Friday, February 26, 2021

A pink shawl's new life. And mine.

This shawl is not new. I woven itt about 5 years ago.
I've even written about it here. 

 

Why do I post about it again now? Partly of course, because after so many times, I finally did the fringes on it, also washed, ironed it...

And made proper photos of it...
But also, beccause it is the last point on my pink and gray ensemble. The icing on the cake, the dot on the "i". 
Sometimes I am told, that the way I dress is pretty well put together, sometimes I am asked how I do it. 
Well, this is how. There is something, that starts it, in this case it was that pair of pink boots, which was a pretty good symbol of that few months in the fall of 2018, when love was fresh and new, and I saw everything through a pink glass. Two and a half years later the love is still there (just sayin'). 
I always loved dressing up. Not only in costumes, or historical clothes, but I always loved putting together my everyday clothes too. I also have many, many clothes. Admittedly, most of them came from second hand shops, and were cheap as heck, but still. There was a time when I had so many of them, on my last "real" workplace my collegaues made bets aboout when will I wear the same outfit twice. I worked there for almost a year. And no, I did notgave them that joy :-).. Nowaday, I have much less, partly because for the last 6 years or so I worked mainly from my home, I did not needed the pretty-ish office clothes, anymore, also, because I gained a weight. Lot of it. I don't want to go into it too much, but let's just say, my last ten year was'nt fun, not only because my struggles with being a single mom, university, unemployment and money and a bunch of other issues, threw my thyorids off whack, this ten years was also a constant struggle with my weight, which, no matter what I do, keeps going up. My clothes are wastly different from what I used to wear a decade ago. However, one thing did not change. I like to "put together" my outfits. 
This is how I do it. From boots to socks, to gloves, to scarves/neckthingies. 
Somebody told me, I should show more of my clothes, and how I put them together. 
What do you think? 
I mean, no way this will be a dressing or shopping blog, it will still be mainly a craft-blog, but should I show some outfits from time to time? 
Photos: Norbert Varga


Saturday, February 20, 2021

In the name of using leftovers

 This seems to be a recurring theme around here, so much, I wonder if I should make it a regular feauture around here... But then, knowing the nature of things, I am afraid, if I would, something shall happen, that will make me stop using leftovers... which we do not want, do we? So this is the nest unofficial episode of the unofficial notseries on using leftovers, 

We have last seen these yarns (and the last installment of my pink series) in the long, striped cardigan , where I told how I had to stop knitting, because I misplaced the last ball of yarn, that was found. I have not told the part, where I haunted the second hand shop, and my stash, trying to find something similar, which I did just about the time, when I finally found the missing skeins. 
I also had some not full skein of pink sock yarns, that had somewhat similar coloring than the one I used for the cardigan. And, of course, my pink boots were screaming to be used, with more socks. 
Construction of the usual, toe up, with contrasting, short row toes and heels, stockinett foot, and wide (or long?) ribbing on the leg part, so it can be worn up, or turned down, and Jenny's surprisingly strechy bindoff. 
Yarns are the same unknown sock-yarn left-overs from my stash as the cardigan mentioned.
Needles: Knit Pro Zing, 2,25 mm. 
Photos: Norbert Varga. 


Monday, February 15, 2021

Work in progress

 There isn't much I have to say about this yet, unless I keep musing about what is exactly that makes me pick up one project and put aside others at any given moment, but I still don't have the answer. 
I started this sometimes in the fall, I remember taking it to the last event in early November, and after that day I had it put down in my sewing room, as it is all packed up in its bag. A couple of days ago I emptied that bag, put away some of the other stuff I used in that event, then set up the pillow in its usual place, next to my writing desk, and picked up the bobbins again. 



Friday, February 12, 2021

Red mittens

Ever since I bought my black and white polka dot coat in november 2018 I wanted to have some red mittens to wear with them.... As we say in Hungarian, God's mills turn slowly... but then this is by far not the oldes, unrealized plan of mine, so... Anyhow, during my recent bout of knitting, along with a number of socks, I finally managed some new mittens, including a red one. 
It was knitted the way I do most of my mittens, starting from the fingers, and going down to the arms, and the ribing, this I can use every bit of the available yarn, while not risking running out of it ahead of time. 
Really nothing much to it, but a pair of plain, red, half-fingered mittens. 
Yarn was a ball of red DROPS Alpaca, I bought years ago. 
Needles are 2.25 mm Knit Pro Zing. 

Photos: Norbert Varga. 

Friday, February 5, 2021

Weekly spinning

 I have been spinning again... these days a lot more than in the last couple of years. There are always a lot of crafty I do, most of them fiber/ textile related, and I rarely know what sparks some of them coming to the forefront, or going back to the background. There are exceptions, as I know exactly what pushed knitting to the background a few years ago, but that is not the rule, mostly I really just don't know. Now it seems weaving is on my head, and with that came spinning again. 

So there was this camel fiber I  dyed about a decade ago, when I first started to dye fiber. 


Don't ask me what urged me to dye one of the finest, but also most sensitive fibers, back when I still didn't really knew what I was doing, or why I never spun it. I have no idea, it was there in the draver below my bed, waiting for its time to come. 

Now that Ági's workshop has that pertol/pine green warp that won't let me sleep...
After all those turqise, I needed something else to weave on it again.
Babycamel is relatively short staple, not easy to spin, and if I wanted the yarn to have integrity, I had to overspun a little bit. 
Because it was made for weaving, I left it one ply.
1000 meters... and the story will contue with the weaving. 

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Birthday cookies

 So, I have been thinking about this blog, and it turns out it finally will be the all around crafty blog, that includes all fiber things, sewing, and the occasional kitchen, reenactment, concert and travel post so here you go, a box of linser cookies I baked for my dad's birthday.