It's still a knitting blog after all!

I'm painting. *^v^*
That's a very weird but pleasant feeling. ^^ I try not to judge every line and splash of paint I place on the canvas, just go with the flow and add more and more colours and textures. I am about half way down and I'll show you the final result as well as the in between stages soon.
It's a birthday present for my best friend Anna (her birthday is on Sunday), and I have some patterns to add, some words, and a coat of varnish. Keep your fingers crossed because varnish is the stage I'm unsure of, I've never ever used it!... I bought an acrylic varnish but I'm using acrylic paints plus watercolour crayons and glued scraps in my painting, so I did some tests on those other media and it seemed to work fine. But you know, I'm a bit worried about putting it on my finished painting, I'd be most unhappy if the varnish destroyed several days of my work.
It's good I have this blog and all of you who can listen to my worries!... *^v^*

I also bought another plastic container because it seems my art supplies are multiplying. ^^ The bigger one is for all the paints (watercolours, acrylics, temperas, oils and others), the smaller one for the crayons/pastels/pencils and office supplies.
And, Coral-seas, thank you for your advice on a journal! *^v^* I was also thinking about buying paper for watercolours and binding it into a form of a book. Shannon, it's true that sometimes it's better to hold our judgment if it's not encouraging/constructive. From early childhood up till now I get comments from my mom on everything I create in a form of "Nice." said in an uninterested tone of voice, well...

And, and!... I won something! *^v^*

I bought the canvas and some paints online last week and the shop awarded 10 buyers with a set 12 Van Gogh watercolours by Talens and a paper pad for watercolours, me being one of those 10 happy campers! *^v^*
I was planning to buy some proper watercolours but now I can try those out for free, tralla la la! *^v^*



Okay, because it's still a knitting blog after all, here is some knitting content! *^v^*

Here is the beginning of the first clue of Secret of Chrysopolis Stole:

Here are the Zebra socks I finished last week:
And the yarn I bought yesterday:

It's a Czech yarn, 100% soft wool. At first I wanted to use it for the Starsky cardigan. But then I had doubts about this pattern in this colour and in my mind I saw that coral wool turned into some chunky cables. So, I'm knitting something similar to Starsky, but with cables! ^^ More to come.

Musings on creating art

Robert says that you should know how to draw/paint realistic figures and only then you can start with unrealistic ones. I don't agree.
I feel I want to express some thoughts and I need multiple colours and patterns in my picture. And it really doesn't matter to me whether the girl figure will be as perfect as the ancient Greek statutes or just a funny sketch - both have their plus points.
Maybe if I knew all the tricks of drawing people in a realistic way, it would be easier for me to transfer into the imaginary shapes. But it requires long hours of practicing, and I don't have that time.
All right, I have all the time in the world, but I don't have that patience. It's hard for me to concentrate on some boring tasks for longer, I always multitask, whatever I do. So just sitting and covering the pages with pictures of a hand seen from million different angles is not for me. Or should I make myself to practice? What do you think?

When I was buying the books for my journal pictures, the man talked to me about the music notes book I chose, and how lucky I am that I can find many notes for piano (as it was it), and his son plays trumpet and he cannot find any books with trumpet music... If only he knew what I was going to do with the book (=tear, cut into pieces, draw in it, paint all over it, ect)!... I smiled, said that I don't play the piano, paid and quickly vanished into the unknown... *^v^*


I've been thinking about the Moleskin notebook, it's soooooo fashionable and everybody wants it, and it's probably very convenient for an art journal (with its thick pages, contrary to my cheap exercise book I bought at the supermarket 'school-is-coming' stall, that curl every time I paint with watercolours on them, even with a thick layer of gesso, well... I didn't think it through...).
But I believe I'd be completely overwhelmed by its presence, especially when I see many very professional drawings in Moleskins all over the Web. I wouldn't place a single line in it, I'd just stare at it and pat the cover. ^^
Let's stick to less intimidating notebooks and canvases.

Talking about the canvases - I'm slightly mad, but I ordered a canvas and a bottle of an acrylic varnish. I'll be painting a birthday picture for my best friend Anna next week! *^v^*
Isn't it totally crazy of me? But I have everything planned, I pictured everything in my mind so I know exactly what I want to paint. I have some aids to be incorporated into the picture (like white lace or an Edgar Allan Poe's book of short stories!), and it'll be colourful, textured and beautiful!
That's the plan! *^v^*

For Helene - on my trip to Norway -> in 2004 we started in Sweden, Karlskrona, where we arrived in the evening and spend the night at the natur kemping. Then went up North through Vaxjo and Jonkoping to Uddevalla (we didn't spend any time there, just passing with one night at the camping) and across the border with Norway, to Moss and by ferry to Horten, where we stayed for a few days at the Viking market at Borre. In Horten I met a very nice old men at the post office, who placed a special stamp on my postcards so they could reach their destinations faster and not being thrown into the fjord straight away! (Yeah, I knew it was a joke and he was a real gentleman. *^v^*) Then we went to Oslo for a day and spent the night at the camp site nearby Oslo. And that's it, really, the next day we went back to Sweden and wandered a bit around on our way back to Karlskrona. Frankly speaking, we didn't visit much, but saw a lot of highways! ^^ It must be repeated more properly in the years to come!

SuziBlu commented on my blog!

That's what I shouted (just in my mind, to myself ^^) last night, when I read Suzi's comment! *^v^* She is my painting guru (right next to Irisz Agocs, the watercolors goddess! ^^), my latest inspiration, the source of courage for the artist in me.
And she's the girl with a cat, so I can feel the sisterhood between us. ^^
That's as if you'd be a knitter and would get a comment from Yarn Harlot or Eunny Jang. ^^ At least that's how I see it.

I've been working on my journal pages last night, mainly preparing the colourful backgrounds for the future spreads, but I finished one page, which can be regarded as a response to d'Blogala's today prompt: Your dream place to live.

I know you know that it's Scandinavia for me, and I got inspired by the piece of paper with Norwegian frimerkene (post stamps, only one was left, the rest went on postcards to our families when we were in Norway in 2004 on our honeymoon) I found in my wallet.
I also put a photo of myself looking at the panorama of Oslo and some memories: do you know that I ate sushi in Oslo for the first time in my life? ^^


On the knitting front: I got the first clue on the Secret of Chrysopolis Stole and started knitting - I'm using the blue yarn from my stash. It will probably go to one of my aunts as a Christmas gift.


And talking about cats, my cat is getting cuter and cuter everyday, and she spends more and more time in my lap, does this mean the Winter is going to be severe, or what?...

This and that

Nei, Helene, norsk er erkelt! Eller det er ikke sa vanskelig, compared with some other languages I've learned so far, like Russian or French. ^^ I just need to learn a lot of words. ^^
Thanks for the TV link, I'll watch it even if I won't understand most of it, I will listen to the pronunciation, that's a great learning aid! *^v^*


Fashion Challenge - day 7 (which was on Monday, but I didn't post the photo yet).
- black top, H&M
- dress I made last Winter
- Drops Jacket I knitted
- tights & shoes

It was fun to look through my clothes and see what I made/re-made, I may repeat this challenge next Summer, when there are warmer days for sleeveless dresses and tank tops with skirts! ^^ (Unless I make/remake a whole bunch of long sleeve blouses up till then, you never know! ^^).

Here is the shot of me wearing my Drops Jacket, taken at my parents' place.


Today I went shopping and visited a Second-Hand Books shop, where I bought some old tattered books for my art journal - I've never tried to add any book scraps to my pages, it might give a whole new range of possibilities, yikes! ^^ I must say I'm really into the drawing and painting again, but I must flip through my teenage pencil sketches and find the courage to doodle more, to let the shapes and colours flow freely from my fingers... I'll be working on it this weekend. ^^

Just when did we stop being artists?...

Or, when did we start judging what we create and reject it as not good enough?...

Remember, when you were a child and you sat in front of a piece of white paper - you would TRY everything - crayons, paints, nail polish, smudging with fingers, stamping with a carved potato, gluing scraps on, stenciling, blue horses and green piglets, anything was possible and perfectly used in your art piece.
And it was good.
And I'm not talking about the mama's and auntie's comments of how great your art was - because they said it not because they liked what you did but because that's what you say to a small child. And it's fine, encouragement is a great thing!

But I'm talking about the COURAGE to TRY anything and NOT BEING SCARED of every line or colour. And NOT COMPARING our works with the works of others. The moment we learned to compare, we lost the ability to create. We started to think our art's not good enough.

I have to RE-LEARN those skills once more, because I lost them, too. I was drawing quite a lot when I was a teenager, and every time I was drawing, I heard my parents say: "She's playing." opposite to "She's learning." Playing was wrong, childish, silly, learning was good, goal-oriented, proactive (oh, how I hate that word!...).
I never drawn realistic figures or landscapes because I didn't know how. I never attended any art school or course. Perspective was one big mystery to me (it still is up till now, but I'm not bothered anymore!.. *^v^*). I was just taking a pencil in my hand and sketching something, adding new elements, smudging the shades with my fingers. But the more I compared my art with others' the more I didn't like it, and gradually I drawn less and less, and then I stopped drawing.
Now, my revelation moment --> Because I felt I wasn't good enough in CREATING, I took up RE-CREATING, I mean, the cross-stitching and sewing. When you do the cross-stitching or sew something from the Burda pattern, you don't really make something from scratch - I mean from the very scratch, you repeat the given pattern - yes, you may use different colours or fabrics/buttons, but the result will be very similar to the original.

When I started my art journal and saw many art journals of yours, I realized I CAN create art. Even if it's only in my journal, just for me to flip through the pages in a year or two (or 10! ^^), and see what was happening in my life then.
And I noticed that the more I paint/write in my journal,, the more ideas come to me day by day. They may not be the "Mona Lisa" ideas or "Guernica" ideas, but they fill the pages of my journal as I go through another day. ^^
I may even share with you some of my teenager drawings, I just have to scan them once more (I somehow lost the previous scans)... ^^


Now, off to my journal pages:
First of all, I made some new artistic aids - I bought a bunch of the cheapest rubbers and cut them out into stamps: numbers and some basic shapes! *^v^*
(I also bought the date stamp but for this one I'll have to wait a bit till it comes by post).

Beginning of this post in my journal. *^v^*

I would soooo like to live according to those wise words, so I put them into my journal so I could go back to this page and remind myself about this TRUTH! ^^
The lady is glued here, but I added her some wings so she could fly when no one's watching her at the moment. *^v^*

I saw this view from my bedroom window, on Saturday morning when Robert got up and removed the curtains - the curtain of leafy green and gold! ^^

You cannot see it properly but it has "math" written all over with a grey metallic gel pen. I've always loved math, I wonder why I never followed its path...

This is my response for the prompt from d'Blogala, "what I want to be when I grow up".

Here is the story of my life: "All my life I lived on the 8th floor, I could have my windows wide open and even without the curtains if I wanted. Now I live on the ground floor, trees block the light in my bedroom and people keep staring into my living room. I need air..." It's all true...

And here was my working space from yesterday - at that moment it was on my bed. Can you see my new plastic container for the paints? I must keep the stuff organized, definitely in containers, in other case things start crawling around the flat and it's getting really messy. ^^
Also, on the lid of the box, just above my journal, there are my brand new rubber stamps - I'm very happy with how they work! I tried to make a stamp out of a wine cork but it just crumbled in my hand. And here, the cheapest possible rubbers and what a result! *^v^*


Learning Norwegian makes me very frustrated...
Why?
Because I forgot how it is to LEARN a new language. I forgot the painful beginnings, when you know what to say but don't know how to say it in a new language... When I read the English texts I understand 100% or 90 %, when I read Norwegian blogs, I catch single words - "I", "have", "no", "eat", but the rest is still unclear to me. I know it's always like that at the beginning, it's normal, it's called "learning". But it makes me angry and gives me the kick to learn more.
I really must start memorizing the dictionary, or something... *^v^*

One more thing - thank you guys for your kind offers to buy me Patons knitting book, but I thought things through and I've come to some conclusions: I really really cannot buy any pattern book I spot on the Internet, because:
1. I planned to buy Rowan 41&42 and recent IK, so I must save money on these first,
2. it's not a good idea to buy many patterns and then let them stay untouched for eternity, because I have only 2 hands and 24 hours per day.

I did some cleaning with knitting projects today - I finished the Zebra socks (photos soon) and frogged the Ukrainian Socks from "Folk Socks" (wrong gauge, I may come back to them one day).
I also tried to knit a bit of the Mystery Stole III, but something happened and I was one stitch short in a row I was knitting. I just added one stitch but then I was again one stitch short in the next row. What the heck?... I'm doing something wrong, and I haven't figured out what it was. Phew...
Looks like it's high time for another cardigan! *^v^* (next week - yarn shopping! ^^).

Texture is my middle name

Now, this really made my day!
Although I was generally pleased with the Purple Belle, the button band crisis took away some of the pride and joy of knitting that cardigan. But with Drops Jacket it's a completely different story! *^v^*
I am as happy as a peccary in a monsoon, as my friend used to say. ^^
I love everything about this cardigan:
- the rough texture of the recycled wool yarn (rather uneven threads, so it stayed uneven even after wet blocking, but I love it!),
- the off-white/ecru colour,
- the high collar (I just couldn't get the directions on the collar so I gave up and made my own version, love it! ^^),
- the thrifted leather buttons I bought last week (I checked - the price for those three buttons used here was about 25 cents! *^v^*),
- the length of the sleeves = veeeery long - I was afraid I didn't have enough yarn for the long sleeves but I still have quite a lot left, yikes! ^^
- the Double Moss pattern
- the speed of knitting with bulky yarn - 12 stitches per 4 inch and 7 mm needle, started last Wednesday, finished on Sunday, give me more patterns like this! ^^
I made one change - I moved the buttons towards the edge because it would be too tight on my bust if I had them further into the lapel, as in the design. But I think it makes and interesting symmetrical front. I thought about knitting the pockets but in the end I decided they would spoil the shape.

Next sweater project - it was supposed to be Starsky, but it depends on the yarn I'll be able to buy (I'm going shopping next week). If I get some nice white wool, it'll be this one, and if there is a stunning green yarn - I'll start Mariah. ^^ Plus I'm going to buy black wool for a turtleneck for Robert (promised some time ago, so It's high time I started it...).


Linguistics again: Hilde, thank you very much for your help, but your comment brought up another question - I assume that one house is hus but on Wiktionary I found the following possibilities:

hus n. (definite singular huset; indefinite plural hus; definite plural husa/husene)
So, huset = the house, hus = houses, husa/husene = the houses, am I right? Why those two forms - husa and husene?

I'm lost again...

And art journal pages later, because they deserve a separate post. *^v^*

While waiting for the jacket to come...

Fashion Challenge - day 6
(I know, I didn't post a photo yesterday, but I didn't leave the flat at all and the day was lazy, so I wore a tracksuit pants and white tank top all day...A girl needs a break from all that fashion, you know... ^^)I got tired of the stiff serious poses! *^v^*
- Tomato top knitted by me, Knitting Daily pattern
- cotton skirt sewn by me ages ago
- red knee-high socks and shoes
- Creative MuVo (in my hand) with a Norwegian language course on it! *^v^*


Linguistic question: how can you say in Norwegian: "Let's eat at my place/at your place." There is a phrase in my course that sounds like "hus mi/hus di" but I'm not sure if that's the correct way of saying it. (I assumed it because hus=house, please help!). ^^


Tomorrow I will show you my finished Drops Jacket (oh, I cannot wait!), and maybe tomorrow I'll post some art journal pages I've been working on for the last several days (and my new art supplies box I bought today! ^^).

One more thing: in case you want to watch something really cool, see the Black Sheep movie! It's great! Knitters will love it, it's all about the sheep! And zombies. I mean, sheep zombies!... *^v^* Really! ^^

Blocking and still knitting

Yeah, I'm becoming more and more creative with titles... ^^

Anyway, I finished the body parts of the Drops Jacket last night and started the sleeves. Most probably I'll have enough yarn to knit the long sleeves, but I'm not sure, time will tell.
Here is my jacket blocking:
FC - day 5
- the blouse I painted with fabric paints, the pattern is from Emily the Strange (I think it's time to put a second coat of paint, it almost faded...)
- cotton skirt I sewn ages ago
- red knee high socks & shoes

I definitely have one more blouse and then I'm out... Unless I make something today or tomorrow, (or repeat myself with some top), on Monday I'm not wearing anything on my upper body... *^v^* (there are still some skirts I made to choose from).
Virtuous, thank you for the link, I visited her blog once or twice, very inspiring!

Still knitting

Rho, I believe all colours are to choose from, but the freedom of choice is important (it sounds very American-like, freedom of choice, wow! *^v^*) If I wore those clothes to my office back then, it would be regarded as highly inappropriate and I'd be perceived as a bad worker. Which is stupid! Some people like red and some like grey, and that's fine! I remember that my friend who also liked colours and patterns, had a strategy - to wear the most colourful shawls and scarves with the boring office uniforms, and I took it after her! *^v^*

A knitting question: do you know where I could get Debbie Bliss or Patons pattern books from? Maybe some online shop on Germany, UK or Scandinavia that would send it to Poland?
I'd love to get Debbie Bliss: Alpaca Silk Two and Pattons Street Smart.

FC - day 4, I'm wearing:- MM altered t-shirt (to be frank I'm running out of blouses...)
- denim skirt I made from a pair of jeans
- Scarf for Ally I knitted
- red tights and shoes

I went for a blouse hunting today but I had only one second-hand shop on my route and there weren't any good tops to buy (neither ready to wear nor for any reconstruction).
But, for a stunning price of 1,5 USD I bough two sweaters for yarn! *^v^*
First I spotted this rainbow mohair one, rather itchy but I thought about some lacy shawl? (It's not very big, so a shawlette. ^^)
Then I found this gem - wool cables! It's handmade (both are), in a beautiful dark teal colour (my camera changed the colour somehow, you have the real colour in a small box in the right hand corner), with several leather buttons.
Unfortunately it's too small for me, but I'll frog it and turn it into some new cardigan, maybe Blackberry? *^v^*
EDIT: I tried to unravel this cardigan and it turned out that it's very heavily eaten by moths and felted here and there. Well, at least I got 9 leather buttons in a perfect condition for about 75 cents! ^^
Drops Jacket has a left front ready, yikes! ^^ but it turned out too long, I have to frog a bit and check why it happened. ^^ Diddlinaknits, I have the gauge of 12 stitches per 4 inch, I think it's bulky.

One more thing: I remember that ages ago I promised a tutorial on making the summer parasol, and I haven't forgotten it, I just have to finish some details! Be positive, if not this Summer, it will be ready for the next one! *^v^*
(No, I'm kidding, I'll post about it very soon! ^^)

FC day 3 and some knitting

I started this last night and four hours later I had this - a finished back of my Drops Cardi! *^v^*
It's really difficult to work with this wool (I took some breaks because my fingers hurt!) but I like the speed of this knitting, yikes! ^^

Fashion Challenge - day 3:
- red men's t-shirt, reconstructed by me
- skirt reconstructed from a thrifted dress
- denim jacket with lace added by me (I know, it's a bit cheating but it's really getting cold here and I seem to be missing long-sleeved tops made by myself!...)
- Candle Flame shawl knitted by me
- fingerless gloves knitted by me
- red stockings and shoes

I'm doing a wardrobe check out today! What to wear, what to wear?...