Minus 36 degrees

View from down town Saskatoon to the Bessborough Hotel

We interrupt this blog with a quick visit to Saskatoon where the temperature was -36 degrees. So cold I didn't even feel it. And into this cold I went on a horse-drawn sleigh ride in the moonlight. It was wonderful. Quick but worth every second. Highlights:

• the sleigh ride
• meeting a whip cracking champion (see upcoming post)
• watching two friends volunteer to hold a paper ribbon between their teeth while the whip cracker split the ribbon in half, time and time again until the ribbon was a mere 3 inches between them.
• a successful food quest in search of a real Ukrainian dinner. We found it at ' A Touch of Ukraine' where we had three types of perogies (okay, two types and what we think was a deep fried third), cabbage rolls and borscht.
• and, another first in public spinning, this time in Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver airports....Rats. I should have taken a picture.
• oh and a pitch fork BBQ - 4 steaks to each tine and the pitchfork was dunked into a vat of boiling oil. Steaks done in two minutes. Pictures to come.

Transcending the Material

Photo by Ben Cuevas from his
installation 'Transcending the material'.

Every once in a while I get deeply inspired by some unique knitting project. Inspired enough to make me want to pick up some knitting needles and knit madly, furiously, intensely. Knit until I feel I really and truly understand knitting, that I know it so well that I can create my own patterns. So well, that I can eclipse and exceed the pattern, not needing any pattern, not even my own. I would rise above and go beyond being just a good knitter. I would triumph over tricky stitches. I will see something in my mind's eye and using my own stitches, my own designs, make knitting do anything I want. I could control it and knit anything I want. I would transcend the material.

Photo by Ben Cuevas of a
closer view of his skeleton.

Photo by Ben Cuevas showing the knitted
detail of the hand.

Recently, I came across someone who had reached that pinnacle of knitting, Ben Cuevas, philosopher, artist, knitter.
Check out his installation available on his blog. And, here is an interview with him.
Ben Cuevas interview, 2010 Wassaic Artist Resident from The Wassaic Project on Vimeo.

November Light

Dawn at work

,

View from my office

I interrupt the homework blitz to show you a few pictures of things that caught my attention in the exquisite light that has been making things glow around here lately. I suppose it is due to the lateness of the year, the low angle of the sun, the lack of cloud cover, rain, drizzle, fog, low lying cloud and general greyness that is usually common here in November.

Colour on campus

Light at the end of the day.