C'est moi [say - mouah]

TURQUOISE DYE DELIGHT 

I have been spending many hours in the Human Ecology Building lately trying to finish dyeing my two fabrics for our Batik dyeing project. Each dyeing takes a little over an hour to complete and we also have to apply wax on certain parts of our design after each colour. It’s time consuming but at least it’s really fun. I can’t wait to show you the final products. 

The trees on campus today were a fantastic crisp white. Wondrous! 

Photos taken by me

Do you remember that student in high school that always stood out of the crowd of jeans and t-shirts because of their unconventional taste in clothing? For the duration of my high school years that was Rachelle Bugeaud. She wasn’t loud and she didn’t demand attention, but her tall and slender figure did not shy away from being different. I was envious of her confidence and carefree demeanour. It appears that Rachelle’s approach to style hasn’t changed. When I met up with her on Tuesday to shoot her in and near her second home, the Industrial Design building at the University of Alberta, it wasn’t surprising to find her wearing a very well styled outfit.

When asked about each item, chuckling she tells me that her shirt is actually a boy’s robe thrifted from Value Village. Her boots and trousers were bought in Germany during a study and internship program with the Deutsche Akademischer Austausch Dienst last year. In reflecting on her year in Germany she is very grateful for the experience because it opened up her mind to a new philosophy of design. This, she believes, will be advantageous to her future career if she hopes to design for a wider gamut of people. She highly recommends studying abroad to students in a creative field. 

With regard to shopping while in Germany, Rachelle loved H&M, Zara and Vero Moda. Although we have a few of these stores in Edmonton, she noticed recently while shopping at the H&M in Edmonton that there were pieces from last summer’s collection in Germany. It appears that we are a little behind here.

What she loved the most about shopping in Germany was being able to peruse the stores on the street in rain or shine rather than in a stuffy mall. That does sound rather lovely!

If you would like to know more about Rachelle’s design perspective and inspirations, have a look at her blog here. 

Tree branches and rhinos

You may recall my post last week about dyeing fabrics in my textile surface design course. You will notice a load of colourful pieces of fabric bellow. Holly and I dyed the carmine ones. Can you find them? I’m just kidding of course! 

We are now learning how to Batik fabric and are instructed to design a nature-inspired motif for our fabric. I flipped through a National Geographic and my Textile Designers book to find some inspiration. We shall see where these preliminary drawings take me. 

Look what I saw on my way home. Very appropriate but it is too bad there were no rhinos roaming the parameters. 

Winter this year has been so dark and monotonous and has thus lead me to spend most of my time curled up under a warm blanket at home day-dreaming about anything that isn’t cold. I decided nonetheless to brave the cold -24 degree weather yesterday to search for hidden colours in my backyard. 

I wore a bright red vintage polyester turtleneck dress that my brother bought for me a few years ago at the Junque Cellar in Edmonton. I paired it with wine coloured nylons and lace leggings. I tied a handmade lace foulard in my hair that I found in my mother’s closet. The Jacket is from Forever XXI and the boots are from Aldo. 

Does anyone want to have a picnic? 

These leaves are magically holding on. 

Dye Bath

I spent 3hrs dyeing two pieces of cotton with my partner yesterday in my Textile Surface Design class. Can you guess what colour we used? 

I also learned how to make a fish-tail braid. Here’s the video that I followed. It took me a few tries to actually get it somewhat right. It seems easy for the girl in the video but she has very long and thick extensions to ease the task.

What hairstyle do you guys want to try? 

There’s this really rad nail polish job that’s been floating around the inter-webs these past few days and I could not stop myself from trying it. It was certainly harder to accomplish than I had first thought… as you can see. I will have to try it again soon and would highly suggest that you try it also! It was fun, minus the burning in my nose from the rubbing alcohol. Have a go at it. Here’s how

Have you ever been to a place near home and thought “this is why I never want to move far from here”? The Rockies are that place for me. We stopped a moment while cross-country skiing over the weekend and all I could hear was the light breeze dancing through my frozen locks. I wondered if one day there would no longer be any silent places in the world. Whipping that thought from my mind, I looked around me at the beautiful winter wonderland and realized how lucky we are to be in the world we live in. Enjoy it, embrace it and love it! 

My parents and a lovely man who stopped to help us take a family photo. 

My mother and I in our very attractive skiing attire. 

Life is a highway - Tom Cochrane (click the photo) 

Photos by me

My first few days of the New Year were spent in Kananaskis with my parents. We wanted to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind and forget about tasks and To Do lists. It was really great to get fresh air and get some exercise after all that holiday feasting. I’ll be celebrating Ukrainian Christmas today at my grandparents where food a plenty will be served. I love how long we get to keep the decorations hung at our home because of celebrating two Christmases.  

We skated on a pond at the hotel. As my papa taught us about the stars, we tried not to slip onto our bums while looking up to the sky.  

Some of you asked for my knit cowl pattern (seen above and here). As a present to all of you who have been following my blog here’s my “how to”. I will give you the exact pattern that I used but feel free to make it however wide and/or long you wish.  

I used 25mm needles and 6 strand unspun bulky yarn in black from River City Yarns in Edmonton. You can certainly purchase it elsewhere. Here’s how it looks. To create the huge knit I combined 3 bales of yarn simultaneously. Due to the unspun nature of the yarn it is extremely delicate and at times it would tear. I would just twist the broken ends together and continue to knit. At the end, I tucked in the pieces that hadn’t properly been knit in and it looks fine because of the large knit. 

1. Cast on 18 stitches

2. Row 1 - All knits (K) 

3. Row 2 - K3, P12, K3 

4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 

5. I kept going till I ran out of yarn but make sure you have enough yarn left at the end to cast off. 

6. Then, I sewed two buttons, one on each side but they can be placed wherever you like because you can play around with them and poke them through any space on the scarf. The scarf may look different every time you wear it.