solstice party photos. we all had fun. some of us even had more fun!

poppa will do in a pinch

jon and the parade of children 

jon find's his inner??? child

Nicole and mama 

mira's solstice international weirdo costume 

the boy filling the pool one jug at a time... 

Procrastination, inspiration, and motivation

Procrastinating is what seems to be my greatest feat of late. I have come to a point where I need to start making giant steps in designing kits to sell, product to sell and getting some of my own art done. I have managed in the last month to get product into the gallery in Queenstown, and have done a little looking about for venues here in Freddy. Today there will be no knitting.it is 35 degrees here and dead humid air. no breeze.and I have been dealing with my tres dysfunctional family this week.nice.
Well just got off the phone with the one who is less dysfunctional, and 2000 miles away hmmmm, correlation I think maybe....
But really next week will be more about the knitting, dyeing, spinning etc.

Solstice,Full moon,family

well what can I say? As kate the oddball knitter pointed out not even an hour ago I haven't posted in a week. I wanted to post ,yet this week knitting is the last thing on my mind. SO BEAR WITH ME, It ain't pretty.
It isn't that I have forgotton, it is just that this week has been for me a lttle overwhelming. I come from what in the sixties and seventies was an odd family. We pioneered the stepfamily. We made it through (all of us kids). we have the battle scars to prove it. JUST to let you know beforehand, I'd take a bullet for each and every one of them, the whole siblings, the half siblings and those who are the products of subsequent unions/previous unions on both sides.. The Brady Bunch was fiction, trust me it is a whole lot harder in real life.Besides we beat em any way, there are seven of us. (and then most of us bred...)
So needless to say knitting? not so much. Martinis? yes why yes indeed there have been a few.
My niece graduated this week from high school, awesome kid. She will be heading off to NY state in November to work as an au pair, and attend classes subject to be determined. I am sooooo gonna miss her being around. the kids in our family are great, its the parents we need to worry about!!! but seriously it is over now. god bless.
We all had a great little solstice party though! Kate, Jackie, Bill, Jon and I and all appropriate children except Kate's gathered at my place. We drank to the summer and to each other. I'll post the pictures later!
Lizzie

String Fever

Well the gallery shift is over, passed rather quickly if I do say so. I was in very good company the whole time. The artists in residence this week were Elizabeth Bastin, rug hooker extraordinaire, and Denise Richard with her fantasic felt products. She is making some great stuff.
Elizabeth I have known for a few years and she does lovely hooked rugs, and is kind, sweet and always bakes cookies for her residency. Yesterday they were brown sugar-raisin (YUM!!!)
Denise is the new kid in town, I am thrilled to have her around. BC"s loss is definately New Brunswick's gain. Denise's felted work is on the edge for sure. She has upholstered jellyfish stools, sea urchin ottoman, little organic looking pod hand bags, flower napkin rings, the stuff is WILD. Kate got one, just for showing up with extra coffee. Some girls have all the luck. sigh........
I would post pictures but, kate is the one with the camera, I have to get her to go back and snap the pics. I am sure she will post one of her napkin ring. The summer here in fredericton is so culturally alive, it is great inspiration time, the community grows and crawls out of their collective caves to produce out of doors.
Within the Historic Garrison District we have the York Sunbury Museum which houses String Fever Textiles Gallery, a non profit collective gallery, and workshop/residency series. Along the way we have the casemates, summer shops and studios where various artists and craftspeople make and peddle their wares. This is such a fantastic opportunity for exposure for our artistic community. We have summer music festivals, and film festivals theatre stuff goes on in the park and the tannery square. We are blessed with some of the finest musicians and craftspeople in the country. I love freddy.It is definately a great place to be.

Feltin' Fool

Sunday morning 10:00 and I have accomplished more today than I imagined was possible. Nothin like a deadline to light a fire under you. I am under the gun for gallery stock, and have my first volunteer shift on Tuesday. Things are really moving forward and I am most definitely in shock. I can actually see the top surface of my kitchen table. All of it. I forgot how much I liked it. My pottery wheel is not currently hosting a pile of merino roving, my dishwasher is loaded and the counter is clean. I am on the downhill slide of my second pot o yarn on the stove, have the next batch ready to go, have fed India and Mira pancakes, and drank two -count em TWO cups of coffee.
I love sleepovers. It's a win win situation. the kids feel like they won the lotto, and the grown ups Know that they have. The girls have built a fort in the backyard, watched movies, played monkey and generally been the perfect little darlings that only appear when separated from siblings. I am sur Jackie feels the same way at her house. We should do this kid swap more often. For the first time in weeks I have hung up the referee shirt!
As we all know I have been knitting yardage on Trish's machine and felting it to make handbags this week. I have some lovely soft pink and a variegated merino to work on, they both have made smashing fabrics. But I can't seem to stop imagining the next and the next and the next after that. It is now officially an obsession. Yesterday I found myself knitting frantically at the folk concert in the park trying to get yet another bag ready for washing last night, My beer actually got warm in the glass while knitting at rye's deli, and I was awake at 4 am itching to pick up the needles. It should be a productive week if this continues! I have scrounged my stash and come up with several pounds of off white Scottish wool that is screaming for a dye and felt job. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Add to that some lovely lace weight merino that really wants to be a lace shawl and I have the week tied right up! so much fiber, so little time.

d; 

All in a Day's Work

roving

What a day! for someone who is no longer holding down the super stressful day job, I'm certainly not having a hard time filling time. It seems that the old adage about closing a door certainly is true. I wasn't out of my office 24 hours before the opportunities came a knockin'. I am doing two, and possibly even three artist in residence gigs this summer, and have two galleries wanting my stuff. a smart girl would panic, but not me, I am either not bright enough to figure out that I have 2 months worth of work to do in 10 days or I have faith that my good old protestant work ethic will have the stamina to make it through. But seriously, I am making some real progress getting things done.
I was up and at em this morning first thing, and yarns in tow, made it to Trish's to knit yardage before ten oclock. I have made a considerable dent in the stash, and been having a ball designing bags. After knitting all morning Kate and I had a marathon photo shoot in my yard, WOW. She made me haul stuff out that I haven't seen in ages, and how good was THAT for my ego! I hardly had a moment to think, she was whippin' stuff on and off of the table, hangin stuff off the fence and generally just flying through it. It was so satisfying to get those photos and be able to say "I did that" that is my work, my design, and I can certainly be proud of it.
So I have posted a few of them for you guys to all see. It was exhausting but there it is, I now have photos of it all.
I have to run, must prepare kits and product for pickup on the 20th. And get stuff to "hand work" stage for my gallery shift on Tuesday. Ta Ta.
Lizzie

p; 

work work work; 

Kate went camera crazy 

martini girls 

The Gagetown Wrap up

martini sheep
We never actually got a picture of Kate with her martini so this lovely sheep will stand in for her. The Fibre festival was fun, lots of interest in everything we were doing. And lots of fibre fondling.
The sun was hot, the company was good, and the lunch was FANTASTIC. Diane's potato salad RULES. I have to be honest, I have never travelled with a more organized bunch of people in my life. Everyone was on time, all supplies were present, and everyone was in a great and positive mood. I will roadtrip with those three anytime. oops I mean four -Onslow the dog was with us too. Just picture us will ya? Four grown women, one midsize dog, enough fiber and dying equipment to sink a small battleship and a cooler full of food. All piled in to Trish's Subaru and off we went.
Set up and activities went fairly smoothly for the most part. There was one small incident of a sheep escaping first thing in the morning, but Barb and Norm managed to chase the little bugger down fairly efficiently and all was well after that.
Kate had some great and wonderful interest in her needle felting-- no big surprise there. Her work is so beautiful, and she is such a good instructor. Our token boy fibre junkie arrived and was spinning and weaving along with us, it was so great that James could come, he is a photo tech in the Airforce and has been posted to Alberta so it was our last hang out time before he packs up the wife and kid for parts west.
We had a wonderful surprise spinner show up, My dear friend Liz came by with her wheel and her lovely partner Fenton. She was sprung from the Oncology Ward in St. John for the weekend, and joined us for most of the day. After wards Trish Kate and I defragged over a raspberry martini on Kate's step, and decided we sure could do it again next year. Bigger and better.

Fiber option 05 

When Katie Met Lizzie or Close Encounters of the Oddball Kind.

Well everyone I am back. Did y'all miss me? first off let me tell you all just how much I Love the cable guys. Internets at home, digital cable and high speed connection. I can talk to Kate and surf the net while the electronic babysitter entertains the younguns!
Of course the first thing I did online was check Kate's blog. As usual I was snorting and giggling away, wiping the tears from my eyes and trying not to pee myself. Thinking to myself, "Damn is she ever funny in writing!"
Wait a minute. She is just plain funny period. While checking out the comments section I noticed her newest blog commenter felt the same way. My immediate thought was "If you think she's funny in writing, you should meet her live and in person." Believe me it is quite an experience!
No really.
I met her approximately 3 1/2 years ago and I am still not totally sure I have recovered. I swear to all the God's and Goddesses, this is the absolute truth about our first meeting. I will never forget it so long as I live.

Picture this.
April 2002

There I was just puttering around the house, feeling a bit restless and missing my own true love who was visiting his folks in England. The house was quiet, but for the sounds of CBC radio in the background. I was pondering my next sewing project, contemplating rearranging the furniture, and .........(phone rings)

L: Hello?
K: You're not one of those freaks that doesn't feed her kids sugar are you?
L: Umm, uh, ah, .....no? (no clue who I am talking to)
K: Thank god whatta ya take in your coffee?Cause I 'm assuming you do drink coffee.
L: (meekly with some bewilderment) Double- double but...
K: Right. I'm at the timmie's drive through, oh S**T, gotta go.
dial tone
L:(hanging up the phone, with a somewhat stunned look on my face) I began to panic. A stranger is coming to my house with sugar.
And coffee.
At least I think she is. But really, who could be sure?
Knocking sounded at the front door. I look wildly around me. The house is a mess (not really messy, but this is a stranger! my house is definately not stranger clean.) What'll I do??? What if it is school and family association people. What if it's the church people from down the street, damn I knew I should have just gone to church more......
Again with the knocking
So I did what all sane (?) 32 year old women who are expecting strange women bearing coffee and sugar, who may or may not be the school and family association and the minister's wife, and hell while we're at it Martha Stewart, and the fashion police.
I pasted a perfectly lovely (tr: somewhat frantic and slightly pannicked) smile on my face, and swung open the door to greet .....
K: Hi , can't stay long, nice place (dumps a twenty pack of timbits on the coffee table, heads for kitchen) don't eat those they're for the kids here's your coffee, promised D I would stop in to see you while he's gone so here I am. Can only stay a minute, what's your schedule? I'll pick you up tomorrow we're going to Debbie's to hash out this wedding gown thing. You are helping right? Thought so. See you at tenish. I'll get the coffee on the way. Gotta go. Bye. (walks out the back door, lights a cigarette waves at me up over her head, and heads on down the drive to her little civic and drives away)
L: so that is D's friend Kate. This should be interesting...........
and it definately has been.

newest bag 

the paparazzi