Summertime and My Ukulele

So far, it's been a HOT summer!  I've been involved in a bunch of fun stuff though and I'm looking forward to heading down to Hodgepodge Farm in a few weeks to get my hands dyeing and weaving some stuff! 

Farmer Fern Craft Time.

Since April, I've been involved in this amazing program called, The Farmer Fern and Friends Puppet Program.  Farmer Fern is the invention and a wonderful young guy (18 years old!) who invented this program to help and empower children through learning about gardening, nature and the importance of ecology and horticulture!  I'm a puppeteer for the program (often playing the part of Cousin Cassidy).  We have done several performances this summer.  Last Monday, we were able to perform at the Silent Voices Summer Camp in Toronto and this week we performed for a group at the Guelph Enabling Garden!  It's been a wonderful experience and I'm having a ball working with such a creative group of artists. 

Farmer Fern and Cassidy!

A butterfly puppet.

I've also been participating in an abstract quilting class that has been a great experience.  I've never quilted before and this approach has been a great way to introduce me to quilting and it feels very natural to me.  I have one more class, then we will be having a show at the end of the year of all our quilts.  I'm piecing together my quilt now and I've hung it on the wall to piece so it feels very much like putting together a puzzle.  

My quilt so far...

Ukulele is my new obsession!  I've been taking lessons and it's been great!  My first song is, Here Comes The Sun and it's F-U-N!

Here comes the sun little darlin'

I also finished my Coquille Shawl.  It's made out of Kauni yarn which was amazing to work with - so amazing I went an bought another colour way....  now I have to find something to make out of it!

Coquille Shawl!

Hodgepodge, Vendor Call Out and Various Fun!

This past week was such a fun week because my wonder-buddy Cal Patch came for a visit!  I was fortunate enough to be able to sit in on F-I-V-E of her classes!  I now have enough patterns drafted to make a wardrobe!  She is an amazing teacher and the classes were held at The Workroom in Toronto - an amazing space.  One of her students - an extreamly crafty lady herself - Austen Gilliland even wrote about her adventures in Cal's T-Shirt Making Class!

Of course we did a lot of the usual - eating cake, drinking tea and shopping for matching yarn to make matching cowls.  We had a fun time at Shall We Knit? in Kitchener and both purchased some lovely yarn by Indigodragonfly to make a crocheted cowl.  I also picked up some yarn to finally make the Coquille!  It's turning out beautifully.

I also want to make a call out to you!  Crafts people and artisans - I'm part of an amazing team that is organizing a craft/art sale for Saturday July 14th!  It's the first annual Sparkworks Craft and Art Sale benefiting the wonderful organization Spark of Brilliance.  Check out the info on the poster and sign up:

I've also become involved with another amazing team!  Farmer Fern and Friends!  Farmer Fern and his friends are puppets that teach children about the importance of gardens and plants and loving healing powers that growing stuff offers!  Please check out the Farmer Fern Blog for upcoming performances and more information....


Lastly, I'm gearing up for year two of my OHS handspinning course.  Year two of six!  I'm very excited to see all the students that I met last year and I'm geared up to get to work.  I'm very happy to be bunking with the Crafty Gardener - Andie L.  Here I am working on a (last minute) assignment on my Babe Espinner!

Lanesplitter Part Two – The Alterations

The skirt obsession started when Tamaralda exploded into the shop with the Knitty pattern for the Lansplitter Skirt. Tamaralda, Jaqual and myself all picked out our Kureyon and each made a skirt. It was so fun and exciting and competitive (in a fun and exciting way)… We all finished and Tamaralda wears hers all the time, Japual wears hers too. When I put mine on, I felt that it was kind of bulky and long and it just didn’t feel comfortable for me… I was sad… I folded it up and put it in my closet knowing that I would never wear it. But every time Tamaralda wore hers I was jealous. When she talked me into modeling our Lansplitters together for the Downtown Knit Collective’s annual fashion show (I have no idea how she convinced me!), I decided that some alterations needed to be done.




Firstly, I removed the waistband and undid Jaqual’s perfect seaming job (sorry):


I know that Kureyon felts really well so I rolled up my sleeves and got to felting the thing. I thought, “If it turns out too small, I’ll at least have a nice bathmat.” The felting was successful!


I then seamed it back up. It was a little difficult to re-seam since the fabric didn’t felt to accurate dimensions. It worked out just fine though.


Since I didn’t want to add any length by doing an applied waistband, I decided to go to the fabric store and buy some jersey material. I cut a strip wide enough for the elastic to thread through and the circumference of the inside of the skirt. Then I got to hand sewing.


I feel great in the skirt now! It fits better and is more of a mini style. I also feel like it’s more stable. It was a wonderful exercise in learning about fit and what to look for in a pattern to know it’s suitable for my body shape. (Here's a pic of myself wearing the altered Lansplitter with knitter extraordinaire Irene):


Tamaralda has been researching skirts for several months now and we’ve been working on combining yarns and working with different fibres to get the perfect fabric for skirt knitting. Our friend Irene has been helping us with advice and knitting expertise. I love knitting and crocheting skirts. It covers as much of your body as a sweater does and you don’t have to worry about fitting in arms or sewing up a bunch of seams like a sweater. They are warm and comfortable and fun to make. It’s been really challenging and interesting figuring out fibre combinations and gauges to make them viable to wear for many years. Tamaralda has several hand-knit and crocheted skirts. I’m currently finishing up a crocheted skirt from a Drops pattern. It has a shaped waist and I think it’s going to provide a much smoother fit and show off my curves. I now know what to look for in a skirt pattern! I can’t wait to finish it and post about it. Then on to the next one! Yay Skirts!

K5 Tog!!!

My colleague Tamara (Tamaralda) had the good fortune to attend an Orenburg Lace Knitting workshop at the Textile Museum taught by THE expert on the subject, Galina Khmeleva. Lucky for me, Tamara decided to hold a group follow-up with a few of the other participants in the class. We had a lovely evening talking about lace knitting and working on an Orenburg sampler that is in the current issue of Piecework Magazine. (As an aside, the current issue of Piecework is all about samplers – one of my other obsessions).

Galina wearing one of her shawls:


Orenburg lace shawls originated in the Orenburg area of Russia about 250 years ago. The fine lace work is knitted from finely spun goat fibre similar to mohair and sometimes blended with silk. They are always knit in garter stitch and each pattern has a traditional name like: Mouse Print, Strawberry or Cat’s Paw. The shawls are also know as wedding ring shawls because even though the shawls are quite large, they are so fine, you can pass them through a ring.

Tamara and I have been working on our sampler for the past few weeks and the group is meeting again at the end of the month. I’ll post pictures of everyone’s progress!

My sampler is on the left and is made out of Diamond Luxury Alpaca Lace, Tamara's is on the right and is made of Arucania Trauco Cashmere:


In other news, Tamara and Jan (Jaqual) have both finished their Lanesplitter skirts. I have to complete the waistband on mine. I’ll get pictures of us wearing them up just as soon as I’m done. The original post was mentioned on the knitty blog! Thanks Kate!