You know that your husbands loves you when...

... he comes home and gives you a bag containing this:

saying "I thought you might like those, I didn't know what to choose so I chose your favourite flowers napkin for collage and a crackle paste and some roller for your art. And a chocolate." *^v^*


Some FOs for you, first of all, a pair of naalbinded socks I made for a friend:

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Then, finally my three finished paintings! *^v^*
This is the new style, new me, as I said to Robert, the world of Nature crawled upon my canvases and wants to stay for a while, I'm calling them The Mysterious Garden series.



These are all 10x13 in mixed media paintings, using collage papers and napkins, everyday use objects and papers (like newspaper, ect), acrylic paints, ink, varnish.
There is one more painting almost finished and I'm out of canvases... I'm ordering new batch today and I'm going to experiment a bit - I'm enlarging the size of my paintings to see how I feel with bigger surfaces to cover! *^v^*

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I also started next knitting project - because I bought the yarn for this one at the wholesaler before the green yarn for Lords&Ladies cardigan arrived, it's Lydia from Rowan 41 first. I decided to be brave and try out the blue colour. *^v^* (well, it was helpful that there were only red, maroon and ecru/pastels apart from that blue to choose from! ^^)

I bought Himalaya Ultra Kasmir yarn (340 m/100g) and I can see already that it's going to be a challenge because it has some long hair along the main thread. But it gave me a nice gauge so I will try it out.
I wanted to buy Polish Sasanka by Anilux (500 m/100g, very soft), but they had only 1kg packages and no blue shades. My second choice was Kartopu Tiftik (500 m/100g), but I touched my face and neck with it and it is scratchy, with 30% of mohair...

As for my UFO's, Azalea is almost finished (but it takes some time to knit the front band... You start with 400 stitches and increase the number to over 1000 stitches in the last row!...) and Capri (which needed a second dyeing session, the first one brought an awful spotted effect, I don't know why because Azalea dyed very evenly at the first attempt) needs the buttons.

PS.: I noticed some new readers leaving me nice comments recently - keep coming, I love visiting new blogs and finding new blogging friends! *^v^*

New colour palette for Autumn

CraftyDiddl asked me yesterday, did I grow up in a very crafty home - well, not at all. ^^ I mean, yes if you count that my father was a blacksmith and my mother used to knit a lot when I was a child (but then she stopped and started to crochet occasionally).

I learnt how to sew by myself, on an old Lucznik sewing machine.
I learnt how to knit reading the foreign blogs two years ago.
I was taught traditional embroidery by my Grandmother but then I caught a cross-stitch bug and continued for several years.
I taught myself naalbinding, cord-making and weaving, because I needed this for my medieval reenactment activities. (Spinning awaits me! ^^)
I went on a professional jewelery course last year and learnt how to make jewelery out of silver, copper and stones.

As you can see, I just find something new and interesting, and I plunge into it, trying it out, seeking information all over, and then I decide whether I like it or not. I tried patchworks once and I think it's fun but not necessarily my first choice of a craft.
Sometimes I think it would be better to concentrate on one craft and master it to the limits, but then I got distracted and find something new. Well, that's me! *^v^*

Rho, it's true that Robert prefers black, but I think he looks great in red (and blue, but he hates blue, well...).


This is what I've been working on last night - in two weeks time we are having our Annual Great Feast in our medieval society, and everybody's preparing some gifts for our Prince. ^^

So, apart from other things I'll still be making, I decided to make a pair of naalbinded socks from the Norwegian wool I received from Helene.

They turned out great! Very delicate and light, perfect for the Summer and he asked me once about the grayish yarn for a pair of socks, so I hit the jackpot with this colour! ^^
I am a great fan of naalbinded fabric texture! *^v^*



The new Autumn collection of Gudrun Sjoden is out now and I'm ecstatic again!
After the Summer collection hiccup, this one is fabulous. There are three lines: Italian Renaissance, Inspired the the 40's and Dots, and I love love love the first line of clothes!
Look at the colours, the textures, the patterns!...
If I won the lottery, the first thing I'd do is to go to Malmo - the closest in Scandinavia for me, and do some shopping in Sjoden's shop (I could do it online but I'd love to be there among all those clothes on racks and just breathe in the atmosphere... *^v^*)
I love all those layers - oh, putting together shorter and longer pieces of clothing, the ability I still need to practice! ^^




Could anyone advise me the pattern for the similar knitted cardigan? I feel I desperately need one like this, with a low semi-circular neckline.



Speaking of Gudrun Sjoden - I finally have the fabrics and the idea for a jacket inspired by Gudrun's design. I still have to wait until Robert cuts away part of this gorgeous wool to make himself a medieval cape, but the rest will be mine! (about 1,5 m x 1,5 m).

Just look at that texture, yummy!
(I am very keen on textures, I always touch everything - fabrics, yarn, tree bark, ect ^^)

Depending on the amount of fabric (Robert still didn't decided whether he needs 2 m or 1,5 m), it'll be hip-long or even going down to the knees, we'll see.

I'm going to sew a raglan sleeved jacket, longer at the back, with buttons at the front, the lacing at both sides and a square neckline, which will be embellished with the violet cotton you see in the picture.

Happy Friday, guys! *^v^*

Another FO!

I have just finished another commissioned pair of socks for another friend of mine, this time they've been naalbinded, and I really think that it's high time I made something for myself! *^v^*

I have a pair of Breeze anklets on the needles now plus an almost finished scarf out of the beautiful Kid Silk Haze I received from Ambermoggie - it had to wait for some time while I was struggling with other projects but it knits up very fast so I should have another FO this weekend!

There is also the Emelia choker in my project basket - oh, yeah, poor Emelia, I totally lost my interest in her after the messed up stitches in the first choker!... But let's not forget that it was supposed to be a birthday present for my friend Anna last October...
Well, maybe I'll be able to finish Emelia till Anna's name's day (which is on 24th of July) - I just have to! ^^

And as I'm not feeling well today I think I'll go to bed right now and have a nap, the weather turned rainy and really cold this morning, brrrr.....

Right here, right now

I've been very busy naalbinding all week and today's post will be illustrated with my creations: a pair of socks for myself and six colourful pouches that I may be selling at some medieval events this year. ^^

I love how these socks came out - they fit really perfectly, which is not that easy to achieve with naalbinding.


I would also like to share with you some of my thoughts on the the idea found in the book called "People in Quandries: the semantics of personal adjustment" by Wendell Johnson, 1946 - the trap that people find themselves in, it's called the IFD trap.
I stands for Idealizing (thinking about what it's going to be like, when...), what Dr. Wayne Dyer calls "the psychology of tomorrow".
F stands for Frustration (because of Idealizing you are never happy in live, because you are living in the future).
D stands for Demoralisation (how do you deal with Frustration? You are Demoralised and you Idealize again, and it's a vicious circle).

I've been in this trap all my life.
Mainly in the first part of it, that is Idealizing. I've always been living in the future, not enjoying the present moment but always thinking how happy and perfect my life would be in some time ahead of me, when something happens, when I get a better job or when I live in a bigger apartment, ect, ect. I even lived with the following philosophy: I would do something or try something or change in some way if I (had more money, lived somewhere else, got other education, had some other talents, ect, ect). But unless it happens I won't bother to even try.

There I was, waiting for the miraculous changes in my life to come. And only recently I've realized that I should start doing something in order to initialize those changes that I wanted to see in my life. I need to change my way of thinking about my life and living my life. I have to see that, although there are some limitations (or are they really?...), I can start making small steps towards my dream future. But those step will be made right now, in the present, there is no other way to do it.



And as a food for your thoughts, here are some questions (taken from the lecture of Dr. Wayne Dyer) that we may ask ourselves and think about the answers from time to time:

If you had only 6 months to live,
- How would you change your life?
- Who would you choose to live with, if you could choose anybody?
- Where would you choose to live?
- How much sleep you would get if you had no clock and no ability to measure time?
- How much and when would you eat if there wasn't something like meal times?
- What would you do if there was no such thing as money? What you be doing in your life on a daily basis?
- How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? Old, middle-aged, young?
- How would you describe yourself if you couldn't use any labels?

and then act every day as if it was to be true, grabbing everyday by its throat and living to the fullest. *^v^*

Now I'm off to another naalbinded pair of socks - this time for Robert. ^^

Naalbinded lamp cozy

Unfortunately we didn't manage to visit the Viking event last weekend. But it's not that I don't have anything to show you today! *^v^*

Throughout the whole weekend I've been naalbinding. I'll show you some of my creations at the end of the week, but one big project has been finished and is ready to be used (almost, it's still a bit wet after felting).

I took four colours of wool from my stash, made the bottom of the bag in one colour, constantly adding stitches to acquire a wheel, and then continued with other three colours (as you can see, I ran out of the dark brown in about 2/3 of the project, so I finished with only three colours).

Here is a picture showing all four colours meeting at one point - I love the results you can achieve while working in this technique, you lead all colours simultaneously around the bag making one row on top of the previous one.

I really wasn't sure whether I was making the right size of the bag because I knew it would shrink while felted but I had no idea about the amount of this shrinking. Each yarn shrinks differently and each naalbinded stitch shrinks differently - York stitch is very loose so it will tighten a lot, Oslo stitch (used here) is a bit tighter but also rather loose so it may shrink a lot, but when you felt Finnish stitch or Russian stitch - they are very tight from the beginning so they won't change much after felting.

The bag was a bit too wide for its future contents before felting and it turned out perfectly sized after felting! Lucky me! *^v^*

But what is it exactly?

When we went to the medieval market in Ilza last Thursday we bought a lantern to have some light in our tent - it's made of wood and a very thin parchment, and you insert a candle inside.

I immediately decided that I want a lamp cozy so it would be protected from any scratches while transported in a car and here it is! ^^

I created a group on Flickr today called Naalbinding, where I would like to gather many naalbinded projects, so if you know this craft and make things with a needle, please join and share your creations! *^v^*

On other topics: thank you, Didlinaknits and Rho for your support on my post about closing the shop! I'm definitely going to think about this 2,5 year period as a good experience and build on it some new projects and enterprises.

Have a good Monday! ^^

People in Poland do not worship God,

they worship Food.
I've just come back from the grocery shopping and I'm exhausted... I've been trying to maneuver among millions of people running around the shop with crazy eyes, stuffing their carts with more and more packets, bottles, cans, bags, ect ect, and then I had to stay in a 40 minute queue to pay for my shopping, and it's only Wednesday!... What will be happening in the shops on Friday and Saturday, just before the Easter holidays?!...
I won't know because I'm not coming back there until next week!

Naalbinding
I completely changed my naalbinded shawl I've been making. It's not shawl anymore! *^v^*

I thought that now when I can weave myself a proper shawl, I won't be finishing this one. And let's be honest, the naalbinded one wasn't a success - I couldn't keep the number of the stitches even in every row so starting with 80 stitches it was shrinking in width, then I tried to add the stitches but it didn't look good.

As you may remember, I even cut off part of the shawl and made a pouch out of it (look, I have a designer set! *^v^*), but last night I turned what was left of it into a bag - I stitched the sides, naalbinded the long handle and added a string and a wooden button to fasten it. The bag went into the washing machine and I fulled it in 90 degrees. Even after felting it's very roomy and I can stuff many things in there! ^^
(it seems that naalbinding doesn't shrink much while fulled because, unlike knitting, the separate stitches are rather close to each other and tight from the beginning, so there isn't much room for more shrinking)

I'm going to use this bag as my craft bag for medieval events (to keep the needle case, the tablets or the heddle, the lucet and whatever project I'll have with me at the Viking markets).

This evening we are having a girls-only Oriental evening at my place (me and my friends Anna and Kate), so now I'm off to prepare some food and clean the place. If I remember, I'll take some photos and I'll show you tomorrow our Oriental feast. *^v^*