Gardening!

[image heavy!]

Since I cannot show you what I've been making this morning (it's a swap placemat that I'm sending tomorrow to Anna! ^^), I decided to share some pictures of my parents' plot of land we've been working on yesterday.

First, the place itself. Here us the view from the back of the plot (my father and my husband are working on the new fence):


Here is my vegetable garden!... (It'll soon be cleared. ^^)

I also decided to give it a go next Spring and plant some flowers for natural dyeing (following the example of Ryan's efforts from three years ago!^^).

And here is my little "stone garden" (I don't know whether you call it the same, it's a "stone garden" because you place lots of stones inside - so you raise the bed a bit, and around the space, put some soil on it and plant the plants that have no complicated root system so they can grow on low soil level.)
I cleaned it a bit and I'll be working on it in Spring.


Grapevine (Vitis vinifera).


Here are two bushes of American billberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) Not very impressive at the moment, but we were told that those two bushes can give up to 100 kg of fruit! ^^


Here some more plants, named thanks to my Web helpers:

Lobstah suggested, that it was a holly (Ilex spp), but I'm not sure about the blue berries on it... Holly is supposed to have red berries, right? I'm confused about that one... And I thought that holly is an evergreen plant, and this one's leaves are turning red right now, so I don't know...

EDIT: I just got a message from Susan (thank you! ^^) that it is Mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium). I've found that its berries can be turned into wine, and this plant is the symbol of Oregon, wow! ^^

Honeysuckle (Lonicera spp) - thanks, Lobstah! ^^


Calendula (Calendula Officinalis) - thanks, Lobstah! ^^


This one is left - anyone knows what it is?


Mint (Mentha)


Roses


Scarry creature?... No, it's a lilly! ^^


Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus), yummy! ^^


And now it's time to leave our little plot of land, this is the alley leading from the gate to the main alley of the whole gardening complex.

September...

I always get very sentimental in September.
The weather is not so hot anymore, evenings come faster than in August (I believe so, I'm not sure that's true ^^), leaves turn orange and red, and start to spin on the pavements moved by the gentle but chilly breeze. Autumn is my favourite time of the year - maybe because I was born in Autumn and I feel the inner bond with this season. (The date of my birth is also very interesting in some aspects - 31st October... some things end and start on that day in the Wiccan yearly cycle.)
I don't feel like leaving the flat - my inner party animal decides to lay on the sofa, with a cup of hot Darjeeling tea, chocolate biscuits and some knitting rather than going out to spend the evening in a noisy club (dinner at our favourite Japanese or Egyptian restaurant doesn't count! ^^).
Several days ago I put this lovely picture on my computer's desktop - it's the collage by the very talented Dawbis (I hope you're not angry with me, darling, for borrowing the picture, I just wanted to have it in front of my eyes ^^). It is soooooo me in the Autumn, I can stare at this picture for hours!

And let's not forget that September 2005 I started knitting, so we are having a small anniversary this month! *^-^*
What was my first project? Let me see...
You may remember the story of my first finished project - the green vest, but in fact my very first project last September was something completely different...

The 1st Project story

It began at some craft forum, when I saw a beautiful sweater some girl knitted, with bell-shaped sleeves, stockinette in the upper part and lacework in the lower bell part. I got in love with it and decided to knit something similar - not the whole sweater (I was wise enough to know it was far beyond my skills at that time!), but just the sleeves, with some buttonholes and a decorative fringe in the upper part, so I could thread a ribbon through the holes and tie it around my arm.
I followed some instructions how to adjust the number of stitches to your size according to the yarn weight, cast on and started to knit. Well... I chose a bulky yarn, so I very soon noticed that it's not going to be a delicate elegant sleeve, but carried on with determination. I very proudly knitted the stockinette part and asked the girl for a pattern for the lace part. She said that she knitted the sleeve cuff upwards, so I may have some problems with knitting it downwards, but gave me the pattern anyway. And then I looked at the chart!...
...
At that time I barely knew how to knit and purl. I never ever tried a mere yarn over, not to mention complicated k2tog or psso!... My hands were not acquainted with the knitters routine, the fingers were stiff and busy with securing the needles not to slip on the floor. And I wanted to knit a lace sleeve!...
...
Now, when I look at that chart, it's one of the easiest I've ever seen ^^, and as time passed I learnt how to knit different more or less complicated stitches used in this lace chart, but a year ago, as you probably guessed I just quit. The sleeves were never knitted. So, I thought that maybe now, when I know the technique, I could knit them again - using the right yarn weight (lace weight) and the right knitting direction (upwards), and commemorate my 1st knitting anniversary. *^-^*

My Manifesto

Last night I felt a desperate need to have some knitted FO - I haven't finished anything for some time, because I got stuck in between bags and socks, so I wanted some quick&nice project. I dug through my stash and took the pattern I wanted to knit for some time:
Zombies need not apply by Jennifer .

Because my yarn was thicker than the required in the pattern I decided to knit size S on 2mm needles. After several rounds I was sure I'm knitting the cellphone cozy, because I couldn't imagine my hand going through the tight opening of the wristwarmer!... But fortunately when I finished knitting it turned out to fit perfectly! ^^

I have started the first September bag for Bag Me KAL - (I'll be also knitting a small purse using the Norwegian colourful pattern but this one is still waiting) big felted knitting tote with a design that's a match to my new wristwarmer! ^^ It's a secret for now and I hope to reveal it soon.

One more thing about knitting - I decided to interrupt my Nancy Bush's One Month One Pair of Socks KAL and devote September to finishing my OPAL socks and Mameluke socks - I don't want to cast on for new socks when the previously started socks are still UFOs.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *~*~*~*~
I've been thinking about my craft choices (stated in this post, girls, thank you for your input, if any of you have more thoughts please keep them coming!) and I decided on the following measures -
My Manifesto
1. I'll concentrate on working with fiber as it is and always has been my main interest, in the form of a fabric or yarn, throught sewing, knitting, spinning and weaving;
2. My on-line gothic shop should be my prior concern and first of all I'll be concentrating on products for this shop - sewn & knitted, I may add some jewelery, but only if the first two product types have been supplied;
3. My second priority will be my medieval outfits - I still have some things to make and I'll be making them throughout the off season period in Autumn and Winter (mainly naalbinded socks and mittens, tablet woven bands, some embroidery on the existing clothing)
4. Apart from the two above I'll be concentrating on knitting as a hobby, because I need at least one thing that I won't do to make some money, because we need it!...
5. I've been selling my creations in two on-line galleries but I'll not struggle to make many new updates there - only if I can find a really good idea and time to create it, when the first two priorities are 'checked' on the list (gothic shop and medieval clothes);
6. I'll stop another on-line shop project I started some time ago, namely the FriendSheep shop with colouful clothing and accessories made by myself, because I REALLY don't have time to devote to another such big project and I haven't updated it for ages (last time in January...);
7. I want to learn how to spin and dye the wool/fabric, but apart from that I'll refrain from taking up any new crafts at least for a year (I must understand that I am only in one copy and the day has only 24 hours!...);
8. I'll attend jewelery classes but only as a skill development, no tools and supplies buying because they are very expensive and for now they would only stay as my new toys (which I cannot afford);
9. I live in a very small flat (just a living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom), so I'll not buy any new fabric or yarn at the wholesaler until the proper part of my existing stash becomes the finished products, by this I mean when I really have the visible space to store anything new, no cheating!
10. I'll look through my fabric/yarn/art supplies/patterns/ect stashes thoroughly and decide what to keep and what really must go, because of the small storing possibilities (no 'craft room' as such, just 'craft boxes and spaces' all around the flat...) and because I have so much of that stuff that I even don't know what I have!
11. I'll stay away from any new big KALs and Exchanges because of the numerous projects I have right now, I'll be still open to one-to-one swaps, if anybody would like to make a swap with me ^^;
12. I'll try either to finish or to get rid of all the old UFOs, because they occupy both my precious space in my flat and my mind, I think about them constantly and worry that I haven't finished them yet...
13. I'll dig through my wardrobe and get rid of the clothes I don't wear and refashion clothes that need it (I even made the first step last week, because I prepared a big bag of clothes for mending/refashioning from one closet in the bedroom).

We'll see how it all goes. ^^

I also looked through the new IKEA catalog I got yesterday and decided to gradually replace our old crockery with the new more modern, nicer pieces. This is part of my new life policy - cleaning my surroundings will result in cleaning my inner self, which I feel I desperately need.
*^-^*

3 kilos!

It looks like my flu decided to let go for a while, so I'm back on track as of today. ^^
Wow, I've just received a parcel from a company that provided me with the fleece to spin - they sell different things and one of them is the 100% wool which is what's left from the nice neat skeins production line - they call it "the tangle" (2,5 $/kilo!...).

(sorry for the yellow shade, it's my lamp)

And it really is the tangle, at least some parts of it. As you can see, the maroon yarn and the variegated yarns are more or less in one skein, but the light green and the violet ones, on the other hand, are a mess and very short pieces. But that's okay, because I need wool for felting (where the joining points will not be visible) and for naalbinding (where you work with short pieces of wool). Generally you can't have any colour choices, you just get what they have at the moment of purchase, but I was lucky with the greens and violets, and all the borring browns (these shades really are, believe me!) will be very shortly transformed into the medieval felted stockings for my husband - he needs a pair of XIII c. military stockings that they used to protect their legs with.

Yesterday I joined a very small one-to-one swap: Anna from Twelve22 would like ten people to make placemats for her, and in return she offers beautiful bird print cards. Yay! ^^

Cursed...

Okay, now I'm sure I'm somehow cursed!... It's the second medieval event this year we were supposed to go to and I got sick two days before, so we are not going anywhere!... (correction: I'm going to bed in a moment and I will stay there till Monday, continously, as doctor ordered!...)
Well, at least I'll try to catch up on knitting in between the coughing and cleaning my nose...

Here is my almost finished August project Knitting Tote for Bag Me KAL:

I still need to line it and add the handles, but I think I'll do it next week.

I also chose the pattern for the September project - it should be a felted bag with some charted motif knitted, and I found some nice design that looks Norwegian to me. I haven't decided on the colours yet.

Off to bed now...

Fleece

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

True, true!...
*^v^*

Have I ever told you that I love bath products? I especially love the moment when I have a new bottle of a bath lotion or something, and I use it for the first time!... ^^ Last night I had such a wonderful bath with a new Fa Lotus Blossom and Cherry shower cream, yummy! It was even more romantic because I had several candles around me on my bathtub.
Yeah, the lamp wasn't working again, I really need to get electrician to check it! ^v^

I am in fact a really really happy person since yesterday, because I finally found the source of fleece (or whatever you call it in English, but you know what I mean). ^^ I was so jealous that you all wrote about dyeing and spinning and felting the fleece, and I couldn't get the stuff in Poland to give it a try!... But finally someone is selling it here, too, so I bought 1 kg of fleece and here it came (in a bag with a cute sheep print on! ^^):


Here is some of the fleece - I am trully amazed how soft it is! I've never touched fleece before (I touched sheepskin many times, but it's very rough compared to my fleece!...). I could crawl into a big pile of it and sleep soundly all long Winter!

I'm going to make myself a drop spindle and learn how to spin using this tool - I'll have my hands busy during Viking events! ^^ And my friend Anna is bringing me tomorrow the book about dyeing fiber with plant dyes, so I'm planning to try it next year.

Talking about Anna, here is what she gave me last week, as a present for my name's day (I drink tea all the time):

*^-^*

How NOT to tackle your craft business

Last Friday while cleaning my wardrobe I listened to the podcast on Craftsanity, where Alicia Paulson (an amazing creative person, I really really love her stuff and her blog! ^^) talks about her successful retail craft business.
And I decided to write about how NOT to approach your business, basing on my own experience, in hope that some of you out there may avoid my own mistakes and finish as successful as Alicia herself. ^^

All the mistakes I've made while deciding on our little gothic boutique (not exactly in the given order):

1. Two makes a company?

At the beginning I had very small financial means, so we decided to open a shop together - me and my best friend Anna. We put on the table the same amount of money and started to discuss all the relevant issues, like setting the company, store location, things we want to sell, ect. We laughed at that time that we are best friends and we are definitely going to succeed because we think along the same lines and will not try to cheat on each other, but support each other in every aspect.
This assumption turned out to be the first mistake.
(Just to clarify here: no, we did not try to steal money from each other, which sometimes happen in the joint ventures like that and which is what people are mostly afraid of - both of us were totally honest and all the money issues went smoothly, thank Gods! ^^)
First of all, we needed our business to be officially registered, so I set up a company (this was cheaper to have one official company, so I "hired" Anna in "my" shop). Which meant that all the paperwork, contacts with the accountant, with every authority was on my head. Of course all the responsibility was only mine, because Anna was officially "only my employee". It was difficult for me to think about it all the time when she had nothing like that to worry about.
Secondly, we thought we have the same vision of what we wanted to sell, how our shop should look like, ect. In reality in turned out that I leaned towards more elegant Victorian gothic stuff, while Anna wanted more cyber metal punkish goods, which affected our supplies and left the customers confused about the contents of the store.
Third, I'm not perfect myself (more about it later in the section about the store itself), but Anna turned out to be a person, who would do everything you would tell her to do - but you would have to tell her and give instructions, and in the end you wouldn't be sure whether she did it correctly. Also, which made me even more angry with her than just lack of motivation and initiative - I noticed that she sometimes didn't fulfill her duties properly (like sewing something fo a client) and started to blame it on everybody and everything else but not on herself (sometimes even on me saying to the client that it was me who forgot to bring the stuff from home, ect!...). I know when I do something wrong and I can take responsibility for my mistakes, I don't need other people to blame theirs on me!
So, choose your business partner wisely, think about your and his good and bad sides, think how your traits may affect your work together.

2. What to sell?

We decided on two lines of products: gothic goods because we liked them and heavy metal t-shirts because we thought they would pay our bills.
Wrong!
You don't mix these two worlds together, as they appeal to two different groups of customers. We had a huge rack full of t-shirts throughout all six months of our shop's existence and we sold just a few of them. We wondered why and then we heard from a friend that because we advertised our shop as mainly a gothic shop, heavy metal fans wouldn't come and buy the t-shirts even if they were 1 dollar a piece!... That's how this environment functions.
There was also a product problem within the term "gothic" itself between me and Anna - as I said, I liked frilly, lacy, elegant Victorian clothes and accessories and Japanese Gothic Lolita fashion, while Anna wanted leather, studs, chains, punkish unhemmed skirts with razors and safetypins, ect. I'm not saying one or the other is better in any way - it's just we struggled with those two fashions on a very small shop area and customers were often confused what kind of shop it really was - lace to the right, leather to the left, and in the middle this big rack full of heavy metal t-shirts, remember?...
So, choose your range of products wisely and give them a really thorough thinking BEFORE you supply your shop with tons of different stuff.

3. To have or not to have a shop downtown?

We rented a small place in a crappy area. In fact, it was the centre of the city. The crappy part? These were the small stalls in old buildings, mainly occupied by sex shops and peep shows. Well... We thought that it's a good location - centre of Warsaw, right next to subway station, and we thought we could earn enough to pay the rent. Which unfortunately wasn't true... The place was a two storey shop and we only used the lower floor - but of course we had to pay for the whole shop. We tried to renegotiate the price but there was no answer from the owner. There was also the electricity bill, building tax bill, not to mention all the money we had to spend BEFORE even starting the business - redecoration, furniture, new locks on the door, insurance, all the small bits and pieces that made it look like our dream shop.
Now I think that we should have started with an on-line shop first, see how much we can earn monthly, and then decided to rent a place or not (and get to know our top limit rent that we can afford).
Then there was a selling issue - at least for me... I found out that I... HATE sitting in the shop and dealing with customers!... It really was an everyday torture... I'm just not good around many strangers, I'm very very shyin person (REALLY!), I don't know how to chit-chat, my stomach hurts at the thought of a public speech. When I meet someone new, I must get used to this person, get to know her/him, and suddenly I was exposed to many new people talking to me, wanting something from me, trying to get a bargain on something (I can't negotiate prices...). I'm perfectly fine with spending a whole day sitting at home on my own, sewing or knitting! Strangers scared me, I felt uneasy and wasn't a very nice shop assistant (although I tried really hard, believe me!). My smile wasn't very natural when inside I was frozen with panic!...
On the other hand, Anna is very sociable and on her afternoon shifts shop was always full of her friends. Not that anyone was buying anything... There was just a lot of people sitting around, talking and laughing, and it wasn't the best solution - it was supposed to be a shop, not a club...
So, before you rent a place for your shop and spend lots of money on redecoration and furniture, carefully count all the possible costs (add impossible too, they will definitely emerge!), and consider whether you are made to be a good shop assistant (think about your relations with others, your interpersonal skills, ect).

We closed the shop after six months.
I'm still crawling out of debts (and will be for the next one year).
We almost bit our heads off at the end...
But...
*^-^*
We learned a lot and this experience was definitely needed.
We split the supplies into two - I took gothic and second-hand stuff and continued to have an on-line shop Atelier Bizarre, Anna took t-shirts and the rest of metal stuff and tried to open the new shop but she had problems with renting another cheaper place and finally quit.
We stopped at the best moment, when we talked and explained many things, and we are still the best friends! ^^

Learn from your mistakes, but from other people's too! ^^

Pincushion thoughts

Sometimes I wonder whether I should try so many things at a time.
I sew. I knit. I embroider and weave in various techniques. I make macrame. I naalbind. I crochet. I draw a bit, I paint a bit.
I make clothes, jewelery, accessories.
Isn't it too much for one girl? Shouldn't I concentrate on something and make it perfect instead of touching one craft and following to another? I don't even have time to practice all of them, so I give up some crafts in favour of the others (okay, I'm not very fond of crocheting, so I don't do it often, but I do love to embroider and I really don't have time for it while doing everything else, especially cross-stitching embroidery which is very time-consuming!....). I try to make a living out of artistic sewing, but as you are probably aware, handmade objects usually have to be very underpriced in order to be sold - poeple just expect to get everything for free... (which is sad, because we really put our best efforts to create something useful and pretty at the same time!).
I haven't been to artistic schools where they teach various techniques and when I enter the art shop I feel lost, looking at all those different paints, papers, brushes and objects I cannot even name. All I know I've learnt either from my grandmother or from the books/internet. I'm not an artist, I don't create things which you can hang on the wall or put on a shelf and admire. I make useful items with a touch of Beauty (I like to think about them like that. ^^) .
September is coming and I have to decide if I want to attend second year of the jewelery course. It's fun to make jewelery, but maybe I should concentrate on fabric crafts instead (it's 6 hours/week)? Because as much as I like making silver jewelery, I won't have my own fully equiped workshop in the near future (no space, no money), and without some tools I won't be able to do anything at home.
And whenever I want to try something new I keep asking myself, whether it can bring any profit to our family budget or is it just for my fun of making it? Is it an investment or a hobby all together?
Any thoughts on that, please?

Anyway, here is the pincushion parade. ^^














And my favourites:




Each of them is made of plain wool and patterned cotton, with a satin ribbon to hang it on the wrist, embroidery floss and two faux pearls, and some insect aplique, 10 cm in diameter. I'll be sending them to the on-line gallery to sell (they already have some of my bags), so keep your fingers crossed as I have no idea whether Polish audience is willing to buy something like that. ^^

And last, but not least, a very poor quality photo from my mobile phone:

- my Mom (who is retired and has lots of free time) bought 300 sq metres plot of land to turn it into a recreational place - to have flowers, some fruit and meet friends for a barbecue. And what you can see in this photo is my own (mine, mine! ^^) piece of this land, where I'm going to plant vegetables next year (this year the season is coming to an end, and there is a lot of cleaning to be done there, because the previous owner left this plot unattended for some time and the Nature took over... ^^). I'm thinking about tomatoes, courgettes, sunflowers (one is already there, can you see? ^^) and we'll see what else next Spring.
In the corner to the right of this fenced plot my Father is going to put up a small smokehouse so we'll have our homemade smoked meat (yummy! ^^). There are two apple trees, two plum trees, wild blackberries bush and aronia bush. I am also in charge of the small stone garden with evergreens next to the small tool shed ^^. I'm excited because I've always wanted to have a piece of land and grow vegetables and flowers. When I went there yesterday, I even got my first mosquito bite, how cool is that! ^^Next time I'm going there I'm going to take a camera with me and take decent pictures! ^^

J-rock concert in Poland!

I'm very excited! ^^
On 21st October we are going to a concert of a Japanese rock band called Gram Maria!
It's not very often that we have J-rock bands here in Poland and I am a huuuuge J-rock fan! ^^ I am already thinking about the outfit - I'll be sewing myself a new skirt, corset and a jacket, and also some head covering - artificial falls, ect. I'm in the planning and designing phase right now.
I'll be also sewing a Gothic Lolita outfit for my friend Marzena - a skirt, headdress, cape and a parasol with lace edgings.
Busy, busy! ^^

Today I received my order of apliques for the pincushions I'm making (everybody's making pincushions and I want to have my own touch to the design, so I'll be adding the apliques, you'll see soon! ^^) - just look at those cute colourful butterflies, dragon-flies and flowers! ^^


And here are the embroidery flosses I'll be using to finish off the pincushions - I used to cross-stitch a lot when I was younger, but then I started many other crafts and I abandoned cross-stitching for a while. I still got lots of leftovers from numerous works I've made. ^^
(some examples here, here and here.)

Fit and bits and pieces

Friday was the last day of my workshop. I really got used to the fact that I take my gym bag every evening and leave to dance for 1,5 hr. Well... Now I have one month break and then I'll start regular once a week classes - must keep me fit during that time and practice what I learned (shawl movements, yay! ^^).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *~*~*~*~

Thank you very much for your comments on my Budda top. Soren, the only direction I can give you on this is "take a Burda sewing magazine (or any other with top patterns), find a fitting top pattern, transfer it onto the blouse - make some adjustment if necessary, cut out the pieces, sew them together, embelish, wear and enjoy!" ^-^

Helene (and anyone interested) - my on-line gothic shop is called Atelier Bizarre, it's only in Polish but when you enter the site and look at the left hand sidebar there is a category "Atelier" and these are the things I make (I also sell some new clothes and some second-hand stuff, but I gradually withdraw from these and all second-hand clothing will be gone by 1st September, I want to stick to my own designs only). If by any chance anyone's interested in anything from my shop, we can make a swap for what you make, because I cannot sell internationally because I cannot take credit cards or Paypal (I know, it sucks but I cannot do anything about that...).

I've been working on different things for the past few days (although not much on Mameluke socks, because they turned out to be too small for me and I lost my interest in them a bit... just a bit, I'll finish them slowly and will have another Christmas or whatever occasion present ready). So, as I said, I've been working on several things, mainly on my kokoshnik, which is almost finished - the embroidery is basically ready, front and back parts are sewn together so I just have to add the lining.

Here are the photos of my cellphone cases, I'm going to add them to my shop either this week (if I finish some more items, I have two skirts almost ready), or next week.

And now I'm off to spend the rest of the day as I please, because I have my name's day today! ^^ (it's probably a tradition unknown to you as you mainly celebrate the birthdays, but not name's days, but in Poland name's day is very widely celebrated, my name - Joanna - appears in the calendar several times during the year but I chose 21st August. ^-^)

Happy Name's Day, Joannas! *^v^*