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Thursday 8 March 2012

Hamilton Frustration

I've needed new orthotics for many months now. After attempting to get some from a Dr. in Toronto just before we left town (bad idea), I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and try out that Dr. Scholl's service that I've seen advertised on TV. I don't know if it's a machine that you stand on or walk on or what......but I located the closest service. It was at a store called Factory Shoes up on the mountain.

I went with my husband on his way to work. I got off the bus when I saw the store on the other side of the street. Imagine my surprise when I realized that there was no way to cross! There was no cross-walk! To add insult to injury, the rain started coming down harder and most of me got wet while waiting for the bus to get me out of there. So I was cold and wet and had to go home without my orthotics.

I can't believe how un-pedestrian-friendly this city is.

Sunday 4 March 2012

French Knitting

That cardigan you see below got completely ripped back (the pieces did, I mean). At first I thought it might be cool to design a dog sweater, a very basic dog sweater. Then I happened to be speaking to my friend IM. She's originally from France and she told me it was really cold in France right now and she would love some handknit hats for her family. And she would pay for them too!

Every knitter's dream, to be paid for knitting! So I immediately switched gears and started making a hat with some of the Tanis Fibre Arts yarn in  the "Stormy" colourway from the abandoned cardigan.  I've only gotten a few rows done so I won't post any pics right now. I decided to make the hats in the rib stitch since I don't know the sizes of the recipient's heads :-)

Meh.

When we lived in T.O. I used to go to this organization called CHIRS. I was excited when a clay class was finally added to the roster of activities. Soon after the end of the class my husband and I left Toronto and moved to Hamilton. If you know about the process of making things in clay you know that they need to dry completely and go through 2 firings in the kiln. You also know that a lot can happen at the glazing stage. Since you're never really sure what colour you're going to get it's best to be as much a part of the process as possible.

Well, I couldn't be, because I left town! The facilitator emailed me pics of the glazes and I made my choices. Now, I've had a kiln blow out the colour of my pieces before and I think that's what happened here:


The pic of the test tile that was e'd to me was bright green. I figured at the time that maybe it was bright green because of my monitor settings but that I would choose it, anyway.

Here's a closeup:


We saw a lot of salmon when we lived in Seattle and I became fascinated with them, especially their hooked mouths.

The only person I blame for this glaze result is myself. I originally thought about just getting my bisque ware and glazing it at a later date but I was in too much of a hurry to get my fish sculpture back!

I also don't like the way that one fin looks, the one at the front on the bottom of the salmon. It looks more like a flipper from a sea turtle. Wrong species!! I'll know for next time. They're all learning experiences, right?