The Blue Brick

When in Rome

November 29, 2012

Last weekend Tito and I put our tree up. The putting up of the Christmas tree has been a long tradition in our family – my parents still have the same tree they bought in 1975 and we put it up every year! My folks have always had a sort of ‘when in Rome’ type attitude towards Christmas – though we are not Christians we enjoy the festive spirit, decorations, good food, time with friends and family, gift giving and, of course, putting up the tree.

Another tradition is the idea of inviting lots of folks over to participate in putting up the tree with us – we love to decorate while spending time with people we adore and eating good food! This time I had that roast from the Highland Cattle Farm and we took a stab at cooking it up for our guests.

Luckily I have two awesome women in my life, Cheryl and Beverly, who both know much more about cooking than I do. They gave us temperature and time recommendations and Bev suggested we just wrap the whole thing in bacon (because you can’t go wrong with bacon).

I don’t know anything about cooking, honestly. But Tito helped me out and we got the roast lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, wrapped it in a good coat of bacon and put it in the oven for a long time on a low heat. It was _amazing_. The meat was so tender and moist and the bacon flavouring was perfect!

We also enjoyed a selection of jams from the same farm, and used Kim’s spicy relish to spice up a cake of warmed up brie. Throw on some cookies, and Christmas cake, and even a culinary newbie like myself can set a good table =D

However you celebrate, whatever you celebrate, I hope you have some beautiful things planned for the month of December, I know we do!
Wedding Keepsakes

November 27, 2012

Blog death yet again – but this time it’s not my fault. My computer has been on the blink, and I have been in and out of Apple stores trying to get this resolved. I am starting to feel dubious about ‘genius’ being a job title… but I digress.

I have been busy though, and today’s post is about the birthday gift I made for my newly wed friend Kris. At the end of the wedding, while everyone was drunk and distracted, I absconded with a few petals from her bouquet. Sneaky, no? Here was the bouquet:

And here are the results:

Like all my resin work, this is jeweller’s grade resin. It will never yellow, or fade. I thought it would make a sweet keepsake for her – so even after the rest of the bouquet has been dried she can wear and remember the original colours of her wedding day :)
Treasure Hunting

November 19, 2012

On Sunday, our awesome friends Johnathan and Bev took us treasure hunting at an antique market out in Milton.

Places like this are fascinating…

…filled with old books, old toys, furniture, art….

…even things that are creepy…

…and then, SHAZAM!

Here’s what I was able to find out about it – circa 1860 (we researched wheels from that era, and the design seems to match), missing a few bits, and best of all – about a quarter of the price of any wheel I’ve seen for sale here in Toronto. Score.

It looks so happy in it’s new home.

Tito and started taking the elbow grease to it, bringing out the natural shine from under decades of dust.

Stage two was taking wood filler to the obviously broken bits.

Stage three happens when my spinning instructor Leslie Ordal can come by to take a look at it and tell me which bits we might need to build for it. It’s my first wooden restoration job – Can’t wait to see how it goes!
The Man-Slouch

November 14, 2012

Finally finished the Dustland Hat by Stephen West, and it goes perfectly with Tito’s Guernsey Wrap. A little too perfectly, the stitch patterns in both are almost identical. No complaints though, it made for a good match with the scarf.

I totally did something wrong here, because I ended up with a huge hat and I ran out of yarn. Tito folds up the brim to make it fit. I went over the pattern and couldn’t figure out the problem, so it must’ve been the tension. I’ll need to swatch before making another one.

The yarn is Sweet Georgia worsted, in the colourway ‘Olive’. I’ve got to say, I’m enjoying being able to purchase Sweet Georgia yarn without having to go to BC to do it, thanks to the selection over at Eweknit. Ravelry project page here!
Furry Cows, sustainable eating and the cutest things I’ve seen since baby otters.

November 12, 2012

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I’m one of those people that can only eat meat by never thinking too hard about where my food is coming from. So, when the abattoir truck changed it’s morning route and started going by my home I was pretty distressed. In this case it’s pigs, and you can smell the truck long before it arrives and detect it long after it’s gone. It smells like fear and filth, pervasive and intense, and it’s made a huge impact on how I think about what I eat. As it happens, Tito turned out to be working with a highland beef farmer – a wonderful lady named Kim. Kim put out an open invitation for us to visit her farm, and last Saturday we took her up on it.

The farm is called Gryphon Ridge Highlands. Here is their Facebook Page. The farm is incredible – Kim is a tough, friendly, hard working gal who works 2-3 jobs outside of the farm – just so she can keep it running. The animals there are more like pets, following her around and nuzzling her every chance they get. They’re in love with her, and it’s mutual.

This is Wilbur – he’s a pet rescue pig. Wilbur came from an abusive farm and is now in his ‘forever home’. He’s shy, but is not afraid to come bother you for a petting.

This is muddy guy is my new friend Eddie. Eddie is a miniature horse, white with blue eyes. There’s nothing quite like snuffly horse-kisses in your ears ;)

Kim has a pet goat named Diesel (so named because it’s hard to start her up on cold mornings) Diesel is obnoxious and awesome. She was bottle fed as a baby and is more dog than goat – following us everywhere and trying to play.

This is Buckie – Buckie is Kim’s bull, and she’s had him since he was a wee thing. He is so in love with her that he tries to nuzzle her as though he were a cat – it’s like being nuzzled by a wrecking ball. He is gentle and sweet and nothing like how I imagine bulls.

There are chickens, 2 more horses, a dog and a cat. Of course, there are also a bunch of cows, and some babies!

Kim’s cattle are raised naturally – they eat hay and mature in their own time, taking years to be ready for the abattoir (she never produces veal). She shows them regularly (and with great success) so they’re used to being comfortable in trailers and with travelling. When it’s time, she makes an appointment so there is no line up, her cattle don’t wait in holding pens, and they don’t have to hear or sense anything distressing. At the last she walks them in herself, and closely examines the abattoir to make sure that everything is fast, efficient, humane, and the cattle never know what’s happening. And she cries, that part really got to me, for each cow.

I asked her if any of the cows on the farm right now are destined for food – she blushed and confessed that they’re all pets at the moment, hopefully destined for shows, and if sold, as pets to other homes.

Having said that, she does send a few cows a year, and we bought a dozen eggs, a huge roast, and 4 top sirloin steaks from her. The price was much, much less than we pay at a grocery store, for high quality, naturally matured, humanely treated, hormone-free, lean beef.

I have never been much of a cook. I am planning on sharing my food adventures via the blog as I learn to prepare these foods over the Christmas season. Tito and I have decided to buy our meat from Kim, and to start learning to eat local. We will be trying to support our local farmers, eat in an environmentally sustainable manner, and be good to our bodies while we’re at it. I’m sure it’ll be imperfect at first, but I’m looking forward to the culinary adventure, and to many more trips to the farm!
What’s on the needles

November 8, 2012

I’m actually getting a head start on Christmas knitting this year – we’ll see how long this bout of organized enthusiasm lasts.

This is the Fairview Scarf by Tanis, and I’m working in the delicious TFA Red label Cashmere/Silk in the colourway ‘grapefruit’. It’s for a friend, but the only clue I’ll give as to who is this: if you hate pink, and I know it, then it isn’t you ;)
The North Ontario Knit

November 5, 2012

There are those among you (you know who you are) who looked at my photography and read about my experiences on our North Ontario road trip – Lake Superior, Highway 11 and all the rest – and only thought ‘ok… but what did you knit in all that car time?’. Here then, for the fiberphiles is what I worked on.

I knitted Jared Flood’s Guernsey Wrap for Tito. Looks nice, right? Good stitch definition, nice colour. It looks like it should have worked out, but alas, I’m not that happy with it. I’m going to be honest here and admit that I hate the yarn.

I bought it on Manitoulin Island, at a general store that had a corner dedicated to crafts. It’s Patons Decor, 75% acrylic and 25% wool. It’s stiff, and in the way of acrylic, a good solid blocking doesn’t do much for it. However, the yarn I had traveled with I hated even more… it was fuzzy and the stitch definition was terrible and I don’t know what possessed me, so I ended up going with a purchase from an extremely limited selection of which this seemed the least unpleasant. Serve me right.

Tito (what a sport) says he loves it, and it looks pretty darn good on him, it ended up at an impressive 80 x 13.5 inches and it weathered the trip well, having been knitted all over creation with the trucks cup holder serving as my yarn bowl.

I’m currently making him a matched hat (in Sweet Geogia this time) using the pattern ‘Dustland Hat’ by Stephen West. Has anyone else noticed how similar the two are? The geometrical patterns used to give texture are almost identical. I don’t know which came first but it seems like a crazy coincidence.

Clearly I’ve been spoiled by wools and merinos and alpaca silk blends… the return to acrylic was painful! For what it’s worth though I adore the wrap pattern (and the hat pattern) and will certainly make another one. Ravelry Project Page here.
All the leaves are gone…

November 2, 2012

Well, not quite. There are still leaves up there but I’d say the sweet spot for leaf preservation has passed.

And that’s the ‘why’ of the matter for me – Autumn is beautiful and magical because it passes. The trees give us a treat for a few weeks and then it’s over. More than spring, more than summer, there is a nowness to autumn – you’ve got to enjoy every beautiful, colourful jewel of a day because, well because winter is on it’s way.

This is why, of all the things I’ve preserved in resin, autumn leaves are the most precious to me. I have taken something transitional by nature and preserved a piece of it. No matter how many times I do it, it always feels a little bit like magic, especially when my stash of leaves begins the inevitable – turning into dust.

Another reason I love these pieces is that they’re pieces of home. They’re Canadian maple leaves, collected here in Ontario. The fact that we have 4 seasons is one of the things that makes life up here so beautiful and inspiring and I love being able to create something not only inspired by, but made of, seasonal change.

Enough babbling :) I’m in a romantic mood this morning, maybe because tomorrow is the big wedding day for Kris and Kev! We all got our mendhi (henna) handwork done last night, and we’re all excited for tomorrow!

There will likely be only one more round of jewellery coming after this one, and then I’ll retire the resin until tulip season in the spring. Check out my Etsy shop to see what’s available :)
It’s about the size of the fight in the dog.

November 1, 2012

Sparrow 1. Bald Eagle 0. Taken in Tofino, BC.
For those who hate wrestling the porcupine…

October 31, 2012

I’ve abandoned the blog! I feel awful, I allowed blog death to occur. Shame on me. I’ve been up to my armpits in stuff lately, most important and all-consumingly the final, full and official wedding of my dear friends Kris and Kev. I’ve even got a speech to write. It’s coming out in much the way I imagine a breach birth comes out. But I digress.

The creative muscles are in over drive, just not the ‘photograph-it-and-blog-about-it’ muscles, but I’m happy to say that this dearth of posts should be over for a bit because I’ve finally got ’round to shooting the jewellery, yarn and FO’s. One project I’m pretty proud of is my latest design, “Los Guantes De Claudia”.

This was my first ‘commissioned’ design – my friend Claudia, owner at Eweknit here in Toronto wanted me to design a pattern using Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK. I really enjoyed working with this stuff – the yarn is beautiful and the stitch definition really lent itself to the cabled design.

Best of all, these gloves work up on 2 needles. Yep, 2 ordinary, straight needles. You can use dpns if you want to make me look bad, but for those of us who don’t enjoy the wrestling exercise that is dpns, these are the gloves for you. They have thumb gussets and everything.

The cables emerge gracefully from the ribbing and converge gracefully back in at the fingers, with a little motif to polish them off. The cables are deceptively simple. The pattern is being test knit right now, look for the release in a few weeks!