1920s Sheath July 27, 2009

I just finished this costume yesterday.  It’s for one of our hotel staff.  The black and orange swirled fabric is 100% rayon (which was a popular fabric in the 1920, known as man-made silk), and the solid orange is a cotton/silk blend.  I used glass beads at the neck edge, and hand stitched the asymmetrical and slightly handkerchief-y hem.

And the bias-cut viscose slip for underneath.

Sorry the photos are so bad, my camera and I were having problems finding decent lighting.  I tried outside but it was way too windy.

Apparently Time Means Nothing To Me July 25, 2009

So, I was wrong in my previous post; I’ve been fond of Mother Mother since January 2007, right before Touch Up came out in February 2007, and I didn’t see them last summer at the Velvet Underground, I saw them in the summer of 2007. That’s the thing with my memory, it all blurs into one.

My apologies.

And I Watch it Try Befriending Embers* July 24, 2009

Mother Mother were in town last night and I got to see them!  They opened for Our Lady Peace at EdFest (but I didn’t stick around for OLP).

My friend thought it wasn’t their best show, having seen them play at better and more intimate venues, but I reasoned that it’s difficult to play such an event where 90% of the crowd is just waiting for the headliners.  Besides, I highly enjoyed it and danced my tailbone off (as best I could considering how many people were in my bubble); maybe my friend was just dismayed by the inattentive crowd (though there were many of us fans dotting the audience).

Then, I got to get their autographs (Ack!).

And a pic of them.

Sigh.  They’re still the prettiest band ever, and now I’ve discovered that they’re nice too, which is great; so often I’ve met or run into someone of notoriety whom I’ve adored and upon meeting them my infatuation was tarnished, but not with these guys and gals!

Edit:  I realised that I consistently only pay attention to the prettiness of this band on my blog, and don’t actually discuss why I love their music, and the truth of the matter is, I loved the band before I saw them live last summer.  So here it is: the vocalists sing with fantastic harmonies, the drummer has that rare skill of drumming in tempo and throwing in out of tempo beats (as I’ve noticed in Tool, so he is godlike now too), the bassist is great at the bass but also plays the saxophone (and apparently the clarinet), the female vocalists also accompany with keyboards, and the lead singer plays a wicked guitar.  And then there are the clever lyrics and fantastic writing of which I cannot even begin to acclaim because I can’t organise my thoughts on the greatness, and the eclectic styles within the albums; you get some fairly modern-pop sounds that suddenly merge into ’30s jazz…my goodness I can’t explain the joy.  I first heard of them in January or February 2008 when “Train of Thought” played on the CBC Radio 3 podcast and knew I had to buy their Touch Up album when it came out.  And now with O My Heart, they’re just knocking me out. 

Also, last night, they played some new stuff, as they did last summer when I saw them at the now defunct Velvet Underground (that space changes names almost as often as I change my underwear…I do speak with hyperbole), and I have to give them kudos for working so dang hard!  This is not an idle band, and I love them.

*Lyric from title track  “O My Heart” by Mother Mother

Guess Where I’ll Be in September July 23, 2009

9.

Have I mentioned before that I love Timur Bekmambetov?

Photos From the Last Little While July 22, 2009

Polyphemus Moth:

Storm Clouds just off Whyte Avenue on Saturday Night:

Construction of the new Art Gallery of Alberta:

Photos July 11, 2009

Here are some photos I took today and doctored a wee bit with Picnik.

Aeolian Shoulderette in Progress:

Lace Ribbon Scarf:

Dragonfly (that thing was HUGE!):

$114 Bike Ride July 11, 2009

So, today as I biked to work for only the second time this year, I was pondering that this is probably only the fourth time that I’ve biked to work since getting Stella (I can’t remember if I took her three times last year or two…so I’m going with two).  So if you consider that I spent about $800 on her including accessories (helmet and side-saddle bag), this would be the 7th time I used her, so it’s about $114 for this ride.  But I console myself that tonight will take my rides down to$100.  However, if you speculate the value of riding past the multi-million dollar homes that skirt the river valley, and then that I bike through that valley which makes those homes worth so much, one may consider that worth it.  Although, I think to really make it a valuable trip, I should get a fishing pole and a fish basket so I can utilise the river too…

I’m hoping it doesn’t rain on Monday so my morning ride would be $88.88 and my evening ride $80.  I can’t bike to work tomorrow as I’ll be leaving mid-day to head over to the Muttart Conservatory to help celebrate its reopening after it had some pretty extensive remodeling done to it.  I’m taking my spinning wheel and various plant fibres to show that plants aren’t just for eating or smelling or looking at.  I’m probably also going to bring my Level 1 dye book to show that they can be used as dyeing materials as well, and a friend and fellow spinner may be joining me as well, which will be really nice.  Hopefully I’ll get an opportunity to wander around and take some photos while I’m there!

Dyeing to do This July 5, 2009

Last week I attended Level 4 of the Olds College Master Spinner Program.  I heart yarn school!  It’s so awesome to meet other fibre addicts from all walks of life and to inspire and be inspired.  It was a busy but fulfilling time.

Here are my samples of the yarns we dyed with acid dyes as a group.  We all had to provide yarns (which we preferably spun) of a certain length and amount of skeins for each project.  We dyed our skeins in plastic baggies so that we could use one dye-pot and didn’t have to continue to reheat!  So efficient!  My skeins were 2-ply of one mohair singles with one Wensleydale wool singles, and the dyes we used were primary colours and it was the way we mixed them that created the varied colours.

Colour Wheel.  We were divided into 4 groups for this one, and we were each assigned 3 colours.  My group’s colours were blue, blue green and green:

Percentage Dyes.  Two groups for this one.  My group was in charge of green.  Percentage pertained to amount of dye per weight of fibre.  From left to right for each dye we did 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1%:

Ombre Dyeing.  This is where the skeins are all put in the same dye bath but were removed after certain lengths of time to create variations in saturation.  From bottom to top, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 30 minutes.  We may have to redo this one however as the gradiants were too slight:

Injection Dyeing.  The top skein had been wound really tightly and folded on itself to create a snug spiral which I wound my syringes of dye around.  I wound the bottom skein around my thumb to create a tight little center pull ball, and then I gently injected dyes around the outside.  When I unwound the ball to return to skein form, I was delighted to find that the inside barely received any dye while the outside looked like confetti:

I didn’t get a lot of pictures while at Fibre Week because my camera spasmed and said I had an E18.  So yesterday, after looking around the internet and then calling the jerkface guy at my former favourite camera shop who told me I should just get a new one no matter how I felt about my lens, I tried taking it apart but couldn’t get one screw out, whacked it a couple times on my ironing table, returned the screws, batteries and memory card to their rightful positions, turned it on and it worked again!  E18 in Canon cameras means that the lens has either gotten something in its gears or it’s dislodged somehow.  I love how sometimes all you need to fix something is give it a good whack!