Hello.
I am here.
My internet connection, while not lightning speed, is better.
What the heck have I been up to, you ask?
Well, this is going to be the most random kind of random, since I can't remember where I left off.
I have a very cool job at an organic farm/ learning centre (on hiatus for the summer) and am part of a team that gives school tours of the farm. We shared great farming activities for the school aged, kindergarten through high school, mostly at each end of that age spectrum.
We made seed necklaces and garden/greenhouse visits, butter making and bread making, right from grinding the wheat. We baked the buns in a cob oven very much like the one we built at our city home. This made me want another oven very much. Even though I am not eating bread*, I still wanna make it.
And the animals. The kids loved the chickens and I managed to catch and hold one for them to touch every time. Their feet are particularly cool. (The chickens, not the kids) This sounds easier than it was, with about 15 energetic little people around scaring them under the coop ( the chickens, not the kids, although some did try) I only got shat on once. We also collected eggs and then graded them.
And sheep> We do a Sheep-to-Sweater activity, during which time I conquered the drop spindle. One child had a screaming tantrum that he wasn't actually going to knit a hat at the end! (They twist the carded wool and make "bracelets" It is a 20 minute activity)
Of course we visited the sheep in the field, during which I am proud to say, I managed to wrangle a sheep from the herd so the children could have a feel of the fleece (once in the rain! fun!) every visit. ( Again, not as easy as it sounds. Well, maybe that one doesn't sound easy) Sheep whisperer!
Good fun. I have been back a couple times for the summer camps, once as guest chef to make strawberry rhubarb crisp. The campers went out to the fields and picked the rhubarb and strawberries themselves. It was lovely to see them carrying in large rhubarb stalks, one each, their leaves waving like large fans over their heads as they walked up the hill.
This week I came in with the older kids and we made lip balm. Oh, yes, a photo.the only one I have and of course, it's blurry. And not in an artistic good way.
( Sorry, no more photos of the fun but you can't really take photos of other people's children these days. You know. And my hands were very busy anyway)
I was also able to join the CSA at the farm, not having a garden of my own since we are now renting. (44 acres and chickens but no garden) I did have my darling husband make me a huge garden box , 8 feet long! So along with two large pots, one for herbs, one for lettuces, I can still dig in the dirt a bit.
This is what happens when my feet hit the driveway after supper. The run for the fence. They know the Lady with the Bowl of Kitchen Scraps. A few have started flying over the fence to get first dibs (and then running back to the others because well, they are chickens)
I also have been selling mucho soap and have had to up production! I take a photo when I stop at the sales venues (here at the harvest store at the farm) so I know what kinds need replacing.
Also on the home front, I so wanted to show and tell my fingering-merino-with-a-tinch-of-cashmere- white-summer cardigan that I started way back at the last post but alas: frogged. I got up to the armholes and tried it on and there was just not roomy enough for me. The good news I am starting again! This is after I threw it in the closet left it for a few months to get over my disappointment. It started out as Same Same but Different but looked too wispy in that wool so I changed to the all garter stitch Morning Sky pattern. I just want a plain white cardigan!
In the meantime I recreated a simple cotton tank that I had years ago and loved.
I have serious start-itis on the knitting front and wanted to start a fair isle cardigan ( along with many other things. Stop trolling Ravelry E, just stop) but I thought I could still maybe finish the white sweater. If I got really motivated I could finish it for the end of summer as least.
I can't say end of summer without whimpering a little.
I also found two single socks in progress that need a mate. The cardigan and sock finishing should tide me over and dampen my enthusiasm before going on a mad fair isle yarn extravaganza.
I think.
I also did some artwork and some models for a photo shoot. Yes, a big tooth and dental tool. You just never know what clients will ask you to do.
So, my daughter bought a hedgehog.
Harriet. She is so Darn Cute and she Poops. A lot. That's all I have to say about that.
AND! after 8 months we have finally found out what the heck was wrong with Miss M and she is much better. Just in time for her 20 birthday. Now she can get on with school and job and Life .
She had been going to a naturopath during much of this time. Conventional medicine did Nothing to help her and neither did the medication the doctors prescribed but she had great relief modifiying her diet in the mean time until the powers that be could figure out what the heck was wrong exactly.
*The diet was a life saver, so much so that I decided to get tested for food allergies and sensitivities myself. And guess what? This bread baker is allergic to whole wheat and spelt ( my fav) and yeast! And cheese and any alcohol, except beer, which is sad and ironic because I don't like it. After one try with a kamut sourdough, which was meh I more or less gave up bread. Sounds impossible right? You know after a while it doesn't taste that great anymore. I had a few bites of pizza the other day =not as good as I was hoping. I just substitute vegetables in it's place. Insert gratuitous breakfast photo here.
I don't like goat's cheese, which is okay for me but I do like sheep's products ( harder to find, though so I rarely eat it)
Insert another cute hedgehog after bath photo.
Oh and I finished re-doing some chairs. When the weather warmed up I got them out of storage. A friend had given us these two heavy cast iron chairs just before we moved . Bad timing really but I liked them so I said yes. The caning was pretty much gone, so I bought some weatherproof nylon webbing and googled "herringbone" on You Tube and voila!
Also random and unplanned, an IKEA hack. Two tea towels, some piping and a zipper - a new pillow. (Actually two. One is going to a friend's cottage as hostess gift) Who knew pillow forms were so cheap at IKEA?
I finished the latest Outlander book in the series. Is anyone as excited to watch the Outlander series as I am?
So, I still do the photo thing on Flickr ( you can see the whole mud oven making there if you missed it first go around) and newly on Instagram (i'm communicato), which is funny since I don't technically own a cell phone, I sometimes often borrow my hubbies.
If anyone is still out there, shout out!
I'm not much of a collector of things, mostly of ideas and projects.
I like my things to be functional mostly and not things to just sit and look pretty - things I have to dust! I like my functional things to be beautiful too.
But sometimes collections just happen.
This collection , which started out with finding a bird's nest and then a feather, a jaw bone. Then my son added a tooth fossil (which came from a nature show) and an arrowhead and then I added a raku pot a friend had made for me. The bird & nest and swan raku tea lights I had made seemed to belong there too. And then the stone bird piece from a burned out building my husband found. I noticed when I took this photo, the little snake skin had gone missing - I blame the cats!
These things are a source of inspiration and I guess a little dusting.... well, it must be done.
For more collections visit Francesca here
Considering the problems with Typepad and my internet connection, which has been more off than on (no small thing!) I have been sadly absent from this space of late.
But small things surround me and I will try to keep the post small so I have a hope of hitting publish before I lose the connection:
outside, the only flowering things so far: coltsfoot
which looks suspiciously like dandelion flowers but is apparently, good for coughs
Wild leeks or ramps, too small to pick yet but soon...
And beside the ramps grow trout lily. The leaves are delicious in salads. They taste like fresh peas.
Inside: small things to become bigger things:
seeds to become plants outside next month.
very small stitches, on 2.25mm needles which will make up a whole spring cardigan - soon!
scraps of leftover saved material to become a quilt
And small bits of precious metal clay, which is really silver, for the tiniest of earrings.
For more small things:
our Corner View host who is also having internet issues is here.
It's good to be back in this space again.
Since I've been playing with paint again, I thought I'd peek over at Illustration Friday and see what the topic was. Last week the topic was RED. Now the last time I participated in Illustration Friday, quite a while ago, the topic was red. Here is my previous post.
I also had just picked up a small canvas in my stash that I had previously primed in, you guessed it - red.
It seemed meant to be.
So I grabbed the first red things I could find.
Still equally enjoying and being frustrated by oil paint.
First there is the woods, looking bleak and asleep this time of year
In the distance in the woods, do you see them?
Sap buckets.
So I hope in the not too distant future, maple syrup!
More links to Corner View at our host, Francesca here.
So yes, as hinted at the end of the last post, another impulse knitterly diversion:
an oversized blanket. I blame Pinterest, if I have to blame anyone.
And I blame the winter movie nights, which had the household sitting watching movies old and new most every evening. So, of course I had to be knitting. I can't watch without knitting.
I had already sat there for two nights with my hands empty, fidgeting.
So, this happened:
And happened very fast. Knitting with 20mm needles is a bit like a toddler with oversized crayons, a bit awkward but the drawing gets done in time for nap time with little attention span required.
This was about a week of movies, four x four rib, finished when I thought it was enough, about 55'' x 60" not including the stretch. It stretches a lot.
No, it doesn't quite fit on the ladder with the other beloved couch blanket, the addictive-to-cats stripey one.
The yarn? When I went for buttons for the vest, I looked around to see what yarn was available. I wasn't in a yarn store, just an all round craft depot.
Patons Cobbles was there and another brand on sale. The Cobbles was a real contender. Luckily though, I was wearing black jeans and both yarns did not pass the fluff test. Bad enough spending too much time under a blanket watching movies without looking like a fluff ball at the end of it. I have cats for that.
So I used Bernat Baby Blanket, doubled. It feels like a chenille bath robe, and is machine washable ( I did consider how I was going to wash the beast) and easy on the budget. The white makes my white couch look less so, but I really wanted white.
AND luckily, the wool I ordered arrived just in time for my planned spring cardigan as soon as I was done, a fingerweight gauge, (also white!) requiring the size of needles I love - tiny ones!
Quite the contrast. And yes, that is tape. The dreaded toddler crayon circulars broke about one foot in.
Mother Nature however, after being so nice and spring-like for a few days (quick, tap the maples!) decided we weren't quite ready for spring cardigans or yet to be finished with cosy blankets. We should have expected this from Her by now.
The skies cleared though, just in time for a pretty sunset and quite possibly another movie.
I spend a lot of time planning my projects, mulling over wool colours and patterns and design. I want them to be cost efficient, very functional and exciting to work on.I decided that after just making a casual warm sweater I would focus on spring. If I couldn't will it to happen outside ( hello snow EVERY DAY. Hello ARCTIC temperatures For the love of Pete, please let us GO!) I could make it happen in other ways. I would get a head start on warm weather knitting. Sleeveless tank tops, light cardigans! Goodness knows I would have plenty of time to complete them.
But then something happened. Looking through my many bookmarks I hit upon a pattern and the knowledge that I had some bright red wool in my closet in the right weight and couldn't I fit just another little winter project in before my wool arrived?
Of course I could.
This is a modified version of the Ariosa Cropped Cardigan. Obviously my version is not cropped, and obviously missed-named as a cardigan. It's a vest! A really warm one, when one needs an extra layer, and boy have we needed an extra layer!
(yes that is a wall of snow at my leg from the path to the door, hello March!)
Quite a while ago, I had unravelled a very oversized 1980's sweater with a large daisy on the front that I loved but would never wear again and saved the bulky red wool.
As for the pattern I added more length and waist shaping and shortened the odd-to-me ribbing that they were calling a sleeve.
This kind of modelling, outdoors in -10'C very windy weather, leads to numb fingers pretty quickly.
But no matter, because I came in and had this to do:
While I was doing errands, to find buttons for the vest, some more oil paint (!) and you know, the ever needed groceries, I picked up a little something extra.
Ever wanted one of those over-sized blankets for the couch?
Me too!
I found an old set of oil paints when we were moving. I didn't remember ever buying them but then, they could belong to my husband.
As a commercial artist I never used oil paints because the medium is too slow, it takes too long to dry when one has too churn out artwork to a deadline.
The painting on the left was done in acrylic. The other day I finally cracked open the oil paints and spent a short time replicating the acylic painting. I wasn't trying for an exact duplicate but wanted to see how to interpret it with oil paint. I only spent about a half hour on it so it's not done by any means.
I think I'm ready to experiment more with oils.
More experiments on corner view here.
A sweater.
Driftwood by Isabel Kraemer
It was a watch Downton Abbey and the Olympics because it was too cold-too blizzardy- too icy/snowy (repeat) (and repeat again!) to play outside sweater.
The first top down knit that I actually like.
I was in between the small and medium size and so opted for the medium. Roomy is fine, it's that kind of casual sweater.
The bottom hem curled on me so I ripped back and made a turned-under hem that I like better. Other than that I would not have increased towards the bottom as per the pattern as it just made for unneccesary fabric. A little waist shaping instead, maybe?
Patons Classic Wool, for those interested.
I'm off to The Outdoor Living Show. No, the irony does not escape me.
I'm an artist living in Canada.
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