Rock carvings: The tattooed deer

And what if I was to use the pattern program on my sewing machine to do the filling up on these Wiking symbols? Although I've chosen a rather simple Bernina model, there is still quite a selection of automatic patterns available on it -

I tried out three of them on this deer, along with some free-motion sewing - and the drawing was delightfully filled in no time! (Argh! Why is there such a thing as preparing dinner and cleaning up and all those other chores - I'd rather be playing all day long!)



When tracing my drawing with the parchment paper and pencil method, I always get a reverse version as well - this time I used it on the backside of an ice-cream paper box, to get a cardboard template to use for another project -

and look, how funny it happened to turn out from the printed side - maybe you can call this some sort of 'tattoo' as well!



(German summary: Und was wäre wenn ich eines der vorgegebenen Muster der Nähmaschine zum Ausfüllen verwenden würde - auch bei meinem einfacheren Bernina-Modell gibt es da so einige zur Auswahl ...

Und als 'Nebenprodukt' habe ich beim Durchpausen auf einem Eiscreme-Karton noch ein buntes 'Tattoo' dazubekommen!)

Spinning for leisure, felting for pleasure

This orange flower just had to be made, celebrating the first warm and sunny spring days!

I added a couple of beads and French knots for embellishment and a safety pin on the back - a brooch for a spring jacket or as a closure for a shawl or a wrap. It's a small present for a friend of mine.



I've been spinning a little too - just for the fun of it, no special project in mind. 'Spinning is good for the soul' - Anke at WolleNaturFarben often reminds me of that in her blog postings - and yes, spinning is like meditating, it soothens your mind and calms your thoughts - and at the same time, your hands produce a lovely yarn out of the soft wool on your lap.

I still had a roving left of the New Zealand wool I dyed myself two summers ago - not a very spectacular one, but I did like the red dots in between:



It's funny, how serendipity often decides how a yarn will turn out - sometimes a most beautiful roving turns out to become a quite regular yarn, sometimes it's just the other way round ...

You make your decisions about the wool, the blending, to card or not to card, about the thickness and the whorl when spinning, how and with which material to ply - and still there is a randomness which keeps surprising you until the end.

Even if I have been spinning enthusiastically for a couple of years and know that I can control the handling a lot more now than in the beginning, I still feel there's a lot left to be learned. I remain a seeker and beginner in my experiments.

It seems every new yarn teaches me something I didn't observe before - in this case, it was the colour of the plying. When plying with a thin thread, I usually try 'hiding' it by choosing the dominant colour of the roving - this time, I took a shiny blue silk thread instead and a dark red woolen one, referring to the red spots on the wool -



and in my opinion, this was exactly what made this yarn arise. (Meeting the colours with the camera would need improved skills though, I'm afraid - the first photo above, with the felt flower in the front, shows the 'glow' better ...)

(German summary: Eine gefilzte Blumenbrosche zum Einläuten des Frühlings - und einige Gedanken darüber, wie jedes handgesponnene Garn mir neue Erkenntnisse und Aha-Erlebnisse bringt - diesmal war es die farbliche Akzentuierung beim Verzwirnen.)

A lacey deer/Spitzenhirsch

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

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

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

'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 ...)

Elk in action/Fortlaufender Elch

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!)

Fusing plastic/Plastik schmelzen

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!)

Back to Basics/Zurück zum Ursprung

Sorry to have kept you waiting again - of course I've been doing some textile things inbetween, but somehow, I was in the mood where nothing seemed worthwhile writing about or interesting enough to show ...

I'm not even sure about it now, but I'll share it with you anyway:

At the moment, I'm back to basics, re-reading books like "The Good Life" and "Simple Food for the Good Life" by Helen and Scott Nearing, "Gardening When it Counts" by Steve Solomon, "Spinning in the Old Way" by P.A. Gibson-Roberts and "Wer wandert, braucht nur was er tragen kann" by Anne Donath.

I've finally got my high-whorl handspindle, which I use for spinning a thick, yet soft single yarn out of quite harsh and rustic, 'original' fibers: the dark one is Mongolian sheep, the light one a Russian Karakul sheep blended with camel undercoat fibers.



This is truly slow work, spinning small amounts on the handspindle, then knitting the yarn in 10 stitches small squares, using my chopsticks, in a pattern similar to the one of Scandinavian birchtree bark basket weaving.

Although these are sturdy and archaic fibers (except the camel undercoat), the yarn still turns out quite delicate and comfortable through the handspindle and the loose knitting.

I just felt that I needed a break from all those soft and softest modern silky yarns in pastel colours - and as a friend told me of a journey to the Indian mountains, where she had seen a very basic way of spinning and knitting right out of a basket of raw wool, I knew that I wanted to try that out, too.



As this is a very basic wool, it will certainly be possible to felt it too, if I'd like to.



I haven't decided yet if to use it for a wrapping or for a garment - it has a touch of stone-age to it and might not be everyone's cup of tea - but it is basic, for sure ...

(German summary: Ich experimentiere gerade mit sehr ursprünglicher Wolle - grobe russische und mongolische Schafwolle und teilweise noch sehr fette Lockenwolle, die ich unkardiert direkt verspinne und erst danach wasche ... Es ist eine angenehme Abwechslung zu dem supersoften, pastellfarbenen Designergarnen - und irgendwie brauche ich das jetzt!)

Some experiments with the flower loom/Experimente mit dem Blumenwebgerät

Do you remember the cotton threads I showed you in an earlier posting? And that I tried them out as a sample on a flower loom?

As I'm very captivated by the idea of recycling and re-using, I decided to try to do some kind of garment out of it; I like the kind of sloppy and casual retro-look of these flowers and think they would be great as a loosely hanging slipover over a T-shirt for example.

(If you google on it, there are several links for buying or crafting a flower loom yourself.)



Another possibility to use the flower loom is to make some woolen flowers and then to combine them with the embellisher and felt them into the background - here I did some free machine embroidery with variegated thread on the leaves afterwards:



For this bag, I crocheted the carrying straps with handspun wool (the same as for the bag itself) and then again punched them with the embellisher to get them more sturdy and less flexible.



(German summary: Ein paar Experimente mit dem Blumenwebgerät - einmal mit den grauen Recyclingfäden für einen lockeren Pullunder, einmal mit handgesponnener Wolle für eine gepunchte Tasche.)

Some travelling experiments - Reiseexperimente

It's funny with travelling: some people cannot get enough of it and get so much inspiration out of it - it's a challenge that makes them really feel alive and vibrant.

I'm afraid I'm not that kind of person, really. It's not that I hate it: I can very well adjust to new situations and surroundings and feel comfortable with it - but at the same time, I can't wait to return home and get working on those new ideas and impressions! And the problem is that when I'm finally back home, there's so much piled-up everyday stuff to take care of ...!

I guess I just need quite some time to "get back" mentally, to find concentration.

Anyway, this is not really a 'concentrated piece', but just an experiment on weaving with recycling material, like newspapers and waste plastic. I saw something like that in Stockholm, I thought the recycling paper looked quite stylish with the black cotton warp inbetween. The original paper weave was more professionally done, though, more tense, probably on a 'real' loom.

The little thing above it are some folded paper scraps crocheted together with the same black cotton thread I used for the warp. Well, just an experiment.



Last weekend in Vienna, I saw a crocheted flower necklace which I thought to be a nice idea, but far too expensive - so I made an own version on that, one with a green and one with a red wire. I used a variegated stocking knitting wool to get different colours out of the same material and some beads from my stash (hey, it's nice to find everything you ever need in your own stash!).



And feeling the need just to sit down in the sun and play around - I made these two beaded butterflies to send along with the mail I was preparing for Sara and for Paula ...

(Metal wire and beads from my stash :-))



(German summary: Nur ein paar Gedanken über's Reisen ... Ein Experiment mit Weben von Recyclingmaterialien wie Papier und Plastik, auch zusammengehäkelt, mit schwarzem Baumwollgarn ... Zwei aus Sockenwolle gehäkelte Ketten und dann ein paar Schmetterlinge aus Draht und Perlen, die ich meinen Freundinnen schicken möchte.)

Experimenting with my handspun yarns - Part I

"The investigation of imperfection leads to creativity. A route to creativity is found through the attempt to master the skill.

You can focus so closely on perfect mastery that you go through the eye of a needle and you come out the other side into a creative world thrown wide open."

Lexi Boeger/pluckifluff in "Intertwined"


Good things are happening. I've been doing quite a lot of handspinning with the drop spindle lately - now I want to try out a real spinning wheel. It will be here tomorrow - and it's called "Joy". That's exactly what I feel too!

The quotation is taken from a fantastic handspinning book, filled with gorgeous pictures and very crazy and artistic novelty yarns, which I can highly recommend ... read it and you'll start dreaming, just like I did ... You can have a look at http://www.pluckyfluff.com/ first, if you like.

Another really interesting book is "Spinning designer yarns" by Diane Varney; it's a bit more 'serious', but still very creative and inventive.

The picture above shows a weaving experiment with my handspun yarn, where I've used this yarn for the warp in a small weaving frame and then used unspun wool for the weft. I plan to add more material to it and then punch at least some parts of it.

Here you can see another ball of drop spindle yarn, which I'm adding to my knitted scarf.

I've used a "nostepinne" to wind it up (well, I actually happened to have a piece of a broom stick handy ...!) - that's a simple and brillant invention - Norwegian, I presume!

And next week, Sara and I are going to spin together at my place - if that isn't good news!

Very busy experimenting ...

As you can see, I'm very busy experimenting ...

I don't yet know where this will lead me, but it's for sure a challenge - and it makes fun ...

The hand spindles are self-made (jam jar lid, candle holder etc.) - the spinning wheel is antique and only borrowed - the knits are (left) partly, (right) entirely made out of self-spun yarn ...

I wish you a good and creative week-end!

"Family" doodle - another stitching experiment ...

This is another stitching experiment, which I've done on linen-punched-wool cloth. I drew some doodles - which, funny enough, made me think of "family". I don't know if I just happen to have a weird imagination, but for me this is a (OK, very) abstract picture of a couple (man = red, woman = black), both curled up close to eachother, the woman holding a child and being hold by the man.

I drew it without intention, but when I had divided the curls into colours, the couple - the family - were absolutely clear to me. Can you see it, too?

The red embroidery is couching stitch, using that red woolen tassle again and some silky black thread - the dark one is grey knitting wool used for the chain stitch, and then couching stitch with a silvery metal wired thread and the silky black one.