Earflaps

Tags

aging, clothing, green, hair, handspun, hat, weather, winter, wool, yarn

I finished my colourful hat over the holidays, it was a quick and easy knit. Now I wonder if we’ll get any frost so I can try it on without boiling my ears! I normally wear fleece headbands in the cold because it’s easier to fit with long hair; what usually troubles me is wind hurting my inner ear, not so much the temperature, and knit fabric tends not to block the wind. But they are also very boring – so what else to do with all that chunky, funky handspun? (yes, I’m asking!)

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Last week, last post

Tags

abstract, acrylics, crafts, inner conviction, intention, life, winter, wool, yarn

It’s a bone-cold, lazy (ie exhausted) indoorsy type of week with no social duties whatsoever, yay. I’m knitting a hat from an old handspun skein for no particular reason, G is finally updating my webserver and in return I’m rebuilding the website for his gun club.

It’s always fun to see how a handspun or handdyed yarn knits up, sometimes they need crochet or weaving to show off, other times they really seem to be their prettiest as a skein. I had some which were too small for the pattern, but if I like the fit, they may become headbands for my delicate ears.

I began writing a typical “status of the year” report, slept on it and decided I really couldn’t be bothered and had no profound learning experiences to impart.

Untimely

Tags

acceptance, blogging, clothing, colourways, handspun socks, health, intention, life, pain, relax, seasons, time, weave drafts, wool

a day ends

I’d like to begin this week with a warm welcome to all the new subscribers that seem to be adding my blog these past few weeks, whether you’re actually here to read or just hope to make somebody read yours. I’m afraid you’ve chosen to join me for the slow season, as my back has been out of commission again and my head then needs to adjust to sitting tasks only, with not much to show or tell just yet. I hope some of you will stick around for later antics!

This also coincided with planned weaving, carding and spinning work, which means I spend an inordinate amount of time just sitting here thinking about them, making endless weave drafts and colour samples. I need to find a plugin/app/whatnot that makes swatches from photos because just using the sampler in PS does not give me the vibrant shades I see with my eye/mind and it takes too long. Any suggestions? I prefer one that is installed, rather than having to upload single photos to a website each time, as I tend to work in batches. Oh, and it needs to be for Windows – I found a really cool one, Mac and i-things only.

Sock it

Tags

colour, colourways, håndfarvet, space-dyed, stash busting, strømpegarn, variegated, wool, yarn

Yet another planned post has been postponed today in favour of “smaller” stuff. And so it goes, lah dee dah.

I found a couple of skeins of undyed sock yarn that called to get stash busted, so first step was having fun with colour obviously. I decided to get a little ahead of times and do autumn colours – 4 skeins isn’t a lot to work with, considering I have about a million colour combinations waiting in my head, and then it turned out I had run out of 4 essential colours, so that’s a completely different kind of planning game.

Wordless Woolly Wednesday

Tags

alpaca, autumn, clothing, green, sweater, yarn

Alpaca cardigan 4 threads Drops yarn, daisy chain stitch

Dansk fiber blog

Tags

blog, blogging, butik, crafts, dansk, garn, håndarbejde, Shop, stof, strik, uld, vævning

Jeg har leget med tanken om at sætte en dansk blog op sammen med en lille netbutik til mit overskudslager. Det bliver ikke en kopi af denne blog med alt mellem himmel og jord, den vil heller ikke blive opdateret så ofte med mindre det vælter ind med brugere(!).

Det hele ligger lokalt på vores egen server som et lille eksperiment, så svartiden er måske ikke hvad man er vant til ude på det store WWW, vi ved det ikke! Så jeg inviterer hermed til test og feedback: www.farvehytten.dk

Egentlig ville jeg vente med annonceringen til der lå lidt mere indhold, men så sker der det ene, og det andet og tiden går, og så får jeg heller ikke lagt noget på fordi jeg jo ved at der ikke er nogen som ser det.

Så nu ser vi!

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This is an announcement of my new Danish website with a small shop for surplus production. You’re welcome to have a look, but I won’t be translating it. Possibly I’ll put up stuff for sale in here as well unless it grows enough to reopen my Etsy store. Any suggestions on that front? (when I began the draft for this post I probably knew what I meant by that question, now I don’t, but I’m going to leave it in case somebody else does)

Save

Save

Panels 1 – knitblocks 1

Tags

anti fashion, clothing, crafts, design, inspiration, knit samples, panels, slow cloth, sweater, wool

Can’t promise panels without beginning to think them up at least, so here comes first edition, feel free to join in with your own splendid ideas, please.

NO NO this is NOT what I’m talking about!

As mentioned I see two things happening in my knitting: simplifying shapes and designs even more, as in go back to drop shoulders rather than some form of set in type, and more of a one-size fits all instead of current measurements and a shaped waist, because let’s face it, it’s probably not coming back.

Designing with panels

Tags

anti fashion, clothing, crafts, design, inspiration, panels, slow cloth, sweater, upcycling

Having whined ad nauseam about my new grandmotherly weight class I thought it about time to share some solutions I’ve pondered (apart from eating less). There are wardrobe issues such as:

Winter warmth – just about the only menopause symptom I haven’t had is hot flashes. Oh no, I get all the obscure ones. Woollen sweaters sometimes take me years to finish, so imagine how long they can be worn if you grow 1-2 sizes per year. Oh and the mild weather sweaters take longer because thinner yarn = smaller stitches! So I’m going to reinvent my construction method, which usually means a fairly close knit or the wind just blows right through to my delicate skin. Even indoors believe it or not. Also, tighter knits and firmer yarns have better durability to wear and tear that the looser, more flattering drapy fabrics don’t. The problem being of course they don’t have as much give and leave you feeling like a sausage as soon as your planned ease turns negative.

Turning THE corner

Tags

aging, birthday, inner conviction, life

40 was never an issue, but 50 sounded a bit over the hill to me. Grandmotherly and bordering on invisible (or wishing you were).

Well, here I am on the day after, once an hourglass figure, now a 40 lbs. overweight blob. Even my feet have grown a size. Seems I was right, it’s the beginning of decay for sure! “I finally got my mind together, now my body is falling apart“. Completely unemployable, every bone creaking, nothing left to say.

I’ve been lobbying for a very long time, because I’m paranoid like that, to prevent any kinds of large gatherings for the occasion; loudly sworn off cooking and cleaning, surprise crowds behind my couch, wakeup calls etc. I don’t like the attention, the buzz of more than 6 people in the same room, I can’t coordinate fancy cooking, it’s a waste of money and energy since I’m not enjoying it, and it’s my day, right? Not an obligation?

July WIP Wednesday

Tags

alpaca, clothing, crafts, studio, weather, yarn along

Thanks to those of you writing to wish me well – I’m much better now but have been taking it slow and easy for a while, and I suspect I’m going to need my second chiro visit on the 15th to unstuck my neck once more, but hope to manage until then. The cat luckily is back to his usual goofy, ever hungry self; my theory is that he swallowed a bee or something like that, because we could find no explanation of his sudden peevishness.

There has been some light reading, for instance:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The very last Discworld novel (#41): The Shepherd’s Crown