On the fast track

The family has been sick this rather grey frosty long weekend, but that meant lots of time to work on these mittens. These are the successors to the now-frogged blue and yellow mitt from the previous post, but from the same book. With the same yarn, on larger needles and a lower stitch count, these are a much better size for me. Of course, now I feel slightly guilty and I will probably start another pair in a flamboyant yellow and royal blue - Ukrainian colours - for one of my children.


I love knitting colorwork. And I love this type of pattern, the kind that comes out looking quite complex but really is not that difficult - there's only two colours, and the pattern is based on stitch counts of 1, 3, and 5 in quite orderly seqeunces. I've finished the thumb gore, so now it's a straight track for a while till I get to the fingertip decreases.

Pattern detail:


I'm glad I got this much done this weekend. Things will slow right down now, as I'm heading back to work and will be having busy evenings as well as days. But I'm glad to have settled into a comfortable pattern that I can easily pick up and work on even just a few rows at a time.


Pattern: Komi mittens #18, from Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens
yarn: Sandgarn Tove
needles: size 1 clover bamboo
more deets at Ravelry 

False start

False start, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

I'm knitting a colorwork mitten for Ravelympics2010. This is mitten #8 from my newly arrived "Mostly Mittens" by Charlene Schurch, containing mittens from the Komi tradition. These are "entered" under the Nordic Colorwork Combined  and Mitten Moguls events.

However, even on size 0 needles this is going to be too big. I thought I could get away with sport weight yarn - it's not that far off the fingering weight that the pattern calls for,  but I really can't. I love this yarn - Sandgarn Tove. I've used it for my all-time favorite mittens, Maimu's mitts, and it just has the right "stick" to hold together and felt slightly during wear. 

I could modify the stitch numbers but as it turns out I hate this colour combination anyway. So I'm ripping it out and starting again with new colours and a different mitten with a lower stitch count.

Guilt-free book list

In a recent discussion with my fellow yogalilans,   a few remarked sadly that they were immersed deep in academia and didn't have time to read fiction.  For a little while, I felt a bit guilty because I wasn't saying the same thing - but, I can't help but read fiction, no matter how busy I am. I need it because there's a point where my academic brain just puts down its toys and refuses to play anymore. Or, because its tying itself up in knots and going nowhere fast - I almost need to read fiction, or draw, or knit, or paint, just to break it out of its unproductive pattern. 

I love talking about books, and am fortunate to be part of a wonderful reading group.  We've been together for nine years - long enough to actually see babies grow to be readers themselves. But I love talking about reading, so if anyone else throws out a few questions, like Tammy recently did at Daisy Yellow - well, I'm all over that!

Questions...

1. What is on your reading list for 2010?  
2. Do you keep track of the books you read? 
3. How many books (fiction + non-fiction) do you read each year?  
4. Has the number of books per year increased or decreased over the last 5 years?  
5. Do you read more than one book at once? 
6. Do you read more fiction or non-fiction? 

I'm slowly working on the books above, except for Quo Vadis.  I had already read an old library copy over the Christmas holidays, but bought a new copy and modern translation for my husband.

Fiction, hard copy:

The Blythes are Quoted, Lucy Maud Montgomery
Whiteoaks of Jalna, Mazo de la Roche
Finch's Fortune, Mazo de la Roche
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
The Outlander, Gillian Anderson

Fiction, on the Kindle:
note - I'm one of those excited Canadians who jumped on this almost as soon as it became available up here. We really only have two choices, this one and Sony. Would I have still bought it after the Amazon/Macmillan debacle? It's likely, given the current lack of players in the Canadian market.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Espresso Tales, Alexander McCall Smith
The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin
Anne of the Island, Lucy Maud Montgomery

Non-fiction:
What it is, Lynda Barry
Yoga for Pain Relief, Kelly McGonigal
Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama

That's a very modest list. But enough for me, and it could well take me into summer.

To answer the rest of Tammy's questions:

2. I sporadically keep a reading journal. I should keep it up. I was trying to explain to someone a while back why I couldn't finish Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl, and had a hard time remembering why. Then I  found my journal, in which I wrote. "...and the idea of the obese, gout-ridden Henry VIII as the love interest was just not doing it for me".  Oh yeah, that's why.

3. I have no idea. I don't always finish what I've started. And as for non-fiction, I almost never read those all the way through - I often use them as references, in which case I read some parts over and over again, and the rest, never.  Also I don't think it counts that I sometimes pick up a well-loved book (eg. Pride and Prejudice) and read bits of it again.

4. Definitely decreased since I went back to university.

5. I'm incapable of reading one book at a time.

6. See #3 :)

Looking back: January Experiments

Looking for inspiration for the Creative Every Day challenge, I turned to some of the experiments suggested by Tammy at Daisy Yellow. As suggested, I noted down the ones I wanted to work on, and kept a list for myself to check off in one of my sketchbooks. From the main list, I chose:

•  Develop a mind map on any topic
•  Play a card or board game with other real people  (on-line doesn't count)
•  Read 1 book just for you, not for school/work
•  Alter a recipe you frequently make
•  Attend a brainstorming group or book club meeting
• Do something creative at a library, book store, cafe or restaurant (i.e. knit, draw, write)
• Write/Update/Make Progress on a 101 Things in 1001 Days List 
• Create one art journal page, from background to journaling 

It actually looks like I did okay managing to cross off a number of items, but in reality, half of them are already regular habits that were fairly easy to continue - reading, going to book club, writing/knitting/drawing while waiting at the library or restaurant. I only had partial success at the ones that were really quite new to me.

It should have been easy to play a real card/board game with my kids, as they often ask to do so, but somehow this one slipped by undone. I also didn't get around to purposely altering a recipe, though I did inadvertently and absentmindedly dump some ketchup instead of chili sauce into the chili. I don't really think that counts and besides it tasted funny.  And although I did the background of an art journal page, it pretty much just stayed a background. On the other hand, there's nothing to stop me from continuing to work on it through February (or March, or....). Also, I enjoyed working on the mind map. I do these once in a while anyway, often when problem solving or preparing to write a paper, and in fact this time around I used it to help start compiling my list of 101 things.

I also found I learned something from the ones I set out to avoid, just by fact of avoiding them:

• Write down a quote and share it with a friend
• Make or update an inspiration board for your home/ studio
• make and send  handmade card
• Gesso a piece of art and start over again

The first three made me realize how reticent I am about sharing anything I do in terms of art and creativity. For instance, I kept trying to visualize myself sharing something inspirational with someone around me - my husband, my lab mate, even one of my girlfriends. Even in my imagination, it still felt like...oversharing. I'm not really sure what that means, but it's something I'll continue to think about for the next while. 

As for the gesso, I still don't really know what that stuff  is! I suppose that leads nicely into one of the February experiments, though: watch an art tutorial on YouTube. That should help.

emerge

emerge, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

This is what home looks like today. I see this train trestle bridge, the longest and highest of its kind in North America  the world nearly every day, but it's hardly ever wrapped in ice fog like this. It's been a strange winter. We're officially semi-desert, but this year the air has been full of ice and hoarfrost.

This is was minimally processed in Lightroom to correct exposure (camera meters seem to HATE fog) and increase contrast - but the colors are pretty true. We are living in a near-monochromatic world these days.

Askew: a little perspective

Askew, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

I have had an urge to practice drawing perspective, something which is always a bit of a struggle for me. I know that "real" art books have you pulling out straight edges and t- squares and identifying the vanishing point and I am sure that it does indeed serve a useful purpose.

But most of my drawing is done in a little notebook balanced on my knee or the car door. I often draw the street and surrounding buildings while waiting for my children to get out of school. But I am not confident enough yet to post any of those awkward, askew, distorted perspective drawings.  Granted, these are not super-favorable conditions for drawing - my hand can't really rest on anything, and I often find the line going this way when I'm trying to make it go that way. But that's where and how I like do draw, on the spot, and having fun with the spontaneous process.

So that's my goal, if I can be said to have one - practice drawing something in perspective each day in February. Hopefully I'll have something postable by March.

two ladies and a wash

I had the urge to practice drawing things in front of me (I don't want to say "real" - things in our imagination are real too, right?) and I've long wanted to draw the pendant on one of my favorite necklaces. I had originally planned to try a pen drawing on top of the acrylic painted background shown earlier, but this time I felt like playing with my watersoluble pencils.

I ended up with two versions, both drawn in the same colours graphitint pencil -chestnut and indigo, with one washed with a bit of plain water, the other left dry. The dry one is more subdued in colour.


It's amazing how much colour shows up when you add water - colour that isn't really even perceptible in they dry version. So much tint came off in my waterbrush that I used it to paint in a bit of shadow, which wasn't actually in the drawn version at all.


I'm not sure which effect I like best, but this encourages me to do more experimentation with these. They're just Derwent Graphitint pencils,  more subtle and earthier in colour than the regular watercolor or Inktense, but equally easy to use. Just a bit more surprising when wet. I should note that they're on different papers - the dry version in an Exacompta sketchbook, the wet in a Canson. But both similar weight, and lightly textured. Aside from the creamier colour of the Exacompta paper, I would expect similar colour shifts to happen to the pencil drawing when wet in both books.

unwinding the right brain

I actually really enjoy labwork. I like the orderly, persnickety process, the troubleshooting, the problem solving, the excitement when you see your efforts pay off at the end of the day. It is, however, exceedingly finicky and mentally taxing. So at the end of this very long and busy week, I very much needed two things - a gin and tonic, and some time with my sketchbook. Therefore,

a G&T fueled watercolour doodle, not quite a mandala, based on odd numbers, for extra random-ness :)
Title is just a play on William Blake's poem. The drawing itself is not particularly fearless (nor fearful either, for that matter).



And now, I apologize in advance to Polish people everywhere. I'm sorry I made your eagle look like a demented rooster sporting pantaloons. I really didn't mean to. It was very late at night, and I picked up my sketchbook after whining on Twitter  that I couldn't sleep.

I did the coin rubbings earlier that day, then attempted to draw one of them. A friend had given me this little Polish coin he found in his pocket, and it was so tiny and worn I could hardly make out what was on it. I rubbed it, in hopes of getting a better view but really it was still hard to see. Then I tried to draw it, which didn't go much better.

And while  I was on a roll with the coin thing, I dug through my drawer and found a few more coins worth rubbing - an Ontario quarter, US half dollar, and another Canadian quarter commemorating wisdom. I'm not a coin collector, but I do tend to squirrel away coins that look interesting to me, and now, I'm more likely to notice interesting designs on them. They're a handy way to look for a little drawing inspiration, sinceyou're very likely to always have them around, unless you've squandered them all on coffee.



And by way of a postscript to last week's post about whether or not  a doodle is done, I did end up coloring the last one with gelly rolls. However I used metallic gellys, and now it looks like an overwrought easter egg that flung itself onto a pile of glitter. I'm not scanning it, but I'm still strangely happy with it: my school/work life is so concerned about doing things exactly right, this is the arena in my life where I'm perfectly fine with things going wildly askew.

I can't help myself!

Why do I love Shakeit so? Because you can lie in bed before the start of the work week and instead of getting precious and much needed sleep, process pictures in a completely unnecessary way.
Thus:





and:





also:





Just because it was fun. And I could.
But really, part of it isn't because it's so easy (though it is). Part of it is that you give up a bit of control. When I use Photoshop Elements or Lightroom, there are almost infinite degrees of adjustment you can make to a photograph. I doubt I use even 5% of what these programs are capable of.  Shakeit - at least the version on my iTouch, gives you one choice - do it, or not. There's an unpredictability to how it crops, and the colour treatment, which looks a bit lomo-ish to me, with the garish colours and blown out highlights, can't be adjusted at all. I understand the version on the iPhone gives you filters and other options, but on the iTouch, it's just the one thing. Shake, take what you get, and upload. Even lying in bed! That's cool.

are we done yet?

When I'm drawing pictures of more-or-less real things, I have a pretty good feel for when it's complete: either the dog looks like a dog, the tree looks like a tree; I've reached the edges of the page or said what I have to say.

This month, I'm playing with shapes and lines and doodles, and I realize I'm never quite sure when I'm done. I'm not quite sure when to stop filling in space, or whether to just let it be white space. I'm not quite sure when to stop adding colour, or to add colour at all. In this hand drawing, I feel like I could add more, but I also like it the way it is.



I had just gotten a new fountain pen and ink, so traced my own hand with the intention of doing another hand mandala. But the blue colour made me think of images of the Hand of Fatima (or Hand of Miriam, or Hamsa) so it started to turn into that. I'm not sure if this is done yet, but am not really sure what else to do.

I used Pilot Iroshikuzu kon-peki, drawn with fountain pen then washed very slightly with waterbrush. I realized right away I wouldn't be able to use watercolors to color it, then also found that Pitt brush pens would also muddy the ink, so I used gel pens for color. I think, in the end, this is as close to finished as I want it to be.

This, on the other hand, seems to be asking for more colour:



But really, I just don't know where to go from here. Like many others, I draw while waiting, and at this point, my son's haircut was finished, I closed the book and left. So I lost momentum, and don't quite know how to resume this. I have some options since this is in Pitt pen and gel pen and would tolerate a neocolor or watercolor wash. I'll probably play with this later this afternoon.



Tammy at Daisy Yellow suggested trying to draw a mandala starting with a linear shape working inward, then outward from the centre till they meet. I still don't know if this is finished, but it occupied time nicely while waiting for my kids at their piano lesson.

Bar at the top doesn't mean anything - I was just trying to get my rapidograph flowing again. But I didn't enjoy the scratchiness, so I pulled out my fountain pen with Noodler's black. That's a great drawing combination except for the tendency to dry slowly on smooth paper, as can be seen on the lower point of the mandala where I rested my hand. Smmmmmmmudge. So I don't feel this is quite done either, and would like to add colour. But I know that the paper in this pocket Habana buckles horribly with watercolor, and that Noodler's black doesn't always stay put, so I think I'll try gel pens again with this one. Or...maybe it's time to try Tammy's suggestion of putting fountain pen ink in a rapidograph? I haven't tried that yet...so off I go to clean out a pen.

Footwork

Footwork, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

Possibly the most ludicrous thing I've done in the name of science.

The lab centrifuge went on the fritz last month right in the midst of an experiment, and in the heat of the moment my supervisor dug out this old beast from the '70s, fired it up, and lo and behold it worked (and saved our bacon). Then last week caretaking polished the floor in the lab, and did such a great job that it now kind of tries to walk around the slippery floor when it reaches full speed. So I was sitting on it to try to keep it in place while centrifuging my samples. Longest 15 minutes of the week, and yes, I tried many different positions to avoid going numb.

Creative with the body? hell, yeah.

Out of the vault

An old - well, not that old - picture from a trip I took to Seattle with my mom and two of my sisters. We were picking up a cousin from the train station, but had plenty of time to kill. It was my first time to Pike's Place Market and I had so much fun - it was like Granville Island on steroids.

I played with this pic early last year. It was one of my earliest attempts at Photoshop Elements, learning how to use layer masks and before the happy times of discovering actions like those so generously provided by Rita of CoffeeShop photography. Then I forgot about it for several months.

My kids started this silly game: running Shakeit on my iTouch, and choosing pictures at random by pressing the touchscreen with it facing away from them. This one wasn't quite random - I kind of cheated, actually. But I liked how it came out.

Handala

Handala, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

inspired by Stephanie's hand mandalas, and along with CED for January's theme, Body. Marker pen (Pitt, Sakura) with fountain pen ink and watercolor.

I really enjoyed working on this; I want to do another one and take it a little further. This time, I just wanted to keep the mandala part small and play with colour.

This was done in my new best friend, the Exacompta Basics sketchbook. I had some small vials of fountain pen ink that I'd gotten as samples from the Pear Tree Pen company, which were handy - I didn't have to worry as much about spillage. I tried a few different ways to put it on - water brush, regular brush, and drawing it in with the pen then wetting it. But in the end the method I liked best was to wet the paper first around the outline, then dip the fine brush point into the ink and apply it  around the black outline. I'd let it bleed a bit over the wet portion of the paper, and sometimes help it along by adding a little more fresh water. The smaller areas in the mandala, were just  painted right onto the dry paper - I didn't want to fool around too much there.

Inks used were J. Herbin Vert Olive, JH Rose Cyclamen, PR Arabian Rose, and then just regular Winsor and Newton watercolours for the yellow.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's many hand mandalas  for more inspiration!

eta: oh no! I just noticed hair on the scanner! it's too late now. maybe I'll rescan it tomorrow. Maybe.

Blues of winter

One of the things I promised myself I'd do this year was try out some techniques I had only read about. Stephanie has written elsewhere about using fountain pen ink for painting, so I gave it a shot. I'd do it again. I like the way the ink dried a bit irregularly, and the colour stayed vivid. I wish the white gel pen I used was more opaque, though.



Again with the experimenting. I've never painted a journal page background before with the intention of drawing or writing over it. But I have quite a bit of acrylic paint lying around from various kid's crafts, so I used some turquoise, gold, and purple glitter.

I had thought to draw something body-like on it, to keep in with the January CED theme, and the necklace I happened to be wearing that day might make a good subject, I was thinking.



And finally I vaguely remembered reading an article about using modge-podge to do photo transfer, and since I was procrastinating anyway, I printed out some of my recent winter photos, slapped some podge on a couple of sheets, and rubbed them as if they were a tattoo. It wasn't exactly a success, but I liked it anyway, and will probably play with this a bit more. I would welcome suggestions as to how to make this work better!

Watercolor and lyrics, from the very Quebecois chanson Mon Pays added after the podge dried.

I'm not Quebecois - but it IS awfully wintery here; the world looks mostly grey, white or blue - but I like blue better.

whole body sock

I'm fixin' to make a sock, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

as I was plying this, I was musing on what I could do for the Creative Every Day challenge theme for January, Body. The obvious thing would be to get back into anatomical drawing - usually my own injuries, or that of someone in my family. But, as I stood in the family room watching LOTR with the kids, rolling the spindle along my leg with one hand, letting the single-ply roll off the improvised nostepinne with the other, and wrapping the plied yarn around my elbow to grab the spindle and roll the yarn onto it, I realized this is a whole-body process.

Skeined and waiting:

At the true turn of the year

The day before school begins feels much more like New Year's eve to me than December 31st, because for me, that's the start of when things need to get done. I've had eleven or twelve delicious days of waking up without the alarm, enjoying my family, not checking my university e-mail account, and gently pushing aside all my thoughts and plans for the next semester. Now, it's time to pull them back out again, and prepare to give them my full attention.

As the school holiday draws to a close, some time around the last day of December I start feeling mournful. I thrive in the company of my children and husband and dog. I know that soon we have our duties and responsibilities to attend to, and I feel reluctant to face that. Then, in the first days of January, my mindset starts to shift. It's not merely duty and responsibility, it's opportunity and challenge. It's purpose and commitment. And as that start to takes hold, I feel ready not just to start school again, but to hit the ground running.

So why be creative every day? Two (among many) reasons. One, my discipline is science, and research. It requires a very left brain, orderly, logical approach to problem solving, leading to the need for some stress relief.  Two, my discipline is science, and research. Without a right brain, intuitive approach, I think there's a risk of getting stuck in dead ends, of losing the context in which the research question lies.  I don't necessarily think that doodling on a piece of paper or knitting a sock will guarantee I'll be a better thinker. But I hope to be a less stressed one, with a more open and exploratory approach to what problems may arise. I believe that science demands creativity.

On a practical level, I sometimes find myself in the middle of the work day unable to string two thoughts, never mind two words together; and since I am too old for the usual student vice of gleeful midday drunkenness (that sure came in handy a couple of decades ago), I can at least relieve some of that with a restless pen, or a walk with a camera.

(picture not really related to post. I just like it. Shakeit is fun)

Shake it, baby!

Okay, just because I'm done with project 365, doesn't mean I'm going to stop taking pictures, particularly not when there's the tail end of the Christmas holidays left to enjoy. I apparantly can't quite let go, and am still lurking at the 365 groups at flickr, especially the Shutter sisters 365. That's where I ran across a terrific picture by brklynphoto processed with shakeit, an iPhone application. I only have an iTouch (I stubbornly refuse to go the smartphone/contract route) but shakeit works on that too. Also, a milestone, my dear husband is picking up the camera these days, yay! Using our old but trusty Canon S2IS, he got a nice pic of a coyote while on today's walk. I love seeing the pictures my kids take, so I hope he keeps it up.

come a long way, 365/365

come a long way, 365/365, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

from the 1st of January.
I'm so glad to be done. I do have some thoughts on completing this project - overall, I'm really glad I did it, and persisted through the slumps. But the rest of my thoughts can wait till the new year - right now, I'm just breathing a sigh of relief - and contentment. Will the first day I don't take a picture feel like a let down, or like liberation? I'm about to find out.
Thursday, Dec 31

Blogs discovered in 2009:

December 7 Blog find of the year. That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year.

I have two that I wish I'd found sooner:
 Kelly McGonigal's Science and Sutras,  exploring the interface between contemporary scientific research and the ancient science of yoga, and Tammy's Daisy Yellow, a creative yet practical guide to expanding art experiences.

Kelly first came to my attention a few years ago through her webpage (which I can no longer find on the web) summarizing yoga research. That page was one of the brightest pebbles I picked up following the rather twisty path to where I am now, and I was astonished and pleased to find out that she was still active on the web through her blog, in addition to writing the newly released Yoga and Pain Relief - which is sitting in my Amazon cart till they stock it, darn them. Though I still have some conflicting thoughts about subjecting yoga to the scrutiny of western scientific research - or maybe because of that conflict, I value the thoughts of an educator like Kelly.

Tammy's blog was also a new find - I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon her - perhaps through Flickr. But as I was struggling to find my comfort zone with drawing tools and paper, her blog did something even better - it helped me move out of that comfort zone.  With practical suggestions on how to kick-start an art journal, ways to practice line control, and tools and equipment to explore, I found myself feeling freer to just take the line for a walk, and let colour find its own way on the page.

I just realized - each blog I chose reflects the needs of both my right and left brain. I'm sure that's not just coincidence.

Best of 2009: learning experience

December 24 Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?

Project 365, a picture a day, every day for 2009.

Before starting this project, I took a lot of pictures anyway, of every day things: my family, my hobbies, things I saw on my walks, road trips, the garden, holidays. Since I was already recording minutiae, it seemed a natural step to take one picture each day over the course of a year, whether or not there was really something special going on that day.
My reasons were two fold: to document a year in the life of my family, and to really learn how to use my camera. Now, only 3 days from completing this project, I am very happy to have accomplished both my objectives.

I don't think I will be doing this in 2010, however. I have missed spending my downtime knitting, spinning or sketching. It will feel strange, that first day that I don't pick up my camera and take a picture. I would like to keep learning, but will perhaps try to focus on particular themes and projects, as does my friend Michele. In fact, if I decide to take on a real photographic challenge next year, it would be something like taking an honest street picture. That would be something.
A brief look back over the year:

1. Sharon's calendar, January 1/365, 2. Our Lady of the Yoga Mat. 16/365, 3. birch, 139/365, 4. Owlet, 140/365, 5. photojojo told me to, 155/365, 6. dejection, 157/365, 7. swinging in the clouds, 188/365, 8. solitary, 190/365, 9. beluga, 197/365, 10. summer pilgrimage, 203/365, 11. Today, raspberries, 207/365, 12. loosestrife and lilies, 209/365, 13. first peppers, 210/365, 14. dragonfly, 220/365, 15. slurp! 221/365, 16. abandoned, 17. where the buffalo roam, 232/365, 18. Wrapt, 236/365, 19. sunburned out, 239/365, 20. ominous, 243/365, 21. Livingstone Range, 249/365, 22. Halt! who dohs there? 256/365, 23. working late, 258/365, 24. Ammena again, 262/365, 25. Equinox, 265/365, 26. holding space, 268/365, 27. run, 28. the precious. Mi-touch!, 273/365, 29. Harvest, 275/365, 30. skeleton bride 303/365, 31. sapphire, 310/365, 32. from what I've tasted of desire, 337/365, 33. damning evidence. 345/365, 34. peppermint bark, 358/365, 35. tracks, 360/365, 36. glass bell, 362/365

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Catching up on Best of 2009, in images

I don't always feel verbal or fully self-disclosing, so here are my pictorial responses to some of Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 prompts:

December 6 Workshop or conference. Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
Winnipeg, Canada, EPOWC, the Exercise Physiologists of Western Canada conference. But I admit that perhaps my favorite part was visiting St. Boniface, the French area of Winnipeg:


December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?
I draw almost every time I'm at mass:


December 21 Project. What did you start this year that you're proud of?
 Stuff I do here:


December 12 New food. You're now in love with Lebanese food and you didn't even know what it was in January of this year.
I discovered I can tolerate small amounts of whipped cream:


December 19 Car ride. What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?
Driving home from camping along the upper Oldman river in the Rockies, at a mere 80 kmh because of a flat tire, and no garages open on Labour Day. It took an awfully long time to get home, but at least the scenery was nice:

ribbon lace scarf, done! 361/365

ribbon lace scarf, done! 361/365, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

my first finished object knit with my spindle-spun laceweight - Veronik Avery's Lace Ribbon Scarf.

I love it, it's so soft and cushy. I don't know whether I want to block this - I love the way it ripples and undulates, unblocked. Man - I have a lot of dog hair on my shirt. There is a lot of dog hair knit into this scarf, for that matter. Sunday, Dec 27.

Knitting notes:
I started spinning the yarn during my summer holidays in Langley in July of 2008, and continued to spin and ply up to about a week ago. I was knit between June and Dec of this year, with this rather sporadic yarn supply.  But I was in no hurry to finish this - it was such a simple, soothing pattern, and so gratifying to feel the handspun running between my fingers, whether it was running thick or thin. It is satisfying to complete any knitting project, but doubly - or even triply- satisfying to complete a project with handspun, particularly laceweight handspun. 

Idle quiet: a non best09 post.

I have clearly not kept up with the best09 challenge, but I have no excuses. That is to say, I don't feel the need to make excuses, but I did come to a realization: I don't like sharing.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the posts I've run across on #best09 or by following Gwen's bookmarks, but the intimacy of the revelations sometimes takes my breath away. I don't think this is wrong; but I quickly realized I'm simply not prepared to follow suit.  I have drafted several posts in the course of this challenge, and in the end, been unwilling to hit the "publish" button. Bloggers who reveal so much of their personal, intimate lives have a certain kind of courage: I don't feel I lack courage per se, but I do lack the inclination for that degree of self-disclosure.

I do think this is an excellent way to reflect, assess, and celebrate, but for the most part, I feel best confining my personal thoughts to my journal, written or drawn, or shared with my spouse and children. I do thank Gwen for making me think, and giving me something to contemplate on, each day.  And perhaps, in the next few slow, restful days, I will catch up in my own way: perhaps, a picture with a minimum of text, because sometimes a picture is my own kind of code, for things I am unwilling to say out loud.

Best place: the coulees of the Oldman River Valley

December 11: The best place. A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?



There are no doubt warmer places, more exotic places, more exciting places; but for me the best place this year and every year are the  coulees of the river valley in my town in southern Alberta, because they're there for me when I need them.  It's no use pining for a beach a thousand miles away or a cafe by a distant bank: I love the coulees because they are so very present, and surrounded by their bleak, bleached, barren shapes, I can't be anywhere else but here, now; nor can I escape the elements, however they choose to present themselves that day: the sun, the wind, the snow, the dust.





They are alien to me, having been born in the tropics and then raised in the lush, temperate Fraser Valley on British Columbia's west coast.  But this week, I was working with a woman who had also moved here from the valley. She said that when she first set eyes on the landscape of southern Alberta, she was literally staggered: physically lost her balance and had to hold on to something to keep from falling to her knees. The wildness, the desolate, stark beauty completely unmoored her. I knew exactly what she meant.



I don't feel unmoored, quite, any longer, now that I've lived here for over twenty years. The coulees are almost literally my back yard. But even with their familiarity, year after year and season after season, they can still leave me awestruck, at the way that they have permeated my  breath and bones, at the way that they can revive me when my spirits are flagging and calm me when my nerves are in tatters.  This year and every year, the best place.

part of Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge

Timeless

December 5 Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

YES! The Vancouver Folk Music Festival has been rocking my world since 1981, though sadly I don't make it out there often, now that I live in Alberta. But when the stars align and I manage to make it out for one day and night with my sisters, it is as joyous and openhearted as I remember from my youth - perhaps more so, shared with my children.



This year, it was particularly special - while standing in line getting my wristband, I noticed the woman in front of me stop and eye me curiously - I was only half-paying attention, as I was doing the usual multi-tasking mom thing: talking to my children, paying for tickets, checking my purse. When at last I looked up, I realized it was my friend Dawn, whom I'd known since grade 3, travelled with through Australia and New Zealand, and whose mother brought me to our first Folk Music Festival years and years ago. We hadn't been in close touch in the last few years, so it was astonishing to suddenly meet up with her at that time and place.  It was wonderfully reminscent and nostalgic to stroll between the tents at Jericho Beach Park, choosing workshops to go to, and even finding iconic folksinger/songwriter Roy Forbes, AKA Bim, as he was known in the 80's.



Later that evening as twilight fell on the main stage, Dawn left early to go home, but my children and I stayed with my sister and their cousin, as the festival magic continued to sparkle in the Vancouver breeze: night ushered in by the Ladies in White.

Best book 2009.

If it weren't for my book club, I'd have very little to choose from for the Best09 prompt for day 4:

December 4:  Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

Since I've gone back to school, I don't read fiction for pleasure as broadly, deeply, or ambitiously as I would like. It's impossible for me not to read:  however it has to be relatively light, not too thinky, and quite often, familiar -  something I won't get so engrossed in I can't put it down because I need to know how it ends. Thus, I find myself picking up and re-reading books by Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Patrick O'Brian, or Dorothy Dunnett. (The latter two can get a bit thinky, but since they're re-reads, I don't mind).  Alternatively, I'll often pick up children or young adult books that my kids read.

I'll only break out of this pattern to read something for my book club. Each member picks a book for the month, and with our diverse tastes, more often than not it's something I would never, ever choose on my own.  I generally prefer borrowing book club selections from the library, as about half the time it's something I can't get into, bail out of, or don't like well enough to want my own copy.

But every year, there's a book that I run out and buy for myself as soon as I finish the library copy because I know I'll want to re-read it, and in this case, ensure that my kids read it. This year, that book was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.



I was astonished this was classified as a children's book: set in Germany before and during World War 2 and narrated by Death, it is necessarily dark, disturbing, and at times despairingly sorrowful and bleak. Yet even Death's narrative voice has a sort of compassion and self-deprecating humour that allows us to witness the events lived out by the characters; Death almost seems to have an emotional investment in the fates of those we watch through his eyes.

If the prose doesn't move you to tears, the illustrations (ostensibly a book written by one of the characters) will. Even if I had read a lot more books this year, this one would still be the best of 2009.

I hold with those who favour fire

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice...



I'm always so happy when I can use a shot SOOC (straight out of the camera) like the one above, and it looks exactly how I felt when I took the picture.  However, the second one - ice on grass in my backyard - was devilishly hard to get right for both exposure and white balance. Snow is notoriously difficult anyway, and the fact that it was -20 celsius and I was in my shirt sleeves, refusing to actually get down on my knees, made it just a tad harder. So I spent a while playing with this in Lightroom, till I got what I felt that morning: shivering, frayed, and a little bit bleak. I might save these settings, and see if they will work as a preset for any more snow pictures as winter wears on.

going west

Every year, my best trip is the pilgrimage out west to see my family. In the exact reverse of my own childhood, when my father would pack us all up and drive out of the Fraser Valley at five in the morning to take us to Calgary, Alberta, to stay with my grandparents for a few weeks, I now pack up my own children and travel in the opposite direction, from southern Alberta to the BC coast.
(perhaps not very exact, as I avoid leaving at five in the morning at all cost)



This year, we had the additional pleasure of meeting my sister and her family, who were on a road trip of her own through Alberta, in Revelstoke, where we stopped to camp overnight. It wasn't memorable just because of my kids getting together with their cousins, my husband glowering in a violently purple rain poncho, the many flaming marshmallows or even the towering, dense cedars surrounding us. It was a return to camping itself, after eleven years without so much as airing out our old tents. There is a fairly long story behind this, involving an August rain/snow/windstorm on a long weekend in Waterton, a screaming baby, a full diaper, and a shivering dog, but it exhausts me remembering it, never mind retelling it. Suffice it to say, it was over a decade before I found the  motivation to again bring tent and children on the same trip.

But on this journey out to the coast, we broke that long dry spell, and despite the other excellent camping trips that followed later in summer, this one sticks out in my mind as the one that got us going again.



For Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 challenge