Thursday, February 24, 2011

some pictures

I am working from home today so I was able to take a few minutes to take pictures of the dishtowel I weaved. I also found some other pictures on my camera of something I embroidered a while ago and gave to my mum for her 70th birthday in May. My friend Kim also took pictures of the hat I finished this weekend, and promised to send them to me. That will be for the next post.

So, first, the dishtowel ( I still need to finish it):

my first woven piece!


What I am the most proud of is that I went from these bumpy edges:

to this:




Much better, no? I can't wait to start all over again on my loom.


Now, the embroidered piece...I bought this in Prague back in ...1999...I also bought the thread, and I even started it then. And then I stopped for a few years...and I went back to it...and stopped again...and then decided that that was ridiculous! (I also needed something very quickly for my mum!)







I really like it because it is simple and elegant.

It's not the oldest thing I  started and finished late. I still have a monster Kalocsai multicoloured tablecloth I bought in Budapest in 1992...I really don't seem to be able to finish that one. I get sick of it every time I  go  back to it, to the point where I almost decided once to cut it in 4 pieces, so I could at least finish one. I didn't do it, and it is still waiting for me to get back to it. I did some embroidery not long ago for the present of an expecting colleague, and it was not too bad. I think I will feel like going back to this one soon.

So many things to do, so little time...

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

so many things to talk about

I'm not very consistent in my writing. It's mostly because I am not very good at taking pictures during the day. When I think about it, it's too dark to get something nice, especially that I have been taking them with my ipod (too lazy/busy to charge my camera's batteries and download the pictures), although I just got a new memory drive that should make it much easier to keep my pictures in a kind of organised way.

So, I'm not even home now, and of course I forgot my ipod and I have no camera with me, but, I will very soon come back with pictures of:
  • semi-organised office (which means: room was made for the loom, clean up will come soon)
  • first finished woven dishtowel ever! (well, I still need to finish it..I mean, sew its hems)
  • first finished knitted thing (I mean, that was more than a square in stockinette stitch). It's a hat that I started a month ago after I went shopping in Montreal. Someone who saw the finished product already asked me for one...I can't believe it. I'm a knitter! 

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Mid-February, already?

I can't believe it, it's already February 12.

It means that I finish my contract with Equitas, where I've worked for the past 5 years in a month in a half, it means I started my new contract in 3R a month ago. Time flies...

The last month has not been so busy, just tiring. I knew that switching from a job to another every day would not be easy, but I did not realise it would be so tiring to finish so many reports and proposals while learning a lot about the university and about chiropractic in general. Since there is a chiropractic clinic at the university, I decided to try it (I can get some treatments for free as an employee!) instead of starting to look for a new osteopath in 3R. I really like the fact that I am being seen by a very eager students and a clinician who is overlooking everything, so it is as if I always get a double opinion. However, I must say that if they were able to confirm some things I had been told by osteopaths over the years, they were also able to go much further in the diagnostics and treatments. So, it turns out I have spina bifida. Scary to hear at first, but from what they told me, nothing to worry about, about 15% of people have it and do not even know about it. The other thing is that now that I see them twice a week, I feel my back non-stop. It's not very painful, but it is always there, something that was adjusted and that is not yet comfortable. I think it all adds up to why I am feel so tired. But it is still better than the neck pain I have been having over the past few months!

Anyway, all that to say that I have not progressed much on any of my knittings. Another reason why I have not progressed much on any thing is that my office looks like this:

my very messy office
The good news is that I own a loom! It is the very same loom I practiced on at the Farmers' hall, and the same loom that my teacher has (I think), so I should be able to get support if needed when I warp it. My man and I took a little to Beauce a few weeks ago to go get it. Bad news is that that loom takes a lot of room my already crowded office, so right now, I only go in to sit in front of the computer.

Today is the day we make room for the the loom, so my only plan is to clean up my office, figure out where to put my stuff so there is room for everything, and DO IT!. The weather is not really nice (snow squall watch in effect for the region), so it will be a perfect activity for us.

I hope to have new pictures of my clean, efficient office tomorrow. Hopefully by then I will have found my camera and battery charger, so I can take better pictures than with my ipod..

One last thing: Happy Valentine's day, if I don't come back before Monday!