Journal – Page 4

May 23, 2014May 23, 2014

Alafoss Lopi Traditional Icelandic design cardigan

Quite a few years ago, I purchased this Alafoss Lopi knitting pattern for an Icelandic design cardigan. I love how the darker colour outlines the pattern. I couldn’t wait to knit it! The pattern is knit on circular needle needles, with the sleeves and body joined together in the yoke. I hate sewing seems, so this made finishing much easier.

I found a cheaper yarn at the local Eaton’s store in Peterborough Square and decided to do it in blue white and navy. The yarn used in this pattern is just single spun and is not plied. I remember finding that it was very loose and I would often try to twist it tighter while knitting. I know that I knitted it longer than it was supposed to be, thinking that this was a good idea to make it cozier. As it turned out, I knit a little too loosely as well, and made the whole sweater a bit too big. My daughters did wear it, but that was when they were wearing everything loose and large.

A few years later, I was at an auction of knitting supplies, wool and yarn from a store that had gone out of business. It was a snowy day and we had to drive to Orange Corners for the sale. The place was packed. I bought a package of several skeins of the brown Alafoss Lopi wool, as well as needles and other types of yarn. Now I needed the contrast colour and the white yarn. I found the white, but couldn’t find the chocolate brown anywhere. I had to get “Happenstance Books and Yarn” in Lakefield, to order for me.

I knit most of the body and the sleeves and then put it aside for some time. I must have needed the circular needle, and replaced it with a smaller one. When I picked it up again and started knitting the yoke, I realized my mistake. I wasn’t going to rip it out so I just switched to the proper needles and finished the project. You can see a band around the sweater as a result of this mistake….. a “design element”! The brown sweater turned out much better than the blue. I am thinking about trying to felt or shrink the blue one to make it fit better. I still haven’t put buttons on the brown one.

May 22, 2014

Embroidered Sun Shade

So I’m really, really late posting. I’d been learning a song for the past two weeks, and was finally getting to a point where I was pretty happy with it, when I sat to record. Listening back, I was kind-of overwhelmed by how much I hate the ukulele accompaniment; whether it’s the arrangement, or my playing, or whatever, I re-recorded it over and over, and never felt any better about it. I kept procrastinating, hoping I’d find a way to make it work, but in the end I just had to admit defeat.

So instead of a new song I’m posting an old piece of embroidery.

It’s something I made for Cassie, when she was travelling south to take a class in Desert Ecology. Since she was going to the desert, I thought I’d make her a piece of embroidery that she could attach to her hat, kind-of in the style of the French Foreign Legion.

I’d wanted to make it a lot more elaborate than I had time to do – I run Summer events, so as the weather warms my free time dries up. I remember that I was still working on the chain of flowers as we drove Cassie to meet up with her class in Southern Ontario, and I finished it off just in time.

The finished/unfinished nature of this particular project is kind-of obvious – the placement of all of the elements is random, because the white space between them was was supposed to be busy with flowers and images and colours.

This was a while ago, before sugar skulls appeared on everything, so I’m not sure if that makes it more or less culturally appropriative, but I was trying to represent that she’d be in the desert in both the southern U.S. and northern Mexico, which is why I included it (Also, I find them fascinating and pretty). The cactus is the universally-recognizable symbol for North American desert (even if it’s not found in all of them, Looney Tunes taught me that deserts have Saguaro cactus.), and of course, a howling wolf.

I’m most proud of the wolf; it’s probably the best-drawn and executed of anything on this piece. I feel a bit sheepish about having embroidered a howling wolf on something, but let’s just pretend I was embroidering it ironically, okay?

May 10, 2014May 12, 2014

“I Heart Cardigans” Sweater

Hmm…So this has been a good and a bad project. It is currently not finished and I am dreading having to take out the entire collar to re-do it in order to get the rest of the pattern done (collar, button band, button holes and buttons). I also have to take out the sleeves and re-sew them in if I want this lumpy cardigan to look a little less lumpy :(

The one thing that I have enjoyed about this project has been knitting the cables. It is always good fun to do cables, because they look so nifty! Other than that I kinda want to throw this pattern out with all the other crap patterns I’ve come across and tried. For example, I will never try another Vogue Knits pattern, NEVER! I’ll stick with the classics, as my mom says, “I never liked American-style set-in sleeves, only do Old English/Scottish/Irish/Nordic patterns with raglan sleeves.” Mom is always right…I should have listened before I bought this sweater pattern and the expensive wool that goes with it! I will say that the toque patterns from the same company are great patterns and their wool is really nice.

May 2, 2014May 4, 2014

Out of turn post

I’m posting early, because Sammi is working away at her sweater for her next post and I don’t want her to rush too much. So it is me this week instead of her.

Well here is a painting. I painted it a couple of years ago at John Climenhage‘s studio over the shwarma place. I was having one of those periods where I felt like I should be painting, but couldn’t think of what to paint (where right now I have lots of ideas as to what to paint, but can’t get myself to paint). John had a book of photos taken during the Afghan war and suggested I paint something from it. I felt a little uncomfortable painting from someone else’s photo at the time, but sometimes you (I) need to get over stuff like that when you (I) just need to practice. There were many beautiful and haunting photos, but this boy/young man really stuck with me. I can’t remember who the photographer is or the name of the book.

It was fairly experimental, you can see a couple of different styles of painting in it and it is definitely not a finished image (me saying this is significant, ’cause I’m normally happy with things before most would consider them finished). I wish that I had done a little more work on it at the time, as I can never go back to a painting. This painting might also benefit from some cropping…

I promise that next month I will post something new.

April 28, 2014April 28, 2014

Hand Woven Triangle Shawl

I made this shawl as an experiment, to see if it would work. I had seen it in a book on weaving. I made a frame that was about 5′ x6′. Then I hammered many nails into the top and bottom of the frame. These nails were used to wind the wool warp on the frame. Then each warp string is cut and woven across the warp. This creates the triangle shape. Thus the warp is the weft. The yarn that I used was included when I purchase my loom.

April 12, 2014

Ukulele cover – ‘I’m on Fire’

I’ve been sporadically playing the ukulele for a few years now since David Newland got me hooked on it, and I’ve been singing since I was a kid, like most people. I’m starting to learn more about my singing voice, and how to do the things I want to do (like stay on key and not sound like a vocalist I wouldn’t want to listen to), and one of the methods that really helps is to hear myself recorded. Nothing really hammers home the flaws like listening to playback of your own performance!

I recorded this last weekend, as I was recovering from a bad headcold; I can’t tell if that added to or detracted from my performance. I’d recently gotten advice from my old friend and mentor Ian Osborn that I should try getting a little drunk and recording myself, to get used to my voice and to quiet that internal censor that pops up whenever I do anything that isn’t perfect. I figured being that sick was roughly equivalent to half a bottle of wine, and it worked out all right, in addition to being a great way to shake loose some of the congestion in my head.

I recorded it using my Yeti Blue Microphone and Audacity recording software; my knowledge of recording is pretty minimal, but months ago at Shelter Valley Folk Festival I got some good advice from friend, musician, and radio producer Laurence Stevenson, who told me to set myself and my mic up in a closet full of clothes, which works really effectively as a baffle.

Having spent most of my life around some of the best professional musicians in the industry, it’s always been hard for me to put anything musical out there – but I’m going to try to do it more often.

April 5, 2014April 5, 2014

Fancy Florals

Yet again, I have not produced anything new to post (sigh), although I have been doing some drawing (yay). I happen to have some pictures of some an experiment I did based on an Art Nouveau poppies I found, probably somwheres on the internet. First I basically copied the poppies, which was quite pleasant

Then I got excited and stole some images of flowers from good seed catalogues, stylized them and added some half-assed Art Nouveau-y lines. I left the backgrounds with the wood texture, which makes all the colour stand out.

Unfortunately, it never occurs to me to sand the wood, so edges come out a little more rough than I’d really like. Or maybe they would just come out a lot differently if I were to do another.

By the third one things were starting to get a little fairy-tale style, which appeals to me on another level. I really should work more with these. I know that there is another, unfinished, of geranium; maybe soon I will finish that.

April 2, 2014April 4, 2014

Aran Sweater Dyed with Black Walnuts

This is my first attempt at a cardigan. I knit it over six years ago and am currently working on my second cardigan. I remember wanting to do a pattern with cable and chose this from one of my mom’s 1970s knitting pattern books. It was initially white, but with my mom’s help we dyed the sweater once it was knit. We collected black walnuts from around Peterborough lawns and parks, made the broth and put the sweater in. This was the result.

My sister, Cassie currently wears my sweater awesomely.

March 27, 2014March 31, 2014

Sterling Silver Band Ring

I have taken several jewellery courses and workshops at the Art School of Peterborough with Sandy MacFarlane.

In this workshop, I made my first silver band ring. It’s pretty cool!

You start with a flat piece of silver that you saw off of a larger piece. I stamped my name and the year on the inside.

Then you carefully bend it, and size it using a ring mandrel, then solder the joint. Then, I stamped different size circles on the outside.

You can buff it to be shiny, or you can leave it dull. It’s lots of fun! I think I might take that workshop again!

March 20, 2014March 20, 2014

Octopus Linoprint

I’d really enjoyed creating a linoprint last year when I was working at Harbourfront Centre, and had been thinking of buying some supplies and trying it out again in a slightly less rushed situation. While I was home a month or two ago, my mom and sisters and I went to an auction, where I was lucky enough to snag a box full of linocutting supplies – carving tools and breyers, some (very old) ink and lino.

This past weekend I finally made it an art supply store, and picked up some fresh ink and some of the newer, rubbery lino. I sketched out an octopus and transferred it to the lino. Unfortunately, I find that this rubbery lino is a difficult medium – it’s not so bad if you’re using it to carve lines, but if you’re carving away a lot of material, it becomes quite annoying. I probably just need to work with it more, and learn how to work with the medium instead of struggling against it.

In the end, this turned out much better than I thought it was going to, but I’m still annoyed but a few things – the octopus’ highest tentacle didn’t turn out right, even in the sketch, and a lot of the lines aren’t very clean. I also don’t quite have the printing technique down, so I’m not getting a very clean print.

I may do some more work on the linocut, to see if I can clean it up and make it something that i’m happier with, and I may add some elements to the final prints with a pen or some other inks. We’ll see.

For now, here’s my octopus!