4 Jul
I am a participant in Ravelry’s Tour de Fleece 2009; spinning for Team Ireland. The idea is to challenge yourself to spin during the Tour de France from 4 July to 26 July 2009.
I’ve been training this past week, and practiced plying some singles…
For the first stage of the Tour, I will be spinning some lovely merino/silk roving in the juniper colourway; purchased from The Yarn Room.
P.S. a Happy 4th of July to all my American friends…
1 Jul
Today is 1 July 2009. It is an ordinary weekday here in Ireland. This is my third year away from the Canadian celebrations on Canada Day.
I am proud to wear my maple leaf today…
Happy Canada Day!!!
28 Jun
On Hearing of a Death
We lack all knowledge of this parting.
Death does not deal with us.
We have no reason to show death admiration, have or hate: his
mask of feigned magic lament gives us a false impression.
The world’s stage is still filled with roles which we play.
While we worry that our performances may not please, death
also performs, although to no applause.
But as you left us, they broke upon this stage a glimpse of
realtiy, shown through the slight opening through which you
disappeared: green, evergreen, bathed in sunlight, actual
woods.
We keep on playing, still anxious out difficult roles declaiming,
accompanied by matching gestures as required.
But your presence so suddenly removed from our midst and
from our play, at times overcomes us like a sense of that other
reality: yours, that we are so overwhelmed and play our actual
lives instead of the performance.
~author Rainer Marie Rilke~
This past week the world lost two of Hollywood’s iconic celebrities, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. They were images of my teenage years. The Fawcett-do was a very popular hairstyle that I tried to recreate with my curling iron when I was 13 years old, however, this was simply impossible with my straight Asian-black hair.
My high school years, were my Michael Jackson years. Before the days of iTunes and CD’s, I played the Off the Wall and Thriller albums over and over again. I remember my friends and I taping these albums on a cassette tape so that we can play them on a ghetto-blaster and dancing to songs like Bad, Billy Jean and Thriller at my house or a friend’s place to practice for the upcoming High School Dances.
Farrah and Michael were icons to my generation and are reminiscent of my years as a typical adolescent awed by the images of the entertainment world.
On another note and closer to home, my week ended with yet another somber occasion. I attended a Memorial Mass for the three Irish doctors who were passengers on the ill fated Air France flight from Rio de Janiero to Paris on 1 June 2009. It was a lovely way to celebrate the lives of these three young women.
I knew one of the three women, Eithne Walls and I had the opportunity to meet and exchange happy memories of Eithne, with her mother and siblings.
It was a pleasure to have known Eithne. I enjoyed her positive outlook on life. Her laughter and her youth was a breath of fresh air to those who were around her.
27 Jun
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After a morning of housecleaning, I rewarded myself with some ‘me time’…
I dyed some of my handspun blue faced leicester.
23 Jun
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I think my passionate obsession for knitting is starting to emerge amongst my friends. Friend, Gabrielle found a ball of pink mohair at a charity shop. The stitches are all coming back to her…
21 Jun
Today at 0545h is officially known as summer solstice. It is the longest day of the year. Here in Dublin, I have noticed that darkness falls upon us around 2245h and sunrise around 0415h.
19 Jun
Dublin has been blessed with some summer-like weather lately. So Ive taken the opportunity to dye some organic blue faced leicester that I purchased some time last year.
I do not enjoy dyeing since it is messy and I’m not very good at it since I never know the finished product will look like.
Let us see how this will turn out…
17 Jun
On WWKiPD, I gave Ravelry friend, kneehigh a quick lesson on how to drop spindle…
I gave her approximately 100g of handdyed blue faced leicester and lots of encouragement to go along with her enthusiasm…That was last Saturday.
This morning she showed me this…
Blue faced leicester handspun with the Ashford student spindle and knitted into a cosy for her iPhone.
So the question is am I a good teacher or is it the student who is destined for greatness?
10 Jun
Applause please…I managed to convince one of my non-knitter friends to crochet. My friend, LT learned how to crochet years ago. He explained that the needlecrafts were part of the Filipino school curriculum.
For the last couple of years, LT would watch me, knit and say to me, “I know how to crochet” and he would mimic the actions of a crocheter. Each time he would watch me knit, he would ask me, “Where would I buy the hook and thread?” and my reply was the same each time-I run through a list of places in Dublin that would sell crochet hooks and yarn.
Then one day out of the blue, LT announced, “I’m going into town to buy something to crochet. Where do I go?”
I recommended, This is Knit and directions were given to Powerscourt Centre.
So…LT, spent one evening crocheting…
Isn’t this lovely?
8 Jun
On the weekend, I finished my Wear 2 Be Seen Project. It is not very often that I actually knit project and end up loving it!
I used “hair clips” from a local “Dollarama” in my hometown, to hold my side seams together.
I covered a styrofoam board (I saved it from the washing machine packaging) with a towel to use as a blocking board.
I loved the pattern, I loved the yarn and I love how it turned out. The only problem…is it practical to wear in this Irish climate?
