All posts by Karen

About Karen

Karen (she/hers) is a Culinary Literacies Specialist at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre library. When not in the kitchen, she can be found knitting, reading, and repeating. View all posts by Karen → | Meet the team

Me-Made May 2017

May 1, 2017crafts, knittingKaren

If you do just about any amount of crafting and you are aware of the internet, you might have heard of Me-Made May, which was started a number of years back by a sewing blogger. If you haven’t heard about it yet, this year’s your chance to take part!

So what is MMM?

It’s a month that is dedicated to encouraging you to wear the items you’ve made – whether you sew, knit, crochet, quilt, or anything else – so that you love and treasure these items while also putting them to use. (As opposed to leaving them forever in a pristine pile for photography purposes, or out of fear that you’ll ruin the item somehow by wearing it.) You spent the time and effort making your clothes: you should wear them with pride! It’s not really about making new clothing, but rather about appreciating and celebrating the things you’ve made and are making, and the entire process. You’re free to make new clothing and accessories this month, and you’re also free to not – no pressure, whatever you choose to do! The most important thing is to have fun!

You decide your own commitment levels, so if you want to try to incorporate one item that you’ve sewn/knit/made into your outfit every week, that’s perfectly ok. And if you want to wear 100% handmade every day, all month long, that’s totally ok too!

Best of all, it’s open to any and everyone, of all ages and experience levels! See below for a couple of items from a selection of crafts to help you get started (or to give you some inspiration) for this month! Continue reading →

Duck, Death and the Tulip

April 24, 2017Children's, children's fiction, Death, friendship, Karen's PickKaren

For a long time he watched her.

When she was lost to sight, he was almost a little moved.

“But that’s life,” thought Death.

Continue reading →

The Epiplectic Bicycle

April 17, 2017bicycle, Children's, children's fiction, illustrated, Karen's Pick, Picture BookKaren

Have you heard about our Bike into Spring event taking place at the Dufferin Clark library? It’s taking place Saturday April 29th, which is in just over a week, so mark your calendars! Bring your bike and helmet for a bicycle-filled day of games, DIY workshops, stories, an obstacle course, and a whole lot more! The event starts at 1pm and ends at 4pm, and there are going to be lots of community participants there, including the York Region Cycling Coalition, Pedalheads, velofix Mobile Bike Shop, and more from the City of Vaughan & York Region.

Now, if your biking style is anything like Embley and Yewbert from The Epiplectic Bicycle, I don’t know whether to be envious of or worried for you. If we were looking at it as a regular story, I’d say that the two aforementioned are the two protagonists, but this is no regular book, so arguably, there are actually three protagonists – Embley, Yewbert, and the Epiplectic Bicycle – and the former two go on a trip using the latter, around… I’m not really sure around where, to be honest. Just around. (One might even say it’s not that the two take the third for a ride, so much as the bicycle takes Embley and Yewbert for a spin.) They go here and there, and (as Victoria pointed out to me) they explore so many things outside of the scope of this book that Gorey cuts out entire sections of their journey altogether, as you can see by the skipped chapters throughout. They even meet an alligator, who – on second thought, I won’t spoil it for you. The only way you can find out is if you take your bike around to try to meet that same alligator, or if you go and read The Epiplectic Bicycle!