December

We are well into December and in many ways it feels like other years. Gifts are made or purchased, waiting to be wrapped. Tree is up (that only takes a couple of minutes, since it is a small artificial tree that stays in the basement, fully dressed, all year).

With nobody visiting, due to COVID, it's tougher to get excited about "decking the halls", but I decided that even if it is just for the two of us, we are worth it, and we will feel a bit merrier if we do. So, today I put out my snow people that I have collected over the years. They are guarding the fireplace, and I chose them over the Santas, since they can stay out for the whole winter. They do make me feel better when I bring them out. And even though the kids can't be here this year, they are represented in pretty much every Christmas decoration that I put out. 

It is fun to see them every year and remember where they came from. Talk about a trip down memory lane. A little papier mache fellow named "Joe Cool" that I made when our son was in Grade 2. Three graduated size snow folks made from tips cut off a neighbour's fence in Toronto. A driftwood one we bought at an early One of a Kind show. And one that I hooked while we were living up north. 

And this Davis "snow family" I made when the kids were small. Everyone has something on their "snow person" that was special to that time. Hubby is wearing his shirt that says "I'd rather be at my cottage", daughter is wearing her CWSA (Claude Watson School for the Arts) shirt, son is in Raptors gear - early logo. I have "button covers" on my vest. And our snow dog Misty is also there. I think that is around 1993. 

The William Morris stocking that I hooked a few years ago is hanging on the front door - on the inside where we can enjoy it and it is sheltered from the elements. It was originally going to be for our grandson, but he will have to grow into it. Maybe he will get it as a wedding present. 

Another sign of COVID Christmas: instead of sending cards this year, I made seasonal masks for siblings and their families. And I had enough fabric left to make a cheery batch for the hospital. 

December Santa is in the studio, keeping things merry there. Truth be told, we don't have the right spot for him upstairs, but I am happy to have him keeping me company where I spend a good part of most days.

Indeed this will be a strange Christmas. We will do a "gift drop" close to Christmas, with an outside visit and social distancing. There will be hugs - with masks - and lots of FaceTime and Zooming. And hopefully, this will be ONE TIME ONLY.

In case I don't get back here, have a wonderful holiday. Stay safe. And I'll be back here on the other side of 2020. 

A November to Remember.

It is incredible to believe that we have now entered the eighth month of "life with COVID-19". And I am pretty sure we have the same amount of time ahead of us before we see a vaccine.

Over and over again, I talk with friends about how grateful we all are to have a fibre arts addiction to get us through this. And as the winter looms, I am appreciative of a stash of materials that appears to be never-ending.

I move between knitting, rug hooking and mask making at will. Whatever I feel like doing, I do. And if I feel like starting a new project, I do that too. 

Here's a little hooked wall hanging that I created for a new baby. The design is to compliment a very graphic feature wall treatment. She seems to like it. 

I have a few other hooking projects on the go, and alternate between those, as the urge dictates.

And, I am thrilled to report that I have jumped on the Zoom Workshop bandwagon. Just last week, I did the second session of my "Jeanius Bags" on Zoom. I had eight eager hookers sign up for the session, plus a step-by-step booklet. And their enthusiasm was wonderful. I have been receiving pictures as they finish their bags.

This first one is indeed timely, although the maker did not set out to do a Remembrance Day bag. She just wanted to hook a beautiful poppy. And she did! And she found amazing lining fabric. 

Here's a wonderful bag called "COVID Kitties" and is an adaptation of a pattern designed by Karen Kaiser. Look at their little eyes!! Makes me smile. And more yummy lining.

I warned everyone that these little bags are addictive, and one student sure believed it. Today, she sent me her finished bags photo of THREE bags, and she said there will be more to come. Yes!!!  Great lining fabrics again.

I will share more as I get them.  I am also considering running another Zoom workshop on these bags before Christmas, if there is interest. 

On the knitting front, I started my third stranded-work project during COVID. I alternate it with solid colour knitting and love how it seems hypnotic following the charts. This project is "Ninilchik Swoncho". I got the pattern from Ravelry and all the yarn came from my stash. Amazing how it's not a colour palette that I would pick in a yarn store, but I am very happy with it, all the same.

I continue to make masks and have experimented with many different patterns. Lately, I have been on the search for the perfect "no fog" mask. And after trying a couple of different versions, I found the perfect one!!! It is designed by my friend Mary Dean, who created it for her husband. I am thrilled with this new design, and will make them for my glasses-wearing relatives.

The design above was posted as a YouTube video and started with a circle. It has the required "nose flap" that folds up and fits under your glasses, so was quite effective. It just didn't fit well on the sides.

This is the perfect pattern. Thanks again, MD. The flap that folds up and fits under the glasses like the other pattern, but this one also a great fit on the sides. Plus, it is self-lining, so is the fastest pattern yet. I am making a batch in flannel for a nice cozy mask on the cold days ahead.

I don't think the hospital will take this kind, as they need a light cotton lining, So I will continue to make the "bra style" that I have been making all these months.

So, onward and upward. We will wait as patiently as possible for this virus to loosen its grip. In the meantime, we fibre folks will be just fine until that happens.

Stay safe everyone. And stay sane!

Wow, months fly by, but so do decades.

Today, I just finished putting a new back on this pillow. I knew it was a few years old, but I couldn't remember exactly how many. So, I came and checked this blog - my virtual memory - and there it was. The original post was dated October 5, 2015.

So a decade ago, I created the pillow front for my daughter, as she hosted her first Thanksgiving dinner. And for 10 years, it has been saying "thanks" to friends who come to visit them, surviving the attention of Jasper the cat and their two kids, Jackson and Everleigh. On my last visit, I saw that the fabric on the back of the pillow was pulling away from the seams. I was more than happy to bring it home and to give it a new back, which will hopefully last for another decade.

Speaking of pillows, I just finished putting together a new one for my house. This one has a Tom Thomson pattern on the front, designed by Carol Shewan of Willow Creek Rug Hooking  I am a huge Group of Seven fan, and think Thomson may be my favourite. This pattern is called "West Wind". I have another one called "Jack Pine" that is waiting in the hooking queue. These are two of his best-known paintings.

Here it is in its new home - on a custom wool blanket created by my good friend Jen Manuell the maker extraordinaire at Fish Eye Sisters  If you do not know her work, please treat yourself to a visit.

All of this just in time for the cooler temps that are on their way. We will be snuggly warm under this wonderful blanket, that's for sure. 

Here's to a happy decade ahead for both of these creations.

Wow!!! I can't believe it has been this long!

During these last COVID months, we have all been living in what I call "elastic time". That's time where minutes can last forever, but months race by without notice. 

Parts of my life have become monitors. I walk every morning for an hour. And I have established a "walk of the day" calendar, so I am always mixing it up. Except for "grocery day", when I have to be at the store my 8 to take advantage of "seniors' hour". So that day, I don't usually walk - or didn't when the temps were 30+. May start to walk later as the weather turns cooler. 

Most other parts of my life are repeats of the simple things. It's kind of COVID Groundhog Day. Most days I hook and knit. And I usually devote some time to my ongoing mask making. (Truth be told, now that every single manufacturer has joined the mask parade, it is discouraging for those of us who are making masks by hand to see that you can buy 5 masks for $15.00 from many retailers.) That said, I am still making for the hospital, because I believe that many people who end up there don't necessarily have time to plan on bringing a mask with them. 

So I continue to make them every week. I took a bit of time off this summer when the kids and grandkids were here for a couple of weeks. And then when we rented a cottage on Lake of Bays for a week - the only cold and rainy week of the summer. Murphy's Law.

So, what do I have to share with you?

On the hooking front, I continue to add to my WIP or UFO pile (for those of you who don't know, that is Work in Progress and Un Finished Objects. I am embarrassed to be honest about how many things I have waiting to be finished. But I don't apologize for moving on to the next adventure.

My "kilt it" project is languishing, and could be done in a couple of sittings.  It is made entirely from up-cycled kilts, except for the background. It has one kilt, but I added some additional fabric so there would be enough. 

Our grand cat, Jasper, died in July. It was very sudden and very upsetting for everyone. I decided to hook a likeness of Jasper that can be the "guardian Angel-cat" in their home. I mounted him on foam core board, so they can put him in all his favourite spots. 

The quilts for the twin beds are finished and on the beds. I LOVE them, even more than I thought I would.  I still have to make matching pillow shams. Complete with rainbow coloured pom pom trim. Impossible to believe I still have 300+ squares left over. 

I made a second "mosaic stitch" baby stroller blanket for a special new person. Complete with matching hat. 

Also off the needles was a "leftover" sweater for me. A fun stranded knit that goes perfectly with a pair of pants I made a few years ago. For you Ravelry folks, the pattern is called Soldotna. 

Mask making continues. This is a batch in progress that I made for our grand son, out of two bandanas. Blue outsides and red lining, so they are reversible.  They are sooo soft and I figured if I made him a Monday-Friday supply that all looked the same, he might not lose them all. 

Back to hooking. I am working on a couple of Tom Thomson patterns, designed by Carol Shewan at Willow Creek Rug Hooking. They will be made into pillows for our bedroom. Two of his most famous works - West Wind and Jack Pine. Carol did a Zoom class for these patterns. She was awesome. 

Progress is a bit slow, as I am constantly interrupted by other things. But I did sign up for the "10 minutes a day challenge" with Deanne Fitzpatrick, and days where I don't get there are made up by days when I do hours and hours. 

Here is one of the interruptions. This little 8" x 8" mat is called "CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LEAP".

It is based on a workshop that I would have offered at the 2021 Annual: Daredevils and Thrill Seekers.

Listening to a piece of music, you draw on backing with a sharpie marker  WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED.  Then you put several handfuls of worms into a bucket or bowl and mix them all together. Again, WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED, you pull out one worm at a time and put it somewhere in the design you made. 

Full details will be available in the OHCG Winter Newsletter, but here's a sneak peak. Top image is the sketch - my music was "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. Middle image is the bucket of worms. And bottom image is the finished piece.  

It was lots of fun and quick little project. Very brave to just "hook" without knowing what you are going to hook next. 

So, that's what I've been doing instead of posting here. I promise to try to not be absent for so long again. 

What a difference a pandemic makes.

I had to look here to see how long ago it was that I posted. Wow!!

Although we still had time left in our island paradise, everything changed there, just like here - on March 14th. So, the COVID stupor descended on us all. And we self-isolated for our last 10 days there. We ended up leaving earlier than originally planned, but got bumped once before we were able to get home.

Once back, we were in forced quarantine for 14 days. When that was over, not much changed. The big change was going from ordering groceries online to going into the store. And scary as it is, the stores are doing a great job of creating an environment for social distancing and protecting their workers.

Masks have become a big part of my "stay home" days. At first I decided to make masks for my family - kids, grand kids, siblings and their families plus a few friends. I experimented with two styles and have now made close to 100 masks.

The Peterborough Regional Health Centre put out a challenge to get 1000 home made masks a week. To do a small part, I decided to deliver "19" masks a week until I run out of materials. I try to make 5 masks a day and the last three weeks, I have delivered some.

I have only been out 6 times since I got home - once to the drug store, twice to the grocery store and 3 deliveries of masks to the hospital.  The first trip to the grocery store had more than half the customers with masks. The second one - I only saw a couple of others with masks. Not sure why that would happen. I realized that it's hard to tell someone's expression behind their mask. I came home and took a selfie with my mask on and smiling. Couldn't tell. And that inspired this little mat that I finished this week.

What else have I been working on? I finished a Mandala mat that was a challenge for the OHCG Teachers' Branch to display at this year's Annual which was supposed to take place at Deerhurst, but was cancelled due to COVID.  The theme for this annual was "Everything Under the Sun" and we added to the challenge that the pattern had to be hooked with "everything under the sun but new wool". I used polar fleece, yarn, sari silk, t-shirt material, buttons. The other teachers used velvet, ribbon. as well as yarn and t-shirts. They will be featured in an upcoming issue of the OHCG Newsletter.

I am also working on two quilt tops for the twin beds in our grand kids' room. I managed to cut out all the 4" squares needed without purchasing any fabric. Same for the masks - all made out of leftover fabric from other projects. My stash is definitely shrinking with all these projects.

This picture was taken about 6 strips ago. I try to do a few strips a week, but it is not as urgent as the masks, so I am taking my time.

On the BRAGGING side of things, I received this image from a student in my Portraits class at the Rug Hooking School at Trent last year. Robin was one of the brave souls who decided to do a "art effect" on the portrait of her son. She used the Kandinski style on LunaPic. And I think she nailed it. I am always so happy when students share their finished pieces. 

All of this year's teaching has been cancelled - and I am happy about that. I think that until we have a vaccine, I don't want to be in a classroom - no matter how much I love the teaching. Happy that there are lots of ZOOM and FaceBook live opportunities to get together. And no shortage of youtube videos.

Stay safe. Keep hooking. And keep in touch with one another until we get out the other side of this.

THE POOL BOYS

Sometime during our winter stay in Barbados in 2019, someone took this great shot.
Here are Paul, Gary, Claude, Peter and Peter, fondly referred to as “The Pool Boys”.

They are like “canaries in the coal mine”. If you see them sitting at the edge of the pool,

you know you won’t be swimming in the sea that day. As a fibre artist, I

knew this would make an amazing hooked mat. 

With the help of an online photo editing program, I cropped the image to get in closer.

I also used an art effect to produce a simple-value sketch, sort of like paint-by-number.

The online editing software is called PhotoMania. It has many artistic effects that help

create these simple “paintings”.

There were many challenges in creating this mat.

First was the perspective. It is fore-shortened, so the torsos are much larger than the lower bodies.
The skin tones above the water are completely different from the skin tones under the water.
And the refraction of the light and movement of the water create the "illusion" of legs and feet.

This was definitely an exercise in “hook what you see, not what you think you see”. 

There was much trial and error. Much “backing up” and re-hooking many parts.

And it taught me more than any other piece I have created in close to 20 years.

So it is very special.

Here is the finished mat. Each of the "boys" and their wives will get a print of this mat,

but the original will stay with me. As a fantastic memory and an excellent teaching piece.

Barbados cottage - first week done.

After 10 years coming here, we describe our Barbados trip as "going to the cottage". We see the same friends year over year. We stay in the same place. We know where everything is, and it's exactly the way we left it many months ago. And we love it just as much every time we come.

Each year, the first week is all about settling in. Getting stocked. Adjusting to the weather. Getting back out walking at 6:30 a.m.with my friend Liz. And going to and from the pool/deck/sea hangout. After walking very little at home, it's absolutely no trouble to get in 10,000 steps a day here.

Seeing sunshine out the windows is another one of the wonderful adjustments. All that green after leaving grey days at home is heaven. Here's a view of our back yard and our front/side yard. No matter what window you look through, it's a nice, green view with blue skies.

Well, most of the time. I did my first load of laundry on Tuesday and finally had to bring it in on Wednesday, after at least 16 additional rinse cycles thanks to Mother Nature and her rainy disposition. When it rains here, it is often car wash strength. It REALLY rains. And this first week has provided much of that. As well as warmer-than-usual temperatures. 

Glad I brought hooking and knitting projects with me. Plus a lot of great books. So no problem doing any of these things on the screened-in porch.

Here are some previews of projects:

I am working on a 7th The Shift Cowl (man they are addictive) and love the colours in this one. I bought this yarn at the Cobourg Hook In from the woman who owns Yarn It in Cobourg. The colours are yummy. I have a bit more done than shown here, but already had this picture. 

Here's #6, which is knit from leftover stretch cotton sock yarn I had in my stash. I don't like cotton much for socks, but it was the perfect thing to wear on the flight here. Kept my neck warm on the plane and wasn't too hot when we landed.  These colours were a total surprise - that's what happens when you work with variegated yarns. And I think that's why this mosaic knitting is so highly addictive.

Because I love this knitting so much, and because I need to make a baby blanket for someone, I decided to see if I can figure out a rectangular stroller/car seat blanket pattern. I am using 6 different yarns from my stash, and plan to do an i-cord edging all the way around when the knitting is done. That is the plan at least. And I thank Andrea Mowry for more than a little inspiration.

Re the hooking projects, this first one is nearly hooked. But I'm not ready to show it just yet. This is the photo run through PhotoMania that inspired the pattern. We call it "Pool Boys". This is what happens when the sea is too rough for swimming. These fellows sit in the pool feeling sorry for themselves lol. Like canaries in the coal mine. Putting the image through the photo editor helped reduce the complexity a bit, but didn't make it a cake walk. 

I think this is the biggest challenge I have ever faced in a mat. The foreshortened perspective is the first hurdle. The "partial limbs" under the water is the next one. They required a completely different flesh tone palette than what is above the water. This will definitely be a teaching piece. It has certainly taught me a ton - including a lot of patience!!!!

The next one, when this is done, is for my 5-day class at the Rug Hooking School at Trent in June. My class is called Cozy Characters, and students are going to create a unique tea cozy or French Press Cozy. I need to have at least one sample for each. the tea cozy is done. My adorable grand daughter's image captured forever.

This is the design I have come up with for the French Press Cozy.  It will have a velcro tab to fasten it inside the handle of the press. This is just the pattern for the wrap. 

The design is inspired by an incredible Zentangle artist named Joanne Fink. Someone introduced me to her "dangles" this year, and I LOVE them. The day I came up with this much-simplified design, my printer was misbehaving, so I used markers to do my colour plan. (May do this from now on.) I brought yarn to hook it with, while I am here.  I actually did a tiny bit before I left home, to make sure the yarn was the right weight for hooking. 

As to books, I am 3/4 through George Washington Black and I am really enjoying it. Several people recommended it, so I figured it would be a good one.  I would pass that recommendation along. I just finished Testament by Margaret Atwood and enjoyed it as well. It, and Handmaids Tale, seem to have that Love/Hate thing going on. I'm on the Love side.

So, it's been a busy settling in. Glad to have so many things with me that a little rain doesn't ruin a single day here in Paradise.

Be warm and safe back at home.