Weaving and Felting

I wove two scarves (one for me and one for Andrew) for my latest weaving project. The project involved loosely weaving the scarves and then hand-felting them after they came off the loom. They are both wool and as they were worked with soap, hot water and friction, they shrunk, becoming softer and thicker. Here they are on the loom, pre-felted and then finished, around our lovely necks!

First Silkscreen Project

This is a series I created for my first silkscreen project. I was very much inspired by my children's literature class. I was thinking about the importance of reading and education, of discovery and imagination.

Rain City

It has absolutely poured for days here in Vancouver, but it is warm and sunny in the cockles of my heart thanks to the Red Sox victory yesterday evening. Andrew and I will now be spending even more money on beer and greasy food as we cruse the neighborhood pubs in search of places to watch what is sure to be a very exciting series. Being a Red Sox fan in Vancouver is a lonely pursuit. There were three of us in the pub last night: Andrew and me and our friend Steve Moss. We want all you Bostonians out there to know that we will stay strong!





Here are some pictures taken on a recent trip to Granville Island (it is not really an island, for those of you who haven't visited us yet, it is mostly surrounded by water in a tiny, peninsula-like fashion). Granville Island is a haven for artists and crafts-people and one of my very favorite places in the city. That cozy little shop on the right in the picture above is The Silk Weaving Studio. It is full of silk yarns and looms and I love it. In addition to silk, the other purchases of the day were sausages stationary and apples!

GO RED SOX!!!***pleeeeeease??!!!!***

Even though we don't have a TV and no one we know has a TV; even though when we try to watch a Red Sox game at a pub here in Vancouver, they will often change the channel to a hockey game (hockey??!!), our hearts are in Boston these days. I can imagine quite a number of my loved ones glued to their TV's and radios, desperately hoping for a comeback. So, if any of the Red Sox read my blog, take a good look at this picture. You guys do NOT want to to disappoint your youngest and most adorable fan.

Happy (belated) Canadian Thanksgiving

I don't know if you folks south of the 49th parallel were aware, but Monday we Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving. Our friend Aaron Bandstra's parents invited us to their home for a full-on turkey dinner.



I made some Milana Thistlethwaite-style Brussels sprouts. In my opinion this is the only way to cook Brussels sprouts: cut sprouts in half, saute in olive oil, combine with toasted pine nuts, yum.





Andrew made a sweet potato dish, featuring large amounts of butter and brown sugar, double yum!





Noah, our godson, slept through dinner...



but was awake for dessert!




I am so very thankful for my sister, who was able to come up to Vancouver from Seattle. I am also thankful for little Dutch chocolate sprinkles for sprinkling on my buttered toast!

New Weaving

Here is my first completed weaving project from this term, called Moon and Bamboo. It all started here.
I was working with the following techniques: transparency- a loose, delicate weave structure; inlay- weaving different coloured weft in a decorative way into the weave structure (the circle and circle within the circle); and painted warp- the green vertical shapes were stenciled onto the warp before weaving.
Phew! It's nice to be done.