Red Dresses

Here in Yukon the community uses red dresses to remind people of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. It is part of the reconciliation between indigenous and settler cultures.

The red dress has become the symbol of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Jamie Black, a Métis artist in Winnipeg, first introduced it. It was through her REDress Project where she first gathered red dresses and exhibited them in Winnipeg to represent missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls.

https://www.jaimeblackartist.com/exhibitions/

One of my friends is part of the indigenous employees group at YG and helped to organize a free Zoom course to teach beading on fabric. And free kits of all the ingredients to make the little red dress. We spent a pleasant day chatting and working on our dresses. I still need to do an edging, but it is done enough to wear on May 5th if I don’t succeed at the bead edging. The bead colours on the bottom of the dress represent the colours of the medicine wheel and one of the flags of Canadian indigenous people. The picture shows the white as blue - it’s actually white! 

I added an edge finish today. 

A single row of black beads along the edge of the fabric. I think it finishes it well. It still looks like a beginner effort - but I like it. 

Gramma Car

We took our 'Gramma Car' in for her annual detail Yesterday. Did not take Scapa long to provide her seal of approval on Mom's seat...

Swans

Last night I was walking on the millennium trail and I heard the lonely honking of a single swan. He looks so tired my heart went out to him. Then I heard the honking a lot of swans, seemingly calling him in to rest. As I rounded the corner on the trail and I could see the river, which is open in this part, there was a small group of swans that had just been joined by this lonely flyer. I watched them for about five minutes. 

Another pair of swans came winging over, the group on the river called out to them they called back, landing on the river and joining the larger group.  The interesting thing is that a number of larger groups also flew overhead. The flying swans were honking amongst them selves, the swans on the river did not honk back, and the swans kept on flying. 

 The pictures did not show the swans well. To the camera lens they look like dirty pieces of winter ice. I tried a number of different settings to see which would show them beat.  I’m not sure but I think there may have been two different types of swans in this group. Some of this ones were quick gray and some seemed to have orange rather than black beaks.

When I woke up this morning before the alarm, I could hear the swans talking as they fly overhead even further north to their breeding areas.

Epic Sunday Dinner

Breaded Pork Tenderloin, Garlic Fried Broccoli, and Pan Fried Mushrooms... Not hard to understand why Sarah's hubbie is so 'well rounded'

Election night apron

Yesterday was territorial election day here in the Yukon. We were up way past our bedtime waiting to find out who would form the next government. And we still don’t know!

 While listening to the radio coverage of the election results I worked on making this apron that has been in the back of my mind for sometime. It’s from a piece of fabric that I picked up years ago at a sidewalk sale outside the textile museum in Toronto.  It’s a huge apron that covers me from my neck to my ankles and all the way around!

I’ll think of this election every time I wear it.

End of Season Mittens

I cut these out some months ago from an old sweater of Christophers but they fell to the bottom of my mending basket. Today I got them done.

Sunday Dinner + navy linen

Today I hemmed a large and lovely piece of navy blue linen that arrived from my way this week. It has become our newest tablecloth.

And then I cooked Sunday dinner!

The End of Things

I’ve spun up 2 entire fleece with of wool in the last months. Here’s the last few skeins from a lovely pale grey Canadian raised Shetland fleece from one of my favourite shepherds. 

Some of the last of it got dyed with left over Easter egg dyes. 

More Snow... Topher's Perspective

We woke up to 8 inches of new snow this am with snow still coming down and blowing a wind chill of -18 Celsius. The winter puppy seemed OK with it... Christopher not so much. Snowblower getting a real workout this year.

It Snowed All Night

Yes it did snow all night. And it continues to snow. Will spring ever come?

Well the world ever be green again?

It’s F’ing Snowing - Again

 We shattered every snowfall record for the Yukon. And it is still snowing. Here’s a picture of our local dog fox running down the middle of the road in the latest snowstorm. It’s April 8 for Pete’s sake!

Some of Last Months Projects

The view from my window. 

Easter Egg Colours on Roving

I had a lot of fun making Ukrainian Easter eggs this year. But at the end I still had seven jars with Easter egg dye. Rather than just dump them down the drain, I thought to myself, perhaps they will dye wool. 

 I dug around in my stash and found some blue face Lester roving. I wetted it and laid it out on the saran wrap.

This is how it looked laying flat. Then we picked it up… Luckily with the yellow end up high.

There was quite an excess of die running out of it. I steamed it in the microwave for about six minutes. And then threw it back in for another four. It absorbed more of the color, but not all of it some of the dye stuff did wash out down the drain.

Some of it ended up on the lid of my washing machine, so I went back into my stash and found a bit of Merino cashmere roving and used that to soak up the excess dye on top of the washing machine. That’s the smaller pile in this picture.

Finally with what was left I had a couple gray bats that I used to soak up more of the dye stuff. That’s what’s in the white bowl in the picture below. 

Here’s how the rovings turned out. 

All in all a pretty satisfying using up of some thing that was otherwise going down the drain.

Lazy River

The river is so clear you can see all the way to the bottom. 

That’s a lot of water. 

Happy Knitting Project

Hanging with his Easter bunnies/buddies. 

This is the third time I’ve needed this lovely little pattern. It’s called a fuzzy mitten lamb. I was feeling particularly sad on Friday, and so I knitted something that would make me feel better. And I do.

Still in the Deep Freeze

It’s hard to believe that these little seedlings will ever find a home outdoors.

I have this awful feeling that skiing will continue until June!

Happy Easter

Another Beautiful Chadburn Lake Snowshoe