The Relaxing Drop Spindle

After an emotional and exhausting month without time or motivation to post, I recently found something new and exciting to practise -- spinning yarn using a drop spindle. I have tried using a drop spindle once before in a beginner's spinning class at Birkeland Brothers, but failed dismally at it. But when the family went on the annual PNE outing this past weekend, I had the privilege of being shown how to use a drop spindle at the country store in the Safeway sponsored exhibit. Every year, I look forward to visiting this exhibit with the spinners, animals, petting zoo, and in particular, the country store where I admire and touch all the yummy sprinkle-dyed wool fibre by Shades of Narnia. Fortunately for me, the owner of Shades of Narnia happened to be working that afternoon and gave me the demo of spinning on a drop spindle. She made it look so easy and relaxing that I just had to buy the drop spindle/wool fibre kit. I got the hang of using the drop spindle fairly quickly at home, but really can't say that I've mastered thin, even singles on it quite yet. Here's what I have so far, and that's with a gazillion interruptions. Look at the pretty colors! Is it a coincidence that the yarn I'm spinning are my blog template colors???!?

The Magic Word

R has been making a lot of demands lately, maybe to practise using his words, maybe to test out his boundaries, but probably to primarily show his brother that he is just as fast talking and capable in every which way. Last week in the van, R asked for some sandwiches that I had just packed for our outing. I obliged, but then added, "So, what's the magic word.....?" before handing over the sandwich.

"Poo-poo!" laughed R as if it was the most hilarious joke in the whole wide world. D joined in on the joke. Me--I was still waiting for that word (please), which eventually came out as I expected, but bathroom humour, neverending as it may seem to me and common at this age, is what's going around my world these days. I think it's time to find some new and exciting "knock-knock" joke books.

Sewing on the Horizon?

ISBN: 4579110520




ISBN: 4579110978



Some exciting Japanese craft books came in the mail two days ago from YesAsia (see link on the side). Two are sewing books and the third is a crochet book. I recently spent a fortune repairing and replacing some parts on my beloved Pfaff sewing machine that my mother had bought me when I was a teen, so I thought I'd get inspired by purchasing these two beautiful books to get me back into the sewing mode. I adore the sheer simplicity of the patterns which help to show off some beautiful fabric and to emphasize lovely details like smocking and pleats.


ISBN: 4391622572



I wasn't super impressed by Ha-Na's small things of crochet book, but I did like the cloche and the cute round coin purses.

For those of you interested in ordering Japanese craft books online, it is way cheaper than going to the Japanese bookstore at Yaohan (upstairs) in Richmond. It's a big savings to get free shipping, which YesAsia offers if you spend $39US (and aren't you tempted with the US exchange so low these days @ 2 to 4%?) in Canada and $25US in the United States! My first experience ordering Japanese craft books was through Amazon Japan (who also offers good prices on their books), but I spent $20US just for shipping alone for three books. I've been very happy with YesAsia, as they've been good with communication when they haven't been able to fulfill part of an order and allowed me to make up the order with another selection to qualify for free shipping.

Summer So Far....

As we approach the end of July, I thought I'd post some of our summer fun pics so far.. Those Flickr toys are so much more fun to use than Photoshop!

1. Treats at Kits Beach(centre), 2. Strathcona Community Garden, 3. Looking Back, 4. Street Party on Commercial Drive, 5. Robson Park, 6. Spectator Ryan at Soccer Camp, 7. Freezies with the Boys, 8. Car-free Day, 9. Feeding Ducks at Trout Lake, 10. Goalie at Soccer Camp, 11. Riding Tadem @ Family Pl., 12. Ryan @ Fam. Pl., 13. Family Pl. Biking

Sock Update

One sock down and another to go..... which has finally been started. Whew...and I didn't even have to lock myself in the van on a negotiated two hour break from the family to do so, as I did for the first sock! Lovely striping, don't ya' think? And speaking of socks, the new Fall Interweave Knits issue includes quite a few interesting sock patterns. I quite like the William Street Socks, which happens to be a free web pattern! Click here to see a preview of all the patterns. Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke Cardigan is gorgeous too!

Happy 1st Blogiversary to Me!

My little blog has given me:

656 visits
953 page views
new like-minded friends and contacts
an opportunity to document my fibery interests
an opportunity to record some daily life with family
a wonderful sense of accomplishment
a whole lot of instant gratification
and a creative outlet

Ahoy, thar Matey!

We've been havin' some swashbuckling fun celebrating D's big 5th birthday this past long weekend, which is why there has been no knitting in sight. D got a pirate-themed birthday this year complete with message-in-a-bottle invitations, pirate-themed games, a treasure hunt, a homemade pirate pinata, costumes, a Pirates of the Carribean cake, and a pirate song with a jig. We had family and friends, old and new to D, all squish into our modest sized home, which was arranged as best we could to maximize space. In the end, the party ended up taking place throughout the entire house, back deck, and garden area. Shiver me timbers! We were super thrilled and grateful to have had some great weather which also helped us spread the party activities out of doors.

For anyone out there planning a birthday party, I highly recommend a themed party. One amazing site from where I got a lot of great ideas was this one. Click on the Winner's Circle to read about award-winning party ideas. I just couldn't stop reading about all the imaginative, detailed ideas that others have come up with for their own parties. I had never planned a themed party before, and ended up being completed engrossed in the theme. I must admit, there was a lot of obsessive work involved, but all the planning paid off in the end. I had enthusiastic participation in all the games and everyone had a lot of fun, which included all the parents who attended. The only person who did not participate in any of the games, unfortunately, was R. The party seemed to have interfered with his usual naptime. Nevertheless, there were lots of compliments all around.



Happy 5th Birthday D! We can't believe our first baby is already getting ready for Kindergarten. Here's a comparison of what D looked like a year ago versus today.



Above is a thank-you card that I'm currently working on for our guests who attended the party. Sorry, I couldn't get it any bigger for you. I'm still just learning how to work with Photoshop.

U-Pick Strawberries

It's strawberry picking time again! Yay!!! The strawberries were pretty picked over by the time we got to Featherstone at about noon yesterday, but there were still lots of juicy, sweet berries to be picked with some extra effort. With a perfect day weatherwise, we were able to pick about 10 lbs to bring home. I had a lot more help picking from the boys this year--especially from R who was quite possessive about his little bucket that he carried with him around the field. R mainly stuffed his face last year, although, I'm sure we all gobbled up a few pounds on the field this year too.

My First Rhubarb Pie

During the first year we moved into the house (which was six years ago), I bought some strawberry rhubarb root divisions from Van Dusen Gardens' Seedy Saturday to plant in our garden. The first couple of years I couldn't understand why I didn't get any growth out of these plants. These were supposed to be easy, low maintenance plants to grow, I thought. We eventually just concluded that the rhubarb plants were probably unhappy in its location, so M dug them up and moved them next to the fig tree. That was about three years ago, and finally, we now have some healthy big strawberry rhubarb with great big leaves growing in my garden from which I made my first rhubarb pie this past Sunday. I'm happy to say that it turned out delicious--tart, but not too lip-puckering tart. I used this recipe. And I used the standard pastry recipe from my mom's old Five Roses cookbook with my own addition of some freshly grated orange rind.

Portobello West Market

For the past couple of days, I've been trying to capture some good progress shots of my trekking sock, but not one single shot is up to standard. There is progress though, and I'm loving Charlene Schurch's clear, detailed instructions in her book, Sensational Knitted Socks. I'm super close to finishing up the first sock, so I will be able to start the second one soon.

Over the weekend, we went and checked out the Portobello West Market, held on the last Sunday of each month, at the beautiful, new Rocky Mountaineer Station. I've known about this market for about a year now, but just haven't been able to make it to any of their dates for some reason. It's exciting to know that Vancouver has a market like this (inspired by London's Portobello Market) showcasing the talents of so many creative designers, whether it be in fashion clothing, jewelry & accessories to visual art and even botanical art! I loved most of what I saw, especially the amazing clothing and jewelry. I absolutely loved the jewelry by Fiona Louie. That's her Lovebirds Collection and Leaf Collection in the above pics. Check out the market's next date on June 24th. Admission is free and there's music and entertainment after 4pm. Unfortunately, we went too early on Sunday, so we didn't quite catch the music. Maybe we should have planned to go later in the afternoon, so that the boys would've been more entertained while I shopped more seriously. The boys were just too antsy and restless to allow me to go through the market at a more leisurely pace. I guess there's always next month.

Off to the 30th International Vancouver Children's Festival

Look at my scary skull face painting!

Serious about fence painting

Exploring juggling balls

Make that diablo spin D!

Trying out the stilts

Why won't this kite fly?

With a day off from work on Friday and some tickets to see Tzo'Kam & Sandy Scofield, two First Nations music acts, it was a full day of fun festival activities that started bright and early (out of the house by 8:45am) and ended until the boys were just too tired to fly their kites made at the festival.

As usual on most of my outings, I bring my sock knitting, in case I have a chance to knit a round or two. Most of the time I don't even have the opportunity to unzip my knitting bag, but to my surprise, I was able to pull out the sock that day while R was in the giant sandbox and D was socializing with friends after having lunch. What I also didn't expect was to attract a crowd of French immersion students at the festival (both boys and girls) quite interested in what I was making. It was a little daunting trying to answer all of their questions while trying hard not to make a mistake in my knitting pattern, but it made me very happy that these kids would be interested in just watching me knit on my DPNs. Knitting in public sure has the power to promote it!

Let Me Out!

With such beautiful warm weather yesterday, it was off to Trout Lake with the boys and some friends for a picnic. After lunch and some active play at the playground, I took D and R for a quiet ride around the park in our red wagon before heading home. Needless to say, R did not appreciate being buckled in once he realized he had the chance to be super close to some water. We had just arrived at a little, secluded pier (complete with a fisherman) near the edge of the lake, when R decided to make a supreme fuss. His powers of persuasion didn't take long to work on me, for I soon broke down and gave in to his desires of escape and freedom. With ducks to look at and murky water in which to look for fish and throw sticks and leaves, how could I resist not unbuckling both boys. Besides, I think the lone fisherman was getting annoyed that we were scaring his fish away by making so much noise.


Anyhow, I was also going to report on sock progress these past couple of days, but I had no choice other than to frog the sock! Yes, you read that correctly. All you have to do is look at the above photograph. Not only did I feel that the sock was a little small, I found some glaring mistakes!!! When I first saw the mistakes, I just thought, oh well, no one will notice when the sock is finished, but the more I knit, the more irritating those garter stitches were, popping up in the stocking stitch ribs (see between the limey green stripe and the darker green stripe). I just couldn't live with the broken up ribbing, so I'm starting all over again. It's a good thing that I didn't knit down to the heel yet.

Time to Crochet Myself a Nomad Hat!

I'm so grateful to meet such warm-hearted people on the internet via my store and my blog. I love how the internet has brought together creative, like-minded people so willing to share and discuss ideas, thoughts, and solutions. Thank you Catherine, for sending me some "happy mail"! I love Tiffany Reynolds' colourful crochet pattern for the nomad felted hat! It really made my month after having lost my wallet to a pickpocket in mid-April!



Other projects that were on the go, but were interrupted by some sock knitting include the "Panta", a popular translated finnish headband pattern that is documented by a thread on Craftster that is over 80 pages long and some kanzashi. My finished panta, knit in Elann's stretchy Esprit yarn, turned out a little too big and too wide, so I'll have to experiment with the pattern some more to get it right for my head. Maybe then, I can model it myself rather than have Ms. Styro do the modelling for me.

I've also been working on some kanzashi flowers. This is my second attempt (based on a great Craftster tutorial) at getting the kanzashi the way I like it. So far, so good..... my second attempt has been much more successful at getting all the petals in the right position. Only when I get the hang of making these flowers will I actually hunt down some vintage kimono fabric to make more authentic and more lovely kanzashi. I have to admit that I have even more projects started, but I'll leave that for future posts... My crafty life is quite insane. Sometimes, I think I really have to cut down on some projects and go out for some fresh air more often.

Wrestling a Porcupine No More

I've been itching to start a pair of socks lately, and decided to resist no longer and take the plunge into the sock yarn stash, despite being in the "muddle" of a whole bunch of other crafty projects. So here's what I just started...socks in Trekking XXL from a pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks, a great book by Charlene Schurch that I bought quite some time ago. I'm knitting a six-stitch pattern sock. I am thinking of using the simple slipped-stitch rib for the sock pattern, but the waterfall rib is calling me too. Although I debated knitting these socks on a circular needle (a chance to use my new Addi Turbos), I ended up going with my DPNs. It really wasn't so long ago that knitting with double pointed needles felt somewhat like wrestling a porcupine, but after knitting Ann Budd's Cowgirl Slipper Socks using DPNs earlier this year, I think I've truly been converted! See this post. It was such a pleasure to work with five needles. Dividing all the stitches on four individual needles really allowed me to visualize more clearly the structure of the basic sock. Fixing mistakes also seemed easier with the DPNs. There wouldn't be as many stitches to undo if I had to rip back to a mistake using the DPNs vs. a long circular needle.

Very Funny

"How did a beautiful mama get so angry on her day off?"

Dylan, 4yrs and 9mos.
--remarks from my eldest after being scolded for fooling around with the sink stopper and ignoring my pleas to brush his teeth this morning

Now, if this doesn't just throw one off in the morning, I don't know what will... And how do you respond to that? Do you get mad, or do you laugh? I think I did both.

Finally it's Spring!

You Belong in Spring

Optimistic, lively, and almost always happy with the world... You can truly appreciate the blooming nature of spring. Whether you're planting flowers or dyeing Easter eggs, spring is definitely your season!

What Season Are You?

Well, it sure doesn't feel like spring with the downpour of rain that Vancouver keeps receiving these past few days. There's hardly enough light to take decent photos! I've been thinking about germinating seedlings though. Here's what I'm thinking of filling up my garden with this year...SUNFLOWERS! And I want the big two metre ones! I want to transform the "feel" of my backyard this year with a lot of clean-up and more flowers. If the sunflowers work out, I can create more privacy and somewhat block out that rusty old station wagon/eye sore parked in our neighbour's backyard.

Currently, I'm furiously working on keep up inventory for my store in between feeding the kids, laundry, picking up toys, and work. The two boys, shown here with their recent haircuts from the barber's, are fighting to climb up their bunkbed. We've been working on getting the two of them to sleep in their own rooms by redecorating their rooms with a new bunkbed and some nifty storage bin systems from IKEA. So far so good, the two of them sleep through most of the night. They occasionally walk over to our room in the middle of the night without so much as a peep and scare the bejeezus out of me, but other than that, we've not had a mental breakdown......yet.

Oh, the Choices!

I'm currently wading through all the projects I'm dreaming of knitting with IK Spring 07 at my doorstep, the new Knitty out, March MagKnits out....I just cannot keep up! So many new sock patterns....look at the cute socks above...and so appropriately named Rainy Day socks just for me in wet Vancouver. I like these mitts designed by a fellow Vancouverite, Cheryl Niamath and these fantastic knee socks in the new Spring IK by the amazing Eunny Jang.




Or how about some real instant gratification....I could knit this (from Spring IK 07) in no time.

Before I sign off, here's a quote that has come to my mind almost every year around International Women's Day (which was yesterday, March 8) since I read a variation of it over seven years ago. The quote neatly sums up the general expectation from women (not just Congresswomen) today and throughout history.

"A Congresswoman must look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, speak on any given subject with authority and most of all work like a dog.”

Representative Florence Dwyer (R-NJ, 1957-1973)
Quoted in Karen Foerstel, Biographical Dictionary of Congressional Women

Wow, we still have so far to progress. And to think, it's the 21st century and the Wimbledon Championships has only just announced (February 22, 2007) that they will offer women and men equal prize money for the first time in the tournament's history this year.