Written by cindy on November 6th, 2011
It’s hard to believe that Rhinebeck and Maryland vacations have come and gone and once again I am up to my ears in show preparation and loads to do but I am doing it with as much love and passion as I can and trying to just breathe when it comes to real world work stuff and stress. I have come to a bunch of big decisions as it relates to my future, further education and career moves – it’s too early to talk about now but I am already feeling warmer inside thinking about big changes.
Rhinebeck was fantastic – I got some great fleece, lovely yarns and some sweet gnomes from http://www.goinggnome.com/ who are probably my very favourite gnome felters. I myself have been working on loads of wet felting and I am planning on expanding my own wet felting knowledge and figuring out more techniques so that I can invent my own and add to my educational repertoire a bit. I also got to spend a bit of time in Catskill, NY and did some great antiquing – my biggest find were some amazing old doll mods.
Maryland was quite relaxing and filled with loads of fun. I got to see some a great Shonen Knife performance at The Ottobar. Also, The Degenerettes and The Quarantines were awesome.
I was totally stoked at just how energized the performances were. Shonen Knife are such a fun group – they really love what they do and it shows so much, and they just put on a really fun, high energy and happy show.
I got to have a nice day of relaxing going hiking at Susquehanna state park, one of my favourite places, and that was really great. It was a lovely fall day and it was gorgeous. I came across a lot of really lovely mushrooms, some big spiders and even a little red salamander.
Then we went to an amazing haunted house at Eastern State Penitentiary and it was freaky, but fun. It was cool because we got to see the cell corridors, which were creepy and learned a bit about just how terrible prison life was back then when things were really a lot more about punishment and penitence and not at all about trying to make people heal and become better. There was Al Capone’s cell and the a weird story about Pep the dog who did a life sentence for killing the governor’s wife’s cat.
We also did some antiquing in Ellicot city and in different parts of Philadelphia, went to PA dutch country and kitchen kettle village. We ate too much good food and hung out with friends. It was overall a great time. I have learned that shopping at Wegman’s dangerous. I can never leave there without spending a fortune. Also this time I found awesome baby cake making machines and picked up one for making mini donuts and one for making whoopie pies. The website of the people that make these, and have fun recipes is http://thebabycakesshop.com/ but I have been winging it and just making up my own.
The one in front is a carrot cake with raisins, with a cream cheese icing, rolled in crushed chocolate covered almonds. The one in back is a devil’s food cake with a fudge icing rolled in ground candy cane Hershey kisses and ground candy canes. They were awesome.
And, the boy brought me flowers. This has been a nice weekend.
Posted in Day to Day, Food and Recipes, Nature | Comments Off
Tags: antiquing, bmore, degenerettes, eastern state penetentiary, flowers, mushrooms, philly, quarantines, shonen knife, whoopie pies
Written by cindy on October 21st, 2011
I am between travels as I write this – just returned from NY for Rhinebeck! (NY Sheep and Wool for you non-fuzzies) and heading on out to Maryland next week. But tomorrow is the Woodstock Fleece Festival so ya’ll should come on out and see me. I will be in The Black Lamb booth with Laurie selling many pretties.
I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about the new love of my life, well, actually my husband’s life (as he was kind of a birthday present) – oh yes! Meet Toasty!!!
He is almost 12 weeks old and has finally reached 1 pound. He is a deliciously sweet puppy with a great attitude, and is unbelievably cute. He started puppy classes last week and handled being in class with all bigger dogs like a champ. I could not be happier that we got him. He’s awesome.
He is always climbing on Lulu and she has been very motherly and sweet about the whole ordeal. She loves him to bits.
Rhinebeck was a blast – I got some lovely fleeces, yarn and only a wee bit of fiber. It was great fun on Sunday though going antiquing in Catskill, NY and then driving through Albany. There are a lot of great flea markets and galleries and I got a lot of great stuff…he’s a peek – sorry for the bad photo.
I got a lot of great anthropomorphic ceramics, a box of dental molds, incredible doll molds from a pre-50s NY factory, fat quarters, little art pieces – great stuff.
Albany has this weird half-egg shaped building, among a ton of lovely, historic buildings.
Cutest goat at Rhinebeck:
Not much else happening, but look at these lovely mushrooms from my backyard:
Posted in Day to Day, Dogs | Comments Off
Tags: albany, anthropomorphic, antiques, dental molds, doll molds, dolls, fat quarters, goats, mushrooms, puppy, rhinebeck, sheep, toasty, wool, yarn
Written by cindy on September 19th, 2011
Posted in Food and Recipes, Photography | Comments Off
Tags: farmers market, fruit, mississauga, vegetables
Written by cindy on September 18th, 2011
The shop has been updated with a massive amount of new yarns!
First off, my new line of worsted weight merino hand dyed yarn – Wink Wink Worsted. You can get it HERE. And a sneak peek:
And, the Fall 2011 colours of Bootsie sock yarn are posted! You can pick them up HERE! And a sneak peek:
Plus, Candy Sprinkles has been re-stocked! Right HERE!
And, there are new shades of Foot Fetish – Merino/Cashmere/Nylon fingering weight! Right HERE!
Posted in Shop Update | 1 Response »
Tags: bootsie, canadian, candy sprinkles, foot fetish, hand dyed, shop, sock yarn, socks, wool, yarn
Written by cindy on September 16th, 2011
Summer is really winding down quickly here in Ontario. It has been really chilly but I am not bothered – it’s making me want to update my Fall wardrobe and wear scarves and go to evening outdoor events where you can bundle up with hot cider and listen to live music – that sort of thing. Nesty.
I think sometimes when I am trying to give a name to my blog posts that I get sort of frazzled ..trying to figure out how to give a title about everything I am going to write about so it ends up looking like ‘Random Art Show, Some Food Stuff, Dog News, etc’ so from now on I am going to raise the stifling curse on myself and give random one-liner names of words in my head at the time. Why is it important anyhow?
So, the Kitchener-Waterloo knitter’s fair was a great success. My wares looked lovely in the generous booth space and there were many patrons, and overall nice people. I got to meet some people I know from Ravelry, in person and with the boys there to help me, it was not overwhelming at all. I really started preparations for the show ahead of time so I set myself up for success on the big day. Here are some shots of my booth!
The overall booth
Hand Dyed Yarn Wall
Candy Sprinkles Yarn and Fiber Goodies
Octopi Yarn Bowls, Test tubes of Beads, Bamboo Lace
Stitch Markers, More Bamboo Lace, Buttons
So, I think I am all finished for canning season this year, except husband is going to try to pickle some insanely hot Thai green chilies that we used 4 ounces of in our salsa. The salsa turned out completely yummy. So, for this year I did huge loads of salsa, canned whole tomatoes, canned chopped tomatoes, plum butter, strawberry jam, candy apple jelly, dill pickles, and rhubarb marmalade. Today is farmer’s market day though so one can never be sure if something else might catch my eye. I am thinking something apple, but not apple sauce would be nice.
Mat and I have started podcasting again, after over a year of not doing so. So, for Muststashyo listeners, you can download the new episode here: http://www.muststashyo.com/ We are working away on the next one too and it will be recorded and uploaded on Sunday probably.
I also have a massive yarn update on it’s way – a new link called ‘Wink Wink’ of hand dyed worsted yarns perfect for hat and cowl projects. And, I have the new Fall 2011 Bootsie colours as well as some new merino/cashmere/nylon sock yarn. Here’s a peek:
Bootsie sock yarn
Wink Wink Worsted
Lastnight was a lot of fun too – I went to the Brampton Indie Artfest at The Rose Theatre and we saw The House Plants, The Shuffle Demons, some great art installations, heard some poetry slamming, ate organic cotton candy, and saw a lot of smoking hipsters. The best part of the night would have to be The Shuffle Demons though – they sounded great and reminded me of when I was a kid and used to hear them playing their music from across the street. There was a little old lady who lived across the street from me as a kid and the least sax player/singer of the band was married to her daughter.
I am heading back for a second night tonight to see Lily Frost and some other acts. Anyhow, the work day beckons and I should listen.
PS! Worldwide Spin in Public Day is this weekend – so find an event near you! http://www.wwsipday.com/
Posted in Art and Craft, Day to Day, Food and Recipes, Shop Update, dyeing | Comments Off
Tags: brampton, brampton indie arts, canning, cotton candy, hand dyed, jam, jelly, kw knitters fair, lily frost, live music, muststashyo, pickles, podcast, salsa, studioloo, the house plants, the shuffle demons, worldwide spin in public day, yarn
Written by cindy on August 24th, 2011
It has been a busy week and I am working long days of the day job and long evenings of show preparation for Kitchener Waterloo’s Knitter’s Fair.
Much yarn has been dyed and photos need to be taken. I did up a little indigo dye pot yesterday for some indigo tie dyed in fingering and worsted weights and I really love how it turned out.
On the weekend I made a little piece of wall art – from miniature furniture for doll houses..I was thinking it was quite Alice in Wonderland feeling and imagined a whole wall made of this…would be fun!
We got to dogsit our neighbour’s lovely St. Bernard. Her name is Kelowna and she is a giant ball of love.
I got this amazing phang spindle from my girlfriend Janet – it is entirely made by hand from a local Wax Myrtle tree – how amazing is she?
Ok, billions of things to do…so I must say adieu! Dog kiss!
Posted in Day to Day, Dogs, dyeing | Comments Off
Written by cindy on August 17th, 2011
I have been having a really nice summer full of good friends, fun events, good food, much love and learning some new things. This past weekend I was at the Textile Marketplace at Lang Pioneer Village. They were having the ribbon cutting and opening of their new weaving room and it was such a fun event. This is a wonderful place to take kids, or just hang out at. There are so many charming people and really interesting exhibits. I have dyed a ton of new Bootsie sock yarn and Wink Wink Worsted weight and unveiled it at this show. I am really trying to gear up for the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter’s Fair on September 10, 2011. That will be one of the largest shows I have done, and this time I am doing it without The Black Lamb and my good friend Laurie as she is off on a lovely UK knitting tour. Anyhow, here are some highlights from the weekend at Lang.
This is the new weaving room – it has a huge Jacquard loom inside.
I was not only in attendance as a vendor, but also as a spinning demonstrator. There were all sorts of demos going on all around the park. This lady was weaving rag rugs.
Women in period costume were doing some wonderful natural dyeing over the fire pit and they were even selling the Lang natural dyeing booklet. I picked one up – it seems a nice introduction to the basics of natural dyeing without getting too overwhelming – really well defined and organized recipes and instructions.
And, much to my delight there were all sorts of sweet beasties to play with including a really adorable chicken and duck that lived together in sweet harmony. They were the nicest pair of birds I have ever met. They were so cute and would come up and ‘gossip’ with you. Of course by this time my camera had long run out of battery life. Anyhow, here are some of the other sweeties.
And a couple shots of my booth..
My birthday also passed on by on August 1st and I was totally spoiled and had a wonderful weekend in Prince Edward County. My husband made me this amazing ‘PCOOKIE PCAKE’ which is…loosely understood as a custard pie with a giant chocolate chip cookie on top and then a 2-layer chocolate fudge cake on top of that. It was insane decadence.
I have also become a woman obsessed with knitting Tiny Owl Knits’ Beekeeper’s Quilt . It is so fun. Even Hippo agrees!
The other day when I was sitting outside knitting thinking to myself all morning ‘Dear Cicada up high in the tree, please go visit another neighbourhood not so close to me’ when all of a sudden BLOOP, right in my lap he came tumbling on down. I affectionately called him John Cicada before hanging out with him a bit and then hiding him in the crotch of my lilac tree where the birdies couldn’t see him.
He agreed with me that knitting is a great social event.
Posted in Art and Craft, Day to Day, Good Karma, Knitting, Nature, Patterns, spinning | Comments Off
Written by cindy on July 16th, 2011
It has been a decent Saturday. I dyed up some merino for the steampunk gauntlets I will be making for a secret friend, along with some other wool that was hanging about asking to be dyed. So, the drying racks are a bit full. I have cut the pattern for the gauntlets and need to get some more foam wrap to make templates for more felting ideas I have in my brain. I actually finished another of the pod sculptures a couple of days ago. Here’s a process photo and the final piece.
I feel like I got quite a bit done today. I got up really early and went grocery shopping, gave myself plenty of time to putter around and organize a few things, and then headed out to the river with the puppies. They had a fun time. Lulu seems to be more ambitious about doing a little swimming these days.
There are some little signs around this park that we hike at warning about this invasive plant species called giant hogweed. I had no idea that this stuff can cause allergic reactions and that it is even evasive. I remember picking the white umbrella like flowers from this plant when I was a kid. Anyhow, I saw some wee little snails parasailing on one of the flowers and it was neato.
Some of the snails are really tiny and cute. Check this one out next to Mat’s hand (wearing the awesome Kinekt gear ring I got him) for size comparison.
Then after a nice hike we all came home and bathed the puppies and I made a nice, light and modern antipasto and focaccia for dinner.
Posted in Art and Craft, Day to Day, Dogs, Food and Recipes, Nature, Photography, dyeing | 1 Response »
Written by cindy on July 11th, 2011
I had the absolute best weekend ever! I treated myself to something I never get to do – go to an art workshop. I am usually the one teaching workshops but it was so refreshing and full of spoils that I actually got to attend one by someone who inspires me so much – Marjolein Dallinga of http://www.bloomfelt.com. She is an incredible felter, originally from Holland, who now lives in Canada and sometimes teaches workshops. Her work is incredible, so much so that she costumes for Cirque de Soleil. However, all of that aside, I found Marjolein to be a wonderful, kind and sincere person who is able to bring people down from the speed, stress, and obsessiveness of a consuming environment. She basically puts into perspective how you should enjoy the process of everything you do, think about what you are giving of yourself in your work, and how you can define yourself as an individual artist or maker. I still have many of her poetic words swirling in my brain and I just want to run, or perhaps stroll, with all of the inspiration she filled me with.
Marjolein taught us so much about the felting process, pre-felts, and taking care. I feel really good about the pieces that I made in the workshop but I also know where I need to strive for improvement and search to become closer to a fine, finished, piece. She gave us really great artistic challenges including restricting oneself to only consuming the smallest amounts of fiber, working with colours we disliked and transforming our visions. We did 3 projects and they took every bit of the 3 days. Felting is hard work but I can’t wait to jump back into it!
The first day we made gauntlets – these are mine – we were to use about 30g of merino for the entire project although mine are over by almost 20g as it was my first time ever wet felting. They look, feel and fit amazingly though I will work harder for finer material.
The second day we created both of our pre-felts for what would become our finished sculptural pieces on the final day. The first one we worked on from a circular shape and it became this amazing felted pod like piece. The challenge was to use colours we loved on the inside and colours we hated on the outside then to determine if we felt differently about them at the end of their transformation. I definitely do – I now love the colours and find them very soothing and oceanic – very close to my happiest inspiration.
The final project was this shell like sculptural piece. The inside was done in a variety of colours that make us happy with the outside being a range of colours that represented the range of our moods. I really love this one. It started as a giant egg shape and became very erotic at the end of the process.
There are more details in my Felt set on Flick here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/studioloo/sets/72157627172188958/
I have so much more to blog about but it is time to get off to Stitch n Bitch. 
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Written by cindy on July 11th, 2011
So, what have I been doing since the last time I blogged in early June? Oh….shows and sales, workshops, and um, getting married!!
So, I was married to my long time sweetheart, Michael, on June 15, 2011 and it was really and truly the best day ever and the finishing point to a very long road, and the starting line to what I hope will be a very long, exciting journey filled with laughs and joy.
I have never been terribly fond of posting photos of myself, or sharing them even. I find that when photos are taken of me, I often don’t look like myself or I just feel drained when people photograph me. I feel like they take a little piece of my soul away. I apologize if that sounds a bit drama queen/Lady Gaga-ish but it really impacts me. It’s weird and something I used to think I needed to work on, but now something I am quite content in feeling. Anyhow, I will share a few pictures because it was a big day.
This was wedding 1 of what will be a couple of wedding-ish ceremony type things that we have not worked out yet. This one needed to happen so we can start the next step relating to immigration, etc. I am thinking some time around our 1 year anniversary we will do something …but we haven’t worked it out yet. We don’t want to stress ourselves to pieces but we want everyone to come out and party with us. So, details to follow on that one….
We had a little honeymoony in Niagara Falls and it was really nice, perfect weather and just a relaxing, beautiful time. Here are some highlights:
Posted in Day to Day, Dogs, Good Karma | 1 Response »
