That's what I did anyway (actually, due to time pressure we didn't do all our own picking, but we had them picked for us, fresh and ready to go. It's 3 plus bushels of Gala, Snow, Russet, Silken Peak and Mintsu. To put up for winter, to give to my dear neighbour and my friends who don't have a car to go themselves. 

Sitting on the kitchen floor is the stash. I also have about 7 liters of sauce waiting to be reheated and jarred. 

It was a beautiful Thursday, we had taken a drive to see Huxley's grandparents in Brighton together with my cousin Heidi and Pesche visiting from Switzerland. The weather was going to be dreary and drizzly, but I think mother nature made it up to me for working on Thanksgiving by giving us glorious sunshine instead and beautiful glowing leafs. 

We were rushed though, as we had to be back in town for a presentation by Elinor Peace Bailey at the Toronto Needlework Festival. Elinor talked in detail about our craft blogging community and how it is a strengthening factor for us all. There was a lot of show and tell, and even though that was enjoyable, I wished she would have shared more about her inspiration and the way she gets to do her creative work. She has a huge family and it would have been so interesting to hear more about her path in life and how she got to being able to find so much time to work and produce her pieces. 

At the show, I stuck to my budget and only got the things I planned to get, except 14 copies of the issue of Fiberarts magazine that features my work. For client giveaways. Marketing, one can never think enough about that. 

I also met with Jay and Joan of the Magic Door gallery on Sunday and they picked the works for the show. Sneak-peaks of the show will be posted next. 

Huxley should be going to bed, but he is making stars, with a punch I acquired at the Needlework Festival here in Toronto today. And I? I am sitting here, with an empty mind and eyes that have blurry vision… so, good night my dears!

The pears will be combined with chocolate pudding/warm chocolate sauce and whipped cream on those days that we wish to have a sumptuous dessert, or they will serve as our servings of fruit, together with the peaches I did a month or so ago. 

Last year I purchased one flat of pears, but waited a couple of days too long to process them, so they all ended up as pear butter. This year, I purchased 2 flats and immediately processed 2 baskets for the butter. I added no sugar at all, but the juice and rind of one orange. The taste of it is a bit overwhelming for the pears, so next year, I'll be going back to all pears. On fresh challah bread (or Zopf for us swissies), with butter, oh, it's pure heaven.

The kitchen floors stickiness has been cleaned as well and after thoroughly enjoying Huxleys' company during the earlier work of peeling and cutting the fruit, I will lay myself down for a good nights sleep. Unfortunately I will be missing the Thanksgiving Meal at DH's parents, as I have to take a whole day to paint for the show. But such is life, one pleasure over another. 

On my ears these past days was "Brisinger" by Christopher Paolini. Oh, how I covet to own and fly with a dragon. I tuned out through the gory battle scenes, but love the notion of this fantasy land. 

Knitting and fibre dates back to my childhood. Actually, once when I was reflecting upon it at OCAD (Ontario College of Art And Design), I realized that already my father's life had revolved around fibre, as he was a tool and die maker for Sulzer Rüti (or as it used to be known Maschinenfabrik Rüti), the factory made high-end looms. One year he started to bring old weaving shuttles home and in his workshop devised a way to wind them with very fine sewing thread. These shuttles still live with me and are waiting for the house renovations to finish so that I can display them again. My mother, who I still can see in my inner eye of sitting after all the dinner tasks of washing up and putting away had been done, was sitting on a straight-backed chair at the dinning room table, watching TV and knitting. She used to work in a garment factory sewing on buttons. That was her only job she ever held, before she married my father. She never really sewed after she had us children, but she told me that she used to take courses that used to be held at the old post office. 

So my own love of fiber is almost as old as I am myself. I remember always having known how to knit. I don't remember who thought me, but it would make sense that it was Mami who did. I do still possess one of the first things that I knit when I was in needlework classes with Frau Brändli in Grade 2, a little duck. Amazing how these things have survived the move across the ocean from Switzerland to Canada. 

Growing up in Switzerland, I was blessed with receiving 8 years of solid training in all forms of needlework, with the intention of making us into good homemakers, so that we would be able to sew, knit, embroider, mend, and otherwise keep our kindreds in nice, tidy, clean clothes. Even as a child I was so easily excitable about a new skill and project. If we started something at school, I almost always started the same thing at home too, so that I was not only limited to working on it during classes, but could devote all my free time to it. From crocheting ballerina dresses for Barbie, to spray painting old bedsheets to be sewn into pants for myself, nothing was safe. As soon as I had any spending money, I started to stash building. 

When I started studying at OCAD, I wanted to learn real art skills, sculpture, painting, design, but after focusing on a lot of fibre arts at OCAD (paper making, dying, weaving, surface design, fibre explorations), I realized that all the skills that I had learned in school where just as valid to express myself as are the "real" arts. 

My work as it is now, is really a melting pot of many skills that I have learned, as a good friend (hi James!) has remarked, "Your work is more constructed than painted". That is so true, and has become a way of mine in describing what I do. 

Being at the studio, there are many times when I need to sit and stare at a painting to see where I need to go with it, in addition, I don't seem to being able to find time at home to knit, so I always have some studio knitting projects on the go. And this, my dears, is what I want to show you today. 

My go-to knitting, a shawl from 50% silk and 50% merino that I dyed about 3 months ago. I'm hoping to get something about 60 cm by 180 cm with all the yarn that I have. We'll see, as I will just keep knitting until I run out. I originally wanted to have meandering leaves, but then realized that it would not allow me to look up form the knitting while I was doing it, hence defeating the process of helping me with the paintings. 

Waldorf-style horsey for Huxley, knit sometime last winter, but never finished. I've got to rectify that, because I don't think it would make a very sexy graduation gift. Then again, if I'm blessed with longevity, it puts me ahead of the game when the grandchildren come along.

This shot I love, I just walked around the studio with the camera and shot these skeins in their plastic bag in a dark corner of the space. When I bought them, they where off/white/beige. They got sold to me as a linen mix, but the following year, when I spoke with the vendor, they told me it was rayon. Although I don't mind Rayon, it took the wind out of my sails with this project, the hexagon coat from Knitting Nature (I think that's the right name). I used fibre reactive dyes and batched them for 2 days. Still love the colour and really must continue on them. 

This summer I also knitted the Harumi scarf out of some Habu goodies and a mobius scarf out of quivit/merino mix. Both need to be finished, i.e. ends sewn in and washed and blocked. 

Okay… ranting done… on to bed.