Monk

Tags

clothing, colourways, cotton, crafts, handwoven, inspiration, weaving drafts, yarn

It’s taken me a long time to write this post, simply because the project never seemed to be quite done. It still isn’t – but now it’s on hold until I make it round to that end of the circle.

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!)

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.

My failed nettle-along

Tags

crafts, fiber, fiber prep, nature, nettle-along, nettles, plants, yarn

The lack of interest last year allowed me to slack off on the subject, and the nettles I gathered are in fact still on the rafters in bundles. I partially blame blogging as a difficult forum for debates and sharing, as well as my lack of expertise obviously.

As luck would have it, I’m now off the hook – Motherowl invited me to a Facebook group a little while ago, created by Allan Brown who has considerably more experience in the matter as well as a lovely video describing his process. In a very short time thousands of people have enrolled from all over the world, quite a few Danes too! So the interest is clearly there and I look forward to learning more. (even though I detest FB)

Calendar’s end

Tags

food, seasons, time, waffle, weather, winter, yarn

 We’re getting close to turning a new leaf again and I haven’t been talking much lately because I had a feeling everybody was making busy for the holidays and gearing their minds towards elves, reindeer, cookies and eggnogg. I hope you had some time to actually relax as well, not just dashing from one meal to the next with crowds of noisy relatives and cranky kids.   😉

No rush at the cottage, I’ve been weaving my towels, just finished the last one of the batch yesterday, so I better get cracking with the band also. I had a full blown cold last week, the first one I can remember for years and years; I guess it had to happen at some point. Ginger and elderberry tonic for the win! We had to do some xmas shopping with the rest, because everything is closed for 3 days, but luckily it wasn’t too crowded and I got to pick up my sewing machine from service too. I feel horrible and exhausted if I eat too much, especially the endless combinations of fat, white carbs and sugar, it’s murder on my system. Love the taste, but it’s just not worth it, so we’ve been scaling down more and more each year.

Waffles:

Tags

16/2, 45/10 reed/3pd, colourways, cotton, yarn

One of the things I’m working on right now, when I’m not elbowing my way through a month’s backlog of house and other cleaning. Mucking is exactly the appropriate word! I hope it won’t land me with another month long backache, because then it’ll just be a selfperpetuating nightmare, won’t it.  😉

Hard work, even less talk.

Tags

exercise, fatigue, health, inner conviction, intention, life, yarn

Spinning chunky yarn on my Elizabeth has proven quite an ordeal, since I can’t get the ratio low enough and still make the wheel wind on the yarn, but my back is ready to give it another go for my little rug test project. And if the future I’ll have to figure that issue into yarn designs.

No work, no talk

Tags

inner conviction, inspiration, intention, life, Painting, yarn

My recent back issue is pretty much resolved and back to its normal “slightly sore and stiff”, but of course my other physical issues want their rotational say in the matter, so I haven’t been very active this month. There’s always a transitional process going in the opposite direction too, first you have to get used to not making, against your will, then after intertia sets in you need to figure out how and where to begin again. (and sometimes why?)

Actually

Tags

crafts, leaves, life, mushroom, trees, yarn

It’s untrue that I can only see the garage roof from the other side of my studio. If I stand on a step stool, lean very far out of the open window and look left, I can see more of this:

It’s end of week and I’m aiming at a quiet weekend. Not something I observe habitually, but it happens to fit.

Frozen flower dye

Tags

dye storage, flowers, natural dyeing, seasons, wool, yarn

Last year weeds happened to my orange cosmos (it always starts growing very late for some reason – then blooms into October where it’s too wet to collect seeds properly), this year slugs have overrun our entire property, so I had one plant. For that reason I had a handful of flowers in the freezer from last year and collected all summer from my one little very brave specimen to get enough for a reasonable amount of wool.