little container of my birth mom’s ashes (only 2 years late!), and also for T-Man and I to enjoy the lovely summer weather – while we still have some to enjoy. Apart from the usual crazy traffic around the Lion’s Gate Bridge, it was a very pleasant outing.

The rest of the weekend had a definite emphasis on “labour” rather than a rest from it! We’re currently in a perhaps futile attempt to finish a bunch of things around the house before we head off on our vacation on Friday. Him: painting the van’s propane tank, caulking the cracks in the stucco on the house, painting the final parts of the front stairs, repairing the cracks in the sidewalk, putting away some of the deck furniture, and weeding and watering the front garden. Me: harvesting, cleaning up the veggie garden, planting fall rye in the empty beds, cleaning and bringing in the cactuses after their summer vacation outside, and watering every plant in sight. Etc. Whew! Labour Day, huh?

And there’s still more to do inside. Lots of cleaning and laundry as well as packing: crafts, clothes, food, electronic gear, bicycles, and everything else we might possibly need in the next 3+ weeks. Plus grocery shopping, van maintenance, a hair cut, lawn mowing…I need a holiday from the holiday preparations! And then there will be all the cleanup to do when we get back. Luckily for my sanity, we go away for this long only once a year.

The Point Atkinson lighthouse is there, hiding behind the trees on the right. I was about to fall in the water if I climbed any further out on the rocks!

In crafty news, I had a Huge Fail with a knitted project about which I have not previously blogged. This yarn (of which I had 2 balls) has been very uncooperative:

First it started out to be socks for Super-Princess until I realised that she’s sensitive to the nylon content. Frogged. Then it was going to be a sweater for Rosebud until I realised that it was way too small for her quickly growing self. Frogged again. Then it was 3/4 of the way to becoming a dress for Rosebud, one that would even fit for awhile, until…I spilled an entire large cup of tea on my knitting, including the remaining ball of yarn. Whereupon it immediately soaked up the tea and stained PERMANENTLY! Blotchy yellowish stains. That would NOT wash out. I gave it up as an absolute lost cause and threw the evil thing in the trash. The pompons made it no fun to knit anyway and I had already knit it – over and over and over. My middle name is not Sisyphus, OK? I know when to throw in the towel…er, yarn. Done. Maybe I’ll try the dress again with another yarn. Maybe I’ll rework the pattern so it’s easier to knit or find another pattern that is better. Meanwhile, I feel much better now.

How Can It Be September Already?

2011-09-02T08:59:00.001-07:00

My fingers are sore. I spent a goodly part of Wednesday afternoon stitching and stitching on the new screen for my VW van:

It took about 4 hours and I went over every seam twice to make sure it was going to last. I had to stand on the cooler to reach and even wore my sunhat for awhile until the sun shifted behind my walnut tree. I think it looks pretty spiffy if I do say so myself! If you’re wondering why I worked so hard on this, here’s the original screen:

The new one is much finer and will keep out no-see-ums as well as mosquitoes, wasps, moths and other winged critters. The old one (ca1989) wasn’t keeping out much of anything! Hopefully it will be good now for as long as the van exists – or at least as long as the canvas top survives.

Then yesterday was our monthly Spectrum Study Group dye day. This time we played with madder and modifiers. My tussah silk yarn mordanted in rhubarb leaf came out a disappointing rose-beige for some reason. I suspect the madder needed to be stronger since we only used 7.5% WOF. Other yarns mordanted in alum came out somewhat brighter:

Not as intense as it could be though. After dyeing them we subjected various skeins to acid (vinegar), alkali (ammonia), iron and copper. Only the iron modifier made any real changes in the colour:

The acid modified yarns were slightly brighter than normal but the alkaline and copper ones didn’t change much at all – at least that we could see while they were wet. I’ve experienced much more dramatic differences in the past so I’m not sure what was going on unless it was just that the madder percentage was too low. I usually use 18-25% WOF so we used less than half that. I also usually get at least one or two exhaust baths from the stronger amount but this was completely exhausted right away. We used a finely powdered madder and unfortunately didn’t put it in a bag in the dyebath so now my yarn is full of madder dust as well as kind of homely! It’s still wet and I don’t have a photo yet to show you. I might just try overdyeing it with a little more madder to see what happens. Probably not until I get back from holiday though. I have things to do.

Meanwhile here’s a basket that Kirsten arranged of some of the yarns that she’s been dyeing during this year of Spectrum:

Pretty colours, huh? Who says natural dye colours are all boring and dull. And here’s a little bundle of hand-dyed weaving thrums that was lying around:

Yummy.

Today I was going to accompany Milady Daughter and Rosebud to get her boots adjusted but apparently Milord SIL has contracted mumps. Maybe. They’re still trying to confirm but meanwhile their little family is quarantined. They are certainly not wanted at Children’s Hospital! And baby Rosebud hasn’t had her immunisation for it yet. Cross your fingers that she has my natural immunity. Both my adopted siblings had it, one of them twice (once in each cheek), but I never caught it even before I had my immunisation shots.

So I’m planning to spend some time today carding and spinning more of the black Corriedale yarn. I’ve got half of what I need for T-Man’s Brownstone sweater but I’d like to have it all spun and wound into cakes before we go away. I might be asking too much of myself though. Won’t hurt to try! Every skein I get done means I can get further on the knitting while we’re travelling.

Memo: Always pack your craft supplies first.

Last Day Of August

2011-08-31T09:56:00.001-07:00

It’s cloudy and cool today and sadly summer seems to be winding down. That’s too bad because it sure took long enough to get going! We never got much real heat at all and it’s been consistently cooler than usual at night. No wonder my poor tomatoes think it’s still June! Also I’m definitely feeling like I need a holiday. Soon.

I still have things to do first though. We got some fine netting yesterday to replace the disintegrating mosquito net on the flap in the canvas part of our van. I’m going to have to hand-stitch it in somehow while standing on the cooler to reach it in situ. I also can’t pierce the canvas so this is going to be…interesting. That’s my big job for today while it’s not sunny. It gets rather hot in there otherwise. Adding even more fun to the job. Wish me luck.

Working as fast as I can I’ve spun about half of the yarn for T-Man’s Brownstone sweater. I really want to knit this while we’re away so I’d love to get the yarn all spun before we go. Maybe. It’s taking longer than I’d hoped though. I need to tease and card some more now before I can spin. I don’t like to tease the wool in the house because so much dirt falls out while I’m doing it. The little grass seeds get stuck in the rug and don’t vacuum out. That’s obviously how they got stuck in the sheep’s fleece in the first place.

I did manage to finish one thing this week:

Speedy Gonzales Shawlette

For: me

Begun: August 19, 2011

Completed: August 29, 2011

Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin, colourway Gonzales (black/reds/oranges), 150g = 510 yards. Cast off the last row in picot with On Your Toes Bamboo, colourway Black, leftovers from the Black Bamboo Cowl.

Needles: Addi Lace 24” circular, 4mm

Pattern: Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes, slight modifications by me.

Comments: A challenge to use this wonderful Wollmeise yarn, a gift from Lauren straight from the shop in Germany.

I used my slightly modified version of the Holden Shawlette, removing 2 rows of the stockinette centre (ending with 189 sts) and, in the process, eliminating the 2 extra stitches each side of the lace pattern. This made it much easier to knit and I think it looks tidier as well. I re-charted the repeat to clean it up and had enough yarn to work it 3.5 times instead of 2.5 making it larger.

However, I didn’t have quite enough to finish the picot edging! I was about 3 yards short and had to tink back and start the edging again with the leftover black bamboo yarn from the recent cowl project. It took about 35 yards just to bind off. Took me nearly a whole day to finish this darn thing up but I was determined to get there. For blocking, I used the heavier wires at the top of the shawl and pinned out the picots individually into scallops. With the extra repeat of the edging chart it turned out more shawl than shawlette sized. The Wollmeise yarn is quite substantial and seems to block out nicely.

This turned out to be the Not-So-Speedy Gonzales Shawl - particularly while knitting the tedious (but lovely) picot edging for the second time!

Now I’m swatching for yet another sweater. I found a cone of worsted yarn in my stash in a tweedy oatmeal colour. I have No Idea where it came from. I swear my stash accumulates when I’m not looking! I kind of want to do the Ardsley Jacket, a free pattern from Lion Brand (Ravelry link). This is a jacket with a cutaway front, long sleeves, and a cute collar and pockets. Unfortunately not very many people have done this one so I’m not getting much helpful input from Ravelry this time. I mistakenly swatched in mostly plain stockinette so now I have to do it again in moss stitch. Doh. The jacket is nearly completely moss stitch (which I missed obviously!) except for the i-cord edging. I’m revising the pattern a little to make it a large below the waist and a medium above plus I’ll probably need to shorten the sleeves my usual 2”. Also I’ll knit the fronts and back as one and work the sleeves in the round which should eliminate some of the ridiculous amount of seaming involved. I don’t really mind sewing seams as much as some knitters do but sometimes there’s just no point in making more work for yourself. As a matter of fact, perhaps I should knit the pockets first as a swatch and save a little time and effort.

You might be wondering what happened to my sewing plans after I was so gung-ho for a month or two. I got a bit frustrated with it when my last idea didn’t work and I couldn’t get a pattern to fit on a remnant. I also felt reluctant to cut out a skirt from that hand-dyed paisley fabric in case it didn’t fit me properly. I have a problem using the Good Fabrics sometimes. Not like there’s no more fabric in the stores, hey? And then I got sidetracked by the black Corriedale wool, dyeing with my woad and Japanese indigo and harvesting from the garden. Now there’s no time to do much until I get back from my holiday so I’m putting sewing on hiatus for awhile. I have been wearing what I’ve already made though! The only pieces that aren’t in regular rotation are the gray dress and the banana skirt which are in the same heavy doubleknit and are too warm for this time of year. The brown plaid dress and the green sweatshirt tunic are great and all 3 of the black capris/shorts are worn often. I especially love the pockets in the longer shorts. I think I need to make longer pants from this pattern for winter under tunics.

Guess I had best get something useful done today. Haven’t done much so far even though I’ve been up since before 6am because T is working at home from 5am-1pm this week. His “office” is about 3 feet from the end of our bed so even though he was quiet, I can’t sleep when he has to make a phone call. It’s only a little earlier than my usual waking time anyhow. I don’t mind, especially when he gets the afternoons free. Tomorrow is Spectrum Dye Group day and we’re doing some madder experiments. I have 3 skeins of tussah silk yarn that I mordanted in rhubarb leaf yesterday that still need to be rinsed. And the bug netting sewn in. Right. More anon.

Beans and Summer Squash and Ai

2011-08-26T09:40:00.001-07:00

I had one of those crazy days yesterday. The kind where I’m trying to find something and it takes 4 different stores to locate it. This time it was canning lids. Not in my local grocery store (it’s tiny), not in the “general store” (it’s horrible), not in the Shoppers Drug Mart (why do they sell groceries now?)…finally in the Safeway. I hunted the isles and finally found what I was looking for, all dusty and hiding on a low shelf. What I didn’t find anywhere was fenugreek. So I made my bean pickles without it. There was mustard seed, coriander, cardamom, peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon stick involved though. Yum.

I also had about 5 pounds of zucchini and pattypan squashes so I made my favourite relish. This includes onions and red peppers as well as turmeric, mustard seed, celery seed and ginger. Also yum. Does anyone know what made my beans float? I’ve never made sweet bean pickles before and was kind of making it up as I went. I think I could have packed the jars more tightly. But it seemed that the juice came out of the beans so they wrinkled up leaving more liquid and less vegetable. I think this one needs more experimentation. And also fenugreek.

Let’s move on to the promised Japanese indigo photos, shall we?

I think it’s a quite attractive plant and the leaves smell a little spicy when they’re cooking. Now if only it will bloom before frost. Please-please-please?

Bad blogger forgot to photograph my friend Jo’s items but here’s all the things that I dyed in Monday’s vat:

All washed and dried and pressed. That would be a scrunch-dyed t-shirt of mine on the bottom, a tie-dyed t-shirt for my grandson on top (there’s 2 circles on the back), the 2 skeins of bamboo rayon that were formerly dyed in the murky woad vat a couple of weeks ago (now much prettier, no?) and a set of 8 heavy cotton napkins that went in at the end. Jo got a very dark blue on her handwoven scarf but most of the items came out this soft lighter blue which I love. A lot seems to depend on the fibre type and order of dipping in the vat. First in gets darkest. Second dip evens out the colour. Third dip only gets minimally darker. Wool and silk dye darkest and the cellulose fibres somewhat lighter. From a large pot full of leaves we dyed nearly 2 lbs of fibre in total. I think that’s pretty satisfactory for a small garden patch of plants.

Meanwhile I’ve been plugging away on the Speedy Gonzales Shawlette using my slightly revised version of the Holden Shawlette using the Wollmeise yarn in the Gonzales colourway.

I’m quite a bit farther along now – into the second repeat of the feather and fan edging. I think I’ll have enough yarn to knit an extra repeat and make it slightly larger than the one I made for T-Man’s auntie. I love this pattern. Simple to knit but very attractive results and it plays nicely with variegated yarns. What more could one ask?

Drive-By Post

2011-08-25T10:24:00.001-07:00

Just to say I’m not really neglecting the blog but I’ve been occupied. The Japanese indigo did very well on Monday and I have a bunch of stuff to show except that first I need to rinse and dry and photograph it. I left some of the oldest plants alone in case they decide to flower for me. The rest I cut off the largest stems, depleting the plants by about half. I got rather wet in the rain too, even wearing a nylon jacket and a Tilley hat! That was just about when my friend Jo showed up to help strip off the leaves.

We got enough to fill my biggest dyepot about 3/4s full which was more than the first time. Because the amount was larger it took longer to bring the cold water covering the leaves up to 70C. Eventually they started to turn the “cooked” colour and we stirred a lot to prevent hot spots and overcooking. The only thing I did differently this time was to let it cool for awhile before doing anything else with it while we had lunch. When we came back it was still quite hot so I put one of my pop bottles of ice into it for a short while and soon got it down to 50C. Then we added the soda ash and beat it with the stick blender for a short while. The bubbles turned bright blue almost immediately so I wasn’t sure how long to beat and it was probably only about 5 minutes tops. Worked however!

I’ll save the rest of the report until I have photos to show. Unfortunately I missed taking pictures of Jo’s fabulous handwoven scarf. It was black and white and she dyed it so that it went from deep blue at one end to pale at the other. So pretty! I need to be more on the ball with the camera, huh?

I babysat the big grandbeasties yesterday and we had a good time. Except that Super-Princess pigged out on the blueberries and blackberries in my garden and then was sick on and off for the rest of the day. Purple puke! Yum. Her little brother Stargazer, who didn’t eat very many at all, helped me make cakes with the berries on top. When asked if she wanted to help place the berries, poor SP turned green and went and upchucked again. So needless to say she didn’t have any cake for dessert but got some mango gelato specially scooped by her grampa instead. I think by dinner time she was feeling somewhat better though because she ate ok. Hopefully she made it home in her grandma’s car! I sent a towel and a plastic bag with them just in case.

Today I need to deal with a mountain of dirty dishes and go pick the summer squashes, cukes and beans in the garden. Three days and they’ve grown to monster proportions! I also need to finally make the bean pickles. But first I have to go to the store and get some more spices and vinegar. And probably canning lids. I’ll have to check.

Is it just me or is the To-Do list getting longer by the second?

What’s That Sound?

2011-08-22T07:56:00.001-07:00

Rain! I haven’t heard raindrops falling for so long – a month at least. It sounds strange and smells heavenly. All moist and green and delicious. I’m happy I was wise enough to close the roof of the greenhouse last night. This is the time of year when it’s most important to keep the rain off the tomatoes to avoid late blight. Now the garden will all finally get enough water and I won’t have to stand there wielding a hose to do it. Yay.

So what have I been up to? I’ve been super-busy in the garden, a regular little City Farmer. Watering (hah! but not today), harvesting, clearing, planting, etc. Now that there are a few clear spaces in the veggie garden I planted some winter rye cover crop to keep the soil from just being bare. If it grows too large before fall I can always turn it all under and plant it again when I do the rest of the garden. Bare soil is not good. It just washes away in the winter rains.

I harvested about 1/3 of the weld from the dye garden, but not until I’d saved enough seeds to last for the next couple of years. I was glad I didn’t cut it all down because it was enough work to chop up what I had. Even with a glove on my scissor-hand I was courting blisters. I have lots now! The chopped up weld is definitely not going to dry today but it’s supposed to go back to summer again tomorrow. It was nice to feel like real summer…at least for a few days.

Also in the dye garden, the coreopsis is finally starting to produce lots of flowers. It’s been pretty sparse so far. I’m very fond of the rusts and oranges I can get from the flowers so I’m glad to at least get some. The Japanese indigo is tall again and ready for a second harvest which will be today. They aren’t showing any signs of flowering yet though. The marigolds are doing ok and I’ve got a few small bags of flower heads in the freezer now. The regular calendula is giving me a dozen flowers every couple of days but the variety Indian Prince is a write-off. It was pretty but the flowers were small and really super-sensitive to aphids. They succumbed. Cue the funeral music.

On a happier note, I have a Finished Object:

Black Bamboo Cowl

For: me

Begun: July 31, 2011
Completed: August 19, 2011

Yarn: Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo sock yarn, colour KOB.0300 Black, dyelot 3096. 100g = 328 yds. Used just over half a ball.

Needles: Addi Lace 24” circular, 5mm

Pattern: Cabled Feather Cowl by Cindy Craig, Ravelry link, free pattern link.

Mods: I used a larger needle size to loosen up the fabric a little.

Comments: Yes, another black item! It’s an interesting combination of lace and simple cables with a wave thing happening due to the feather and fan variation. It would be lovely in a variegated yarn too or maybe handspun. I’m very happy with how this quick project turned out. The bamboo yarn gives it a lovely drape. I can envision wearing this cowl a lot in colder weather.

Now I have to go have a shower and get ready for Japanese Indigo Dye Day with my buddy Jo. Rain or no rain, the blue must go on!

Good Job

2011-08-18T11:00:00.001-07:00

Well, it took a lot of work but the decks are now back in shape after being cleared for the painters.

I scrubbed the upper deck (aka the back porch) which is covered in beige textured vinyl and collects dirt like nobody’s business. I washed off all the tables and chairs. I put most of the pots back except for the ones that screw onto the walls. I had to wait for T-Man to help because it takes two of us: one to hold the pot up and one to wield the screwdriver. I also needed him to drain the water garden, disassemble the pump, help me lift it back up to the top deck and put it all back together again. Sparky the local crow was discombobulated when he couldn’t find it near the garage where it’s been for the past week. He uses the water garden for a drink and it was too convenient out there. Now he’s got to be more wary because it’s returned to the accustomed spot by the back door. I tend to frighten him off when I see him there. His revenge? Poops everywhere and leaves the poor water plants trailing around the deck. We have an uneasy relationship.

I also managed to ply up my first two big skeins of the black Corriedale wool for T’s sweater:

The colour isn’t really accurate. It’s more of a very dark brown-black and would just look like a dark blob in the photo if I didn’t lighten it up a little. There’s about 150 yards or so in each 100g skein. At that rate I’ll need another 7 or 8 skeins for the 1500 yds that I want. That’s a little more than I need (I think!) but I like to have a cushion since I can’t just waltz off to the store for more if I run out. If there’s extra I’ll make him a hat to go with. I have another basket full of teased wool to card today and hopefully I can spin up at least one bobbin’s worth. I’m not a technical spinner so I have no idea of the twists per inch and all that stuff. I just do it so it feels right. Seems to work.

Meanwhile I’m doing the laundry and also need to get out to the garden and water it better than the lick-and-a-promise I gave it yesterday. The bush beans and cucumbers are slowing down but the pole beans and summer squash are finally reaching their stride. I’ve already lost a few of the lettuces and baby cabbage that I planted the other day. Slugs. Evil creatures. I love them in the forest – they’re actually very interesting – but not in my garden. I get so mad at them that I’ve been known to squish the little ones with my bare hands. Ick.

I know: TMI, right? Back to work, Damselfly. The days whoosh by much too fast!

Done and Gone

2011-08-17T09:14:00.001-07:00

And didn’t the painters do a nice job?

These are the bits that are immediately on view from my back door and I’m sorry I don’t have a “before” photo to compare. Yes, I know they still look old but my house is nearly 80 so that’s to be expected! You’ll have to take my word that this is a huge improvement. It took 3 days as the painters scraped and undercoated and gave it all 2 coats of paint by hand. No power tools except the pressure washer (who was also the only one who didn’t do a great job). Then they cleaned up their mess. They worked hard and it shows. I’m thrilled to know that good old-fashioned craftsmanship still exists in young people. Makes me not quite so worried for the future. Now to get my decks back to normal and move the flowers and furniture back to their accustomed places. But first I have to scrub the dirt off the top porch. My turn to work hard.

At least I finished one project:

Segue Socks

For: T-Man

Begun: July 30, 2011
Completed: August 16, 2011

Yarn: DGB Confetti Superwash, 75% wool/25% nylon, colourway 9026 (light gray), dyelot 6053, overdyed by me, 50g = 231 yds, 2 balls.

Needles: Blackthorn 5” dpns, 2mm.

Comments: My usual plain socks on 68 sts, 28 rows 2/2 rib, 8.5” before heel flap, 8.25” before toe dec, dec to 24 sts (6 per needle), dog-ear reduction.

I really like the way the dye technique started lighter at the top and moved to ever-darker colours at the toe. So pretty! It only took me a year to get around to using this yarn. And I still have another set of segue yarns waiting for me to knit them up. That one’s for me.

I’ve spun up two bobbins of the black Corriedale and will ply them today. That’s 2 skeins out of however-many-gazillion for a man’s sweater. And I have enough teased wool for one more bobbin. I see a lot more work in my future! I’ll have a better idea when I’ve counted how many yards are in one skein. I’m quite pleased with how easy it is to spin thicker after all the lace-weight I’ve spun the last few years. Not labouring over it and just letting it go is kind of fun. I’m not aiming for perfect because it doesn’t show in the knitting anyhow. What does show is keeping it light and easy. It’s not true woolen spinning though because apparently I don’t know how to do that very well. (Really. It’s a gap in my spinning education.) It’s also not worsted which I am good at. It’s somewhere in the semi-woolen gray area. I’ve never been clear on the distinctions. It’s yarn. It knits up nice. It’ll do.

The Calm Before The Storm

2011-08-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

We’re in the midst of the Painting Whirlwind here and I’m really glad they’re nearly done. Today the boss has an appointment so they won’t be here until noon and hope to finish up. Yay! The house has been a little uncomfortable for me as the guys have been using the bathroom and slinging ladders around near all the windows. They’ve been polite and courteous but it doesn’t matter where I am, I feel like there are curious eyes on me! I’ve even learned to lock the bathroom door and check out the window to see where the ladders situated are before using the toilet. Sheesh. I’m sure they wonder what the heck I’m up to. I’ve been carding and spinning (more on that later), leaving skeins of yarn to dry on the deck table and working in the garden.

Speaking of the garden, it’s producing really well right now. Here’s just one day’s harvest:

I’ve pulled out the peas now and planted some little lettuce, mizuna and cabbage seedlings in that bed. If the slugs don’t eat them all they might have time to produce something before frost. Maybe. It’s a crapshoot especially when I’ll be away for 3 weeks in September. On the other hand, I have so many beans that I need a pickle recipe to use some of them up. I want a spicy one, not dill, but I can’t find exactly what I’m looking for. Any suggestions? I never end up using the ones I freeze so I think pickles are the way to go. I’ve already made a fresh pickle with a bunch of the little lemon cucumbers. It’s really easy. Peel and slice the cukes and add some red onion slices, mix equal parts rice vinegar (or whatever is your favourite) and white sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves (I use about 1/4c each for a pint container – they don’t need to swim), pour over the cukes and onion, sprinkle on some celery seed, toss and stir and let sit in the fridge at least an hour before eating. Lasts at least a week refrigerated. Yum.

Meanwhile, I spun up a sample batt of the black Corriedale wool for T-Man’s Brownstone Pullover and managed to get a pretty decent worsted-weight yarn. There was still a rather unacceptable amount of grease in the wool and it took some really hot water and more Unicorn Power Scour to get it to come out. Just the Wool Wash didn’t cut it. Now it’s nice and springy and squooshy. I knitted a swatch with the recommended 5mm needles (I’m using Denise for this project) but after washing and drying it was out by quite a lot. So I unravelled it and steamed the yarn to get out the kinks and tried again with 4.5mm. This time I got stitch gauge but the row gauge is still out a little (2 stitches less in 4 inches). The swatch is lovely and light but cohesive so I’m not going to mess around further.

It’s hard enough to get the exact gauge even using the recommended yarn – far less something that was directly off a sheep not long ago! I do my best and then fudge the rest. At least the width will be correct and that’s the most important thing. Most of the lengthwise knitting is done to a measurement, not a row-count anyway. Though I did forget to record the swatch measurements before blocking in case they’re quite different. I’ve made that mistake before and ended up with sleeves that are too long because the yarn relaxed when washed and blocked. Maybe I need to knit another swatch. Sigh.

I’ve been carding up enough wool for a bobbin’s worth at a time. It takes 4 batts each. I think the new Pat Green Deb’s Delicate Deluxe carder with the “production” drum makes much larger batts than my 35-year-old model. The teeth are longer and closer together. It doesn’t doff very cleanly however and there is some build-up on the licker-in drum as well. It doesn’t seem to be getting worse so I’m not going to bother cleaning them off until I’m done. Which will be some time in the not-so-near future! A whole huge basket full of teased wool only made a dozen batts. More teasing, more carding, more spinning…

Weld + Woad = Green

2011-08-12T12:21:00.001-07:00

Two of my friends, Kirsten and Donna came over yesterday to play with my woad. We had mixed success. The plants have not done all that well this year. Like every other biannual in my garden, many of them think they’re in their second year and are bolting. Particularly the Chinese woad which started to bolt when it was still really little and was a total fail. I started more plants but only about 4 of them survived. They gave us a few leaves to add to the collection anyway. The main woad patch managed to give us a bucketful of rather bug-chewed leaves. This is what it looked like before we picked everything but the tiniest new leaves:

We did the usual extraction and got some pretty good blues, especially in the first few dips:

The wool and silks showed the most true blue with cottons and rayons leaning more towards teal. Kirsten dyed a pole-wrapped shibori silk scarf. This is just a detail:

Isn’t it pretty? Donna dyed some woven shibori samples:

They came out pretty intense and I’m sorry I didn’t get a shot of them after she unpicked the ties. I was concentrating on my weld-dyed rayon skeins. This photo goes from the left: plain weld, woad exhaust over weld exhaust, woad over the middle weld shade, woad over the darkest weld, plain woad:

Only the weld is rinsed and dry and the other skeins are still oxidising for the next day or two so they could be a shade or so lighter after that. I’m quite pleased with my first Lincoln green!

However, I’m not so pleased with the woad that I extracted and left in jars in my cold room since last November. Only 1 of the jars smelled right and the other 3 were quite stinky and a little mouldy on top. I scraped that off and poured them all into a vat together. Mistake? Maybe. Next I tried to decide what to do with the resulting blue liquid. I thought it might need more soda ash but wasn’t able to tell the pH because I only have pH paper and the colour of the vat obscured the colour I was supposed to read on the paper. I added about half what I would to a normal vat anyway, just in case. Then I heated it gently to 50C and added the usual amount of thiourea dioxide, covered the pot and let it rest for half an hour or so. It didn’t clear at all and looked kind of grey-blue and murky, so I added a little more soda ash and thiox and waited again. I finally got a little bit of an indigo flower and it smelled a little more like the usual vat but it never would clear:

I tested a little piece of wool yarn and got a light greyish blue so I dove in and tried dyeing a skein of the rayon and then some bamboo weaving yarn. The colour is fairly light even after 3 dips and as murky as the vat!

Stinks to high heaven too! Though that will go away when I wash them out. Hopefully the dye won’t all wash out with it! Then today I got annoyed with it and I dumped the recalcitrant vat. Perhaps I should stick to going from plants to dyeing the fibre in the same day. I get good results when I don’t mess with the procedure! Or else I did something wrong? The bottled dye went off because it wasn’t sealed well enough? Something was definitely not right.

We’re having the painters working on the house today. They were able to come earlier than next week so hopefully they’ll be done quickly. Only the eaves and peaks need doing so it shouldn’t take 4 guys too long. Better them than us up on those ladders! Kind of interesting letting them use the bathroom though…

My New Favourite Yellow

2011-08-11T09:29:00.001-07:00

Having dye plants in the garden certainly encourages me to use them. Yesterday I chopped off a couple of the tall stalks from the first-year bolted patch. They were taller than I am! I found the best way to chop them for dye is to strip off the leaves from the lower stem and snip them with kitchen shears. Then remove the upper stem and flower stalks and snip them up too. The lower stalks are too hard to chop easily even with the garden clipper and apparently there isn’t much dye in the anyway so they go in the compost. The thinner stalks are easier to cut up if I open the tube and separate longitudinal sections before snipping them. Here’s the results:

Note how I removed a snip of my ring-fingernail while I was at it! I ended up with about 200g of fresh weld: leaves, flower heads and thinner stems. After simmering at low temps for an hour with the addition of a couple of flavourless Tums tablets, I got this:

This is just a sample dipped out of the pot. Doesn’t look particularly intense, does it? However, the results were pretty spectacular:

Right to left are darkest, slightly-lighter first exhaust and slightly-lighter-again second exhaust on fine rayon weaving yarn mordanted in 5% alum acetate. These are still wet so are somewhat darker than they really are. There was still some dye in the pot but I ran out of mordanted items to put in it! The deepest one has a slightly green cast and the lightest one is a true lemon yellow. Very intense even though it comes out of a rather insipid-looking dye bath. Pretty amazing colour really – it nearly vibrates! Now I know why it was such an important yellow dye to the ancients. Along with its reported excellent lightfastness, it has fair washfastness and will dye all the usual fibres. Weld is also easy to cultivate and actually grows wild in places where it escaped the dyers in the UK. Also apparently in my own garden where several self-sown plants have shown up.

I dyed 4 skeins total, including a second one of the darkest yellow. I’m going to save that one but the three in the photo are going to be dipped into woad for my own home-grown Lincoln green. In my childhood’s cherished Robin Hood storybook, he and his Merry Men always wore Lincoln green to blend into the woods hiding from the evil Sherriff of Nottingham. Though I think this will be a pretty bright green! Perhaps they got their clothes a little dirty running around in the forest? Medieval camouflage? I’ve always wanted to dye my own version and here’s my chance.

Hey, lookit the cool prezzie I got from my friend Lauren! (Hi, hon’!) She was recently in Germany and went to the Wollmeise shop and brought me back my very own skein of Twin 80% merino superwash/20% PA (is that nylon?) in Gonzales colourway:

Does she know my colours or what? This is a 150g skein with 510 yds so there’s enough for a shawl. I’ve decided that I’m going to make another Holden Shawlette which looks very good in variegated yarns. Thanks so much, sweetie!

Unfortunately with my self-imposed rule of no more than two knitting projects at a time, I’m going to have to finish something first before I can start anything else. I’m nearly to the toe on one Segue Sock and just past the gusset on the other one. The Black Bamboo Cowl is about at the halfway point. I still haven’t gotten much more of the black Corriedale wool teased up though. I don’t want to do it in the house because it’s dusty but outside is kind of a disaster. We had to move all the plants off the deck and the furniture down from the top deck while we have the eaves and peaks of the house cleaned and painted. They did the pressure washing yesterday. The upper deck is covered in dirt now! (And the windowsills, the front stairs, the windows etc.) Not his job to clean up apparently. The painters are coming next week and then there’s a cleanup crew so we live with the mess until then. I hate having other people do things. Never up to my standards. But I can’t do this job myself and neither can T-Man so what can you do?

Well, it’s Woad Day today so onward…

Pictureless Monday

2011-08-08T10:15:00.001-07:00

Emerging after the usual weekend Blog Silence to check in. We walked. We watered the garden. (A lot!) We lazed about. We partied. And here we are again at another week. At least this one promises to be warmer and sunnier and much more like the summer we’ve been missing around here. However it’s still colder at night than I (and my plants) prefer although I guess I shouldn’t complain because at least it’s not too hot to sleep. I’m still using my little wooly blankie! In August! Absolutely unheard of. Even here in the Land of Perpetual Gloom.

The peas are just finishing up (late!) and I’ve just started harvesting the lemon cucumbers and filet beans. We’ve had a few teeny summer squashes and Juliet tomatoes. But everything is at least a month behind now. I’m worried that it will all come ripe just when we leave on our September holiday and Milady Daughter will get the benefits of whatever she can harvest while we’re gone. Oh well. Stuff happens. Next year will be a different story, as it always is. And it’s a nice perk for her since she’s kind enough to offer to check on the house for us while we’re away. With an hour’s drive from her house and a baby in tow that’s not as easy as it used to be when she worked close by.

We also celebrated the 7th Birthday of Grandbeastie #1 (aka Super-Princess) yesterday. My, does time fly or what? I brought my camera. And didn’t remove it from my pack. Doh. Since she’s learning how to read we gave her some small easy-reading books to practice with. But I think her favourite gift was a circus tent from her cousins. It fits a couple of kids inside and can be used indoors or out. Like me when I was little, she loves tents and often makes one out of furniture and blankets to crawl into with her toys. This is less creative in setting up but doesn’t collapse on her head! Great gift idea.

In crafty news, I’ve passed the heel turns on T-Man’s Segue Socks and am cruising down the feet. I haven’t had a chance to work on the Black Bamboo Cowl much though so it’s only in the middle of the second of the 8 repeats. I’m liking the results quite a lot so far anyway. The curves of feather-and-fan patterns are fascinating and an occasional cable is a bonus. It’s so dark and blob-shaped that I’ll probably not photograph it until it’s done. I’ve also been teasing that lovely black NZ Corriedale fleece for T’s sweater. I have nearly a large basketful so far but the bag o’wool (actually a pillowcase) doesn’t seem to have depleted much at all. I’m despairing that I’ll have the yarn spun by the time we leave on holiday. I need about 1200 yds of 2-ply worsted-weight which is not a lot of spinning as these things go but definitely a lot of wool to be carded. Might have to consider taking the spinning wheel since I’m not going to spin a man’s sweater worth of wool on a spindle. Klaus, the Louet S-90, does fold and has a carrying bag that I made for it but it’s pretty big to kick around the van for 3 weeks. His little sister, Tori, the Louet Victoria, is much easier to pack but she’s really too small for this job. However, we’ll see how far I can get before then. I have a month. I really want to have the spinning done so I can concentrate on the knitting as we travel.

So T-Man and I have a project for today when he gets home from work. We’re having the eaves and peaks painted on our house and they’re supposed to be coming on Wednesday to pressure wash. So we will be moving the flower pots and the water garden off the deck and out to the yard beforehand to save them from any accidental destruction. No matter how they promise to be careful, it’s much better to get them out of harm’s way ahead of time. The painters will have enough to occupy themselves with trying not to destroy our shrubs which can’t be moved. T and I have kept the bottom section of our house fairly well painted ourselves but the peaks are way too high up for us him to deal with anymore. And we’ve never done under the eaves properly – ever. Time to hire young energetic folks with good insurance to do the high-ladder work. Sometimes you have to realise what you are no longer able to do safely. It’s a fact of aging and one we’re just learning to deal with. Not that we’re old yet. We seem to be able to carry the huge ceramic water garden pot down the stairs ok. Mostly empty of course.

60 is the new 40, right?

So Many Options

2011-08-05T10:08:00.001-07:00

Some among us have become such media junkies that we never have time for our own evolution. But there's a big difference between leafing randomly and going on purposeful searches for personal ends. The Internet is the new reality of experiential study. One thing leads to another. Quality can find quality. The ready mind is readily enriched. Creative evolution speeds up. Dreams may be sooner realized.

from Robert Genn, artist

I am so envious of those who are just learning the textile arts (or anything really) today with so much information available so easily. When I got my first clunky spindle and greasy carded fleece (ick!) back in the Dark Ages of the mid-1970’s, all I had to help learn how to use it was a little photocopied pamphlet with a few pages of vague instructions. I’m surprised I stuck with it! Today through the magic of teh interwebs you can find how-to videos, sources for fibres and equipment, inspiration and even mentors and friends. It’s amazing actually. Such a rich resource.

Some of my friends tease me about how much time I spend on the computer. Little do they know the truth! I’m getting an education that costs very little and can follow my interests wherever they lead me. It’s an enjoyable way to learn – for me anyhow. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) as they say. And I do have a life outside the electronic one! You can tell by my fat notebooks where I keep the printouts of information on each year’s crafty accomplishments. Can’t do all that stuff while sitting in front of a screen, now can I? Well, maybe some of it…

So, yesterday at Spectrum Dye Day we played with quebracho extracts: red, yellow, brown and black. These were mostly older dyestuffs (1990’s!) from Michele Wipplinger before her company Earthues got started. They now only list red and yellow and Maiwa only lists quebracho without saying which species. The name means “break-axe” because this is a very hard wood that grows in the Gran Chaco area of South America. The trees are selectively harvested from tree farms so using it doesn’t contribute to deforestation. It was historically used as a tanning agent as well as a dye. Using the recommended 8-10% gives a rather muted palette especially on cellulose fibres. We used a stronger 20% and got these pretty colours on silks and wool:

From the left: black, brown, yellow and red quebracho. Silk seemed to take the dye the deepest. We dyed the cellulose yarns separately after the silks and wool and they remained at Sandra’s in the pots so I don’t have them to show yet. I also left her another set of skeins (mine were all rayon) so she could pop them in the exhausts afterwards to see what lighter shades we can get. It’ll be fun to see how much different the cellulose is than the protein fibres. Quebracho is recommended for cellulose due to its high tannin content.

I’m also going to have a Woad Dye Day next Thursday. It’ll be interesting to see if the blue suffered because so many of the plants were trying to bolt from the crappy weather this summer. I feel like the Red Queen because I kept chopping their heads off! And also whether it was affected by the lack of sunshine like the Japanese indigo seemed to be. Every year is a different story with my dye garden. So far I’ve hardly even had any flowers on the very late coreopsis. Last year I picked buckets of them! The bolted weld is now taller than I am and I only have 2 teeny little rosettes from self-sown seeds which won’t be ready until next year. The madder is doing very well now that they’ve been freed from their buckets, except that they are being plagued by ants and their herds of black aphids. I keep washing them off but they keep coming back, the darn critters. I have some flowers on them now and maybe I can get seed to try to increase my madder bed. Never a dull moment in Damselfly’s Pond!