It Must Be Spring

Look at these little babies poking through the cold earth, on their way up and out.  Spring is late, we are still getting frost in the mornings, but the bulbs will not be denied!  And, after a cold weekend and yet another dusting of snow, I am going out on a limb here, and predicting the arrival of Spring.  Yahoo!  The weather people are full of "shoulds" - as in, it should be 15 degrees, and it is only 2 degrees - all due to a stubborn high pressure system that is laying cold across the prairies.  But today - Ah, today we are enjoying sun with actual heat  in it that warmed my back as I walked the river path.  Libby had to dunk herself into the water at the edge of the river.  She happened to be carrying her ball at the time of the impulse and in the excitement of getting wet, dropped the ball into the water.  We watched it bob downstream and then turned our backs on it and found a stick and some rocks to throw.    

The river ice is melting.  We stay close to shore where walking is safe and the water is shallow.

If this lovely spring-like weather keeps going, I will get out the pruners and go to work on the bushes.  It is easier to see the shapes of things before the leaves bud out. 

In the Studio

This has finally come together - a mixed media fibre arts neck piece which consists of ribbon yarns, beads, and a unique felted bead which has itself been beaded.  It was fun to design.  I love the mix of the colours.

The beads are the end result of a fun felting day.  After they dried I started  embellishing them.  They look a bit like mutant licorice allsorts don't they.

The felting frenzy continues.  These roses are felted in pieces and then cut into shapes and wrapped.  The stems were wet felted around wire and then beaded and carved so there would be leaves and beaded prickles.  At first I thought the rose would be a neck piece, but now I'm not so sure.  It is still a work in progress, but I'm pleased with the progress I'm making on it.

Libby and I walk by the river a few times a week, and the river rocks are starting to show as the snow and ice recedes.  Pummeled by the force of the water and weather, most of the rocks have been smoothed into  round or oval shapes.  I usually pick up one or two because they feel so good in my hands.
And then...I found  Margaret Oman's lovely crochet rock creations.   You can see Margaret's lovely blog here  Margaret crochets snoods onto random rocks she finds in her travels, and then gently leaves the decorated rock on the beach near her home for people to find.  I'm quite enchanted by that.  You can also purchase one of Margaret's creation's on her ETSY site if you've a mind to. 

This neck piece is bead crochet medallians.  I made the medallians individually and then crochet them together in random order...It's a soft piece and easy to wear but I think the medallians need more structure.

Weekend Doin's

Saturday - Teaching gig at Stash Needle Art lounge (her website is here)   On the agenda - Teaching the fine art of knitting socks - which is one of my favourite knitting things to do.  It was a small class, but being as how I haven't taught in quite a while, that was probably a good thing.  By all reports, everybody had a good time, and accomplished the first phase of sock construction, knitting the leg - or they will have by next week because I gave them homework. 
Next week, we will be turning the heel.  I always tell my students that turning a sock heel is one of the magical bits of knitting - it makes no sense, but it works and you have to suspend your disbelief and just go for it. We will accomplish it together and hopefully take the scary bits out of the process.
Stash Needleart Lounge, owned by Veronica Murphy - no mean knitting teacher herself - is a delightful little shop in the Inglewood district of Calgary.  I love the antiques and vintage bits scattered around the shop and used as shelving and decoration. Don't you love the old frig's - cold storage for yarn.  Lovely.

There is something very comforting about being in a yarn shop surrounded by all that texture and colour.  It sort of makes up for the bad weather around here.
I beat the predicted storm home and decided in the interests of sanity to just close all the drapes, light candles and plug in a film to watch while I knit...what else...a warm, woolly sock.

Sunday - woke up to this

For heaven's sake, this needs to stop!  There seems to be a high pressure system that has it in for the prairies.  One small consolation- Libby loves having a back garden full of soft, white snow to roll in, jump in and  run through.
So.. once I had cleaned off the sidewalks and the car, (again in the interests of sanity),  I ventured back out into the weather, and headed for the Calgary Horticultural Society's Annual Garden show out at Spruce Meadows, a spot better known around the world, I think, as host of International Horse show jumping competitions.  Today the barns were full of garden and landscaping displays.  Just the thing to brighten my spirits.

You have to be an optimist to be a gardener - even if you do resort to a bright plastic flower in your outdoor display.  Actually this is a pretty neat water feature that  looks surprisingly good in the snow.

Inside was warmth and lots of fun and colour.  But it is very early in gardening season in my little world - especially since there is 10 cm of snow covering most of my garden beds.  Never mind.  I splurged on some seed potatoes for my potato barrel, and some Dahlia tubers.  A girl can dream can't she?

The last word goes to Spruce Meadow's wonderful stop sign. 

Eating Around the World in Calgary

There are nine of us, if we all attend.  We are former broadcasters, news hounds, photographers and writers who all worked for CFAC radio and Television under the charismatic Ed Whalen when CFAC was an independent station and at the beginning of the Global network days in the 1970's and '80's.   

This quest to eat ourselves around the world in our own city started slowly..  Four of us met soon after I moved back to Calgary at a great little Mexican Restaurant in Bowness called Salt and Pepper.  It was just a casual get together, no pressure and good Margarita's.  But it was fun, so much fun we started to think about who we could invite and where we could go next time, and it has now evolved into a solid group of nine of us and counting, on a quest to try different foods from different countries represented by restaurants and bistros in pretty much every district of our city. 

We have had excellent Italian food in Bridgeland, authentic Chinese on the North Hill, German Schnitzel and Indian food in the downtown core, Vietnamese cuisine in the southwest , Peruvian rotisserie chicken in the industrial district, Mediterranean food in the gallery district, Greek food out in Midnapore and gone back for seconds at the Salt and Pepper Mexican restaurante.

So, in the interest of fair play, we decided to bring it on home to Alberta this past week for some homegrown beef and lamb. We picked the Model Milk Bistro because it is known for its Alberta menu (here)

The photograph is courtesy of one of our intrepid photographers - Russell Moore, who does some magical shots with his I-phone.
It's a fascinating story, the story of the Model Milk Dairy.  It sits on the corner of 17th avenue and 3rd street SW and was a thriving dairy, apparently with a steam room in the basement that catered to an alternative clientele.  Both Blake and Russell remember having ice cream there when they were kids.  Luckily the building survived, and sat empty until the present owners of the Bistro came along, saw the potential, followed their dream, did an amazing restoration, and turned the old dairy into a thriving bistro full of noise and great food.  The place really rocks when the Flames play a home game at the Saddle Dome down the street.
We were treated like minor royalty the night we visited, given a private dining room, our very own waiter, and our very own menu of local appetizers and entrees, created especially to reflect our quest of eating authentic food from the region we are visiting. 
We reminisced, told funny stories, complained about the weather, and veteran news junkies that we are, hacked through the coverage of some of the top news stories while eating our way through some delicious steak medallions, lamb dishes and sharing some wicked ice cream deserts.  I'm now a fan of lemon ice cream.
By the way - it is still snowing.  When it will stop is anybody's guess at this point.

On the Weekend

I had a lovely Easter Weekend.  On Saturday, my friend, Elizabeth,  and I took a drive south of the city toward Turner Valley and the foothills, to the Leighton Art Centre here to see Calgary Fibre Artist Rachelle LeBlanc's hooked rug art exhibit.

Her show is entitled "Telling Stories one Loop at a Time - Beyond Traditions - Contemporary Rug Hooking"  Her medium is wool on linen using traditional rug hooking techniques.  Her subject matter is anything but traditional, using as her subjects children in various natural poses in nature.  She hooks her wall hangings with a painterly eye for colour and composition- thousands of tiny loops!   Whew!

The Leighton Centre itself is a wonderful destination gallery and an excuse, if I needed one, to take a drive out into the countryside on a gorgeous early spring day.  It boasts a big permanent collection too, contributed mostly by member artists, and changed fairly frequently.
 After A.C. Leighton passed away in the 1960's, his wife and fellow artist, Barbara, gradually turned their house into an art retreat, teaching facility and gallery.

I love this one at the top of the landing.  I felt I could walk up the stairs and right onto the pathway in the painting.  Glorious!
Saturday, the centre was hosting a big Easter Egg hunt outside, and the grounds were swarming with small egg hunters looking for the golden egg to win them first prize.  They had a gorgeous day for it. If you look closely, you can just make out the Easter Bunny hopping down the hill.

 For me though, the egg hunt had to compete with the snow covered Rockies and the warm spring temperatures and almost no snow to speak of.

The Leighton house cum gallery also boasts this amazing conservatory chock full of plants and just the place to sit for a quiet minute.

I've always wanted a conservatory. Even a small greenhouse would work for me.  You have to dream don't you?

Wandering around on the grounds, which are just losing the snow cover to the spring melt, I came upon Peter Vanteisenhausen's pole installation -  "Sanctuary"

There are 1000 wooden poles here, painstakingly installed by Vanteisenhausen in the prairie grass, marching in rows and clusters down the hill, west towards the mountains.  At the top of the hill above Sanctuary is a painting/meditation shelter.  The idea is to alter the viewer's impression of the landscape and the Rockies by looking through the poles.  The poles will be allowed to deteriorate and fall down on their own over time.  I leave you to form your own opinion on this one.
Personally, the grove of black and white birch trees won the day for me.

A Sunday Afternoon Walk by the river

It was a beautiful sunny day today, a day that demanded a walk outside in the cool crisp spring air, a day to head for the river and wander the paths.  Mind you, those river paths are treacherously icy right now with  daytime thawing that morphs into nighttime freezing.  Under the thin layer of the last light snowfall earlier this week, glare ice lurks, waiting to catch the unwary and send them sprawling.  Even surefooted Libby had her work cut out for her staying on all four of her feet in some areas.  But it was worth it, worth every slip and slide, just to be out breathing the fresh air, and enjoy the unfettered exuberance of the border collie flying over the paths, rolling in the snow, dipping in the frigid river water, sliding on the icy shore and chasing her boomerang down the path.  Spring is here, the snow is melting.  And if you are a border collie, life doesn't get any better than this.

Socks

 I am thinking about socks a lot these days.  I will be at Stash Needle Art Lounge (see them here) in April to teach the fine art of knitting handmade socks.  I'm really looking forward to teaching again.  And socks are great fun to knit - they are small portable projects, great for taking on trips to keep yourself amused in airport lounges and hotel rooms and even on road trips - if you are in the passenger seat. 

Nancy Bush in her wonderful book “Folk Socks – The history and techniques of handknitted footwear, says  that “no human apparel has been more taken for granted than the sock”, and I think this is very true. 

   We pull on our socks, shove our suitably covered feet into our shoes, boots or runners, and jump to our feet, ready to go.  When the heels and toes wear out, get holes in them, become thin – they are pitched into the garbage without a thought.  Socks are disposable.   Socks can have a sad life, and yet…

What if that sock is handmade, knitted with soft yarn specifically measured for your foot?  What if those measurements have been taken, colours chosen,  construction begun, not just once but twice, because you can’t run on one sock, and the brand new handmade pair of cozy socks is carefully presented to you in love – what then?.   That would “knock your socks off” wouldn’t it? 

 Let’s “pull our socks up” and think about socks in an entire different way.  

Some of the first socks were found, surprisingly intact, in Egyptian tombs. Look at the photo of these ancient socks in Mary Thomas's book, which apparently were dyed red, knit in a woman's size, and they have a split  toe to accomodate the wearer's sandals.

 In her 1938 book “Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book she pegs the beginnings of knitting  in 

Arabia then brought to Egypt  and spread to Europe along the trade routes,  probably back as far as the 3^rd century.  But no one knows for sure when the penny dropped and the first knitted sock was born. 

This gorgeous painting of the Virgin Mary, entitled "The Visit of the Angels" is by the Master Bertram and thought to be painted between 1390 and 1400. It was originally in the Buxtehuder Abbey in Europe.  Notice Mary is knitting a garment on four needles! 

I suppose none of this matters much, unless you happen to enjoy wearing hand knit socks, or like to knit them. Socks are pretty much constructed in the same way today as they have been since the beginning - knit in the round on a set of 4 or 5 needles with points at both ends.

First the stitches are cast on, then divided onto four needles, and then joined up, looking like a square, the stitches carried on four needles, knit using the fifth needle making a tube. Knit from the top to the toe, socks are divided into 4 sections, first the leg - the straight tube,, then the heel flap, short rows to turn the heel and make a joint in the tube, then knitting the foot from the heel to the toe and rounding the toe off to finish.

One of the products that helped propel sock knitting into the 21^st century, is computer dyed yarn, those lovely yarns that when knitted in the round make their own fair isle, or striped pattern.  The problem with these yarns is that they are addicting.  Its past midnight but you can’t quit until you see what colour is going to turn up next and what pattern it will make in the sock. 

Vancouver Island watercolour artist Nell Anderson painted the sock knitting chicken for me a few years ago.

it makes me smile every time I look at it.  Celebrate the sock and have warm feet.