Esme McStrippit and other news

We've been busy indoors this winter.  First off, kids have been growing so I knit a new kid sweater.  He then posed, with great joy, and I had to pass it along to everyone else to enjoy.  He's sporting a one-of-a-kind handknit by Mommy striped sweater made of plotulopi (Icelandic, unspun yarn) and seems delighted by it. This twin is particular about his sweaters so I'm relieved that this seems to have been a home run!

The kids have been learning at home, doing remote school since the end of October.  This involves a lot of reading time, and we seem to have also trained Sadie the dog into enjoying reading time as well.
While I'm helping kids learn through a pandemic, I've had a slow down in terms of articles coming out... but this piece ran in the Jewish Independent on January 15th: 

Kindness a blessing to share

During the first few days of January, I managed to make this wool tweed vest using a fabric remnant from Fabcycle in Vancouver.  I was thrilled to use up deadstock fabric and this has been a great additional winter layer so far.  (plus, it has a pocket, and I can never have enough of those!)

The kids added to their 'learn to sew' samplers with a 'here's how to do a running stitch' lesson.  I hadn't been pushing these lessons until one day, one of my boys started to cry because we weren't having enough sewing and art lessons.  Well, OK then!  Happy to oblige...!

Last, but certainly not least, I have finally (FINALLY!) released a new knitting pattern.  Hallelujah.  It took me long enough!

This is called Esme McStrippit and when I uploaded it onto Ravelry, I discovered it was my 80th pattern there.  In honour of this new pattern, I'm celebrating with a sale.  Get 20% off all my patterns!  This sale is happening on Ravelry  and on Payhip and ends on Tuesday, January 26th, at midnight, Central Time, US&Canada.

Use the coupon code:

Esme

For the 20% off discount!

Here are some of the shots of the sweater--the one shot with me in it was taken by a kid, too!
 

What's on in March...

Sorry for the blog silence.  It's been a season of colds, Sally, our old dog, isn't feeling good and needs vet trips, and we've had a few other human medical appointments.  And meanwhile, I've had some articles run as well...

Over on the CBC, I had a piece come out about how the current Manitoba government is offering us $45 million in road infrastructure repair for the province's 150th birthday..and isn't prioritizing anything for a greener, more sustainable future or a future that celebrates or recognizes our diverse population.  (Happy anniversary, honey!  Here's a new vacuum cleaner?)

I didn't post anything about it at the time because I didn't know when it would run, and then the comments were full of some inappropriate stuff.  (so inappropriate that the comments were removed...)

I had a column run in two papers about how we can keep learning if our libraries stay afloat.  This winter I spent several weekend afternoons on the couch with a sick kid and good books.  Here's a link to Words of praise for libraries.

My article about how basic tools make a difference for handspinners went live over on the Spin Off Magazine's blog: 6 Handspinning Hacks....

Here's a photo of how you can use a dog waste roll core (a cardboard tube cut open) to create a bobbin for your spindle...when you are done spinning, slide the roll right off the spindle!  It's a Spindlewood spindle, in case you are curious...

Or you can use a toilet paper roll for your ball of handspun, and when you are ready, you pop out the roll, insert your thumb in the space left, and use both ends of the handspun for making a 2 ply yarn.

The hack that got left out?
Cotton bedsheets from the thift store: Every now and again, I end up with a lot of free or inexpensive fleece. I skirt and sort, shake out vegetable matter and contain the washed fleeces in countless number of sheets from the thrift store. 

Next topic: And, if you're a knitter and celebrate Purim? In honour of increasing your joy in Adar, you can download The Hamantaschen Noisemaker pattern for free, using the coupon code:
Adar
(ends midnight, CT, US & Canada--on March 10th, of course.)
Please consider this some virtual shalach manot from me to you!
Have fun! Have a great holiday!

Last, but not least...happy International Women's Day. Yes-We still need it...equal pay, equal opportunities, adequate healthcare and childcare access...we still need a day to talk about all this and more.

Summer knitting

Some people don't knit in the summertime.  Weird, huh?  I am of the opinion that there is no bad time for knitting, and further--I live in Winnipeg.  Winter is always coming.  My twins have outgrown nearly all their mitts, and we're a family that wears double layered mitts when it's cold.  In the last month, I've done 2 pairs of kid mittens and am on to #3.  (I'm aiming for a minimum of 4 pairs of kid mitts, but maybe more, we need back ups)

The ones pictured here are based on an old Penny Straker pattern I have altered significantly but used for over 20 years!  This project started around the time we travelled to Virginia in late June.  I am now working on a stranded pair of The hole inside mitts, in green and orange. (Stranded = warmer)  At home, the mitten project happens solely when we are listening to audio books before bedtime.  We're currently having a binge: the Henry Huggins Audio Collection.  It's something like 15 hours of listening, all doled out 20 minutes at a time before twins go to bed.

I also had a little grocery store experience (oops) where I spent more than I meant to--I was feeling relaxed in the air conditioning...it got out of control.  Little did I know that the store also was looking to give away a lot of Canadian blueberries for free, and I ended up with 8 lbs of blueberries, free upon (big) purchase.  So, lots of frozen fruit, 10 cups of jam, fruit salad and crumble later, we're making progress on that front, too.  Like a bear, I'm preparing for winter hibernation.

I'm swatching up a new design project: I want to see if I can come up with a sweater pattern done in strips or sections that are easy to carry around.  I am currently knitting a top down cardigan and I'm on the second sleeve.  That thing is so heavy and hot there is no way I will bring it anywhere!  Hence the strip idea.
After a lot of cooking, canning and cranking out a couple of articles, I felt the need to sit outside, and yesterday, I actually took one of my spinning wheels outdoors, sat on the back porch, drank some iced coffee, did some spinning and read (using my Ipad) at the same time.  It seemed remarkably indulgent and delicious.

If you're a summertime knitter like me, did you know that:
A) I also sell patterns on Loveknitting?

B) Loveknitting is having a BIG SUMMER SALE?
(I get nothing from telling you about the sale--nothing but the feeling that I am helping out friends, right?!)
Happy Summer!  (We're having a really fine weather, mosquito-free one here)
PS: Yarn choices...
White mitts: my handspun, unknown medium wool odds and ends
Blue mitts: Patons Wool Worsted and a strand of Kroy sock yarn (please don't felt these,my twin who felts mitts)
Brown Swatch: Lopi Einband, naturally colored brown, knit doubled

A good book

You know how it is when you've read a good book, and it's done?  I feel lonely for the imaginary world I've just left.

I recently listened to the audio version of The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald. It was so good that I wanted to know more!  I wanted to read everything this author had ever written.  Alas, it's the only book of hers that is available in English.  I've almost convinced myself that I need to concentrate and try another of her books in French...in my free time. (Laugh here! My free time generally involves me falling asleep in 30 seconds flat...)

I listen to a lot of audio books, because I can remain an avid reader while cooking, doing household chores, mending, knitting, and folding laundry.  I don't have world's greatest concentration while doing it, but it's the best I can do for now....and let me tell you, this book was fabulous.  Definitely better than the best I can do. :)  If you need a book recommendation?  I hope you enjoy this one.

ain't doing no Twist

To follow up on that last post--I can't say that I've been doing the Twist here. (nor the Mashed Potato....) No dancing at all, really. I've been feeling a little under the weather and also accompanied by bad allergies. As a result, I've been spending time staring out the window. I tried to catch a photo of the daily construction taking place across the street. It's hard to tell in this photo, but on the left of the picture, there's an enormous truck on the street. Then you can see an elm tree (bisected by the sun) and a straight up and down thing. That was a bright orange thing, easily several stories high, that I think they were using to shoot concrete into the structure. The building itself now has a basement, and a floor on top of that, and it grows more by the day.

It is pretty dusty in our house as a result of this construction. That said, I've been amazed by the quick progress. Also, the workers have been pretty respectful. They come early, they stay late, they work hard. They don't make unnecessary noise and they seem to avoid the usual trash and other mess that I have seen around other construction sites. So, if you have to feel off your game and staring at something, this isn't a bad thing to watch.

Last weekend, I warped my loom with some cream color, 60% silk, 40% wool yarn. The silk is filled with "nups" which means that it is shorter staple and likely from cocoons where the bug emerged from it, leaving a hole rather than being stifled by heat or steam. The shiny silk that comes from the stifled cocoons is very strong; this yarn wasn't.

I envisioned yards and yards of easy to weave scarves in my near future. About 6" into my weaving, I went to advance the warp and the worst possible thing happened. The tension was too much for the yarn and about two-thirds of my warp just broke off where it was tied to the front of the loom.

I acted fast and retied the ends as best as I could. I can't lie--I did pause briefly to mutter a few choice bad words! It isn't easy weaving right now, and I'm not thrilled with how the first scarf is coming out--the weft is all uneven because of the uneven tension of the retied warp. I will likely cut this off the loom when I am done with it, and try to retie the warp ends again to hope for better results. I am still new at choosing good warp yarns, and maybe this wasn't the best choice.

Some weeks are like this...maybe not memorable, a little yucky, and yet, there to be gotten through anyhow. The good part is that I've been doing a lot of reading! I've loaded up on library books, including Margery Allingham's mysteries. I find it amazing how entertaining and compelling they feel, despite the fact that many of them are 50 or 60 years old. Definitely still worth reading.

Had any warp end disasters? Reading anything good? Do tell.

good reads

Thanks for the all the Hanukah greetings! We had a lovely busy holiday but it's now over. Also, the professor's brother and his wife came for a visit. Now they are back home in New York. We've had lots of excitement and are now settling in for some quiet time. Most everyone else will be busy this time of year with other holidays...we're prepared to do some home repairs, organizing, reading, and movie watching. (not to mention spinning, knitting,and petting dogs...)

For months now I've been meaning to write about books I've enjoyed, especially during the last six months of this year. A while back I scored a secondhand copy of Vikram Seth's book, A Suitable Boy. It sat on the shelf for nearly 2 years while I waited for the right time to read it. "The right time" ended up being while undertaking this big move across North America. I read each night in a different hotel room. I read it when we arrived here and had no furniture. I continued reading it until I finally finished it on our vacation in Crete. It was a stunning piece of literature...a family epic, a story of the early days of Indian Independence and most importantly, a very sweet focus on what it takes for one young woman to find a good life partner. My only regret is that I didn't have this reader's guide along for the ride: Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy: A Reader's Guide,which I think would have helped me understand a lot more about Indian culture and politics.

Talking about culture and politics...when I was visiting my family back in October, I happened to go to Second Story Books, a remarkable used bookstore in DC. I often buy books there that I wouldn't ever have chosen while browsing online. I ended up with at least two books I can recommend.

One is called Next Year in Jerusalem: Everyday Life in a Divided Land, written by Daphna Golan-Agnon. The author is a brave Israeli woman who wrote a heartfelt defense of human rights for all people--and particularly--Palestinians. She's from a distinguished family and married into a famous literary family, which makes her work all the more important as a leader in Israeli society. It's also a very intelligent and worthwhile book with lots of interesting details about daily life in that part of the world. Even before I'd read the book, I respected its contents because Rabbi Forman endorsed it. He's the founder of Rabbis for Human Rights. He's also the father of one of my childhood friends. I slept at his house when I visited Jerusalem as a teenager and he impressed me enormously at 16. I don't imagine (for me) there is a better endorsement!

The other book I found, A Flannel Shirt and Liberty: British Emigrant Gentlewomen in the Canadian West 1880-1914, by Susan Jackel, was also about brave women. This book collected narratives describing the experience of these women as they ventured to Winnipeg (gateway to the Canadian West) and beyond. I enjoyed the Canadian social history, the details of life on a new frontier. I also tried hard to understand the mindset of these women immigrants, who also carried forth the notion of British imperialism to the prairies and beyond. This book was a good counterpoint to all the information I've been learning about First Nations people in Manitoba, and the many immigrant communities (Ukrainian, Polish, Polish and Russian Jewish, Italian, Greek, Filipino,etc.) that have moved to Manitoba since.

In the food department, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the joy I've gotten out of reading a few of Claudia Roden's books this year. (and of course cooking and eating from them...) I majored in Near Eastern Studies and Comparative Literature as an undergraduate and I don't think my interests have strayed too far when you read these!
They are:
The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon
The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York

Many times, I write something but the end result (an article, essay, or book review) never gets published. One such book review this year was for Anita Diamant's novel, Day After Night. While I won't "publish" the review here, I can sum it up. Holocaust literature is a hard field these days; many important works have already been published. Diamant's novel fills in the gaps in explaining what happened next. After the war, when some survivors made it to Palestine, what were their lives like? How did they cope? This novel is compelling, inspiring, and hard to put down. Worth reading, full stop.

Finally, in the category of beach book read, I've been listening to these fun Greek-American adventure novels by Tori Carrington. The first one is called Sofie Metropolis - A Sofie Metropolis Novel (#1). These are great while knitting or spinning, and it feels like I have company while I'm drinking a Greek coffee at home by myself! (I like the reader for the first two books especially.)

It seems to me that it's a writer's job to read a lot. That's one of the ways I "feed" myself, get excited about new places and ideas, and stay inspired. 2009 was a big year for me--I moved to another country and both Fiber Gathering and Knit Green came out--but I wrote (and rewrote and reread) those books a while back. For me, every day is a chance to read new things!

Hope I boosted your "to be read" list for 2010! Please leave me comments about books, especially if you have additional books to add to my list. :)