Repair

Today was "International Repair Day" and while this link is about fixing electronics, it's relevant to my Vancouver Jewish Independent article which came out on Friday.  I called it "Thanks for the earth...buried under plastic."  (So, fixing electronics would be a good start there!)

The CBC Manitoba online also just ran an opinion piece I wrote, and it's called:
When it comes to inclusion for kids with special needs, Manitoba schools need improvement
It sure would be super if we had a quick fix that restored enough funding to the public schools to help them provide the legally mandated 'appropriate education' that kids with challenges need.

--It does seem like everything I'm working on has a "please fix-it" theme, doesn't it?

Finally, if you've been reading the blog a long time, you may remember the Infinity Sweater.

I wrote that blog post in November of 2016, which means my kid has been wearing and loving this sweater for a while now.  He's worn it for two full Manitoba winters (about once a week) and he doesn't want to give it up.  The good news is that the chest still fits him, although it's more fitted now than when he was pictured here, in 2016.  Also good news?  He's grown quite a bit.

So, we're just adding on a couple of inches of "extension" to the sleeves, and we think it probably will last one more winter.  We hope so, anyhow.  "We"= this kid and me.  Today we shopped for matching yarn in my stash, and we found that I'd used up all the dark blue, but we had both other contrasting colors left.  Here's what he chose.

Our temperatures today were right around freezing. (0C, 32F) so we did a lot of playing indoors this afternoon rather than go outside to play.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and we hope to explore a new playground.

Here's a bigger idea of the living room photo shoot for sleeve extensions...complete with the 'fits Victorian houses but is energy efficient' gas fireplace, pouring out warmth into the room.

And here's Sally the dog, staying warm by the fire.  She will be 14 years old (or so) in November!

Here's to another year of the Infinity Sweater!  I am probably never doing that mind-blowing math to make these symbols in stranded knitting on another kid yoke sweater, so let's enjoy it while we've got it....for a third year of wear.  (From age 5-7, so far)  Here's to Slow Fashion October--which in my house, includes lots of repair, and handmade stuff.

Handmade life

You may be wondering where I've been.  (So have I!)  Things have continued with a whirlwind pace. This week my kids have had two separate medical appointments (this is usual, things are ok, generally). The temperature has dropped here fast, and as we've gotten out the warm clothes, we've found plenty to mend and repair.

When I haven't been running around, working, or fixing things?  We've been out in the sukkah.  (When it isn't raining, of course.  It's currently pouring and in the 40s (F). Celsius, it is maybe in the 5 to 9 degrees range....

On the web, folks have been talking about 'slow fashion' October and other trendy ideas in the "maker" world.  I sometimes berate myself for not being enough of a joiner.  Then it occurs to me, oh, yeah.  I am making things all the time.  There's the sukkah. I make dinner.  I serve it in the sukkah...when it's not raining.

There's lunch. (leftover salad from dinner, topped with cheese, walnuts, and roasted chickpeas, a balsamic mustard dressing, spelt bread from the bakery, cantaloupe on the side.)

There's one of many emergency mending projects.  Here is the sweater with 9 lives. (or 15, at this point.) I picked this up off the floor to put it away. Note: our twins are supposed to put away their sweaters, but gravity seems to win out quite often at age 7....
I found this scary raveling on one of the cuffs.

The professor started doing some important bedtime reading with the guys. We're currently addicted to these fairy stories, in case you were curious.  I picked up the stitches with a spare double pointed needle.

I carefully knit up the stitches I could with the remaining yarn, and then used a bit of leftover yarn to fix the cuff itself.

All fixed!  Mommy saves the day (and the sweater!)….Hurray!

A Sale, Slow Fashion and Fun

Thanks for all the kind thoughts about Harry-- we appreciate it and miss him very much.
And now, some knitting talk:
A while back, I wrote about my stash and a sweater I'd just made.  Here's the thing--I made the sweater, and the kid was happy wearing it.  Very happy.  However, I just didn't love the yarn, it felt droopy to me, so I gifted it to my mom in case she could use it.  It went to Virginia.

Time passed and my kid loved the heck out of this sweater, and it stayed in good shape.  However, this year, when he put it on, the sleeves were way too short, and so was the length of the sweater.  (This kid's one long string bean in shape!)
I dug in the stash but could not find the leftovers...as they no longer lived in Canada.  My mom came to the rescue and mailed the yarn back from Virginia...so re-fashioning this sweater cost a lot in international postage.  (Thanks, Mom!)  Here is a quick snapshot of the sweater, with it's new additions.  Note the stripes on the sleeves and two additional orange and blue stripes on the bottom.  I also ditched the seed stitch at the bottom in favor of ribbing, as the seed stitch made it look even more droopy.  Kid is back to wearing and enjoying this enormously.  I still find Rowan Felted Tweed DK a bit limp, but it knits up nicely and has worn very well.

This year, I realized it was not possible for me to be coming up with much to say about slow fashion in October, as I did last year, as I really live it all year round whenever I can.  This sweater remake is a great example.

Also a good example?  My twins were doing horse races in the yard a few days ago after school.  I made their race horses--they are hobby horses.  I doubled old Smart Wool socks with big holes to make those horse heads, and used bits of felt from felted sweaters (from diaper soakers when we cloth diapered) to make their eyes and other features.  The only costs were many hours of my time and the broom sticks from the hardware store.

In honour of Canadian Thanksgiving, I am running a little Ravelry sale on my patterns.  Until October 16th (ends midnight, CT US & Canada), my knitting patterns will all be on sale with the coupon code: Thanks

Also, I've learned recently that my local bookstore, McNally Robinson, has copies of all three of my books available online here, and actual print copies of my latest book, From the Outside In are now available there, too.  So, if you like to do things the old fashioned way and buy your books in person in Winnipeg, now you can!

in the news!

On Sunday, the CBC-Manitoba website ran my piece on Slow Fashion.  It's a take on how we can integrate some of the ideas into our daily lives in moderation, even if we lack time and money.

We had a busy day too--a bright sunny one which broke all kinds of records for warmth in Manitoba.  My twins were up at the crack of dawn (5:50 AM, which technically was sleeping in for a whole 20 minutes) because of the time change... and then we rushed off to swim lessons.  We had a brief break in the busy schedule to play, and then I got to go to an adult education lunch and learn session on my own.  (Wow.  That was awesome.  A whole 2 hours by myself!)

Then we rushed off to a concert.  It was a kids' concert that both boys were keen to hear, with singing, guitar, banjo, bass... and  it raised money to support refugees, so it was all good.  Imagine our surprise when that too ended up in the news!  Both my boys are in the photos of the concert, as they were dancing and singing along right up in front.  So, the only person not in the news this weekend?  My professor, who prefers to avoid the limelight...

(It was held at a church, which accounts for the stained glass and weird lighting... my guys are in the orange shirt and the black and red shirt, standing close to each other and dancing and clapping along)
Photo link courtesy of the CBC website

After the concert, there was even more time spent playing and biking outside.  The warm weather this late in the year has been a great gift...even though most of the outdoor toys have already been tucked away for winter.

Additions and deletions

So, I think the whole #slowfashionoctober movement has passed me by, because I'm not on instagram.  I'm a bit retro: when we moved to Canada, we didn't get cell phones here, and I eventually gave up on the US one I had.  I haven't kept up with the smartphone, texting, selfie stuff that I see people doing all around me.

In fact, I found it to be a relief.  We don't get a lot of phone calls and to be honest, I don't miss it, mostly.  Life with twins and two dogs is noisy.  I don't think I always have to be available--and juggling the folks in my household takes all of my attention a lot of the time.  Truthfully, the only time I really thought I should have a phone was back in the spring time, when I had my little surprise trip to the ER and was too sick to use one myself anyhow.

Although I have dropped in on the instagram conversation as a lurker, I realized I wasn't debating things in the way others have.  I haven't been wondering how I could make all my own t-shirts, or spelling out the origins of every piece of fabric or yarn in my stash.  I haven't sworn off anything much, either.  On the other hand, I don't buy a lot new in the first place.

My only recent purchases have been out of necessity.  I bought another pair of All Birds Wool sneakers when I visited the US.  They are all wool and biodegradable materials, and I have fallen in love with how comfortable they are...and since I am not really up for making my own shoes right now, I'll settle for an ethically made pair, ready for next spring, summer and fall, instead. (winter time in Winnipeg = boots from November to April)

Then, I had (gasp) an underwire pop out of one of those essential female undergarments.  I was down to way too few of those anyway, and had to go to The Bay and check out their lingerie sale.  Now, I think I bought all of "last year's models" and saved a lot of money.  Were all those bras and pairs of underwear made in a place with good working conditions?  With a decent minimum wage?  I just don't know...but Rome wasn't built in a day.  I have to take a middle path about this.  There's no way I'll have time to figure out how to make underwear this month.  It's just not in the schedule.

This month, as usual, I've fixed lots of things.  I mended and patched many pairs of little boy pants.  I knit up an extension on this sweater.  Instead of cutting off the old ribbing, I left it in place, picked up stitches right above it, and knit down.  Luckily, I had matching yarn left over, although I have a feeling the kid in question would have been fine with contrasting yarn, if that were on offer!

I debated cutting off the ribbing at the end, but felt it was risky.  This kid is narrow in the hips, so instead, I just basted down the ribbing on the inside, and it forms a double layer band towards the bottom of the sweater.  It looks tidy enough on the inside.

Now, in this action shot, over a hand me down polar fleece, if you undo the sleeve cuffs, you can see there is still room to grow this season, and the sweater has already been in action again...worn out and about.

The kid in question is pleased as punch to have his sweater back.

I haven't done as much writing about Slow Fashion this month as I had intended.  However, maybe I have some excuses to fall back on.  Pre-twins, I did write a whole book about this back in 2009.  You know, about making ethical and green choices when it came to choosing knitting yarns and textiles in general...Knit Green.

I also realize that while I may not be snapping so many perfectly staged photos, I am indeed spending those moments trying to mend, recycle, reuse, and maximize what we've got at home when it comes to clothing.  Yesterday, I showed someone the knitting in my purse.  It's the sleeve to one twin's fall sweater (each kid gets one handknit sweater a year, if I can manage it) and one half of a handknit kid's sock.  It's all from my stash--no new yarn purchases.  I'm still trying, one stitch at a time, to make things from scratch in a responsible way.

Today, in other activities: I've made 3 loaves of challah, one loaf of banana chocolate chip bread, pureed the soup (and froze some) that I cooked yesterday, put chicken and potatoes into the slow cooker, got my freezer lamb for the year delivered, dealt with another house upkeep issue, and submitted an article on a deadline to an editor.  You know, nothing much... there's still time to fit in a little more mending and knitting, I hope! (and all before I pick up boys from kindergarten, too...)