On Sunday I went to a different fabric store to look at the selection of blue-patterned fabric. Last time I went to Dressew because it’s right by my work, and I liked the fabric I selected but I didn’t love it. So I went to Fabricland on Sunday morning and found a gorgeous blue fabric with flowerpots and swirls. I did want a more ‘damask‘ look… the first fabric was more paisley-ish… and this is more floral. The damask prints I did find would be too big for a 16″ square pillow. I liked both patterns I chose, but this second fabric is darker and richer, which I like more.

Tonight I spent some time measuring, cutting, ironing, pinning, and sewing. Take a look at the finished product!

The pillow cases are an “envelope” style so no zippers (which I totally fail at)! The pattern/instructions are from Sew Subversive: Down & Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista by The Stitch Lounge (Melissa Rannels, Melissa Alvarado, and Hope Meng).

I’ve been in an online sewing class and I picked up some of the recommended tools. My favourite so far is the corner-pokey tool to make sharp, pointy corners.

This weekend I glumly showed my tangled yarn ball to CW (since I’d explained the situation to him). And guess what! He offered to untangle it! Yaay! It’s all happily balled up now and ready to ponder what pattern it should be knit into. I’m definitely thinking shawl… maybe Simple Things or Bakersfield. Wishful thinking is the Traveling Woman Shawl. I think it’s beyond my skill level at this point.

Also, I plunged back into my shawl at Knitting Night yesterday. I’d guestimate I’m about one third done the pattern (Argante).

I think I’ve gotten over the apparent ‘loss’ of my crafty mojo. In fact, it may never have been lost in the first place… I think I just felt discouraged by the yarn tangle and the fabric miscalculation. Anyway, I’ve even started to look at sewing projects and tutorials online as well as sewing books from the library… so I’m feeling very inspired.

I’ve made substantial progress on my shawl! I am quite impressed with Argante and may even knit Gaenor. It would look quite gorgeous with my new Unwind Yarns. Unfortunately, today I have totally lost my crafty mojo. It’s not the inspiration, it’s the actual talent. So now I am avoiding my shawl for fear of killing it. I tried to wind two skeins of yarn today and look what happened to the second:

That’s my poor Unwind Yarns skein of lovelyness. *sigh* I may have to bring it to knitting night on Monday to get some assistance. I really need to figure out how to use my swift properly. It just keeps flying off the ends and getting tangled.

So instead, I decided to sew my new pillow cases… and I realized I hadn’t pre-washed my fabric. So first of all I had to do a load of laundry to pre-shrink my fabric. Look at this lovely fabric I bought:

Unfortunately, as I was trying to figure the second step (and thinking that the fabric looked too square and not rectangular)… I realized that I miscalculated my yardage and didn’t buy enough at Dressew. *sigh*

Now my apartment is a disaster, covered in fabric scraps, yarn bits, and chunks of chewed paper (from the bunny). I quit the living room and went to the kitchen to make pasta salad. Fortunately that turned out well and it was quite tasty.

I finished the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy in three days, about the same length of time it took me to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Read: Review for book one of the series, The Hunger Games
Read: Review for book two of the series, Catching Fire

I thought it was strong, powerful and a great end to the trilogy. I do have some more specific comments though, so SPOILERS BEHIND THE CUT!

Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Whiskers on Wednesday!

This weekend was the 11th Annual Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival from August 19-21. I don’t think I’d ever been to Gibsons before. The town is technically on the main mass of British Columbia, but is considered the Sunshine Coast. The quickest way to get to Gibsons is by ferry, and the crossing is only 40 minutes.

Chelle and I planned to get the noon ferry, but missed it by about 10-15 minutes. But that was okay, it gave us time to park the car, grab some coffee, get our tickets, and wander around a bit. We got the 1:35pm ferry and got into Langdale Ferry Terminal in good time and caught the bus to the high school where the merchant mall was.

Sunshine Coast — photo taken upon arrival at Langdale Ferry Terminal

The Gibsons Fibre Fest offered classes on Thursday and Friday, the merchant mall and juried exhibit was open all three days, and on the Saturday there were festivities in the Landing. Also, the term ‘fibre arts’ is very inclusive: knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, dying, sewing, quilting… the festival has it all. We were going mainly for the merchant mall, and Chelle had quite the score. She got some Bombax Silk from Hummingbird Fibre Arts. I nearly fell down over all the Malabrigo at Unwind Knit & Fibre Lounge (Gibsons’ new local yarn store).

Hummingbird Fibre Arts

One of the Festival Directors taking a photo at Unwind Yarns' booth

Had there been other festivities on the Friday, I think we would have gone earlier to wander around… but you always forget travel time. I’m a bit young to remember The Beachcombers (TV show) but it’s what Gibsons Landing is famous for — Molly’s Reach and the Persephone are both in the Landing. We ended up catching the 5:30pm ferry home with a few of the other knitters and fibre artists we knew.

On the ferry home from Gibsons (from left to right: Shannon of Unwind Yarns, Siobhan, Petra, Viki, and Chelle. Faye is visible on the floor at Chelle's feet.)

So what did I buy you ask? I bought a lovely skein of 100% merino wool at Shannon’s booth, Unwind Yarns — Throwing Sheep Into Rainbows. I’m thinking it will become a shawl (similar to the one being photographed above). The second photo is very true to colour; the colourway is called Splotch. I also picked up some beads for earrings.

Unfortunately, the board of directors has announced that the 2011 Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival is cancelled. Many assume it’s due to the arts funding cuts in the province, but there are several reasons which the board outlined in a press release. Hopefully some Gibsons residents will step up and resurrect the festival in a couple years. Even though this was my first year attending, I am hoping it will just be a small hiatus.