cooped up.

i've hardly left the house for days, i have been so busy.

among other things, i made this small (poorly photographed) custom order for isabel gertler. isabel is opening a show at the struts gallery in sackville, new brunswick, next weekend which is where these buttons will be handed out. although i couldn't find a lot online, her exhibit was described to me as a collection of embroidered hankies displayed on a line. art meets craft? sounds like my scene.

i very much enjoyed making these guys. simple design on a button always makes me happy. and birds. what's up with birds? it feels like a lot of bird buttons pass through my hands. they figured into the order for the toronto outdoor art exhibition, the design for theatre revolve, and of course some designs of my own. i even have a special ornithological announcement to make tomorrow (but i will leave that until later).

in this world of craft and design, people tend to tire of trends quickly, but birds seem to go beyond trend. images of birds (and other animals) were painted on cave walls. birds figure quite prominently into textile and wallpaper designs from many cultures and eras. so what gives? are we jealous or just beguiled?

regardless, i wish isabel a great opening. here's hoping your clothes line is not appropriated by starlings.

gifts for the new year.

above is a lovely package i received today from jia in singapore. although it is supposed to be an envelope contribution, jia also included a whole bunch of other gifts including note cards, a beautiful piece of arrow print fabric and an elastic belt! i have actually been on the hunt for elastic belts for a while but there is no way she could have known that. thank you very much, jia.



but back to business - here are the new patterns found in her envelope contribution. subtle differences, but i love these wavy plaids.



this collection come to me via leah in australia. the two on the right are going into my solids collection and text collection (respectively). i though it was worth mentioning that the one with writing says 'secretive lines'. i may have to use that term in this project somehow.



these one here come from cindy in illinois. it may be hard to see in the photograph, but the red one has the most amazing and subtle pattern. i'm really excited to see it in button form.



and, finally, there is this envelope from rose ann in ohio. as you can see, there is very little envelope to be turned into buttons so these ones will be very rare.

and, with that, i have cleared my entire mountain of envelope contributions. today's new patterns brings me to a grand total of 293. who knows, there may be more packages in the mail yet but i can't imagine there are too many. i guess i am going to have to work hard in the coming days to get collection phase two rolling. i know i was spending all my rent on postage, but i already miss the heaps of mail and the little points of contact with likeminded strangers the world over. my pattern greed is also reemerging, as i know there are more patterns lurking out there, hiding out in post office garbage cans and recycling bins. but for the moment, i feel happy that i managed to complete one thing by the end of the year. all of your reward packs will be going out in the coming days, contributors.

happy new year!

weird stuff under the tree.

well, christmas has come and gone but i did want to highlight a couple of extra special gifts that came our way. the first one (above) came to aitor via julie in philadelphia. it's almost self-explanatory. i will do my best to photograph the 'houses' contained within when aitor decides to install them.





this, on the other hand, is a gift my mother brought back from europe. i am still on the fence as to weather i should hang the whole thing on the wall or try my luck at actually using them. skerple quality seems dubious at best.

triple yarngasm.

gross. that word looks gross.

i am currently collecting myself after three back-to-back days of yarn acquisition. it started on saturday with my annual pilgrimage to the full-on hen house experience of the romni wools boxing day sale. aitor got a reprieve from attending this year as my visiting mother and newly transplanted aunt were more than happy to frolic in yarn with me for an afternoon. i got some great deals of garnstudio's eskimo bulky wool (i know, eskimo) some sublime organic merino (which is so soft) and some little blobs of madame lucien paul angora yarn from the basement (even softer). i wish i had bough more of all of those as they all worked beautifully into some new neck warmers. but as they say, 20/20 vision is perfect. or someone i know once said that, anyway.

on sunday i had the big free yarn score via leah.

then, today, i went to an insanely massive destashing sale hosted by tosca teran of nanopod: hybrid studio. it was amazing! there were no skeins over $3! i'm still going through all the amazing silks, angoras, wools and mohairs (true story!). tosca is liquidating the enormous stash of her knitting teacher mom (who is moving back to california) and has had a series of these sales. i'm not exactly sure how she's getting the word out about future sales, but joining the nanopod facebook group might not be a bad idea if you'd like to hear about her next sale. there is also some talk of her joining the fun at the love and rummage trunk show coming up in february.



so what am i doing with all this stuff? good question, aitor. some of it will be retained for personal projects (sorry, honey) but the bulk of what i acquired is already being made into neck warmers and elf hats to keep bodies warm in the coming cruddy months. the eskimo and sublime yarns have already been made into some positively ducky new neck warmers that have challenged my previous colour predilections (photos forthcoming). i usually only sell these crocheted items in person at fairs and in toronto at the good catch general store, but if there is any interest expressed by out-of-towners, i am happy to list some in the etsy shop. just encourage me. i have not had much success selling these things online (probably because people want to try them on) but am happy to try again. especially with the neck warmers - their fit is more adaptable.

the calm amidst the storm.

in all the holiday mania, i neglected to mention that one of my orchids is in bloom (i know how much you all must care about this). the first bud opened on the morning of city of craft and it seems pretty happy. although...three blooms seems to be the norm when any of my orchids bloom (and i have only ever had blooms out of my phalenopses). anyone have any orchid tips for greater blooms.

i think it is also time to wish my oncidium a safe journey across the river styx. i have no idea what happened. it was doing great and pushing up new bulbs and then all turned black and died in the space of a couple of days. here's a photo from its greatest moment when i had just brought it home from last february's orchid show:



rest in pieces, little guy. i am sorry to have let you down.

today i also made a bit of time for quilt sunday at the workroom. it was a slim turn out but a good one. and, while quilting didn't dominated (shannon and i had a real crochet hen party in the corner), we all got lots of crafting done. and chatting. i always find these informal gatherings to be great think tanks for future happenings. we had some really great chats with jacqueline (of soak - which is an amazing product, by the way) about interactions with the corporate world and the pitfalls thereof. how boring. we totally exhausted maisy.



...as per usual.

shannon and i also got to raid the stash of yarn that leah left when she departed for europe. what a score! shannon and i have totally different tastes in yarn, too, so we happily split it all down the middle. look for all this stuff in the form of future boobs, dinks, plushstaches, plants you can't kill and sweets (from shannon) and neckwarmers and hats (from me). i can never keep up with shannon's prolificness. hey leah, do you have any special requests for your european tour? i could use some of this stuff to make you something. just name it and i will see what i can do.

my blog has something to tell you.

happy holidays!

this is one of my favorite pictures from the walls of aitor's family's house. it's my brother-in-common-law, ed, as a very worried little baby.

i am spending christmas here watching my new twin peaks dvd box set. there isn't much i would rather be doing. it makes me miss being young and being on the west coast and fishing. it's all pretty bittersweet. but what great pie!

i think i need to make some twin peaks inspired art after watching all 40 hours of this.

days off are for people with salaries.

today brought me fourteen new patterns, starting with the one above from delphine in portland.



the rest of today's stack included these envelopes from augustas in lithuania,..



...these ones from rose in new york,...



...these from katie in philadelphia,...



...and these from michelle in london.

of all of today's discoveries, the diamond pattern from lithuania and the banners from london are the most fascinating to me. what can i say? i am a sucker for the foreign stuff. and as per usual, the british packages don't disappoint. my big huge stacj of contributions is now down to four remaining packages and i am starting to feel a bit sad. these daily indentifications have fallen into a comforting routine for me. i can't wait until collection phase two launches!.

as of today, i have reached 281 patterns.

speaking of sadness, by the way, my good friend from pittsburgh, al, has just launched a fantastic new blog called city of sad toys. it's participatory and contribution-based, so can get involved, too. i am happy to say that today's entry is one of my contribtuions. way to go, al. keep it sad.