Alittle Spot of Sunshine

well Last evening we celebrated the marriage of my oldest niece.
This first photo is her and her dad, dancing at the reception.
 
and this is the happy couple. Mr and mrs Daniel and Courtney Rickard
 
What a welcome bit of celebrating it was, a good time was had by all, as evidance, I have this charming picture of my sisters, well into the evening, And near the bottom of a bottle of something grandma would definately not approve of... 

The one in the middle is the mother of the bride, just tipsy enough to try out the belly dancing belt borrowed from the sister on the left. What kind of example are they setting for thier baby sister???
I am thinking a pretty darned good one!

Family Fun with the Girls.

 
This trio of lovely ladies are my Nieces. Left to right, Ashley, Courtney and Melissa. This photo was taken at Courtney's bridal shower on Saturday afternoon. It was really a fun time. I am not usually a fan of these hen parties, but this was truly a good time. The food was great, the company was pleasant and there were absolutely no family feuds brewing anywhere. Life was good, all round.
It is hard to believe that I have neices old enough to get married, where does the time go. It seems like only last week I was sewing little rompers for her, and borrowing her for home ec class fashion shows.
I am not sure that she would be keen on matching dinosaur shorts with her auntie any more.
The wedding is next month, October 20, I will have to start building up my kleenex stash, I am sure there will be many tears of happiness shed on george street that day. 

Stolen Meme from Jackie

5 Things always in my purse
In summer, I carry a purse. In winter, my parka has huge pockets

1. Asthma puffer
2. dirt/garbage from candy
3. wallet
4. agenda
5. Pen

5 things always in my wallet

1. Drivers license
2. Receipts
3. Medicare cards
4. blue cross cards
5. Library card

5 things always in my refrigerator

1. sambal oleck, and or jackies killer hot sauce
2. science experiment fodder
3. veggies of some shape form or description( see science experiment fodder)
4. cheese
5. coffee cream, and butter( This rarely runs out, if that happens, life is not pretty.) I vowed when I seperated from the ex, I would drink REAL cream in my coffee and Have REAL butter on my bread) I will sacrifice most things for these two items

5 things always in my closet

1. stash
2. books(large bookshelf, no where else to put it but have a huge closet)
3. Clothes
4. saganishiki loom, as yet unused
5. box of unknowns from my last apartment. 11 years ago

5 things always in my car
I don't own a car, but if I did I would surely have the folowing( insert dream sequence here) ...
1. A map, or several maps
2. Armour bag,
3. pertinant emergency tools and such
4. coffee
5. music, lots and lots of music

5 things always on my desk

1. Computer
2. picture of DTL
3. Pencils and pens
4. Paper
5. kid fodder, toys, beads, un finished sewing, beading stuff

as for people to tag

1. insert
2. your
3. name
4. here
5. if you want to play

Not Dead Yet

Yes folks, I am still alive. Though busy as a one armed paper hanger. or a one handed weaver, whatever works for ya. I have been hangin out at the highland games, weaving some tweed, shoulda been some tartan, but reggae night interfered.
Aside from sewing bags and doing the artist market I have been searching for a job, being artist in residence, and trying to drum up some enthusiasm for life.
Yup, hard to be enthusiastic about yet more impending court dates, putting my education on hold -again, and looking for work that will pay the bills, without the ever lovin response of "if you had your degree..."
Yup, that is the clincher, If I had my degree I could get get a job, if I had a job I could pay for a degree...
The end result is the same. I haven't got a job, I have a huge lawyer bill to pay and an ex with a propensity for litigation paid for by mommy. nice work if you can get it.
A girl could go loonie.
but hey, i do have a duffle bag full of quiviat sp?? well, muskox fluff, and a gig teaching two nights, residency next week and again the first week of september. so It ain't all bad. really.
Well all. gotta fly, and get prepared for teaching the fine citizens of freddy to felt.
ta ta for now
lizzie

Sewing Like a fool...

I have been a busy little beaver these past few weeks. I have been chained to my husqvarna and sewing like a demon. I have certainly made some progress on the production work. I listed four new bags on etsy today, I am pretty excited about this new line. I am really enjoying the painting and the sewing. There will be more up in the next few days, but etsy was slower than molasses today so I got bored and took an extended break. Check em out at the etsy store penelopespiderworks.etsy.com

World Cup Fever, My little lady, and the England - Sweden Game

 
This folks is my little lady, behaving like all good footie fans should in a pub. Our local watering hole, known for its lack of tv has rented a huge mother of all tv's for the world cup festivities. Each day at three thirty, we can watch a game and sip some local brews among some true fans of the sport. We have not attended any of the games until England vs Sweden. Let me tell ya this little princess was letting everyone know who she was rooting for! 

How I spent My Saturday

 
 
 
This lovely couple is my dear friend Jason, and his lovely new wife, Patti. The wedding was beautiful, I cried like a baby. I wish them both all happiness. A blessing on them. 

666 the number of the GIRLS NIGHT OUT...New Brunswick Style

So today was Jackie's birthday. I will leave it up to her to expound apon her loot. Suffice it to say that Kate and I had the booze makin supplies, chocolate, and fibre all wrapped up. Joe poet covered the caffiene vessel area. But i would have to say that the star of the evening was Nigel. God bless Nigel.
WE descended on his lovely, quiet pub, created our own little party, drank his booze, abused him mercilessly, I think there was even partial nudity at one point ( his not ours, but I digress). Brain a little fuzzy, might have been the Irish Car bomb....\Suffice it to say, a good time was had by all. And Nigel is a little dizzy from the excitement of us. But hey what's not to get excited about? Imagine, Me, the Oddball, and jackie+ booze, and chocolate-children and husbands= one hell of a whirlwind party. We might be a little hard to take for the uninitiated.well ta for now. must weave drunkenly so I can finish up the scarves and put on the wedding gift warp.
ta fer now, lizzie

Carleton Artists Market.

Tomorrow marks the first Saturday that Jackie and I will be attending the Carleton Artists Market as vendors. It is pretty exciting I must say. We will be sharing a space and switching off weeks, and well sometimes, like tomorrow we will be together.
Up for grabs will be a variety of handwoven, and felted goods,and some hand sewn bags and purses, when we get it done we will have some hand dyed yarn as well. I am hoping to put together a couple of kits for felted handbags with the lovely rovings I dyed last weekend. I have a few wovens, but not nearly as many as Jackie, I gotta catch up to that girl! She's a machine I tell ya!
I haven't finished the scarves that are currently on the loom, but maybe this evening after I take my first medieval dance lesson I will have some time to weave. My goal for today is to put some last minute finishing touches on some "Done-Buts" and attach some hangtags to the goods.
Here is a little sneak peak at what I am taking for sale, so if you're in the hood stop by. Oh, and if you are heading our way- bring coffee !!!
Carleton Artists Market.King Street Fredericton, Beside Brewbaker's. Rain location, inside Carleton Place. See You There!

blanket memories

So Jackie got me thinking about the whole learning to weave issue. We were taught by the same teacher, albeit, a few years apart. I did not persue weaving as my major course of study, instead I wandered downstairs to play in the mud. Although I chose to study pottery, and dropped the weaving after first year, I had my blanket. I have used this blanket for more than twelve years, it has been darned more than once, and it has moved from room to room. It has been dragged around by kids, and kept me warm while nursing babies, snuggling kids on the couch, and while sitting around the kitchen shelter with friends when camping. It has travelled to Vermont, and to Pennsylvania with me, and is still going strong.
I love this blanket. It holds a lot of good memories. The beat is pretty good for a first time weaver, the fringe is a little ratty, but still basically intact, and the colours are a little brighter than I would choose today, but all in all, it ain’t a half bad effort for a first try.

Some "craft porn"for Jay

Our dear Aussie friend, Jay has spoken of his love of Craft Porn. He wants to show the process, to see the process, peep into the making of craft. so these photos are for him, and anyone else who wishes to take a peek.

this is a photo looking in to the front door of my friend Darren's wood fired kiln. darren has been experimaenting with local clays and has built this kiln at his studio at Browns Flats NB. He is coming up with some really amazing stuff.Check out his site

The crazy fires we build in the backwoods of NB eh?

Now I would like to travel back a few years to when I was playing with fire on a more regular basis. the following few pots are ones that I made while pregnant for my oldest, he is 12 now.


Well that is all for now, I am sure that I will scrounge up some more "Dirty" pictures for Jay later. ta for now, thanks for reading
Lizzie

Full Circle, or a trio of shawls

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A few years back, while working at the Craft College, I gathered up a few of odds and sods from my stash and put on a very long mixed purple warp. The results of this weaving were three shawls. Each of the three shawls was different from the next because of the weft I used. All were woven in plain weave, all were different lengths and all were very warm and lovely after washing and finishing. Well, all but the one that has yet to be finished. The longest of the three, I will be digging it out soon, and creating a fringe, finishing it off and sending it on its way.
I know not where its home will lie, or even if it will leave my home at all. Only that the time has finally come to take it out and finish it. Pictured above is the second of the three shawls, and the smallest. The first left for its home in March of 2001. A gift.
I began this project in January of 2001. It was a messy, turbulent time in my life. I had been ill for several weeks with Pneumonia, and my marriage was in trouble. In a way these shawls were my therapy, and in a way they were my nemesis. I designed them with my mother in law’s birthday in mind, wove them and finished hers in time for her birthday in March.
Mere days after giving her the shawl, my world was turned upside down. I was served legal papers, and my battle to keep my children and my sanity began. I did not touch the shawls again for many months. As time wore on, the two remaining shawls, lay in the bottom of a trunk, waiting their final tweaking.
In April of 2002 while preparing for medieval event I was attending with the children I pulled out the trunk, and I finished the second of the three to keep wee little I warm in the spring chill.  The third shawl remains in the trunk, and waits.
In March of 2006, my world went upside down again. I fought the good fight, went back to court, and it begins again. The final shawl has been calling me, it is time. Perhaps in finishing the shawl, embellishing it, washing and owning the shawl will in some way bring this latest battle to a close, I will have come full circle, tied up the loose ends, and will be able to breathe, on my own, and steadily move on.

sunday at the spiderworks.

After a wonderful barbeque with the gang from one thread two thread, and Joepoet on Friday, the rest of my weekend became all about getting to the dyepot. I spent Saturday afternoon winding skeins, and gathering fibres to dye today. I rifled through the shed and came up with a dyepot. I raided the fridge and found an icy cold beer( or three) and settled down with a few skeins and a few cups of dye.
It felt so good to be back at the dyepot for even a few hours. As usual, I only accomplished about half of what I intended, but all in all I think the day was fairly productive. I managed to dye three large skeins of B&L country roving, a large skein of laceweight wool, and one small skein of spider web weight silk. Not bad for an afternoon filled with distractions. As per usual, despite the gloves, I managed to dye one finger green. Tomorrow I will get at the cottons, and maybe some more silk. If the weather holds out, I should be well under way into knitting a bag proto type for my kits with some of the dyed roving. I have two patterns already, but am itching for some design work in something more fancy than my simple casual bags. I have a truckload of great beads and baubles that are screaming for use and this just might be the venue.

New Chenille Scarves

Well I am finally ably to post o progress shot of the log cabin chenille scarves currently on the loom. After a few minor glitches with the threading, I have them well underway. I am really enjoying the feel of the chenille and the pattern is so beautiful. I just love the colour and weave effct. It is a simple plain weave, pattern appearing as the shuttles are switched, one colour for another. I am really pleased with this set, but am really anxious to finish so I can sart on my lovely blue and chocolate brown tweed.I guess so many beautiful warps waiting will keep me at it. Just have to keep up the warping ahead. Thanks for reading must get back to the weaving!

Launched the Etsy store.....

So I have ventured out into the world of online selling with etsy.com. Check out my store, it is penelopespiderworks.etsy.com I am pretty excited that things are up and for sale and out of my hands. The setup was really simple and the price seems super reasonable. I only have four things up right now, but am told that Jackie will list a few things with me too. That should beef up the spot a bit.
In the process of picking pictures from my stash I came across some older photos of things I had done, since I have not much newly photographed I will share a few pics from the past.

This is a galvenized steel handbag that I knit a few years back. I just wanted to see if I could. so I did. The handles and the top band were woven in my inkle loom. I really love this little bag and I had a blast making it. might do some more someday.

This little number was from a series of bags I made, and sold. this is the last one I have, will definately make some more when I can. These bags sold really well. I have this one up on etsy right now.

this little box is made from some hand painted fabric that I was doing when India was a baby, I really enjoyed the process and I love the little box. I think that I will do up a few this summer and embellish them a bit more. maybe take the idea for a walk. I had made a few little boxes while taking a bookbinding workshop a few years ago, but have no photos of them.

this is another of my woven silk bags. This one I own, and use all the time. I love this bag. It sadly is wearing out on the strap where it joins the bag, but I love it so much that I am going to weave me a sturdier strap and let the bag soldier on, for a few more years anyway. It has absolutely no wear and tear anywhere else on the bag.
well thanks for reading, gotta run and weave me a scarf.

Productivity, No... REALLY!

Boy do I feel like a little worker bee. Nigel's scarf was the catalyst, project given, challenge met. Then there was Katie's wee scarf, gave myself the week, but hey look its done!!!! don't have a camera so bear with my scanner photos. I just cannot wait until someone appears with camera in hand. I have to share. After months of ufo's I have completed two entire projects!!
oh and smarty pants me added a bit extra on the warp for Kate's scarf and I now have a lovely piece of fabric for a handbag.
Well just colour me HAPPY would ya?
But no folks it doesn't stop there, I also made two new warps this morning for scarves while chatting on the phone. I have these lovely cotton chenille yarns from my stash, that just screamed to be woven. One warp, (two scarves) is a deep rust and a lovely warm beige. The other is the same beige with olive green. They are too yummy for words!
I have already threaded the green and beige warp and am ready to tie on and weave in the morning.
oops fatal scanner thingy won't let me show you the progress. Well trust me there has been some. Lots even.I am sure that kate will have her camera when she arrives to block the shawl that time forgot in the morning.
Ta for now must medicate and catch some zzzzzz's

So I am trying the selling thing.

Well the time has come for me to clean out the stash, and start selling a few of my finished goodies. I have placed a couple of items on ebay, and we shall see how they go. I am planning to start selling some things at the local artists market, if they'll take me that is...
I am just getting started so it will be a few weeks before I can commit to every saturday, gots ta build up the stock so I don't have a chintzy looking booth, and Jackie is going to join with me in this fine endeavour, we shall post pics of the work and the booth. Wish us luck!
For now I shall show ya what is on auction as we speak

Nigel's Sulky Scarf

So this is not exactly knitting, but I used yarn to make it so in my books it counts as blog fodder. I wove this scarf for my dear friend Nigel. Poor dear was scarfless and sulking, and he is such a good pouter, that I caved at his expert sad puppy act.

Man he's good!

Seems his nose was a little out of joint when his girlfriend started knitting a scarf for his equally sad puppy best friend/room mate. Now these are two very lovely boy's who are excellant friends, but WHOA are they competitive. Now I normally wouldn't put my self in the middle of their little competitions, but hey, it was a week moment. I was lagging in the fibre creating, slacking on the sock from hell, and grabbed the first diversion to come my way. I had a blast. Took my normal weaving style for a walk and ran screaming away from my usual wool. I rifled the stash of both my girl's Kate and Jackie, added it to my long forgotten cottons and voila, Nigel's sulking scarf was born from the remnants of several dyeing projects, and stray bobbins of silk.

I believe I have created a monster, I need to do a series, I have Kate's on the warping board as we speak, ready to thread the loom over the next few days, and hoping she will have it in her hot little hands by the weekend.

I love weaving in the summer. It rocks my world fer sure.

I wove this scarf on a table top loom, but the rest will be woven on Jackie's spare floor loom which is currently being stored in my workroom. The weaving is much quicker on the big loom, and much easier opn the old creaky back. Well I must run off and prepare my residency foprms for the tomorrow deadline, Kate the keener is already done. sheesh what a brown noser!!!!

ta ta for now, thanks for readin'

Lizzie

Literature, Knitting and the state of my reading these days

I stumbled across this meme on someones blog, it made me think. And I see that I am more well read than I had thought. I won’t tag anyone, but would encourage you all to give some thought to what you read. My personal reading habits of late have been either purely academic, or pure trash fiction. I am glad to realise that it has not always been this way. I have read a surprisingly large number of the books on this list, though I must say that I read most of them many long years ago. Doing this meme has made me realise that I need to take time once in a while to read some valid and new works, toss in a few classics, and get back a bit of where I was before all hell broke loose in my life. I realised that with the exception of the Harry Potter books, and the DaVinci code, most of these books, I read before even thinking about giving birth. My oldest is twelve.
If this has done one thing for me, it has opened my eyes. I am going to make a list of books that I have always wanted to read. I will go through them one by one until I have completed the list. Now I tend to lean toward the classics, and the safe (ie recommended and or loaned from trusted friends) so therefore, To add to my torture/pleasure, I will pick some books that are new and written by people I have either never heard of, or just never bothered to read.
This is going to be a toughie for me, so bear with me through it all. I will include a brief blurb from time to time so y’all will know I am keeping my word. But fer the most patrt I will discuss… My Sock!!!!! (after the meme and first draft book list)
Book Meme!
1. Copy & paste.
2. Bold the ones you’ve read.
3. Add four recent reads to the end.
4. Tag!
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) - J.K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) - J.K. Rowling One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) - J.K. Rowling
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5) - J.K. Rowling
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Book 1) - J.K. Rowling
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) - J.K. Rowling
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender’s Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwanThe Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz ZafonThe Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan KunderaHey
Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
The Nature of Blood - Caryl Phillips
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules -Ed. David SedarisI
Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - Adam Cohen & Elizabeth Taylor

1. Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
   First Man In Rome- Colleen Mccullough ( current Read)
   Alias Grace- Margaret Atwood (current re read)
   The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
   Candide- Voltaire
   Wide Sargasso Sea- Jean Rhys
   
   The great unread list of books, soon to be tackled by Lizzie, draft # 1.
   Angels and Demons_ Dan Brown.

Loved the code, have been waiting to read this one.

Frankenstein_Mary Shelley

Read it in High School, but feel the need to do it again. I enjoyed it then, and enjoyed the movie as well. Maybe I will treat myself and the kids to movie night to celebrate the finishing of this book.

1. The Illiad and the Odyssy_ Homer

I have read bits and pieces and am familiar with the works, but have never set out to read em cover to cover. S’bout time I did.

Several biographies.don’t know the names of most of the works, but will list the people I am interested in

• Peter the Great of Russia


• Anne Boleyn


• Marie Curie


• Donald Sutherland( what can I say Canadian, wicked good actor, hottie)


• Pierre Elliot Trudeau_ My political hero


• Frank McKenna_ Kind of a political dynamo, here in this neck of the woods. And a wicked businessman. Nuff’ said.


• Andy Warhol


• Robert Roschenburg


• Keith Haring


• Jackson Pollack


• Paul McCartney

Of Mice and Men

Angela’s Ashes

Art Of War_ Sun Tsu

Of course this list will morph into others as my sock project grows. I will be hiting the library for fodder soon after I finish my American History paper.
Have a good one, Thanks for readfin
Lizzie

More Inner Journey, and Some Sock Talk

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."-Peter Marshall

Yup, still doing the soul searching. It is funny this looking inside oneself. For the most part I am liking what I see.  I am proud of where I am and what I have accomplished in the last five years. I have won a few battles and lost a few battles, but the war ain’t over yet.

We all have people in our life that enter and exit, but never really leave. They are no less important to us for their brief encounters in our lives. In fact they may very well be the ones who have the most profound effects on our being. They are the ones who show up when you least expect them. Their moments are not always long (or pleasant) but are certainly never meaningless. They may even be the ones you seek out when you want the gut wrenching truth. No matter how hard it is to swallow, you know they will hold up that mirror and make you acknowledge what you see. I am blessed to have this. In the past few weeks I have been touched by three of these people who matter, each in their own way have helped in my journey, becoming an integral part of my processing. It feels good.


Sure I have made my share of mistakes, and will probably continue to do so while I stumble on down this crazy path. I am thinking of taking up knitting a sock for the journey. I just need a simple recipe and the where withal to cast the bugger on. I am going to take a page out of jackie’s book and dye me own yarns I have some crazy pink lemieux wool from the good old days that might make a lovely overdying experiment…
If I don’t screw up the first one too badly I may even make the second one. Don’t hold your breath though, I am not big on committing to a matched pair of anything.



But first I really must read a crapload of European history for my final on Monday.
And then it is on to ancient Greece for Wednesday.

I suspect sleep will elude me yet again…. Aah those crazy Brits, not to mention good old King Louis (and there were a couple of those to deal with…)