Sew it Swift, Sew it Sweet

Last year, I made these pillows for loved ones, but stitching them by hand took hours:

So this spring, I asked MJ to teach me how to use her sewing machine. I practiced my first machine-made stitches along these letters:

With the sewing machine, it was speedy to make this pillow for my skull-loving hair stylist:

For Mother's Day, I sewed a clef note my musical mom, and a peanut for MJ's elephant-loving mom:

MJ then showed me some YouTube tutorials on how to sew animals from socks.

So I sewed her a bunny from a sock:

Then I made an otter:

And this summer, I sewed a queen bee for MJ's birthday:

It's super when we learn new ways to make gifts for loved ones, swiftly!

Last Drop

On August 3rd, 2011, I received this email:

Renato attached these photos of his mom's beautiful crochet work:

I gratefully replied, and Renato sent me another email:

I accepted his kind invitation, and suggested we meet at the garden where the Raining Cats and Dogs were installed 1.5 years ago. One raindrop remained:

Susan the Bull Terrier

Renato's girlfriend, Weiping, took photos while MJ recorded this video of our meet:

August 17, 2011

And here are the intricately-crocheted gifts that Renato's mom, Anita, made in Brazil...

An angel:

A pouch with rosary beads:

Thank you, Renato, for arranging our first meeting, which also became a fitting farewell for the last raindrop. And thank you, Anita, for reaching out and sharing your divine yarn creations!

Photos by Weiping, taken at Davie Village Community Garden 
in Vancouver on August 17, 2011

And so—on this sunny summer day—a raindrop fell and the distance between two continents (& two crocheters) was bridged by a few feet of yarn!


UPDATE - Sept 12, 2011:

Renato just sent me this email, after viewing the latest blog entry:

Here are photos of Anita with her fun family, two raindrops (Shorty & Susan), and some WooWork trinkets (including an early ice cream cone):

And here are new photos of Anita's creations, including the vinyl record she crocheted for her musical son, Nedu:

All my gratitude and good wishes to Anita's kind-hearted and creative family!

A Travel Suitcase and an Elephant

Last year for Mother's Day, I crocheted a plane for my mom before she flew to China for a vacation.

This year, my mom is headed to Asia again, with an extra stay in Japan. What do you give a globe-trotting mom for Mother's Day?

This overstuffed travel suitcase is filled with good wishes for her overseas adventure this month!

Meanwhile, my girlfriend's mom—Catalina—loves elephants, so I made a long-nosed keychain for her Mother's Day present:

Here's a video of two awesome moms receiving their gifts:

I hope every day is a celebration of moms everywhere, including all the moms who have passed on but remain in our thoughts.

Thank you, Moms!

Raining Cats and Dogs

In Vancouver, we're sensitive about our reputation as a rainy city. In 1998, many Vancouverites became enraged when actor David Duchovny joked, "Vancouver is a very nice place, if you like 400 inches of rainfall a day."


With the Olympic-sized attention arriving here soon, our rainy self-consciousness has resurfaced.

I thought it might be therapeutic to crochet some raindrops. So I made 14 of them, stitched cat and dog heads on each, gave them names, and felt well-adjusted again.

Raining Cats:


Raining Dogs:


To share this rain therapy, I searched for a public space to hang these raindrops. I chose the Davie Village Community Garden because it's the downtown site of a yarnstorming from sunny last summer:

Photo by ChromaticRat on Flickr

Photo by danielabsilva on Flickr

After some rainstorms, Jessica Glesby's knitted wall has seen sunnier days:


The wooden trellis above the garden, however, remained clear and that was where the Raining Cats and Dogs found their new home last week.




My girlfriend MJ was videotaping while her mom guided my installation of the raindrops. Here's a video of the stringin' up process!

The cat and dog faces are enjoying the sight of human faces looking up at them for a change.

(There are more photos on my Flickr. I'll update this blog post as the Raining Cats and Dogs installation inevitably evaporates.)

As all eyes focus on Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, I hope these raindrops show that we Vancouverites can be proud of the rain that makes our streets shiny and our lush trees grow.




If we remain a little insecure about our rain, our citizens can try repeating MJ's defiant catchphrase: "Yeah, it rains in Vancouver. So what?"

We're just dancin' and singin' in the rain!



UPDATE - September  9, 2011:

Find out what happened to the last raindrop here!