A New Year Dawns

We sort of missed the actual stroke of midnight last night. Not into partying with the younglings, we went to bed around 10:30pm but got woken up several times with fireworks going off at random moments. The last time it happened I roused enough to look at the clock and it was already 12:30am. Waahh! I missed hearing the boats in the harbour sounding off which is always my favourite New Year’s event. Oh well. There’s always next year, yes?

Oh right! I was going to show you my fabulous prezzie from dear Heather (True Stitches). She recently had a little giveaway on her blog which I didn’t actually participate in, thinking that I have enough stuff. However, she had something that she knew was totally me so sent me a little package anyway:

A lovely card and this very special piece of fabric:

Look! Damselflies!!! <squeee!> You can tell because they can can fold up their wings. Big cousins the dragonflies can’t. Those ones look exactly like the damselfly I sometimes draw with my signature. It’s an indigo print on a very lightweight and crisp voile. I’m thinking if I hem it, I can wear it as a summer scarf. It’s long enough to wrap around my neck. Love.

And that’s not all! She also included this lovely little hand-stitched book:

See? It has sewing-themed fabric covers! And a lovely red inside:

Guess I’m obliged now to actually use this notebook, hey? Rather than put it on a bookshelf with its pristine pages all blank. Oy. I’m so bad at actually using these things. They’re just so much more precious than Post-Its, aren’t they? Thanks so much for thinking of me, Heather! Super Big Hugs!!

So I decided that I don’t need a Word for this new year. I’m just going to keep on keeping on. Clean a little, clear a little, use a little, buy as little as possible. Except food. We never stint on good food! Fresh, maybe local, maybe not. Maybe organic. Varied and different foods like jicama, pomello, rapini, bison, teff, sorghum flour, hemp hearts, chia, quinoa…

Hmmm…can you tell we recently shopped at Famous Foods and Kin’s Market? Famous Foods is a small local independent grocery store that’s been around forever and is famous (pun!) for its bulk packaged items. We stocked up on lots of things for my favourite gluten-free pancakes and muffins. They’ve also got legumes, cereal grains, pastas, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices. Kin’s Farm Market is our go-to for fresh produce. They began business locally as an actual farm but now are expanding as a franchise chain. They sell only fruits and vegetables, both local and imported with many organic options too, and nothing else – not even a container of milk. Now we’re all stocked up for awhile.

Today we’re off visiting, first to friends’ for a quick drop-in and then out to our nephew’s mom-in-law’s house for more family noshing and schmoozing. Gotta take it while you can get it!

More anon!

Successes & Not-So-Successes

This weekend was filled with lots of very satisfying gardening. I’m finally picking peas (snow & snap) daily and there’s kale, broccoli and lettuce. Several other veggies are finally recuperating from the poor weather though it still hasn’t warmed up. They say we’re in for a heat wave so I’m hoping that will help the even more pathetic ones. Even if it means watering every day. T-Man and I got a lot done as far as weeding and pruning, both front and back and in my dye garden. Yeah, I know I’m weird for enjoying all the work! The woad is nearly ready to be harvested for the first time, though it seems as if the bugs have bothered it more than usual this year. As always, some things are doing better and some things not so much. Every year is a different tale of successes and failures. That’s life in general, huh?

So Saturday was our 39th wedding anniversary and although we acknowledged it to each other, we didn’t really celebrate in any special way. Not that we take each other for granted! On the contrary, every day together is wonderful. OK, damselfly – enough of the sappy stuff. T should really have gotten a medal for putting up with my whining and whingeing, especially recently.

One thing I did finally get however was my prize basket that I won. It was filled with lovely goodies made by members of my weavers’ guild and raffled off at our gallery show at the Seymour Art Gallery. It was a huge surprise for me since I rarely win anything and even more rarely win anything that I really want. This stuff I want!

Don’t know if you can tell from this photo but it all coordinates nicely. How did they manage that? And I know every single person who made these items, some of them for 20 years or more. That makes it even more special! Here’s each piece in detail. First the round box with beading on the lid and dyed locks around the side:

Made by Bonnie Adie who is a fabulous stitcher. And this little book with ribbon tie and page marker by Jay Rudolph:

The end pages are world maps. So cool. Now I have a special place to do my “Ahem-tangles”. (I’ve decided that doodles really don’t need to sport a registered trademark.) Jay is one of the more youthful members of our guild and an expert in bobbinlace among other arts. Like Bonnie, she’s a graduate of the Capilano University’s Textile Arts program.

Next we have a scarf by my buddy Catherine Barr:

Cathie used a silk warp and Korean hanji paper weft in a twill weave which gives it a crisp tailored feel. T-Man wants this one!

These bookmarks are by our current guild president (and my perennial chauffeur) Beryl Hickinbottom:

She wove them on her little inkle loom. One can never have too many bookmarks! And I love the asymmetrical patterns.

This lovely skein of silk and wool yarn in watery blues and greens is by Linda Spence:

As well as spinning and weaving, Linda is also a prolific rug hooker. And we’re not done yet! Next up we have Elizabeth Bell’s gorgeous little piece of multishaft doubleweave:

She calls it a tea trivet but I don’t think I’m going to be staining it with tea anytime soon! The raw edges are finished by tucking them inside and handstitching the gap closed.

Last but not least is my pal Jo Anne Ryeburn’s incredible scarf:

The yarns are so fine it’s hard to imagine that it was handwoven! And shibori (tie-dye) woven at that. She wove in the ties as she went, drew them up tight and did a series of dyeing and painting to get all the colours. I’m going to have to ask her for more details, but I think the pleats are permanent.

Fabu collection, no? I’m so lucky! Sometimes anyhow.

Meanwhile because I was busy in the garden and such, I haven’t had a chance to work any more on my sewing project. I will shortly repair to my studio but first I have to take my new bike, Rideau, up the hill to the mall to get some tea. I’m nearly out of my favourite Damselfly Blend and need some Murchie’s #22 to mix some more. The other ingredient is Choice Pure Jasmine which I already have. Thank goodness because it’s super-expensive. (But nummy!) It’s finally nice enough outside today to make me feel like getting out and cycling.

And we won’t discuss the Creeping Crud (aka psoriasis) because it’s just too gross and annoying for words. A hint: regular panties have now become uncomfortable. I need pettipants or tap pants or something. Hmmm…I may be getting more than just tea at the mall. At least my feet have healed enough (after two stinkin’ weeks) that I can walk on them again without ouchies. My fuzzy slippers are still the most comfortable footwear at the moment though but it seems like it will be warming up too much to wear them soon. Fine!

You know, this would almost be amusing if it wasn’t so horrible. It’s like watching the tide coming in – while you’re stuck on a sandbar helpless to stop it. Oh, alright. It’s not going to kill me. Just annoy the pants off me! Literally.

But I won a prize!!!!

Fibrefest Fun

I’ll get to my blogiversary prizes in a sec but first I want to talk about my experiences at Fibrefest yesterday. Although it was quiet, too quiet really, I had a good time meeting and greeting all my friends and acquaintances and checking out all the booths. Bought a few items:


That’s a new Houndesign with a lauro preto spindle and the whorl in bocote wood. Golden brown bocote (Cordia elaeagnoides) from Mexico has a definite dark stripe pattern while lauro preto (Nectandra mollis) is a South American wood characterized by its very dark chocolate/brown coloring with a pronounced darker figuring. It’s smaller than my last year’s spindle with the padauk whorl but it’s noticeably heavier. I also got a couple of books from Homespun Haven (Armstrong, BC). But my big score was a gorgeous two-row blending hackle from Andrew Forsyth that includes a tine cover and decorative purpleheart wood end caps. He even threw in the handmade clamps free. He usually charges extra for these or folks just use commercially available clamps. There was an article in the last Spin-Off on using a hackle and it made me want one badly. While I was trying to write a cheque for him, Andrew and T-Man got into a great wood/tool discussion since they both belong to the Greater Vancouver Woodturners Guild. I was happy that his wife Susan was busily teaching a class when I came by the booth so he was filling in. Now of course I’m excited to try my new hackle out but have two busy days ahead of me at the weaving workshop so it’ll have to wait until Wednesday. The last item you see is a little fat quarter of piggy-pink wool flannel for rug hooking that was gifted to me by my neighbour in the next booth named Susan, who does lovely sashiko embroidery and blanket-stitches flannel into cushion covers and the like. She doesn’t like this colour much and I don’t either but of course I can always dye it.

I also spent time in Birkeland Bros booth yapping and teaching spinning to anyone who was interested in trying. There was at least 5 people that made their first yarn there and a young girl who could already spin some who brought a bag of her angora bunny’s fur to spin up into a small ball. After the fest was over we packed up everything in the booth which of course took up more space to take home than it did bringing it. Luckily we had the van for the overflow! There was some discussion about the fact that vendor folks didn’t do as well as last year especially on the Saturday. It was lovely and sunny out and also the day before Mother’s Day so that could have had something to do with it. I also think it isn’t well enough publicized. Unfortunately the same weekend is already booked for next year so there’s no debate to be had.

OK, now we can talk about the Blogiversary Prizes. I want to mention that all of this stuff came out of my stash — except the chocolate. That was bought specially. Susan got:


Bethany Barry’s book on bead crochet (a duplicate, natch)
two Gaywool all-in-one dyes in spring colours of lavender and primrose, plus instructions
a skein and a partial of handpainted cotton chenille from Ewe To You
a small packet of T-Man’s lampworked beads
a beaded tassel that I made way back when I first got back into beadwork
a pair of lace bobbins with a history, spangled by me
a packet of unbleached soy silk (natural butter colour, dyes great with the acid dyes)
a packet of dyepainted (by me) Perendale roving
an organic Dagoba lavender chocolate bar (sounds odd but it’s totally yummy)

And Gail got:


Diane Fitzgerald & Helen Banes’ book on woven fibre jewelry (also a dupe)
a complete kit for a beaded knitted pendant bag (including my booklet, knitting needles, wire needle, thread, seed and embellishment beads)
a large ball of sock yarn
a handmade notebook (not by me)
a beaded bookmark (yes, by me)
a packet of unbleached soy silk (natural butter colour)
a packet of dyed wool from Aurelia Wool & Weaving
an organic Dagoba roseberry (raspberry & rosehips) chocolate bar

These are all packaged in a recycled cardboard box (gotta do my bit for the environment, eh?) and wrapped in my handmade paste paper that can also be reused in several ways. Do I know how to gift ’em or what? I know they really enjoyed their prizes and hope everybody will enter again next year when I guess I’ll have to have 3 prizes?

Oh yeah…Happy Mother’s Day to me and all you other mothers out there! My kids are away so I wasn’t expecting to hear from them (though I did get an email from the honeymooners) and I’ve already called my one remaining mother and T still has to call his. The rest of the day is for me. We went for a walk and bought a few t-shirts and some new magazines. Then we went to Earl's Restaurant for a decadent late lunch. I had a grilled chicken breast on a salad of spinach with strawberries and blackberries and toasted almonds. Yum. That’s my idea of a great Mother’s Day. Peace, quiet and I get to buy my own presents! Tomorrow and the next day will be super-busy ones so don’t expect another post until Wednesday. I almost didn't get this up today.