An update

Greetings!  It's been too long since I updated this blog...I've had a hard time keeping up.  Here are some details about things that I've done, umm, in the last few months!  The Manitoba Craft Museum and Library has put the Accessibility for Pattern Makers and Users event online for anyone who might be interested in viewing it. (Bonus, you can knit or spin or whatever while watching the talk!)  I've been doing some occasional blog posts for Winnipeg Sews, too.  This is a great local sewing studio where both my kids have had successful sewing lessons...culminating in making pj bottoms. I'm continuing to write for the Vancouver Jewish Independent as well as doing occasional pieces elsewhere.  I wrote a piece on dyslexia, Fight for the Right to Read, for the Winnipeg Free Press in October.

I'm participating, again, the Fasten Off Yarn Along this year.  This is a great opportunity to get knitting and crochet patterns at a discount, as well as to socialize and knit/crochet along with others in an accessible environment.  All my patterns on Payhip and Ravelry are on sale for 25% off through December 8th at midnight with this coupon code: FO2023

(This is a pretty darn good deal and a fun event.)

What am I making/knitting/spinning these days?  Well, I've finally admitted to myself that I was just too overwhelmed with the household renovation and other obligations to turn out patterns this past year.  I decided 'sabbatical' might be the best term for what I've been on.  I've been at this for about 20 years, more or less, in terms of writing fiber publications and designs, it is ok to take breaks.  So I am knitting but using up stash and turning out things like this funny Snail Hat (A classic Elizabeth Zimmerman design) instead.

We've also finished up the renovations 'to paste our house back together' for now.  Does this mean it is all fixed?  Not really...but things are finally stable, the plumbing and electricity work, the holes are plugged up.  It means we'll save up and take time off for now. 

It may seem small, but part of 'getting back to normal' means emptying more boxes. Some of our moving boxes have not been emptied due to all the construction, some furniture needs to be moved.. and after a year, it's time.  I do a little every day, when I can manage, and twins and the Professor help on weekends.  Last weekend, I put our nice dishes away in our breakfront for the third time. (Yes, I tried twice before, but had to move them each time due to construction.)  I also managed to unpack some family china.  This box had been packed for our move from Kentucky to Canada in 2009 and now, it has a safe place and it's all finally out of the box...and the enormous china box is no longer in the living room. This is both a frivolous thing and also, well, a reassuring step towards making order in our house again.  

 

Remember the sale! Please check it out if you're interested.  There's still time to download a pattern.  Join in and make something with your hands during a stressful time.

Wishing you everything good.

A month of change

This space, on our second floor, is being renovated now. When this house was new, in 1913, it was a master bathroom, very modern for its time, a light filled space on the way to a sun porch, and possibly a dressing room or nursery space,  although it is hard to tell exactly what else was there.  When we moved in, it was renovated to contain an enormous master bathroom with a circa 1980 hot tub, Cookie Monster blue shag carpeting, and failing plumbing.  In order to redo this, lots of quarter sawn oak flooring had to be pulled up (water damaged by the hot tub, of course) and we discovered the original hex tiles, a 1925 penny and other surprises.

Also during this time, I had a series of freelance articles come out, including two pieces in the Winnipeg Free Press…this one, about women’s value in the workplace, got a lot of positive responses. At the same time, my part time job ended, which has been for the best.  It was difficult juggling the renovations, the family household demands, and the freelance work with this job, which did not work out the way I had hoped it would. —In a moment where “remote” work is suddenly becoming hybrid or in-office again, I remain the parent who needs to work remotely as my professor has gone back into the research lab with new research students.

Each spring, all the woollies have to be washed - and this year, I experienced it in a new location.  After moving house, some household tasks morph.  Here, I was delighted to have the use of the new chain link fence for drying purposes as it was a windy day and the huge wooden drying rack would have toppled over.  Some day in the future, we may be able to dry everything in a sun porch or two, but right now one of ours still leaks and the other is full of construction materials, so fencing worked just fine!  (The bright orange, blue, red, and gray sweater is a brand new, upsized version of my “Stripe Freestyle” design- available on Ravelry, Payhip and Lovecrafts.com.  Finished for a kid just in time for warmer weather, I sure hope it still fits in the fall!)

Speaking of kids, these twins just turned 12!  Hurray!  We celebrated with a pizza and ice cream cake party with a few of their friends.  On their actual birthday, they were performing in the school musical, which was a huge production.  It went very well on a stifling hot weekday night in the school gym.

Just after that, one of our guys had a long-planned medical procedure.  He is just trying out school today for the morning for the first day, it has been a week of recovery and things are still hurting.  Recuperation was aided by handmade loose fitting cotton pyjamas - his feature unicorns and other magical creatures.

Our dog Sadie decided that a bear stuffed animal which arrived as part of an amazing “get well soon” gift belonged to her.  She thought it would be most comforting if she stayed right nearby, with the bear, nearly all the time.

I thought through everything that has transpired over the last month or so as I could, and actually, it’s been quite a lot. Five freelance articles that I wrote have been published, twins turned 12,  a kid had surgery, a long-delayed small claims legal matter has been dealt with (not as we’d hoped, but hey, we were accused of extortion because we chose to pursue this in small claims court, so it was not without its comic moments…) and, among other things, I have sewn four pairs of cotton pyjama pants and two pairs of shorts…still have more to make, but everyone is happy and sleeping comfortably, so that too is a big accomplishment. Yes, things are still busy, but I have regained some equilibrium about my work life, and that time has been a great gift.

What’s coming up?  Summer break, visits with grandparents, and more. In August, I am excited to say I have been invited to give a talk/learning event about Accessibility in Pattern writing/pattern use at the Manitoba Craft Museum.  More interesting (and flexible) work to come soon, I hope! 

 

Catching up

Since the day I started this blog, long ago, I have never let it sit so many months without updates...but it felt like I could never quite get enough time to come back and visit. Everyday things I love fell by the wayside over the last few months, and I am only now getting them back.  The first big news is that by the end of February, we finally had our new kitchen.  The one where we had to gut the old kitchen entirely, put in a structural beam, get a lot of plumbing and frozen pipes fixed, etc.  This bread would be unremarkable, except we went many months without homemade bread...everyone in our house is so "used" to having it that going from November until end of February without bread was a long wait.  (Of course now, Passover is almost here too, so no more homemade bread, but at least there is a kitchen to cook and eat in again!)

Literally the moment the cookbooks got taken out of the boxes, we were looking at recipes again, discussing what to make next, and getting excited about future meals again.

When the kitchen was finished, we could move the stained glass from the old house and hang it in the new one. Everyone felt relieved at the move.  We bought this stained glass when our twins were infants, and recently the artist who has helped us with the glass in this "new" old house told us that this window stained glass was likely from the late 1800s or early 1900s, and by the way, many of the types of glass in it were no longer available.  All the more reason to treat it with caution.

Getting through this time with no real kitchen, managing two mortgages (until the old house sold), a part-time job plus my freelance work, and of course, managing our household, twins and dog--has been complicated.  We spent a lot of time outside and I have found access to winter time activities  and exercise like an outdoor rink in walking distance and the (frozen) river trail--have been a great gift.

Walking the dog out on the river trail among art displays, skaters, skiers, kicksleds...it's an amazing opportunity, like having a new provincial park at the end of the block.  When the trail closed, the dog and I were both sad!

I've also been sewing, knitting and spinning when I can fit it in, although not with as much regularity as I managed before.  This winter, we managed to have twins signed up to three extracurricular activities in January and February.  (Chess club, sewing studio and piano lessons) In March, we continued with piano, tried out kick sledding--with and without the dog, and also kids had an intro to racquetball.  Later in April, we're starting again with chess and sewing, but at least there will be fewer snowstorms and -30C evenings to contend with while driving around.

Each bit of renovation that happens is a triumph.  When our contractor brothers opened up this back door area and renovated it, it was like a doorway to the past.  My professor husband has been slowly getting windows fixed one at a time, rehanging the window weights, and we have so far opened up 4 windows and two doorways.  (2 more windows to go, I think.)  Whoever decided to close off windows and doors in a long-ago renovation...maybe in the 1980s or maybe much earlier...really wasn't the brightest bulb.

Here's the re-opened back door area.  Below are two high up windows in our new kitchen...both were blocked off but one of them had actually been left open, behind cupboards and walls, to vent a half-bath for perhaps 40 or more years.  No wonder why the area was cold and the pipes froze in winter!

We also finally have a working dishwasher, which is a huge deal when feeding a family all winter.  We were not surviving on take out or eating out during this time...but we did choose to use paper plates during the kitchen renovation.  It was probably the most paper plates we adults have ever used in our lifetimes.  It was worth it though, there are limits to what one family can manage...even an eco-conscious one.  It's also the first time in 20 some years when we haven't composted at all--because our dog got skunked in September right after we started composting.  So you know, we decided to stop composting until we figured out how NOT to attract skunks to the yard.  If you have tips on that, let me know in the comments!

Knitting continued as kids keep growing and needing new woollies!  This is another version of my "Stripe Freestyle" Sweater- slightly upsized as my kids are now a little bigger than the pattern I published.  The yarn for this one was my handspun Cotswold and silk singles.  I dyed it as well, the yellow was dyed with marigolds and the red came from a nice dye packet.  I wrote about spinning and dyeing this yarn on the blog in 2006.  Some yarns just need time to marinate in the stash!  In this case, I obviously had to give birth to twins first and then wait 11 years.

Here's another fun photo of kids enjoying the art installations this year--this one was taken at the Forks. This sail turned in the wind while you stood on it...but it also served as a much needed windbreak on a very chilly day.

I'm now on to knitting yet another "Stripe Freestyle" sweater for the other kid and the fuschia yarn in the background will likely be a sweater for me, someday.  (It's on hold while I knit more for kids.)  It never fails to surprise me which knitting patterns sell lots of copies and which don't.  The Stripe Freestyle pattern is a slam dunk in my household, but doesn't sell many copies on Ravelry, Payhip or Lovecrafts.  No idea why.  In any event, it's been a mainstay in these twins' wardrobes for years.

 Finally, I'm adding a much overdue photo of the lovely birthday celebration we had back in January- I had a big birthday, in the midst of all of this. We were stressed out and it went by quietly.  However, now that we're "down" to owning only one house, things are somewhat calmer.  Still lots of renovations to go and some ends to tie up, but I'm hoping for warmer weather and more time for writing, designing and playing ahead.  

No more bandwidth?

You may wonder where I've been.  The answer would be, umm, completely overwhelmed with moving and all it entails!  Also, the “new” house needs quite a bit more work, so we are living in a construction zone.  Not a noisy "disrupt the neighbours" or 24 hour highway construction zone, but the kind that slowly and steadily has now lasted a year and now, in this phase, involves a lot of demolition.  Here is a shot of our kitchen, halfway through being gutted, a couple days ago.  Note the ugly ancient carpet that was found under the island, (why?!) and our dog in the shot, she sticks close by all the time right now.  This stuff is nerve-wracking at times.

Also anxiety producing?  Having freezing pipes, a half demolished kitchen, and a wall without a proper support beam in place.  So, yeah, we're getting a new kitchen that we hadn't bargained for...one without an enormous island.  (Yes, I want a kitchen table in the kitchen.  I'm so retro.)  In the end though, it will be warmer and safer too, so that's a bonus!

Our temporary kitchen is inside of a first floor powder room, which will eventually be a half-bath again.  It was originally part of a servants' staircase and was seriously under-insulated.  This meant the pipes froze there too with some frequency.  We're revisiting that lack of insulation now while we wash dishes.  Glad it is only November and not too cold yet.  It's really good news that this old house was built in a sturdy way in the beginning, it's lived through some badly done renovations in the past, and now we get to help fix it all.

In the midst of all this, I'm juggling some new part-time work, some older freelance commitments, and of course, the care and feeding of my twins, who are very busy being in grade 6. Just today, I started volunteering at my kids'  elementary school with grade 1 kids in the bilingual program, too. It was a fun afternoon. 

So of course, I wasn't busy enough? ...so I signed up for an event!  I am participating again as a designer in the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long.  What's this?  Well, it's a way to buy lots of knitting patterns, on sale, from November 25th until December 8th.  It's also a way to participate in a yarn-along (knitting and crochet) event, even if you can't participate on Ravelry.  My patterns on Payhip and my Ravelry patterns are all on sale for 25% off with the coupon code: FO2022.

There are also games to participate in, a Discord channel, and more.  The good news is that it's a sale with over 100 designers participating!  Lots of exciting designs to explore and enjoy.  Learn more at www.fastenoffyal.com and have fun!

A sale! An article! A finished object

Let's celebrate summer!  Every year for maybe five years now, I've participated in the Canada KAL (Knit Along) by offering a discount on all my Ravelry patterns!  This year, I'm also offering four free patterns to folks who participate in knit along.  To find out more, check out the Designed in Canada Ravelry group here.

To cut right to the chase, my patterns are all on sale until midnight (ends CT, Canada and the US, on Canada Day, July 1st.  To get 25% off, just use the coupon code:
Cankal2019

Hint: You can use this discount even if you don't want to knit along with anyone else!
In other news...This past week or two has been a bit rocky.  I described some of it in this column I wrote for the Jewish Independent.  It's called Being positive can be hard.

Cause, yes, it has been a bit difficult to be positive.  My car still has two broken windows. We have had more than two weeks of sidewalk and street construction right beside our house.  Last, but not least, before we knew that the construction was happening, we scheduled a renovation job....and had insulation shot into the walls of our house.

On the good side, getting insulation into our 100 year old, empty walls, will be amazing in the winter time now.  Hopefully, when you stand by an outer wall inside our house this winter, it will not feel like the dementors from Harry Potter are sucking out your soul!  On the bad side, there was a lot of drilling, blowing, and other construction sounds to add to the jack hammering on the street.  It was a long few days.  (And we still have more renos happening in July.)  We've been hoping to do this work for a long time, so now I just have to grin and bear it!

I've also been doing a big editing job so haven't had a chance to write up a knitting pattern for a while...or frankly, think much beyond what we would have for dinner.  As a little palette cleanser, I took a ball of Japanese cellulose yarn that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law brought me back from Japan and I turned into this little crocheted pouch.  That wasn't enough though, I had to make a lining and a zipper, too.  It turned out ok, too!  Here it is, blocking, with a plastic bin inside to make it stand upright. Sometimes making something, from start to finish, and ending up with a useful item helps combat the feeling of chaos all around me...

Right as the insulation job was starting, we found out that they would not be able to drill all the holes on the outside of the house.  So, the professor and one of my twins worked all last weekend to move anything fragile or delicate out of the way.  This is what my office looks like right now.  There's just a bit of room on the edge of the futon, between the wheels and the loom bench, for me to sit while working, and if Sadie the dog is careful, she can sleep near me on the futon, or on my foot.  It's cramped.  (And it will all be moved again, after the walls are spackled and repainted.  It might be a while...)  Happy summer projects!

what a difference a day makes



I am writing this blog post in bits and pieces when I get a chance.  We just had world's longest staycation with the boys.  My brother wrote me a "happy back to school day note," and boy, I felt like celebrating!  I am so grateful for preschool that it hurts. :)

A few notes from our cold cold last few days.  On Sunday, a friend babysat and we went out to eat after the boys went to bed and walked too far in the cold (my idea) and I seem to have a bit of frost nip on my ear. It is red and hot and hurts, but is not white or blistery, so I don't think I will lose my ear or anything. However, no earrings at this time. Just the idea hurt.

Monday was another weird ordeal: here is the summary from a note I wrote to my brother.

We are under an extreme weather warning, with temperatures between -35F and with windchill, -50.

We had a very tough morning.  The professor's car didn't start (at all) so he heated up mine and we got the boys into it. I went with the professor to preschool as I thought I'd have to drive him to the university (first lecture of the term at midday)

Then, a guy yelled to us as we left preschool that one of our tires was flat. It was.

Three gas stations later, we realized all the outdoor air pumps were frozen and would not work.

We stopped at a tire place, where the professor dropped me off with the car and he went off to find a bus to the university.

I sat there for 2 hours, but now our tire is fixed, and I can pick up the boys.

I hope he made it to lecture on time.

Did I say it was -50F with the windchill?

Oh, and we forgot to turn on the slow cooker last night, so the oatmeal didn't cook for breakfast. I turned it on and it is cooked now.

I am eating it now. It is hot. Hot is good.

(That was just before noon yesterday.) Picking up the boys at school was again hard, and they both fell asleep in their snow suits in the car, and I had to carry them in one at a time and lay them like mummies on the rug in the kitchen and take off their outdoor clothes there. I could not risk leaving anyone outside very long, obviously.I was dripping with sweat just getting them out of school and into the house....

Anyhow, today, I have had a whole morning indoors, mostly on my own, and have made a full meal for tonight.  (rice, chicken, salad, the works.) The silence is blissful.  I have two things to share.
Remember this post?  I am posting a photo of the sweater again as I have remade it.
I never wore it as this deep v-neck with a zipper and a shawl tie.  It didn't work.  The sweater was too heavy and yet freezing around the neck.
So....
I took the zipper out and sewed up the front.  I transformed the deep shawl collar into a high one, which can be buttoned up like a turtleneck if necessary.  The following snapshot (lopsided? sideways? no, finally corrected!) shows how loved it is now.  I wear it often.  It is warm, soft, bulky handspun that is getting pilled and loved and spilled on with use.  Finally--this is how a sweater should be. :)

Also, today, I managed to have lunch.  It is an open faced ricotta/cream cheese/chutney/eggplant salad sandwich.  Again, is this upside down or something?!
(It tasted great though)

OK--for anyone who is checking this a second time, I have finally fixed the photos so that they are right side up.  Took several tries.  I think it is possible I am not quite done with being upside down and ice cold yet. :)