Seascape

As you know, I sometimes knit things. For the last two months it’s been Seascape. You see, four months ago, for my grandmother’s birthday, I gave her a little bag with yummy alpaca, a pattern and a pair of circs. She took one look at the pattern and went: “that is too hard, I can’t do this”.

The pattern was a translated version of Kiri, the first lace shawl I ever managed. It’s really not that hard, but she has less patience and is more of a product knitter than I am. Like, she’s knitted the exact same baby cardigan for every single grandchild and great-grandchild. Easy and quick is her model.

So I took the yarn back and promised her a shawl. Only I have a rule of only knitting things once so I had to go digging for something else, and since I looooove symmetry Seascape was the answer. And here it is.

Pattern: Seascape.

Ravelry: link.

Yarn: Indiecita (100% alpaca, 50 grams, some mysterious unknown yardage), 3.5 skeins lavender/pink.

Pre-blocking it was 127 x 35 cm. After it was this enormous size, a total of 169 x 50-ish cm. And I say 50-ish because I couldn’t be bothered to make both sides perfectly even, so it ranges from 48 or so to 55. The perfectionist in me is screaming, but the “oh my God it’s 35 degrees outside”-part of me won.

It’s wider than my arms!

A inside pic for a close-up of the pattern. Here you can see that it’s not even. Boo. Grandma loved it though, and that’s all that counts.

Edited: July 15th, 2010

Dear diary

Craft related things I did today…

- Ironed 24 pieces of fabric.
- Cut out 24 pad templates from said 24 fabrics.
- Pinned 24 soakers to 24 pad templates.
- Decided to change said templates just a tiny bit. Only not today.
- Put the rest of the hair on the doll I promised to make six months ago.
- Knitted two rows.

So, yes. Expect new shiny pads to be added in about a week. That’s how long all the steps usually take, at least when I make this many pads at once!

I quite like my new half bedroom/half sewing studio set-up. Maybe one day there will be pictures. Just not yet.

Edited: June 11th, 2010

The Rug of Awesome Rip-Rip-Rip

It’s been a while now. I’ve been busy with writing, sewing, knitting and WEAVING. Soon I will update with new shiny pads, but first I must blog this, because I’ve been working on this rug for something like six months. I did an update in December, when I had only just started weaving, and this is the end product of all that cutting, ripping, weaving, swearing and you know, all that fun pre-weaving stuff (there’s seriously, like seven steps before you even get to sit down).

This is the whole thing. And yes, it’s too long to even FIT in my kitchen, at 354 centimetres. That’s over three and a half metres or 11.5 feet. Yes. Seriously.

I got the inspiration for this rug when I read in the Swedish weaving magazine Vävmagasinet about this man who, after his partner died, cut every single piece of clothing he’d worn into rags, and wove a rug from it. He didn’t stop until they were all gone and the result was the most amazing rug, so big that he actually had to roll it out on the grass outside his house so they could photograph it. It was breath taking and totally made me well up in class.

So, a few months later I cleaned my closet out of all clothes I could no longer wear (think sizes 38-42, that is a UK 10-14), and stuffed them in the attic, thought no more about it until I had to move. Then I took them out, thought about throwing them out and went “hmmm”.

So, here it is. A rug woven from all the clothes I’ve worn in the last five or so years, sorted by colour and interspaced by dark blue (not originally clothing) to give it a bit of stability. Each of the blue blocks are ten centimetres, but the actual clothes have been used until I ran out. The thin ones were tank top, the medium ones short sleeved tops and the big long sleeved.

And for a bit more detail, I’ve taken it in three shots:

The red and yellow. I recognise the shirt I wore when I met my ex (the big red-white one) , a few shirts my sister gave me when I returned from Florida (most of the reds), a shirt she did the print for; it said “More trees, less Bush” (a yellow), and my Sweden shirt. It’s the other yellow, and I found it in the men’s section at Target when I lived abroad. It had a boxer and SWEDEN printed on it and I bought it simply because I missed home so much. I wore it even after I accidentally got hair dye on it.

Obviously Ash has good taste. The green is my favourite section too. Here’s some more shirts Ania gave me, a couple that I bought when those became too small (and then THOSE became too small) and one that was a present. (My grandmother thought it was rude to cut that one up, even though I’d never use it again.) The thinnest one is the shirt I bought upon my return to Sweden, to celebrate a) that my weight gain meant more cleavage, and b) my first real spring of five years.

The light is doing weird things here, sorry about that. It’s blues and purples, some which were gifted to me, and some which I bought because I can’t walk past a purple top without trying it on. One of the blue is my Beskyddaren-tee, a leftover from my first music obsession, the Swedish band Kent. Another one is for my second music obsession, Ani DiFranco. One was a Beatles shirt, although I rarely listen to them. And the last, stripey one I had a damn fine cleavage in. Just saying.

And yes, that is about it. Though I could talk about this all day if you let me!

Edited: April 12th, 2010

Backyard-y Things

I’m currently working away on my first custom order since my big break of awesome, and it’s nice to be sewing again! I am, of course, also being creative in other ways, or I would surely go nuts. Mostly this consists of weaving, knitting and writing.

My latest adventure in knitting was looking at a mitten I knitted three years ago and try to figure out the pattern, because I forgot to save it and I’ve used those until they pretty much pilled themselves to bits. It was a bit of a challenge, and I think the finished mitten turned out slightly bigger, but in all I am happy with them.

That is the old one to the right, knitted in Malabrigo Worsted (colourway: Violetas), and the new one to the left, knitted in Manos Silk Blend (colourway: 4635).

I almost never indulge myself in really exclusive yarns, so I think these two are the fanciest yarns I’ve ever knitted with. So worth every last krona too (even though I bought the former in the U.S. and the latter in the U.K.!). They are simply amazing, and £11.99 for 300 yards is so worth it when the yarn in question is as gorgeous and soft as this one. It really is.

Pattern: Backyard (Semi-Convertible) Mittens

Ravelry: link.

Yarn: Manos Silk Blend (30% silk, 70% merino, 270 m or 300 yards); green aka 4635, 1 skein.

I’ve looked at a lot of convertible mittens in my days, and it seems like most of them require you to button the flap down, as they have a rather big hole to allow for flipping back the top.

A few years ago I saw one that simply had a hole in the palm, though I can’t remember where (the now defunct MagKnits, maybe?), and thought the idea was great, but that they would be even better if they had a bit of overlapping fabric, so the hole wasn’t there all the time. Because Sweden is cold. Seriously.

So I knitted the first version of this mitten (my first mitten ever, actually), with a cable down the back, to go with the scarf (which I lost) and the hat (which came out too small), a simple afterthought thumb, because it seemed like the least scary option, a hole backed by an extra flap behind it, sewn down only on the sides, and used them every single day for two winters and actually half of a third.
…

So, when I came across this yarn and figured out it was enough for a Backyard Leaves Scarf and then some, I decided to do a repeat. Since it came out so awesome the last time.

I kept them plain this time, because the yarn was more variegated than I’d expected, and also, because there’s plenty of lace and patterned knitting in the scarf. I quite like mittens that doesn’t have a rounded top. The last pair didn’t end in a point, but I decided to do that part just a bit differently (possibly cos I knitted for too long before realising that I was supposed to be grafting…

As for the whole reason I made these mittens:

Pattern: Backyard Leaves Scarf (Ravelry link)

Ravelry: link (to my version).

Yarn: Manos Silk Blend (30% silk, 70% merino, 270 m or 300 yards); green aka 4635, 2 skeins. Or more like 1.5.

It came out wicked long; it was the prescribed 200 cm before blocking, and then each half grew with about 25 cm, so it totals 250 cm. That is 98.5 inches. I’m only 173 cm long, so it’s… long. Even on me. I can wrap it twice around my neck and there’s still some over.

This post is far too long already, so I will not post a close up. Click on the pic and it will zoom in for you. If you want.

For something else altogether: Do consider going to Ravelry.com (if you have an account) and filter patterns through the “Help for Haiti” tag, and buy something! I wanted to offer my patterns for sale like that and give the proceeds to that, but realised that I really don’t write out instructions well enough for that (my patterns have a lot of “gauge – erm, what was on the ball band. probably.” and “size – big. ish.” in them), and besides, what does it help if everyone offers their patterns for free if nobody buys anything?

So I’m going to.

Edited: January 17th, 2010

Coming Back From the Dead

I think I have made things confusing again. See, when I revamped my website I didn’t know how easy it was to get a static page for my main URL, and then a different one for my blog (you simply make a page and name it “blog” and that’s it), so I installed Wordpress twice, once for my pages and once for my blog. The reason I haven’t been blogging much was the whole logging in and out when I switched from one to another. And then I realised how ridiculously easy it was, and changed things around, but of course that means that my feed URL is now different. It used to be http://procraftination.se/blog/feed/ and is now http://procraftination.se/feed/. And I can of course not alert people about the switch, since I removed the files installed under the “blog” folder.

Erm. Does this make your head spin too? Good. Then it’s not just me. Anyway, I hope that people will still find their way here, despite my sneakiness! We shall see about that.

During the last few months I’ve been spending most of my times playing with new medications and writing a lot, and in all trying to take care of myself. There hasn’t been a lot of pads for sale during this time, but I do have news! I feel better and will from here on out accept custom orders again. It will be a bit different than before, a middle way if you will, but you can visit this page (if you’re Swedish) or this page (if you’re not) for more details on the matter.

And as a Christmas presents to all the knitters reading this (which may not be many, but hey…) I have put up a felted bag pattern, which you can find here.

It is fairly small, 9.5 x 8.25 inches after felting, and I made it for a friend as an utterly impractical gift to receive after just having given birth (as it doesn’t fit any baby things whatsoever). Each side consists of four mitered squares and it’s exactly half of two colours, as you switch it around from one side to another. Follow the link for more pictures and all that, and if you knit one, let me know!

I have so much more stuff to blog, from the slippers I made my grandmother, by way of my present to my mum to two dolls I’ve done up for two little Australian girls that I love to bits despite never having met them. That is a story for another day, though, as I am halfway out the door.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Edited: December 29th, 2009

Weaving Up a Storm

I really need to get some new stock made and posted, preferably before the madness that is NaNoWriMo. That gives me nine days. Should be doable, provided that I don’t get sidetracked by a) kitten, b) other crafty projects, c) the unpacking of the last two boxes.

I hate moving. I really, really, REALLY hate moving. Which is why it makes little sense for me to take a full month to unpack, but there you have it. At least I’ve only got one room to go now!

Knitting is easier than sewing, because I can do it when I’m out and about, so I finished a pair of socks despite my relative business.

Pattern: Minerva’s Tower.

Ravelry: link.

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon, 50 grams, 211 metres/231 yards), 2 skeins burgundy.

I bought this yarn probably three years ago, knitted one sock, was rudely interrupted by a break up that made me not want to touch anything I had been working on prior to it, and stuffed it in the closet for an eternity and a half. When I was going to Edinburgh at the end of October I looked through my stash for a suitable solid sock yarn and found it.

Ripping that lone sock out and reknitting it into something like this was oddly liberating and just what I needed to do.

The pattern is written by my dear friend Corrina of Picnic Knits, and I love it to pieces, especially the fact that there is a small/medium and a medium/large size, of which I knitted the latter. I did not follow the directions for the toe, which I regret, but can’t be arsed fixing.

Wool socks are necessary when I weave, because you cannot wear shoes while doing it, and the weaving room is in the basement of a church with concrete flooring. It’s always freezing down there, and I lovelovelove having proper socks to keep myself warm!

Speaking of weaving… It’s a new thing of mine, and I love it. It’s very meditative and I put music on and get to work. The rest of the women taking this class are ranging from 55-85 in age, so I’m the young one, but I’m okay with that. I especially like that I can go there any time and work without having to talk to anyone. Why yes, I am a bit of a hermit.

And while we’re on the subject, a few weaving related pics:

In the last year I have gained a ridiculous amount of weight because of meds that are essential for my well-being. This of course means that none of my clothes fit anymore, and cleaning out my closet of all these shirts that were too short and too tight and just made me sad was amazing. So, when I started weaving I decided to take all these too small clothes and cut them into strips and make a long memory rug from it.

I have a lot of different colours, but red and green are the ones reoccuring the most often. So, to use that as a strength rather than trying to hide it, I sorted everything by colour before starting to weaving.

The second pic shows my loom all set up and ready to go. It takes quite a bit of time to do the warping and other stuff, but once you’re done, it’s so satisfying to sit down and weave.

I’ve woved almost exactly a metre at this point and used up all my reds. Between each one I have 10 cm of navy blue, to break up the different colours and bring them together. The little old ladies were dubious at first, but seem to be more convinced after I’ve done a few stripes…

I really like the result produced by striped strips of fabric! Most of them are red and white, but I also have a red and black one, and some in several green and purple shades coming up.

I can’t weave without music on, so my ipod always accompanies me. The others chat or listen to the radio, but I weave the best (and the fastest!) when I turn the music up and get going. Here it is The Indelicates that are accompanying me.

Edited: October 21st, 2009

Moving House and Running in Circles

Okay, let’s see. I am moving house and a wee bit scattered at the moment, so I have temporarily gone on hiatus, pad selling wise. I’m doing moving things this weekend and next, visiting with relatives in between and should be back in business by the first. Well, I am moving in on the 19th, so I damn well hope so!

A small re-done project of mine for while I drown in boxes:

Pattern: Cinnamon Swirls, one of my very simple patterns.

Ravelry: link.

Yarn: Tuva by Marks & Kattens (100% wool, 50 grams, 55 metres/60 yards), 1 skein red and 1 skein brown.

I first knitted this one months ago, wasn’t happy with it, still gifted it to a friend, STILL WASN’T HAPPY WITH IT, agonising, and finally snapped and knitted another version, reversing the spiral colouring and choosing a better main colour.

At Ravelry I have both the first version and the second up here, and as you can see the colour change makes all the difference in the world!

I have chosen Backyard Leaves Scarf as my OMG-ALL-MY-YARN-IS-PACKED-WHAT-DO-I-DO-project. I look forward to it!

Back in a fortnight-ish.

Edited: September 9th, 2009

Luna Moth Shawl

Edited: September 2nd, 2009

Procrastinating and… Not.

Okay. Project procrastination is done (for now). Tomorrow I am mailing off … a million things, but most importantly, and craft related-ly, the following stuff.

For little sister:

Pattern: Daisy from Knitty.
Ravelry: link.
Yarn: Paton’s Grace that I somehow acquired for a dollar a skein.
Notes: First I used this yarn for a Tivoli, before promptly gaining twenty kilos. Thus, I only wore it once or twice and spent the next two years gazing longingly at it. Then I got over myself, ripped it out and made this. I like to call it the Sunshine Jacket, even though its more mandarin oranges than sunlight. Check out Ravelry link for close up of OMG adorable buttons.

…
…

Pattern: Seamless Baby Booties from Pickin’ and Throwin’ Blog x 2, Converse Booties from Alley Kat and Mary Jane Booties from How Stuff Works.
Ravelry: Seamless #1, Seamless #2, Converses, Mary Janes.
Yarn: Gjestal Bomull Sport in black, red and white. I bought three skeins and knitted until I ran out of yarn.
Notes: Am very dubious about the Mary Janes, they are so tiny that I think big sister will use them for her dolls instead. The red ones are Arsenal Booties and the Converses I converted to work in the round instead, because I believe that even babies (especially babies!) have a right not to have seams running down the sole of their feet!

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For big sister:

Pattern: Kate from Knitty and Pitter Patter Socks from Ravelry.
Ravelry: Kate, Pitter Patter.
Yarn: Qualitas Sock, small amounts of all three, for Kate, Sock It To Me in two shades of purple for the socks.
Notes: Because I had limited room in the parcel and/or am insane I made this one with 2.5 mm needles and sock yarn. She’s just 6.5 inches tall, when the original is a full 12 inches. The socks look… dis-proportional, but will have to wait for the verdict from the five-year-old before I decide if they were successful or not. Books by Astrid Lindgren. Every girl needs some Lotta in her life! (Yes, I like her more than Pippi.)

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Finally, I spent all day in close proximity with these babies. Soakers done, channels sewn on, backs cut out and pinned to the tops. Tomorrow I’m turning and top stitching (yes, really).

And mailing lovely Japanese print and cute little snowbirds out.

I believe that is all from the department of the clinically insane. (Unless you want to know the amount of anti-anxiety meds that I am needing just to THINK ABOUT my trip to Scotland next week.)

Edited: August 13th, 2009