Thursday, February 27, 2014

catch up

There's no such thing as too many cowls. Also - there's no such thing as too many knitted gifts. Combine these two thoughts and that's exactly what this cozy seed cowl is all about. Using Sweet Georgia's Superwash Chunky in a stormy grey semi-solid colour way, all that I have left to do is wrap up the garment and send it across the country to an old friend.



As for a reading update, I've been on a great run of fantastic novels and The Memory of Love was no exception. I loved Linda Olssen's Astrid & Veronika a few years back, but worried that my expectations might be too high. I shouldn't have worried - this novel was similarly quiet with a pace and storyline that was incredibly compelling. Marion, the main character, has a painful past stretching all the way back to her difficult childhood. Olsson reveals Marion's past slowly, taking us through her memories while we're getting to know Ika, the young, troubled boy that Marion feels uncharacteristically driven to protect. The parallel stories have equal parts despair and hope, but there's something so crisp and thoughtful about Olsson's writing that the despair never takes hold. I love her writing style so much, I ordered Olsson's other novel right after finishing. My expectations are likely even higher now but I don't think I'll worry this time.

For more knitting and reading stories, visit today's Yarnalong.

Friday, February 21, 2014

best room in the house



After a long week at work I'm crossing my fingers tomorrow brings what I consider to be the perfect Saturday morning: we have nothing to do, the sun shines into our basement studio, and we hang out in our pyjamas making things.

The flood and our collective eagerness to use the basement has kept me from taking any decent "after" pictures of the finished reno. Fabric, supplies and taped up drawings quickly took over and we still haven't brought our rug back in (the poor thing is rolled up in the garage until I figure out how to clean the groundwater out of it). If you look closely you can see the wonkiness in the flood-damaged floor, but it no longer bothers us - we've decided to live through another spring/summer before replacing it so that we can feel confident last summer's flood truly was a freak occurrence.

Basically we love this space. Everyone has their own desk, I have a cutting table and a fabric stash I can see, and if one of us goes down there it inspires others to follow. Milo has been drawing more, Sadie types up her stories and we generally make a mess. The mess might not be photo worthy but it's just what we hoped for way back when. We have the room to be creative and if the sun shines tomorrow, that's exactly where we'll be.