August 26, 2007

Jacket

Modeled picture of the Jacket/Cardigan:





It was hard to get an acceptable shot of it, this picture is the only one where the colour is right, and that I like.

/Lene

August 25, 2007

Must... knit...

Why is it that the most important news are always delivered in the most casual tones?

We were discussing how many we were, and if we'd fit around the kitchen table when my brother said - we're xx - but in a year we will be one more. (Insert heart and joy smilies here).

I am so happy for them, and hope the little baby will be a girl (They have ordered a boy), so that I can go wild in pink yarns and little frilly things instead of more traditional and blue stuff - been there, done that!

Come April, they will enlarge the family again - maybe my little brother will "Join in the fun", too? His girlfriend is one of my best friends, and certainly a nice person - so a few kids...

I will welcome all nieces and nephews with OPEN ARMS :D

(Excuse me, I must go find pink yarn...)

/Lene

August 13, 2007

Smelling the stable

This was my shawl this morning - I recieve more yarn yesterday (Thankyou mom) and had knitted two repeats already this morning after washing the yarn late evening.





This is my shawl now - unblocked, but FINISHED. I felt it like a holy moment when I had it finished - finally. It has been long coming.




I am almost teary happy to have it off my list / chest. Now I may block it, and tomorrow, if it is dry (and I do not lodge one of the pins in my foot) I will take pictures outside in good light - weather permitting.
Good thing I am finished. School starts tomorrow (YAY) and if I had had to sit until 12 to finish I would have done it - oops. Bad girl.

It is dang HUGE. I just measured it to be 240 cm across the top and 140 down the back as it is blocking. HUGE I tell you. The "Finished measurements" promised me around 200 cm over the top and 100 down the back. Deceit" *grins*.

I Am So Happy

Serisouly, I am so ridiculously happy about this project that I was very tired of and just wanted finished, because then it would be GONE - but now I cuddled up on it, petted it and almost cried when I saw it all stretched out on the floor, in its glory. It makes me all teary-eyed to think that the ugly duckling finally has turned into a swan and that all the work was not wasted, even though it seemed unlikely that it would ever become anything pretty.


Have a really nice day

/Lene

August 12, 2007

My new cardigan

Here it is. The result many hours of sewing, thinking, ripping and more thinking.



(Relatively true colour)


It has princess seams and a stand-up collar, and is made out of a stretchy, embroidred denim. The sleeves were originally 3/4 sleeves with a wide slit, and the buttons were set differently, but I decided for myself where I wanted buttons and how I wanted the sleeves - and the body lenght. The sleeve openings are less than ideal, but I will live with them. They could be way worse. The neck is also not perfect, the collar is way too small, it wont even go around my neck. I wear it flipped over backwards, making kind of a V neck. (I forgot to do it in the picture below).
The chest part is a little too small, and the lower part is a little too wide - ah well.
Weird though, because this is the smallest size of a pattern only in "Large" sizes - designed for ample women (It was included in a Burda my mother had, and I fell in love with the design).



(Murky Mirror Shot)


Despite all the shortcomings I see in it, two persons have tried it on today, and both requested one for themselves. Maybe!
The next one for me may be in a linen fabric as recommended - and I will either change the collar or just make the neckhole bigger so that it can lie around the neck as it was probably intended. Plus I want to try to make a bigger boob area and slimmer sleeves at the wrists, and eventually cut a little bit of the width around the butt.

Have a really nice day.

/Lene

August 11, 2007

Craft-injuries

My little accident yesterday made me think about accidents while crafting / because of crafting.

Especially the comment about the needle in the arm.. Whoa! I do believe that the doctor couldnt find anything - the needles are small, and the flesh does not leave traces of being punctured, but closes up around the needle very quickly.

I once read a thread on Craftster about craft related injuries. It was hilarious, but also very disturbing - are we really so stupid? The answer is: Yes!


I have:

  • Sewn myself in the finger
  • Cut myself silly, 5-6 times, while trying to do Linoleum Carving
  • Cut my finger with the rotary cutter
  • and with a hobby knife while cutting paper
  • Punctured my skin with a knitting needle
  • Glued myself to a craft project
  • Pinned myself to my sweater, back when I was using my sweater to hold sewing pins
  • Gotten a burn mark from pulling a coarse yarn quickly over my wrist
  • Cut the flesh between thumb and index finger while plying with scissors
  • And, of course, my Super Stupid Needle Stunt of yesterday
  • Stuck countless needles and pins into my fingers, under my nails and other tender places
Phew! I think those are the most common injuries - good thing. Just imagine if we were all, say, doing Moto-cross driving, we would be filling up ER's and doctors offices all over the world. Of all the "Stupidities" up there, only one required a doctor :)

Have a really nice day

/Lene

PS: I didnt know you read my blog, Nurhanne! I taught myself to knit lace from your website, copying down the line-by-line instructions for little doilies and knitting them with a free, ugly, ginormous ball of Gotland Singleply... Those were the times... ;)

August 10, 2007

NOT quilting the blankie!

*Insert evil face here*

I hereby wow NOT to quilt the Wolf Blankie - not under ANY circumstances. It hates me!

You know, when you get really frustrated, sometimes you can happen to say "Bite me"?

It BIT me >:-(

I had been drawing a horse on it, and had a spool of yarn with a needle firmly lodged in it with me, in case I wanted to start sewing. I didnt, because the horse didnt show up. So, I took the spool, blankie etc. away with me and fixed to start vacuuming the whole flat. WHAM - and it hurt in my foot. I found my needle, but it was only half! It was missing a whole chunk of the pointy end and a little of the eye, but I think I found the eye part. My foot HURT.

So I did something I very rarely do, after trying to find the piece of needle I suspected in my foot: I called the doctor *gasp*. He looked at my foot and asked if I was sure there was something in it? Oh yes, quite sure, the road to his office was long enough for me to feel it every mini-second. So he started to inject a local anaestethic, and prodded and searched in my foot to find the "tiny piece of needle". Tiny, my a$$ - when it came out it was over ½ inch - almost 2cm!

The best part was that he thought I was a sissy and constantly talked about pain and hurt and how I should go home and elevate my foot and put ice on it - I said yes yes, walked out of his office with the band-aid and all, but then it started to come off, so I took my sandals off, the band-aid off and walked home, barefoot, over grass and summer-warm pavement. That is the way I prefer life, simple and not so fussy.

I am bathing my foot right now, because he had to make a 1" (2½ cm) cut to find the little bugger, and will put on a good band-aid when I lie down in the couch to knit a little. That's the best part. Relaxing because "Oh, ow, my poor foot, poor me, I must be pampered / pamper me".

Have a really nice day

/Lene

August 07, 2007

Just a little

It is summer, after all, and my brain is everywhere. I seem to have strayed from the narrow path of knitting and splashed all over the place - it's not just handiwork anymore!

  • I bought a (new) bike - so now I have two, but oh, what two! One regular one that was incapable of living out my wishes with me, so I bought the "Black Stallion" (Black, slender, and mean) for bike travelling - also in rough places. It is fully suspended, but otherwise built like a travelling bike. It works well in (less rough) terrain, as well on expanded bike trips.
  • I am sewing up a storm, in my own opinion. Until now, I have three butterfly pillows, three cow-pillows (Patchwork body, head and legs, later assembled), and a pig, a cat and a sheep in the same fashion. Pig, Sheep and one Cow are in our summer cottage, replacing the old icky pillows that were there when we bought the place, a Cow and the Cat will reside in my aunts quilt shop as store models, and one Cow went home with me!
  • I have also almost sewn a cardigan for me - with princess seams and all, and maybe I will sew another one in another fabric, I like this! Just that I might want to shorten it overall and put the taken-away lenght where my waist is... I am tall.
  • "Large Triangle with Clover Pattern" from Victorian Lace Today is stalled, I ran out of yarn. Mother is spinning more. Thankyou mom *blushes*
  • My patchwork runner is still disassembled. I dislike it right now. It made me sad ;-)
  • As is the large blanket I am sewing. It is, however, now spread out on the floor, ready to have horses painted on it so I can hand-quilt them on. The rest may be machine-quilted straight lines. I am so anxious about "breaking" it - I love it so!

Well, that was it - have a nice summer day.

PS: Oh! My house got painted! And my roof repaired - it only just broke (storm damage) in December! And, my windows will be painted from the outside, too - or even *gasp* replaced! Maybe I can open them, then ;)