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January 2025: knitting small projects

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After a long break form the blog I deciced to revive it on a monthly basis for 2025. Let’s see where this goes.

For the past three years I have been working on reducing my stash and decided to measure my success by counting the meters of yarn bought and the meters of yarn knit or crochet out. In most years I manage to knit/crochet about 12,000 m and tried to be focused to buy less: around 10,000 m/year. Since I have not added up all the yarn I had already collected I am just happy to know that I am not adding to my stash.

Still, the space taken up by my yarns and fibres seems to expand instead of shrinking. Leading me to figure better ways to use more yarn. May be, using yarns doubled up will do the trick?

January saw four small projects accomplished: A pair of socks in size 8 knit out of CozyKnitters https://www.thecozyknitter.com/ Advent 2024 sock yarn. The two skeins yield two pairs of socks and I had hoped to knit one pair before Christmas by knitting one or two stripes a day and the other between Christmas and New Years. Since Canada Post was on strike until Dec 17th the yarn arrived on Dec 23 and the second pair came off the needles in January with about 195 m used.

On a visit to Victoria I found the Book “Gnomes of Grimblewood” by Sarah Schira in the Button and Needlwork Boutique https://www.buttonedup.com/. Just looking through the book makes me happy and I decided to join the ” Knit a Gnome every month” Knit-Along by the Sarah on Ravelry. For January I knit “Gnoodles” https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gnoodles (about 20m of Pretty String Pretty soft yarn https://www.prettystring.ca/yarn-bases ). So much fun! February’s gnome will be “Gnorri”.

To transfrom a swatch of tunesian crochet from a course last year to a dishcloth I added a few rows of crochet for a larger size and used up 10 m of Paton’s cotton.

On the same weekend trip I bought a skein of Rowan Cashsoft (137 m) and made sure I knit it into a hat in the following weeks. I adapted the Sweet Felicia pattern https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sweet-felicia to fit the DK yarn.

My total tally for the first month of 2025: 230 m left my stash after subtracting the 137 m purchased.

In the background I am working on some larger projects: A brioche sweater in a natural white merino chashmere lace held triple. I will write a bit more about it next time since this seemingly simple looking sweater had my stuck a few times and put in “time-out” for a few weeks at a time. No wonder it still isn’t finished after 6 months.

The other time-consuming goal is spinning about 600 m of a three-ply yarn from Merino and Corriedale fibre blended with baby camel to knit the Pelica vest. This is a “blend the fibres, spin and knit”- study my spinning group is attempting with a number of us planning to pose for a photo together in our Pelica vests in late summer.

My first ply of the yarn is spun from this New Zealand wool (Corriedale dyed in Alaska) purchased on our last cruise to Alaska. Topped with the baby camel fibre for blending.

After splitting the roving braid in half I separated each half into about 12 strips pulled apart where the colour changes were happening for a total of 24 strips. Then I separated the camel fibre into about 24 equal pieces as well and started blending on my blending board for 24 rolags.

Knowing that I needed about 600 m of this single I used a backward semiworsted drafting method for more loft and counted my drafts (about 10 cm each time) to yield about 250-300 drafts per rolag (equal to about 25-30 m). That should have resulted in 600+ meters. I will learn the yield after spinning my other two braids and then plying the yarn. The current spin looks pretty and makes me happy!

Have a great week and Happy Valentines Day to all!

Mika

Getting ready for Christmas market sales

~ beecosydesign ~ 1 Comment

Hello, dear readers!

After many months and more changes in my life Christmas market sales season is now in full swing. The only constant seems to be my drive to create in knitting and spinning. As in previous years my friend Manuela and I will be selling our designs. We chose the Shipyards Christmas Festival Artisan Market  which runs on Saturday, Nov 30th, 1 – 9 pm and on Sunday, Dec 1st, 10 am – 5 pm in the Pipe-shop at Shipbuilders Square one block East of Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.

Shipbuilders' Square at Shipyards Christmas Festival

But the start to all this happens months earlier when I start planning what to knit and what designs to use. This year my first purchase towards a year of knitting was early in January when I decided on cat and dog designs for a few of my hats. A beautifully soft possum-wool mix in a coral and brown colour caught my eye and was knit up into these two cosy hats. And a white Hikoo Abracadabra yarn, that changes colour to blue in sunlight, had to be tried as well and became a snowflake hat.

Possum fiber hats
Snowflakes hat

Three hats were not enough and more wool was needed. Shopping opportunities came along throughout the year. There was Fibres West in March, a wool and fibre festival in the Fraser Valley,  a long weekend visit at Cast on! Cast Off! in St Johns, Nfld, the Almonte Fibre festival, Ontario, in early September and Knit City Vancouver in October.

stash from Cast on! Cast off!in St. Johns, NFLD
Almonte Fibrefest
Knit City 2019

As much as I try to shop project-based only sometimes the beauty of a skein or some fiber catches my eye and finds it s way home with me to be marveled at in quiet times. My purchases from Cast on! Cast Off! are still waiting for their debut, but the fiber batts from Almonte have been spun up into a 2-ply yarn with a lot of colourful highlights. Four skeins from Knit City have been transformed into a children’s hat and 4 pairs of handwarmers (red and black ones).

Hat with cats (child size)
Cabled handwarmers

 

The past 4 weeks were the most productive and besides the handwarmers these three hats flew off my needles. The grey and purple ones were knit in a recycled merino yarn mix Borgo de’ Pazzi Amore 160 and the colourful one from 18 mini skeins of various sock yarns I was gifted by a lovely knitter at my Ottawa yarn group.

Three hats for the market
BC wool hand-spun gloves
Hat with hand-spun silk and wool

My sales line-up would not be complete with at least one or two accessories knit with my own hand-spun yarn. The brown-grey handwarmers consist of BC grown Romney mix wool combined with brown alpaca. The colourful hat to brighten up the darker winter days used up different hand-spun yarns with about 50% silk and 50% wool content.

If you are in the Lower Mainland I would be delighted if you stopped by our table and said hello.

Have a great fall and winter!

Mika

 

 

 

Getting stuck in Paris….

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A little while ago we tried to fly home to Canada and opted for a few different routes, but were unable to get across the Atlantic. As it happened on our third try we flew to Paris hoping to find a seat with any airline, but realized after a few hours that would not happen. Thus, after a quick online booking the Hotel Mercure Opera Louvre became our home for the next four days and we were all set to explore Paris. We thought we were lucky to stay in this nice, old building built around 1900 and converted into a hotel. It was in a central location with easy walking access to the Opera, Galleries Lafayette shopping, many covered shopping passages, metro stations and even the Louvre. We booked a premium room with a terrace on the fifth floor and loved it. Looking over the roofs of the surrounding buildings we enjoyed afternoon snacks and some easy dinners in the fresh air on our own little patio.

 

Galleries Lafayette
Breakfast room in our hotel
Our rooftop terrace

On our very first 3-day-visit years ago we skipped the main attractions of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum afraid that the masses would repel us and lessen our enjoyment. But I had since the chance to explore both with a friend and learn about the best visitation hours: We knew arriving early in the day when the attractions open would carry the lowest risk of crowds. Don’t get me wrong: it is still busy, but there is room to move around, the wait for tickets is less than half an hour and one is not stuck in a mass of bodies. The views from the Eiffel tower are all worth it and we even had time to go to the lower deck and learn about the construction of the tower for the World Fair in 1889 and the family history of its engineer Mr Gustave Eiffel.

 

Eiffeltower
View towards Ecole miitaire
Montmatre’s Sacre Coeur in th emist

One can easily recognize many of the important buildings and landmarks: Montmatre’s Sacre Coeur church, the Seine winding its way to the Louvre, The Arc de Triomphe and the beautiful gardens leading to the Military school (Ecole Militaire). The Rodin museum was chosen by my husband as our next destination, a good 45 minute walk from the Eiffel tower. Rodin’s “The Thinker” drew us there The Rodin museum surprised us in more than one way: beautiful gardens showing his larger sculptures next to a cafe/bistro to sit surrounded by green trees, bushes and flowers to enjoy a snack or lunch. All for quite decent prices given that many restaurants offer only 3-course lunch menus which were often too much for us. We enjoyed strolling through the park finding many of his pieces displayed next to benches or chairs to rest and contemplate the view. It takes a good hour to visit the park and another hour to see the exhibits of his smaller works, sketches and antique arts collection. My favourite piece was “Age of maturity” for its dynamic of a mature man  being wooed by death and leaving youth behind. We skipped the Kiefer-Rodin display in the entrance building since our capacity to enjoy any more art had been saturated. This museum is definitely worth a visit and particularly on a sunny or overcast day. It never felt crowded even with the many visitors.

 

Rodin museum current exhibit
Rodin’s “The Thinker” in the park
“The Cathedral” sculpture
“L’Age mur” maturity- a riveting composition

Our next day brought us to the Louvre, a behemoth of a museum and soon to open an offspring in Abu Dhabi, to have a look at three specific areas: Islamic art, Italian and French masters. We started with the Islamic art which was a “poor” decision in hindsight as that particular exhibit is never really busy. Next came the Italian masters which were amazing with their evolution of art from strictly Theological topics towards landscape scenes and family portraits. By accident – there were so many signs and arrows one couldn’t miss it – we ended up in the room displaying the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. It was already somewhat crowded in front of the that highly guarded painting hidden behind two layers of glass/Plexiglas and two adjacent security staff. We were still able to snap a photo of the most well-know painting on Earth. But with the shiny layers on top reflections were distorting the beauty of it and made the snapshot more a memento than a photograph to display. Once we left the room the tour groups started to arrive and the air became warm and sticky. Time to escape to the French masters which didn’t draw the tourists as much. After two hours steeped in art and in close proximity of too many tourists it was time to enjoy some fresh air and find my favourite French family restaurant “Vero Dodat” for lunch again. A great two-course menu with a quiet rest in the old shopping passage was what we needed to feel relaxed and ready to see more of Paris.

 

Louvre: the crowds are arriving
Mural in Montmatre

A leisurely walk from our hotel brought us to the lower parts of Montmatre with its quirky, small shops and restaurants. A real Belgian waffle and ice-cream stand just opened for the evening and tempted us with some salted caramel in a waffle cone. We found this glass mural (photo above) on one of the buildings and marveled at the Quarters history and architecture.

 

public chairs to enjoy the Luxembourg Gardens
Palais de Luxembourg
Voltaire’s tomb and statue
Foucault’s Pendulum in the Pantheon

For our last day we wanted to explore a bit more on foot  and made our way to the Jardins De Luxembourg, a big park for the enjoyment of locals and visitors alike. Besides large green spaces and beautiful horticulture (among others an apple garden with tenths of varietals) one could find facilities to play tennis and boule, a playground and lots of chairs and benches to sit and enjoy the views. Many sculptures decorated the park and small plaques told of political events and gestures. This is a great spot to take family and friends for a picnic and a stroll. A further twenty minute walk brought us to the Pantheon, a building built as a church and nowadays a mausoleum, dedicated to the historic figures and legends of France. Big wall murals depict the life of Joan D’ Arc and St Genevieve on the main floor, which houses Foucault’s pendulum (proof of the rotation of the earth) under one dome as well. The basement hosts the remains and coffins of important members of French society. From Voltaire and Rousseau to writer Alexandre Dumas to scientists Marie and Pierre Curie and more have been buried there. A walk through the crypt is less creepy than one might think and the history present is impressive. Compared to other burial grounds of famous people the tombs are well marked and it is not too crowded to read and find a particular person of interest.

Saturated with good food, wine and many impressions of a beautiful city we left to embrace our summer at home.

Thank you, for visiting and reading my blog! Until next time, Maike

 

End of the season show: Kid Koala’s “Nufonia must fall”

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Ten days ago marked the end of performances for the season at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) with the stage production of “Nufonia must fall”.

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A Puppeteer-Chamber Orchestra-Live-Stage-Silent-movie

This lovely film created live on stage after a “silent” graphic novel by Kid Koala was a gentle love story between an out-dated robot and a smart scientist. It starts with the robot being fired from his complaints-department job because he can’t answer the calls fast enough and is being replaced by the new, updated model. Sad, he leaves his workplace with his beloved potted plant and on his way home sees a “help wanted” offer in a diner’s window. He starts working there and meets the scientist he falls in love with. Unfortunately, he is even slower than with answering the calls in his previous job and gets replaced by the same model of upgraded robot. The scientist takes him home with her and invites him for dinner and a vacation. He is all happy until he sees a schematic for the upgraded robot model on her wall. Realizing that she is the inventor of the new model and meeting one of them in her apartment, he thinks she would want to dispose of him soon as well. In his pain he jumps out of her apartment window and flees the upgraded robot. Scuttling around until he hides in a back alley where he is found by the new robot who hands him his plane ticket and makes sure he gets to the airport in time to fly on vacation with his beloved scientist.

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Stage set-up

This story is played with puppets live on five stages, while a chamber orchestra (Afiara Quartet) and Kid Koala, the creator and author of the story, provide the background music to accompany this almost silent movie. All of this is being filmed and projected immediately on a big screen above the stage giving the audience a view of the creation in progress while seeing the final movie , simultaneously. It was a heart-warming, creative event that spoke to the entire audience. We were mesmerised by the story unfolding and thankful for NYUAD putting on the show and the accompanying workshops. We are looking forward to the next season and their shows announced here.

Until next time! Thank you, for reading my blog, Maike

Guggenheim and NYUAD modern art shows and Yo-Yo Ma at Abu Dhabi classics

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The beginning of the quiet summer months ahead with fewer art events makes the current opportunities even more exciting. At Manarat al Saadiyat the Guggenheim is presenting a show of some of the pieces which will be housed in the museum once the Frank Gehry & associates designed building will be finished. “The creative act: Performance –  Process – Presence” is a fitting title for the show. I had the pleasure of a guided tour and found it enlightening. The different rooms started with some of the first performance artists in Japan and Europe, moving to performance artists in the UAE and more recent art works relating to the Middle East. Some of them exploring videos and emotions about the current Syrian refugee crisis.

Graphic detail on the wall going into “The breathing House” exhibit
Beautiful open mesh and lace crochet…
..creating walls for a breathing house

“The Breathing House” was of particular interest to me as it incorporated crochet in an installation combined with visual and audio effects: the noise of a wind blowing while walking through.

A mountain of sneakers and flipflops
Anish Kapoor’s “Homeland”

The mountain of discarded sneakers and flipflops by local, Dubai artist Hassan Sharif made the point of a one-way-and-discard society quite clear. But the one which stirred me the most was the large piece “Homeland” by Anish Kapoor. It was less the size or moving hammer changing the piece over time which evoked emotions, but the visceral, oxblood colour and texture of the wax which reminded me of blood, meat and death. A piece that definitely left me uneasy and I am not sure if those associations and feelings are what I wanted to connect with the word “Homeland”. I am sure it has a different meaning for each visitor and by doing so is considered to be true performance art. If you are visiting or live in town: the exhibit is open until July 29th at Manarat Al Saadiyat, daily 9 am – 8 pm. Free entrance, too!

At the same time the Art Gallery at NYUAD is hosting the “But we cannot see them” exhibit of the first performance artists of the UAE. It intersects with the Guggenheim show by displaying different pieces of two artists who were part of the Guggenheim at Manarat exhibit, in addition to younger, local artists influenced by the first generation. It is a great show to visit in conjunction with the Guggenheim and makes it relevant for the local arts community.

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim “Lines”
cCose up of “Lines”

The part I enjoyed most was watching a video at the entrance where one artist was describing his artistic life throughout the years. Some funny stories to be heard. One can visit free of charge Monday to Saturday (closed Sundays) at the NYUAD art gallery : 12pm – 8pm until May 27th, 2017.

For a more traditional event we had the chance to see Yo-Yo Ma in concert with the Silk Road Ensemble on March 31st. We had listened to his classical concerts on radio and tv and were surprised by this eclectic mix of classic, modern and traditional pieces. A wonderful evening with great acoustics in the auditorium of the Emirates Palace Hotel.

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Come visit and experience Abu Dhabi art and culture from September to April! There is a lot to explore…. Until next time! Maike

 

Modern Dance at NYUAD and Mussafah Art hub

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A few weeks ago a friend of mine from New York City arrived with the Trisha Brown Dance company in Abu Dhabi to present one of their dance installations: “In Plain Site”. A fantastic piece which is presented partly on a stage and partly outside on the roof or balconies of buildings.

phases of the dance

During the time the dance company was in town we had a period of very unusual and unstable weather with alternating sun, wind and rain. The morning I attended the show it rained so much that I had to use the front and back wipers on our car. That meant puddles had formed outside and the dance company adjusted their show to the “rain” alternative, an all-indoors presentation.

The first part was danced in the black box theater and the audience was captivated. Especially, the little ones were intrigued and didn’t want to sit still, but participate. Keeping their parents busy with stopping them from running onto the stage or crying over the music. It was requested that we didn’t take photos inside the black box and all the pictures seen here are of the second part, danced on the floor right outside the theater.

The dancer’s simple clothes and their pared-down, rhythmic movements made it a true delight for the eyes. It looked even better in the black box where the black floor provided a great contrast to the white-clad dancers.

view from the balcony

Another opportunity to explore art arrived with an invitation from one of my groups to visit the Art Hub Abu Dhabi on a guided tour. It is well-known and located in Mussafah, an industrial zone a few minutes of driving outside of Abu Dhabi island. Therefore, it is not as easily found or accessed as many of the other art galleries in town, but the more interesting. The Art Hub is privately owned by Mr Ahmed Al Yafei who created this first artist community in the UAE.

metal camel sculpture welcomes the visitor on the sidewalk
Marhaba! A greeting hand in the UAE flag colours

Artists from different countries of the world are invited to stay at the Art Hub Mussafah and/or Liwa for a few weeks to explore the country and let it inspire them to create from their new experiences. When we visited we just arrived at the end of the Macedonian exhibit with some of the sculptures still on display in the main hall…

.. and the four new artists in residence from Russia starting to prepare for their upcoming show premiere. They were still very busy putting their last finishes to their paintings while we were shown around and had a glimpse of their residence and studio.

Dmitri Sterlkov’s workbench
Anna Nasanova’s “Happy moment”
Ekatarina Abramova’s Diptych “Duality”

We also visited the permanent exhibition of art from previous visiting and local artists, a two-story building with a great variety of styles and materials. Most pieces are for sale and can be found and purchased here.

oil painting of a Bedouin scene on an oil drum lid
Photos applied to a kayak and fixed in place with a clear laquer

And one wall of the main exhibition for current shows had been painted with an eye-catching image of the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque giving the illusion that one was looking into the actual mosque.

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This city and region continue to amaze and fascinate me. Thank you, for following me along my adventure! Until next time.

Yours, Maike