Back to reality

It's not that easy to get back to reality after even a few days away... Phew...
I'm unpacking bags, doing laundry, planning shopping, ect, ect, and in my thoughts I'm still there at the cottage. (okay, I missed my flat a bit, and my cat a lot, so I'm partly glad I'm back! ^^)
Photos can be found here: FriendSheep: Fragments

First things first: I'm currently on the 39th row of the peplum of Purple Belle.
It's a really interesting design, very intuitive pattern so I don't spend all the time with my nose in the charts and up till now I'm still very happy that I've chosen this sweater. I made a mistake on the direction of the cable twice but I fixed it easily and I hope to finish the peplum till the end of this week. Then I'm going to knit two sleeves simultaneously. The colour still amazes me! *^v^*

On the other hand, I haven't touched the MS3 at all... There was no time, because apart from resting and having fun we had to prepare the feast, and I've been scribbling in my art journal, both subjects deserve separate posts so expect them soon (I'm not sure about today because I'll be busy all day and in the evening I'm meeting Anna for wine and ice-cream, yummy! *^v^*).

PS.: Therese, I've been thinking about the Mokosza picture you wrote about and consulted my friend archaeologist, it's probably some XIX-th c depiction, I'll dig deeper and let you know the results. ^^

I've been nominated! ^^

Ha! I've been nominated by Huldremor a Rockin' Girl Blogger! I'm so happy to be noticed among millions of talented bloggers. Thank you! *^v^*

Now, it's my turn to name 5 bloggers whose works I find inspirational, so here they are in no particular order:

- Il Bloggo by iHanna

- iLoveLife by Kal

- Helenes side by Helene

- アスタライスのblablabla by Astarise

- rndn we knit by Sigga

They all create in different media and they all are innovative, inspirational, adventurous, brave, love what they make and it loves them back! *^v^* Please go and meet their works if you haven't seen their blogs before.

Oh so slow...

I thought I could blog while being at the Summer cottage but the internet access we have here is very slow and there is no way I can upload any photos... Which is a shame, because I have some great shots for the FriendSheep: Fragments photoblog and a bit of my Purple Beauty, and some weaving and cordmaking pieces, and some art journalling, but all of these will have to wait till next Monday, when we get home.
This Saturday we are having our annual medieval feast here at the cottage so historical photos will follow. Take care, everyone and keep creating and blogging! *^v^*

Busy, busy, gone!

Almost gone! ^^
Tomorrow morning we are leaving for our Summer cottage for a week, but I'll have a laptop with me and the internet access, so I'll answer all your emails and lovely comments then! I also promise photos on FriendSheep: Fragments and first glimpses of my Purple Belle.
For now, I'm off to packing! *^v^*

Ambitious...

Oh, boy!... 428 stitches to cast on!... It was fun, I can assure you!... *^v^*
But right now I'm on row 4 of the peplum of the Purple Belle and there is some kind of a bizarre pleasure in knitting so many stitches at a time (=in one row).

I'm not even sure whether I follow the charts correctly in terms of direction, well... We'll see in a couple of rows, when the cable pattern starts to be recognizable.

*^v^*

Purple Belle

I may finally reveal my next sweater plans: call me crazy, but my second, SECOND knitted sweater will be...

"Silver Belle" from the 25th Anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting.
In my case, it's a Purple Belle, I bought the yarn today, it's a Polish brand called "Zorza" by Anilux, 25% wool/75% acrylic, a bit darker than the picture shows.
I fell in love with this pattern the moment I saw it about two weeks ago and while still knitting Tomato top (=learning how to knit sweater...) I decided that I'll give this one a go next. Well, in this design there is all the beginner in sweater knitting needs: garment knit in parts that will have to be stitched together, cables, unusual working process - you knit the lower peplum first, then each sleeve together with a part of the upper body... *^v^*
Anyway, if I have to learn it, why not do it the hard way straight from the beginning. I'm swatching tonight in search of the gauge! ^^

The theme for the MS3 has been revealed today and I wish I knit this stole in white in stead of black - the theme is Swan Lake!
I still don't understand clue 5 precisely, there will be some asymmetrical wing at the other end of the stole, but I will just follow the directions and will see what happens. ^^

In case you are waiting for the parasol tutorial - I"m very sorry but I didn't manage to finish it this week... Next week we are at the summer cottage, so I promise a tutorial in the week after the next one, around 15th August. I bought a lace yesterday but I still need some paint and some time to finish it.

I've been to my mom's today and came home with some food goodies - 1,5 l of fresh olive oil straight from Greece, where my cousin lives (she sent my mom a can of about 17 l. of olive oil and now it gets divided among all the family members and friends! ^^) plus 0,5 kg of smoked ribs and 2 kgs of lard smoked in spices (I know, it doesn't SOUND tasty when you think about the lard, but it is delicious! You slice it thinly on a piece of fresh bread, sprinkle some salt on it and maybe add some sliced sour cucumber, yikes! *^v^*). Plus I bought a plum cake and some fresh still hot bread, so it's going to be a nice dinner tonight! *^v^*

I wish you a tasty dinner as well and now I'm off to start swatching for my Purple Belle! ^^

What's sewing, doc?

On Tuesday I saw the first yellow and red leaves, still attached to a tree but still...


Today is the Lammas Day - the First Harvest holiday for all the fellow pagans. Originally it came from the first harvest of the season, when farmers could finally collect what they sown and planted and cared for all Spring and early Summertime. But the city pagans can also celebrate this time with reflecting on their hard work in any field and think about the fruits of their efforts.
Let me quote Christina Aubin talking about Lammas on Witchvox:

"Lughnasadh is a time of personal reflection and harvest, of our actions and deeds, events and experiences, our gains and losses. A time when we begin the cycle of reflection of that which is our life. A period for personal fertility magic to ensure the bountiful harvest of life's gifts and experiences, that which we have reaped though trial, tribulation, enjoyment, joy, love and loss. As my Elder once said to me, "We can not know what we have not experienced." Such is the truth of life ö we become not by chance but by experience. Each experience opens a window into ourselves, into who we were, who we are, and whom we are choosing to become."

I love this sentence: "we become not by chance but by experience"! It involves action, going out to people, asking questions, touching things, listening, watching carefully, thinking, transforming what we saw and experienced into something new, changing. I don't say I feel comfortable with all that (in fact I'm scared of going out to people...) but it definitely is a process that makes us who we are.
As for my celebrations, I'll be starting my first proper over a week long holiday this year soon to this Day. *^v^*
And no, I haven't knitted a shawl for Lammas, but I'm working hard on the MS3 so it counts a bit! ^^

Here is what I've been doing lately - my new products for the folk gallery Ludowo Mi.I made six patchwork chicken bags and some fabric bracelets with a special bus ticket pocket!Let's hope they sell, I need money for yarn!
Speaking of yarn, I'm going out right now to buy yarn for my next sweater and (hopefully) white lace to finish my Gothic Lolita parasol and to finally give you the tutorial for it.
Have a great Thursday! *^v^*

Journaling

Thank you for the compliments on my cats, I've never known I could draw like this, really! ^^

I've never attended an art school, on any level of my education, or any art courses (only the silver & copper jewelery course, but that doesn't count here since they didn't teach us how to draw, just how to make jewelery! ^^). But still I've tried drawing and painting in many techniques, I have some works in pencil (very sci-fi/fantasy like, they even were almost printed in a Polish sci-fi magazine called "Fiction" ^^), I painted one picture in oils (well, it wasn't ANY good, that's for sure!), I tried watercolor paints, acrylic paints, pastel crayons, pencil crayons, glass paints, I'm always on the lookout for the new techniques and tools, and I'm always behaving silly in the art supplies shops, because I have no idea what I want to buy... Because I was never taught about the types of paints, crayons, papers, brushes, gesso, ect, ect, I stand in front of the shelf with millions different bottles and tubes, and I endlessly admire their colourful containers, I touch all the papers, and eventually I point my finger at something and that's what I am sold. Lucky me I found one art supplies shop where the assistants are nice and don't look at the non-artistic clients intimidating!... ^^
Since I feel too old for the Art studies (and you have to be really talented to get there, with numerous drawings to show them at the entrance exams and an extensive art knowledge, which I don't have) and I don't have money for the private classes, I may try some book courses, I believe I even have one at home somewhere, must dig it up! *^v^*

I've recently felt an urge to come back to journaling again.

I've never written a proper diary (like a moleskin cover notebook with pages filled with "My dear diary, today was a crappy day, because..." written late night hidden under the duvet with a flashlight... ^^), in my teenager times I had a scrapbook with drawings, poems, stories, dried flowers, scraps from the magazines, ect. It was one very thick notebook and when it ended I stapled another one onto its back cover and continued my musings there. ^^ I was 16 at that time. When I was 18, I had a new journal, this time it was in the daily planner - not that I paid much attention to the dates, I just filled it with whatever emerged from my loony teenage head. *^v^*
Then I had a journal about four years ago, where I put my thoughts on my daily existence and also lots of wise citations from several psychological and self-improvement books and magazines. This one still isn't finished, I may come back to it sometime.

Nowadays, apart from the online blog and photoblog Friendsheep:Fragments ^^, I keep a designer's diary where I put all my ideas for clothes, bags and other things I make. It's nothing special, just a notebook that was a freebie to an old "Elle" magazine, but it's very handy because it has blank pages and it's square and fairly small, so I can carry it with me in my bag and put my ideas down when they appear.

On Monday though I bought two new notebooks and I love both of them!

The first one is the one I spotted in a shop first, with flowers on the cover that remind me the Summertime and a pink elastic that keeps it closed.

Then I realized that it's this time of the year - September is near (oh, please, it's still one whole month to go, but you know the trade law, they will try to sell you the fur coat in June!...) and there was an alley in the supermarket full of school supplies! So, I browsed a bit and found the second notebook - this one has some retro photos on the covers, also has an elastic to keep it closed and it's divided into three parts: 1/3 of the pages is lined horizontally, 1/3 has both horizontal and vertical lines, and the last third is blank, and there are orange pages between them.

Moreover, the second notebook's pages have an interesting rough texture and I'm crazy about touching everything with inspiring textures, it may give interesting results with crayons and paints.

I also bought a set of watercolor pencils in a metal box. have you ever used them? I haven't! *^v^*
That's why I'm so excited about them. Apparently you draw with them like with pencil crayons but then you can spray some water on the picture and use the paintbrush to smudge the colours like with watercolor paints! (or not, just let the water flow, or use your fingers! ^^...) I'll be doing some tests soon.

Next Monday we are leaving for a week at the cottage and I'm taking my new journal with me, we'll see how I'll get inspired in the woods! *^v^*

Here are the two journaling artists I admire:
iHanna
Marieke

In case you are wondering, there was no knitting going on here since Friday, but there was a lot of sewing happening, photos tomorrow. ^^

Cats

I always wondered where does artists like writers or painters get their ideas, when the sit in front of an empty white piece of paper. ^^

Now I know! It just comes! ^^
As the cats came to me yesterday and landed on the pieces of paper, crazy colourful cats with crazy names! *^v^*

These are my sketches with pencil crayons. In fact I've never ever tried drawing with them and what I found strange was the fact that you cannot smudge the shadows with your fingers... I always looked like a crash victim after I was drawing with a pencil or pastel crayons, because I placed a line on a paper and used my hands to smudge it all along. It's not the same with pencil crayons - here you have to place more and more layers, but it's fun, too, it's just a different kind of fun! ^^


And here is a sneak peek into what I bought today! I'll write about it tomorrow! *^v^*

Creative juices are flowing

It's around noon here and Robert is still asleep. He came home at 10:00, drank lots of water, took a shower and went to bed to make up for the sleepless party night. *^v^*

I'm feeling better, thank you for the concern and advice on what to drink, I may try it all today. It's very quiet at our flat apart from the wind and rain outside the windows.

I've been already planning what to do with our balcony - first things first: next week I'll get rid of all the stuff that needs to go, I'll remove the rest to the basement storage and clean the windows. I checked the prices on the glass constructions and it won't be cheap (who would've thought!... ^^), but my mom said she'd lend us the money so we'll probably do it in the second half of August.

I've been also thinking about my plans to over dye the orange cotton yarn with some other colours and decided that it may be easier to knit a sweater first, and then dye it rather than unwind yarn from the balls into skeins, dye it, wind it again into balls and knit a sweater. So, I may cast on soon for the next sweater, yikes! ^^

And now I dug out a box of pencil crayons, I'm off to play with colours. *^v^*