Meetup Madness

The next chapter of the Tale of Last Week involved getting home from Manning Park on Friday just in time to unpack in the rain, pick the beans and squash (luckily the rain mostly quit by then), put a few things away, have a shower, get dressed in my nice clothes (black Mizono Dress, Little Black Cardi, Speedy Gonzales Shawlette, handknit Tulip Socks and my sensible red Blundstone boots) and toddled off on the Canada Line for downtown. Whew! I’m tired just typing all that…

I was headed for the 40+ Blogger Meetup to have dinner with about 25 people none of whom I had ever met in real life before. Yikes! Several of them were familiar from reading their blogs and some actually read mine so I can’t say we were all total strangers. But nearly. And guess what? It was really fun and I wasn’t at all intimidated – which absolutely amazed me! Everyone was really nice, compliments flew everywhere, many photos taken, conversations were crossing over each other and new friends were made. It went like this:

Yep, all a big blur. I think I even had a cider and ate a salad? And then the majority headed for a speakeasy (Prohibition, underneath the Hotel Georgia) for more laughing, schmoozing, imbibing and even some dancing. One single $20 glass of wine later (whatever happened to 1920’s prices?) I was falling asleep so toddled on home. Luckily we were only a block away from the Canada Line Station at that point. We won’t mention the long blocks home at the other end. Nope.

Ooh, I forgot to show you the lovely schwag that darling Melanie (Bag and a Beret) presented to each participant:

It was so helpful to have the name tags and everyone embellished themselves with the rose pins. The Girl Scout badge was a gift from dear Pat (pao of Project Minima) and I discovered through my awesome google skillz that it means “energy saver”. Yay! Very me. (If anyone else wants to attempt to identify a badge, beyond sweet Liberty of Maiwa’s helpful hints, I found mine here.)

On Saturday morning it was back into the fray as we met up at Granville Island for tours, more schmoozing and food:

Photographing the photographers! I ended up leading a little group – just Pat and Anne (the delightful Spygirl) and myself. I dragged them hither and yon, poor things! To Diana Sanderson’s Silk Weaving Studio, the Cloth Shop, both Maiwa in the Netloft and Maiwa Supply, Circle Craft and I forget what else. Then they wanted to go downtown to Dressew and Button Button rather than follow the rest of the group up Granville Street to Anthropologie and Meinhardts.

I have to admit I felt like I was dragging poor Anne and Pat along behind me! They were not used to walking as far as I am (and I had already walked the 4 km to Granville Island before we even started). Oops. Sorry, my darlings! Really! But we did have fun despite the sore feet, didn’t we? At least we got to sit down at the bus stop and in the bus downtown. After some food and drink at the Purebread bakery on Hastings they were more ready to check out the delights of Dressew. Of course I bought fabric! And they didn’t. Obviously it’s been too long since I’ve been there. Heh. Pat did buy 2 zippers though. Dressew has great zippers.

Here’s my haul:

The damselfly quilt fabric I bought at Granville Island at the Cloth Shop. There were less than 2 metres on the bolt but I bought the whole thing hoping to make another Katherine Tilton vest B5891 like my Indigo Batik Vest. I’m not quite sure what else I’m going to combine this with since there’s not enough of it to cut all the bajillion pieces. Either the green cotton left from my LaPine Dress (which incidentally got its inaugural run on this day) or the leftovers from the French Housedress or ? TBD as they say.

Next to that is some more linen/rayon/lycra in a deep chocolate brown (somewhat darker than it appears in the photo). I think I’ll make another Mizono dress only maybe with sleeves this time. Then some really cheap nylon/lycra rib (labelled as “supplex” but who knows?) from the bargain section at only $2 per metre. That will be a couple of pairs of leggings and a sleeveless top B5954 View A. The selvedges are fabulously fuzzy after washing and drying (yes, I’ve done that already) so I just might use them to finish off the armholes and neckline. Lastly is some grey marl bamboo/lycra that will become a Katherine Tilton B5925 View A t-shirt and possibly another more plain t-shirt. Obviously I have every piece spoken for already.

Lest you think I went overboard, I left an awful lot of fabrics still in the store. Just sayin’. I’ve been prepping the patterns ready to cut out a bunch of garments to sew very soon. My big challenge is the Battle of the Leggings or “Marcy Tilton vs Kwik-Sew”. I want a basic leggings pattern with no outer leg seam and since these ones are in the pattern stash, I’m going to test them out:

It’ll be fun. More on this as progress is made.

And we never made it to Button Button at all, sadly. I truly hope that Pat and Anne survived the trip back to their hotel. I’m a little worried since I haven’t heard from them since? Hope they aren’t lost in the wilds of downtown Vancouver. Let me know you got home safe, will you? Love, Damselfly.

So I think the Blogger Meetup was a big success! Folks came from all over to attend. We’re talking places as far flung as LA, Chicago, Florida, London (UK), Holland, Toronto, Victoria and New York! Wow. I didn’t take part in all the events but I had a great time nonetheless. Biggest warm thanks to our hosts: Suzanne Carillo, Melanie Kobayashi and Sue (A Colourful Canvas) for all your work organising this epic blogger meetup. I’m sure my hometown never knew what hit them! I sure don’t.

Happy Spring!

At least I hope spring might be showing up wherever you are! (Or if I actually have any readers from Down Under, I guess it could be autumn, right?) It’s definitely spring here. See my lovely kale buds?

I got a whole pail full of these delicious beauties! I definitely like them better than the kale leaves. Or broccoli. Or even gai lan (Chinese broccoli), which I love. So worth keeping the kale patch through the winter. This variety is Rainbow Lacinato, a cross between Redbor and Lacinato kale. The plants are different colours: green, purple and blue-green. It’s pretty, easy to grow and fairly winter-hardy. It managed to survive –10C for days on end – unlike most of my thyme plants, sadly. This year’s babies are just starting to get their second leaves under the lights in the grow-op. I’ll need to transplant them into bigger playpens very soon.

So in celebration of spring I seem to be spending money like crazy after having been very good for months now! My poor credit card is looking a little singed around the edges. I couldn’t help myself when the latest BMV pattern sale was on and ordered a few more to add to the stash. They will take awhile to get here however. Plus I got a few digital magazines. Even though I really prefer paper, I went digital for two reasons: one, because I’m sadly running out of room on my bookshelves and two, because print magazines are getting harder and harder to find locally. They are going the way of the dodo bird! A quick download and these are immediate gratification too. More on one of them later.

Backing up a little time-wise, on Wednesday the weather was nice so we walked downtown to Dressew. I needed to get something to line my Marcy Tilton V8499 skirt. I decided that the very lightweight wool fabric was too light, sheer and drapey to work well in this pattern. But since it’s already cut out and I’m stubborn, I thought I could rescue it by using an underlining. Underlining seemed to me to be a better solution than just lining it because each piece would then have the support of the underlining individually. (Does that make any sense?) I haven’t gotten very far on the stitching yet so only a couple of small seams need to be unpicked to do this. Happily I found a lightweight 100% cotton sateen in black which will hopefully be perfect. It might also solve any problems with the skirt sticking to my tights and also should make the skirt a little less prone to major wrinkles. I can only sew the darn thing up to find out, right?

Of course I couldn’t get out of that shop without succumbing to a few other items, now could I? I got some buttons that I really like for the pockets on the skirt. (I didn’t want zippers.) And more buttons, these ones for my current sweater project. I adore Dressew’s huge button selection! They also had fold-over elastic for $.99 a package each containing 2 pieces 2 yards long which should be enough for undies. Naturally I bought 4 packages to get all the available colours! One piece is pink so it might be fun to experiment and see if it will overdye. (You know how much I do NOT love pink.) They’re nylon and lycra so that should work. I also fell for a bamboo rayon and spandex in a glorious shade of rusty orange:

I got 2 metres and I’m thinking tights. I really want to perfect a tights pattern anyway. And maybe a tank or knickers from the leftovers? It’s very light and stretchy stuff. There was also a lovely lime green and I’m now regretting leaving it in the store! It was $14.99 per metre though which is kind of on the pricey side for my usual fabric purchases.

But that’s not all! Yesterday I went with two of my dear friends out to Cloverdale to Fibres West. This is our chance to schmooze with our fellow fibre enthusiasts, get overwhelmed by the wool fumes and buy things from vendors who are mainly from out of the area or who sell mainly by mail-order. No substitute for touchy-feely for textile folks! There are excellent classes to take too but that’s not why I go since they are mostly on a beginner-intermediate level. We three had a lovely day with Our Peeps and in spite of my fervent belief that I have enough stuff in the stash came home with this haul:

Clockwise from the bottom: 2 skeins of sock yarn from Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts (Frolic and Grey Tabby), 4 tubes of 2/18 superfine merino from Jane Stafford, a large-ish cone of fine overtwisted wool and a small cone of Colcolastic (cotton and lycra thread) from Laura Fry, and finally a little bottle of Ashford spinning wheel oil with a nice long spout from Fibres Plus. Obviously I was in a spring-y mood with the yellows and naturals, huh? I guess now I actually need to weave some scarves using fulling and collapsing textures since I have all the right yarns for it! The Grey Tabby yarn is for socks for Thom in memory of our old tabby cat, Ms. Polly. Ancient Arts have some lovely kitty-coloured yarns and a portion of the sales goes to kitten rescue. I particularly liked the calico and tortoiseshell ones but thought Thom would prefer the tabby instead. The other sock yarn I fell for is a dark and subtle mix of many colours. The base yarn is 75% superwash/25% nylon for wear but they had other bases, including merino/silk and BFL. I hadn’t noticed their yarns before and obviously I’m starting to fall for the indie dyers in spite of myself! They are surprisingly not that much more expensive than the more industrial versions.

However, my quest to find a source for the undyed base yarn in reasonable amounts for a reasonable price has been thwarted again. In chatting with Felicia and Grace from Sweet Georgia I found that they get their Tough Love Sock already in skeins for dyeing. They will happily sell me the undyed version but there is no discount for that. I may perhaps go this route anyway. I actually enjoy dyeing and have lots of dyes to use up! However, it’s interesting to me that the indie dyers are none too interested in selling me their undyed product. I could understand if I was going into business against them but I’m not. I guess they would prefer that I just buy their dyed yarns at full price like everybody else but truthfully I’m not likely to buy as much of that as I would the undyed. Wouldn’t it be better to sell me lots of yarn that they don’t have to do anything to (except hand it over) at a slight discount and still make a fair profit, probably more than they would make if they had dyed the yarn? Am I missing something here? Guess that’s why they have a business and I don’t, huh?

BTW, I happily got to see Felicia’s baby boy, Russell, at Fibres West. He’s a whole 4 months old now and very cute! I’m so glad she has a whole bunch of great people working with her so that she can spend whatever time she needs with him. It must be tough to be a new mom and run a business at the same time. Not something I ever tried to do! Congrats to her and her family. Obviously I’m missing babies around here…

What else? Oh yeah. I promised to talk about a magazine, didn’t I? I picked up the digital version of Interweave’s special publication, Knit.Wear Spring 2014. I’m usually a bigger fan of patterns for cold-weather knits but whatever the season I’ve been very taken with the styles in Knit.Wear since the first issue. Not that I’ve knit any of them yet! I don’t know what it is about the aesthetics, but the kind of architectural clean lines and occasionally surprising details totally appeal to me. However, this issue has really expressed my style and there’s at least 6 or 8 sweaters that I would love to make from it. There are a lot of relaxed trapeze shapes that will fit me without much adjustment too. How refreshing! I don’t know what to focus on first. Meanwhile though, before anything else happens I need to finish my green shetland tweed pullover. Small needles and small yarn makes for a really nice sweater but a LOT of knitting! Just sayin’. It’s been nearly 2 months so far. I’m on the final few inches of the split turtleneck collar with only the sleeve bands left to go. The end is nigh.

Well, gotta go get some more seeds planted in the grow-op. They have to be big enough to go in the garden as soon as the weather is right and the beds are ready. Soon. Soon!

Later, gators!

Oy Yoy Yoy

I know I’ve been seriously remiss of late. It seems hard to get back into the writing mode. Or maybe not the writing but the taking of photos seems to be holding me back. It should be fun and not drudgery, right? The dim light that we have this time of year is the biggest problem. Luckily yesterday was sort of sunny so I finally got a few things documented. I doubt I will ever be any kind of great photographer however, especially of anything other than scenery. But that’s ok. One can’t be good at everything, can one?

I do need to document my projects though so even meh pics are better than no pics. In my last post I told you about mordanting silk scarves for eco-dyes. Here’s mine:

They were so pretty I hung them in the window! You don’t get to see the one Sis made because she had to pack it the minute I ironed it. In her extremely full suitcase. With a metric tonne of shopping. Bet that plane had trouble getting off the ground with all the goodies she was hauling! But I digress.

The two outside scarves (as well as D’s) were covered with local fallen leaves and marigold petals and wrapped in plastic before steaming for an hour. We used red maple, purple plum, smokebush, cranesbill geranium, birch, walnut and small woad and weld leaves along with the marigolds. Here’s a detail where you can see the shape of the maple leaf:

D had great fun with this new-to-her technique. It’ll be interesting to find out what leaves and other plant items she can find back in Haida Gwaii to try.

The centre scarf was dyed with a simple itajime shibori technique instead of leaves. It was folded and clamped between offset squares and the open areas smooshed (technical term) with 18-month old brazilwood sawdust goo that I’ve been saving. I have a bucket of it and it barely went mouldy at all. Still smells kind of woodsy in fact. This scarf also was wrapped and steamed in the same pot with the others. However it now needs another layer of something else because I think it’s kind of boring as-is. Maybe logwood or lac or ? More on that when it happens.

What else? While D was preparing for one of her classes, I managed to make a new cover for my sleeveboard:

The old silvery one was completely thrashed. Unfortunately I’m not sure I’m happy with this plain muslin one I made. It’s already getting grubby and I haven’t even used it yet! But it will be easy enough to make another layer to cover this one if it annoys me enough. I also used 2 layers of cotton quilt batting underneath instead of reusing the horrible foam padding and it’s much nicer. Obviously I didn’t do the smaller board mostly because it’s not quite worn out yet. Probably because I prefer the longer one instead so I rarely use it. I’ve had this beast for decades so it has actually held up pretty well all this time. Now it’s good for awhile longer.

Oh and I guess you want to see what I got at the Circle Craft Christmas Market, don’t you? It was a really good show with 300 vendors and so took us about 6 hours to see everything. Sis, T-Man and I were exhausted! I finally succumbed to the Shopping Fever and bought a jacket from the Chrzaszcz booth. I’ve always admired her lovely hand-dyed, discharged and sewn Polish linen clothing but never found the exact right piece before. Now that Maria is retiring from the business I had one last chance and found this lovely crushed jacket:

As always this photo of the jacket on Debbie just doesn’t do it justice. The colours are deeper, the shape is flattering and it fits me perfectly – which is amazing and probably the main reason I could not resist bringing it home! Besides I love linen. A lot.

You might be able to discern a black top under the jacket. This was purchased during our sisterly shopping trip to the Sally Ann. It’s a lovely heavy acetate knit and because it needs a little refashioning around the sleeve caps, I’ll get back to you on it in a later post.

Back to the Market. I also bought some of my favourite Sea to Sky salt from Maison Coté. Jean-Pierre is very funny and happy-go-lucky and I love many (but not all) of his salt, pepper and spice mixes.  They are also occasionally found at Granville Island Market or one of the farmer’s markets locally but I was totally out of the salt and sadly so were they the last time I saw them. I have lots now! (There’s a photo of him in his CCCM booth on their blog here.)

And lastly we had one more shopping item on the list: breakfast/lunch bowls. After hunting all over the Market we went back to Mud Sweat and Tears booth where we first saw these:

Yes, T and I decided that we had to get the plates as well! I like the square shapes and the fact that they are not identical but each piece has its own personality. They’re stoneware and quite strong, ok for microwave etc. Hopefully they should serve us well for many years.

While I’m on the subject of the Circle Craft Christmas Market, I’d like to say that I thought there were a lot of really nice items there this year and I know most vendors did really well in sales. But I have no idea how people can buy some of these things for other people, aka gifts. Unless like us, they were buying for themselves? The clothes especially were quite wonderful but very specific non-mainstream  creative styles and sizes and really needed to be tried on. Many were one-offs and there would be no chance of exchanging for a different size or colour if it didn’t please the recipient. This goes for the hats too. I tried on quite a few of them and only one looked any good. And I wear hats a lot! Also I didn’t buy it anyway.

Another thought that occurred to me as we wandered around is that the clothing reflected the designer – not just in style but in body shape. Tall thin designer = long skinny garments. Short older designer = garments that were looser and looked good on more body types. I’ve long held the notion that they (consciously or unconsciously) design for themselves first. Not a problem if you’re selling in the right venue. However judging by the demographic of the buyers, the thin young styles may not be reaching their target market. Attendees were mainly older women. More like me – though probably with more disposable income than I have. Maybe not as brave sartorially though. Heh.

Anything else? I’ve been slowly plugging away at not one, not two, but three knitting projects. None of which are both mindless and portable. Just portable and needing good light or portable and needing concentration or mindless but oversized with a giant cone of yarn to carry about. Bad planning on my part I know.

No new sewing (yet) but grandbeastie Princess Silver Fang was over and we got her t-shirt cut out. She also drew and cut out the skull she wants to stick on the front of it. Sewing will have to wait for another visit. It’s kind of creepy-cute so far. I’ll try to get more photos.

Adventures In Knit City

Yesterday was a lovely fall day, alternating cloudy and sunny but relatively warm and perfect for a walk in the crunchy leaves. As a matter of fact, T and I both ended up dressing too warmly. Really, I needed my knitwear on even if I was broiling. We were headed to Knit City!

Of course, getting to the Croatian Cultural Centre only an hour or so after Knit City opened was just a little nuts. It was a madhouse! The 60 or so booths were very tightly packed and it was hard to get into many of them. It was nearly impossible just to walk down the isles between. My guild, the Greater Vancouver Weavers & Spinners, had a demonstration booth that was quite large in comparison to some but they were still complaining that there wasn’t enough room for all the spinning wheels. I didn’t volunteer this time but I definitely would have brought a drop spindle instead. Though there might not have been room for that either. Really. Apparently it’s quieter on Sunday so I guess we could have gone today instead. Nevermind. All the good stuff might be gone already! Like I needed anything at all.

I hadn’t attended this event last year (the premier) but it certainly seems like a definite hit. Most booths featured the yarns of indie dyers but there were also polymer clay buttons, shawl pins, stitch markers, patterns, books, kits, bags and lots more. I did notice a distinct lack of knitting needle options and not much in the way of spinning equipment (no wheels) with only a smattering of dyed braided fibres. The rug hookers had a booth though with lots of lovely dyed wool fabric swatches. I can tell you my secret test-knit/pattern rewrite scarf was there in the Sanjo booth! I tried to take a photo with my iTouch but there wasn’t enough light.

After avoiding other people’s hand-dyeing for ages, I finally succumbed to a few skeins. Yes, I know – there’s a whole dye studio just downstairs from where I’m sitting! But this deep red semi-solid called to me from Raventwist:

It’s called “Fire Dream” and dyed on the Torc base: 100% superwash wool 3-ply light fingering in a tight twist. (Note the website says it’s BFL but the label does not.) This will probably become another small shawl. Like I need one. Heh. Don’t you love the extras included in the silky bag? A tester skein of Neith, 70% baby alpaca/30% silk  laceweight in the colour “Aladdin”. Plus a bookmark. Nice.

I hadn’t heard of Raventwist before and with a little googling found out that it was formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Dyeworks. Owner Hasmi Ferguson has rewritten her story and the results are quite lovely. Sure wish I could get my hands on some of her base yarns! They are truly scrumptious.

The other two yarns were these from Sweet Georgia:

Both are Tough Love Sock (80% superwash merino/20% nylon) though oddly they feel somewhat different. Perhaps a different batch of base yarn? The top one is “Phoenix Rising” and the bottom is “Rogue”, which seems a little more subdued than the example on Sweet Georgia’s website. It totally matched T’s outfit yesterday so it’s for him. I’ve wanted to test out Felicia’s sock yarn for awhile since I know I can get it from her in undyed white if I want. I was only going to get one skein but you know how it is, right? Like potato chips.

I was congratulating myself on escaping the wool fumes without totally smoking the credit card! It’s not like I really need any yarn. Or fibre. Or tools. Or anything really. It’s just fun to look and perhaps get a souvenir. After all, I didn’t buy much at all during the cross-continental trip! Only 2 books. Never even went in a yarn shop. I brought all my knitting yarn with me from home. So I deserved a little splurge yesterday, didn’t I? Of course I did.

Naturally I ran into a number of friends and fellow fibre enthusiasts. Found a secret Damselfly’s Delights reader. (Hi, Carmen!) And finally met Skipper (aka Marilyn) in person. She is the editor of WEFT magazine (Westcoast Enthusiasts For The Fibre Arts, formerly Island Shuttle), a little newsletter to keep you informed of fibre happenings on Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands and the Lower Mainland. I love it when you finally meet a virtual friend IRL and you feel like you’ve known them forever. Hugs, Marilyn!

So what else? Oh yeah. Here’s a hint of the t-shirt fabric my biggest Grandbeastie (currently called Princess Silver Fang, for reasons that shall remain blogless) and I scrunch dyed:

It’s hard to get an accurate representation of the colours. I don’t think it actually has black showing up anywhere in it! More blues, grays and purples which may not please Her Highness as much but I did warn her it was impossible to really control the results. This technique is usually referred to as Low Water Immersion (often abbreviated to LWI) and it causes this black dye to really split up into its component dye colours. This is the same dye I used on my Stormy Dress. It’s always fun to see what you get!

We got the piece (100% cotton) wet by scouring it in a bit of Synthrapol, scrunched it in a bucket, poured in a little more water and then mixed up two cupfuls of dye. One was 1.5 tsp of Procion Black to about 3/4 c warm water and the other 3/4 tsp Procion Purple (a Maiwa proprietary mix) in about 1/2 c warm water. The Princess and I both wore nitrile gloves and dust masks until the dye was thoroughly mixed and the lids back on the dye tins. It’s never too early to teach safe procedures. We both kept the gloves on for the rest of the time. Surprisingly my small-sized ones nearly fit her 9-year-old hands. Of course I have notoriously tiny hands and she is growing so fast.

First the Princess poured over the black and we let it sit for a few minutes before flipping over the fabric and adding the purple. About 15 minutes later we mixed up 1-3/4 tsp soda ash in a cup of warm water and poured that over top, poking a bit to make sure it got to all the layers. We covered the bucket and that was all the time the Princess had so next day I rinsed out the fabric myself, first in cold water and then in warmer. Finally I dumped it in the small dyepot with hot water and a little Synthrapol and brought it to a simmer for about 10 minutes. After that it went into the washing machine and the dryer to finish. Now it shouldn’t ever bleed in the laundry. The next part of the T-Shirt Project can’t be done until she has time to come back and sew with me.

We managed to have time to trace her favourite t-shirt for a pattern. She loved the drawing part but I had to explain a couple of times why I was adding the seam allowances around her tracing. To allow space to sew it together! I also folded the paper in half before letting her cut it out so that the two halves were symmetrical. Now we have a pattern and the fabric is all ready to go.

Everything Old Is New Again

It’s been a bit quiet around here mostly because I’ve been busy sewing. And walking. A lot. The sewing was the refashioning of the handwoven dress from 1997 which I promise to blog shortly. (I need one more photo first.) I did finish it on time and wore it last evening along with my Orange Aeolian Shawl to my weavers’ guild meeting where it was very well received. It wasn’t even the oldest garment there! It had stiff competition from a blouse that was over 20 years old and a skirt and top that were woven in 1987. Plus lots of lovely new garments and accessories. It was a really fun social evening with a potluck and door prizes. No need to ask. I didn’t win anything.

Besides the usual grocery runs, the walking included another jaunt downtown to my beloved Dressew. I needed some buttons for my latest not-quite-finished cardi and some thread. Of course that wasn’t all I bought! I’d been ignoring the bins of cotton yarn for the last few trips but this time I bought two colours. You know – before they run out completely. The stuff is dirt cheap at only $4.99 per 1+kilo cone.

They referred to it as crochet thread but in my world it’s also great weaving yarn for placemats and tea towels. 10/3 cotton. The label also says it’s mercerised but it doesn’t seem very shiny. It doesn’t really matter. I need some new table linens in the worst way. But first I have to stop sewing new clothes and actually wind a warp. Erm…

I also got some fabric:

This is the same French terry stuff as my chocolate pants but in mint green instead. (Oh yum – mint chocolates!) It’s a lovely mid-weight and is stretchy but recovers well. Anyway it goes with lots of pieces in my wardrobe and is a lighter colour for a more summery look. I plan to make a similar pair of long and capri lengths, just like I did with the chocolate version. The fabric is already washed, dried and on my cutting table ready to go.

To top things off nicely, my pattern order finally showed up in the post. I know you’ll be asking so here’s the collection:

I felt I was being rather restrained at only 5! That’s 2 older Marcys and a new Katherine, plus the Mizono dress with the cool hem and a top that didn’t get great reviews except from Margy of A Fool for Fabric blog. She looks amazing in her several versions and for $1.99 plus postage it’s not a big outlay if it doesn’t work with the fabric that I planned. Anyway, I now have a great selection of Tiltons! So many of the other patterns are just too basic to bother with but the sisters share some of my funky/artsy design sense with challenging sewing. I would really love to see the stats on how popular their patterns are compared to others. Either I’m just drawn to the bloggers who sew this style or there’s a lack of other designers who create the kind of patterns that get my creative juices flowing. Since I have to do a lot of fitting and adjusting to a pattern anyway, I’d rather spend my money on something I can’t easily reproduce from scratch. I’m really done with pattern collecting for the time being.

What else? Oh yeah. I’ve been working on old shoes. I’ve had these green nubuck Birkenstocks since 1996.

They’ve been resoled but the tops were grubby and boring. I decided to take a leaf from my online buddy pao’s book and paint them.

Pretty! Shiny! I cleaned the leather first with a suede brush and applied light copper shimmer Pebeo fabric paint using my fingers and a small paintbrush to get into delicate areas where my finger wouldn’t fit. I let it all dry and then gave it a thin wash of chocolate shimmer mixed with Golden gel and GAC mediums to antique the bright copper a little. When my sandals were really dry (a couple of days), I polished them with neutral shoe wax. And now I have shiny new Birkies! They’ve already passed the Granddaughter Glitter Test with a “cool” rating.

The second pair of shoes that I revamped are my near-equally ancient Doc-Wannabees.

Ever since I had to wear black oxford shoes for my school uniform I’ve had a fondness for the no-nonsense oxford lace-up style. (Our warm weather uniform of saddle shoes…not so much…) These red-brown clunkers are probably only still in my collection because I love the idea of them rather than the reality. They are uncomfortable. You can tell because I actually bought gel insoles to try to make them more wearable. Not. The heels slid up and down with every step. So I decided to borrow a solution from my littlest granddaughter’s pedorthist (she was born with clubfoot) and glue a leather piece in the heels to stop the slipping.

I even got matching leather and contact cement for this project. It worked OK, especially after I removed the gel insoles, but sadly these will never be considered Walking Shoes. They are wearable for short distances only. I can’t walk 10 kilometres in my Birkies either so I shouldn’t feel so bad about it. But at least I now won’t be chucking them in the donate pile.

Sew Expo Loot

I have a whole bunch of FOs to share with you but I think they will have to wait until subsequent post(s). While it’s fresh in my mind, I’d like first to show what I bought on our mini-vacay. There’s not that much but I don’t have a lot of time today. I’m off to a Spectrum meeting later and after that my Guild’s annual memorial lecture. So without further ado:

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That’s fusible stay tape in white/bias and black/straight, a really big cone of white cotton thread (for sewing up items before dyeing), and fold-over elastics (2 dyeable and 1 black). (Links take you to the companies I purchased from.) I also got:

a bra kit in ivory from Bravo Bella. I want to say that I got fabulous service from this company. Monica and her staff were very helpful and she took quite awhile to get the size of my underwires correct. She matched them to my bra over my clothes! I was glad I was wearing one that I made, though not my best bra. When I checked out the supplies in the kit I was surprised that there were no rings and sliders included and only a very short piece of strap elastic. A lot of online research later, I came to the conclusion that Monica’s bras are made in a similar way to Anne St Clair’s. (Thanks to Audrey for the clue!) She considers that a custom bra can be permanently adjusted for strap length and all that is needed is a little piece of elastic at the back where each strap attaches to the bra back. Unfortunately my back design calls for longer pieces (at least 9” each) and I personally like to be able to adjust tighter as the elastic stretches out so luckily I have matching strap elastic and a set of white sliders and rings that will substitute. The fashion fabric is quite stretchy so I was glad a piece of lining tricot was included for more support. Other oddments are a piece of fusible interfacing which is meant to stabilize the straps and a short piece of twill tape for the centre front which I probably won’t use since there’s not really enough room in the front of my bridge for it.

Interesting aside, I compared the quality of the plush-back elastics from three sources: Bravo Bella, Bra-maker’s Supply and my local shop, Dressew. Ahem. I hate to say it but Dressew has the best stuff even though it is only available in a load of odd (but lovely) colours and no black or white. It’s also cheapest, most being only $.25 per metre. Go figure.

Back to the shopping. In the Kasuri Dyeworks booth (no shop link available) I got this little piece of shibori:

This is a kit to make a small drawstring bag. There’s also a piece of printed silk for lining and a kumihimo braid for the drawstrings plus directions. Of course I recognised the braid as good old yatsu kongo gumi. (You might have to bigify to see it.) I plan to actually make up the bag though the seams will intersect in the floral pattern somewhat. However I would prefer to use it rather than keep it in a drawer somewhere.

What else? Oh yeah. My shoes.

When I got my last pair of shoes which are khaki/taupe I was really looking for grey! These are a nice medium-grey nubuck with bronzy-metallic and a bit of thread stitching. They’re made by Ziera from New Zealand and they are so comfy. They’ve already passed the Walking 8 Kilometres Test on the first wearing! Success.

Yes, I really envy those who can wear hot shoes with heels and pointy toes and all. My feet are picky! But considering how much I walk and how well my feet cooperate, they are totally worth spoiling with comfortable and expensive shoes. After all, I can make all my other clothes – but not my shoes!

All-Sorts

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.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Ummm…I succumbed to the current fashion. How non-damselfly-like of me, huh? I got a pair of pirate boots…er, knee boots. These ones:

They’re Blondo Marias and way more feminine than my usual footwear. They are also waterproof and have velvet lining in the front for warmth. I blame it all on T-Man. He took me to the mall so we could go see the “RED” movie with Bruce Willis et al. We were early. We walked around the mall. I tried these on. They stuck to my feet and wouldn’t let me go until I paid for them. Not cheap so I hope they last longer than the fad itself. At least my legs will be warm and dry this winter! A reward for finally having clear skin.

Oh. The movie was great too. Lots of bullets but also great characters and an actual plot that one could follow. Helen Mirren with a submachine gun. ’Nuff said. We had popcorn for dinner.

One more FO for you:

Alien’s Frogimono

For: my impending granddaughter

Begun: Sometime in late September, 2010 (forgot to note!)

Completed: October 9, 2010

Yarn: SRK On Your Toes Limited Edition 4-ply sock yarn with aloe vera, 75% superwash wool/25% nylon, colour 3821, dyelot 2274, 100g = 360m. 1 ball. Small amount of hand-dyed Sisu needed to finish neckline.

Needles: Addi Lace circulars, 3 mm

Pattern: Garter Stitch Baby Kimono by Joji Locatelli (free Ravelry download). Size: 1-3 months.

Comments: I chose the second size because I want her to be able to wear this sweater all this winter. I nearly finished it with one ball but ran out just at the end of the second sleeve. I did buy a ball of purple yarn in Jo-Ann’s in Lincoln City, OR thinking to finish with that while we were on vacation but it didn’t look as well as I’d hoped. Luckily I have lots of sock yarn scraps in my stash so this one in aqua-greens coordinated quite well. However I did get the cute buttons at that store so all was not in vain.

This pattern is quite easy to knit though it’s a little confusing to be working the sleeves flat with the seam on the top rather than under the arm. The mattress stitching of the garter edges went quite well – once I got the hang of choosing a top loop on one side and a bottom loop on the other and keeping consistent. It’s nearly invisible when blocked (although one of the stripes doesn’t quite match up properly, but who’s going to notice?). I crocheted the ties with doubled yarn and they ended up kind of curly. A bit fiddly to tie but hopefully it’ll give her a little extra growing room.

I’m nearly finished another baby sweater, this time for my new grand-niece. (Her parents read this blog and they know I’m making it but haven’t seen it yet.) She’s too teensy for it anyway! She will grow into it quickly though, I’m sure. Coming soon.

It ended up being quite sunny yesterday and I managed to finish clearing the pots off the deck and putting them into the greenhouse for the winter. I also cleared out some of the plants in the dye garden, added lime (because most of the dye plants like it) and planted fall rye where the coreopsis was. No need to leave bare dirt over the winter to wash away in the rain. I’ll probably pull out most of the woad too as soon as I harvest the last of it for one more try at blue. I think the weather is supposed to be ok tomorrow so maybe I’ll do it then. I’d like to take it just to extraction and then try to save the indigo as sludge or dry it all the way to powder. I’ll see how that goes. I just don’t have anything that I want to dye right this minute.

The Continuing Story

First, before I get back to our adventures in Spokane, I want to announce that my Papyrine Wrap (Tree-Hugger) got accepted to the Hanji Exhibit! Yay! I knew it was a shoe-in. Heh.

OK where was I? Oh right. Thursday afternoon after we got our booth set up several of the group went on a bus tour of the local galleries to see fibre art. Me, I went to the vendor hall:

Those isles (there were only 2) extended down the length of the gym and were filled with goodies guaranteed to get fibre fanatics salivating. It was a smaller number than I’ve seen in the past but that didn’t stop me from finding new things I Had To Have every single time I walked in the door. From Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning I managed to spend quite a few buck-a-roonies on such lovely things as:

An end-delivery shuttle in amazique (aka shedua) wood from Bluster Bay Woodworks and a purpleheart spindle made by Jim Echter from Weaving Works’ booth. Yum. I love nice woods. The shuttle was my single biggest purchase. Now I have to weave with it, don’t I? And a spinner can never have too many spindles. Just sayin’.

Then I fell hard for the Just Our Yarns booth. They had lovely hand-dyed yarn skeins and kits which included nearly everything you need to make the project. They had knit kits and weave kits. I fell hard for the knitted lace Bias Scarf which came in a kit with a second pattern – the ZigZag Scarf (because one skein is enough for two) – plus the yarn (8/2 tencel), beads and even a crochet hook to apply them:

Of course later I can use the same pattern with some other yarn and beads from the stash. They would definitely make a nice gift. I got other yarn too including some undyed Henry’s Attic Felting Pony (a cone of cobweb-weight superfine merino weighing just over a pound or around 3600 yds) for weaving and a skein of Baruffa Cashwool (also cobweb-weight natural-coloured superfine merino – so soft - but this one might become a shawl) from Yarn Barn of Kansas. Then from Newton’s Country Yarns I got 4 honking-huge skeins of Happy Feet superwash sock yarn for half price (aka really really cheap). These look like handpaints but aren’t. One of the skeins is nearly a pound (equivalent of four 100gm skeins) and the others over a half-pound each. I see at least one sweater and a lot o’socks in my future.

Of course I also got books:

I can see that I was on a weaving kick since 2 are loom weaving, 2 are fingerweaving (which I used to do way back in the early 1970’s) and one is on natural dyeing and growing your own dye plants. I hope to review these later.

More on the seminars etc. to come. Right now it’s 9000 degrees out and bedtime. I think I accidentally brought the hot weather home with me. It was about 32C today which is not only rare for July or August in Vancouver but it’s totally out of keeping with early June. I spent the early morning in the shaded garden weeding and planting more of my path stones and just before dinner watering everything in sight. Now I have to go try to sleep in a too-hot bedroom. No, I’m not complaining! It could be winter, eh? My garden is happy and I’m happy. If somewhat toasty.

Working Weekend

Well, there was some pleasure in it also! On Friday my friend Lauren and I went out to Langley to a yarn sale at 88 Stitches. It’s always fun to check out what a shop carries that’s different from the ones usually frequented. The staff were very welcoming and for the first day of a sale, it wasn’t crowded at all. I got away with under $100 worth: sock yarns in bamboo, bamboo/cotton and superwash wool plus some baby yarn and an impulse buy (thanks to some encouragement!) of Berroco’s Seduce in shiny gold. The latter will hopefully become a warm-weather necklace-type scarf. Now I know why they call it “Seduce” because it’s such a shimmery, slinky, luxurious yarn. And of course something that I can’t spin myself, which is my biggest criterion for yarn purchases. I’m now regretting not buying more of the On Your Toes bamboo sock yarn. It’s so seriously yummy. I got 2 balls of white so I can try to dye it, even though it’s a cellulose fibre plus nylon which dyes like wool. I plan to try it with Procion MX and see what happens. I want a deep warm brick-red.

One other thing I got (not on sale but cheaper than ordering it overseas) was the little booklet “Whimsical Little Knits” by Scottish designer Ysolda Teague. It’s even autographed! I was going to design my own version of the little scarfy-shawl Ishbel but now I have the pattern and the one for the matching beret. They would be a great use for the bamboo sock yarn, yes? I think I have enough! There are quite a few other cute patterns in this booklet too (little Mousie makes me wish I still had cats) so I’m sure I’ll be using it often. Ysolda is an amazing knitwear designer and she’s still so young! I know she will be one of the future big-name knitting “rock stars” since she seems well on the way there already.

So I got absolutely no knitting done on anything. I spent the whole weekend outside in the garden because the weather was lovely and mostly sunny but not hot. I got most of my deck pots planted – or at least partially planted – with the summer flowers. I also got the herb bed tidied up. But mostly I planted stepping stones which is a slow process. There’s still a whole bunch of them to go. At least once they’re in they are pretty much permanent. Did I mention that one of our neighbours gave us a bunch of smaller stones in a similar type that were left over from his path-building efforts? There should be enough to finish the garden now. He saved us from another trip to the stone supplier and about $50. Nice neighbour, huh?

T got a good chunk of the side fencing done while I was digging in the dirt. He couldn’t find the crushed limestone he likes to put in the posts so had to use a quick-setting concrete instead. This fence is not going anywhere! Hopefully it will be the last time we have to rebuild it in our lifetimes. Now he needs more wood before he can carry on. It’s never-ending, I swear.

I hope everyone who is a mom had a lovely Mother’s Day and those who still have a mom managed to tell her how much she is appreciated! I called mine and we had a lovely chat. Since we usually email it was nice to talk more freely and for much longer. Both my kids called me while I was out in the garden so I had messages on my answering machine to reply to. T-Man talked to his mom too so the day was duly celebrated without resort to cards or flowers! Neener-neener, Hallmark.

The grand-beasties are coming over shortly so I’d better get my weekend’s worth of dishes washed. I need to pass on some more of my plants for their veggie garden. I still have way too many tomatoes! It’s raining today anyhow so I get an enforced rest from planting rocks.

Fibres West Report

I’ve got a photo-heavy report but they’re only my purchases and nothing else. I had a rare case of camnesia while I was at the Fibres West extravaganza on Saturday. I brought my camera but never took it out once! I was having way too much fun chatting, ogling, shopping, schmoozing, hugging, demonstrating spindle spinning, shopping some more and generally having a wonderful time. I went with the thought that I didn’t need anything (except one particular book) but of course a bunch of stuff followed me home anyway. It was the wool fumes, I swear! Or in my case maybe it was the sparkle.

I got totally carried away with things sparkly. Right off I jumped on a green triple dragon resin spindle by Dragoncraft from Twist of Fate:

I had to modify it slightly by tweaking the hooking and adding a notch (hated to file into the lovely shiny resin but it was necessary) and now it spins quite well. These are little spindles but on the heavier end of the scale at 40-45g each.

I found 3 balls of sock yarn (Mega Boots Stretch) in pretty colours at Knitopia’s booth (no website):

They were only $10 each! Couldn’t resist. Yeah, I know – not sparkly, but I also got a bag of sari silk for spinning:

I have no idea whether or not I can make anything out of these because they are very tangled fine silk thrums but we’ll see. They were too pretty! From Aurelia I got some Ruby Blue Sparkle and Silky Pearl Sparkle to spin:

The photo doesn’t do the white one justice because it’s really pretty and subtle when spun up and takes dye beautifully. And I already have a project in mind for the Ruby Blue. It’s going to be a gift so mum’s the word till it’s done. Still sparkling, I got some more angelina from Penelope Fibre Arts:

These will likely be blended into something for spinning rather than heat bonded. I just couldn’t resist the colours.

BTW, Brenda (aka Penelope) was the mastermind behind the Fibres West show this year and she is already planning the next one. Guess she got enough good feedback. I think it could use a lot more publicity and more participation. Some vendors did well and others not so much. I thought there was lots of room for many more vendors and way more shoppers. Some knitters were complaining that it was too much for the spinners and weavers and maybe that side could be increased some. There are a lot of knitters out there who haven’t crossed over to the dark side of spinning and weaving. Anyway we’ll see what happens next year when we are promised some classes as well as lectures and demos. That might encourage more participation. Finally the fact that it’s an hour-plus drive from Vancouver in what some of us might consider the middle of nowhere might slow a few folks down but apparently if they have it in town it costs a lot more for the venue and there’s even less participation from the public. Go figure.

But there’s more shopping! At Jane Stafford’s booth I got some small spools of Colcolastic (cotton and elastic) thread for collapse weaving:

I also got Anne Field’s book on collapse weaving and will be taking a class with her at the conference in Spokane this spring so more on that anon. I got a couple of other books as well and will be reviewing them individually in future posts. Meanwhile back at the purchases, I got one more item:

The clamp pad for my Forsyth mini woolcombs. I’ve been debating over this one for some time because a) it’s pricey, b) I thought I might get away without a clamp and c) I thought T-Man could make me something suitable instead. However, I finally convinced myself that a) better to have the thing made by the same person as the combs so the wood matches, b) Andrew’s design is quite involved but very functional and not at all something T would make and c) I got tired of waiting. Now I’m all set. I have all the fibre prep tools I can imagine ever needing! English woolcombs, mini 2-row woolcombs, blending hackle, 2 drum carders with a total of 3 carding drums, handcards in several densities, and a flick carder. What else could a fibreholic need? No. Don’t answer that question. But a girl’s gotta stop somewhere – at least for now.

The demo that my friends Beryl and Diana and I were supposed to do turned out not to be terribly exciting. It was really preaching to the converted. We got a few folks coming up to chat but when there’s nothing for sale, interest is small. I got a great visit in with Milady Daughter though and helped her through her first sock heel. I um…kinda slipped and bought her an expensive present: Sharon Miller’s Heirloom Knitting book from Homespun Haven (Armstrong, BC, no website). She’s been doing a wonderful job learning lace knitting and this book just answers so many of her questions. Since her Milord is between jobs at the moment, she couldn’t afford it so I pulled a “mom” card and got it for her. Hope she isn’t expecting a birthday present next September! Hope she enjoys the book too.

Well I need to get some lunch and some paper knitting done today so… later, ‘gators!

Whorled Piece

It seems that after I got the Hanji Paper Project, aka “Papyrine”, set in my head and the pattern straightened out, I have no burning desire to start it right away. I’m moving back to spinning in earnest for the wool/silk scarf or shawl, which would have a name too except that I’m not sure what I’m going to be knitting yet. Something Estonian lace-ish though. I really need to get the yarn done so I can start knitting. The deadline is only a little more than a month away – though I have been given a bit of leeway. (Don’t tell anyone else. It’s because I’m special. Heh!)

Tori (my Louet Victoria wheel) has been behaving herself very well on the highest ratio with the lace flyer. This bad winter may have settled down her warped wheel. Hope it stays that way! The fibre (silk and wool of unknown amounts and provenance) looks very nice and smooth but has a few short dense wool bits in it occasionally. They don’t draft easily so I’ve been either removing them, if very small, or stopping and teasing them out before spinning. The silk tends to separate from the wool so I’m spinning some patches that are more one or the other rather than an even blend of both. It looks alright on the bobbin but we’ll see what happens when I ply it. So far I’ve spent about 7 or 8 hours and haven’t even filled one dinky little lace bobbin. It’s that fine! I’m about ready to start on a second bobbin anyway because I have a tendency to spin far too much for lace. (Witness the fact that I’ve already made two shawls with my moorit Shetland and still have some left!) I have absolutely no idea how many yards are on the bobbin so far. It’s too fine to bother measuring at this stage. After I ply it, I’ll count as I wind it into a skein and then decide if I have enough or not. Highly scientific, aren’t I? Not. It’s lovely to be spinning again. I missed it more than I thought.

We had the usual busy weekend because it’s been consistently sunny and, although frosty in the mornings, relatively warm in the afternoons. On Friday after T got home from work we did our usual urban hike to the magazine shop and got a few groceries on the way home. Saturday we worked in the garden pruning and cleaning up some more. Every little bit helps though we aren’t nearly done yet! It’s a pleasure to get up close and personal with the plants and see the new shoots just starting to peek out. Then we went to a Valentine’s Day open house at a new neighbours’ home down the block. They are a very nice younger couple with two smart and active boys, 6 and 4. It was fun to meet a few old neighbours we hadn’t ever run into after all these years in the same place. Amazing how that happens! Unless you have an opportunity like a block party or garage sale or the commonality of kids or dogs, you never connect. Now we know more folks than we did before. Thanks to our brand new neighbours.

Yesterday we went to the garden shop and got most of the seeds I’ll need for the garden this year. Old favourites and a few new things just to try them. You never know what will grow well or not in a given year. It’s always a crapshoot. Witness my poor busted up purple sprouting broccoli. Last year at this time I was harvesting the first side shoots from large plants and this year I’m pulling the tiny squelchy things out and composting the sad remains. I’m going to try a couple of heirloom tomatoes in the greenhouse with the Juliet cherry tomatoes. Since the heirlooms are less disease-resistant it will be interesting to see how well they do. A lot depends on the kind of summer we get this year. I also got a few pretty primulas to brighten up my deck pots. They are now back out on the deck and the winter pansies that survived are starting to perk up and bloom again. Why is it that only the yellow ones have a scent? They smell like apricots or freesias. Yum.

We also went to the home supply place where T got new gutters for the garage and all the little extras to put them up. Then the revamping of our old garage will be complete. Finally. At least it will be once I clean all the mud off our lovely fresh white paint where it splashed up because the gutters weren’t working properly. Homeownership is full of little things you might not consider!

And to bring it back to something crafty, I got a package of 6 interlocking foam mats (including borders) that will work perfectly for pinning out scarves and shawls for blocking. They are dark charcoal coloured and, though one side is nonskid textured, the other is flat. Pins go in easily too. 24 square feet for around $22. I think it was a pretty good deal. Now I can get rid of the motley conglomeration of foam insulation board that I’ve been using.

Before I go back to my spinning, I leave you with the most obvious promise of spring in my garden:

New-Vember

Yes, it’s about time that I got around to posting again, huh? Weekends are a tough one because often we’re busy doing stuff and this weekend was no exception. Saturday we went shopping. No, really. Actually shopping, as opposed to walking to the magazine shop and then picking up a few groceries on the way home. We took the car even. And drove almost completely across town from one end to the other. Our house is pretty much in the geographic centre too.

For once I had fun buying some new clothes because most of the things I tried on actually fit me. Mark’s Work Wearhouse doesn’t sound like a stylin’ shop but I don’t care. I like simple casual things that last through many washings and wearings. And yes, at least half of the store’s items are meant for the female of the species. I’m somewhat sad to say that most of the garments are made overseas but we don’t have much of a garment industry in Canada so unless I make it myself, it’ll likely have been made elsewhere. But politics aside, the quality is good and the prices are very reasonable especially when most of the things I wanted were on sale. I got two zip-front cotton rib sweaters (black and red), a lovely black “touch of cashmere” hoodie, a waffle-knit Henley-style t-shirt in a natural oatmeal colour, black microfibre long-johns, 2 pairs of black heavy cotton & stretch yoga pants (with a cute little zip pocket in the left pant leg) and a pair of black sweatpants. T-Man even got into the act and got a few t-shirts, a cotton casual long-sleeved shirt for work and a pair of plaid pajama bottoms for lounging. We are doing our little bit to keep the economy moving. OK, I just like buying my own birthday presents!

Yes, yesterday was my birthday and I got a bunch of lovely birthday wishes from family and friends. We were invited out to Milady Daughter and her Lord’s for dinner but first we had to meet them at a weaver’s house to pick up a free loom. The weaver had bought herself a new Louet Spring loom and wanted to find a home for this honking older Swedish-made Glimakra. Really it’s not that big since it’s the same size as my loom, being the model that John Low used for the original Woolhouse countermarch. However, this one came with all the trimmings – if we can only find out how to put them together and make them work. Apparently included in the large pile of lumber and string there is not only an 8-shaft 10-treadle countermarch but the counterbalance conversion, a second warp beam and, most amazingly of all, a drawloom attachment! No idea what kind or whether all the parts are there though. That will take some future research. (Hint: it might possibly fit my loom.) Meanwhile we got the big beast about 2/3 assembled in regular countermarch mode before dinner. Our immediate goal is for her to be able to weave some cloth on it and leave the complications for later. If that’s as far as we get it was still free! The previous owner was not happy with her ability to get a good shed but I’m hoping that my experience with my own loom will be helpful in solving whatever problems she might have had. The Weaver’s loss is Milady’s gain.

Today I babysat the Cutie-Pie Monsters while their parents went to see “Paschendale” at the movie theatre. They are more fun the older they become! This time there was a distinctly better level of cooperation and barely any fighting over the toys. Just about the time I was wearing out, their grandpa got home from work and took over from me for a rousing game of hide-and-seek. I so appreciate the fact that the kids live close enough for us to be a real presence in the grandkids’ lives. But I’m also grateful that I don’t get them more often than once every week or two. Whew!

Before I end, I want to correct my error about the paper yarn. The one I was using to knit the sample swatch is actually a strip about 15mm wide that’s folded in 3 to create a thicker and stronger 4-5mm tape. I didn’t even realize that while I was working with it. Here’s the swatch after washing and blocking:


I think it has some interesting possibilities.