VenessaBentley.ca

Thank you for the simple, the kind, the quiet, and the beautiful!

Happiness and beauty to you for 2012!

Scandinavian-style ornament, inspired by Arne and Carlos’ beautiful book, knit in Dalegarn Heilo.

This week, the Grade 1 children in my class, drew names to make a special handmade gift, completely from scratch. I drew a little girl’s name and knew right away what I would make for her.  Katie, the little girl’s sweet dog, died a few days ago, after having supper, and suffering a heart attack. Katie was often at school, helping children learn to read. Katie, with only one eye, loved to be read to. She was a white bull terrier, and her long wide snout, stocky little body, and wagging tail, all came together in a dog full of happy! She was so loved.  I knew that I would knit an angel.

My handmade gift is one of Alan Dart’s creatures, adjusted from a 2 needle knit, to a circular knit. Also, I knit I-cord in place of flat pieces sewn into tubes. You can find the free pattern here or on Ravelry.  Please email me if you would like help with the conversion.

I used Sandnes Garn Sisu and 2.75 mm double pointed needles.  I found some 6 strand gold embroidery floss in my stitching box and it worked really well for the wings and star, on the same needles.  Funny how the more I knit, the more the mouse began to look like Katie!

Wool roving makes a nicer stuffing than polyester fibre fill.  I love the way that a little of the fuzz always leaks out to add softness to the surface.

We open our handmade gifts tomorrow. . . . . . .

Our new fall program, Mosaic Knitting, began last weekend, and we are all busy knitting our swatches, and making a good start on our class project, Kiyomi by Barbara Gregory.

Our first swatch, shown here in Cascade 220 knit on a 4 mm needle, is a garter stitch mosaic pattern by Barbara Walker from her Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns. This is a lofty, full-bodied fabric knit this way.  Look closely to see the elongated slipped stitches that form the mosaic pattern.

Our project, knit in Elann’s Peruvian Highland Wool also on a 4 mm needle, produces a softer more supple fabric but shows the mosaic design off beautifully. This complex looking mosaic work is simply achieved by working with only one colour per row, and slipping the colour that forms the pattern. The work takes longer to grow in length because of the compacting effect the slipping has on the fabric. Working with an Addi Turbo makes quicker work of the slipping, knitting, or purling in each row. This piece, the back, folded in half, has been washed and blocked.  I’m working on the fronts now, and will post updates here and on Ravelry as they are knit.

and Lila says “You’ve been knitting too long!  Let’s play kangaroos!”

Are you in the mood for change?  Maybe this will help.  Enjoy a music break, because ’tis Autumn and ’tis time to make plans. .

There’s fleece to be spun, and dyed yarns to knit. . . .

a new line of garments ready to go to market. . .location to be announced soon. . . .

and a new fall program to begin in October.  Details will be posted here this week.  Hint:  you might be taking a slip this fall!

Yep!  ’tis Autumn and ’tis time to make plans!  Be the change. . . . .

In April, the Textured Temptation program began, and on Saturday we brought our cables to a gradual close as we worked our way up to the neckline.

We knit our cardigans in Atlantic purchased here, or Cascade Eco purchased here.

We chose Cirilia Rose’s Aidez as our class project, making many changes to suit our learning needs and preferences.

We converted the flat pieces into the round, working the entire body in one piece, on a long circular needle. This same long needle was used to work the sleeves in the round, with the magic loop technique.

Bringing it all together at the armhole level, required some conversion so that live stitches were held on waste yarn, ready for the kitchener stitch grafting when the sweater is complete.

We are changing the collar/border application as well, to work an alternative to the seam running up the back of the neck. This will require knitting the border on as we go, maintaining live stitches again, rather than casting off as the raglan shaping brings pieces up to the neckline. Details on these changes will be posted on ravelry as they are fine tuned. Diminishing cables resemble a country road disappearing from view as it fades into the horizon.

Knit correctly, it is a soft closure, with lines fading naturally into the background. This takes careful planning, and sometimes a few runs at it! But this class of six students, has not been phased by the challenges, and each has personalized the cardigan for a good fit.  The sleeves in this pattern tend to work up very slim, so calculations were made to adjust sleeve size for two students, who measured arm length, circumference at the wrist and upper arm, and used these numbers along with stitch and row gauge from swatches knit and washed in April, to rewrite the sleeve pattern.

These programs are designed to accommodate the needs of students who come from all over.  Some travel quite a distance to the studio. In this program one student travelled from Victoria, another from Sechelt, two from Vancouver, one from Coquitlam, with only one student living locally.  To make travel possible, we meet once per month for  a minimum of 4 hours, sometimes adjusting our meeting days to suit students’ work schedules. We maintain constant email and telephone contact during the program, and share each other’s questions and solutions as part of our class notes. During this program we have worked our way from rainy day indoor classes, to our final sunny, breezy, beautiful last class in the outdoor classroom.

Towards the end of our day, we had a special toast for a sweet and gentle principal, Riz Hemraj, who died suddenly this week while playing at home with his children. Riz was a kind and patient man who leaves us a legacy of honesty and thoughtfulness.

The Bend in the Road by Paul Cezanne

from The Bend in the Road, Chapter 38, Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. . . .

Anne went to the little Avonlea graveyard the next evening to put fresh flowers on Matthew’s grave and water the Scotch rosebush. She lingered there until dusk, liking the peace and calm of the little place, with its poplars whose rustle was like low, friendly speech, and its whispering grasses growing at will among the graves. When she finally left it and walked down the long hill that sloped to the Lake of Shining Waters it was past sunset and all Avonlea lay before her in a dreamlike afterlight– “a haunt of ancient peace.” There was a freshness in the air as of a wind that had blown over honey-sweet fields of clover. Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting, unceasing murmur. The west was a glory of soft mingled hues, and the pond reflected them all in still softer shadings. The beauty of it all thrilled Anne’s heart, and she gratefully opened the gates of her soul to it.

“Dear old world,” she murmured, “you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”

Welcome to summer school at the studio!

Let me show you the way to the outdoor classroom.

Follow me please. . . .

I dress up for summer school.  I’ve heard it’s the colour to wear when you are 18 and a half. . .

Week One at summer spinning school

spinning worsted and woolen yarns with locks of fleece floating by on a cool breeze. . . .

We flicked, carded, combed, spun worsted from tops, woolen from a rolag, semi-worsted from the fold – some really fine, and some full of purposeful texture.

Week Two and we headed for cover from the rain but, still working outside,

we sprinkle dyed fleece,

practiced plying to get a hank of balanced yarn,

and we lightly carded mohair locks, and spun crazy, beautiful art yarn.

The rain was fresh for the humans, but me. . . .

I’m still waiting for the sun! Summer school works better that way!  Lace summer school is Wednesday evening. . . .paws crossed. . . .

Since 1999, The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, in Washington DC, has provided an intensive, forward thinking program, known as Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA), through their partnership with schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The program uses a comprehensive definition of arts integration as its foundation. This definition is critical to an understanding that arts integration is larger than an activity. It differs from teaching the arts, or just using the arts in the classroom. Rather, arts integration is an approach to teaching that is embedded in one’s daily practice. I recently applied for, and was chosen to travel to Washington, DC to attend this year’s conference. I was sponsored by 2010 Legacies Now and was the only Canadian teacher in attendance.  Navida Nuraney, Executive Director of Vancouver’s ArtStarts in Schools, travelled with me to attend the administrator’s conference.  We met for the first time at the Air Canada gate, and discovered shared interests through our work, and in walking as many kilometres in one day, as humanly possible! We had a blast!

CETA’s approach to teaching is grounded in the belief that learning is actively built, experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem-solving, and reflective.  In keeping with these beliefs, workshops I attended encompassed these elements in the most respectful and creative ways. This conference was so well organized and focused on arts integration, that the experience from start to finish, affirmed the definition in all its parts.  Pulling it all together into an exciting, playful evening with a gourmet dinner, and Opera House performance, we were treated to. . . . .

Washington, DC is an easy city to explore on foot.  Navida and I met after school each day and used every waking minute that we had free, and explored all that was accessible in the time we had.  Much of the city looms large. . . .

Below ground level is equally awe inspiring. . . we rode the metro from the Ronald Reagan airport and all around the city.  The number one favourite name of a Metro Station is Foggy Bottom!

We, as in Navida reading the maps, found treasures hidden away in all areas of town. . .

the textiles museum. . .

Looped Yarn Works. . . .for unusual yarn from here for a beautiful shawl written as a mystery knit along project for ravelry.

Here is how it is looking so far. . . .find the pattern here

We found Kramerbooks & afterwords cafe combo, open until 12:30 a.m. during the week, and 24 hours on the weekends. . . ‘bought a book. . .

Busboys and Poets features performance poetry, great food, and the Teaching for Change Bookstore. . . ‘bought more books. .

We shoppped at Trader Joe’s and ate at a communal table at Le Pain Quotidien.

We travelled on the metro to Dukem for Ethiopian food. . . . .

DC is hot, humid, and tropical at this time of year. . . in the 90′s most days. . . .birds are happy. . .flowers are huge!

During the five hours of travel each way, I knit most of Lisa Chemery’s Tiered Baby Coat with Cascade Eco, purchased at three bags full in Vancouver, using approved needles for international travel, like these.  This knit is interesting enough for the quiet moments, but still allows for conversation with compelling plane companions.  The Biotechnology Conference participants travelled to and from Toronto with us, and on both flights I sat beside fascinating folks doing incredible science.

For more information about the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program, visit www.kennedy-center.org/seminars.  For information on getting artists into BC classrooms, visit ArtStarts in Schools.  Do it!

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.  - Chinese proverb

April is reading month at our school! We are celebrating the completion of a generous inner city school grant from Chapters/Indigo that helped our school enrich our classroom libraries, and school resources. We will celebrate literacy in our school community during an evening of singing, dancing, reading, and food! The young knitters will yarn bomb the library, and share their expertise. We will all show up for school in our pajamas on another day for Camp Read. Adult knitting students from the Working Hands Fibre Arts Studio are sharing their time with Grade 2 students at the end of April. Brenda of Penelope Fibre Arts, and Sheila of Sheila Christie Studios, are sopranos with Vancouver Opera. They will join us at school to share how reading has helped them in their work, then sing to us, in their beautiful costumes. Tris Hussey, technologist, blogger, and author, will visit Grades 5 and 6 and inspire!  What’s growing in your garden?

You can’t go wrong with yellow, even in the rain!  The wonderful pastoral community of Bradner, puts hard work aside for a few days, to show off its beautiful life. Even if you don’t go inside, a drive by the fields of gold, will refresh your soul.  It has been a long standing tradition to visit this show.  For many years with Jean, my mum, who carefully selected the most beautiful daffodil bulbs; ordered in the spring and delivered in the fall.  Now it’s just me, and each year I bundle up my spinning wheel and some beautiful fleece, and spin with good friends in the school gym.  I will visit the herb sellers and choose this year’s lavender, and probably a rosemary, too.  I will eat a homemade sandwich with some hot soup, sitting with strangers in the lively cafeteria, decorated with children’s art work and fresh cut flowers.  Just taking a few good deep breaths of daffodil-scented Bradner fresh air, and I will feel all sorted out. This is my whiskers on kittens. . .