Re-start with rock carvings

Oh girls - it's been a while ... Not that I have been too idle, but when you once stop posting regularly - due to the heat and all those summer holiday activities, for example - it's real hard finding a good access again ... Guess this happens to us all once in a while.

I know, it's still summer, but as my blog-friend Elizabeth/Landanna is now making a new start with a whole bunch of fresh photos on Viking rock carvings from her recent holiday in Sweden, I will hang on there and join her in mutual inspiration.

Yesterday I found these two pictures in a tourist folder regarding the rock carvings in Bohuslän, which she sent me in a mail - and today I 'drew' the outlines by free-motion stitching on my sewing machine.



A 'solar horse', the text in the folder said - I think it's a very elegant design, as modern as ever!

I like this second one very much too - makes me think of a woman on her way in a boat.



I've been doing some other free-motion embroidery on the sewing machine lately, noticing that practice really is the only thing taking you further on this matter ... I'm drawing the lines with the needle in a kind of 'Navajo technique' - sewing a couple of inches, then moving backwards again, forwards - slightly more than before - backwards, a bit less - until I'm happy with the thickness of the line.

I prefer this to going round the whole piece several times - the small motions make me feel that I have the line more under control.

My thread is very thin too - normal polyester or cotton sewing thread - therefore it's even more important to sew several times to get the outlines clearly visible.

I've also discovered that it's possible to fill the under thread bobbin with cheap overlock thread from a big thread spool - just put the spool on the table, close to your sewing machine and use your fingers to lead the thread on to the usual bobbin spooling gear.

Tomorrow I will proceed giving these two rock carvings some colour - and I will be back regularly now again, it's a promise.

(German summary: Oh Mädels - wie die Zeit vergeht ... Und eigenartigerweise, wenn man einmal eine Blog-Pause eingelegt hat, ist es verflixt schwer, wieder einen Anfang zu finden - geht es euch auch so?

Ich packe jetzt auf jeden Fall die Gelegenheit beim Schopf, da meine Blogfreundin Elizabeth/Landanna einen Neustart mit frischen Fotos von Felsenbildern aus dem Schweden-Urlaub wagt, und schließe mich gleich an.

Ich habe mit vielen Vor- und Zurückstichen, mit einem dünnen, schwarzen Faden freie Maschinenstickerei ausprobiert - und dazu den Unterfaden gleich mit günstigem Overlock-Garn gefüllt.

Und noch etwas: ab jetzt schreib' ich wieder öfter - versprochen.)

Challenge Navajo/chain plying

In order to maintain the beautiful colour separations which come with spinning a handpainted fleece or roving, I always wanted to know how to Navajo/chain ply. Still, as rather a newbie, this is not exactly the first thing you're giving a try at ...



Well, now I felt ready to deal with this challenge - and thanks to YouTube ;-), it wasn't even that difficult!



What you need is a slightly overtwisted single, three times the length you wish your yarn to be, and if you don't want the final yarn to bee too bulky, try spinning the single quite thin.

Set your whorl on big and slow, select a strong uptake, put your single on a lazy kate, make a loop with the single and the leader on your bobbin. Then it's basically just 'finger-crocheting' your single through the loop with your left hand - making real big loops -, while your right hand is pinching the three strands to form the twist.

Sounds more complicated than it actually is - just take a look at that video and I guess it will come perfectly clear!

Another funny little thing which I found at YouTube was an i-cord earphone wrapping tutorial, showing how to knit a colourful i-cord around the cables of your earphones, to prevent them from tangling. Of course I couldn't resist, these are mine:



(German summary: Jetzt habe ich mich ans Navajo/chain-Verzwirnen gewagt - und mit Hilfe des YouTube tutorials, war es gar nicht einmal so schwer. Der große Vorteil ist natürlich, daß die Farbsequenzen vom handgefärbten Vlies oder Kammzug viel besser erhalten bleiben.

Bei YouTube habe ich auch das lustige Einstricken der Kabeln gefunden - jetzt ist kein Kabel mehr vor diesem privaten 'guerilla-knitting' sicher!)

Challenge knitting complicated patterns

Another challenge for me was to dig into new, rounded patchwork knitting à la Horst Schulz - I had tried to understand one of his more intriguing patterns - 'An African Adventure' (here's the free pattern pdF - in English) - a couple of years before, but had failed - and now I gave it a new try - and suddenly it came all clear!

I also found this new book by of on his 'scholars', showing further variations on this adventurous knitting technique: ('Patchworkstricken' by Liane Schommertz - in German).

A funny thing about these patterns is that you only have to deal with one or at the most two colours at the same time, and that you (except for the borders) only hold very few stitches on your needles for every patch, which are even decreased constantly while working.

It's also a splendid opportunity to use up lots of yarns from your stash, awakening the pattern to life without the feeling of producing a 'patchy' look.

So I started two new projects, the first one maybe turning out to become an afghan in the end, with 5 mm needles -



- the second project with 4 mm needles and double 4-ply sockyarn, aimed to result in a sleeveless vest some day (although at the moment, it looks more like a frog to me :-) -



At Ravelry, there is even a 'Horst Schulz Fan Group' where you can find more information on the patterns.

(German summary: Meine neue Herausforderung sind die gerundeten Patchworkformen à la Horst Schulz - so langsam begreife ich endlich das Prinzip und erfreue mich an dieser witzigen Stricktechnik!)

Challenge core-spinning

I love spinning - for so many reasons - and even if I still very much enjoy the very plain spinning of a simple roving into a normal single, then plying it into a basic balanced two-ply yarn, I can now feel tempted trying out new challenges, like core-spinning, f.e.

A short while ago I suddenly held a beautifully hand-dyed fleece in my hands with the hint, that it is quite possible to spin directly from the fleece, without carding or preparing it much further, and at about the same time, I had also seen a sequence regarding core-spinning in Jacey Boggs' book and DVD 'Spin Art'.

So I tried it out with this Polwarth fleece and BFL locks -



- and with this Romney fleece -



- and it was great fun!

Normal spinning from the fleece (below showing milksheep fleece, still a bit greasy) - was fun too, somehow it made me feel much 'closer to the sheep' than with the carded roving.



But back to core-spinning: it's such a pleasure spinning and creating this fluffy, delicate yarn, it's just a feast to the eye and a wonderful feeling for your hands ... but what do you do with it? How can you work with it and use it, without destroying the lightness of its texture? And the small amount of yarn I had - just a bobbin full - limited the range of projects furthermore ...

I guess you can either first choose a project and then design your handspun yarn to fit in - or you can choose to have your fun while spinning and must then use your imagination finding a project suitable for your fancy yarn ...

Anyway, I realized this yarn needed an uncomplicated pattern and really big needles or hook to perform well - and was very happy to pick out my crochet hook 19 mm (!) for it, my absolutely biggest one -

and after some experimenting, I decided to crochet a moebius scarf, just single crochets in a twisted loop ...



- I used the yarn up to the very last inch, and had great pleasure in crocheting with it too!

What would you use your core-spun or bulky art yarn for? Any ideas or experiences to share?

(German summary: Ich spinne so gern - auch ein ganz normales Garn - aber diesmal wollte ich etwas neues probieren, core-spinning, direkt aus dem gefärbten Vlies heraus.

Eine reine Wonne, sowohl das Spinnen an sich als auch das Ergebnis! Aber was macht man daraus, so daß auch das Flauschige, Leichte erhalten bleibt?

Ich habe einen einfachen Möbius-Schal gehäkelt, mit Häkelnadel Nr 19 und normale feste Maschen - aber ich würde gerne mehr Vorschläge und Ideen sammeln! Was macht ihr mit eurem Artyarn?)

Going green

Ah - gardening season is here!

Although I keep spinning in the evenings, there isn't too much to show there yet - I keep exercising, trying to get it up on the next level ...

And preparing the garden for the season to come takes its time.

If you are running out of seed starting pots for your plants - like I was - you can always make some yourself by recycling old newspaper.















Here you will find a YouTube tutorial on how to make your own seed pots.

True colours

Although the mornings are still chilly, spring is in the air. Maybe that's why there is a lot of talk about colours in different blogs on the net.

In one of her recent postings, my friend Elizabeth/Landanna introduced me to a great vocal group I'd never heard before: 'Perpetuum Jazzile' - and thinking about colours, I'd like to share this with you today:



And I have decided I will have another try on some dyeing myself again.

Happy Easter!

I just wanted to pop in and wish you Happy Easter!

The kids and I spent the last week in Stockholm with their Swedish grandparents, so there wasn't much time for Easter preparations this year - but for the eggs I grabbed the small green bowl, which I crocheted some weeks ago.

Crocheting bowls out of small amounts of yarn which aren't good for anything else is a great idea, by the way - for this I used some self-dyed green wool together with a green cotton yarn and decorated it with a beaded flower.

(German summary: Frohe Ostern wünsche ich euch! Für das Eierkörbchen habe ich einen kleinen Rest Wolle und etwas BW-Garn verarbeitet - kleine Körbchen kann man doch immer gut brauchen!)