Bockfilz

My Japanese flower shawl

2012-01-08T23:40:00.006+01:00

I'm starting my new blog year right away with this Japanese flower shawl, which I have been crocheting during the holidays - the yarn is Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn, which I've been hiding in my stash in search for the very right pattern to use it for ... and as this happens to be a Japanese pattern as well, I thought it would be most suitable indeed for this project.

I first saw this gorgeous shawl at Lucy's great crochet blog 'Attic 24' - and when you read this posting of hers, I guess you will be just as thrilled as I was when reading about it ... When looking at her clear pictures, you might even feel able to pick up your hook and start crocheting right away!

(German summary: Diesen herrlichen japanischen Blumenschal habe ich jetzt während der Feiertage gehäkelt, die Idee fand ich bei Lucy, dort gibt es auch mehr Bilder und Hinweise zum Muster!)

Happy New Year!/Prosit Neujahr!

2012-01-01T00:40:00.002+01:00

Thank you, dear friends, for being around, for posting and commenting and inspiring!

I wish you all a healthy and friendly and exciting new year! Let's make it a good one!

Merry Christmas!/Frohe Weihnachten!

2011-12-24T17:01:00.007+01:00

Small Xmas project IV: Nativity scene ornament/WP IV: Baumkrippe

2011-12-24T10:10:00.000+01:00

If you happen to have a plastic laminator at home, this is a funny way to keep your kids (and even yourself!) happily entertained while waiting for Christmas ...!

Draw - or make your kids draw - (well, I found my pictures in a magazine) - the persons, animals and items needed for a nativity scene, cut them out, decorate them with sequins and glitter glue, let dry and then put them into the plastic laminating pockets with a bit of space between the figures.

When you've laminated them and cut them out once more (leaving a bit of plastic all around the border), punch an eyelet ring at the top and add a bit of string to hang them.

Leaving you with this for now, I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(German summary: Mit einem Laminiergerät und gezeichnete Krippenfiguren - vielleicht noch etwas Glitzer und Pailletten - läßt sich ein recht lustiger Baumschmuck machen! Und ganz herzlich: FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!)

Small Xmas-project IV: Crocheted star garland/Weihnachtsprojekt IV: Girlande aus Häkelsternen

2011-12-20T20:00:00.001+01:00

If you happen to have an evening left - and some bits of sockwool - you could still make a small star garland for yourself or for a friend ...

I found this very easy-to-follow tutorial on Ellen Bloom's blog - though instead of acrylic, I decided to use some leftover variegated sockwool, both 4-ply and 6-ply, with a crochet hook 3,5 mm - and I spaced them a bit more, about 25 chain stitches inbetween, as I didn't have the time to make that many ...

My 4-ply stars are about 4,5 cm, the 6-ply about 5,5 cm big - so this is a small and sweet garland - but of course you can use whatever yarn you have stashed.

And if you don't find the time now, remember there will be a new Christmas time next year!

(German summary: Eine feine und doch einfache Häkelanleitung für kleine Sternchen habe ich auf Ellen Bloom's blog gefunden - mit Sockenwollresten schauen sie noch einmal so süß aus, finde ich!)

Small Xmas project III: Christmas ornament star/Weihnachtsprojekt III: Recyclingsterne

2011-12-17T19:20:00.002+01:00

Almost a year ago, I found a tutorial on this beautiful Christmas ornament star at Pam's blog 'Gingerbread & Snowflakes' (if you click it, you'll be right there) - and although I tried them out right away, I thought I'd wait to show them to you until Christmas :-).

As soon as you've managed to do your first, it's an easy job, and the best thing about it is that you will most certainly find all (recycling) materials at home already - composite cardboard (like the brown one, for boxes), pins, beads, some leftover yarn or thread and bits of paper, maybe some small bits of decoration material to glue to the center.

Of course you could use a photo in the center too, and make gift tags out of them - they even look neat on the backside!

Thanks, Pam!

(German summary: Diese netten Recyclingsterne - man braucht nur etwas Verbundkarton, ein paar Stecknadeln und ein paar Garnreste - habe ich schon im Frühjahr entdeckt und nachgearbeitet - in Pam's blog 'Gingerbread & Snowflakes' gibt es die ganze Anleitung!)

Small Xmas project II: Felt ornament/Weihnachtsprojekt II: Filzhänger

2011-12-11T22:45:00.001+01:00

What can you do with some scraps of white felt, bits of ribbons and lace? Well, a Christmas ornament, of course!

The felt I used for this was quite a sturdy one, actually a piece of a table placemat, and so it will hang nicely, no backing needed.

A little bit of ribbon and some handstitching, and it could turn out like this:

For the decoration of the second one I used different bits of lace and sewed them down with free motion machine stitches - but of course you could do it all by hand as well:

I guess there are endless ways of using tablemat felt in various colours for making ornaments - maybe also in combination with paper (what about photos?) or fabric ... could be adapted for a kids' project as well, I think!

(German summary: Ein Stück festen Filz - hier von Tischsets - und Reste von Borten, Bänder und Spitze - und Simsalabim! - hat man einen Christbaumschmuck!)

Mother Christmas on St Nicholas' Day

2011-12-06T23:40:00.002+01:00

Many years ago, when I was visiting London in early December, I stumbled upon a box of Christmas cards which were sold on behalf of charity purpose. The text was a poem called 'Where art thou, Mother Christmas?' by Roald Dahl, and that year, I sent these cards to a lot of my friends.

And almost every year, when I'm busy trying to get all things planned and done (and bought and cooked and crafted and wrapped and decorated and written ...) in time for the feast, I have that poem in the back of my head, just pondering over the fact that tradition show only men bringing the presents, while reality demands most entirely female efforts ...

Nevertheless, here's the text!

Where art thou, Mother Christmas?
I really wish I knew
Why Father should get all the praise
And no one mentions you.

I'll bet you buy the presents
And wrap them large and small,
Then in the end our cunning friend
Pretends he's done it all.

So hail to Mother Christmas,
The uncomplaining slave,
And down with Father Christmas,
That good-for-nothing knave.

(Roald Dahl)

Small Xmas project I: Lavender hearts /Weihnachtsprojekt I: Lavendelherzen

2011-12-05T14:00:00.005+01:00

This year I managed to harvest my lavender in time - and I got a whole tray full of the wonderful smelling blossoms to let dry. I did cut up some of the flower stalks as well, as their scent of lavender is just as strong as the blossoms themselves.

Last time when visiting Stockholm, I bought a handprinted linen kitchen towel at 'Svensk Hemslöjd' (a Swedish domestic art & craft shop), with just the right size of red hearts on it. So I cut the hearts out, with a small seam allowance, and sewed them up with a red linen fabric for backing.

When the blossoms and stalks were all dry, I just had to fill them into the fabric hearts and close the opening with a few handstitches.

Finally, I decorated the front with flower motives from a machine lace fabric and some white vintage buttons.

(German summary: Heuer habe ich es geschafft, rechtzeitig meinen Lavendel zu ernten und zu trocknen. Dann habe ich ihn in rote Leinenstoffherzen gefüllt, die ich aus einem handgedruckten Geschirrhandtuch ausgeschnitten und genäht habe.)

Another sleeveless vest!/Noch einen Pullunder!

2011-11-30T21:57:00.002+01:00

Yes, I enjoy this way of knitting very much - this time, I tried doing a more graphic pattern in a colour scheme which I have never chosen before.

As I'm just knitting strips with quite few stitches at the time, I prefer using (wooden) double-pointed sock needles. The finishing rows at neck and arms are crocheted, and for the waistband I then needed a circular knitting needle, of course.

This vest is actually a de-stasher, as most of the yarn was either found in my stash or reclaimed from another garment - I only bought one single ball of sockwool yarn to get a bit of glowing turquoise into it!

A clever thing about knitting strips is that you don't have to worry about gauge and measurements until you've been knitting for quite a while - then there's still time to layer it onto one of your favourite sweaters and compare sizes.

Another advantage of this piece-work is that you can knit it almost entirely on sock needles - even knitting two strips parallel, if you want. The striping itself helps you count the rows easily when comparing lengths and sewing it all together.

And furthermore, the strips make it possible to re-arrange the design and the order of colours till the very end - you can even turn them upside down before mounting!

(German summary: Mir gefällt diese Art, Streifen zu stricken, sehr gut, da man wirklich bis zuletzt die einzelnen Teile neu arrangieren und ergänzen kann. Die Strumpfstricknadeln machen die Arbeit sehr handlich, und auch das Kombinieren verschiedener Wollreste- und stärken ist hier kein Problem!)

Bottlecap recycling/Flaschenverschlüsse recyceln

2011-11-20T19:43:00.002+01:00

I guess you know me by now - and that I have a faible for recycling things, especially if they come in some form of textile context.

Finding recycling possibilities for beverage cartons/tetrapaks or PET-bottles isn't even that hard - but for quite some time now I've been looking for a good solution on what to do with those bottlecaps.

And finally I've found one - it's provided by Jen Segrest, alias 'verybigjen', who turns them into sweet, tiny pincushions of all sorts - here is the link to her very clear tutorial on flickr.

So below you can see the ones I made - don't you think they would make a nice, small gift for X-mas? Really easy to do and you can use the tiniest of scrap supplies! And - they really come in more handy than you might think: I'm using mine all the time now!

(German summary: Schon lange habe ich überlegt, was man mit den vielen Flaschenverschlüssen machen könnte, die sich so ansammeln. Bei 'verybigjen' auf flickr gibt es eine einfache Anleitung, wie man daraus winzige Nadelkissen machen kann - genial! Vielleicht als ein nettes, kleines Geschenk?)

Deep down the dustbin .../Fasermonster-Familie

2011-11-15T18:30:00.004+01:00

... there once lived a fiber monster - although I never knew.

One day, it popped out of the bin and layed down under the needle foot of my embellisher.

Then it had a full service beauty surgery and became a bookmark.

Nice, huh?

(German summary: Wer hätte denn gedacht, daß sich ein Lesezeichen-Monster im Papierkorb versteckt? Ein bißchen 'Schönheitschirurgie' am Embellisher, und schon war's geschehen!)

Reclaimed wool: Indoor boots/Haussocken aus Recyclingwolle

2011-11-08T20:15:00.000+01:00

Another good idea for using your reclaimed wool (or leftovers), is making house boots - a crocheted mixture of socks and slippers, which my daughter and I are using constantly. They are warm, soft and don't get lost under the table - and you can even drop them in the washing-machine from time to time.

For this latest pair of boots I used a reclaimed worsted wool yarn for the base and topped it with some fancy leftovers of fringe yarn - I even decorated them with a dear head which I cut out from a piece of brown felt.

End of summer, I crocheted these two pairs the same way - reclaimed yarn and leftovers again, however in some acrylic wool blends.

As usual, I didn't really have a pattern, but if you zoom up on the pictures, I think you get the idea:

Starting circular at the toes, crocheting a flat round for a couple of rows (put a marker at the beginning, so you can see where a new row starts).

At about 5 cm diam. increase less frequently, thus allowing the flat piece to curl up to a 'bowl' - when the 'bowl' covers your toes nicely (about 32 sts), stop increasing and proceed crocheting in rounds until you reach your ankle (about 13 cm medium female size).

Now leave a gap of about 12 cm in the front and work front and back rows, turning at the gap.

Continue until you've reached your heel (about 12 cm medium female size), split the back by working a couple of short rows to produce a rounded heel. Leave a long tail of your yarn to close up the heel with a few stitches from the inside of the boot.

If you like an open shoe, you could stop here, just crocheting a last row around - but I must say I do prefer crocheting a shaft, making it more like a boot - it looks 'younger' and less Granny-like - and I find it fits better on the foot as well!

So just go on crocheting for about 6 or more rows, skipping the corner stitches on both sides in each round. In the last row, crochet 15 chain sts for a loop at the back - this is great for hanging the boots, for putting them on - and it looks cool, too!

I used a 6 mm crochet hook and either worsted weight yarn or 2-3 strands of thinner yarn - but you take whatever you have and don't feel afraid to try it out!

A good idea would be, however, to divide your yarn into two similar heaps (you can put it on a scale) before you start, and to work both boots more or less simultanously - when you work without a pattern, this is to ensure that both boots will look the same in the end :-)!

(German summary: Noch eine nette und nützliche Art, seine Rest- oder Recyclingwolle zu verwenden, ist Haussocken- oder -stiefel zu häkeln. Das geht sehr einfach: ein Käppchen für die Zehen, dann gerade aus in Runden bis zur Fessel, aufgezogene Sohle in Hin- und Rückrunden bis zur Ferse, Arbeit teilen und ein paar verkürzte Runden häkeln, zusammennähen, Öffnung umhäkeln, bis ein Schaft entstanden ist, kleinen Henkel hinten mittig arbeiten.

Ein guter Tip ist aber, wenn man frei häkelt, daß man anfänglich die Wolle in zwei gleiche Teile aufteilt und die beiden Stiefel mehr oder weniger gleichzeitig arbeitet - damit sie am Ende auch wirklich gleich werden :-)!)

Reclaimed wool: Sleeveless vest/Pullunder aus Recyclingwolle

2011-11-06T01:05:00.002+01:00

I like yarns. And I like repurposing things. So the idea of reclaiming yarn from non-fitting garments laid close at hand.

When I was given two bags full of hand-knitted garments which I didn't want to wear as they were, I decided to unravel them and use the wool for some new projects.

Out of an unravelled shoulder cape, I knitted this sleeveless vest -

I didn't really use a pattern, just knitted strips and sew them together, taking measure from one of my old vests.

I like knitting the front and the back the same - so I can wear it both ways.

When you've unravelled an old garment, it's important that you wind it to a skein, soak it in lukewarm water (I used a bit of soap too), rinse it thorougly and then dry it, eventually with a weight, in order to straighten out the 'curls' of the former knitting. If you don't, your new knitting will get uneven and ugly.

Shake the skeins several times while they are drying, and you will get an airy and fluffy yarn, good as new!

(German summary: Da mir sowohl Wolle als auch Recyling am Herzen liegt, ribbele ich gerne nicht mehr getragene Stricksachen auf und stricke daraus etwas Neues. Wichtig ist, daß man das aufgeribbelte Garn zu Strängen wickelt, und es dann im lauwarmen Wasser - auch mit Seife - badet, dann spült, trocknen läßt - evtl. mit einem Gewicht - damit sich die 'Wellen' glätten und die Wolle wieder ein schönes Maschenbild ergibt. Mehrmals ausschütteln, ausschlagen - und das Garn ist wie neu!)

A brooch with a face/Eine Brosche mit Gesicht

2011-10-29T23:55:00.002+02:00

Now I've used one of my free motion machine stitched faces for a brooch - and as I was listening to a historical audiobook novel while working, I guess it was something of that feeling that influenced my hands here.

The hair is stitched with a thin organza ribbon, the background consists of fabric and wool punched with the embellisher and then embroidered on with my hand-dyed threads.

I sew on a big, coloured safety pin on the backside, as I'm going to use it for holding a shawl in place.

(German summary: Ich habe jetzt eines meiner Gesichter für eine Brosche - oder vielleicht eher Schultertuchspange - verwendet.
Beim Arbeiten habe ich gleichzeitig ein historisches Hörbuch gehört - ich glaube, daß man es auch an dem Gesicht erkennen kann ...)

Working on faces/Gesichter sticken

2011-10-26T23:05:00.001+02:00

'You can never have too many faces', Jude Hill/Spirit Cloth once wrote in her blog - and that's true.

A face gives your (textile) picture a personality - and makes it tell a story. I learned that when I made 'The Goose Maiden' - and I also realized that I need to do my very own faces.

So I've been working on some faces now - using my new sewing machine and a piece of cloth, which I have sun-dyed with the breakfast teabags and dried walnut skins in a jar on the windowsill.

Even if my new sewing machine is a wonderful improvement to the old one (so quiet! so exact! and with an embroidery foot!), it's not easy to make the faces much smaller than this. And of course it's more of an effort than having them printed - but on the other hand, I like the idea that each one of them is unique, and has a character of its own.

(German summary: Ich habe Gesichter gestickt, mit meiner neuen Nähmaschine, auf handgefärbtem Stoff - und auch wenn sie nicht so klein werden können, wie gedruckte, gefällt es mir sehr gut, daß sie alle ein bißchen eine eigene Persönlichkeit haben!)

The Goose Maiden/Die Gänsemagd

2011-10-24T22:30:00.002+02:00

So this is The Goose Maiden - a small wall hanging, different fabrics, wool and ribbons punched with the embellisher, decorated with hand embroidery, beads, sequins and free motion machine embroidery.

When I visited Sara in Alicante earlier this year, she gave me a few printed faces of hers - so yes, this is one of her fabric faces which I've used for the maid. Ah, and the goose itself is actually a painted tin button - you can still get hold on some buttons like these in old Viennese haberdashery shops!

(German summary: Die Gänsemagd - ein kleines Wandbild, daß ich mit dem Embellisher gepuncht und danach mit Hand- und Maschinenstickerei, Perlen und Pailletten bestickt habe. Das gedruckte Gesicht ist von Sara - sie hat mir ein paar von ihren geschenkt - den bemalten Zinnknopf habe ich in einem Wiener Kurzwarengeschäft gefunden.)

Mongolian Warrior Pullover/Mongolischer Kriegerpullover

2011-10-23T21:10:00.000+02:00

At last, at last - I've finally managed to finish that Mongolian Warrior Pullover, which I promised my daughter more than a year (shame, shame!) ago ...

When she saw the design in Nicki Epstein's book 'Knitting On Top of the World', she asked me to knit one for her too - but in black, with just a bit of olive green - and if possible, with detachable sleeves (which is of course not in the pattern), so that she can wear it both as a pullover and as a sleeveless vest/waistcoat.

As I had already knitted a red vest for myself using this pattern, I wasn't that eager to make another one (I hate knitting the same pattern twice!) - but nevertheless I bought some nice wool & bamboo yarn and started on it -

Well, now it's finished, at last! (And when I finally started, it didn't even take that long ...)

For the detachable sleeves, I crocheted a row of single crochet along the outer strips, working some short chains as 'buttonholes' on the shoulders - which you would hardly notice when the sleeves are off. The buttons themselves were spread onto the top of the sleeves.

The buttons on the hips are just for decoration - I thought it would look nice to repeat the brass buttons there, giving it a slightly 'military' touch - well, it is after all a warrior pullover, isn't it?

And - I've got a big parcel from Susa again - wonderful handdyed wool, to knit and to spin -

this one makes me think of an old fisherboat, lying on the shore:

- and the spinning wool (I've already begun spinning it!) - which Susa dyed upon my request, on Wensleydale sheep wool - will become a wonderful, soft 'deep lake in the forest'-sweater ...

(German summary: Endlich habe ich den 'Mongolischen Krieger'-Pullover fertig, den sich meine Tochter schon seit einem Jahr wünscht - wir haben ihn mit abknöpfbaren Ärmeln abgeändert. Und dann habe ich noch wieder wunderschöne, handgefärbte Strick- und Spinnwolle von Susa bekommen - und natürlich schon angefangen zu spinnen ...)

Spinning a rainbow/Regenbogen spinnen

2011-10-11T22:10:00.000+02:00

I'm spinning again - enjoing the very, very last late summer days with the spinnig wheel outside in the garden - spinning more of that beautiful handdyed wool from Susa (earlier posting here).

It's funny how different a yarn can turn out, depending on the plying thread used. For the rainbow roving, I first used a thin matching thread for plying - and wasn't convinced at all:

So I searched my stash and found a ball of lace yarn (Schoppel Crazy Ball) and plied my rainbow Masham wool once more with that (ah yes, I mixed in some dark blue wool at an end too) - and suddenly, I could really see the rainbow coming through!

Due to the different colour sequences in the plying yarn, there were exciting new colour combinations - made me think of the Hundertwasser colour scheme here and there -

The next is a very light-coloured Cheviot roving, which I'm planning to use for a plain Victorian lace shawl - I'm plying it with a vintage rosé silk thread (one more of those rayon silk threads dated 1936 which I found in my mother's cellar a couple of years ago!) It will be a gift for a friend of mine.

And for the last one, a Falkland wool - the colours are deeper and more 'cloudy' in real! - I've spun it in a soft thick & thin manner, plying it with two skinny wool threads.

I'm not sure what to knit out of this yet - it's very fluffy and delicate, so it would be quite suitable for some kind of shoulder shawl too - and even if I already have some, I still adore those kind of wraps now that the nights are getting colder ...

Of course, I'm not a spinning artist like Jana, who I admire very much indeed - but at least I'm beginning to feel that I'm getting closer to controlling the spinning wheel (and not vice versa :-) - and that I can at least roughly make it produce the yarn I'm aiming at. I'm so glad I bought that wheel and just kept on trying until it worked out!

(German summary: Ich spinne wieder - wunderbar gefärbte Wolle von Susa - und freue mich, daß ich damals das Spinnrad gekauft und einfach so lange herumprobiert habe, bis ich annehmbar spinnen konnte - es ist so eine Freude!)

Pixel Patchwork Project/Modernes Pixel-Patchwork

2011-10-03T12:55:00.000+02:00

What if one was to combine a pixel pattern with patchwork?

When I held the latest issue of the French magazine 'Marie-Claire Idées' in my hand and saw this beautiful work, it seemed to me like a rather new and exciting approach on patchwork:

Still, this would mean a lot of time and fuzzy, tiny patchwork pieces, each to be sewn down with a 5 mm seam - real miniature work - which I'm not up to at the moment.

So I decided to simplify both the pattern and the technique - aiming at that fabric pixel effect, but in a more 'malfatto' way ... faster, easier - and not too exact. :-)

In one of my cross-stitch books, I found this somewhat smaller rose pattern - with not too many colours.

As there are three different reds (and one pink) in this pattern, and I wanted to use the scraps available, I sorted the red ones in three colour 'families', instead of using the same fabric allover for one specific shade of colour. - This is an experiment on the go, so we will see how it turns out in the end!

Then I started cutting up suitable fabric scraps into 3 x 3 cm pieces - using a roller cutter and a cutting mat. Some of the thin or fraying fabrics needed to be doubled with a thin iron-on-vylene.

For guidance, I drew up a 3 x 3 cm grid with a pencil directly on the background fabric and sprayed it lightly with a temporary positioning glue.

I worked the pattern in smaller segments, bonding the squares with a zig-zag seam and then attaching a new piece of background fabric, when the first had been completed.

It's almost like laying a jigsaw puzzle!

(German summary: Pixel patchwork - die Idee an sich aus einer Zeitschrift, allerdings habe ich sie etwas abgewandelt, um ein schnelleres und nicht ganz so aufwendiges Ergebnis zu erreichen. Ich verwende einen Haftspray und nähe anschließend die 'rohen' Quadrate mit Zick-zack direkt auf den Untergrund fest.)

Chopping up shirts/Mit Hemd, Pullover und Krawatte ...

2011-09-28T20:30:00.002+02:00

Although end of September, it's still warm outside, so I can work in the garden.

I'm chopping up four men's shirts which I found at the parish flea market last weekend. One of the shirts is solid natural linen - mmm, this means lots of embroidery fabric ...

The other ones are heavy cotton - I chose them for the texture and for the faded colours. Maybe they would work well as a frame for my deer project?

I also have some broad men's neckties in my stash - and when using my little bias former/tape maker (Prym) the other day, I suddenly remembered that most ties are cut diagonally - what if I'd use them for making unusual bias bindings? They could look quite nice - and it would be repurposing and at the same time saving time and effort, when I don't have to prepare those fabric strips first ...

I bought a big mens' sweater at that flea market too - the price was 1 Euro! It's 75% cotton and the colours are off-white with a touch of brown inbetween, machine knitted in stockinette, the yarn consisting of three threads - two of them are straight cotton, the third one is a bit of a moderate bouclé.

As the seams are cut and overlocked, unravelling means getting a lot of ends - which is quite bad for knitting, but good for sewing. The straight natural white/light beige cotton threads will give me loads and loads of threads to handsew with - it's the perfect colour and the perfect thickness!

So, what are you waiting for, ladies? Hubby's not around? Where are those scissors ...?

(German summary: Am Flohmarkt habe ich einige feste Herrenhemden billig erstanden - guter Stoff, gute Farben - zum Nähen, Embellishen und Sticken - dann noch die Idee, aus alten, breiten Krawatten Schrägbänder zu nähen - und die einzelnen Fäden eines Baumwollpullovers für's Handnähen zu verwenden ...)

New start into autumn/Neuer Herbstanfang

2011-09-22T18:20:00.004+02:00

Crisp, foggy mornings and red apples hanging sweet and shiny from the trees in my garden ... This year's Indian summer slowly turns into autumn and I realize it's been quite a while since last, dear friends ...

But it's been a great summer, warm and sunny, with friends and family visiting, some of them for several weeks. I've done a bit of this and that inbetween - maybe I'll show you some of those projects later on.

Things have happened: Elizabeth at Landanna is back blogging with fresh inspiration - Sara has moved to Argentina and told me in a mail, that there are lots of interesting textiles to see in Buenos Aires - Clare has visited a free-hand machine embroidery workshop and will certainly come up with new projects on that - and in other blogs, I've seen a lot of beautiful natural dyeing experiments, which look very exciting.

I think we are blessed to have this medium to share and inspire one another.

Two days ago, I received a very much longed-for, late big-birthday present from my Dad: a new sewing machine, a Bernina 350, to replace my still-working, but 50-year-old Singer. (Men understand the point better if you remind them that cars have improved a bit too during the last 50 years ... ;-).

I'm overwhelmed with this wonderful, new tool - and today I started playing with it, using the darning and quilting foot, exercising on a dog print fabric I had at hand:

The picture to the right shows the back - I think it looks rather funny too, almost like a newspaper comic!

Here's another one:

I did a couple of free-motion flowers as well - maybe for a greeting card - using an automatic machine pattern for the border:

And of course I had to try out free-hand writing on the machine too!

There are some books on this subject that might interest you:

- "Free & easy stitch style" by Poppy Treffry
(German title: "Das etwas andere Nähbuch")

- "Scandinavian Stitches" by Kajsa Wikman
(also known as Syko: www.syko.typepad.com)

- The "Impatient embroiderer" by Jane Emerson
(German title: "Einfach maschinensticken")

- "Textile Natur/Textile nature" by Elsbeth Nusser-Lampe
(German and English text)

And while working, I had this somewhat crazy idea to simply colour some white thread with markers to get striped and dotted thread ... Of course this is more convenient to use for hand-sewing, as you will have to renew the pattern from time to time, when unravelling the upper layer - but it's fast and easy and it even looks decorative on the shelf!

(German summary: Herbstanfang und Neuanfang. So viel Neues gibt es bei euch, liebe Blogfreundinnen - schön, daß wir dieses Medium zum Austausch haben. Ich habe seit ein paar Tagen eine neue Nähmaschine und spiele jetzt vor allem mit der Freihandstickfunktion - einige Buchtipps zum Thema, drei Titel davon auch auf Deutsch - und eine verrückte Idee, mit einem Edding das Nähgarn auf Zebra zu trimmen :-)

Mini summer project IV: Paper crane/Mini Sommerprojekt IV: Papierkranich

2011-08-14T23:05:00.001+02:00

I finally made them!

Still on holiday - that's the excuse for having been so lazy blogging lately - I'm just popping in to share my joy with you for finally having managed to do some of those Japanese origami cranes!

Strung on a string, with a bead below for a stopper, I'm sure they'll make a lovely window decoration!

For those of you still struggling, here's a tutorial I found!

(German summary: Oh, ich hab's geschafft! So lange wollte ich schon einen japanischen Papierkranich falten können ...)

Mini Summer Project III: Tiny neck bag/Kleines Sommerprojekt III: Winzige Umhängetasche

2011-07-25T18:25:00.001+02:00

Since it's raining cats and dogs almost every day lately, I decided to do the best of it and curl up under a warm throw on the couch and amuse myself with listening to audiobooks while knitting or crocheting ...

After having treated myself to a small MP3-player I now needed some kind of tiny bag to hang it around my neck - so I came up with this:

The whole bag is quite small, only 9 x 9 cm, still it can hold both the player and the ear phones along with the cable.

I took some sock wool scraps and a 3,5 mm crochet hook, doing 10 chain sts and working scs for three rows, then connecting the rings to one another with a couple of stitches, using the yarnend left.

The neck string is simply done with double yarn and chain sts - this is the 'backside' of the bag:

(German summary: Diese winzige Umhängetasche haltet MP3-Player, Ohrhörer und Kabel bereit für meine Hörbücher - sie ist aus Sockenwollresten gehäkelt und nur 9 x 9 cm groß.)

Mini Summer Project II: Flower Doodles/Kleines Sommerprojekt II: Maschinenstickerei

2011-07-16T21:25:00.000+02:00

This was quite fun to do!

While helping my daughter with her jeans bag project, I had some time inbetween to try out some doodles/free embroidery with my sewing machine. This time, I wanted to find out if I could do it on the plain no-name household sewing machine, which hasn't got any additional equipment at all for doing this type of job.

And it worked! All I had to do was putting some sticky tape over the transport feeding/feed dogs, adjusting the stitch length to zero, removing the fabric foot (but still lowering the lever for sewing) and start moving the fabric around!

It helps, of course, if you double your fabric with some vilene first and/or mount it in an embroidery frame (flat side down) before stitching ...

(German summary: Dieses mal wollte ich ausprobieren, ob man auf einer ganz einfachen Haushaltsnähmaschine ohne Zusatzfunktionen auch frei sticken kann - und jawohl, es geht!

Einfach die Transporträdchen mit Klebeband kaschieren, den Nähfuß abmontieren (und trotzdem nicht vergessen, den Fußhebel beim Nähen herunterzulassen!) und die Stichlänge auf Null stellen - und dann den Stoff mit beiden Händen hin- und herbewegen - sanfte Bewegungen und Finger weg von der Nadel!

Natürlich ist es eine zusätzliche Hilfe, wenn man den Stoff mit Büglevlies verstärkt und/oder noch den Stoff in einen Stickramen spannt - Stoff flach nach unten )

Mini Summer Project I: Brooch/Kleines Sommerprojekt: Brosche

2011-07-12T22:53:00.001+02:00

While sitting in the garden and chatting with my Mum, I worked on this small brooch -

- all by hand and with scrap materials found in my glass jar. I think it looks a bit folkloristic Scandinavian, especially with this white blouse.

(German summary: Nur eine kleine Brosche mit Material aus dem Resteglas, das ich gemacht habe, während ich plaudernd mit meiner Mutter im Garten gesessen bin - ich finde, es hat etwas Skandinavisches, oder?)

Have a nice summer holiday!/Schöne Ferien!

2011-07-08T02:00:00.000+02:00

Did you know that a yarn can almost make you feel the sea shore nearby? Well, I think these yarns do:

When wandering through the net, I discovered Susa's shop and her beautiful handdyed yarns - this is a 30/70 silk/wool blend ... as you can see, I just couldn't resist ...

I have started knitting already, but as I'm still experimenting with it, you'll have to wait a little bit yet.

School's out and the kids are at home, my mother is here to visit - so I'm a bit busy right now - but I will be back in a while :-).

Enjoy your summer too!

Literally modern times/Klassische Literatur modern

2011-06-26T21:55:00.001+02:00

Question: How do you get your kids off the computer and into reading classical literature instead?

The answer is simple: You buy them an e-book reader and make them a nice cover for it! (Bold decision for me, being a part time librarian!) But indeed, my daughter spent several hours today out in the garden, reading ...

And for the homemade cover: this is the front -

- and here's the back (usable the other way round as well):

And for a young mister, I made a wristband this weekend out of a piece of an used truck tyre and some old adjustable resistance out of my stash - quite cool recycling, isn't it ? (Do you now begin to imagine what my stash looks like ;-) ...)

(German summary: Und wie bekommt man seine Kinder weg vom Computer und hin zur klassischen Literatur? - Man kauft ihnen ein e-book reader und bastelt ihnen eine hübsche Hülle dafür ... Bei uns war's auf jeden Fall ein voller Erfolg! Ein Armband aus einem gebrauchten LKW-Reifen und einem alten einstellbaren Widerstand gab dieses Wochenende dann auch her.)

Spinning and knitting/Spinnen und stricken

2011-06-20T23:55:00.001+02:00

Oh deer ;-) - it's been a bit of a time since last ... I'm sorry for that.

Yes, I have assembled my deers roughly -but I'm not satisfied with the result yet, and therefore it will have to 'mature' in a safe place until inspiration strucks me anew, I'm afraid.

Summer has come to Austria, and I've been spending a lot of time in my garden, also spinning and knitting.

Do you remember the hand-dyed wool I bought last month? I've spun it all during the last weeks, and the icecream-coloured New Zealand lambswool turned out like this, when plyed with a golden-yellow silk thread from my stash:

For the first time I made a fringe as well - wound it over a pocket book to get the size right, cut it and passed it through the border stitches with a crochet hook and made a slip knot.

This shawl is dedicated to become a luxurious present for someone later on.

The other wool roving I bought from Dornröschen was a wool/linen blend, which I spun quite thin and plyed with a linen thread - one part with a green, another part with a black one.

You can see how much darker the same wool appears with the black plying than with the green one!

I worked front and back the same again, so I can wear the vest/slipover both sides. This time, however, I knitted the mitered diamonds horizontally, like a patchwork, to receive a different look than for the Noro slipover though the pattern idea is the same.

It's a wonderful thing to wear, lightweight and yet warm, still with a touch of 'coolness', due to the linen part ... and it was marvellous to spin as well because of those long and grasping linen fibers - with eventual soft short-fibered bumps!

And while I was on the go knitting, I made myself a shoulder poncho too - one single string (100g) of one-ply Swedish Gotland fur sheep wool from 'Färgkraft' - this hand-dyed colour is called 'Dusk' ...

I worked two pieces of triangle shawls, beginning at the top center, sewing them together in front and back. This light-weight piece only has 100 g but is as warm as an oven on neck and shoulders - perfect to put on over a T-shirt when the evening chill comes around!

I finished it up with a crocheted picot border, using some Schoppel Crazy Ball Lace yarn I had at hand.

(German summary: Meine Rehe und Hirsche sind zwar grob zusammengefügt, müssen aber noch etwas nachliegen, bis mir die zündende Idee für den Abschluß kommt.

Inzwischen habe ich aber fleißig gesponnen und gestrickt - der bunte Schal und der Pullunder sind aus dem Spinnfutter von 'Dornröschen' entstanden - den Schulterponcho habe ich wie zwei Dreieckstücher gestrickt und dann vorne und hinten mittig zusammengenäht - die Wolle ist von 'Färgkraft', handgefärbte einfädige Gotlandspelzwolle ... mmm, luftig leicht und trotzdem warm wie ein Ofen an den kühlen Sommerabenden!)

The return of the Moosepaper Elk /Wiedersehen mit dem Zeitungselch

2011-06-04T17:30:00.000+02:00

Before I'm starting with the assembling, I just wanted to show you how the 'Folkloristic Reindeer' and the 'Japanese Moosepaper Elk' turned out when finished (the beginning of it was here and here):

Anke at Wolle/Natur/Farben gave me some nice ideas in her comment on my last posting, Sara mentioned a quilt - and I myself feel that I would like to try some ragged piecing ... maybe combined with some embellishing - well, we will see what there will be when inspiration finally strucks me :-).

(German summary: Ich wollte nur schnell die beiden fertiggestellten Tiere zeigen, bevor ich mich ans Zusammenfügen mache ...)

A lacey deer/Spitzenhirsch

2011-06-03T22:10:00.004+02:00

Well, this is definitively a lacey deer - different bits and scraps of lace sewn onto the fabric print ( here is where the deer story began). This time I added a couple of transparent glass beads which I found in my stash as well.

I'm beginning to wonder how I can assemble these experiments to some kind of a unit - in one of the comments, Sara suggested that I'd make a quilt out of them - but as my wall space is very limited, I think I'd rather mount them vertically somehow, like for a long, narrow wall-hanging. But maybe still in a 'quilty' way ... Any ideas?

(German summary: Ja, ein Spitzenhirsch, aus kleinen Spitzenresten, die ich auf dem Stoffdruck (hier hat es angefangen) aufgenäht habe. Jetzt überlege ich hin und her, wie ich diese Serienexperimente zu einer Einheit zusammenfügen kann ... etwas schmales, langes ... irgendwelche Ideen?)

A queer deer/Verfilztes Reh

2011-05-27T21:35:00.001+02:00

And: having fun is surely the most important condition above all! Allowing yourself to be playful, curious, experimenting - without intention of achieving anything - helps a lot. I know, not every day gives birth to this kind of mood - but if you feel it coming, give it a chance to prosper.

At first, I just wanted to try punching bits of novelty yarns onto the fabric - and as I saw these awkward colours filling up the cloth, I realized it would never end up looking very natural anyway.

It looked queer, somehow - and when the rhyme struck me, it was obvious that this deer needed a pair - no, two pairs, of course - of red high-heels as well ... and some lipstick ...

I positioned the lengths of yarn and the wool with a hand felting needle, then punched it once more with the embellisher. The material for the antlers is glossy, hand-dyed thread.

(German summary: Und was am allerwichtigsten ist, ist die Freude - daß man einfach Spaß hat, an dem, was man macht! Daß man sich traut, zu spielen, herumzuexperimentieren, auszuprobieren - ohne unbedingt ein Ergebnis als Ziel vor Augen zu haben ... Hier habe ich verschiedene Effektgarne erst mit der Filznadel befestigt, dann mit dem Embellisher gepuncht.)

It's foggy, deer!/Hirsch im Nebel

2011-05-26T22:00:00.002+02:00

Having a bit of time is another item needed for attracting the flow of creativity.

As time constantly seems to be scarce, I'm stealing it from household/garden chores in the mornings, when the kids have left for school. And sometimes a bit in the evenings too - if at least one kid happens to go to bed before I do ...

But then, again - sometimes I manage to get a glimpse of new ideas in my mind, while my hands are busy doing everyday duties ... nowadays, however, I have to get hold on a piece of paper and jot down at least a few lines, to ensure I'll remember it later on ...

This deer has a soft surface - almost like fur. It's pencil roving and carded wool which I punched onto the cloth with my embellisher.

(German summary: Ein bißchen Zeit braucht man einfach auch, für die neuen Ideen - ich stehle sie mir frühmorgens, wenn die Kinder außer Haus sind, manchmal auch abends. Und manchmal kommen die Ideen auch so, während die Hände mit irgendeiner anderen Arbeit beschäftigt sind,

Dieser Hirsch ist streichelweich, aus kardierter Wolle im Strang, trockengefilzt mit dem Embellisher direkt auf dem Stoff.)

Red deer crossing/Rotes Kreuzreh

2011-05-25T17:20:00.003+02:00

'Not doing it properly' - but bending the rules - is another way of setting creativity free, I think.

Take cross-stitch for example. We've all been taught to sew it neatly row-wise, stitches in one direction only, same size allover. What if you don't?

If you just regard them as stitches, ment for filling a space, covering a background, producing a colour field or even just lighter and darker areas - then it doesn't really matter what size they are, in which direction they're looking, if they're overlapping or not. On the contrary: variety will add further interest.

The yarn I used for this deer is real recycling stuff: I found it when enravelling an old cord and tassel ...

(German summary: Einen Stich nicht akkurat auszuführen kann manchmal sehr belebend sein :-). Wenn man z.B. den Kreuzstich als Flächenfüller, Bodendecker, Farbenmaler sieht, ist die Stichlänge, -größe, -anordnung plötzlich sehr nebensächlich ... Die Fäden, die ich hier verwendet habe, sind übrigens hauptsächlich der spannende Inhalt einer alten Kordel ...)

It's just another cat, my deer!/Raubtierhirsch

2011-05-20T23:45:00.000+02:00

Funny enough, it seems as if the scrappiest of scraps boost my imagination the most!

This is today's deer, where I had to assemble three outline patches (and even add a bit of additional drawing) to achieve one animal.

Here you can see the three fragments joined:

I found a piece of wildcat fabric in my stash and decided to use it for the body.

Then I took a clear plastic envelope for tracing the outlines - this way I could see where to position the eye best:

The beads on neck and back are not only embellishments, but also help holding the fabrics together.

And as I seem to be in a creative upswing right now, I made this ring for myself today as well - it's basically a piece of black rubber, some natural beads (coral and bone) and a platinum covered metal bar with a removable knob.

(German summary: Je anspruchsloser die Reste, umso mehr wird anscheinend meine Experimentierlust angestachelt! Drei Reststücke und etwas Raubtierstoff bilden heute das Gerüst meines neuen Hirsches - dann noch ein paar Perlen und Metallpailletten für's Geweih ... Ja, und der Ring kam heute auch noch zustande: Gummi, Naturperlen und ein Steg mit abschraubbaren Verschluß.)

Elk in action/Fortlaufender Elch

2011-05-18T18:00:00.000+02:00

And I wondered what would happen if I'd use a black/white paper cord for outlining this elk (or moose) ...

I couched it down with one of my hand-dyed cotton threads -

- and then grabbed a Japanese newspaper I had at hand :-) ... and pasted it down with some napkin glue.

*** to be continued ***

By the way, go see these inspirational YouTube videos about Léa Stansal and her overwhelming fabric work: here is the first one, here the other one! - And for those who don't speak French: it's well worth just looking at the pictures ...

(German summary: Diesmal hat es einen Elch getroffen - ich habe die Konturen mit einer schwarzweißen Papierschnur 'nachgezogen', und diese mit einem selbstgefärbten Baumwollfaden festgestickt. Ich habe auch kleine Stücke Zeitungspapier mit dem Serviettenkleber an den Stoff geklebt ...

Außerdem noch zwei Links zu YouTube und der fantastischen Textilkünstlerin Léa Stansal!)

Oh deer! Fabric Wildlife/Rotwild im Musterwald

2011-05-18T08:15:00.001+02:00

A friend sent me some scraps of a cotton fabric, which had the outlines of different deers printed on it.

And like in a drawing book, these outlines just asked to be filled in with colour ...

I chose strands of cotton threads and some light weight fabrics from my stash palette - the pictures show work in progress, of course.

Furthermore, these gorgeous linen-blended wool strands are hand-dyed by Dornröschen and now waiting for me in a basket beneath my spinning wheel ...

And - I've bought myself a new pair of shoes ... running gear, almost like walking barefoot!

(German summary: Die Konturen dieses Stoffes haben richtiggehend nach Farbe und Inhalt gerufen - ich verwende Moulinégarn und dünne Stoffreste dazu. - Spinnfutter von Dornröschen - diesmal eine neue Mischung, mit Leinen! Und dann habe ich mir noch ein paar neue Schuhe gekauft ... fast wie barfuß laufen!)

Stitching flowers/Blumenstickerei

2011-05-15T21:05:00.000+02:00

I've done a bit of stitching again lately - actually it's a combination of different techniques:

first, I used my embellisher to needle-felt some scraps of different novelty yarns to the pre-felted green background, then I did some embroidery on it, partly with woolen threads, partly with hand-dyed cotton ones - then I used my embellisher on it again - and finally I added a couple of fabric mini yo-yos, which I made out of fabric scraps and then sew on to the center on some of the flowers.

I'm not yet quite sure how to proceed with this - maybe I'll use it for a book cover.

(German summary: Ein kleines Werkstück mit einer Kombination verschiedener Techniken - Trockenfilzen mit dem Embellisher, Handstickerei und ein paar Mini-Rosetten, die ich mit dem Yo-yo-maker gemacht habe - der Hintergrund ist ein Stück grüner Vorfilz.)

Pin cushion ring/Fingernadelkissen

2011-05-09T12:50:00.000+02:00

I made a great invention today ... a pin cushion ring! (Yes, I know, there might be others - but this is mine! :-)

The idea struck me when I was about making a pin cushion on a jam jar - as a matter of fact, I am one of the few persons out there who has hardly got any decent pin cushions, although I sew regularly, both by hand and on the machine.

And when I'm sitting outside in my garden, sewing or embroidering, I never know where to put those cut-offs - don't want to throw them on the ground, neither put them in my coffee cup ... Therefore I need the jar: first to hold thread and scissors, then to collect the cut-off threads and fabric snippets.

Both pin cushions were glued on with a hot glue gun - one to the jar lid, the other one to a simple copper ring I had laying around.

And while working, I thought I could as well make a third one - it's a personal version of the flower pin cushion, I just added an extra cushion on the top, in order to separate the sewing needles from the normal pins.

(German summary: Und ich dachte, ich hätte eine neue Erfindung gemacht, mit dem Fingernadelkissen ... :-)! Auf jeden Fall habe ich jetzt sogar drei verschiedene Nadelkissen parat - jedes erfüllt seinen besonderen Zweck auf unterschiedlicher Weise.)

A Japanese Knot Bag/Eine japanische Knotentasche

2011-05-08T17:07:00.000+02:00

I found a nice vintage fabric in my stash recently, and decided to sew one of those Japanese knot bags out of it.

For the lining, I used a scrap piece of striped cotton fabric, which had been in my stash for ages at well.

I'm quite pleased with how it looks, but as the vintage fabric I used is rather heavy, I think I'm going to make the long strap a bit more narrow so that it will be laying smoother on my shoulder.

I would also like to make another one, lengthening the strap to reach diagonally over the chest and using a medium weight cotton fabric instead.

If you would like to sew a knot bag yourself, the pattern I found when googling about it is here - the explications are in German, but with clear pictures and a scale pattern. You'll find a smaller 'handbag' version with instructions in English here.

(German summary: So, jetzt habe ich mir auch eine japanische Knotentasche genäht - ein genial einfacher Schnitt, geringer Stoffverbrauch - man könnte auch Reste zusammennähen - und sehr praktisch!)

Noro slipover and a turning yarn holder/Noro-Pullunder und ein kugelgelagerter Wollknäuelhalter ...

2011-04-27T19:00:00.001+02:00

My first Noro slipover is ready!

I worked front and back the same, so I can have the choice which side to wear in front.

I didn't really have any pattern, just worked the mitered diamonds (go visit Fibermania!) and took the measures from an old sweater. I do enjoy this 'domino knitting', which makes it possible to knit the whole garments with just two double pointed sock knitting needles.

For this vest, I used the more blurred and darker colours - the bright ones will be knitted with the entrelac vest project, which is also proceeding as rapidly as that slightly more complicated pattern allows ...

While knitting with my fantastic Noro yarns, I felt that I would very much like to have the yarn being unrolled from the outer side, so I can see the colours coming up next and sometimes even do a bit of planning - normally, I take the yarn from inside, to prevent it from rolling around.

When visiting me last summer, Sara had a very useful tool, a turning yarn holder, which had a ball bearing and moved very smoothly, following the knitting movements without snatching.

Unfortunately, she couldn't quite remember where she had bought it - somewhere on-line - so after having searched the net without success, I decided to make one myself.

First I just wanted to use a plain kitchen roll holder and cut off a bit of the stick - but then I stumbled into a cheap normal wooden yarn holder and bought that instead. The next step was to find a ball bearing - I started asking around - until my teenage son had one of his (rare) cleaning-up-the-mess moods and got rid of a pencil organizer which, to my great content, had a ball bearing hidden inside!

As the bottom size of this organizer happened to be almost the same as for the yarn holder, the only thing I had to do was to put the organizer apart, drill a center hole big enough for the stick casing and screw the ball bearing part to the wooden bottom of the yarn holder.

Et voilà! A turning yarn holder with almost no effort at all!

(German summary: So, mein erster Noro-Pullunder ist fertig - ich habe ihn in den gedeckteren Farben gestrickt, und zwar so, daß ich ihn beidseitig tragen kann - mit den kleinen Quadraten, die sich wie Dominosteine aneinander fügen. Außerdem habe ich mir einen kugelgelagerten Wollknäuelständer gebastelt, weil ich den Farbverlauf der bunten Noro-Wolle gerne rechtzeitig erkennen möchte.)

Happy Easter!/Frohe Ostern!

2011-04-23T13:00:00.001+02:00

I'm back from a very interesting visit to Sara and her daughter Sophie in Alicante - and as this is holiday time, I just want to wish you a Happy Easter and a very nice Spring week-end!

I made this fast Easter bunny above with a pattern I found at Allison's blog - here is her free pdf-download in English and German.

Although my bunny looks like if it was knitted in form, it's actually sewn out of an originally knitted and then felted knitting sample.

(German summary: Ich bin zurück aus Spanien und wünsche euch allen Frohe Ostern und ein schönes Frühlingswochenende! In Allison's blog gibt's das schnelle Hasenmuster auf deutsch und englisch!)

Fusing plastic/Plastik schmelzen

2011-04-10T01:10:00.001+02:00

What I've been experimenting with lately is: fusing plastic.

Basically, what you need are plastic bags, a pair of scissors, an ironing board, an iron and some parchment paper.

Place your ironing board where you have a good ventilation (there could be fumes), cut the bags into flat sheets (cut off handles, bottom and one of the side seams), sandwich three layers of plastic between parchment paper (to protect iron and ironing board), put your iron on a medium heat and keep the iron moving on the sandwiched layers for about two minutes - turn the 'sandwich' and repeat from the other side as well.

Different kind of plastic bags behave differently, so you will have to experiment a bit with the heat and the time you keep ironing. What you want to achieve is that the surface of the bags is melting to the point of being fused - without shrinking too much or producing holes in the plastic - adjust the heat accordingly.

Let your fused sheet cool down, tear off the upper parchment paper gently and decide whether to add strips of new plastic here and there for hiding holes or wrinkles, for reinforcing or just for design reasons.

About 3-6 layers of plastic are to recommend - the thickness depends on what you want to use it for.

I decided to sew a fancy wallet, or money-bag, out of my fused plastic, using a ebook-pattern I bought from 'ki-ba-doo' at DaWanda (similar to Etsy) a while ago.

The fused plastic is very durable - still you can sew it like a fabric, using velcro strips or snap fasteners for closure. I think it's quite a cool material to work with ;-) and there are certainly a lot of projects I can think of using this ...!

(German summary: In der letzten Zeit habe ich mit dem Schmelzen von Plastiksackerln experimentiert - ein cooles Material, das sich wie Stoff weiterverarbeiten läßt und gleichzeitig sehr strapazierfähig ist! Wichtig: gute Belüftung und unbedingt das Plastik zwischen Backpapier legen, um Bügeleisen und Bügelbrett zu schützen!)

Matrioshka brooch/Matrioschka-Brosche

2011-04-09T23:30:00.001+02:00

Did you see the little Matrioshka in the middle of the Noro yarn in my previous posting?

It's a small brooch I made, just for fun.

Some time ago I bought a cotton fabric which had printed Matrioshkas on it - I cut out one of them and worked some satin stitches on it in the corresponding colours, added a couple of beads and sew it to a piece of wool felt done with the embellisher - and ready was my Matrioshka brooch!

I'm still knitting on my sleeveless Noro-sweaters - one is almost done! - and I'm a little excited: next week I'm going to Alicante in Spain to visit Sara! She has invited me to stay with her for a week and I'm sure we will have a great time together!

(German summary: Die kleine Brosche, die im vorigen Posting mitten in der Noro-Wolle zu sehen war, ist eigentlich ein Stoffdruck, den ich mit Perlen und Garn bestickt habe. Ich stricke noch fleißig an meinen Pullundern - und nächste Woche fliege ich nach Alicante, um Sara zu besuchen!)

A Japanese love affair/Eine japanische Liebesgeschichte

2011-04-03T22:00:00.000+02:00

I'm having a Japanese love affair ... with Noro.

No, unfortunately not with Mr Eisaku Noro himself, but with the yarn, above all the Silk Garden Sock Yarn.

When I visited Sweden in February, my very favourite yarn shop, Litet Nystan in Stockholm, tempted me with a big pile of freshly delivered Noro Sock Yarns - and of course I couldn't resist.

During my stay, I started a large shawl in blue-green-grey-beige-rust and continued with a moebius in raspberry-strawberry-green-golden-brown when I got home ...

Right now I'm working on two sleeveless sweaters, one with mitered diamonds in brownish/blueish/greyish yarn with some colour highlights, the other one in entrelac with all those crazy red-pink-rosé-salmon-lavender-green-brown-turquoise-black shades ...

I don't use any patterns for it, just knitting as if in a trance, enjoying ...

I love this yarn so much, because it is constantly surprising me with the most unexpected colour combinations - weird, but always beautiful in its mosaic brilliance - and also because of the unevenness, the silky bumps and the handspun touch, keeping the knitting adventurous and exciting ...

Yes, it's expensive, and it's hard to get hold of - but I don't know any other yarn which comes near this one - it makes my heart sing!

(German summary: Ein absolut unbeherrschtes, begeistertes Loblied auf die Noro Seiden-Sockenwolle - ich kann nicht anders und ich steh' dazu!)

Sewing a fabric basket out of scraps/Ein Stoffbehälter aus Resten

2011-03-27T20:55:00.006+02:00

The idea of sewing storage bags out of scrap fabric is not new - but still brilliant, and I wanted to try that out. As you can see, I even added some pockets to the outside, which can hold pens and all sorts of tools.

The only thing you need is fabric and/or scraps which you sew together, maybe on a larger piece of waste cloth - and some kind of batting: in this case I recycled an old mat from my ironing board, but instead of buying new interlining you could f.e. make use of a worn-out sweater, a towel or a thin blanket - or several layers of fabrics you want to get rid of :-).

A pair of old jeans would make a wonderful big basket for toys or even fire wood, I think!

Anyway, you should end up with a rectangular piece of scrap fabric, fold it in the middle and sew the short ends together to receive a kind of broad pocket.

The trick about producing a basket or a bucket out of this is to sew a seam in a right angle across the edges to achieve a bottom - this is also often used to get that third dimension to bags of all kinds.

If you feel you need a solid pattern to do this, you can buy one from one Etsy (one example is designsmayamade, who makes them out of burlap and with handles) - and if you just want the buckets without having to sew yourself, I suggest you visit the shop of roxycreations.

(German summary: Mir gefällt die Idee sehr gut, aus Stoffresten auch Behälter nähen zu können - Behälter kann man ja immer brauchen. Der Trick ist, einfach die Ecken großzügig im rechten Winkel abzunähen, um einen Boden zu bekommen - ähnlich wie auch bei Taschen aller Art.)

Scandinavian wrist warmers with tin thread embroidery/Skandinavische Pulswärmer mit Zinnfadenstickerei

2011-03-20T21:05:00.000+01:00

Another deep dive into my stash ... and what I found this time was some curly sheep fur, some tin thread, bone, metal and glass beads, and some small pieces of fulled cloth - very, very soft, probably with angora ...

I just couldn't resist sewing these small bits together to wear as wrist warmers!

I used another bit of sheep skin - also very soft and this time without curls - as an appliqué for the leaf, then couched the tin thread with a silver metal thread for the borders of the leaf.

Tin thread embroidery - which is a couching stitch - has a long tradition in Scandinavia, often used by the Sami people on reindeer skin. The 'naked' sheep skin I used here has the right 'look', I think.

The red borders, which I layered in between while sewing, are just waste cut-offs - but I found them being most decorative for this project!

The wrist warmers are not lined with the fur - I only had very narrow strips of it (waste material as well), which i sew under the edges to complete the Scandinavian touch!

(German summary: Noch ein paar Schätze aus meinem Fundus - diesmal entstanden ein paar Pulswärmer aus den Walkstoffresten, Pelzstreifen, Zinnfäden und Perlen!)

A lace collage needlebook/Ein Nadelbrief aus alten Spitzen

2011-03-18T21:55:00.000+01:00

Finally, I've come to the conclusion that it is now time to use the treasures in my stash - not just collecting them ...

Maybe the situation is familiar to you as well: You keep collecting and piling beautiful material, spending quite some time organizing and stashing your treasures (and if you're not too organized ;-): searching for certain items you know should be there somewhere) - and of course this is a pleasure itself, sometimes ...

but just having reached the break-even point of my lifetime, I'm now convinced that I want to use and have fun with these things, rather than collecting a lot more of them ...

So I took a dive into my beloved stash and found a box of vintage lace - and decided to make a 'Victorian' needlebook especially for my embroidery needles ...

It's not finished yet - I still want to add some beads - but this is the back so far:

- and the front:

(German summary: Ich habe mich entschlossen, daß jetzt die Zeit gekommen ist, wo ich meine gehorteten Schätze auch verwenden möchte, nicht nur mehr sammeln und horten ... Hier ein geräumiger Nadelbrief aus alten Spitzen, extra für meine Sticknadeln - noch in Arbeit, da ich die Spitzen mit mehr Perlen befestigen möchte.)

A Millipede Moebius/Ein Tausendfüßler-Möbius

2011-03-13T22:54:00.000+01:00

Spring is slowly coming, still the mornings and the evenings are cold enough here ... I felt I needed something warm and cheerful for my neck - and for my mind.

So I decided to crochet a colourful shawl - bright and sunny, almost a bit of a warming necklace - to chase away the last greyish shades of winter.

This turned out to be a fast and funny way to crochet a shawl - using a big No. 10 mm hook, a chunky rainbow coloured yarn which I found in my stash, working 150 crochet chain sts which I connected moebius-wise to a loop - then crocheting two rows of double crochet sts. Now the 50 g ball of this yarn was used up, and I continued with double sock yarn in similar colours, working a row of half double crochet sts all the way round my moebius.

For the last round, I crocheted 10 chain sts, turned, worked a single crochet st in the following 9 sts to produce a 'tail', 1 slip st to the base, 4 single crochet sts inbetween and then again 10 chain sts etc, continuing this way all around.

Very easy and fun to do - and if you don't have that kind of chunky yarn at home, you can easily replace it with two or three strands of sock yarn or other light weights.

(Looks a bit like a millipede, doesn't it :-)?

It's long enough to wear three or even four times around your neck, but of course you can let it hang loosely, like a double necklace, too.

(German summary: Da der Frühling nur sehr zögerlich voranschreitet, habe ich mir doch noch einen neuen, bunten Schal gehäkelt - als Möbius-Variante, mit einer sehr dicken Häkelnadel und dicker, bunter Wolle - wie eine wärmende Halskette!)

Scrap fabric on paper/Stoffschnipsel auf Papier

2011-03-02T11:00:00.001+01:00

A short while ago, I found an interesting idea how to find use for the tiny fabric scraps I use to collect in a glass jar on my working table.

Take a piece of craft paper - or a paper grocery bag - cut it flat the size you desire, then arrange those tiny scraps of fabric and trims onto the paper, sticking them to the paper with a bit of glue stick or PVA glue. You don't have to glue very accurately, just enough to keep the scraps in place.

When the glue is dry, you might want to iron the collage - sandwich it under a sheet of newspaper to keep your iron from getting sticky.

Then use your sewing machine and a zigzag seam to complete the collage. Now you have a fabric paper sheet.

At Ma mume's blog (in German), where I first found this idea, she uses this sheet for cutting it up into tags, which is a great idea - but I think this material is sturdy enough to be used for something more lasting, like for a book cover for example.

This is a book cover which I made as a birthday present for a friend:

As I wanted the title of the book to show through, I cut out a 'window' in the fabric with a craft knife and replaced it with a piece of clear plastic from a transparent envelope.

I also added a cotton ribbon for a bookmark and an elastic ribbon for holding book and cover shut.

Another use for this 'new' material would be to sew a kind of document bag out of it,

closing it with a zipper or a velcro strip.

(German summary: In Mamume's blog (auf Deutsch) habe ich eine nette Anleitung gefunden, wie man kleinste Stoffschnipsel auf Papier aufnähen kann - und gleich sind mir ein paar weitere Ideen gekommen, wie man diesen 'neuen Stoff' auch noch verwenden könnte ...)

Rag basket ready!/Korb aus 'Sockenwolle' fertig!

2011-02-28T12:30:00.001+01:00

Well, this small project was quickly finished, and now I have my basket ready. With all the yellow, it almost looks like an Easter basket - who knows, maybe there will be some eggs in it in April!

All my striped socks were used up, and two small kids' T-shirts as well. The strips were cut in about 1,5 cm width and I used a size 10 (metric) crochet hook - but just use what you have at hand and feel comfortable with, if you want to make a similar one yourself.

(German summary: Mein Körbchen ist schon fertig, und alle alten Socken aufgebraucht! Jetzt warte ich nur noch darauf, daß mir der Osterhase ein paar Eier hineinlegt ...)

Heavy duty variegated sock yarn/Sockenwolle andersrum

2011-02-27T21:57:00.012+01:00

Sometimes you have to be bold - and put your scissors into the most weird material - like in worn-out (but clean!) striped socks, for example.

And then take a chunky crochet needle and start crocheting a variegated storage box out of these socks (- and maybe some coloured T-shirt too, if there aren't enough socks around).

I must admit I felt inspired today both by Angelcat and her red pot and by Manya and her rag dolls.

Of course this piece could be used as a pot holder, a trivet, a seat warmer or even a rag carpet if continued - but what I want to do is a basket, for holding my yarn and preventing it from rolling around on the ground when I'm knitting in the garden. And for storing the knit work inbetween.

You might want to make it bigger for storing magazines, toys, wool or potatoes in it, too.

Hey - easy, peasy way to recycle, isn't it?

(German summary: Einige bunte Ringelsocken, vielleicht noch ein T-shirt dazu und eine dicke Häkelnadel und Schere - schon geht's rund: ich mache mir ein Körbchen für die Wolle, wenn ich draußen im Garten stricke und sie nicht am Boden herumkollern soll - als Aufbewahrung dann anschließend auch.)

The resurrection of the sea monster/Das Seeungeheuer ist erwacht!

2011-02-26T19:10:00.010+01:00

Yesterday I told you about the kit I bought at The Museum of Medieval Stockholm - and I got so tempted to start embroidering a bit again, that I kept on all day, until it was finished!

(The original illustration is taken from 'Dialogus creaturarum moralizatus', if you want to read more about it.)

As this simple kit basically just consists of the illustration printed on natural linen and a couple of mouliné threads and some single beads, not even suggesting which stitches or colours to use, I felt free to take my own hand-dyed threads instead and to practise long and short satin stitches, which I have rarely done before.

For the background 'water', I used chain stitches, broadening some of them for more variation. And as some medieval embroideries were known to be enriched by bead and metal thread embellishments, I let myself get carried away this time with some of that glittery stuff too ... using the contents of my new storage box and the jewel picker!

(German summary: Diese kleine Stickerei hat mich so in den Bann gezogen, daß ich es gestern noch fertiggestickt habe! Und da das Kit sehr minimalistisch gehalten war, habe ich kurzerhand Fäden und Perlen ausgetauscht und richtig 'byzantinisch' losgelegt!)

The voracious sea monster/Das gefräßige See-Ungeheuer

2011-02-25T09:08:00.054+01:00

I'm back from my journey to the Northern hemisphere, still busy unpacking my treasures which I found there - among other things a funny little embroidery kit with a voracious sea monster.

The illustration is taken from one of the first books that was printed in Stockholm in 1483, and I found it at the shop of the Medieval museum. The kit itself is simple and very basic, more of an inspiration than an actual guideline - but it was the simpleness that charmed me!

I treated myself to a new, big storage box for my rocailles beads as well - just for the joy of having them displayed like a palette of colours - a feast for the eye.

And finally, I found a very useful little gadget again: it's a 'jewel picker', a tool with a fine, slightly sticky tip (probably silicone), for picking up small beads, sequins, paper cut-outs etc. I bought it at 'Panduro', a Swedish craft store, but the brand seems to be Japanese ('Marvy/Uchida').

(German summary: Ich bin von meiner Reise in den Hohen Norden wieder zurück, mit im Gepäck u.a. eine kleine Stickerei - das gefräßige See-Ungeheuer eben -, sowie eine große Plastikbox für meine Rocailles und ein praktisches kleines Helferlein, mit dem man winzige Perlen, Pailletten etc. gut erwischen kann.)

DIY Washi Tape/Selbstgemachtes, buntes Klebeband

2011-02-11T22:00:00.007+01:00

Sometimes there is such an easy solution to a new 'need' ...

After having seen the Japanese washi tape in various oversea online-shops, I wanted some of that colourful tape myself too - but as so often, the shipping costs are exorbitant.

So how could I make a similar tape myself?

When visiting a construction/DIY market lately, I realized I might use a double-sided sticky tape (the thin, cheap one, is just perfect for this purpose). And it works! You can use it either for paper - wrapping paper, newspaper, mulberry-, decoupage-, photos - whatever paper you like - or for light to medium weight fabric, or bits of trims and ribbons ...

Lay out your paper or ironed fabric backside up on the table, unroll a bit of the double-sided tape and gently press it down, avoiding wrinkles, unrolling more of the tape as you go. Cut it off in a manageable length.

Now you can either use a roller cutter or craft knife and a metal ruler to cut the tape lengthwise in the strip dimensions you prefer - or you could keep the width of the double-sided tape and just cut off short strips from there whenever needed.

A toilet tissue roll and a paper clip will keep your fancy tape organized.

(On the second photo, the two larger rolls to the left are actually self-adhesive wall paper borders which I found at a bargain - but they work as tape as well!)

(German summary: Eine einfache Art, buntes Klebeband selber zu machen, ist, dünnes, doppelseitiges Klebeband mit Stoff/Stoffbänder oder Papier jeglicher Art zu verbinden - dann entweder der Länge nach in dünnere Streifen schneiden und auf Papierrollen aufwickeln - oder bei Bedarf Stücke von dem breiten Klebeband abschneiden.)

*** I'm off for a week now - winter holidays at school - going to Sweden to see my family! ***

Crisp organza blossoms/Frische Frühlingsblüten - aus Organza

2011-02-05T13:39:00.016+01:00

This weekend, there was a bit of spring in the air ... the sun was coming out and temperatures are rising!

Maybe you are familiar with the technique already, but I was delighted to discover I could easily make these romantic flowers myself with scraps of organza and a few beads.

You cut out small circles, about 4-6 cm in diameter, freehand and irregular, as they come, start with 10 pieces or so - then light a candle.

For extra safety, you might want to put the candle on top of a tin box and place it in the kitchen basin - and then you just scorch the edges of your organza circles. The brims will melt and the fabric curles up a bit - just perfect for your flower petals.

Gather your petals with a piece of thread, stitching through the center - keep it irregular for a more natural look - and add a single or a group of spare beads.

(If you take a look here, you'll find a YouTube tutorial on this and many more links for other kind of fabric flowers.)

(German summary: Ein bißchen ist hier jetzt schon der Frühling zu spüren - ich habe mich gefreut, als ich ein Tutorial über diese Organzablüten gefunden habe!

Einfach 4-6 cm große Kreise aus Organza schneiden, die Ränder an einer Kerzenflamme ansengen - sicherheitshalber beim Waschbecken arbeiten - dann ca 10 Blütenblätter mit einem Nähfaden in der Mitte zusammenheften, ein paar Perlen mittig annähen - fertig!)

Do you mind if I sketch?/ Darf man hier zeichnen?

2011-02-01T22:07:00.015+01:00

A cigarette box full of colours - or how to easily carry 20 colour pencils in your pocket - the healthy alternative to smoking ;-)!

If you like sketching 'on the go', it's always convenient to have a set of colour pencils with you - and it's a good way to use up the 'shorties'.

Just before throwing away an empty packet of cigarettes today, I realized this would be a perfect container for the short pencils, sorted out be the kids, and which I collect for instant sketches and notes.

(My kids provide me with a never-ending stream of these short ones - but if you're keen on the pocket size and don't have any at hand: find a kid and swap long ones for short - it will surely be appreciated!)

I quickly made a template on a scrap paper, tracing around the box on all sides, adding a small allowance for the overlapping, then pinned the template to a light weight cotton fabric. Subsequently I glued the fabric to the box with a white craft/PVA glue, slightly diluted in water.

Using an old paint brush for that, it's easy covering the box part by part with glue, continuously smoothening the fabric on top with your fingers, cutting in on the edges with a pair of sharp scissors and finally giving the finished box another dash with the glue - this will make the fabric stiff and more resistant.

When the glue had dried, I cut the fabric open along the lines of the lid using a craft knife, adding some drops of glue again where needed.

As my pencils seem to be slightly slimmer than the cigarettes, I could even add a short normal pencil to the 20 coloured ones, without having them stuck. Well, if this isn't a luxurious pocket palette ...!

(German summary: Kurz bevor ich die leere Zigarettenschachtel wegschmeißen wollte, wurde mir klar, daß man diese als Behälter für die kleine Taschenpalette an kurzen Farbstiftstummeln verwenden könnte, die sich bei uns immer so ansammeln.

Bunten Baumwollstoff mit verdünntem Weißleim ankleben, wenn trocken, den Stoff bei der Deckellasche wieder aufschneiden, Ränder nochmals mit Leim fixieren - fertig! - Und solltest Du keine Stummeln auf Vorrat haben - tausche einfach Lange gegen Kurze mit irgendeinem Kind!)

Recycling stationery/Papierwaren, recycled

2011-01-26T18:45:00.000+01:00

At this time of year, I find pleasure in recycling all kinds of paper that falls into my hands while cleaning up and sorting out.

My daughter's beautiful dolphin calendar and another one, with angels, will get new lives as gift bags and matching greeting cards - and some of the Christmas cards look almost even better when decorated with punched stars, sewn sequins and beads, then glued to black or white card stock.

A pile of one-side-printed work sheets from school is chopped up and held together with a buldog paper clip to serve as a note pad - and old envelopes will be closed lengthwise and serve as seed bags later on this year.

Reading Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord's lovely blog and homepage and following her YouTube-tutorials on recycling one-side-printed paper into small books of all sorts, we will have plenty of pages to fill with thoughts, words and drawings throughout the year!

Maybe this will be the year where we all will put even more efforts in sustainability and recycling - it's important and it's inspiring: please read more on this matter at the blog 'A sustainable life', written by Elizabeth, Jude, Julochka and Rayfamily.

(German summary: Es gibt unzählige Möglichkeiten, einseitig bedrucktes Papier zu recyclen - eine davon ist, kleine Bücher daraus zu machen, wie es Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord in ihrem Blog und auf YouTube anschaulich erklärt! Notizblöcke, kleine Sackerl und Billets sind andere Optionen.

Vielleicht wird dies' das Jahr, wo wir alle nach mehr Wiederverwertung und Nachhaltigkeit streben werden ... mehr dazu auch auf diesem Blog.)

New year - new projects/Neues Jahr - neue Projekte

2011-01-19T23:30:00.002+01:00

Ooops, and again this year is running along much faster than I thought it would ...

As I've had problems with my internet connection lately, I started the year concentrating on cleaning up and sorting out my work-space/studio - a never-ending job it seems, as I gladly allow myself to drift off the cleaning and instead start arranging the freshly found objects into some new projects ...

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that I have a lot of interesting stuff there in my stash and really should dig into this before considering any further shopping adventures - does that sound familiar to you ;-)?

But of course there must be exceptions, like for haberdashery or bargain leavings and leftovers ... :-)

On Etsy, I recently found a bag of coloured fulled/felted cloth scraps for sale and thought they would be nice to combine with some wool thread embroidery on felt. Actually, I've planned to use them together with pieces of old sweaters, felted in the washing machine - and maybe some embellished/punched wool as well.

So I started with a small project - it's a cover for a wheat&lavender cushion - the type you heat up in the microwave or in the owen for comforting warmth.

About a fortnight ago, Elizabeth/Landanna wrote about her needlebooks and how dear they are to her. Her description of them was so inspiring, that I suddenly felt the urge to possess a needlebook, too ...

All materials were already there in my stash - I just had to put them together!

And while working on the cushion cover, I've simultaneously started stitching on another little needlebook, using the same materials as for the cushion ...

Guess the cleaning-up has to be postponed again!

(German summary: Beim Aufräumen fallen mir immer wieder interessante Materialien aus dem 'Fundus' zu - und ich lasse mich gerne ablenken! 'Nadelbrief' hat für mich so altmodisch und verstaubt geklungen, bis ich das Posting von Elizabeth/Landanna gelesen habe - und mir auch ganz dringend eines machen mußte ...! Der Wärmekissenbezug ist aus Walkstoffresten auf Filz - da kommen noch ein paar Stickereien hinzu.)

Fragments for the New Year/Neujahrsfragmente

2011-01-10T22:07:00.003+01:00

A new year, and some new fragments ...

The first one, an experiment with bamboo fibers on wool, found in my stash, now embellished with cotton thread in a running stitch and some metal thread for the cross couching.

Makes me think of snow and starfilled winter nights, of Santa's beard, of longhaired reindeer winter fur and of the Northern light.

The second one, another experiment, this time with bleached linen fibers on wool cloth - now embellished with a piece of blueish organza and another metal thread:

makes me think of birch tree bark and of a hidden cobweb door, to be trespassed by fairies only ...

What fragments may this year bring, which will be brought to mind?

(German summary: Zwei neue Fragmente zum neuen Jahr; mit Bambus-Fasern und etwas Stickerei, das winterliche Assoziationen bringt - das andere mit Leinen-Fasern und ein hauchdünnes Stück Organza, eine Feen-Tür vielleicht ...)

'Tomten' - An old Swedish Christmas tale

2010-12-22T21:30:00.000+01:00

I guess everybody's busy, just like I am, working on the last caring preparations before D-day ...

But maybe you have a couple of minutes to sit down with a cup of tea, rest your legs and ease your mind - and enjoy this old Swedish Christmas tale, inspired by a poem by Victor Rydberg, later adapted by Astrid Lindgren and illustrated by Harald Wiberg - this is an English/American version of 'Tomten':

Rock carving fragments/Viking comic

2010-12-16T22:21:00.001+01:00

A couple of new fragments, which I would call 'Viking comics', as they show moving men and animals in action ...

Although I'm not quite sure if this first motif really is a Viking one ... With no doubth it shows reindeers, and this kind of carving is more likely to be of Sami origin - there are similar Sami pictures in the book 'People of Eight Seasons' by Ernst Manker, which I once borrowed at the Stockholm City Library. (More about the Sami people in this earlier posting.)

When visiting Sweden in spring, I went to the Historical Museum in Stockholm with my drawing pad and jotted down everything which caught my eye in this pictural respect.

At the museum shop there were some fabric prints too, and I think these sheep might be influenced by those prints ...

As far as I know, this last one is really a genuine rock carving found in the county of Bohuslän (Sweden), at Tegneby, Tanum:

The embroidery technique itself is not very spectacular - I just used the common basic ones in order to keep it as simple as possible and let the graphics of these ancient, unknown artists talk for themselves.

(My friend Elizabeth/Landanna wrote in her blog today that she'll be posting about 'helleristningar' (rock carvings) tomorrow or during the weekend - so why don't you pop over and have a look - I will for sure!)

(German summary: Drei ganz simple Fragmente, aus dem Bilderschatz der skandinavischen Geschichte - die dargestellten Tiere und Menschen, alle in Bewegung, lassen mich fast an ein Comic strip denken ...)

A little extra for the third of Advent/Kleines 3. Adventsextra

2010-12-11T14:41:00.027+01:00

Tomorrow is the 3rd of Advent, and I guess you might be busy baking ginger bread and making Christmas decorations. Last year I made simple yet quite nice snowflakes - and this is how you make them:

What you need is a packet of basic, white pipe cleaners (available at all tobacco shops) and a wire cutter (or old pair of scissors). The pipe cleaners mostly come in a packet of 100, they're not expensive, and as you only need 4 1/2 pieces for every small snowflake and 6 pieces for the big ones, you'll get a whole bunch of them - to hang in the window or in the branches of your tree - or on the parcels or greeting cards.

For the smaller ones, you cut up five pipecleaners into half, leave three halves for the base and cut up the rest into halves again (one half or two quarters being left over for the next snowflake). For the bigger ones, you cut a third off the basic three branches and chop up the remaining two ones into thirds, no leftovers there.

There's no glueing - just twist the branches once or twice to get stability, the same goes for the small branches.

And while you're doing this, you might want to listen to Bing Crosby and David Bowie in one of my very favourite Christmas performances:

Have a nice and comfortable week-end!

(German summary: Eine kleine Adventsbastelei für den 3. Advent - Schneeflocken aus Pfeifenputzer! Und ein wunderschönes Duett von Bing Crosby und David Bowie, zur Einstimmung auf Weihnachten. Ich wünsche Euch ein schönes und geruhsames Wochenende!)

Christmas Ornament from Julochka!

2010-12-10T14:33:00.012+01:00

This very beautiful bird sat down in my mistletoe today - it was made and sent by Julochka in Denmark. She and I both participated in the Christmas Ornament Swap organized by Elizabeth/Landanna.

And as if this would not be enough, she also gave me another handmade ornament from the Philippines, where she had been travelling lately:

Oh, I do very much enjoy this swap :-), thank you so much, Julochka! Let's persuade Elizabeth to organize another one next year, too, shall we?

(German summary: Diesen hübschen, selbstgenähten Vogel habe ich von Julochka in Dänemark bekommen, als Teilnehmerin am Weihnachtsschmuckaustausch! Sehr nett, so ein Tausch :-)!)

Fiber scrap fragment/Restefragment

2010-12-05T17:49:00.010+01:00

I have a glass jar, where I put all the threadends and fiber leftovers when working. When punching with the embellisher - which is, as I've said before, a wonderful recycling tool - I can see through the glass if there are any convenient scraps to use with the current project.

For this fragment, I've used a handful of threads from there, which I then bound with a couching stitch.

By the way, I think there are far more ways to encounter embroidery threads than visiting your local craft shop:

at hardware stores and building centers, you can find interesting packthread or rope, made out of all kind of recycling fibers, which you can use as a single thread for embroidery -

and at flea markets and thrift shops, you might find tassels or silk wired curtain holders, which do not only provide you with the outer layer of silk, but also with an 'inner life', possibly consisting of colourful recycled cotton or wool threads ...

At garage sales, you might also find unfinished embroidery kits, where the motif might be ugly but the threads most useful ...

The threads of linen fabric may consist of useful threads, and so can a ball of variegated sock wool or a supply of darning wool ...

There are a couple of earlier postings I wrote on this subject beginning here.

(German summary: Dieses Fragment besteht aus kurzen Restfäden, die ich beim Arbeiten in einem Marmeladenglas sammele - und wenn man die Augen offenhält, finden sich bei Baumärkten und Flohmärkten auch allerhand Fasern von aufgemachten Schnüren und Kordeln, die für's Sticken taugen ... Auch Sockenwollreste und aufgeribbeltes Leinengewebe sind nicht schlecht!)

When you wish upon a star - Christmas ornament swap

2010-12-03T22:25:00.024+01:00

"When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you"

This week I finished the Christmas ornaments which I did for the swap that Elizabeth/Landanna organized. I made three stars - with a touch of snowflake! - all a bit different but all out of vintage jewelry (and a bit of brass wire) that I have been collecting without no specific purpose ... just thinking that the pearls were too beautiful to be thrown away.

I like this sort of recycling - turning something once cherished, now old and worn, maybe partly broken but with a certain distinguished charm - into something 'new' and special again, which might once again be cherished ...

When being flooded now at Christmas time, with all the ads and commercials about plastic fantastic things which we are supposed to give eachother as 'gifts from our hearts' - I certainly long for more of that old, recycled stuff - both for giving and for getting ...

(German summary: Für einen Weihnachtsschmuck-Tausch habe ich drei Sterne/Schneeflocken aus Messingdraht und altem Perlenschmuck gemacht - ich mag diese Art von Recycling, wo etwas einst Geschätztes jetzt in einer neuen Form wieder zu Ehren kommen kann ... mehr Recycling und weniger Neues wäre auch jetzt zu Weihnachten eine echte Wohltat, denke ich!)

Embellished Flower Fragments/Blumenfragmente

2010-11-24T17:57:00.016+01:00

In the beginning of last summer, I tried some natural dyeing with raspberries and blackberries, freshly picked in my garden - I filled a glass with two handful of berries, put some wool roving, handspun threads and thin cloth in, added some water and let it rest in the sun for almost a week before rinsing.

Here I've used the dyed roving for the flower heads - the background is a piece of white industrial felt, which I've embellished with some extra wool roving to get a softer and more 'natural' feeling. The threads used here are self-dyed too, but not with the berries.

Next time I will try boiling the berries (or other plants) for a stronger colour - if you visit Carolyn Saxby's blog, you'll find her wonderful easy 'recipe' for natural dyeing here.

(German summary: Diese mal gibt's zwei Fragmente mit gepunchten Blumenmotiven aus Wollvlies, das ich mit Himbeeren und Brombeeren gefärbt habe: Zwei handvoll Beeren, Wolle, feinen BW-Stoff, Fäden und Wasser in ein Glas gegeben, eine knappe Woche in die Sonne gestellt, ausgespült, fertig.

Nächstes mal werde ich aber erst einen Sud aus den Beeren kochen, wie im Rezept von Carolyn Saxby beschrieben, um eine intensivere Tönung zu erhalten.)

Fragments of two creatures/Zwei Tierfragmente

2010-11-19T21:30:00.015+01:00

The fragments of today picture two rather important creatures in the Celtic world: the first one is a dragon - this specific one adapted from the 'Book of Kells' -

and the second is the fish, which was of course of high a value for the daily nutrition in the Wiking era. (The outlines for this very fish are taken from a rock carving.)

I've used a simple, rather heavy couching stitch for outlining the fish, and a combination of stem-stitch and couching for the dragon; the thread I've used for the dragon is a hand-dyed variegated one - I'm quite pleased with the bi-coloured effect it makes.

(German summary: Diesmal sind zwei Tiere bei meinen Fragmenten dabei: der Fisch und der Drache - einmal inspiriert von einer Felsmalerei, einmal vom "Buch der Kelten".)

Viking metal fragment/Wikingerfragment

2010-11-16T17:09:00.022+01:00

I'm so excited about the fragment I did today, that I have to show it to you right away:

As so often, my inspiration was boosted when I read my friend Elizabeth's posting, where she had put a very interesting link to a historical documentation on Vikings.

What catched my eye first when watching the film were the metal helmets, and so I began stitching the outlines on a fabric fragment, using a couched split stitch. While working on it, I pondered which filling stitch to use - until I remembered having some beer can metal hidden in my stash - Irish beer, mmm ...

Then I added a couple of antique sequins and beads - and there it was, the Viking metal fragment!

Even if I'm aware of that I'm spoiling you rotten by adding yet another fragment - I think this one is so closely connected to the first, that I don't have much of a choice:

If you want to see the original rock carving - the picture is published on the homepage of Bornholm's Museum in Denmark and first linked to by Elizabeth/Landanna again - here is where you'll find it.

For this 'rock carving', I've used the antique sequins again, and the stitches are - well, a bit of free style.

If you have followed the link to the historical documentation on Vikings (which I can really recommend!) and maybe had a look at the rock carvings, too (interesting!) - I think you are now prepared to lend your ear to some Viking music as well ;-) ...

and I'm pretty certain, that if you don't happen to have a son that particular age, you've never heard this sound before - click to hear here (Swedish "Amon Amarth") and here (Icelandic "Tyr"). Give it a chance - it's not that bad when you get used to it :-)!

(German summary: Ein neues Fragment, für mich aufregend, weil ich es hier mit einer Art Metallapplikation kombiniere - Bierdosenmetall, recycled ... Es geht viel um das Wikinger-Thema, als historische Dokumentation, Runensteine, Metal-Musik ... bitte folgt einfach den Links!)

Moons and stars fragments/Monde und Sterne - Fragmente

2010-11-15T18:27:00.014+01:00

I always found it difficult to appliqué a piece of round fabric to a background - until I suddenly realized I could draw a circle with a 'Magic pen' (you know, the one that disappears by itself or when sprayed upon with water) on the background, and then follow these outlines when sewing the fabric down ...

To me, these are moons and stars - but of course you could see them as dots as well - and if they are to be dots, I guess I should link you to Jude, who's done a lot of investigation about dots!

And then I started pondering (oh, I love that word - it has been used in several blogs lately :-)) - if the Magic pen-method would work out with a more complicated form - let's say a star - too ...

Well, yes, it does!

I must admit that the fabric chosen is extremely light and soft , but a person more accurate than I am could surely do this with a normal cotton fabric as well.

I worked grain stitches through all layers to fix the yellow gauze better to the background. Filling stitches, like the grain ones, turn out very nice with a variegated thread - and here you can use up a lot of short ends, too!

In this case, both the gauze and the threads are self-dyed - products of Sara's and my dyeing last summer - and as you may recall it was very hard work - so therefore I really honour every scrap of it!

(German summary: Für die heutigen Fragmente habe ich den 'Magischen Stift' - der, der von selber verschwindet - zur Hilfe genommen, um einen Kreis vorzuzeichnen und dann entlang den Konturen die runde Applikation festzunähen. Es funktioniert auch sogar recht gut mit einer komplizierteren Form, mit dem Stern.

Die kleinen Körndl- oder Füllstiche sehen besonders gut aus, wenn man ein Stickgarn mit Farbverlauf wählt - auch Reste sind da gut aufzubrauchen!)

Another fragment - and a gadget

2010-11-09T21:34:00.019+01:00

This is another leaf fragment - this time I've chosen a more closed form for the embellished wool and I've also pointed out the outlines with a stem stitch.

The fine nerves of the leaves were done with a normal sewing thread, in order to get them real fine.

For the background I've used the coffee-tea-walnut dye once more - I find it's being very useful for 'oldening' the fabrics a bit.

Did you know that you can re-use your teabags and coffee filters for dyeing by just drying them after drinking and then using them for dyeing later on? And that all parts of the walnut tree - hulls, nuts, nutshells, leaves, bark, root - contain 'juglon' - the dyeing content of the tree. (I've learned all this in 'Färben mit Pflanzen' by Dorit Berger - and here is another link, where you can read about the herb walnut and its medical use.)

As I'm getting back a bit more into sewing and embroidering again - and finding my eyes are growing older (unfortunately not only the eyes ;-)) - I'm happy to have found a little helper for threading the fine needles.

Even if I'm not so fond of owning a lot of gadgets for every single purpose, this is one that I've really come to cherish - it's a Japanese made (Clover) half-automatic needle threader.

You just insert your needle in the needle slot, lay your thread into another slot, press the lever, pull the needle out again - and voilà! - by magic, your needle is threaded!

It's a mechanical little thing (no batteries!) and I cannot figure out how it functions - but it works! You can however only use quite fine needles for it - on the other hand, those with a big eye I can still manage without the gadget! In Europe, the price seems to be around €15.

(German summary: Noch ein Blatt-Fragment, diesmal eine geschlossene Form mit Stielstich in den Konturen und normales Nähgarn für die feinen Blattnerven. Ich habe auch ein kleines Gerät entdeckt, daß mir das lästige Einfädeln bei sehr feinen Nähnadeln erleichtert. Und dann hab' ich noch gelernt, daß man gebrauchte Tee- und Kaffeefilter für's Färben wiederverwenden kann und daß alle Teile des Walnußbaumes braun färben!)

Bayeux stitch fragment

2010-11-07T15:43:00.024+01:00

In ancient times, when thread and yarn were rare and precious and you were eager to have as much as possible of it shown on the front side (and not to waste it on the back side), the Bayeux stitch was often used for covering the surface of a fabric in a decorative way.

This stitch is actually an old Anglo-Saxon variation of laidwork: on the front side, it ressembles satin stitch, but instead of letting the yarn pass across the reverse side, the thread is brought back up to front again very close to where it went down. A second layer is then sewn in intervals at a right angle to the first layer and held down with a short stab stitch.

All these three elements can be done with the same or with different yarns.

It's really quite simple to learn and gives a variety of possibilities in shading colours and effects through the different layers. (A useful link for working out the bayeux stitch is this pdf-tutorial by Jan Messent herself, presented by The Embroiderers' Guild.)

Here I've tried a fragment of it, using self-dyed mouliné for the bottom layer, a thin cotton thread (hand-dyed too) for the vertical layer and for the outline stitch, and finally a metal thread for the couching stitches.

My inspiration for this fragment had its origin in this posting of my friend Elizabeth/Landanna in Denmark, where she presents a wonderful book of Jan Messent, "Celtic, Viking & Anglo-Saxon Embroidery".

(Here you have another link for having a further look into the book.)

(German summary: Dieses Fragment zeigt den Bayeux-Stich, ein sehr alter angelsächsischer
Stich, der eine Art Kombination und Variante des Plattstiches mit dem Überfang- oder Bucharastich ausmacht - damals eine wirtschaftliche Notwendigkeit, heute auch eine vielseitige Gestaltungsmöglichkeit.

Bitte folge auch den links oben zu dem Buch von Jan Messent und zu meiner Freundin Elizabeth, die mich erst darauf aufmerksam gemacht hat!)

Fragments/Fragmente

2010-11-04T15:01:00.022+01:00

What is our life if not a bundle of fragments - material ones, like our scraps and collections of things; non-material, like our memories, visions and longings ...

Still, fragments do not only give testimony of earlier greatness - they can also indicate the idea of what could become splendid and meaningful if pursued and attented to.

After my divorce about six weeks ago I haven't had much power to do other creative work than a bit of knitting - but now I feel it's time to get back to 'textile investigations', as I think Sara would put it.

Do you remember the 'whatiffing-project' quite some time ago?

I enjoyed that sort of experimenting with fibers and techniques a lot and would like to continue it, just changing the size and not necessarily connecting it with the embellisher, but to keep it open for all sorts of - mostly textile, of course - try-outs that strike me: fragments.

If you'd like to join in, please feel free to do so - in a similar or in a different way, whatever suits you best - it would be just marvellous to have a bit of exchange of ideas and mutual inspiration!

My concept would be to keep the material involved quite simple: using scraps and stash material, recycling paper and cardboard for the mounting, experimenting freely with whatever comes my way - and to present it at least once a week.

I chose the format of approximately 9x13 cm (3,5x5") for the fabric, or background, as I thought it to be neither too big nor too small for a sample and allowing you to mount it on a plain A6 standard card if you like (or later on even using it as an AMC or greeting card).

I found some linen and canvas scraps, and as they were far too white, I dyed them with some teabags, a used coffee filter and a couple of walnut hulls from the garden. After rinsing and drying the fabrics, I was most satisfied with their worn and 'ancient' look :-).

This first card is a leaf, not printed, but lightly embellished (dry felted) with wool roving onto the linen scrap, then finished-up with a couple of small stitches with a thin metal thread. The backing is made out of recycled cardboard (cereal boxes have the right paper weight!).

(German summary: Nach längerer Pause habe ich mich entschlossen, ein etwas abgeändertes 'Whatiffing-Projekt' zu beginnen - Fragmente, eben - kleine textile Experimente aus einfachen und schon vorhandenen Materialien, Stoffgröße ca 9x13, mit Motiven und Techniken, die mich gerade interessieren - vielleicht möchte jemand mitmachen?)

Autumn/Herbst

2010-10-22T22:47:00.009+02:00

It' s getting more and more chilly in the mornings - autumn is finally here to stay. I made a door wreath with the rose-hips from my garden and keep the wooden fire burning in my hall.

I needed a small triangle scarf and knitted it with the colourful handdyed wool I bought from 'Dornröschen' earlier this fall - it's a 6-ply sock yarn.

As a small decoration in front, I knitted a woven part for the front by dividing the stitches within a square, knitting three cords separately.

Now I'm planning to start a bit of experimenting - with the embellisher and with embroidery techniques again ...

(German summary: Der Herbst hat jetzt auch bei uns endgültig Einzug gehalten und es ist kühl und nebelig in der Früh.

Ich habe aus Hagebutten einen Türkranz gewunden und schüre das Feuer im Ofen. Mit der dicken, bunten Sockenwolle von Dornröschen habe ich einen kleinen Dreikantschal gestrickt und ihn mit einem geflochtenen Mittenteil versehen.

Demnächst plane ich wieder ein paar Experimente mit dem Embellisher und mit Stickerei.)

Just a small addition/Kleines Postscriptum

2010-10-14T22:35:00.007+02:00

I just want to add another crazy idea to my last posting:

Yesterday my daughter was playing 'Mikado' (also known as jackstraws or pick-up sticks) with a friend - and suddenly I realized they could become great knitting needles as well ...

I measured them - and do you know what? The small (normal sized) ones are 3,5 mm and the big ones 5 mm - just the same size as the barbeque sticks and the chopsticks! Isn't that a co-incidence?

Which means I won't get any new gauges with these sticks - on the other hand, I could turn it the other way round and do another Mikado sets with those waste barbeque and chopsticks ...

(German summary: Als ich meiner Tochter beim Mikadospielen zusah, kam mir der Gedanke, auch diese Stäbchen als Stricknadeln zu verwenden - allerdings stellte sich heraus, daß sie haargenau die gleiche Stärke wie die Grillspießchen und Eßstäbchen haben! Allerdings könnte man aus solchen wieder ein neues Mikadospiel machen ...)

Taking it further .../Selbstgemachte Stricknadeln

2010-10-11T21:02:00.011+02:00

As I've been knitting a lot with my Chinese chopsticks lately - they have a very handy length for the knitting I'm doing right now and are comfortable to knit with - I thought I would like to present them once more ...

This time I've taken it a bit further - and I still find it to be a very easy and useful way to recycle your Asian take-away cutlery !

Using a normal pencil sharpener and a fine grain sand paper, you can turn your chopsticks into a pair of knitting needles (mine are about 5 mm). This time, I used some felt-tip pens to colour them, drawing the pattern with a waterproof overhead pen, then covering them with a thin coat of transparent varnish. As my varnish was water-based, the colours were a bit blurred - which resulted in a very handsome patina, all by itself!

I made a set of five very short double pointed needles too - using them as a stitch holder when knitting braids or other patterns where you need to 'park' the stitches in between -

and another set of five double pointed needles, for socks or hats knitted with medium thick yarn - this time I didn't colour them, just polished them with a bit of a wax candle to get them real smooth.

The smaller sized set above is made out of five wooden barbeque sticks - mine are 3,5 mm, which means they are perfect for normal sock yarn!

The effort of making these is almost zero, you can colour them any way you like to - and they would make a nice treat or present with a matching strand of yarn too, wouldn't they? And they are recycled!

(German summary: Weil ich so gerne damit stricke, zeige ich nochmals meine selbstgemachten Stricknadeln aus chinesischen Eßstäbchen (5 mm) und Grillspießchen (3,5 mm) - mit einem normalen Bleistiftspitzer und einem feinen Schleifpapier kann man sie ganz einfach so formen, wie man sie braucht! Am Ende bemalt man sie dann noch mit Filzstiften und etwas farblosen Lack - oder poliert sie nur mit einem Stück Kerzenwachs!)

Metamorphosis/Verwandlung

2010-10-07T07:26:00.005+02:00

While searching for some tools, I found some forgotten nuts and O-rings in my toolbox ...

... and combined with a little of those self-dyed cotton threads and a single seed bead, they were suddenly transformed into a brooch - isn't that magic?

Where is your toolbox?

(German summary: Im Werkzeugkasten fand ich ein paar vergessene Muttern und Dichtungsringe - und Simsalabim: mit ein paar Fäden umwickelt, wurden sie plötzlich zu einer Brosche! Wo ist Dein Werkzeugkasten?)

It always starts with an egg/Am Anfang war das Ei

2010-09-27T21:00:00.007+02:00

I've been doing so much spinning and knitting lately, that I've almost forgotten about the embellisher -

though I still think this is a most remarkable tool for 'painting' with wool and fibers, instant and direct, using all kind of fibers and recycling materials ...

Last week I sat down and played a bit with different shades and sorts of whites, 'drawing' up one of my absolute favourite forms - the egg:

I used wool and fabric, laces of all kinds, yarn and thread, beads and stones - there's even a knitted part integrated, and I embroidered some words on it as well, and crocheted and sew around the edge:

(German summary: Mit dem vielen Spinnen und Stricken habe ich ja fast auf den Embellisher vergessen - dieses dolle, unmittelbare und faszinierende Werkzeug, das Materialien aller Art auf problemlose Art miteinander verbindet - hier ein Ei, meine Lieblingsform!)

Hooked on those colourful African flowers/Kleines Häkelprojekt zum 'Drüberstreuen' ...

2010-09-24T16:26:00.019+02:00

Oh dear, I can't help that I just have to start this little extra project as well ...

I read about the 'African Flower' pattern on Sara's blog and followed her link to the South-African Moxycrochet Project - and then I thought I'd try out just one of those little colourful flowers myself ... and I was literally hooked! The only comfort is that I can re-use some of those stashed yarns and yarn ends of mine ... (By the way, I think the only thing I'm not using my sock-wool for, is for knitting socks ;-)!

I don't know yet what it will turn out to be - thought of some kind of jacket, maybe ... if I can stick to it that long ... Or a fancy bag ... But seven of them, sewn together, would look nice as a small potholder - for a teacup or so - too, wouldn't they?

But faster than I can de-stash, I'm up-stashing again: I made the 'mistake' to have a look at Dornröschen's online-shop right after she'd done some new dyeing:

Well - what can I say? This parcel arrived yesterday! There will be plenty to spin and to knit now, during the long autumn evenings ...

(German summary: Tja, was soll ich sagen - diese kleinen bunten Blumen sind so entzückend, daß ich einfach ein kleines Nebenprojekt noch starten mußte ... aber mit 'lagerndem Material', zumindest! Und dann kam noch die frische Lieferung von Dornröschen ... da hab' ich auch noch ein paar Ideen für die langen Herbstabende ...)

A bunch of shawls/Drei Tücher

2010-09-12T20:02:00.011+02:00

Well, I haven't been quite as lazy as it may seem: Three shawls have been knitted during the last few weeks, and today the weather was fine enough to make some photos of them - my daughter Emily is the model with the beautiful back!

This first one (above) is knitted with a Schoppel Crazy Ball (Colour: Frische Fische) in a simple pattern, starting at the upper middle and proceeding as long as your yarn ball allows -

the second one is a variation on the same pattern idea, but this time knitted with a self-dyed yarn, one of my first experiments on variegated sock wool -

and for the third one, I chose a multi-coloured, hand-dyed silk- and wool roving which I bought from Dornröschen and then spun myself. This shawl is knitted in stockinette stitch from one side to the other, increasing (and after the center: decreasing) on one side only. As half of the fibers are Tussah silk, this is an extremely soft and delicate shawl!

(German summary: So, endlich sind meine drei Tücher fotografiert, die ich in den letzten Wochen gestrickt habe - einmal Schoppel Crazy Ball, einmal Selbstgefärbtes, einmal Dornröschen's Seide/Wollfasern, die ich dann versponnen habe! Sehr angenehm, sowohl zum Spinnen als auch zum Verstricken!)

Knitting gadgets/Kleine Helferleins

2010-08-26T23:22:00.006+02:00

Last week I visited Ikea and found this piece of fabric:

I think it's quite interesting - makes me feel inspired to use as a background, or outlining, for using the embellisher and a bunch of wool and fabric scraps ...!

My mother is visiting me right now, which means I won't get too much time for blogging and posting within the next fortnight - but I did some more row- and stitchmarkers lately:

I must admit I love these little useful gadgets - especially when they are so easy to make yourself!

A few I will keep, others will be passed on to knitting friends!

(German summary: Nur ein paar Kleinigkeiten, diesmal - ein lustiger Stoff von Ikea, den ich als Hintergrund für Resteverwertung mit dem Embellisher verwenden werde - und ein paar Reihen- und Maschenzähler, die ich für mich und für ein paar Freundinnen gemacht habe.)

Recycling shopping gear/Einkaufs-recycling

2010-08-18T14:15:00.013+02:00

While browsing the big web, I saw some tiny Granny squares put together to a keychain coin holder somewhere ... There was just a picture, no sale, no description - and I just cannot find it anymore.

But as I thought it to be a great idea, I've tried to crochet something like this by heart - especially as you are always in need for a coin for the shopping carts, at least here in Austria.

It's basically made out of two tiny, simple Granny squares, crocheted together with a loop for your key ring.

I used a crochet hook 2,5 mm and a bit of thin sock yarn, but a strand of embroidery yarn would do as well, I think.

The important thing is just about to cover the coin required and then crochet the two parts together on three sides.

(If your little bag should turn out to be a bit too big to hold the coin, you could always diminish it at the opening with a few stitches.)

Another thing which I wanted to try out for so long now, are these recycling purses - they are quite handy as a beach money bag - or holding a travel sewing kit - or tampons, lipstick, a small mirror ...

At least I know where I found this tutorial, it's from the Austrian recycling-artist Regina Lustig's homepage - it's a free pdf-download - in German, but the pictures are so clear, you'll understand it anyway.

And while we're talking recycling, this is the link to morsbags, where you'll find a free DIY-tutorial to easily sew the plastic-avoiding bag yourself!

(German summary: Eine kleine Münztasche aus einem Rest Sockenwolle gehäkelt, ein Geldbörsel aus wiederverwerteten Getränkekartons - und der Link zum Selbernähen von einer Stofftasche - voilà!)

Knitting sea waves .../Wellenstricken!

2010-08-15T20:48:00.008+02:00

No, no, I haven't been lazy though I'm still enjoying my holidays!

I've been carding and spinning and knitting my blue water into a sea wave pattern, altering between knitting and spinning and spinning and knitting ...

and just for some change, treating myself to a couple of matching stitch counters after taking a dive into my magic stash!

...knitting ...

... carding ...

...spinning ...

... knitting!

And well - it wouldn't be me, if not - a couple of other projects as well ... But that's another story!

(German summary: Nein, ich liege nicht faul herum, trotz Urlaub - ich kardiere, spinne, stricke meine 'Wasserfasern' zu einem blaugrünen Meer ...!)

Spinning blue water .../Wasserspinnen!

2010-08-08T22:50:00.005+02:00

Sorry for being absent for so long now - I'm fine, just enjoying my holidays ... Today I started carding and spinning 'water': blue and greenish silk and wool fibers, which remind me of the sea ...

I'm mixing my own self-dyed silk/wool fibers with those I bought from 'Dornröschen' - you can read about these fibers in my earlier posting here and have a look here - spinning a thin, quite even thread for a 2-ply, which I will probably knit with that 'feather&fan' pattern to make a gorgeous water-coloured sweater ...

(Ich spinne gerade so etwas wie 'Wasser': Blau- und Grüntöne von Seiden- und Wollfasern, handgefärbt von mir und von 'Dornröschen' ... luftig, seidig, erinnert mich ans Meer!

The treasure of colour/Mein Farbenschatz!

2010-07-19T22:57:00.012+02:00

Finally I'm done with the dyeing and rinsing, and most of the yarns and rovings are dry by now - it was quite a bit of work, and now I'm happy being able to sit down in the shadow, enjoying this huge colour treasure, making plans for all new projects I have in mind ...

This is mainly Tussah-silk and bamboo - it's funny how the fibers stick together due to the dyeing process and look dull, like paper - and then again recover and regain their shiny look when being slightly pulled and drafted ...

I love this one! I spun and plied the wool into a soft thick+thin yarn before dyeing, and although it was one of the first tries I had, the autumn colours are just what I was looking for ... I'm only sorry I don't have more of this!

These are some of the cotton threads I dyed for embroidering with - maybe brighter colours would come better for the picture - but believe me, these somewhat faded and blurred colours are just wonderful when you work with them!

Wool-with-silk rovings, providing spinning material for the long winter nights to come ;-) ...

... more spinning material - this is New Zealand-wool (yes, the colours spots are made purposely!):

- and sheep locks, of course! (The colours turned out very bright, but I will soften them down when carding and spinning ...)

And finally, some of the silk yarns - I do look forward to knitting with these!

(German summary: Ich glaube, die Bilder sprechen für sich selbst - Garne, Fäden, Spinnfutter - alles, was mein Herz begehrt - und der Lohn für die Färbemühe!)

First harvest/Die erste Ernte

2010-07-14T00:29:00.007+02:00

Look, our first harvest!

These are some of the woolen yarns I dyed with the Ashford dyes - I was surprised that even the mohair wool survived the tough heat in the microwave ...

... some rainbow colours ...

... some more yarns and bright wool rovings for spinning ...

... and when I went out into the garden in the morning, two butterflies had come along to inspect what they must have thought to be flowers!

Our working conditions are hard at the moment - it's so excessively hot even in the shadow - and in the evenings there are so many mosquitos that we just have to quit our work outdoors within minutes! And this afternoon we had a heavy rain with flash and thunder going down on us ...

I do hope that we'll manage to continue with the cotton dyeing tomorrow - that'll be the embroidery threads and some mesh fabric.

(German summary: So, ein paar Bilder der ersten Ernte von unserem Färbevorhaben! Es ist nur so irre heiß, und heute Nachmittag wurden wir von heftigem Regen und Wärmegewittern unterbrochen. Ich hoffe sehr, daß wir morgen die Baumwollfärberei mit den Reaktivfarben schaffen können ...)

It's been a hard day's night .../Uff!

2010-07-11T00:34:00.005+02:00

It's been a hard day - real tough, actually.

It's one o'clock in the morning, I'm exhausted - and we only did the wool part and the Ashford dyes today ...

All I can say is that now I'm really impressed by those people who do this kind of dyeing regularly and even sell their wool ... the price isn't exaggerated at all!

Sara 'died' into bed at 10-ish and didn't even want any dinner - I've been doing some more rinsing and tidying up - but the mosquitos almost ate me for supper and I'm happy to crawl into bed now too - hopefully there will be some beautiful results tomorrow!

(German summary: Meine Hochachtung für alle, die das Färben regelmäßig und professionell betreiben ... ich bin fixfoxfertig, und dabei haben wir 'nur' den Woll- und Ashford-anteil bis jetzt gemacht ...!)

D-day for dyeing!/Morgen geht's ans Färben!

2010-07-10T00:50:00.010+02:00

Tomorrow is D-day! D for 'dyeing', of course!

Sara is here, and we're busy making preparations for our first dyeing session together. We are both excited and a little nervous, as we have tons of wool and cotton and silk and ramie, as yarn, roving, fabric, threads and locks ...

We'll be dyeing both with Ashford and Procion colours, partly with a microwave - and it is my first experience ever.

Hoping for the weather to be stable - the amounts of colour, vinegar, salt, jars, plastic foil, buckets, beer (oops!) etc being sufficient - our energy and nerves to be on top - we will finally face this challenge!

(German summary: Morgen ist es soweit - nach langem Abwarten und einigen Vorbereitungen werden wir jetzt endlich färben - wir haben Tonnen von Wolle als Garn, Fasern, Fäden und Locken und sind schon etwas nervös, ob wir das alles auch schaffen werden ...)

Recycling bag and plastic jewellery/Recyclingtasche und Plastikschmuck

2010-06-29T22:13:00.013+02:00

I'm in the mood for recycling again ... besides all the well-known reasons why this is a great thing to do, it sparks the imagination!

This is a small round shoulder bag, made out of tiny scraps of different sock wools which I found in my stash.

I started with the bottom, crocheting a round piece, then I turned it and went on crocheting upwards, without doing any more increases.

I added four button loops on the last round, turned the top down to make the bag more sturdy and sew on some flower buttons, so I can close the bag if I like to. As the shoulder strap has a button hole on each end, I can unbutton the strap and use the bag as a table container if desired as well.

And this is 'plastic fantastic' - a simple summer necklace to wear on the beach with the swimming gear, for instance:

I crocheted a long necklace with a thick, multicoloured cotton yarn, then I took a dive into that box with toy plastic beads which my daughter had sorted out - and I had kept in my stash a while for some reason :-) - and added these by crocheting another round onto the cotton necklace, this time with some of that variegated embroidery yarn.

As I still had more of the thick cotton yarn, I went on by knitting two circular necklaces in stockinette stitch, letting them curl up to a kind of rope:

And the colourful combination of these necklaces could be quite an interesting piece of summer jewellery, don't you think?

(German summary: Aus vielen kleinen Sockenwollresten habe ich eine 'Topftasche' gehäkelt - und aus dem Kaugummiautomaten-Plastikperlen meiner Tochter und dickem Baumwollgarn noch einen bunten Strandschmuck gestrickt und gehäkelt. Recycling fördert die Fantasie!)

Recycled Paper Butterflies/Schmetterlinge aus Altpapier

2010-06-15T21:53:00.024+02:00

And now to something completely different (I think they say that in the Monthy Python show):

I like recycling, re-using, remaking, and in the small village library, where I work a couple of hours a week, I sometimes find a pile of books which are out of date and have to be sorted out.

When I was in Sweden lately, I saw a butterfly paper garland in a shop, made out of scraps of Indian handmade paper, sewn together on a sewing machine.

So now I'm using this idea for my purpose, cutting pages out of the old library books, combining them with some b/w pages out of a brochure - and fortunately having a butterfly stencil in my stash and a red stencil pad, combining these too, for colour.

They look great hanging in the library window now during summer time!

I can also imagine this could be a nice idea to use for hearts or flowers as well ... and a single butterfly in coloured (recycled) paper would be nice on a greeting card, too ...

If you like to try it out yourself, just draw the outlines of a butterfly (or other motive) on a sturdy paper or light cardboard, cut it out, put it on a pile of about 5 bookpages if you're cutting with a craft knife - normal scissors would take about 3 pages at the same time and you will have to hold the template fixed on top of it with your fingers.

For the smaller butterflies inbetween, you can make a butterfly stamping stencil yourself by cutting it out from a big pencil eraser, maybe using it with a coloured stamp pad.

I sew the paper butterflies double, but they look great one by one as well. It could be a good idea to use an old needle, which you only use for paper sewing, in your sewing machine, as it gets rather dull to sew properly in fabric afterwards.

Leave a long thread for hanging before sewing the first pair of butterflies - then let the machine sew 'empty' (this produces a nice thread chain) before you sew the next pair together. A variegated thread looks nice, but is not crucial.

Adding a bead or other kind of weight at the bottom keeps your garland hanging right.

(German summary: Aus alten Buch- und Prospektseiten habe ich große und kleine Schmetterlinge ausgeschnitten - mehrere auf einmal mit dem Stanleymesser oder mit einer kräftigen Schere - und mit der Nähmaschine zusammengenäht. Wenn man zwischen den Schmetterlingen mit der Maschine "ins Leere" näht, bekommt man einen schönen Kettfaden dazwischen. Es ist ratsam, eine alte Nähmaschinennadel extra für's Papiernähen zu nehmen, mit dem man nachher keine Stoffe mehr näht - das Papier läßt mit der Zeit die Nadeln stumpf werden.)

Felted pencil holders/Filz-Stifte

2010-06-13T21:41:00.009+02:00

Oh dear, it's been a fortnight since I posted last, I'm sorry for that ...

The heat of the summer has struck us completely now - 30-35°C in the shadow, and it's often too hot to do anything ... The kids have two more weeks to go before they're off on summer holidays, and we're all looking forward to get a leave ...!

It's late in the evening, and I've just finished preserving ten small jars of strawberry jam with elderberry flowers - if you're lucky still to have some fresh elderberry flowers in your garden when the strawberries are ripening, you really should try this: just boil the strawberries as usual, but put a small branch of elderberry flowers into the jar before filling it up with the hot jam - that's all! The combination is wonderful - and no extra effort at all - and I'm sure you won't regret this little experiment!

Two weeks ago, my daughter Emily and I spent an afternoon felting some pencil holders, just for fun - you just wrap a pencil tightly with some wool roving, felt it with warm soap water, rinse it and form the upper tail as you please, then let it dry:

When completely dry, I embroidered a couple of them with the handdyed thread and some beads:

Well, I've managed to finish the first silk/wool shoulder scarf as well, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out:

As you can see from the detailed picture, I felted a shawl pin in the matching colours to go with it:

Following an idea of Sara, I used a Chinese chopstick for the pin and wet felted around the top in a similar way as with the pencils. The shawl and the pin were a birthday present for a very dear friend of mine.

(German version: Bei uns ist es im Moment so heiß, daß man fast gar nichts machen kann! Trotzdem habe ich heute das Spezialrezept meiner Mutter, für Erdbeermarmelade mit Holunderblüten, machen müssen: Man kocht die Erdbeeren wie üblich, nur daß man noch ein Blütenzweigerl ins Glas gibt, bevor man die heiße Marmelade hineinfüllt! Sehr einfach und sehr empfehlenswert - wenn man das Glück hat, noch frische Blüten im Garten zu haben!

Mit meiner Tochter habe ich noch ein paar Stifte mit Filzwolle ummantelt und naßgefilzt, dann bestickt - ja, und das Woll-/Seidenschultertuch ist auch fertig und hat schon eine neue Besitzerin gefunden!)

Spinning and knitting hand-dyed silk and wool/Handgefärbte Seide und Wolle spinnen und stricken

2010-05-27T20:59:00.030+02:00

I have a new passion.
I've put all other projects aside for spinning the hand-dyed silk & wool rovings from Dornröschen.

I found the link to Christine/Dornröschen and her hand-dyed rovings and yarns on Jana's wonderful blog - 'Anaj's kreatives Tagebuch'. Jana is a most talented master spinner, dyer and felter, and her beautiful artyarns seduced me to trying out this hand-dyed silk wool as well.

Feeling the soft silk running through my fingers while spinning, plying and knitting makes me happy. The colours come out so rich in the spun yarn, shining warm and precious when hit by the light.

I've started knitting two shoulder shawls, one in green and purple, which remind me of crocus, lilacs, hyacinths, asparagus, bulbs and sprouts ...

... the other one in oriental reds, resembling herbs and spices in an exotic bazaar - or maybe the red, ripe fruits and berries in the midst of the summer heat:

The classic feather & fan pattern which I've used looks intricate but is yet quite simple, one row changing between 6 times k2tog and 6 yok1, one row knitted, one row purled inbetween. You can find the complete pattern in "Beautiful Knits" by Alison Dupernex, which holds several easy patterns.

Though this yarn was a new purchase - which I just couldn't resist - I've promised myself not to start another project without incorporating recycling or stash material. Even for this 'precious' silk I was glad to use the - almost antique! - rayon silk thread bobbins for plying, which I found in my mother's cellar about a year ago.

And I'm sure my stash will provide some beads and maybe some of that Indian recycled Sari silk for the finishing as well ...

Speaking about other projects - look what I received from Elizabeth at Landanna last week: driftwood!

This lucky girl lives on an island in Denmark with the beach nearby, thus being able to collect wonderful driftwood on her daily walk ... At the moment, she is taking us on a virtual walk with her in her blog.

And this is what Carolyn is doing with her beach finds - so beautiful! - another lucky girl, living close to the sea ...

Quite busy spinning, crocheting, embroidering .../Textiles Allerlei

2010-05-10T20:19:00.009+02:00

I've been carding some bamboo, fine wool and silk fibers together for a very soft and delicate yarn. As I didn't find any bamboo fibers in green, I decided to dye some and mingle them with the white roving - funny, but in my opinion it looks more 'bambooish' that way.

Slower treadling, just to the point of holding the fibers together, made this yarn as soft and delicate as I wanted it to be - then plied with a very thin cotton thread.

I still have some problems with the new slide yarn guides, though - they just don't seem to stay where I want them, but keep sliding towards the bobbin ... Anyone else who's got the same problem, or am I doing something wrong?

I've been playing around, doing some necklaces too - using cotton yarn and glass, bone and wooden beads from my stash. Thought it could be a nice thing to wear now to the summer clothing.

This is how the embroideries proceed for 'My Neighbour's Garden':

and for 'The Vineyards':

Sara is coming on Saturday - maybe we'll do some acid dyeing this time ... :-) By the way, if you want to read about really archaic natural dying, go visit Manya Maratous' wonderful Greek 'Mythcolour'-blog!

(German summary: Bambus-, Woll- und Seidenfasern - und laaangsames Treten - machen diese Wolle sehr weich und geschmeidig. Allerdings wollen die neuen gleitenden Fadenhalterungen immer wieder von selber Richtung Spule gleiten - ärgerlich. Mache ich etwas falsch oder hat noch jemand die gleichen Probleme damit?

Und dann gibt's noch ein paar Bilder von Halskettenspielereien mit buntem Baumwollgarn und verschiedenen Perlen, für's Sommergewand - und davon, wie die beiden gestickten und gepunchten Bilder voranschreiten - fleißig diesmal, gell?)

Fibre sisters fabric brooch/Die Stoffschwesternbrosche

2010-05-05T17:16:00.007+02:00

Yesterday I finished the small fabric brooch which I began to stitch at Sara's just before returning home.

It shows us two fibre sisters - and makes me smile and remember this nice week we spent together!

I found a piece of white cloth with one of Sara's b/w pencil drawings in her waste fabric scrap basket, showing two caterpillars, and I asked her if I could use it.

Eager to try out the handdyed threads, I started stitching and embellishing on it - and voilá! The fibre sisters turned up!

Proudly wearing my new brooch, I'm now working on two other fabric recycling and punching projects, of course including a lot of free embroidery, so I can use the threads :-)!

(German summary: Ich habe die Stoffbrosche fertiggemacht, die ich bei Sara begonnen habe: Grundlage war eine s/w Federzeichung von ihr, mit zwei Raupen, die ich aus der Schnipselbox gefischt habe - jetzt ist sie mit Stickereien recht verändert, und zeigt stattdessen passenderweise zwei Stoffschwestern! Und zuletzt noch eine kleine Vorschau auf das, was ich jetzt gerade mache ... auch Stoffrecyclingprojekte!)

A basket full of inspiration/Einen Korb voller Inspiration

2010-04-28T18:52:00.016+02:00

So I'm back from my trip to Sara, filled to the brim with fresh inspiration and some new yarns and threads in my basket.

Due to the Icelandic ash clouds and the shut-down of the airport in Stockholm, Sara's Swedish guests had their flight cancelled; thus the two of us had lots of spare time to talk and exchange ideas, to work in the studio, visit the local pub and to do some shopping (at yarn shops and a textile thrift store ;-)).

First we had planned to do some dyeing, but as Sara went through her stash of already dyed threads and the weather was too windy and chilly for our purpose, she generously told me to pick a big bunch of her threads and forget about dyeing this time -
I'm overwhelmed with my treasure!

Anyway, the dyeing project is just postponed, not cancelled!

We also played around with a pincushion project, using a waste Chinese garlic basket which we stuffed with some weights, foam, wool and then embellished and embroidered.

While Sara was working on her wall hanging, I used the time for sewing two organizer rolls for my crochet hooks and knitting equipment, using fabric scraps and some of those beautiful threads:

Returning home, I find the summer to have arrived here in the South - my house and my garden are calling out loud for being attented to and there is such a lot of work to do - still my head is filled with colours and yarn and threads ...

(German summary: Da Sara's Workshop auch der Aschenwolke zum Opfer fiel, hatten wir unverhofft Zeit für andere Projekte - sie arbeitete an ihrem neuen Stück weiter, ich habe mir u.a. zwei Stoffrollen für meine Strick- und Häkelnadeln genäht, je ein Nadelkissen haben wir gemeinsam ausprobiert. Neue Wolle habe ich auch im Gepäck mit nach Hause, einen Korb voll mit wunderschönen, handgefärbten Stickgarne, die mir Sara geschenkt hat - und jede Menge neue Ideen und Inspirationen!)

Almost to good to be true!/Fast zu gut, um wahr zu sein!

2010-04-16T20:41:00.010+02:00

A couple of days ago, I was surfing the net for this and that - and suddenly I read that Ashford, the producer of my "Joy" spinning wheel, had come up with a "Freedom Flyer" - a new flyer for artyarns, provided with a 25 mm/1" orifice hook and slide yarn guides ...

... and large bobbins (left - the 'old' one to the right, as comparison) ...

Maybe you remember my earlier posting about making a DIY solution for bypassing the former small orifice? I have been using it since, but of course I was eager to get that professional gear now!

Anyway, I ordered the new equipment online the same night, and this afternoon the parcel arrived! So now I'm looking forward to quite some new spinning sensations :-)! Maybe someday I'll be able to spin such wonderful yarns as Jana does ... This is really a site to find inspiration!

On Sunday I'm leaving for a trip to Sara - I'll be gone for a week this time, as Sara has asked me to assist as a translator for a group of Swedish ladies attending an embellishing workshop at her place.

I must admit I do feel tempted to take my fancy equipped spinning wheel with me - but I guess there won't be that much time for spinning this time ...!

(German summary: Als ich vor ein paar Tagen im Netz herumgesurft bin, habe ich erfahren, daß es jetzt einen neuen Krebs für das Joy-Spinnrad gibt, mit dem man auch Effektgarne spinnen kann, dazu noch wesentlich größere Spulen. Das neue Einzugsloch - eigentlich ist es ein offener Haken - beträgt 25 mm, statt bisher 10 mm. Heute kam die Zusatzausrüstung mit der Post!

Viel ausprobieren kann ich es im Moment noch nicht, da ich nächste Woche bei Sara bin - aber bald! Bis dahin ;-), schaut Euch die dollen handgesponnenen Garne von Jana an - die sind wirklich wunderschön!)

Three knitted shawls with crocheted endings/Gestrickte Schals

2010-04-11T21:19:00.012+02:00

I'm done!

Actually I finished my country lace shawl just before leaving for Sweden, but I didn't have time to post about it then. It's just as cosy and warm and 'wrappy' (with a tiny smell of sheep - I love that :-)) as I wanted it to be - but in the end, I didn't do that fancy border à la Nicky Epstein, which I originally had planned to do.

I decided that this rustic shawl would look better with a simple crochet ending instead, the only decorations are those curled tails which I've come to like a lot ...

I used my Sweden holiday for knitting a bit too, this is a 'false' moebius which I did out of one of the Schoppel lace balls (yes, same curly tails there too!) - it's knitted in simple garter stitches, starting with three stitches in one corner, knitting kind of quarters in a row -but the yarn itself is so beautifully rainbow coloured, that I wanted the knitting technique to stand back for the yarn:

And this is another one in garter stitch, the yarn being a red Swedish traditional one-ply wool which I bought on site - I'm considering doing some mouches in different red yarns on it - and finally a new design (my own) on a crocheted flower necklace:

(German summary: Drei sehr einfache Dreieckschals mit gehäkelten Umrandungen - ich wollte, daß die dollen Wollsorten hier die erste Geige spielen dürfen! Und noch eine Häkelkette ...!)

Happy Easter!/Frohe Ostern!/Glad påsk!

2010-03-25T21:26:00.009+01:00

So this is the Moebius-scarf I told you about in my last posting - I just managed to get it ready in time for our Easter holiday trip to Sweden!

And I've also managed to get the Kauni lace shawl for my mother ready - here it is, all in earthy colours:

Much of the credit must be given to these wonderful yarns, which I found lately: the four bright coloured ones to the left and in the middle are Schoppel yarns ('Zauberball'), then you see a Japanese 'Noro' and to the right a Danish 'Kauni' wool. They are not so easy to find at the normal yarn shops, but there are of course several online-sellers.

They are all mostly or entirely wool and are wonderful to knit with!

I wish you all a very nice and happy Easter, with lots of eggs (and wool :-))!

(German version: So, jetzt habe ich meine Osterschals fertig - mit diesen dollen Knäueln aus Deutschland, Dänemark und Japan - und wünsche Euch allen ein schönes und frohes Osterfest - mit vielen Eiern und auch recht viel Wolle :-))

Knitting a moebius and crocheting flowers/Ein gestrickter Möbius und gehäkelte Blumen

2010-03-22T11:28:00.014+01:00

Trying to ignore the fact that it's raining cats and dogs and that I've got a silly bad cold, I'm keeping the fireplace burning, knitting a moebius in an explosion of colours to keep spirits high ...

(Unfortunately, the colours just don't come out here as vividly as they do in reality - but maybe you'll get the idea anyway.)

It's a moebius scarf - a twisted circular knitted scarf - where you need to do a special cast-on, shown for instance on this youtube tutorial.

As I had tried a couple of moebius versions before, which I wasn't quite happy with, I decided to buy a real nice moebius pattern online at Zauberglöckchen. It's a bit complicated, but turns out beautiful!

I hope being able to finish it within the next few days, as I'll be leaving for an Easter trip to Sweden at the end of the week - and it's going to be a present!

I've also done some flower necklaces for the Easter eggs:

(German version: Ich stricke gerade einen Möbius von Zauberglöckchen - nicht ganz einfach, aber der Mühe wert! Eine selbsterdachte Blumenhäkelkette wird auch den Weg in ein Osterei finden ...)

A Country Lace Shawl/Ein Bauernspitzenschal

2010-03-11T21:44:00.012+01:00

Have you experienced this too: You're learning a new technique, practising and working a lot on it, until you reach a certain level of skill - and then there is no forthcoming anymore. Frustrating!

So you put it aside, you do something else, maybe for quite some time - and when you finally return to this earlier project, all of a sudden you discover that your skills have improved all by themselves while you were busy doing other things! Funny, isn't it?

Last year, I tought myself to card and spin and spent a lot of time with it - still, my yarn always turned out worsted, no matter what I tried to change in order to get it soft and delicate instead.

Anyway, at the end of November I stopped spinning, as there were a lot of Christmas preparations to do - I had decided to knit a whole bunch of scarves for Christmas presents for example - so last week was the first time I felt the urge to get back to my spinning wheel again.

I had an idea in mind to spin a very soft and gentle wool for a lace triangle scarf, or wrap - a warming and comforting something out of natural white Norwegian sheep wool and light-brown baby camel wool which I had carded together - using a very basic and plain lace pattern. A kind of rustic country lace shawl, simple and yet delicate.

And it worked! It is just as soft as I wanted it to be, thin but not too thin, some soft bumps and irregularities here and there for the natural look - and lovely to knit with! I'm not an expert, but I think the main difference is that I now tread more slowly and allow the yarn to go faster into the orifice than before, the whorl set to a medium speed.

I found the simple pattern I'd been looking for in 'Victorian Lace Today' by Jane Sowerby - a wonderful lace pattern book covering it all from the very simplest to the quite complicated ones and illustrated with beautiful photos:

The charts make it easy to find your way through the pattern:

I haven't decided on the final size yet, but I think I would like this shawl to be quite big - and I'm planning to work a special border around it afterwards, probably out of one of Nicky Epstein's gorgeous edge-and border knitting books, which I've discovered lately ... but this will deserve a posting for its own!

(German summary:

Ich habe nicht geahnt, daß man auch beim Spinnen Lernstufen/Lernplateaus haben kann - aber nachdem ich eine mehrmonatige Spinnpause gemacht habe, geht's jetzt sogar viel besser als vorher: statt dem üblichen festen, dicht verzwirbeltem Garn bekomme ich jetzt endlich diese luftig-leichte Wolle, die ich mir für meinen Bauernspitzenschal gewünscht habe ...! Und das Buch ist wirklich Klasse, mit leicht verständlichen Charts zum Nacharbeiten!)