etc.

Illustration Friday is sort of like Photo Friday, which I have been following for ages, but for illustration: on Friday of each week, the site posts a theme and you have a week to come up with your interpretation of that theme & enter your submission. This week’s Illustration Friday theme is “crowded”, and I’ve been thinking about it all week. Then yesterday, as I waited in a coffee shop drinking tea & knitting while my car was being repaired at the dealership, I doodled this & added some colour to it when I got home:

That was fun, I think I’ll do it again next week!

We have a lovely room on the third floor of our house that started its life as an OK but not great study. We have a big, ugly desk in there that we bought from the previous owners (so big that you’d have to disassemble it to get it through the door, never mind down the two flights of stairs), four utilitarian and variously unattractive bookshelves that I have been using since I was a student, assorted boxes of books and old bricks (don’t ask) and an easel. The room itself is lovely: small dormered window, 4′x4′ skylight, built-in closet space (with mirrored doors that I could do without, but they do reflect the light nicely), and a very old bricked up chimney whose crumbly red bricks add some lovely warm vibes to the space.

Ever since I set up the wireless network in the house, we stopped using the study. The poor Internet connection up there was the impetus for setting up the network in the first place (using a different cable connection), so we hardly ever go up there anymore, except to grab or deposit handfuls of books. And, since we don’t use the space, it has become the de facto storage area for our deck furniture and a dumping ground for a miscellany of bits and bobs (mostly things I can’t bear to throw out, like mailer boxes. They are impossible to efficiently store but are absolutely essential because they’re so easily recyclable, and I can’t bring myself to buy a mailer box!).

Here is the only picture I have of the study, from the property listing two years ago (that’s the behemoth desk, although it doesn’t look nearly big enough in the picture). Sadly, the space looks much better in this picture (before we moved in) compared to its current junk-pile-wasteland state:

One of my plans for the house this summer is to work on this room, converting it into a fully-functional studio/study. It’s the perfect space for a studio because it’s big and bright and there is a washroom up there (for paint, etc.), and the deck is steps away, for breaks (you can see a teeny-tiny patch of Lake Ontario from the deck!) and for sitting and knitting/reading, and I would very much like a good, inspirational space to work on creating all the things I want to create. And it will have to double-time as a study because it will still have to house all the books we own (there are many, so very many), and it will be nice to have a dedicated space to write once again. I spent weeks on end up there, writing, in the summer/fall of 2003 (before the junk descended) and found the space to be perfectly conducive to creative endeavour, even in its shabby state, ugly behemoth desk notwithstanding. So far, plans for the space include:

• built-in bookcases to line the entire left wall (the one with the two pictures on it. Aside: look at how high those pictures have been hung! How silly!)
• destruction and removal of the big, ugly desk
• closet organizers to house the yarn and winter coat collection in the closet
• some sort of removable shelving on either side of the chimney (opposite the left wall, not in the picture) to house more yarn, fabric, and other supplies (including mailer boxes!)
• a good, permanent corner for the easel
• distinct desks/work areas for sewing, crafting, blocking, writing (have to work this out a bit more)
• a comfy chair or two for humans and/or cats
• a “clippings wall”, probably a bulletin board of sorts on one (or both?) of the sloped walls on either side of the dormer
• inspirational wall colour! Right now it is a soft white (not pastel yellow and blue, thankfully) that I really like, but I think I’d like to have a go at something with a bit more punch.

I can’t wait to get started! Of course, a large part of the fun has been scouring the interweb for ideas & inspiration, and finding goodies like:

• this site
• this checklist
• this article
• Claire’s readership (check out all the great comments at the end of the post)
• this photographer’s apartment/studio
• this collection of artists’ studios online

We’ll probably start working on it May, watch for updates! In the meantime, if you have any experience with this sort of thing, let me know? Thanks!

A few weeks ago, I read somewhere about the concept of the “Not To Do List” (can’t remember where for the life of me). If you are an inveterate list-maker, as I am, you probably organize your life with To Do Lists, be it for work or play. You are probably somewhat compulsive about these lists and keep them up-to-date on a regular basis, tweaking and sometimes rewriting them as the occasion warrants. Your To Do Lists are probably exhaustive since the act of meticulously noting all demands on your time probably makes you feel organized and on track to accomplish the items listed.

However, once in a while, there comes a time when you begin to feel heavily weighed upon by your lists, exasperated and frustrated by the ever-increasing length of the list and your inability to simply get ahead. This is where the Not To Do List comes in. The idea is this: you continue the habit of keeping a To Do List, but you also start a NOT To Do List that brings a realistic dimension into your list-making habit! The Not To Do List will contain all the items that you decide NOT to tackle to-day (or this week, or this month, or whatever time-frame your list covers), which forces you to evaluate all the items on your list, prioritize them, and decide what you can realistically accomplish. The stuff that makes the list is your To Do List, the stuff that doesn’t is your Not To Do List (or your To Do Later List, but Not To Do List has a more liberating ring to it!).

I’m having a go at this this week. I took my 23-item strong To Do List (for work) and whittled it down to the absolute essentials that need to be covered this week, leaving me with a more manageable list containing 8 items. Eight! Down from twenty-three! I can’t explain how liberating it is to be faced with a list of 8 items that I know I can accomplish this week! The tyranny of the bloated & unrealistic To Do List has been lifted and the resulting feeling borders on exhiliration. At the end of this week, my Not To Do List will become my To Do List and I will begin the process all over again.

Right now, it’s all spades. I will reassess & update you in a few weeks’ time, after I’ve had a chance to settle into a few weeks’ worth of Not To Do List-making!

To those of you who have visited these pages in search of knit/yarn content over the past couple of weeks, my apologies. I haven’t knit a stitch since Leftovers, and the reason, as far as I can tell, is this transitional weather we have been having. I have plenty of wool and wool-related projects I could have cast on, but I’ve been a bit unsure as to whether I want start a winter project when I’m very much looking ahead to Spring. I also have plenty of cotton things I want to knit, but am I really ready to pack away the wool for the next five-ish months?

Yes, I am! I vacillate no more! This morning I decided that the time for wool has passed and the time for cotton is upon us. I feel liberated by the decision and am happy to unveil the First Cotton Project of Spring:

I’ve had it in mind to knit Kyoto for ages, I bought a bunch of Mission Falls for it last Summer but never quite got around to it. Also, Heidi just finished hers, and it looks springy and marvelous and completely inspirational, and after I read her detailed notes this morning, I realized it was time.

And so, onwards!

Lastly, have I told you lately how very much I love a book that stands up all on its own?

Recipe notes

• butter: all three recipes call for unsalted butter. I only ever buy salted butter, so I used that and it worked out just fine.
• chocolate chips: the frosting recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate. I had semisweet on hand and used that instead. It, too, worked out fine.
• food colouring: I divided the vanilla frosting into two batches and added two drops of red colouring to one batch, and two of green to the other.
• prep: I baked the cupcakes last night and frosted them this morning. No adverse repercussions to report. I made the chocolate frosting last night and refrigerated it overnight, so it was quite hard when I took it out this morning. I used the double-boiler method to soften it up for spreading (didn’t actually boil it, just put the bowl of frosting in a larger bowl of hot water).
• vanilla: I almost always use way more vanilla than what is called for. Did so again with these recipes and I think they turned out better for it (most recipes do). We have a litre bottle of pure vanilla extract that we bought in Mexico 5 years ago and I usually splash the stuff generously into most baking recipes. We only have about a quarter of the bottle left, so a trip to Mexico will have to be planned within the next 2 years. For purely culinary purposes, you understand.

The fruit of yesterday’s labours and my contribution to the March Month of Softies, whose theme is “Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Child”:

She stands about 13 inches high and is a bit lanky, which was completely unintended but turned out to be a happy coincidence because I was bit of a thin child (not lanky, just a bit limby). Most of the rest of it uses some artistic license, except that I distinctly remember disliking skirts and dresses, loving dungarees, and wearing my hair in two pigtails tied very tight with big red baubles (which I disliked at the time but love in retrospect — thanks, Mum!). Also, I had a lot more hair than that, but I ran out of brown floss!

Here she is right after the stitch-up (contrast seaming was not intended, I also ran out of beige thread!). As you can probably tell, I know nothing at all about doll anatomy and construction, but I fudged my way through without incident, for the most part. Her proportions turned out to be much better than I thought they would be (I thought her arms would be too short, and her legs too long), but I think I’ll narrow up the top part of the torso on the template for next time:

And finally, here she is from a “strolling” angle. Poor thing, I had to stick chopsticks down her pants for added posability:

All told, she took me about 5 hours to complete and what a lovely way to spend 5 hours on a day off. I hadn’t intended to contribute to the March Month of Softies because, for whatever reason, I thought I’d be too late, but look! It’s only the 26th, plenty of time. And now I have five days to kill before finding out what April’s theme is so, to-morrow, I begin work on some friends for Cavity.

And lastly, three things that have made me happy over the past few days: browsing getcrafty blogs for inspiration (and finding it in spades), finding out that this month is National Craft Month (albeit a bit late), and Japanese craft books like this one.

Thank you for your kind words about Cavity! I forgot to mention that as soon as I finished stitching him together, I presented him to the mister for critical evaluation (the mister buys toys for a living, you see), and he sailed through with full marks and a few words of praise! He’s promised to give him a home on this desk at work (which is not the barren wasteland that many other office spaces are, the mister’s desk is surrounded by toys. Real, professional ones! Made in factories!) but not before I’ve made him a companion or two. Lovely! More monsters have been commissioned! Next up: Gingivitis and Gum Disease.

Well, not really. For the next few monsters, I’m going to try and stay away from oral bacteria and diseased organisms.

Today I bought two books. It has been ages (months, I think; the last book purchases might well have been in New York!) since I’ve bought a book, which is why two new books in one day is newsworthy. You Grow Girl was a bit of a necessity since I don’t own a single gardening book and the mister and I are putting in a garden this Spring, not to mention the fact that I am a big fan of the Web site and Gayla is local, so I must do my absolute best to support the locals. And The Artist’s Way is one of those books that I have been hearing and reading about for a couple of years, and whenever I hear of or read about an artist throwing in a pitch for it, I make a mental note to get my hands on a copy, and today I finally cleared out those backlogged mental notes. I have four days off at the end of next week and these two books, along with the five I have from the library (as well as the assorted holds I’ve placed in the past 24 hours on dollmaking, which will likely come in over the next 48) will be my well-appreciated and much-enjoyed companions.

Finally, I submit that my new sewing fixation has grown out of a fabric fixation that I have secretly been cultivating, lo these many weeks. Here are a few fabric designers and retailers whose work sets my heart aflutter:

• Amy Butler – wonderful vintage-inspired patterns, and colours that are just candy!
• Marimekko – abstracts that command your attention whether you like it or not (I like it).
• Lotta Jansdotter – fabric zen.
• Kaffe Fassett (prints here) – the world in colour! I would very much like to see through Kaffe Fassett’s eyes for just a day.
• Alexander Henry – quirky as all get out. Just try not to smile when you look at his prints.

Look! I’ve been sewing!

On my way home from work today, I stopped in at a craftstore for a couple of squares of cheap felt. Got home, spent the next 2 hours figuring out how to set up a sewing machine (2 whole hours), almost gave up a couple of times out of sheer frustration (“how can this be so hard?”), persevered out of sheer stubborness (“I will not be outdone by a toy sewing machine!”) , drew out a little two-eyed, two-legged monster, cut him out of felt (orange and blue, the colours in this picture are terribly saturated), and spent the next hour enjoying (thoroughly!) the assembly & sewing process. I’ve decided to call him Cavity since he looks alarmingly tooth-like and since he is, well, orange.

I think it is safe to say that I have a new hobby! Thanks for the toy suggestions, as you can tell, they were right on the mark! I’m already looking ahead to April’s Month of Softies, oh yes I am!

And thanks to some wonderful suggestions from the Knitomatic Group (Toronto-based Yahoo! Group that is home to terrifically crafty people!), I have a couple of ideas for where I can get real wool felt in the city, and once I get my hands on some — whoa, stand back!

Later: Forgot to mention, Cavity came to life with a great deal of assistance from this fabulous tutorial on Craftster. I adore craft forums!

This evening, while searching for Toronto suppliers of Print Gocco kits, I discovered that the Japanese Paper Place, a local supplier of lovely Japanese papers, offers workshops! A variety of them! I’d like to quit my job and devote my time to crafting, if that’s alright.

I’ve spent most of this evening sorting through two large piles of discarded clothing that is on its way to Goodwill, separating out the garments that I can use as crafting fabric. Which means, I think I might soon try my hand at craft sewing. But wait. When did this happen? I’ve always detested sewing, in fact last year when the mister brought home a fully functioning toy sewing machine for me (fully-functioning!), I sort of balked at it and proceeded to store it away in the event that my craft pursuits would someday require me to sew a button or seam on to something (all the while secretly believing that I would never sew, not really, how could I? I hate sewing!). Lately, I have found myself more engaged in and following more closely the sewing activities of the craft blogs I read regularly, and, oh my, jaunty prints are now catching my eye, and tactile fabrics are looking wildly appealing, and wait, what’s this, are these sewng ideas that are brewing in my mind? I do believe they are!

It’s all very odd.

Anyway, I’m keeping my eyes open for an inaugural craft sewing project (nothing practical like clothing or household items, rather something purely self-indulgent!), let me know if you have any ideas.

A very happy Spring Solstice to you! I don’t think there is anyone in the Western hemisphere happier than I am that the weather has turned (yes, there was snowmelt while I lay moanful in bed, last week). This morning I drove the mister to a dental appointment and was pleased pleased pleased to step out to large scale dripping, melt-off, and a handful of fearless chirpy sparrows hanging out in the tree above the deck. O, Spring!

I was going to write more last night, all about day two of iBook ownership and usership, but instead I ended up watching Intervention on A&E, which put me in a mostly foul, unsociable mood. Have you seen this show? It is, as the title suggests, a bit of a pageant wherein people with addicitions are confronted by family and friends and given a final chance to enter treatment right away or risk the end of these relationships. As much as I like to be hopeful for these people, I usually find myself at once uncomfortable at the spectacle of a completely personal interaction, stressed over their chances at full recovery, and raging mad over the way the family or friends (most likely, the parents) are mistreated by the person suffering the addiction. Last night, by the end of the hour, I was mostly just angry that I put myself through an emotional ringer in the name of entertainment, and vowed never to do it to myself again. By that point, the evening was lost for blogging, and what a terrible way to round off an otherwise enjoyable weekend of recovery and discovery!

The ill-effects of last night might have extended their nasty claws into today, as well, if it wasn’t for time well-spent with Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac, which I am reading & reviewing for the next issue of Spun, and would it be giving too much away to heartily commend it to you now? (And as a completely unrelated aside, I have given up and gone back to linking to amazon.com when I refer to books here because, who am I kidding, they are building the ultimate in social communities for book-lovers, and resist as I might, I find myself checking their book pages for that “value-added” every once in a while. I’ll continue to provide the “find in your library!” link with reviews though, and because I feel the need to say it every once in a while, please remember to shop independent. Thank you.)