weaving lately

 

the first set of rainbow tea towels were so much fun, i made a second batch of them! they make me so happy. i might even have to have a third round! though i want to make some bath towels and two scarves first. here's the colors i bought for the bath towels. they'll be in a waffle weave, so they should be good for toweling off after the shower. 

and a few more shades for the weft.

and this is the wool i got for the scarves i want to make.

and when we went to latvia in october, i bought some green wool for a rug for the bedroom at the market.

on the little loom, i've set up a warp for making rag rugs. then i came into some wool leftovers from a carpet factory and i'm now experimenting with those. weaving with wool is new to me. i'm making a small rug for the guest bedroom.

i got almost halfway on the weekend. keeping it simple. i have four shades of blue and i got some neon yellow for the stripes. i'm doing the walls in that room in light blue and i'll have some neon yellow accents - like an old wardrobe that i intend to paint neon yellow. light blue and neon yellow look surprisingly good together. 

before this, i did a small colorful rag rug using two duvet covers that i found. i made it as long as it could be with the fabric i had. it's about 180cm and will be perfect for the entryway by the back door.

i think i'll clip these both off the loom when i'm done with the wool one. i've got 16 meters of warp, so i can continue once these are clipped.  i also have fabric to make a new runner for the kitchen to replace the one i dropped a new bottle of olive oil on right after i made it. but i have plenty of warp for that. and maybe a couple more. i've been gathering old duvet covers in nice colors in the secondhand stores. it's so nice to give old textiles a new life.

oh, and it's not weaving, but i also finished my very first knitted sweater! it's the novice sweater in chunky by petite knit, using yarn that i had. it's not perfect, but i'm very happy that i knitted a sweater! i've already started another. 

walk and wool at lystbækgård

a couple of weeks ago, i spotted an event on instagram - it was a walk and knit nature walk. so i asked a friend if she wanted to go. i knew it was out in the area where she had grown up, so i thought she would enjoy it.

i was thinking that i'm no good at knitting, let alone walking and knitting, but the idea of a nature walk out on the moors with the sheep sounded good to me.

we were asked to bring size 5 knitting needles and they gave us a little ball of handspun yarn and a handful of wool.

but in case it wasn't enough, they had left bits of wool along the way. it took me awhile to realize this. at first, i thought it was just because the sheep had been out there or that the others had dropped some of their wool.

my friend emmy came with me and i'm glad she did. the rest of the group knew one another well and in that way that such groups can have, they weren't super inclusive. i would have been sad about it had emmy not been there. 

one of the women on the walk knew what all the plants were - i, of course, despite loving gardening, am not a plant rememberer and so i don't really remember any of them, but the noticing was what it was about for me. that and trying to knit some of them into my piece.

we sat down on the moors and just enjoyed the surroundings. but honestly, walking and knitting at the same time was so much easier than i imagined that it would be. i'm not a knitter, but i found it easier and less stressful than sitting at home and trying to knit. isn't that kind of weird?

it was a bit difficult to keep the flowers attached, but somehow, it didn't really matter. it was about being in the moment and just knitting on. 

some of the people had knives with them and while we sat here, they whittled some new knitting needles for themselves (see below). i didn't, but the idea of doing so was somehow so freeing. it made knitting so much less stressful - it was ok to just be free, experiment, drop a stitch or two and just keep going. 

my inner weaver would maybe rather have been weaving and i did weave in some of the plants, more than knitting with them. that was totally ok. and so freeing! 

i was even able to knit much more loosely. one of my main problems in knitting is a tendency to knit really tight, which makes it even harder to knit the next row. but i was able to relax and loosen things up. 

it wasn't until we found some blue-dyed bits of wool, that i realized that they had been out, leaving the wool out for us. those blue bits really spoke to me. the wool was generally untreated and so full of lanolin and so interesting to work with.

we were out there for more than three hours. it was like time stood still and it felt like exactly the amount of time that was needed.

emmy was faster than me, but she actually knows how to knit. we had such a fun day!

i don't remember what these were called, but they're a kind of wild blueberry.

when we got back, we all put our work out on the table together and took some pictures. everyone was so creative. we had the same materials at our disposal and came up with such different pieces.

one of the others either found this hole(y) stone, or had it in her pocket. i'll admit, i was a little jealous.

look at those handmade knitting needles! so lovely! and so freeing!

a close-up, though i think she made this one on a previous walk.

we also had cake when we got back. and it's strawberry season, so fresh strawberries too!

here's everyone's work! mine is in the middle with the purple flowers.

and here's one last view of my piece. if they hold another event, i've already invited another friend along. i think it might have made a knitter of me. and another reflection i have is that i would have been hurt by the group's insider-y behavior if i hadn't taken a friend along. but i consciously kept an open mind and decided to be in the moment and so it didn't end up triggering my sensitivity to not belonging. but it helped to have a friend along. i'm going to be sure to do that the next time too. also, they didn't call it "walk and wool," but they should have. 

random friday thoughts in the haze of a headache

three days of headache in a row. at first, i chalked it up to too many new year's eve libations, but now that we're on day 3, it's just a really, really pesky headache. i'm impatiently waiting for my new job to begin and feel in a state of limbo anyway, so it kind of fits. so i putter around, doing laundry, knitting, reading a bit, pinning on pinterest, perusing the interwebs and just generally not getting out of my pajamas. so, i thought i'd share a few of the things i've stumbled across, as well as my knitting progress:

there's a new blogging platform called marquee. it's in beta. i love the very clean, simple look of it and the way it scrolls. i discovered it through narratively, they're using it for their platform. i requested an invitation (they're still at that stage) and just got it, so i'm going to play around. i'm thinking of using it as a place for more creative writing endeavors, rather than therapy, like around here. i'll link you up once i'm ready. but in the meantime, check it out and request an invitation, it just might be the next best thing.

* * *

and speaking of narrative.ly, read this story about how hard it really is to give it all up and move to a farm.

* * *

my sister sent me a link to a new blog called soundtrack of a life. it's only a couple of days old, but already i like the premise...storytelling and conjuring of memories through songs. it wasn't that long ago that the storyteller made me think about this whole way that songs are intertwined with memories (or is it memories with songs?).

* * *

i'm off to make salmon and spinach quiche for dinner. happy weekend everyone!

counting down to drink & draw

gratuitous photo of my knitting project 

i don't think i've been this excited about a social event since the very first blog camp. tomorrow, five fabulous women will come to our home. i have a long list of food that i'm going to be cooking for them pretty much all day tomorrow (think loads of tapas-agtig (that's one of those endings that's better in danish) appetizers). i've switched furniture around and arranged and made the house look as welcoming as it's going to look. i will have a vacuuming frenzy tomorrow morning. we'll eat good food together, drink some wine (i also made a batch of tonic, so we'll start with gin & tonics, as one does) and we'll draw together. i've asked everyone to bring their favorite drawing materials, whatever they are - ink, pencil, pastels, paper, notebooks, big drawing pads - and we'll laugh and create and eat and drink and laugh some more together. 

i'm going to do the torso project in a few weeks with these same women. they're creative, they're interesting, they're smart, they're funny, they read, they have different views on the world. and i can't wait to spend tomorrow evening with them.

* * *

could this actually make me start running again?
(maybe when the weather improves.)

* * *

this made me both laugh and squirm.

true story*

"i took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. i am. i am. i am." - sylvia plath

miscellaneous thoughts to confirm to myself that i exist:

~ best neologism i've heard in the past week: powerpointless

~ coolest trivial fact: chinese is a high context language - there are no cases, no gender, no tenses, no singular or plural, no active or passive, there is just what's there in the here and now. we could probably learn something deep and profound from that. if we weren't so trapped inside of our own low context language.

~ if we did, it would bring new meaning to the phrase, "you had to be there."

~ i finished my knitted scarf (hence the photo above).

~ i grow worse at self-portraits in the mirror instead of better.

~ "governance" is the word of the moment in corporate reorgs today.

~ those who've been on facebook in the past few hours will understand my title.

~ i had to upload a bunch of pix to flickr today that i wouldn't otherwise have uploaded, thanks to blogger's new photo uploader "improvements." i fear they moved those people who worked on buzz over to the blogger team. and it doesn't bode well. can you say rejects from windows vista development?

~ on the other hand, i'm sure the good folks at blogger will fix it and the new photo uploader will be fabulous and that i won't have to manually resize to 800 anymore. (note to blogger: this is a hint.)

~ my new contacts are no longer making me sick, but i can't see anything through them. i haven't decided whether this is a bad thing or not.

~ harmony before honesty? i don't think that would work for me.

~ i cannot believe that my sister has traded in her iPhone for a blackberry. that's an #epicfail by AT&T, as she did it because the coverage in eastern iowa is rubbish. but i still say she's out of the will (thanks for that, liz).

~ oops, this isn't twitter, so i guess the hash tags aren't so effective.

~ however, even an iPhone with no coverage is still far superior to any other phone. because of that hipstamatic photo app mostly. and the sexiness factor.

~ i'm a little worried about husband, he just signed up for his 25-year reunion on facebook. we didn't even know he knew he was on facebook (my sister and i created a profile for him awhile ago because sabin needed more friends for her pets in pet society).

~ i hope my new job description will specify "unlimited thinking" like husband's does. because i can totally do that. true story.

finding meaning in stripes

working on a scarf for sabin in soft, colorful cotton

i've made my own striped scarf as long as i want it to be and have only to go down to the local knitting shop and have the nice lady there show me how to join the two ends and then it will be finished. in the meantime, i have turned to one for sabin. she had to have an identical basket to mine for the project and we gathered all of our soft, bright cotton yarns into it and i'll make a colorful scarf for her like mine. she doesn't get along too well with wool, so we thought the cotton was a good solution and it was a way to use some of a stash of yarn that i had acquired out of addiction to the acquisition of colorful, soft things rather than having any project in mind. being an inexperienced knitter, i wasn't sure at first if i liked the cotton, but now that i've gotten a little way in, i do like it and it will be nice for spring, which has finally shown up.

snowdrops - a welcome sight, spotted in the woods at the new house
(and we just officially received word that they've agreed and it really IS the new house!)

last week, i spent time with an old friend who i used to work with and who i will work with again, starting april 1 (convenient to start a new job with 3 days of paid holiday and a weekend, don't you think?). i had my knitting basket with me and was knitting on my stripy scarf. i also mentioned that i had two more weaving lessons left before they were over. he laughed uproariously and made fun of me for indulging in activities that, in his words, only a 90-year-old woman would do. and oddly, that didn't bother me. because i know better. for one thing, i bought my loom from an 80-year-old woman who wasn't going to weave anymore because she was now painting, so there goes the age theory. and for another, craft is cool. here we all are, crocheting granny squares, knitting, sewing, quilting and embroidering. we're outfitting rooms of our houses to accommodate these hobbies. and we're not feeling any shame about it, just because they are homely pursuits (in the sense of home, not ugly).

i've done a lot of thinking about why this trend is so prevalent at the moment and have a few theories. one is that in the face of economic crisis, people simply are doing more around the house - not only are they taking less long-distance vacations, they're thinking about making a cover for that mixer rather than buying one. so the popularity of craft is partially from the desire to spend less, tho' i can vouch for the fact that sewing and knitting are rather expensive hobbies. even more, i think that as so many of us are information workers in one form or another, spending our days in offices, using computers, making elaborate powerpoint slides and excel spreadsheets, we have a longing to make something tangible and real, rather than all of that virtual ephemera. knitting, crocheting and sewing satisfy that longing. plus, we're so removed today from the production of things, that we have a desire to return to the simpler times of our forefathers and -mothers, where people really know how to do things with their hands. a quilt is much more tangible than a powerpoint presentation when it comes to it, so we simply have a desire to have something real that we made with our own two hands.

that dark chocolate brown stripe doesn't entirely fit

of course, i'm not above assigning deeper meaning to the things i've made. when i started the scarf, i consciously decided not to rip anything out and start over, but leave the small imperfections as markers of a learning experience and hopefully, to lend their own charm.  i've been looking upon the stripes in the scarf as a series of events, just as life is made up of event upon event. they build upon one another and the shades of the different events play off of one another. sometimes they clash and other times, they harmonize. towards the end of my scarf, i felt the need to introduce two new colors - a dark chocolate brown and a darker turquoise. interestingly, the brown doesn't work. it doesn't ruin the scarf, thankfully, but it jumps out in a jarring way, just like some of the things that happen in life. also interesting was that i couldn't see it until i had gone past it and added the next colors, so it wasn't until later that i realized how it didn't fit. just like life. but having vowed not to take out stitches once they were in, i have left it, as a learning experience. in life, you don't get a do-over.

in all, i'm pretty ok with the ribbing that i'm doing things a 90-year-old woman would do. those old ladies know how to do stuff and they've seen things. and i'm just fine with that.

proof of progress

march 7

march 9

march 11

march 13

i'm especially pleased with that row of yellow. it's some yarn i bought last summer at the viking fair in roskilde. it's hand-dyed with natural plant dyes - gyldenris as it's called in danish (not sure what that is in english).  the colors are slightly less vibrant than this in real life. i've got the saturation dialed up a notch (or two) in my camera at the moment.

i should have bought the entire basket of this yarn dyed with natural plant dyes

* * *

 a big congratulations to molly, my very first follower, and long lost sister in south africa. 

she just had a beautiful baby girl.

hallucinating giraffes

around midmorning, right as i was putting the finishing touches on my to-do list, i got a monster headache. i blame the chocolate on toast that husband made me for breakfast. too much sugar, especially in the morning, will bring on a headache every time. it resisted all ibuprofen and the gallons of water i drank, so i finally took a nap. i couldn't even read, because it hurt too much to focus my eyes (there's that focus thing again).

when sabin came home, i decided to hang out and watch project runway with her, despite the headache. while we watched the amusing catfighting and recriminations,  i worked a bit on my knitting. and that's when i saw this little giraffe herd go by...do you think headaches can make you hallucinate?

things i've learned...

...while knitting:

~ knitting requires a project basket. it's not always easy to find the right project basket and you might have go to 4-5 different stores, including antique stores,  looking for one.

the perfect project basket (+ giant ball of finger knitting by sabin)

~ you cannot knit and read at the same time. at least not if you're me. note to self: acquire audio books.

~ it's a bit hard to keep all of the criminals straight if you're knitting while watching midsomer murders and seldom look up because of your need to concentrate on the knitting.

~ splitty yarn bites.

~ it does get easier the more you do.

~ changing colors is WAY easier than you think it will be.

~ one of the reasons my previous attempts at knitting failed was that i had no idea what i was making, now that i know what i'm making, it's much easier to keep going.

progress! and i've even changed colors.

...picking up my loom:

bits of loom

~ you shouldn't lose the phone number of the people you're buying the loom from, because they won't necessarily remember you when you show up at their door.

~ a disassembled loom is a rather overwhelming pile of sticks.

~ a pile of sticks can begin an adventure.

~ the windmill looks much better against a blue sky on a sunny day.

melby mølle

...from my child:

i am ever, eternally, in awe, of sabin's ability to jump fully into every moment. she never, ever waits or wants to wait for "the right time" to do things. if she wants to turn a cardboard box into an airplane/car for her bear, she just begins. she collects the things she needs as she goes along and as she thinks of them, but she jumps into the task from the very first moment. if she gets hungry along the way, she incorporates picnic supplies (cucumber, blueberries, tomatoes, a thermos), stowing them in the "trunk" of the car.

sabin's airplane/car - complete with a key and an ingenious seatbelt design

but she lets nothing stand in the way of imagination or of execution of the vision of the airplane/car that forms in her head - a boxed taped to the back to function as a trunk, yellow tape for the headlights, yarn and a matchbox as a seatbelt, a key of cardboard covered in black tape. i really wish i could be more like that. i get extremely held back in the "collecting the materials" stage of things and then it's sometimes very hard for me to begin the actual project.

the latest additions to the fabric stash

p.s. it's so cool that blogger has added captions to the photos. makes wordpress look even more like the internet explorer of the blogging world, and not just from a security standpoint, but from a lame, so yesterday kinda standpoint. go blogger!