Sprial Beach, Pictures and Socks

So way back in March I went to see my friend's band, Spiral Beach, kick off their latest tour of Canada. A month later they rolled right back into town to play their official Toronto gig. They're a bit of psychedelic pop rock, and they rock it hard. It's always been a wicked show. You can dance, you can mosh, and you can take pictures! If you're into them, their last gig is tonight in Kingston, and they'll be playing upstate New York for a bit in May.

The picture of Maddy and Airick is the best one of the bunch, as someone else was taking a picture and their flash went off at the exact time I needed it. Perfect!

Dorian is the one of the four I know best, as he hangs out with Ben and Jonny the most, and even lived in their house for a bit over Christmas. He plays the bass, and is all round nice guy. It's kind of surprising to see how hard he can rock out on stage! Most of my pictures of him are blurry, since he was moving around so fast. It was really good to see everyone after them being away for a month.

One of the bands they had opening for them was amazing too. Unfortunately, while my pictures of Spiral Beach might be mediocre, the Hey Ocean pictures are terrible. So we aren't even going to look at those. However, this should not be taken as an indication of their talent. The female lead singer of the band was this cute, petite blonde with a voice that could knock your socks off. Super sexy soul styles (say that 10 times fast...), and a penchant for wind instruments. She played both the kazoo and the flute and they both worked perfectly into the sound of the song.

One of the reasons I took so many pictures is that I my next painting assignment is to paint two or more figures in motion. My prof suggested sports, but that's boring, so I'm going to do music! I wasn't super happy with the pictures I got from Spiral Beach, so I asked Ben and Jonny to do a photoshoot for me in the recording studio in Ben's parents basement. I was hoping to be in the pictures too, but I quickly realised that nothing was going to come of it if I had to reset the self timer every 20 seconds. So I decided to just be behind the camera instead.


I had the same problem with Ben and Jonny moving around, so there are very few pictures were both are in focus. Another problem I realised I had afterwards is that the lense was focusing on the microphone, instead of on their faces. It's a kind of cool effect in the end, but I do wish a few of them were focused on them instead.

Right now I'm thinking that I'll do this one, but use another picture of Jonny where he isn't moving.

Ben is also recording his first album for his band Flashlight Radio which is the real reason he was there, so I helped push some buttons for him. I felt kind of bad for taking up so much time taking pictures. We recorded some tricky guitar bits and maybe something else, but I can't remember.

I really just had to push a button and then wait for the song to be done, so I got some knitting in too! The Alexis Socks got to push some buttons too... they are so close to being done, it's not even funny. What is funny is that these have only taken a week. That's right, you're looking at the second sock there. I'm babysitting on Wednesday this week, but I might be able to pop by afterwards and see if everyone is still there. If not I'll leave them there for Friday when Alexis works. Aren't they adorable?

Three more weeks of school and then every weekend can be like this weekend!

Beer+Bands+Burrito+Yarn= A Good Night Out

Do you ever have one of those moments where you sit back, take a look at the knitting and say, "Shit kids, this is going really fast." That was me all last night at Lettuce. I kept putting it down or holding it out and thinking/saying that I couldn't believe how much I had knit. Granted I had a lot of class today, which means a lot of knitting. I even managed to get a few rows in during my painting class, while I literally watched paint dry. Knitting is good for watching paint dry.


But I digress. This was supposed to be a post about how I had no knitting to show since all my stuff was secret, but then I fudged it all up last night. I have two gift projects on the go right now. I've knit these socks all yesterday, but when it came to go to knit night, I realized I couldn't, since the recipient would be there. So I threw the pattern for the other secret knitting in my bag and went on my merry way. Note what's missing there? Yeah, the actual knitting. So I had no choice but to reveal the previously secret knitting to Alexis, therefore negating it's secret status.

It's not that bad, I mean Alexis already knew she was getting socks, she just didn't know what they would look like. She loves them, which is full of yay! for me. And every time I said they were going fast she would say that that was excellent. I guess there's no putting these down now!


After knitting I was feeling a little bummed about school and such (only three more Wednesdays! + a lot more other days...) so I tracked down my friend Ben, who had just finished playing a gig for Christina Maria at the Supermarket in Kensington. I caught the second half of the band Dean Lickyer who were amazing! In a hilarious but also super talented sort of way. When I walked in I thought that they had a cute girl singer, but it turned out to be a boy. In my defence, he has a girl haircut, and is wearing a girl's shirt. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it can cause some confusion. Dude needs to cut his bangs or something.


They were super tight, the lead guy had all sorts of cues for the band on when to do things, which meant that everything was all together, all the time. They put on a good show too, lots of good stage presence. The lead guy danced around the whole time, and the rest of the band were pretty active too, but less so. Understandably, since they had instruments and such. I think they said that they are going on a two month tour, so if you have a chance to check them out, and like oldschool rock, I would recommend it.


After dropping Ben's double bass off at his parents we went to Sneaky Dee's for 2.75 beers and a burrito. Mmmm delicious. Is there anything better?

Oh and ps. I'm definitely digging taking pictures and such, so I've decided that I'm going to go a little more profesh and get a proper DSLR. When I have money. Which will probably be when I move into my parents basement. In July. Dear economy, please get better so that I can be properly moved out. Love, me.

Laminaria in the Sun

I've been trying to finish up some old projects lately, so I put on the fire these past few weeks to finish my Laminaria. I started this way back in May, when I came back to Toronto briefly. I had just finished my Feather and Fan, and was way in love with the Zephyr Wool-Silk, so I picked up two more balls in another colour, Garnet, for this.
I knit the first chart, plus a few repeats of the second before it had to be put away when I went traveling. I knit a surprising amount in class these past few weeks. I really thought that it would be too hard, but I guess I've just perfected the whole notes and knitting thing. It helps that most of my classes don't really require notes, it's really discussion based. About a week ago I decided that I would really like to wear something new for Easter, and this was my best bet. Everyone was kept updated as to how many rows I had left! I had it on the blocking wires by about 1am Saturday night. That cast-off took about two hours, a lot longer than I thought it would. Luckily I knew that the wool-silk has no problems drying quickly. All I had to do in the morning was take out the pins and weave in the ends.

The thing is huge! A metre from the nape to point, and it comfortably fits my armspan. I actually think it's the perfect size, big enough to wrap around me when it gets chilly, but stilly good to drape around as a regular scarf. I wouldn't want it any bigger!

My friend Olivia got someone to take this picture at Alan Gardens. All the flowers are in bloom right now, for the holiday. It was a perfect place to go from church to her house for Easter dinner. We got to take our coats off and be warm for a little bit. Easter was excellent, as I got not one but two dinners, both of which were filled with delicious food and fabulous people. Though both had cats in sad health, which put a bit of a downer on the event.


Here's a better shot of the lace. If you look on Flickr there are a million of these shots in my bathroom, which is the only decent place for light in my apartment. Too bad we can't paint, that colour is just so... beige. Good thing I only have a few months left, then it'll be the light filled room in my parents basement. Joy.