A Little Peek

Just a quick look at what I'm working on. The yarn's some vintage superwash from my stash. You might recognize the cables. Any guesses? I'm hoping to have this project finished by mid-week. It's getting cold!

It's also getting harder to catch the sun for photos, one of the many drawbacks of daylight savings. Suddenly it's dark and I haven't even had dinner yet. Yuck. The only upside is the motivation to knit a little faster to stave off the cold, if not the dark. What do you have on the needles to keep toasty?

Farmers' Market

It's been a little slow around here the last few weeks. Most of my time has been spent cleaning and trying to get MFA application stuff together. Actually, that's what I should be doing right now...

Me and Xenia still found some time to hit the farmers' market Monday afternoon, and as always it was a great time. It was also the last outdoor market of the season, so we tried to make the best of the lovely weather.

Photo by Xenia Vakova

Here I am, wondering if I want these beets. Do even I know what to do with beets?

Photo by Xenia Vakova

Of course I do! Pose with them!

Photo by Xenia Vakova

Now I have to go figure out what to make with them, and also the tub of creme fraiche I bought. Anyone for borscht?

Fall Plans

Everyone seems to be right in the thick of fall sewing/knitting. Toronto's in the midst of a second kick at summer, after a terribly chilly week, so I've been having a bit of trouble getting into the swing of it. Pinterest came to the rescue and helped me sort out a plan. A few garments are longer term projects, like finishing up the grey tweed version of this great sweater designed by Mari Lynn Patrick from Vogue Knitting Winter 2010/2011 which I cast on back in February.

Source: ravelry.com via Madelaine on Pinterest

Others are new projects I've been meaning to get to forever, like whipping up a Colette Beignet, either in some recycled floral corduroy or some bird print canvas from Ikea.

Source: colettepatterns.com via Madelaine on Pinterest

What about you? What are you stitching up for the chilly months ahead (or behind, depending on your hemisphere)?

And happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Flying Geese Progress

Slowly but surely all the little geese are finding their flocks. The three blocks on the left are completely sewn and all the others are in rows that need to be joined into blocks. Not all of my seams were as accurate as they could have been and it's making piecing... interesting. By which I mean I may start throwing things. Skills to work on I guess.

I don't really care that it's a bit wonky, this is definitely going to be a quilt that makes me smile.

Day at the Market

Fall blew in to Toronto last night. I woke up to a chilly house and a less than 10 degree city. Ouch! Luckily one of my favourite days of the year, the Aberfoyle Antique Market's special Saturday market, was last week. It was a bright sunny day instead of the rain called for, and Emma and her parents made a great road trip of it. It's fun knowing other people who love the market. It's even more fun when they bring you along in their car (thanks guys!).

It's a bit of an epic journey to get to the market, but always worth it. This time I was conservative with my shopping, picking up a great vintage table cloth, some green glass buttons with gold mirroring, and a bit of fabric labled as a feedsack, but I'm not so sure. Does anyone know what to look for to tell? Not that it matters, I just liked the print. Right as we were heading back to the car I spotted a booth with jewellery that had a little gold tone locket pin. I have about 5 of these and wear them constantly. I opened it up and inside were this lovely couple.

Aren't they great? I know some people find pieces like this sad, since they've been abandoned, but I always have a special fondness for them. I like the idea that someone is still holding on to them, even if it's a stranger. Remembrance through objects... Or I just spent too long at art school. Either way.

I also got a couple of Vogue Knittings from the 60s, and with my magic powers of duplicate purchasing, came home with one I already had. Keep your eyes open for a giveaway with it in the next week or so. The little blue buttons were free with the pin and some pieces I picked up for my mom. Can't argue with that.

Flying Geese

With my first quilt still endlessly in progress, I decided it was maybe time to try my hand at machine piecing for a break. As lovely as English Paper Piecing is, those little hexagons take forever.

The Purl Bee's mini quilt for July caught my eye when it first went up, and I even picked out the fabric right away. I found the pile two days ago, and went to work cutting out the pieces. The next day I went out and bought a rotary cutter so I would never have to cut that many little squares by hand with my shears again. I sure do like doing things the hard way.

About halfway through last night my sewing table looked like this.

And this morning I finished up 10 (almost) perfect little stacks of geese. Now I just have to arrange and sew the blocks, sew them to each other, find some batting, learn how to quilt... But for now I'm happy to just pet the little triangles every so often.

Upcoming Show

My friend Cheryl is moving her store across the street from it's current location, and decided to open the space up as a gallery for the first month with a group show called Love Love. How awesome is that? Also, I'm in it! If you're in Toronto in October, you should pop by and check it out.

I'm still on board Self-Stitched-September. I think it was just the documenting photos that stopped me last time. There's so much pressure to put together a different look everyday when you're posting it online. In real life, I do such different things that the chances of someone who isn't the manfriend or the cat seeing me more than one day in a row are pretty slim. I have a totally new appreciation of fashion bloggers now.

Lots of crafting going on here, and lots of vintage hunting. Pretty things coming up soon.