The Blue Brick

Cherry coloured swirly mugs!

March 9, 2011
These lovelies, just out of the kiln;

There is a fun technique involved here that I just learned, and that I think I will be addicted to for a while. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but not only is the filigree design a different colour than the mug body, but it’s in relief.

First you paint the texture on, using shellac.

Then you rub the clay gently with a damp sponge. The sponge starts to remove clay from your piece, but not where the shellac is – resulting in a raised design.

I then applied my underglaze. The shellac prevents the raised design from receiving the underglaze, which gave me the two-toned effect.

In the bisque firing, the shellac burns away in the kiln. Afterwards I coated it with a clear glaze, resulting in this delicious, adorable set of mugs. There is actually a big teapot that goes with them, but they came out of the kiln first and I couldn’t wait to blog about them!

It’s a good day for a hot cuppa something because, in other news it’s snowing in Toronto. There is a myth that the Inuit have 200 different words for snow… well Torontonians have different tones for snow, for example;
- SNOW! – Usually happens around mid November. It’s said with delight and pleasant surprise. This type of snow covers the drab greys left behind by October’s splendour, and heralds the coming holiday season. Ice skating, hot chocolate, and best of all, warm knitted items!
- Snow… – Usually said with some exhaustion in the voice, around early January. This snow happens just after the January thaw that always comes along to tease us with thoughts of spring. The holidays are over, your dress pants all have salt stains, you’re dying for a pedicure but feel that there isn’t any point.
- Snow…?! – Incredulous tone of voice to this one, tinted with depression and maybe even mild disgust. This is the snow we get in the long dark eternity of March. We’ve had enough, it’s bloody cold, and damp to boot. Today this is the kind of snow we have. It gets better… a month hence there is a good chance that it will still be snowing, and don’t ask how a Torontonian feels about snow in April.
That makes it all the better to have warm, bright, cheerful mugs like these to wrap my hands around on a day like today!
Baby blanket-hoodie!

March 7, 2011

I just finished crocheting the loveliest baby hoodie blanket!

This is one of the many reasons why I love crochet. I started this blanket on Friday night, by Sunday night it was washed and laid out to dry. The blanket is about 24″ square – try that with knitting! While I adore knitting, crochet definitely has it’s moments and fast, beautiful projects like this one are a perfect example.

I saw this hoodie blanket and really wanted to make my own version of it. I wrote the pattern to be crochet instead of knitting, to use more colours and to work outwards from a block. After that I crocheted the hood directly on to the blanket, did one row of openwork for eyelets and ran a braided rope of yarn through.

I used 4 balls of Bernat Satin yarn – it’s 100% acrylic which I don’t normally like to work with but in this case it was perfect. The yarn is soft and silky to the touch and the results are machine washable and dryable, to make care easy for a busy new parent.

Alas, I have no model babies available, but I tried out my pattern on a stuffed toy and I think it’s going to work well. I can’t wait to see what the parents think!
The Triumph of Ollie

March 1, 2011

This is the face that will make me empty my savings account, give up sleep, renounce atheism and just about anything else that will make him be alive and healthy and happy.

Ollie (Oliver) came to me 4 years ago this summer, from a lovely lady (Gwen) who volunteers with the Toronto Humane Society’s foster care program. Foster parents care for animals that are too young for the shelter, until they’re old enough to adopt. Gwen has a wonderful circle of animal loving friends though, and has a near-perfect record of finding ‘Forever Homes’ for her babies without them having to return to the shelter. And I was blessed with Ollie =o)

On Friday night my sweet kitty was being his perfectly normal self – on Saturday morning he was lying on his side, unable to breathe and totally unresponsive.

We didn’t know what was going on and rushed him to our vet. Our vet took one look at him and urged us to get him to an emergency hospital ASAP. The triage nurse at the hospital took him from us and we began a long and miserable wait. When the vet finally came for us we discovered what had happened; Ollie had heart disease. We are very lucky, in many cases the first sign of heart disease in a cat is that they die without warning. Our tough little guy was still hanging in there, if barely.

I would never wish it on anyone to be in a position of trying to absorb really bad news, be filled with grief and anxiety for a loved one and simultaneously be doing mental financial acrobatics to figure out how the hell they are going to pay for this. I am grateful for the health care system here in Canada – at least I know I will never go through this for a human family member. With Ollie it was bad enough.

If you have ever had a savings account with ING Direct here is a sweet story – I phoned them in hysterics and needed access to my entire savings account right away. They gave me a 24 hour period during which there were no withdrawal limits on my card. I used it to pull out everything for the emergency clinic. I’ve never been grateful to a bank, but there you go – whoever spoke to me on the phone had a heart and I owe them a lot. I called my best friend, who came over straight away and who ended up having to put the last thousand on her credit card, for which I am forever grateful.

At 2 am we got to bring Ollie home, he was feeling better, I could tell because he was giving the staff hell. He is a one-owner cat, and very very attached to me. As soon as I had him in my arms he was a purr-monkey again. He had to go back to the vet first thing Monday for an examination and chest ultrasound, where they confirmed his condition as Feline Cardio Myopathy and started us on the meds that he will need for the rest of his life. His long term prognosis is very positive.

Ollie (and Tito, and myself) send a huge thank you to Kris and Kev for being there in a pinch for us, Shannyn for letting me cry on her at 1 in the morning, Yvette who would have sold her house to come up with the money, the beautiful ladies at the Purple Purl, the person who took my call at ING Direct, Mom and Dad and all the amazing friends on FB who prayed for us and let me know that he isn’t just a cat – he’s a member of our family and it touched me beyond words to see how everyone pulled together for him. With support like that he’ll be with us for years to come =o)

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

~ Anatole France
Ice and Stars on the Bruce Peninsula

February 25, 2011

This past weekend Tito and I drove up to the Bruce for a quick city getaway. We stayed at the Round House – an absolutely beautiful B&B in Tobermory. The lady was really sweet, the living room was huge and had beautiful picture windows that faced the lake – we couldn’t have asked for better! We loved it so much we booked another weekend right away – we’re going back for Tito’s birthday.

Tobermory and the surrounding area are beautiful in winter – the trails are pretty much empty, everything is frozen over and there are some spectacular photos to be taken – Here are a few of my favourites!

On the Cyprus Lake hiking trail.

Cyprus Lake

This is the area known as the Grotto. It’s a popular spot in the summer time, and starkly beautiful in the winter. Pictures don’t convey this, but the water was icy and the waves were huge. The result of all that spray hitting the area had created a beautiful coat of ice on every surface.

Tito in front of some trees that show the effect of the surf. One side is totally covered in ice, the other side is normal.

The Grotto itself

I couldn’t get enough of these ice formations…

Georgian Bay

Of course, long drives are also solid knitting time; I made excellent progress on my first sweater…

And I just had to include two more – Tobermory is a dark sky reserve. We took many stunning star shots, but these are my favourites;

In this shot you can almost really see the Milky Way…

But this shot was my favourite. Taken in complete darkness, out the B&B window, with a 45 minute long shutter. It looks like an evening shot filled with shooting stars.
Froggie Yarn Bowls!

February 24, 2011

New yarn bowls – just of the kiln today =o) These are the finished froggie bowls from a few weeks ago – and they turned out adorable!

These beauties will be delivered to the Purple Purl this Saturday !

Another dragonfly pot – as usual I was in a turquoise glazing mood ;o)

Another view of the froggie bowl. It adds a whole other level of meaning to having to ‘frog’ your work. At least you can now have a cute and sympathetic little yarn guardian to accompany you on those horrid ‘ripping back your work’ days.

A little late for valentines, but still a sweet bowl =o)

I like the frogs – I think I might stick with these for a few more bowls!

Wooly muggeths 2.0 are now out of the kiln as well, and ready for their knitted cosys.

The cosys will be the perfect stash busting project for all my leftover TFA yarn – I’m going to use these simple projects to practice my continental knitting as I think my sweater is giving me a repetitive strain injury (no kidding!) – so these might take a while to complete while I figure out a) how to do it and b) how much this changes my gauge. Sadly, the rest of the sweater must be completed with English knitting due to aforementioned gauge issue – at least I’ve learned my lesson!

Many kind folks have inquired about buying my yarn bells and yarn bowls through my Etsy site – the reality of shipping pottery however, is that it tends to get pricey. I sell my work locally at the Purple Purl here in Toronto because I feel my customers get the best value that way (and not just because it’s my favourite yarn store!). If you don’t live in Toronto though, and would really love to have one please let me know, and I would be happy to get shipping quotes for you.
Glass Lampworking

February 18, 2011

This past weekend Tito and I went to BeadFX in Scarborough for my long-awaited birthday gift – an introductory course in lamp working.

Lampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps. <<Taken from Wikipedia>>

I love how he looks with the protective eyewear on, reminds me of the crazy scientist from Despicable Me!

It’s a lovely process – our instructor Amy walked us though how to melt the glass, ‘paint’ it onto a metal rod, shape and decorate it. The results are beautiful, I’ve already got tons of ideas on how to take this further. One of the great things about BeadFX is now that we’ve completed a course, we can rent studio time from them. I can’t wait to get back in there and try out some new ideas!

Here are Tito’s beads – we did well for beginners!

Here are my beads – this was very different from glass blowing, it felt more controlled and you could focus more on the decorative aspect of each piece.

I decided to string mine into a big, chunky, colourful bracelet – I love it!
Why do I hate my apartment? A long overdue Rant.

February 17, 2011

I’ll mix in some lovely photos of the waterfront, just by my NEW place, to bring up the tone of the post a bit ;o)

I moved out in July of last year. My goal was to save up a downpayment, in less than a year, and then move back downtown. My rent downtown was extortionate, and I couldn’t afford to save properly while living there. I got an apartment in an old art deco building at Yonge and St. Claire – a beautiful neighbourhood that I had enjoyed living in before. I had high hopes for it, and the weekend that the G20 was tearing up downtown we spent a peaceful few days painting the apartment in light turquoise, fresh green and chocolate.

The place had been occupied by a tenant for 14 years, and had not been cleaned or reno’d in a long time. The super had one month between when they moved out and when we moved in, and assured us that the renos would be done. One month later, almost nothing was done. There was broken glass in our window panes, and the bath tub was still nasty. On the day of our move I discovered that the ‘locker room’ was a communal dumping ground filled with garbage, and no way of knowing what belonged to who. Nothing was secure. You’d have to paint your boxes neon orange to ever find them again.

The ‘bike room’ turned out the be the car garage, where I was told to lock my bike to the piping. The ‘laundry room’ had 2 machines – 2! And this to service an entire building. There was also *shudder* a dead roach on the floor. Roaches are a non-negotiable terror to me, thank goodness I’ve never found one in the actual apartment. I did find other horrors though – read on.

The day we moved in, the bedroom door fell off. Tito tried to fix it in the weeks that followed and was told by our super to rustle around in the ‘locker room’ for a spare door and steal the knob from it. Despite his best efforts the door has needed constant repairing. Tito is also allergic to our cats, so we try to keep them off the bed. That’s a bit hard when there is no real door.

A few days after the move I got sick, and stayed home. A few minutes after 9am I discovered something that would form a psychological barrier against me ever getting sick again so long as I lived there – the apartment is across from a daycare. About 40 2-4 year olds play outside, all day, every day. The kids are cute, it’s true, but the sound goes right to my skull and it’s prevented me ever being able to be home during the day.

The next day I scrubbed the toilet because, I had discovered, it was full of mold. I used a hardcore, and dangerously strong disinfectant – which worked, but still, it was gross. The tub was un-fixable, and Toronto was going through a heatwave.

A few days later we managed to lock ourselves out, due to the fact that there is a double lock on the front door, one of which is like a bathroom lock. We called the super who informed us that he didn’t keep keys to any unit (what does he do in case of an emergency, I wonder?) When pressed he finally came outside not with keys… but with a ladder. I’m not kidding. He had Tito break in to our home through the bedroom window to open the door. He tore through the bug screen in doing so, which meant that for the rest of the heatwave that window could not be opened.

Needless to say, I cut keys for the super. That week I came home to discover that he had entered our unit without permission or notice, with a work team to replace the windows (but mysteriously, not the bedroom one, so we still couldn’t open it). At least the most of the windows were fixed, but I was pissed about the entry. It wasn’t the last time either – during another heat wave a few weeks later he entered without notice or permission and had our tub resurfaced. The fumes were incredible, the heat was incredible, my poor cats had been stuck with it all day and worst of all, it turns out you can’t use the tub for 48 hours. Did I mention the heatwave? Tito and I packed up towels and trudged to my best friends place for showers =o(

The horror wasn’t over yet. We had extra creatures that lived with us. One of them was the only bug in the world that will get me running for my life and not my macro lens. That bug is a huge, hairy, whiplash-fast centipede. It lived in the bedroom. I slept with the lights on after that terrifying encounter. The next one I discovered was in the bath. I was also in the bath, at the time. You can imagine how that went.

We also had, oddly enough, a poltergeist for a while. I’m not kidding. It was benign so far as I could tell, but did give us a startle from time to time. Then it left. I’m a very logical person and I don’t believe in ghosts, but that was definitely an odd few weeks.

The black building peeking out on the left is the new digs. I can’t wait. For anyone who thought I just hated this apartment because I missed ensuite laundry and a dishwasher, I hope this clears that up. It’s been a total nightmare. I never unpacked, or decorated. It’s been demoralizing and uncomfortable. However, it motivated me to work, and work hard. Now, with 75 days to go you can imagine how badly I want to leave, I can’t wait!

Dear Apartment,

Thank you for motivating me to be organized and dedicated enough to save up a downpayment in less than 8 months. May they tear your ugly ass down after I’m gone and put up a parking lot.

Yours no more,

Shireen.
I am officially a Condo Owner!

February 15, 2011

It’s official =o) And this is my new view!

It’s a lovely one plus den at Spadina and Queens Quay, on a high floor with a full on south view of Lake Ontario from the living room and bedroom. It’s got beautiful finishes, hardwood floors and gets tons of sunshine. It is perfect for me in every way, I really found my dream condo! I’m counting down the days, I can move in May!

For those of you who don’t know me that well, I have wanted to do this for a very long time. I left my last lovely apartment and moved into an apartment that gives me nightmares, just to save up enough money to do this. On top of that I took on multiple extra jobs, and crafting gigs. At the end of it all I can proudly say that less than 40% of the downpayment came from my day job – the rest was all crafts, jewellery, pottery, photography and the Inspira art show last Christmas.

I am very grateful to all the amazing folks who have supported my craft by purchasing hand made goodies from me – it allowed me to earn the money for my first home doing something I love =o)

I am also very grateful to Gabi, my fabulous real estate agent. She got to know me, and what I wanted, and when the perfect unit came on for sale she knew it right away and booked me in. She even brought the offer with her. And she was totally right – it’s my dream condo in every way. If anyone is ever looking for an incredible agent who specializes in downtown Toronto let me know – I couldn’t imagine a more dedicated, hardworking, knowledgable and experienced agent.

Of course, when I meet someone awesome I immediately start thinking of what kind of crafty thing I can make for them =o)

Gabi is a very classy woman, and she loves pink. This bracelet is made with cubic Rose Swarovski crystals, encased in sterling silver cubic bead caps.

Brushed sterling silver squares accent the spaces between crystals, and the clasp is also square and sterling to finish off the piece.

I can’t imagine a more amazing Valentines day!
Swatching over to the dark side

February 14, 2011

Check it out – I swatched!

I had plunged bravely into my first ever sweater using 6 lovely balls of TFA Sunset that I bought last summer – which involved substituting the yarn and guessing at the needles – no problem, right? Well, a book I was reading by the Yarn Harlot terrified me into swatching, just to see if I was about to have to rip the entire thing back. I knitted it, washed it, smoothed it out and left it over night and… I got gauge. Amazingly enough. I hope I’m right. I hope I didn’t totally screw this up, or that the swatch is misleading, because I am going full speed ahead with my cardigan.

Having confirmed that Tanis will be at the Knitters Frolic this spring I’ve made it a goal to finish the sweater by then so I can enjoy wearing it to the festival and show it off to her ;o) I think I can do it! (There will be other things to celebrate that weekend, but more on that later) There’s just a few things I need to get out of the way first…

Isn’t this gorgeous? I loved my Traveling Woman shawl so much I decided to make an enormous one, in a worsted weight. This will be my Lion King shawl, I chose the colour especially to wear to opening night of the Lion King musical when it returns to Toronto this April. It’s going to be lovely! I’m proud of myself for breaking out of my regular colours a bit too.

My dad’s Christmas scarf. Who are we kidding, this will be ready next Christmas…luckily I bought him one to hold him over ;o)

My reversible mobius lava flow cowl in TFA peacock – first time doing reversible cables – this one is almost done!

And then there’s temptation – check out this lovely thing that arrived in the mail the other day….

Not to mention 470 yards of this beautiful blue Malabrigo lace yarn in Oceanos. I’ll be looking for another shawl pattern for this baby.

That’s all for now, just lots of knitted goodies =o) There will be more fun stuff in the next few days – I should be getting my first lampworked beads out of the kiln today, and also some of my new yarn bowls!
Yvette’s New Hat (or, How Yarn Saved My Life)

February 10, 2011

First of all I want to congratulate my amazing and talented friend Yvette on the launch of her new book ‘Toronto Graffiti‘. It documents a rich and colourful part of Toronto’s street culture heritage, and includes interviews from some of our most long-standing, history-making talented and renowned street artists. It took 10 years of her life, determination, perseverance and faith and I am extremely proud of her! You can check it out here!

While at the book launch I got her to try on her new hat – to see if it was slouchy enough for her and ready for decreasing. Afterwards I stuffed it into my knitting bag, which went into my bigger bag, which went under a table that had metal filigree sides, and where I felt it would be well protected.

WELL. At the end of the night when things were starting to calm down I decided to get out the hat and work on it for a while, only to discover that someone had managed to spill a drink, not only under the table, not only through the metal filigree, not only into my bag, but into my knitting bag.

I poured about half a bottle worth of what I suspect was Smirnoff Ice out of my knitting bag. My Macbook Pro, iPad and iPhone were all in that purse and …. miraculously completely dry. How? Because the knitting absorbed every drop, thus protecting my apple valuables. The MacBook in particular pretty much contains all of my life (ie my photography) and would have been tragic to lose. The moral of the story is that knitting is not only fun, productive and satisfying, but it could save your life one day.

Now, onto the horror that was the hat:

This is it (oh, the horror!) draped over our booth at the Friendly Greek where we went for post-book-launch-late-night-eats and where I alternated between lamenting my ruined hat and being grateful for the lucky chance that it saved my computer. The yarn is by Viola Viola and it’s called ‘Nosferatu’ (how cool is that?). Now, Emily from Viola not only has mad skills when it comes to dying yarn, but her yarn is also resilient, and I’ve discovered, absorbent. It also bounces back from tragedy like nobodies business.

This is Yvette enjoying her comfy new hat! When I got home I untangled the mess, decreased and closed the hat right away, and left it for an hour in a warm bath of soak. I blocked it over night – and it was good as new =o)

Tragedy averted and a win-win situation for all.

Last night, after I finally presented her with the hat, we went for dinner at a lovely Japanese restaurant on King Street West called Oniwa. The decor was gorgeous, with a little garden walkway and koi pond in the restaurant. The food was incredible, and best of all the staff were super sweet and friendly. Two ladies from the restaurant kept coming over to our table to admire my knitting. They also mentioned the fact that they have never been able to learn how to knit. I did the only thing that made sense:

As soon as I got home I packed up some spare needles and yarn and I’m going to drop it off at the restaurant. This seems like the right thing to do, though I am aware that it also seems fanatical. Given my recent life saving experiences with the stuff though, you can hardly blame me for wanting to spread the knitting goodness =o) On a serious note – it’s a great feeling to share something you love – I hope they both enjoy knitting as much as I do!