Digging my way out of a creative hole

I think that I may have fallen into a bit of a creative hole.

In London, I would knit every day during my work commute = 2 x 35 minute knitting sessions, 5 days a week with some bonus knitting thrown in when I met up with other knitters. On Sunday nights, I would panic if I had nothing ready to go in my handbag.

I appreciate that this is less knitting than other people tend to do on a weekly basis but it suited my lifestyle. My approach to my knitting created a natural impetus for me to spend time researching what to do next (avoidance of Sunday night panic). Actually, I used to feel that that I never had enough time to really explore certain ideas and techniques. For this reason, I was really looking forwards to my six months of study in Canada - I thought that it would give me lots of time to step up my crafting activities and output.

It does not seem to have worked out that way. Instead, I have been in Canada for two months (no commute) and all of my waking time has been consumed by home reno (DIY), domestic chores (as I am the one at home) and oh, my course.

Mind you, when you combine paint fumes with all the energy zapping visits I have made to lumber (timber) yards, Home Depot, Ikea and the grimy hotel that hosts my course – well - forget being creative, it is pretty amazing that I have any marbles left at all!

Wouldn't a week or so of this type of activity numb your brain?!

Also, in terms of having a space set up to work on and store my creative stuff, I have come to realise that my whole home in London was given over quietly to my hobbies. Art and crafts stuff accented just about every room.

It was tucked away in cupboards, stacked on/under/inside furniture (coffee table, desk, chest of drawers), it was blocked out on the spare bed plus it peeped out of baskets, vases and project bags. My dining table was more marked with ink, paint, glue and cutting marks than it was with wine glass stains. In fact, my arts and craft stuff was pretty much everywhere you did or did not look. I took its accessibility - totally and utterly for granted.

In stark contrast, there has not been anywhere here for me to unpack the craft stuff that I bought with me to Canada. For the past two months, the bulk of it has sat in airtight plastic containers in the basement and the rest is stacked in bags around the shoes in my closet.

To start with, the DIY put paid to any unpacking. I hoped that when we were more organised, an obvious place for me to craft would emerge from the dust, polythene and masking tape.

It has not. I have hunted high and low. We are still working on getting upstairs organised and downstairs? Well, the most accessible part of the basement (due to be sorted in January) currently looks like this:

It is not anyone's fault. It is not a lack of willingness on the Fella's part to accommodate my things – even his creative work space is at the bottom of his garden. It is just that the house (size, layout and the fact that it is now home to two adults plus a visiting teenager) does not lend itself to the activities that I enjoy doing.

So my craft belongings are languishing and I cannot explain in words, just how frustrating it is being stuck at home without proper employment and without proper access to the things that would help to keep me occupied instead.

In addition, I should admit that I am struggling terribly with the isolation of being at home without interaction with other people (I am used to working full time in a busy office). In truth, there have been days here (the rainy weather has not helped) when I have felt very down indeed.

No matter how much your job might get on your nerves at times, the very next time that you wish that you did not have to go into your place of work? I suggest that you think very carefully about how you would cope with being trapped at home, on your own and with no reason to go out anywhere except on domestic/DIY errands - you may not realise it but you probably spend more time with your colleagues than you do with your own family. I miss my work colleagues very much (both from my last job as well as my job before that*). Particularly at about 3pm. I have started to eye up the wall as a conversation partner.

The impact of the above on my crafting productivity is evident - I have not done any sewing (apart from attaching heading tape to a pair of ready-made curtains). The sum total of my knitting related output in Canada is 1.5 skeins of blobby unusable cream handspun, two bobbins of hand spun singles (almost) and three quarters of a one 'Dream in Colour' Classy, Dashing fingerless mitt.

[Just as an aside, rather sadly, these mitts are intended as a Christmas present for someone who, without realising that I was sat there working on their Christmas present at the weekend, revealed that they have no plans to wear any of the things that I have previously made for them unless it gets REALLY cold. I suspect that they meant, 'really cold' as in, 'when hell freezes over'. Oh well.]

In fact, the only occasions when I have managed to dedicate time to knitting recently has been when I have left the house for a coffee and a knit with a local knitting group. Each time I go, I find it really uplifting. For instance, last Saturday, we had an impromptu coffee at a local Starbucks where I lapped up every last bit of energy and conversation.

As a result, I achieved more knitting in two hours than I have in the past two months [for my prospective, complete ingrate of a gift recipient]! Actually, I did not want to return to my DIY chores at home - I could have stayed out all day. It was another pathetic prod in the ribs to let me know just how much I am missing day-to-day interaction with others.

So I have had enough - I have decided to make a proactive, positive change.

I need to unpack. I need easy access to my things. I need a place to work. In my personal view, this place needs to be away from the house. It needs to be somewhere that I stand a half a chance of bumping into another human being - even if it is only to say hello casually - during the course of a working day.

So with the above in mind, I put a down payment on the rental of this space last Sunday and moved my boxes of craft things into it yesterday:

Yup, 400 square feet of crafting space to call my own.

Yes, this is a bit of an extravagance as I am not working. However, I am hoping that this space has arrived just in time to rescue my sanity from an abject case of cabin fever.

So – exciting? Yes.

Scary? Definitely!

* * *

Notes: *My ex-ex-colleagues Skyped me from a hotel this morning, to say hello from a retirement party that I am missing because I am so far away. It was lovely to see them and get a chance to say goodbye to a very decent chap who was extremely good fun to work with.

Road Trip!

A week ago last Sunday, the Fella and I dragged the last pieces of furniture to safety, packed our bags and headed to a hotel in downtown Vancouver while the floors were being refinished.

The Fella picked out a really nice place for us to stay – just as a treat after all our hard work on the house over the past two months. This meant that for a glorious day and a half, I was lucky enough to be spoiled with crisply pressed bed linen, the feel of plush carpet under my feet, a shower that felt like I was standing under a waterfall and this view - it was utterly lush.

I spent all day on Monday in our hotel room doing my course homework. Ironically, the hotel was refurbishing bedrooms in the tower opposite our room so the whole building was alive with work parties of decorators! Each time my gaze drifted across at the lovely view, I caught sight of a lot of paint roller action! Ngg, I felt for them!

Once the Floor Guy was done, we took ourselves off to Victoria (Vancouver Island) for a few days while the fumes dissipated and the varnish cured a bit. I do not have any pictures of the crossing to Victoria as it was dark but here is the view from our hotel window, plus a couple of other snaps:

Although we were not there long, I really liked what I saw in and around Victoria:

The Beehive is large. It is laid out by yarn weight and it carries a lot of well known Canadian, US and Italian yarns (including big name hand dyes). Amongst many other things, Boutique de Laine stocks quite a bit of Rowan and Debbie Bliss.

So, if you come here on holiday - relax. Victoria sports some very fine, well stocked Yarn and Fabric Establishments!

The surrounding coastal landscape felt reassuringly familiar too. We drove back up to the ferry along the coast - now while the architecture is quite different to home, it has the same sort of feel as suburban areas along the shores of South Wales (I am thinking of Southerndown and Porthcawl, specifically) and even over on the islands of Guernsey and Jersey.

I kept my hands diligently on the steering wheel so I do not have any pictures of the houses but here is a snap of the sea view that the houses enjoy. Not bad, eh? We were not certain but we thought that the land mass over in the distance was the San Juan Island, which is US territory, not a part of Canada.

On our way back to the ferry, we stopped in Sidney, lured in by the attraction of two yarn shops (which we did not find) and the Honeysuckle Weaving and Spinning Studio. Luckily, Dianne (a lovely, knowledgeable lady) happened to be in. As a result, I happened to leave with some more spinning fibre (more in a later post), a book and some extra bobbins for my wheel - very cool.

Now the perfect close to our excellent trip, believe it or not, was the ferry crossing back - a world apart from the Dover-to-Calais experience. I can thoroughly recommend it. The boat between Vancouver and Victoria takes about 1.5 hours, it threads its way through the Gulf Islands and the Pacific Buffet serves up a very civilised meal for CAD$18.90 (approx £9.50). You get a wonderful view of the islands and their wildlife as you dine on your way past.

Honest, there were seals (I think) in that last picture! There, see?! Those two shadows, just under the surface, right in the centre of the frame!

The strange thing is that when the Fella and I spend time together, it rarely occurs to me to take photos of us both. However, I do have two that I would like to share with you. The Fella just before we headed off on our trip paired with a snap that I took on the ferry, on our way home.

Despite his protests that he was fine, I was very worried about how tired he looked before we went away. I am not sure that I looked much better. I suspect that our trip away was a very good, timely break for us both.

And after all that, what did we come home to? Oh y'know - just the loveliest looking floors that I have ever had the pleasure to walk on*.

Hmm, I think that I might need to follow Yarn Sprout's lead, get my hands on a copy of Interweave Knits Holiday 2008 and start knitting a truck load of those slipper socks - it would be heartbreaking to ruin these floors!

The complete set of trip photos can be seen here - in reverse! So it starts with the ferry crossing and works back towards our hotal stay in Vancouver!

Note
* If you are thinking of refinishing your floors - please be warned.

We are one week on and there are still a lot of fumes in the house. Although it has hardened, the varnish still seems quite vulnerable. So we are camped out in one room and introducing the furniture back into the house very slowly (with copious felt protectors).

Plus, there have been casualties – I did expect some damage but in fact, all of the skirting boards (base boards) in every single room need to be repainted. Without exception, they all fell victim to the sanding machines. Not to mention that I need to repaint a couple of doors in the hallway that got sloshed with varnish!

Trust me, while it has all been worth it, my heart sank when I realised that the paint tins need to come back out - I was very much hoping that all I would have to do is move the furniture back in and settle down to some serious knitting and spinning!

All painted!

On schedule...if anyone thinks that they can hear a big sigh of relief. They can. It's mine.

The floor guy started this morning, it is a crisp sunny November day and for the first time in weeks, I can spend it doing something other than DIY and I can take in some air that is free of paint fumes!

Y'know, the contents of this bag look like they could be quite intriguing:

Look, even my pals H and Duquesne think that they might be objects of interest! +^

* * *

Notes:

+ Hurray for finding a local channel that seems to show almost non stop CSI! Plus a whole load of other police and mortuary hocus pokus.

^I wish that someone could get the whole CSI Miami team up to BC for an episode or two. Y'know, perhaps they could sort out this local mystery. Although it reads like something spat straight out of a storyline - oh no - sadly, it is real. It would be very nice if it could be cleared up with a few fast paced, split screen 'at the lab' images of whizzy tidal triangulation followed up by the deployment of diving Delko (the only known human, faster than the speed of light, underwater evidence magnet). It's a shame that real life is not like that as surely, there are some families out there who need some kind of closure?

We are just about on track...

...for the chap coming on Monday to refinish the floors. In the meantime, the house seems to be covered almost entirely in plastic and masking tape (while I seem to be the one thing inside it that is most covered in paint)!

However, I did negotiate a DIY Exit Pass to get to knitting group last night - I did not appreciate just how much I needed to get out of the house yesterday until I returned home! I had such a good time and proof of my rare presence in public (spinning not knitting) can be seen on Flickr here, here and here, all courtesy of the lovely b i t c h n s t i t c h e r. I am amazed at how cool spinning looks in these photos - even if I don't really have a clue yet what I am doing!

Okay, back up a ladder I go. Both the room above and the hallway below need another coat of eggshell (vinyl silk emulsion) before the end of today...

...gulp - I wonder how early the Fella can escape work to pitch in at home?!

Shh, I am supposed to be painting another ceiling...

...yup, I have my shower cap on and my rough surface roller at the ready. Well, we are behind plan and The Floor Guy arrives on Monday!

However, I just thought that I would pop by to sneak you a very amateur spinning update (which is the only craft related thing that I have managed to do between coats of paint and another course module in the past week).

Okay, I signed up for four evening spinning classes at Birkeland Bros. in Vancouver -do drop by their website as it has a lovely history! Here is my spinning tutor, U, whizzing her stuff on a drop spindle at the end of a class:

This is what I managed to produce on my wheel by the end of my second class. I am/was trying very hard to work on producing a more regular single, that was not as overspun as my first attempt and was thin enough for me to ply and end up with a finished yarn that is somewhere (anywhere) between 4 ply and aran weight:

*Cough* I have no idea what a single should look like for each weight of yarn yet. So I have no clue whether I am on track here or not. I guess that it will be trial and error until I've practised enough to understand what sort of single I should be aiming for. I will plod on with this bobbin, make a friend to go with it, ply them together, see how the yarn turns out and adjust things from there?

However, I came home to practice and this fibre kept winking at me:

So I put aside my class fibre and bobbin and I set to work on this instead. I really struggled too. This fibre behaves completely differently to the stuff that I am using in class. It is Louet, space dyed wool top. I am not sure but it seems that something has happened to the sections of fibre that were squashed against the outside of the plastic bag - it feels drier, more coarse and rougher than the fiber from the centre of the bag. It is a bit harder to work with, somehow. So on my first bobbin, I delved into the centre of the fibre and worked backwards, out towards the fibre that was on the outside of the bag - I have absolutely no idea if this makes any difference.

I also found that if I spun it in the way that I was spinning my class sliver, it would break easily from a lack of twist? So um, I have put more twist into it. It seemed like the logical thing to do but I am not sure it was the right solution. Actually, I am worried that I have completely overspun it - there are areas on the bobbin where it has twisted around itself as it went onto the bobbin and so, I am hoping that I will be able to even that out when I ply it...gulp.

I guess that I should have stopped when I only had a little bit on my bobbin and andean plied it, to see how it turned out? Nope, I did not - so instead, I have a bobbin full of very pretty but probably overspun fibre!

I know that I should wind some of this off, to test how it turns out. Except, I just want to get on, spin and ply another bobbin, so that I have enough of this very pretty coloured stuff by the end of this house reno work (DIY) for me to knit something lovely as a reward for all my hard work...

...is that so wrong?!

PS: I have just spotted that last Friday, Wye Sue Knits posted a really lovely post on her blog called, 'Down Alley Way' - it's about my mother's Textile and Artisan Yarns gallery in Hereford. If you take a closer look at the gallery window sign in Sue's post, it looks like my mother has been having some fun with her sewing machine!

Wheels Go Round...

...when I was a little girl and my grandparents were not looking, I used to play with a little plant stand in their hallway. Its moving parts fascinated me. I could build it up to a terrific, mesmerising speed until its string came flying off, broke or the plant rattled in its container, giving me away - each time it was fixed and/or my grandparents' attention wandered, I'd creep back to play with it again.

Later, my mother had two proper versions of my grandparents' plant stand. I was still a child though and I do not remember having permission to use them – apart from once or twice, perhaps? My memory is that they were pretty much out of bounds. Mind you, that didn't stop me from having a sneaky whizz round on them when my mother was out or not looking (sorry mum, I fibbed back then - it was me). There is just something about their design that begs you to race them around, even if you are not supposed to.

I was allowed to have a go on a manual version of my mother's kit but I didn't find it any fun at all -so I cast it aside and forgot all about it.

* * *

Fast forward to 2008. Lately, I have noticed a lot of friends, for example this one and this one, getting into a new craft. I have been watching them from the sidelines with the same feeling that I used to have when lurking around the edges of a playground at a new school. You know, sort of hoping that someone would invite me to join in a game of something but half terrified, just in case they did?

After all - a new craft equals more financial outlay, something extra to try to fit into the same amount of crafting time and I remember writing this particular craft off as a bad job when I was small.

Yet the feeling of wanting to have a go persisted. So, I went home to Hereford and I asked my mother if I might borrow some of her equipment. I was completely thwarted though! It seems that my mother has started to use it all again recently. (Although mum, I await evidence of this on your blog!)

Net result? I wrote off the whole idea. Luckily, something popped up unexpectedly on Ravelry just after my birthday. This led to the vague mention in a previous post that I might be up to something betwen DIY duties.

Well, I have barely knitted a stitch since I arrived in Canada. All my yarn, fabric, tools, books and notions are in Rubbermaids (plastic containers) due to the DIY mess (paint and dust) and the house barely has any furniture left in it as we are having the floors refinished soon.

Right now, I am supposed to be washing, sanding or painting the house. I am not supposed to be spending any time with this beautful thing:

It is supposed to be the carrot that keeps me diligently at my DIY tasks. Yet it keeps on coming out. Excuse me while I make an understatement here - see this wheel?

It is soooo much better than the plant stand that I used to play with when I was little.

And spinning itself? Ohhhhh folks, it is so very, v-e-r-y addictive.

I have even heard myself saying to the Fella (who is a bit bemused by this sudden turn of events), "I'd really like to go home. I'd really like to get my spinning wheel out to practice."

"Oh! Do you mind, if I spend ten minutes with my wheel before we go to bed, after I have washed off all this paint?"

I have had my wheel for a week. So far? Between DIY duties, I have managed to spin three bobbins of Crossbreed Sliver 33 Micron. This is the fibre that they handed to me when I signed up for my 4 spinning classes at Birkeland Bros. The first two bobbins, I have plied into my first skein (or so) of really lumpy, bumpy yarn, which I have dutifully skeined and soaked to set the twist. Voila!

Now the Fella lost the Noro scarf that I knitted him at the start of this year. So I have told him that I plan to knit a replacement from this - I plan to call it The Penance Scarf and make him wear it out in public!

My next bobbin looks a bit thinner and more even. With any luck, it will be less overspun (it seems that I still like to whiz my wheel):

Now while I am enjoying practising with my spinning class fibre, I am looking forwards to putting it aside to play with some of the other things in my budding fibre stash:

From Left to Right:

Front Row: Birkeland Bros fibre that Chrissy kindly gave me to get started; some yummy, yummy fibre from Yarnsprout (Chrissy) who sells her natural hand dyes here and her commercial dyes here. I do not want to touch (ruin) these until I have a better idea what I am doing; my spinning class fibre

Back Row: a mixture of things that I picked up on Friday from Fun Knits at BC Expo. I tried to work with the Louet fibre last night (as I was told that it was the best next step, after Sliver, for beginner spinners) but it is not behaving at all like my class fibre. So um, actually, I had to give up as I wasn't getting anywhere! Hmm, need more help and practice..!

So um, yep - my name is Gabrielle. I used to have a fabric stash.

(It's been about 2 years since my last fabric purchase.)

Then, as my interests developed, I developed a yarn stash.

(Opps, it's only been about 2 days since my last yarn purchase.)

Now it seems that I have moved halfway around the planet and now? I have a fabric, yarn and fibre stash?

What does the Fella think? Well, he did mention that I justified bringing over my yarn stash by saying that I wanted to work on existing projects and wanted to reduce bug related yarn panic attacks. He also pointed out that making more yarn does rather contradict this objective!

However, mostly, his view on this sudden turn of events? Actually, he keeps chuckling, shaking his head and saying, "I thought that I was a knitter's boyfriend. However, it turns out that I am a spinner's boyfriend...

...what's it worth, for me not to mention this to anyone?!"

My reply?

"Oh shhhh, don't interrupt - I'm spinning!"

Ceiling Painters of the World Unite!

Rain, rain, go away...

...I have been told, by several - no, make that many - unrelated people, that it is going to rain here every day between now and Spring 2009. It seems that the Fella doesn't call it 'the rainforest' for nothing.

The furniture storage units have arrived and DIY is almost on track!

People look at me incredulously when I tell them that I am here for another 5 months, "What? You came to Vancouver in October? For 6 months? Don't you know that it is going to rain every single day between now and March?!"

Enroute to Port Moody to track down the Black Sheep Yarns store (no, we didn't find it)

I have been doing my best to ignore the glum tone in their voices. I have been doing my best to remain cheerful and celebrate each and every low sun setting autumn day.

However, as it turns out, they were not joking and they were not exaggerating - I am hard put to remember the last day that it did not rain recently. Actually, there is a heavy rainfall warning in effect at present.

Downtown Vancouver, enroute home from BC Creative Expo

The last time that I felt like this? I was living on the West Coast of Scotland. Actually, the Fella just laughed when I read him the first bit of this post and quipped that Vancouver makes Scotland look like a desert.

Generally, it seems that the sky is an unremitting, steely grey here. It's only October and some days it only ever seems to half lift itself out of a UK 3-4pm deep winter gloom. On other days, just to add interest to the grey - any remainly light is obscured by fogginess. Nice.

Enroute to a Christmas rag quilt class

In the past? I didn't think that gloomy days affected me at all. It turns out that I was wrong - they are more life and energy sapping than you can imagine.

So I am stalking websites like this with a feeling of dreadful longing - does anyone have any experience of these things and how well they do (or do not) work?!

Notes: craft update, relating to the above is coming very soon, just once I've thrown the Fella off the scent - o-k-a-y I have not been doing quite as much DIY as I am supposed to have done by today's date but amazingly, we are still on track. See?

One Step Forwards - One Step Back?

It is rare for me to comment on politics, however today I will make an exception:

1. America has voted for change. It is my observation that when we have had a change of political party in the UK (regardless of the direction of the power switch, interestingly), it has bought with it a new energy to the leadership of the country and sometimes, a refreshing change in key policies.

Mind you, it is a challenging time for the US, so the Democrats do not have an easy term ahead of them. It will be very interesting to see what they make of their term in office, how well they are able to deliver on their election promises and what impact that has, both at home and abroad - on us, the rest of the world.

2. The State of California was split on this item but it seems that overall, they have voted Yes to Proposition 8. If you are not familiar with Proposition 8, you can read more about it here on Wikipedia. I feel very disappointed that a state, within a country that I expect to lead the way on equal rights for its citizens, has decided to slap the faces of same sex couples in this way.

I know many couples in very good, loving, supportive, strong, stable, enduring and committed relationships - some of these couples are heterosexual and others are not. To me, it is the people that I know and the good quality of their relationships that stand out, not their sexual orientation.

In my personal view, a couple's decision to marry, should be governed by whether they wish to formalise their partnership and make a lifelong commitment to each other (both legally and spiritually). I do not feel that it should be constrained by the fact that they are not entitled to marry because they are a same sex couple.

This ballot outcome feels like a peculiar step back, in a wider atmosphere of a country taking a different step forwards.

Opps, how did that happen?!

Now, see this?



This folks, is a gant chart that shows the next phase of house reno (DIY) in Vancouver.

Oh bah humbug, please don't tell me off for being a control freak! Okay, okay, so I am - however, in my defence, I am here studying for a professional Project Management accreditation and I did get a copy of MS Project for my birthday!

Now this gant chart shows that in the next three weeks, we (me 'n' de Fella) need to get three fairly large spaces - namely the living room, hall and Kiddo's bedroom - T.S.P'd (sugar soaped), primed (undercoated) and painted before a contractor (bloke) comes to refinish the floors in week commencing 24th November. That way, we can haul all of our (the Fella's) furniture back into the house in the first week of December (after we have allowed 5 days for the floors to harden).

Now, as you know, I have a vested interest in this milestone, as it means that I will be able to get my yarn/fabric stashes out and start playing with them, without fear of contamination by dust or any other kind of crud (yes, I am thinking of this DIY as a 'deep clean' and a chance for the Fella to wave goodbye to ten years of single bachelor existence). Hurray!

However, see that faint trail of little red tasks (mainly allocated to me)? Those are the things that are on the critical path for this little project. So if they shift sideways to the right (i.e. I do not finish them in time) then we are stuffed, as we will not be ready for the floor bloke to do his thing.

Mind you, as with all 'good' project plans (cough), weekends are contingency.

Um and let's face it, I am likely to need them too as I have my next course module soon, some real course work to do and oh, y'know, today...

...I seem to have purchased a preloved (second hand/nearly new) one of these from this lovely person and signed up for some beginner lessons here.

I am so excited about it! Well, there's nothing like setting yourself a dual challenge, eh?!