Beautiful BC

A day kayaking on Lightning Lakes.

Barely a ripple.

Pure bliss.

It's NOW the Christmas Season

It's now officially the Christmas season.

For some the start of the Christmas season is the American Thanksgiving, for others it's "Black Friday" when they hit all the sales. For many children it's the opening of the first window on their advent calendar. For still others it's when they decorate a Christmas tree or shop for a present for a loved one.

For me the start of the Christmas season has always been marked by the baking of the first batch of shortbread. That's usually the 1st of December for me, so I'm a little late this year. A relatively new tradition for me, discovered a few years ago, is enjoying a glass of cranberry liqueur. I'm by no means a "boozer" and this delicious small treat is reserved for the Christmas season.

Dragon Mist Liqueur is made right here in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada. 

Hicks Lake

Another quick day trip. 

Hicks Lake BC

Less than an hour's drive from our house.

The weather was beautiful!

Left You Behind

I got so busy weaving, and doing other crafty things, that I forgot to update you all on this latest project.

 

A while back I initiated a weave-a-long on the "Saori Weaving for Everyone" group on Ravelry.  We now have 15 weavers participating!

The idea is to choose a painting you love and then use it as inspiration for a Saori style weaving.

The weaving does not have to be a pictorial representation of the painting. The idea is just to attempt to capture the 'mood' of the painting in colour and/or other elements.

So while I was absent from the blog I was busy choosing a painting to use as inspiration and then selecting yarns, winding a warp, and dressing the loom.

The weather here has been hot, hot, HOT, so I dragged a portable table into the only air conditioned room in my house and sat there to do much of the prep work.

The dogs were more than happy to sit in the cool room with me while I worked.

When I finally started weaving I was very surprised to have it take off, almost with a mind of its own, in a mildly tapestry-esk fashion. Not true tapestry, but kind of looking that way as I weave randomly in the colours I see as representing the painting.

I chose Evelyn Kirkaldy's "Kootenay Meadow" as my inspiration.

And here is how it looks now, after the second day of weaving. This particular technique, using a table fork as a 'beater' and weaving organic looking shapes in a wide variety of colours, thicknesses, and textures, is VERY SLOW going. I don't know if I'll be able to hold out for the entire four metres I wound, but I am enjoying myself so far.