Winter Interlude

admin_tos

Sorry for my absence from the just barley established rythmen of blogging frequency. We had a lot of things to take care off, involving many conversations and discussions. I won't go into detail here until outcomes are known. 

I would like to share a picture taken early in the week. 

Huxley-bike-febr

It shows how within the span of a week we lost about a metre of snow from our streets.I was shocked to see a couple of days ago that my narcisus had sent up 4" long shoots, and some tulips where pocking out of the ground by about 1/2". 

In Canada, there is just no early spring!… well, not this early! Yesterday we had about 2 cm of new snow and if last year is anything to go by, we'll have some more serious dumpings of snow before April. In numbers, we had almost one meter of snow in March 2008 alone…. I'm hoping though, that the tulips will still bloom when the time comes and that this didn't kill them… 

Hopefully the weekend will bring some some beautiful weather to do photography of projects I wish to share here. 

I just made a donation to the Australian Red Cross for the Victoria Bush Fires. Pushed to act what I wanted to do by Serendipity's call for help. Won't you join me?

Nursing

admin_tos

not human babies… 

Nursing-nuffie

My mother-in-laws' newest set of babies… Newfoundland's. After they nurse with their mother, they each get a little bit of extra and i had the privilege to be there for one nursing and got to give each 2 day old baby a bottle for a bit. So sweet. Amazing how big they grow. 

2-day-nuffies-2blackies 

I also did some more hanging out with the horses… took Abby for a ride, but the snow was so crusty on top yet not frozen enough, that it was a very bumpy ride. At one time, Abby didn't want to obey me and she actually stomped her foot on the ground. Very expressive, yet after dealing with a little boy that can be very expressive when he doesn't want to do something, this had little effect on me. 

Primo-caveat
Caveat and Primo waiting for more dried bread. 

This is something we always did in Switzerland, dry bread and feed it to either the ducks and swans in Rapperswil by the lake, or to the horses when we went riding. The horses here were very hesitant the first few times I showed up with dried bread, now they crowd me for it. Yikes! was so cute, right after feeding her the first piece, she gave me one of those beautiful all teeth-bearing horsey-grins. I also gave each a couple of cubes of sugar. Of course, not something we want to do often, as it is not good for their teeth. 

Back-Tack 4 Goodies for Pam

admin_tos

Since Pam has now received her Back-Tack 4 package from me finally, I can now show some of my pictures and share a bit about the goodies.

First up the Scarf. It was inspired by Pam's love for linen. I used sun printing, because as a gardener, she needs sun to make her plants grow and flourish. The patterned background is organic and wild. 

The patches are little garden beds, bringing order into the chaos of nature and concentrated bursts of colour. Some are stitched with hand dyed silk threads, the others with silver thread. The stitches are orderly rows of garden beds. 

Bt-scarf-1

Bt-scarf-2

Bt-scarf-3
Seeds, sprouting with flowers bursting

Bt-scarf-4
A bit abstract in thought and execution. I really enjoyed creating this. 

A knitted acorn, larger than the gold ones from an earlier post. This can be used as a key-chain, or to hang from a door knob, or even put onto a handbag handle. The brown yarn is hand dyed merino. 
Bt-acorn-1

Bt-acorn-2
Together with a card showing a seed in the forest sprouting. The photo was taken by DH when we first started hiking together, the photo card is part of a line of cards I used to make and sell all across Canada to fine gift and gallery shops.

Bt-card-1
And of course, a gardener, ready with big gardening shoes and gloves. Loving the growing and tending of our green friends. Executed with handmade paste papers and Gocco Print.

There was also a soap encased into a hand-felted skin. But I won't show pictures of that, as I'm working on a tutorial to be posted later in the month. 

The Chippies are here

admin_tos

Finally, finally, the promised pictures of my little knitted friends, the chipmunks. In 2007, after we joined the local Waldorf School, I was fortunate enough to take a course in Waldorf doll making with one of the mothers from the School (April). Not only did I find a wonderful creative soul in her, one I can relate to on many levels. She also has two sons, so we had lots to share about mothering. She was the one who introduced me to the work of Gordon Neufeld, but she also showed me a little tiny chipmunk she had knit for her younger son some years ago. My interest was immediately piqued and I wanted to make a fleet of them. By looking at the "hide" of one, i.e. one that was knit, but not sewn up, I made it my mission to figure out how to make them. 

The knitted part is easy, most of the work is in sculpting the stuffed form and embroidering the details. Each little guy took me about 2 hours to make from cast-on to the last stitch. I will make another one soon, when I will take step-by-step photos to have a pattern and written instructions available. 

For now though, I would like to introduce our current "herd":

Chippies-1
The leader was the one that April made and gifted me. Then there is one little fellow in noro yarn, one in alpaca, and one in angora.

Chippies-2
Getting up to trouble

Chippies-3
A little hand-full of squirley-ness

Chippies-nest
In a needle-felted nest. 

Let me know if you would be interested in a pattern for these little guys. 

Also stay tuned for a report on a gallery opening, a jurying session in Kingston, a knight, a back-tack packaged received in England (including all those secrets I've been keeping), and some other goodies.