A Short Story

Once upon a time there was a strange little snail that magically appeared on a black automobile. He didn't know that how he got there or what was going to happen so he just kept doing what snails do - sliming along.

Despite the car moving and the torrential rains, the snail kept on sliming.

In his mind, he slimed all the way from the top of the car, down the window, and down the door - but in reality he slimed all the way from Richmond to Downtown Vancouver in 25 minutes. Pretty fast for a snail. At the end of the car ride a beautiful princess carried him to the nearest greenery for a snack and the opportunity to keep on sliming.

The moral of this story is that no matter that life throws your way, keep doing what you are made to do and you will end up where you are supposed to be. Just keep on sliming.

Gratitude

When Miss B was newborn I had a lot of trouble feeling like what I was doing was worth something...anything. In order to feel more accomplished I kept a small calendar where I wrote down what I did everyday. Little things like walking to the store, having a visitor, going to the doctor. I liked seeing the filled up pages. It reminded me that I was doing things. I felt useful.

Being a stay-at-home mom can be monotonous and boring. I very rarely talk to other adults, other than nods and smiles in the school halls or the cashier at the grocery store. I do laundry and clean up toys. I play endless games of Transformers. I make three meals and many snacks everyday. I am feeling disconnected again. I need to start keeping track of the things we do, the things I am grateful for. My thinking is that if I only type a few things a day, maybe I'll get into the grove of blogging again.

I am putting out the the universe that I am in need of a new tribe. My old tribe has disbanded due to divorce, different schooling practices, kids of different ages and moving to other countries. I am desperate for people that like the things I like, parent the way I parent and laugh at the same things I laugh at. Is it too much to ask? Yes, but it doesn't hurt to ask anyway.

So... today, I am grateful for the courage I had to open the computer and type this while the smallest kid is distracted by (natural) cheesies and tv. I am so happy the sun is back and drawing us outside. We made it to the library and to Miss B's musical performance despite multiple tantrums. We had a quick family dessert outing for icecream and ate it on top of the Wall Centre's perfectly manicured grass.

See, I did do something today. There were a few wins. :)

Achtung, fertig, los!

laptop, check.

downloaded classes, check.

major sewing projects out of the way, check.

cleared desk space, check.

okay.

so now what? time to start painting!

this is scary.

go, go do it. you can do it. go!

Back in the Saddle - again, really!

I inherited a laptop!!! I am hoping this will make blogging a heck of a lot easier.

I also started an online painting and drawing class. This class requires some journaling and I thought this would be a good place to do these entries. I can post some pictures of my progress in the class as well. I have drawn and painted before, but long ago. This is a mixed media class where I am hoping to incorporate my fibrey goodness as well. Wool locks, fabric, knitted pieces. Who knows?

So...about the class. I found it by accident. I was checking out the blog of a lovely lady I met on our italy trip 4 years ago. 4 years? Holy shit! I still think about that amazing adventure on a daily basis. Anyway.... Jennifer posted some cute pictures of folk art painting she had done. SO cute. I had to learn how to do it too!

I signed up for Suzi Blu's online class. Videos and online chats. I was so excited to start. I was beaming inside. I couldn't think of anything else. Buying supplies was the first challenge. I want to do this class for me, and therefore I wanted to go shopping for paints on my own as well. Not so easy with a cling-on toddler. Had to do it on a weekend while he was napping. I think I am just going to take him next time. Too much time wasted waiting to get alone time. And now I have run out of titanium white and I need it to move forward.

All was going well with lesson 1 - colour theory (which I covered in grade 9 anyway) and then I decided to google Suzi. Out of curiosity. Stupid move. I found a whole whack of hate posted about her online. Great stories about how she used to be a porn actress and is untrustworthy and fake and makes fun of all her students. This is not good for a person with anxiety issues. I never went to art school because I was terrified of being critiqued, so I studied art history instead. Sitting in a dark room looking at slides was easier than standing in front of a class and having them tell you everything that is wrong with your art. I was traumatized by my findings about Suzi. She seems so cute and quirky in her videos. Slightly unstable, but what truly creative person isn't? Well, I have decided to ignore what I found. She may have burned someone in the past and with the power of computers it is spread all over the interwebs. Sad, really. I feel bad for her. Who hasn't hurt someone's feelings in their past? Who hasn't been hurt, themselves? But why post it publicly? So mean. So very, very mean.

Now it is September. School has started for Miss B and school will start for me too. I need to finish cleaning up my workspace and buy some more titanium white. Then back to the colour scales. I am way behind, but i can catch up! Journal entries to be added shortly.

back in the saddle

In all the craziness of the last year, we moved to a new house. Still in the same complex - but a house! We have the top floor and attic of a lovely Victorian that has belonged to many different people over the years but started out as one of a row of houses for railroad executives when Vancouver was growing into a city. The house was overhauled about 20 years ago, and made into two suites. The old lady that lived in our suite before us was NUTS! The entire place was painted purple. Three different shades of purple. And hot pink (the kitchen). And peach (the bathroom). I wish we had photos, but she was required to paint it back to white before she left. She also tried to blackmail us into paying her $1000 for updates she did to the house 20 years ago - a window she put in, the attic she finished (very poorly, I might add), a really old washer, dryer and dishwasher that she didn't want to remove. We refused to pay her, as this is a co-op, and in return she siliconed the windows shut, and tried to smash holes in the attic walls. Thank goodness she was frail and couldn't do much damage. We (i.e. me and my dad (Opa)) did alot of mending to make it "ours". Bamboo laminate in the attic, fresh colours (not purple) in the bedrooms. The co-op gave us new carpet and lino throughout the house - lucky us! New light and bathroom/kitchen fixtures. We bought a new washer and dryer (my first ones!) and dishwasher through great sales over the Christmas holidays/economy slump. I feel so grown up having a washer and dryer in my own home! Sadly, the front porch belngs to the unit below us but we do have a view of the ocean from a few windows and we will be able to see the fireworks from our balcony off the attic.

My big yellow house in the Winter....


My big yellow house in the Spring....we have a lilac tree out front!


Have I mentioned that I love this house? The layout is so much better than our last place - everything on one floor. The only thing that bugs me is the bathroom. It is like a hotel bathroom - narrow and squashed into the only space they could find. It is in the centre of the floorplan, and as such, is party central whenever I need to "go". I hate having an audience.

The attic space is a playroom/craftroom/office. The office part is the part that is allowing me to post here again. My computer was in the bedroom, but the baby naps in there so I never got any typing time. Now my computer is in the attic on my crafting table so I can type while he sleeps. I have so many updates to catch up on. I am looking frward to blogging again and not just reading everyne else's!

It Happened..a year ago....

So it has been a year (well, 15 months, now...) A VERY BUSY year. I was going to post on my due date which was the 26th of March 2008, but I started to go into labour that night. Early labour - nothing to crazy. I called the midwives and the doula around 11pm to give them the heads-up. I had the doula come over shortly after because I was getting nervous. She slept in the other room until early in the morning when things started rolling. She called the midwives and they came to check me. I was in agony, but only at 1cm. My dear son was punching my cervix with his very able little hand. I only wanted to be on the bathroom floor. Moving was no good for me - I needed the safety and sturdiness of a floor. The bathroom floor was cool and comforting - but tight for a birthing mama, a doula and a midwife and her student. Miss b and papa hung out in the living room and made a welcome banner. She was very calm through the whole process. I remember her coming in a few times and stroking me gently. She listened from downstairs for my sounds changing. I was LOUD and VERY FOUL MOUTHED. It hurt alot and I tend to panic. We used lots of homeopathy and it calmed me. Through transition I moved back to bed. I didn't want to lie down anymore, and the cold floor wasn't doing it's job. I found the word "out" and used it frequently. He came rather quickly after transition - only 15 minutes of pushing. The back-up midwife made it just at the end. My boy got stuck just past the shoulders, which is unusual (they usually just slither out). The student asked if she could pull him, and he came out with a tug. He was a very big, chubby boy. The biggest cheeks you can imagine. 9.5 pounds of him birthed at home without any drugs. Oh my!

Then...


Now...

Will this make it happen????

I am less than a week away from my due date, and I am so ready to have this baby. He's so heavy! And I am so bored. I have finished 95% of my projects. (I can't finish them all as it gives me the heebee-jeebees - I am oddly superstitious that if I finish them all that I won't be around afterwards). I'll show you the projects that I have finished. The quilt that needs to be hand quilted and the home-made fitted diapers and wool sweater diaper covers that need snaps are to left to the imagination for now....

But before the projects, I have to show you this cute picture of one of my snuggle-bug cats, Simon. He has been super clingy all through this pregnancy. When I am at the computer he insists on being held like a baby in my lap, or up on my shoulder like you would burp a baby. If I sit on the couch he is magnetically attracted to my big warm belly. At night he sleeps on my belly/back, as I sleep on my side. This is me sittin gon the couch cross-legged and knitting, with a belly warmer:


Knitted Wool Diaper Covers


I forget which pattern these are, but I know I got it from Anna! They are lanolized and ready to go. I hope I did the lanolin correctly. The process is simple, but I have never done it before. It is so hard to tell if they'll work. I'll just have to try them out and hope for the best. Jumping into cloth diapers and wool covers is a new thing for me. We used disposables for Miss B. Now we know better and plan on keeping all that plastic out of the landfills.

Home-Made Pre-folds


I made these small pre-folds out of a stack of old t-shirts. The inside centres are padded with the pink t-shirts that I just can't put on a boy bum. I kept the more neutral colours for the outsides. They sure are soft. They were amazingly simple and easy to make. I love my serger!!! I hope they are absorbent enough.

I made some larger ones, too. Home-made tie-dyed t-shirts will look so cute on a baby bum, especially this summer!


I made some black ones too, but they didn't look good in the pictures. I can't wait to see them on. A little punk rock bum!

Dyed Indian Cotton Pre-folds


These were unbleached indian cotton prefolds that I bought from a local diaper retailer. I wasn't going to dye them, but after I dyed the motherese from the last post, I just couldn't stop myself. The colours ended up more muted than the motherese, but I think it has to do with the colour of the unbleached cotton. It could also be that i only washed the pre-folds 10 times before I dyed them and there may have still been some oil left on the fabric that prevented it from absorbing as much colour. Oh well, still cute!

Another Pair of Longies


I love this pattern. It is so simple - a great brainless activity. I must make more....

The Bag


I made this bag out of nothing. I made up the pattern. Well, actually, I didn't even use a pattern. I just cut out pieces that I was hoping would fit together. The dark grey corduroy came from remnants of a project from before Miss B was born. We had inherited a car seat from a friend, but the cover was ghastly. At nine months pregnant I had decided to recover the car seat with the lovely grey cord. I tried and tried, but I couldn't make it work, so my pregnant self resigned to paying a dress-maker $100 to finish what I started. I should have just bought a new damn car seat! But it did turn out beautifully and we are going to use the car seat again for this baby, so I guess it was worth it. Anyway, the leftovers are the outside of this bag. The inside is a really great 1970's sheet that I found in our co-op's share-closet. I made lots of pockets on the inside. I tried to take a picture of the inside, but the pattern and all the pockets were too hard to figure out visually. I added a quick-release buckle to the strap after a few different attempts at making the strap. It isn't adjustable for size - I'll leave that for another time when I am not pregnant. Other than that, I am quite happy with it. I guess it will be a diaper bag. It looks like a diaper bag. I did buy a diaper bag (well, actually, it is a really cool bag from Lululemon), but one can never have too many bags, non?

Art Books


This project has been years in the making. My very artistic daughter draws all the time. She started taking paper from the printer as soon as she could draw on her own. I have collected all those pages of printer paper over the years and wanted to do something with them. I did some research and found a lovely little company on the North Shore that does binding of small projects. I organized the drawing by date and they bound them like real books. Miss B was so thrilled with the result. She sat and looked through everything. I tired to name all the drawings, especially the ones she gave me titles for. She seemed to remember them all. She even knew what the non-descript blobs of early drawing were. We plan on doing this every year. It is totally worth the $50/book.


So this is the end of the projects! I did make some slings - a few stretchy, a few woven. I also made a wrap. They are not worth photographing until they have a baby in them! The diapers I made are really cute, too, but they need snaps. I really need to find a snap press to borrow to do the plastic snaps.


I cleaned off my work table in my bedroom. It has nothing on it. No more piles of projects, no more sewing machines. Just a lamp. It is all ready for the midwives to put their gear for the birth. So what am I supposed to do now? How about get a pedicure with my darling daughter?

Baby Jaguar Toes

Cherry Blossom Toes

And now we wait. And wait. And wait. And wait..........

Catching Up

It has been awhile....

I'll start from where I left off - The Craft Shows. Well, they didn't go so well. The first one (at the Midwives) was busy, but not a lot of buyers. The second one (at Roundhouse) was quiet as it was a snow day. I got lots of compliments on the hats, but not any buyers. I did sell most of my Sweatergans (adult sweaters and turtle necks altered into cardigans), which felt good. All in all, it was disappointing and I learned that I don't like doing craft shows. It seemed like such a waste of time to sit there and smile at people going by. I'll just post things online from now on. Etsy will be the only place to buy the hats (or whatever else I end up creating).

Next is Christmas!

This is my vintage tree. It originally belonged to my great-granny's neighbour. She gave it to my mom in the late 60's. I inherited it when I was a teenager and wanted my own tree in my own room. Since then, I have used it every year and it is starting to look it's age. This year we found some beautiful LED lights at Ikea that change colour. The tree shimmered in pink, turquoise, green, red, blue....

I could go into all the family politics of Christmas, but I'll just leave it at the beautiful tree.

Next...

Happy New Year!


Since the new year began (and a bit before, over Christmas) I have been in nesting mode. Projects are getting finished, and hopefully more space is being made. I went through my fabric box and took out the things I knew had real projects attached. I kept some of my favorite fabrics for future projects, and the rest was donated. I attacked my wool too. Anything that was not "wool" was discarded. I used up left over balls of cotton to make these bibs (inspired by Anna):


I used up my two bags of felted sweaters to make bum sweaters for the baby and Miss B. A sample:


The left overs went into making Caterpillars:


The Caterpillar idea started as a toy for the baby, but I had so many scraps that I brought some to the Homelearner's drop-in and we made some there. Miss B made her own and she was so proud! There were still some left overs from that so I made a whole bunch of them, some of which were kept and some we gifted to friends.

I have really enjoyed the purging. I am happy to see things organized and the excess given new homes. Don't get me wrong, my house is not ready for the baby yet. There are still piles of projects that need to get done in the next two months. Diapers need to be made. A bag needs a handle. Diaper covers need to be finished and lanolized. Baby carriers need to be designed.

It will get done, it must!!!

I have been knitting too. I made a kimono sweater and hat (quite awhile ago - in the early fall):


And (more recently) my first pair of longies (thanks to Anna again!):


I bought a whole bunch of new wool at the Three Bags Full belated Boxing Day Sale to make more longies and soakers. That sale was INSANE! I went just as the store opened and within minutes the store was packed. I waited in the line to pay for 2 hours. There were some fun ladies around me and we chatted to make the time pass. I didn't think I'd make it as I started getting dizzy at 1.5 hours. Pregnant people should not be made to wait 2 hours standing. I sat on the floor for most of the rest of the wait.

My big project this last weekend was dyeing. I was given a whole whack of Motherease diapers from my dear friend Lisa. And I was inspired by my neighbour Jennifer who dyed her diapers in some bright jewel tones. Here are the spectacular results:


I can't wait to use them. They are so pretty! But I will have to wait until the summer, at least, as they are medium sized diapers and will not fit a newborn bum. I have some Indian prefolds on order for the newborn stage, but I am going to leave them the natural brown-ish colour.

I threw into the dye pots some of Miss B's old baby clothes that were too nice to sell/donate and too pink for a boy, but the results were not so spectacular. Most of the clothes turned out blotchy - which makes no sense because the diapers turned out great. Who knows? I don't dye as the science it can be - I just do it and hope for the best.

Here is another of my new obsessions - iron-ons. I found these odd pieces at a craft surplus store and made t-shirts for husband and baby:


I enjoyed it so much that I went back to the store and bought out everything I could so that I can decorate some of the boring boy shirts and pjs that I have for the baby. Who doesn't want a reflective baby?

And this iron-on came from a promo pack from husband's ex-work. It feels weird to promote a company, but the logo is small and the picture is so cute. The whole family has Fruitabu t-shirts now. This is for the baby:



And blankets. Blankets galore!!!

This quilt I made awhile ago, but forgot to post it. It was dreamed up when I was a teenager. I saved all my flannel pj's (and a floral duvet cover) to sew into a quilt one day. One day turned into many years and I finally just sat down and did it. It is not perfect. The lines are not straight. A few of the squares frayed in the wash and I had to put more patches on top. But it is so warm and girly. My special couch blanket:


I have another long-lost quilt that I am going to finish. I started it my second year of university when I was a tour guide at London Farm Heritage House in Richmond. I was dressed in Victorian costume, so I could easily get away with cross-stitching in quiet times. I made 9 pictures from the story of Peter Rabbit. I sewed the patches together with crazy vegetable fabrics. I started hand stitching the quilted parts and then stopped. I think I stopped because the edges weren't finished and the creeping polyfil was driving my crazy. Also, hand quilting is not quick or fun or easy. I finally bought some satin blanket edging and finished the edges (which are also not perfect, but I really had no idea how to do it and just winged it). And now I have 10 squares to hand quilt. I will do it!!!! But this is not a baby blanket. Too much work went into this. I think it might hang on the kid's bedroom wall. I'll give you a sneak peak:


Notice the cat hairs? That is another thing that bugs me. I needed to get the edging on so that I could wash it. Three moves and many years of cats sitting on it have taken their toll.

Here is a blankets for the baby that I whipped together from my fabric stash:


The jungle side came from my mom. I am not sure if it is vintage or not. I think she got it at a garage sale or a thrift store. The floral side is a vintage sheet from our co-op share closet that has been very useful. It is the backing for this blanket and the interior for the bag I made (which is not finished yet). It also made a few bean bags and there are left overs for future projects.

One last thing - the nursing pillow. I followed the only pattern I could find from the internet but it sucked. It made a VERY LARGE pillow. Me and my daughter can fit inside it. The nice thing about its size is that it can be stretched a bit. I'm hoping it will still work as a nursing pillow, but right now is it much loved as a pillow on the couch. The cats make nests in it, and so does Miss B. It is great back support for me at this stage of the pregnancy. I packed it pretty full, using the wool I had processed last summer. Not the nice slivered grey wool, but the white wool that had too much vegetative matter to process into slivers. I used up all the white wool filling this pillow and refilling all the couch pillows. They are now so firm and warm. Wool makes such a difference. Never poly again!


The only reason this post was possible today was because of the snow day. Snow makes me happy! It gives me energy. And the light is so beautiful I was inspired to take pictures of the things I have made. Miss B burned off some beans playing outside and now I can post. Happy Snow Day!!!!

My Very First Craft Show - EVER!

I am very excited to be selling my knitted bonnets at the Maternal Creations Craft Fair on Friday and Sunday (Saturday is the Vancouver Waldorf Christmas Fair and we just can't miss that!). This is the poster for the Craft Show:


Right now I am printing up tags that need handwritten details of each piece. And prices... I am so bad at pricing things. I like knitting and have a hard time charging for it. This experience will have its own learning curve, I guess. It will also be very strange to be sitting in one spot for more than a few minutes without a small child asking for something. I get to knit for hours on end - such fun! It will all be worth it just for that. I wish I had more variety of things to sell, but I lost my momentum once pregnant. I have so many ideas - just a lack of time. And now there are baby things to make. Diapers, carriers, blankets... We'll see where these craft shows lead me...

Just For Fun

I saw this meme on the Nature Moms blog and couldn't resist. It made me giggle.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Minka Ford

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Caramel Ginger

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name),
Abjo

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Pink Kitty

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, hospital where you were born)
Leigh Grace

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)

Bjoal

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Turquoise W(h)ine(r)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Gordon Franz

9.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names)
Ann Ferdinand

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
McDonald Maine

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
Autumn Violet

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Strawberry Pjammy

13. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Toasted Cherry Blossom

14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Knitted Thunder Tour

Pain & Prettys

I had surgery yesterday. If you read my meme a little while ago, you'd know that I had jaw surgery about 12 years ago. They put 4 titanium screws in my jaw. About 5 years ago, one of the screws started making its way out of the bone and polked through the skin inside my mouth. Over the last five years it has pushed farther and farther to the point where it became wiggly - like a loose tooth. It had to be removed. So I went back to the surgeon who did my original surgery and with only local anesthetic, he cut the gum and pulled the screw out of my jaw bone. Without all the gory details, I'll only say that the local anesthetic didn't work and I felt everything. I have two stitches, a very swollen face and a screw. Here is the screw - it is about an inch long:


I was crashed on the couch feeling very sorry for myself, when a very obnoxious UPS guys banged on the door more than necessary. He delivered a package from my mom - good timing! She gifed me a collection of very beautiful vintage hankies.


I am loving these hankies. But now I have to decide what to do with them. I thought I could make something pretty, like a skirt for my daughter. I did just buy a serger a few days ago that I have yet to crack open. But I think I am going to use them. Yes, use the hankies as hankies are supposed to be used - to blow your nose. For many years now I have given up my addiction to paper towels and we only use rags. Hankies would be a next step, since we are also planning on cloth diapers and wipes for the new baby (hence the purchase of the serger). I just don't think I could ever go so far as to have cloth wipes for the bigger people instead of toilet paper. Maybe in the very crunchy future...but not now. And I promise not to offer a hankie to you - unless you really want to try....

PURPLE SOUP and other foood stories...

I never intended to make purple soup. It was an accident. I intended to make Corn Chowder - a typically "white" soup. I wanted to use up some of the vegetables that have been sitting around my fridge from the UBC - CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box that we get weekly. Corn, nugget potatoes, patty pans, and carrots. The carrots are to blame - they were purple carrots. Corn, potatoes and zucchinis are pretty "white", so why didn't I think about what would happen if I added carrots? I dye things. I should know this. Here is the soup:


It may look funny, but it tasted soooo good. Half a bottle of whipping cream will do that.

Another funny food story. My dear Miss B has never experienced conventional (i.e. non-organic) breakfast cereals. We don't eat much cereal in this house, but when we do it is of the granola type. But, being pregnant I craved rice crispy squares. So off we went to the conventional grocery store to buy Rice Crispies and marshmallows. We made the gooey delicious treats and ate them all (over a few days, mind you). There happened to be about a 1/4 of the box left (I like my squares really marshmallowy) so I decided to have them for breakfast yesterday. I surprised Miss B with the magical sounds of the "Snap Crackle Pop". She was amazed so I offered her a taste by putting a large spoon full in front of her mouth. She proceeded to BLOW all of the contents of the spoon on to the table and floor. I screamed - in shock and fury. What are you doing????? She looked at me with a confused face and said "But they are hot!". Oh. My. Goodness. Miss B took the sounds of the milk on the cereal as being a boiling sound - she really thought the cereal was piping hot! At that point we all cracked up. Only an organic family can have a situation like this...

Reasons

I realized today that it has been almost 2 months since I last posted. It seems like 2 days. I really don't remember the last three months. Why, you ask? I am pregnant and have been so incredibly sick. Not pukey. Just sea sick, all day. Tired. Cranky. Brain dead. I really don't remember what we did for the month of July. No memories at all. If I could just be a mother hen and sit on the couch all day I would be a happy camper. Supposedly this will all end in a week or so when the first trimester is over. Today is a really bad day, can you tell?

I haven't been knitting much. A bonnet here and there. Started some socks for Miss B. I am even too tired to knit. I never thought I'd say that.

I need to start spinning again. I have 4, 1.5 pound bags of grey corridale roving hanging out in my bedroom. They stared out as stinky fleeces from a farmer friend in the Okanagan. I sent them to the Island to be processed by a woman who has the proper machinery. We made our summer traveling go in the direction of the wool. Luckily, she saved the carding for when we arrived. We got to see the 19th centrury machine do it's thing. It was so beautiful to see the lumpy wool go in and come out in slinky roving. Here are some pictures:




I would love to do this job one day. Play with fibre all day long. Wash it, dry it, card it. So simple, but so satisfying. I didn't want to leave her workshop. It was so much fun. Thanks, Anna!

Other news - I got into Ravelry! I haven't waited that long, but that is probably because I signed up early. It seems like a great concept, but I need to explore it more. I have trouble posting here!

No back-to-school for us. We are homeschooling. Once I feel better I hope to get more of a routine going. More projects. More posting. More creativity. It is coming....

Catch up - and chickens...

I keep forgetting to blog. I get so absorbed reading other blogs, and I run out of time to write on my own. A lot of the time I feel so in awe of the creative people out there and their endless amazing projects. My random projects seem so small - should I bother posting about them? But I will! I have to upload the photos to the computer more - I tend to leave there there for awhile. I was also reading in the Artist's Way that people who edit themselves when they write (or type, I guess) will also limit themselves in their creativity. It sounded alot like me. I never kept journals because what I wrote was never "perfect". I'd think too much about what I was writing in case someone read it. My brain also tends to go about a million miles ahead of my hands. Typing is better than writing, though. I just need to let the ideas flow...

So I thought I'd tell you all about our chickens. Well, not our chickens - but UBC Farm's chickens. Miss B and I are volunteering our time once a week as Chicken Friends. Our job is to feed and water the ladies, as well as collect, sterilize and package the eggs for UBC's Farm Market. It is so much fun - a touch of the country in the middle of the city! The air is so fresh there!

I fell in love with chickens last year at my mom's house in California. That summer my mom let us pick out three chicks to replace a few that had been "taken" by an unknown animal. We picked a white one, a red one and a brown one - Princess, Twink, and Chocolate respectively. We held them and snuggled them. This is what they looked like back then:


Over our three week visit we watched them lose their fuzz and start to grow feathers. They morphed into gawky teenagers:


This summer we saw them again. They are beautiful birds. Princess is still the meany that she was when she was a baby. She always pushes the others around to get the best food first. Twink is super snuggly - she'll sit on your lap. Oma always gives Chocolate the most treats, so she is a bit bigger than the rest. They follow my mom around the garden as she works and they get all the worms that she digs up. They remember the area where their cage was kept when they were small and they always come back to that spot on the balcony to rest. They are such smart birds - it makes me wonder why I eat chicken. I miss them.


To get our chicken fix at home we do our chicken duty. The birds follow us around as we fill their feeders. They watch us collect their eggs - always with full commentary. They love to be patted and don't mind if you pick them up. Miss B snuggles them and brings them fresh grass from outside the pen.

I have never volunteered my time before. This has been such a great experience for me and my B. And it is great to know that the eggs we buy every second week are from really happy birds.

tagged

I took a break. I didn't mean to, I just forgot to blog for awhile. Now I am back and I pledge to blog more often.

I was tagged by cosy! I find this so funny because I just sat down to renew my blogness with inspiration from another of cosy's posts. So I'll do both!

Seven random things about me:

1. I started out my university degree with a major in English. When I started my first year at Mt. A they required all students to have a quick look at all the faculties. One of my stops was at an introduction to Art History. Art History? I never knew that a person could legitimately study art at university. I fell in love and never looked back.

2. I can't eat green, lime flavoured candies. When I was 5, I stole the bottle of Flintstone vitamins and dealt them out to my brother and the neighbourhood kids. I ate all the green ones. We were taken to the hospital. To this day, "green" candies turn my stomach.

3. I can't do somersaults. Not at all. Never have, and never will. But I can do cartwheels.

4. I am an Austrian citizen. I speak basic German.

5. I wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian. I even worked at an animal hospital when I was in high school.

6. I am still friends with one of my friends from Elementary School. We met in Grade 3. We have the same birthday. We have been friends for over 20 years! And for those who don't believe in astrology - she and I both have daughters, born 6 weeks apart.

7. I have had 4 sets of braces. The first ones at age 9 to pull back my Bugs Bunny front teeth. The second set were right after the first and the straighted up everything else. The third set was just after high school to realign everything in preparation for jaw surgery. The last set was last year. My front teeth were starting to move and I didn't want to end up like Bugs again!

And now for the second list:

Bold the things you have ever knit
Italics the ones you plan to do sometime
Leave the rest

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fibre yarn
Domino Knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publish a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Entrelac
Long Tail CO
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed Toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Phew...that is a long list.

Moving Forward

I quit my job! It feels so good to finally be done with a job that was not my true calling. What did I do, you ask? I was doing food photography for a local organic grocery store. I had done wedding photography a long time ago, and some artwork photography at my pre-baby job. The food photography came up at a time when we were consolidating debt and it was a great opportunity to make some extra money to pay off the debt. I have been doing it for two years now. Over those two years I have fallen in love with fibre arts. I could spend all my days with wool and fabric; sewing, knitting and spinning. It started small at first - I picked up knitting. Then I learned how to spin and dye. Sewing has always been a favorite (I won an award for it in high school, but I never took the hint and pursued fibre arts as a career). I have been collecting stuffed sheep from long before I knew how to knit - I always knew it was in my destiny to care for some of the darling animals. So now it is time to move forward. I am so happy to take the W out of WAHM and be a true SAHM or can I amend it to be AAHM (Artist At Home Mom). I can be creative and not worry about guidelines. Yay!!!!

Secret Santa Project

Last Christmas I participated in the CanSpin Secret Santa exchange. I have never done one before and I found it to be lots of fun. My Santa sent me a box full of samples of different kinds of fibres. I finally got the nerve up to spin them on the weekend. Each fibre was unique to spin.

First I spun up the Navaho Churro roving. Donkey, non? I thought I'd take a risk on the weirdest one. It is the first time I have spun a naturally dark fibre. It was a dream to spin. Soft, too.

The Llama was in a batt - not combed or washed. I found it frustrating at first because my fingers were turning black from the dirt and there were tones of earthly matter attached. Some of the hay fell out as I spun, some fell out when I washed it and I picked out as much as I could when I balled it up. My carpet looked like a barn. The fibres pulled from all directions when I was spinning so the yarn ended up with lots of slubs. I loved the final product, though. Once washed, the caramel colours showed through and it is incredibly soft. See photo:

Next I did the soy and mulberry silks. Not my favorite. They are slippery and shiny. Once washed, they were stiff. They feel very "plant-y" - like linen. I think I will stick to animals.

I saved the best for last - tiny bags of cashmere and baby camel down rovings. Both were not that easy to spin, but felt so soft to the touch. The cashmere is is warm grey colour and the camel is, well, camel coloured.

One last bag of goodies - green cotton. It scared me. I remembered from my spinning class that cotton has a very short staple (short fibres) so it makes it very difficult to spin. It was. It kept falling apart. So I gave up on it and have saved it for another project - maybe stuffing?

Well, now all of these fibres are spun, washed, dried and balled. Ready for a project. I am thinking that a scarf would be fun. All the fibres to show and tell.

Thank you, Santa, wherever you are!

Coffee & Wine

Well, grapes, really.

We have been making smoothies for breakfast lately. We used up all the blueberries in our freezer, but found some frozen concord grapes hiding underneath them. They reminded me of the organic concord grape popsicles that stain B's teeth and tongue. So why not wool? I boiled up the grapes and smashed them to smithereens. I soaked only half the skein in the pot. I really like the purple! The other colour came from coffee. I was hoping for a darker chocolate brown, but this caramel colour is nice too. So many non-toxic things to dye with! I must find more....


This skein of mohair soaked in the leftover grape juice and turned a very light shade of lilac. Very pretty.

Beets

I did some experimenting last night. I had spun and plyed the wool last week and had it sitting around, waiting for inspiration. The beets I cooked for dinner left a beautiful red soup that called for wool. I added some vinegar. I added the wool. And this is what appeared. The top skein was natural. The bottom skein was light green (previously dyed with kool-aid, but not all that attractive). I like the results, but I thought the colours would be brighter. I envisioned reds and purples, not peach. I'll have to do some research to find out what else needs to be added to the mix.

My Knitting Bag

I love my knitting bag. It is an ancient doctor's bag. My Oma gave it to my a long time ago. It is in such good condition. It had been in storage - i was saving it for something special. I have slowly realized that there is no time like today. Carpe Diem. Why hide it away. it must be used. And since it holds itself open, it makes a great knitting bag. What do you use to carry your projects around?