Jananas

I spun up 4oz of Hello Yarn’s Askew colourway. This was my first attempt at doing a colour gradient. I separated the colours as best I could and then spun, roughly, from light to dark. I believe that this was Romney, a long wool. Have to say that I’m not 100% sold on long wools (I feel similarly about short/fine stuff). I guess I’m a middle of the (wool) road kinda gal.

I think that this might be destined for a weaving project!

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last two weeks spinning. I’ve been doing a pretty major spring cleaning/overhaul of the house and had started to get a little overwhelmed by my fiber cupboard. The best solution? Spin like a mad woman! I think any point in time when you spin pounds of yarn in a one to two week period qualifies as crazy.

One of the difficulties with indie dyers is that you often end up with 4oz of a beautiful colourway. Because I don’t have fantastic yardage I end up with little skeins. Partly because I wanted more yarn and partly because I’ve been inspired by all the lovely yarns I see spun up on Ravelry I decided to play around with some combos. Excuse the photo heavy post – imagine how much work it would be if I included all the yarn I spun. Below (at 12oz of fiber, or one pound) is about half of what I spun up – eek!

First up is Hello Yarn in Minerals (shetland) and Juliespins in Amish Rainbow (targhee). I think that this is just lovely and it makes for a springy, dense yarn. Lovely, lovely, lovely! I also ended up with two giant skeins of yarn!

Next up is Spunky Eclectic’s Storms of Jupiter (organic merino) and Hello Yarn’s Icing (superwash merino). I’d originally hoped to ply Storms of Jupiter with Minerals (both are red/blue/white), but the colours weren’t complimentary. I think that this mix worked wonderfully!

A friend of mine is working for the Map & Data Library at U of T. They are doing some crazy work, funding the digitization of old fire insurance plans (which become public domain after 60 years). She’s come across a couple of my neighbourhood (Dundas & Dovercourt in Toronto) that she’s sent my way. In fact, she’s been given permission to start blogging about some of the maps she finds, so check out the Map & Data Library’s blog to see all the awesome things she’s uncovered.

1884

I love that Dufferin is the western city limit on this map. And that what used to be the old elementary school on Dovercourt north of Dundas (torn down now to make room for a new police station), used to be an orphanage! Also, our house didn’t exist. In fact, our road didn’t even exist. Crazy.

1890

My road exists now, although its spelt a little differently (there’s an extra ‘A’ in there now). In fact, my house exists now – and we’re one of the first ones on the block, which is pretty cool. Its funny to see churches where the Remax building is now. Oh, how times have changed. The current Roman Catholic church at Dovercourt and Argyle apparently started life as a Baptist church. And that Garrison Creek is still visible (there are even bridges!). And just how empty it all still is.

1910

This map is less detailed, but all the houses are here. Apparently the Baptist church also had a Memorial Hall and Sunday School attached. And for some reason Lisgar was referred to as North Lisgar.

Looking at these maps makes me wonder what the deal was with the architecture of the time. The houses are all designed to look very similar, with the narrowing at the back. Was there a functional reason?

I’ve been playing around with weaving on my new rigid heddle loom over the last few weeks. Mid-last week I warped for my first scarf made out of handspun yarn! I had spun up 8 oz. of Spunky Eclectic’s fiber clubs (4 oz. each of David’s Gift and Mordor) and plied them together. It was funny, I disliked both colourways on their own but really like them together. I love how you have to learn to trust fiber in that things that look bad at first can look amazing further along in the process. For the weft I used a mix of the SE two ply and some two ply I spun up quickly from some Moonrover batts I had in my stash. It worked so perfectly!

I like weaving on my little rigid heddle! Its extra awesome because it means another way to use my hand spun and I can use sock yarn without having to knit socks!! I’m not sure where this scarf will end up, but my first two are already in the mail on their way to their new homes so there’s a good possibility that this one will get gifted as well.

One of the things that Jason and I are interested in is the history of body modification whether it be piercings or jewelry or tattoos or scarification. We’re not active collectors, but when an opportunity presents itself we’ve been known to take advantage of the opportunity. A couple of weeks ago my friend Maurie told me about the Guild Shop here in Toronto, first as a potential place for some registry items and later to let me know about a friends & family sale. I, of course, looked through the website and immediately fell in love with a print by Germaine Aranktauyok titled Tunilik (which I believe means the tattooed woman). We picked it up this week and it is amazing!

Germaine’s cousin works/volunteers at the Guild Shop, so I was able to talk with her a little bit about the tattoos. Apparently, the tattoos in the print are based on those of Germaine’s grandmother. Tattooing started at the hands, went up the arms and onto the breast. Faces were tattooed last. The main portion of the design identified the tribe/clan, although some elements are unique to the individual. She also described the traditional process, which involved very sharp leg bones from caribou, sinew, soot, and sewing.

I think its lovely. I’m excited that by purchasing this print and hanging it out in our house, we’ll be able to share this piece of (not very well known) Canadian culture and history with friends and family and future generations.