Stitch Rabbit

The Dye Shop ( a work in progress )

 

 

It ain't pretty, but it's workable.

 

I've moved into the shop in our backyard. I couldn't wait till the interior walls were done. Also, the dye pots and plants and mordants were taking over my kitchen, and staining the walls and floors. So, I moved in early!

 

There's still a lot to do to make the space workable as well as (ahem) pretty. And there's a lot of room and possibility for more. This concrete sink came up from the basement and will one day house an indigo vat.

In the meantime, I've been clamping and dipping and playing with cottons and linens. I'm pretty happy with my new space. Can't wait to spend the summer with the shop doors wide open and my hands covered in color.

 

A Steady Constant.

 

It seems to me that there are not often times in my life when things stop, for even a moment. And there are times when I cannot find a room in my house where there is not something perched on a table or shelf or armchair waiting for me to return to.

And I like it that way. Idle hands I have not.

 Frankie's long-awaited quilt will be finished in time for her birthday. I am only a few stitches away from the hand-quilting being finished before I bind it for her seventh year. I can't believe she's about to be another year from the moment I laid eyes on her.

 A growing collection of buckets and pails of dye and yarn and linen and cotton are finding their way to the shop outside, recently emptied and ready to become my garden and dye studio. Scrap and salvaged wood is collecting as well, ready to become the interior walls of the shop. I can't hardly wait to have such a great space for all the mess and glory.

The garden grows and grows, and so do the trays of seedlings in all the windows. Perhaps it's time to build a greenhouse.

It seems that every space available there is something going on. It is spring. It is change, it is growth. It is making and creating. It is doing. It's how I like it.

It is a steady constant, and it is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While We Were Away

 

 

While we were away I got some serious work done on my knitting. A trip away from all the other work aroud the studio and yard gave me some good dedicated time to knitting projects and the last quarter of Book Three of Game of Thrones. (hooked, but it's an exhausting read, and often the last on my to do list)

 

While we were away it seems the garden was busying itself as well. I love going away for a few days and upon returning finding tiny surprises everywhere. After a good few days of a real sunny blast of weather, I came home with the kids today to discover a multitude of true spring miracles. It doesn't cease to amaze me every spring, that while I'm not looking the earth sprouts new life for yet another year.

 

Outside, the welcome of spring warmth had done it's job in coaxing tiny sprouts out of the ground. I had been worrying over my sugar peas drowning in the rain, but today they were here, and I was so pleased I dropped our bags at the door and grabbed a pack of seeds and planted another row.

 

Trillium! I love these little white tri-petal beauties, a precious little flower that never stays long enough.

The raspberries survived a transplant, and the peonies as well. Soon enough we will have hearty vines and big red blossoms.

Inside the house a few more discoveries lay in waiting. A skein of cotton that had been soaking in a dye bath, and a yard of cotton I had dip-dyed and left to dry. Both greys were made with cutch and iron and the yellow with turmeric.

 

The indoor seedlings survived and really took off while I was away. Pumpkins, squash, tomatoes and broccoli, as well as a few herbs and dye plants.

 

And of course the long-awaited arrival of the pepper plants.

 We also brought home our own signs of spring... pussy willows from the top of Myra Canyon, picked in the bright sun with snow under our feet.

Patterns and Color and Taking Breaks

 

I'm trying to get out more, be more social. It's hard for me, when I've got so much going on at home and in the studio that I'm happy and excited about, but I am also recognizing in myself how isolated I can become - even when it's for something I love to do.

 

 

When you have these tiny kids and you are choosing to be at home with them, you are also making this choice that your daily life contains a very tiny group of human beings in comparison to the rest of the world. I remember days when I felt like the only mother alive with two kids and a dirty kitchen and a pile of clothes I never got to wear anymore because the stay-at-home uniform was jeans, gumboots and an apron.

 

 

For me, knitting and sewing came as a need for sanity, a need to be doing something other than hanging diapers on a line and cleaning up sparkle glue. I started to get creative with the small pieces of time I could get to myself and it gave me a huge sense of satisfaction, that I was contributing in some way that felt artistic... it was like I was contributing to myself. 

 

 

And now with kids bigger and busier and more independent.. I find more time to do the things I love, the anticipation of thinking about how I want to do something, or how this might look cool motivates me to get downstairs and work on these things...

 

 

 

And I get lost in it in such a fantastic way. Quilting and dyeing and knitting gives me this stuff to think about, to use my brain and work things out and discover - and LEARN, constantly. Getting busy with materials has saved me from boredom and given me a lot to think about.

 

 

 I'm on this edge of seeing another side to things, finding patterns and colors in different ways and different places than I'd expected to. And that's exciting. But like everything, like someone who works too much or overloads themselves with classes and homework or simply doesn't ever come up for air, I too have to remember to balance my act. Get out. Like out of the backyard and into conversations with people. See my friends and go to shows and do different things. I'm proud of the work that I do, but I need to remind myself to put down the work sometimes, it will be there when I get back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seasons.

 

The ever-changing kitchen table, often loaded with books and glasses, glitter and yarn, clay and colored pencils. Sometimes seating one, or four, or friends. Only a few years in our home, the stories that have been told around it, the laughter, the looks that have been shared across it. It's the centerpiece to our daily life, the meeting place, the conversation starter, the meal-sharer. It's just a table, some strips of wood and some legs, but it was made with love for our family to sit around and grow around as the seasons pass us by.

 

fall.

 

winter.

 

spring.

To Hibernate.

 

Waking up to a frost covered world is about as wintery as it can get in Vancouver. While I have big dreams for a cozy, snowy mountain town, for the meantime I will take what I can get.

 

The sun came pouring through our windows on this unusually cold day, but for the morning and a good part of the afternoon, we somewhat ignored it. We can be very much like bears. We're outdoor enthusiasts, yes... major nature lovers, and our favorite seasons for outdoor fun is the fall and winter. But I can hibernate with the best of them. I like a slow morning, with window staring and coffee steaming, the kids playing on the living room floor. Knitting a few rows and eating toast and jam. The kids like those days too. They pull out the art books and the art supplies and before breakfast is even made the table is covered in glitter and glue and paint.

 

I relish these days. I know they wont last... they are already dwindling. The rude awakening of the weekday alarm, the commute to school and classes and activities.. our family is getting busier in a different way then we used to. It's still good - but it used to be more about piling us all into the van and into the woods rather than into our routine. I think I need to get that back in someway...

 

Or maybe my nostalgia has blurred the memory of a different kind of yesterday. That feeling of never leaving the house and feeling trapped and un-showered and under-socialized. The mornings when there wasn't any coffee left and I dreaded packing up smaller, less-independent babies. Days when the floor was covered in glitter and glue and paint - and that wasn't entirely idyllic.

 

Or maybe my memory is a mix of the two, and really, I just had one of those extremely grateful days in which I could look out at the cold crisp day and choose happily not to go anywhere, coffee mug full and a feeling of enjoying this hibernation, if only just for today.

Almost There.

I am a few rows of decreases away from finishing my holiday "elfing"... and I'm exhausted. 

I love making our gifts, I love making things for other people... I love the time that goes into it, I love the reflections and thoughts that come up about the people you are making things for. I love the handmade. I'm very lucky to be able to spend the time, to have the time to craft and sew and knit for my family and friends. I started really crafting and making when I first began my "at home life" with wee babies. It gave me something productive to do while spending so much time at home. Now I can't imagine living without making things. I truly treasure these years that I get to be at home with my kids doing the things that I love.

 

 

Holidays in Our Home

I'm so grateful for the time I get to spend in December doing what I love the most. It's been an especially moving and thankful year for me...

Spending time in the woods with my family, and finding the most beautiful tree we had ever seen, wrapping it in lights and ornaments and staring at it from our cozy spot on the couch.

Spending time in the studio making things for the little ones in my life.

Spending mornings knitting. Well, mornings and afternoons. And nights. Nights too.

Putting down the knitting sticks to spend evenings with paper and crafts and beer.

Routinely locking myself in the bathroom at the end of the night with a cold beer and the most amazing goodies from Penny Frances Potions.

Now if only the snow would come...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Kitchen Table

From one end to the other...

 

Choosing buttons for Frankie's french cardigan.

 

Freehand stitching winter goodies.

 

Growing a triangle scarf.

 

Loving winter evenings.

 

 

 

The Beginning of Winter on The Inside

It may be dark and dreary and not even a little bit snowy outside, but you'd start to think that winter was here already inside our house.

A little bit early this year - and I have only pulled out a few winter decorations, I swear.. but I just couldn't wait to get festive in here. We were away last Christmas in sunny Florida, which is a long, long ways away from the winters of Oh, Canada... I wasn't complaining while lying on the beaches watching the kids play in the waves, but I did really, really miss the spirit of the Canadian Christmas last year.

With a few little winter reminders around the house, the pile of yarn and fabric and embroidery hoops and empty canning jars is next on my list. Tis the season for the handmade.

It's time to get making...

 

 

Keeping It All Together

I spent a good day organizing my knitting and sewing notions and materials and I wanted to show you a few things that keep me organized so I spend less time looking for scissors and more time click-clacking the sticks.

 

My studio is downstairs, in the one sort of finished room in our unfinished basement. It's where I sew and keep all my sewing and crafting materials. It's also where I store the majority of my yarn stash.

But I don't knit downstairs. I knit upstairs in our life, in my bed, on the couch, in the yard, in the car, at Frankie's school... knitting is part of the every single day.

So most of my knitting and notions are upstairs. And it can get a little yarn-crazy. The kids know Rule Number One is don't touch Mama's knitting. I keep it stashed in baskets all over the house. I like orphaned wire ones the best, I find them often...

 

Some baskets are knit themselves. I have a tutorial like this one that I made, or if you really screw up a hat in a heavier yarn and it's too big, just turn it over and stuff it with some things. Works like a charm!

 

I keep my most-used needles together with this really awesome needle case I made a few years back and store the rest in jars. I also use the amazing Addi Click circular needle set and I love, love the interchangeable needles. Projects get put into individual baskets around the house to keep them separate from each other.

 

Notions!! I keep all my notions like stitch markers, pins, darning needles, scissors and everything else you could possibly need for knitting stashed in a couple of zippered bags and usually tucked in one of my knitting baskets.

 

 

Probably my favorite wire basket of yarn is the yet-to-be basket.. the inspiration... the most recent "lost yarn that I found and brought home" basket. If it doesn't get used for a must-make-right-away-because-this-yarn-is-so-nice project it goes downstairs to the (ahem) bigger stash for when I need a specific yarn for a pattern I fall in love with.

I get the feeling I'm sounding a little crazy...

Anything else I buy and love but don't have a use for yet usually ends up on display somewhere in the house... like these buttons I picked up last week... as long as they are out in plain sight they keep me thinking on the perfect project to use them for.

 

Coming Home.

I'm a very lucky lady.

I had the luck and the loving support of my family to take a trip out east this last week to be at a friend's wedding. It was a chance for me to see friends I hadn't seen in five and ten years, a chance to witness two people I adore get married, get my arm marathon-tattooed in to the wee hours by my dear friend in Toronto, stay up late, eat whenever I wanted to, stay in hotels, travel alone, knit and read uninterrupted, do some actual writing (!!)  and generally get a good healthy dose of freedom and independence... something that doesn't come around too often when you are a parent of young children. It was a weekend of total indulgence, many hugs and tears, and a whole lot of love.

Getting the chance to get away and solo trip is something I would encourage any parent to do. That independence that comes along with choosing what you want to do and when you want to is something that we forget about when our lives are almost always about taking care of the needs of one, two, three or more lovelies in our lives. I cherish the moments that I can sit and knit or talk uninterrupted over a table with friends. And knowing that my three favorite people are back home doing a fantastic job of getting along without me, having fun and (somewhat) keeping the house in one piece gives me the confidence that I can go out and be my own person feeling loved and supported and encouraged by the ones who need me the most. I feel fantastic.

 

When I left the sun was shining and we were picking pumpkins in our tshirts... funny what five days in fall can do... the colors are truly autumn now that I'm back:

While I was away Gabe made me this awesome new coffee shelf over our espresso cabinet:

 

The kitchen table is still in the living room from Thanksgiving, but we kind of like it there:

 

My home feels cozy and ready for winter. Best of all, I'm home with my family...

Who make the best part of going away the part when you come home.

 

Thankful For Mornings Like These...

When the crafts come out before there's even breakfast...

 

When the littlest one is captivated and quiet...

 

When little bits of fall are in every corner...

 

And an idea takes flight...

 

 

Good Morning.

Outdoor Kitchens

I took a cue from a friend who did the same thing this year when the weather go good. I hauled the old play kitchen out from their room, where it sat ignored and dusty and outgrown... and I hauled it into their tree house.

Since they spend almost every waking moment in that tree house I thought I ought to give them something more to do out there.

It was like reinvention.

I haven't seen them make so much coffee and pie in ages. They've even been doing the dishes. If only they'd do the ones inside.