This Month's Words; Or, Here's My March Wrap Up

So today brings an official end to my Post-A-Day challenge for March.
I did it! Hoorah!
(though I quibble within myself as to whether or not I've cheated by making this last post simply a "yeah! I done it!" celebration....)

The image above is from Wordle - a cool little tool to make an artistic layout of your bloggy word usage. I'm happy to see so many of these words painting a positive picture!

Hope you all had a great March. It's a grey, rainy day out - heralding the upcoming season. I've always been a fan of the rain, and now it turns my mind to that wee garden plot that's mine! all mine! oh so very soon :)
All the various and sundry tidbits you've seen me post about this month, I'll keep you updated on them. I have ambitious plans for this year! There's a surprise or two in store.
I'll share real soon. I swears.

For now, here's what my Thursday brings:

-a regret that I've left my umbrella at home! (and it's a really cool one, linky here)
-watching a new set of BBC loveliness, Victorian Kitchen Garden. It's way retro, and so very neato.
-continuing my obsession with and additions to Pinterest. So many beautiful things and innovative ideas, so little time! (thanks to all those helpful readers who pointed me in the direction of this site!)

How about you?

Oiseau Wednesday

Maybe I can start a new feature on Cuteoverload - Canaries n' Racks?¹

Again, Hilts is not happy.

And of course, no canaries were harmed in the making of this post. Just pissed off, and confused.



¹If you're not aware of the reference, there's Cats n' Racks on Cuteoverload.

I Plot my Plot; Or, Wheeee! I Get to Garden!

There's a sordid past of plant murder on this blog.

As has been my claim, it's not me! It's my north-facing balcony.

So, with little hope of acceptance, I joined the süber long waiting list for my community garden last autumn. Hundreds of names were ahead of me.

*le sigh, methoughts, I suppose I just wasn't meant to plant and tend and harvest.

But lo!

At the beginning of March I got a joyous email, approving me for a plot this year. Huzzah!

Much of March has been devoted to me cramming as much as I can into my brain about gardening. I've picked brains, read articles and gone a-purchasing.

I bought several types of seeds (vegetable, flower and herb) from this website.

Wish me luck! I want no more herbicide attached to my name!

Egg Painting; Or, How I Need A Steady Hand

Having dug out my long neglected art supplies, the fancy has taken me to not only play with my watercolours (as yesterday's post can witness), but with my acrylics as well.

Here you see two eggs I've been painting today.

With tiny brush in hand I set forth, with grand visions of gorgeously decorated eggs dancing in my head.

The sad reality is that:
1) my acrylic painting skills are severely out of date
2) my hand is just not that steady!

With a bit of practice I hope to do the lovely shelly canvas better justice. For now, the rewards of my afternoon spent painting sit happily, awaiting the next few hours I can devote to their colourful additions.

In the meantime, I'm off to a Jane Austen book club meeting.
(which I suppose you might be able to guess have affected my writing in this post. How I do long to speak well, with the poise, grace and dignified vocabulary of an early 19th century lady!)

Sneak Peek

Here's a quick look at what I've been up to for the past few days.

I hope to have some finished work to show after the weekend.

Apartment Bird Feeder; Not The Place To Be

I'm a burgeoning birder. I thought it would be cool beans to have some of the local cuties fly on over to my balcony and have a bit of a snack from the bird feeder you see pictured. This feeder sits, unloved, unvisited, unfound? attached sadly to my living room window.

The seed is fresh; I live on the 3rd floor; there's certainly no predators (well, except for this human); and yet, no birdies come.

I suspect they're not down with the lack of flight cover, and I guess they might simply not have discovered it yet.

But, I thought I'd ask: anyone else try installing a bird feeder on their apartment balcony? If so, was it visited?

In the meantime I sit and wait, hoping I'll get to see (at the very least!) the prolific local sparrows and chickadees.

Indie Designer Revisited

Designer: Kelly McClure
Blog: Bohoknits
Rav ID: bohoknits
Etsy: Bohoknits
Some Great Designs: bohoknits' Rav designer page
Original Indie Designer Post: August 21, 2009

A very prolific designer, bohoknits has published over twenty new patterns since I profiled her in 2009!
I've included a couple of these new designs, Cockleshells Scarf and Abyss Leg warmers. I couldn't decide which of these two I liked best, so both of them are pictured!

I dig the lovely lacy simplicity of the Cockleshells Scarf (and it's photographed very nicely, too!) And I always love me a good pair of legwarmers, and Abyss are very pretty.

I've shown you these patterns because, firstly, they're lovely and wearable, but also because they're atypical from her most oft designed garment, the hat.

Check out her Rav Designer page for all these interesting and fashionable toppers. And, in some exciting news, bohoknits has told me about the following project:

"I’m currently consulting and designing for a company [Ambler] that is local to my town but sells their hats all over North America!"

Before I go, I'd also like to point out the multi-talent of bohoknits with this incredibly stylish piece of crochet, Titan's Stole. Please check it out, it's very unique and defo cool!

I Heart the BBC

Are you:

-a history nerd? (hehe, an history nerd?)
-looking for something cool to watch?

Then seek no further. I have something for you!

You may or may not have heard of the excellent series Victorian Farm. I watched it, I loved it. See the series, linked here below.

It's a way awesome show that spans a whole year, with archaeologists and historians living on a farm, everything period sourced and appropriate.

But, I've just recently discovered a sequel, Edwardian Farm. Also way cool!

And, for those who are interested in historic medicine, there's also the Victorian Pharmacy.

Oiseau Wednesday

Oh, the things the human will do.

Here is Hilts, enduringly humiliated in a pot-too-small to fly out of.

Cuppa canary, anyone?

*No canaries were harmed in the making of this post. Just really pissed off.

Which Generation and Y?

I was listening to the radio this morning; it was an interview on the CBC with David Foot, a Canadian economist and demographer, famous for his book Boom, Bust and Echo (1996).

The general bent to the discussion was the lamentation of missed milestones for Gen X; that is, the celebration of the first wave of Gen Xers to begin turning 50.
It was noted that no such oversight happened for the Boomers.
And of course, there's more boomers than Xers, etc, etc, etc...

(picture contains Gen Y and the "Greatest"/"Silent" generation. That is, me and me grandma.)

Interesting tid-bit: the passage of power (at least, voting power) won't shift from the Boomers-as-majority to us younger generations until 2014 (as I recall... I did hear this interview in my pre-coffee stage).

My interest was piqued, of course, when they had a wee bit of talk regarding my supposed generation, the Millennials, Echo Generation, or Gen Y (all interchangeable, I believe).

Apparently, we're:
-trusting of authority
-getting married in our late 20s
-able to multi-task (traced to our familiarity with and constant use of technology)
-perceived by some (ahem, Boomers...) as undedicated and lazy. This, so I've heard, is connected to the job market, and the (sad?) reality that it's highly unlikely anymore that a person will keep the same job throughout their working life.
-and yet, were able to get jobs "easily"

I wonder, for all you fellow Gen Y people:
Does any of that make sense? I have to admit I've read conflicting descriptions of our demographic.

I have noticed that I can process information (be that a quick scan through radio stations, channel surfing, sorting through the constant bombardment of images and sounds) much more efficiently than some of my older friends and family.
Perhaps multi-tasking at work?

__________
This is an old (from 1996) but interesting video. Talking about us Gen Y kids, as kids. It's like looking into history.

What be This WIP?

Just a quick WIP photo today. Sadly, my wrist is doing that thing where you're really keen to knit, and then it says "oh no you don't!", and gets all tense and tender on ya. So, I'll be back with an FO pic (hopefully, surely!) soon.

Photo deets: this is some of that purty madelinetosh I had blogged about a few days ago. The knit's coming together pretty well - I can't wait to finish it and show you all!

That Folder of Inspiration

I don't know about you, but I often come across various and sundry ephemera that calls my name and tugs on my creative heartstrings.
These images I tend to collect.

I have a folder (and I've honestly titled it "Inspiration", and it sleeps in my filing cabinet next to my desk).
The mosaic above is a collection of (a very few) of those such images.
It's also a thing or two that lies around my apartment, adding a bit of loveliness to my everyday.

There is also a great number of sketches in this folder. I've spared you all the eye-offending experience that posting most of those images would be. The only one included is that peacock in the bottom row, giving us all a bit of a questioning glance.

Do you have a place where you collect thesesuch images? Carry a sketchbook? I've been thinking that would be a much better approach than grabbing random scraps of paper!

If You Can Turn Your Mind To Summer; Or, Test Knit, Beach Bailado

Pattern: Beach Bailado
Yarn: approximately 350 metres of Butterfly mercerized cotton
Needles: 5mm circs
Gauge: 4 sts/1" in mesh lace pattern
Size: pictured in S/M, but also sized in M/L

This pattern is destined for the Summer edition of Little Seasonals.

The first of two patterns I'm designing for the publication, Beach Bailado is a bikini wrap with simple mesh lace and a subtle ruffled shaped (I based it on my ballet wrap, which is also part of the reason it's named Beach Bailado).

It's a pretty basic knit, which would likely not take you very much time at all (it took me about 2 weeks, but I will admit that I was working on a few things at once!)

If you are interested in test knitting this piece, here are some more details:

-due date: April 30
-you can use any yarn you wish, as long as you can get gauge
-send along your name, Rav ID, email address and size you're interested in knitting (you can reply to this post, Rav message me, or send me an email at canarysanctuary at yahoo dot com)
-I don't mind if you wish to post your progress on your blog or Rav. If you do post, I'd appreciate a link :)
-unfortunately, I can't provide yarn support. But, you will get first crack at this pattern, as well as a cleaned-up and edited final version of the pattern upon publication.

Thanks everyone!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Melinda VerMeer
Blog: melindavermeer.com
Etsy Shop: Painted Toes
Rav ID: gldelx
Some Great Designs: gldelx's Rav Designer Page

I really hope that many of you have already come across gldelx's designs; they all have such great and interesting construction, and are each and all very pretty! She's got a fantastic eye for design; she co-manages a LYS in Portland, Happy Knits, and has architecture design in her professional background (not surprising, I'm sure, once you see the structure she employs in her knits!)

This Indie Designer Profile will be a bit different from usual: I'll point out a few of her pieces, but I have some cool info about the designer herself to share as well!

Here pictured you see her latest design, Under Wraps Cardigan. This piece is versatile. I love the way the model is wearing it, but you can also drape it over your shoulder for a more "wrap" look. Check out the pattern page. Believe it or not, this pattern is only $1.99! How beautiful is it! This is something I could see myself wearing through and through.

Another great knit is her wrap, Nautilina. I love the wavy lines of lace running across this piece.

I usually approach the designers far in advance of publication, and since I first contacted gldelx, she's published the above patterns. I was so happy to see all the great creativity! My original idea was to feature her very cool Chalet Brioche Cowl. Check out that texture!

For some colourwork, have a peek at her Flux Cap, and see Auld Lang Syne Cape for a cute wee free pattern.

Get some more details and links here, at her Knit Picks Designer Page.

And now, for more about this talented designer!

Favourite yarns: "Most all Madelinetosh I’ve encountered - particularly the lighter weight bases like Tosh Merino Light, Pashmina, Tosh Merino DK. Malabrigo Lace, Sock, Silky Merino, Rios and Worsted also are fantastic to work with."

Some favourite designers: "Cat Bordhi is simply amazing with the way she puts things together, Stephen West does a great job of creating really interesting uni-sex designs, I love what Susanna IC has done in creating crescent shaped shawls."

Projects I like to knit: "Sweaters, shawls, hats & occasionally socks (with a readily available supply of sweater quantity yarn now, my sock knitting has vastly decreased)."

Projects I like to design: "Items I think appeal to many people both to knit and wear. Garments that offer sizing options to work with many body shapes/sizes and often include shortrows to add shaping & options for different body shapes to choose from."

Future plans: "In 2011 I plan to add additional lace projects, a felted project, maybe a sock design and possibly a mens garment or two to my design library."

Pretty Gallopavo; Or, I Have My Giant Pom Pom (at last!)

Pattern: Pretty Gallopavo (download now)
Yarn: madelintosh Vintage
Needles: 5mm circs and dpns

As the title implies, I've been hankering for a huge pom-pomed-knit for quite some time now.
Years ago I bought a Giant Pom Pom maker, and have at long last put it to good use. (believe it or not, this is only the second largest size said pom pom maker can produce. It even goes up to 5"!)

The idea for this knit came (mostly) from the lovely yarn. And the title? While gallopavos aren't particularly pretty, they certainly have wonderful plumage!


The madelinetosh Vintage is beautiful for this knit, for all the reasons you would expect tosh to be beautiful. But, I found, upon snipping all those ends for the pom pom, the yarn does this other real cool thing: the inner core is a lighter green than the outer, and seems to almost glow.
I tried to get a good pic of the prettiness... and have failed :(
Enjoy, for those last few cool days we have. The hour's changed, Spring is coming, and I have many more patterns brewing!