Smitten with mittens

I'm so behind with many projects and journal prompts, not to mention the new paintings... Well, at least I finished my new products for the folk gallery (photos soon! ^^), and can get my hands on other things.


I've been knitting, of course, while waiting for Robert's Durrow yarn to arrive.
The first Tiffany mitten is done, the second is half-way ready, yikes! *^v^*


Then, I finished the first Latvian Birds mitten:


The colour scheme is a bit crazy but I like it this way! *^v^*


This is my pattern inspired by the photo of some Latvian mittens and some Norwegian pattern chart.

I'll be happy to share it with you when I create it in the Spreadsheet (I don't have a special program for making charts and I worked with a piece of paper and color markers, making adjustments as I went.)


I received some post yesterday from the wonderful Hanna.
Look, what she sent me!


This is the pearl sugar for the kanelbullar cakes, I couldn't find it in Poland. *^v^*

She also added a lot of collage papers - I already feel inspired and I'll be using some of them in my journal, yikes! ^^


Plus, a beautiful pink rose that went straight onto my Vision Board:

Thank you very much, Hanna, your goodies will be sent to you soon! *^v^*

I also made a purchase, but that's a story for another post. =^v^=

Bezy

When you don't pay enough attention to what you're doing, the Universe gives you a small push, a sign, a warning. As It did to me last night.

I was taking the cake out of the oven (in kitchen gloves!) and was desperate to take it out of the very hot metal mold right away, so I helped myself with en elbow. A naked elbow, to be exact.
Auch!... I'll spare you the gory visual details of the situation, suffice to say I've burnt myself and have a nasty red mark on my left hand. Don't try this at home!

But it didn't stop my from making a whole bowl of yummy meringues as soon as I covered my bruises with Panthenol. *^v^*


The man who invented them was a genius! Three egg whites and a cup of sugar, and so much fun after just 1,5 hr in the oven (100 degrees Celsjus).
Make sure you beat the egg whites first and THEN add the sugar and beat some more, not all together at once. ^^
In Polish they are called bezy (1 meringue is beza), from the French word baiser meaning to kiss. *^v^*


I've been also knitting - I finished the first Tiffany mitten and started another mitten of my own design (just to have a small break from knitting the same pattern straight away). Photos soon - I must weave in lots of loose ends.
Funny thing - I really like sewing up knitted parts of a sweater, but I hate weaving in the ends in the fair isle projects... *^v^*

Happy Brigid's Day!

I'm ill (some stomach flu...) so I don't feel fit for any big celebrations, but let me honor the Imbolc with some poetry reading
(found here via this blog).

This is the poem by one of the greatest Polish poets who lived at the first half of the XX c., my favourite Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński.
It is a poem about a sparrow, which is a very small bird but eats the ugly centipede, and nobody supports him, and the poet calls out to the readers that the sparrow is our sincere friend and we should love him, God dammed!
(it's not me, it's the poet's words! *^v^*)
Sparrows always remind me of warm Spring days.

Okay, I'm not a poet so I cannot translate it beautifully, let me leave you with the poem itself. *^v^*


O wróbelku

Wróbelek jest mała ptaszyna,
wróbelek istotka niewielka,
on brzydką stonogę pochłania,
lecz nikt nie popiera wróbelka.

Więc wołam: Czyż nikt nie pamięta,
że wróbelek jest druh nasz szczery?!

Kochajcie wróbelka, dziewczęta,
kochajcie, do jasnej cholery!

Un-useful

I like from time to time to read my old blog posts, from the very beginning of my blogging past or from several months ago, because I can see what was happening to me at that time and what changed and how I changed overtime.

Recently I've been looking for something in my January 2007 posts and I stumbled upon these words (24th Jan 2007):

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I've been having an urge recently to create something. A piece of art. Not like Picasso piece of art, of course, not something big that will sell immediately and will be remembered forever *^v^*, but the art as opposed to something useful.
A bag I sew is an useful item, a skirt, a choker, a knitted scarf - these are all items to be used. And I enjoy making them, I always have and I always will.

But I suddenly I felt I'd like to make something totally un-useful (but not useless... ^^), something that you don't use, you just hang it on the wall or put it on the mantlepiece, and occasionally enjoy while passing the room running your errands. (Some may say art has its use, more spiritual than physical, appealing to our senses and emotions and in this way making us feel better. And I would absolutely agree.)

I fight with myself because one part of me says that it's a waste of time to make something that cannot be physically used. But on the other hand I would like to just sit for an hour or two, over the piece of paper, with a pencil and paints, (yes, that's something I more or less can do - draw), switch off my mind and let the fingers do the work. Or maybe do something with pieces of fabrics, turn them into a quilt-picture?

Maybe I should just give it a try, who knows what I can create? *^v^*

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And today, almost exactly one year later, I'm creating paintings, I'm filling my second art journal, I made my first paper doll and ATC cards, I even sold two of my paintings to complete strangers who liked them and decided to have them in their homes! *^v^*

How about that? =^v^=

I also changed my way of thinking about the products I create for the galleries - I used to think about them in a categories: "they will/won't sell, they're potentially profitable". Now I am more inclined to think "I enjoy making these items, they're cute, I like them so others may like them as well and buy them".


Knitting
Apparently I don't know anything about colour theory and how to apply colour combinations...
I started my Tiffany mittens and when I reached the palm I chose dark blue and maroon.


How come those two colours look so beautiful when placed side by side in skeins, but they look so awful mixed in this intricate pattern?
Okay, at least to me they do. I knitted several rows and then started to have doubts, stopped and thought about it, and frogged!
I decided to replace the maroon with light brown and the difference is clear! Now it works! *^v^*


I'll try to take better pictures when they're finished, but now I'm much happier with the result. I changed the design a bit because I had to work on 55 stitches, not 60 as in the pattern. For the first time I made the cute turned out cuff like this and I love it! I hope it won't curl up after blocking. ^^

Have a happy Wednesday, I'm definitely going to have fun tonight because I'm meeting Anna and we are going to a Hot Chocolate Cafe, yikes! *^v^*

New mittens and the movie

Wow, I received the "You Make My Day" Award from Sharon for my paper doll! *^v^*
I'm thinking about making more of them and maybe even a small wooden theater for them. I wanted to create a doll theater for our medieval events, but I found out that such puppet shows were much later invention, like XVII c. or something...

Anyway, today I want to show you my latest knitting FO and recommend a movie.


First, a new pair of Fair Isle mittens:
Pattern: I combined two charts from the book Hokuou no knit komonotachi / 北欧のニットこものたち (大型本)by Toshiyuki Shimada, the overall shape is my idea.
When I looked at the photos I realized that I made a mistake in one mitten... I omitted one maroon row in the middle, but I won't be correcting this. Maybe I should but I don't want to. Call me lazy. ^^ In this way they are a bit different and they have their own personalities! *^v^*
Needles: 3 mm.
Yarn: different wools from the stash.

They have already found a new home because they are a bit too tight for my hands but they fit my friend Sylwia perfectly so I gave them to her. *^v^*


This one has been taken against the window and you can see the weather outside - windy and wet, where's my Winter snow?...

What's on my needles now?
A secret project I cannot show you yet, but I will, I promise, probably next week, and of course a new pair of mittens - tonight I'm casting on for the Tiffany mittens. Plus, Robert decided on the cardigan pattern - it will be Durrow with slight modifications. Tomorrow I'm going to order the yarn for it. *^v^*


Next, the movie.
Last night we watched one of the most visually interesting films I've ever seen - "The Mirrormask" by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. It's a must for all the painters and art journalists, because it's full of inspirations on many levels!


I love everything what Gaiman does, I love "Good Omen" and "Coraline" books, I love "Stardust" movie. Now, I also found my new favourite artist, Dave McKean, who created one of the most amazing visual side of this movie.


For me, it is a story about a girl and her drawings, and she very much reminds me of myself when I was 15, 16, 17 and my pencil drawings were very similar to hers. When I looked at my drawings I always wondered what was there behind that building, at the end of that road, behind the forest, to the left where the paper finished and I couldn't draw more.


Helena found out all of this, but I won't tell you more because I don't want to spoil the fun! *^v^*
But the combination Gaiman/McKean is a very successful one, that's for sure, and I know I'll be coming back to this movie!


Now, some interaction with my great readers, thank you all for visiting my blog! ^^
Lobstah, I agree that we need to have that balance between criticism and loving ourselves, but usually we tend to be more critical, so it's a good practice to be only loving for a day and say ourselves compliments and praise ourselves for the good things! ^^
Bluejude, thank you for the nice words about my art, please visit again, I love to "meet" new readers! ^^
PJ, in fact it could be a great journal prompt - create a page with the words "I am a master of...", I must give it a deeper thought! ^^
Krissie, you are right, faworki are also called chrust (I never met the plural version chrusty, only "chrust" in general, like the English "fruit", but I think you absolutely can say that, it won't be a mistake, maybe it just wasn't used in my family tradition). For those who don't know the word, chrust is small pieces of sticks that you start your fire with, and these cakes are called like this because they are very crunchy.
Mariposa, I absolutely agree, everything is better with just a little tea! ^^
Myriam, it wasn't difficult to paint on that leather because I have a good acrylic paints that can be used on almost every surface (Multi by Lefranc & Bourgeois).

Happy Sunday, everyone! *^v^*

I am a master of...

Last night I had another meeting with my Women Circle, and we continued the topic of the First Clan Mother - "Talks With Relations". We had two very nice exercises, one of which was to say out loud "I am a master of..." but it had to be something positive. And it wasn't easy at all!

First things that came to my mind were:
"I am a master of not finishing what I started."
"I am a master of withdrawal."
"I am a master of procrastination."
And I saw that other girls also struggled with chasing away the first negative thoughts that came to their minds.

Why is it so hard to think good things about ourselves? Isn't it enough that all the others are so very critical about us and we have to add this inner critic as well? Why are we afraid to find nice positive features in ourselves? Are we scared to be regarded as boastful? Why, even if we eventually say something nice about ourselves, we immediately counterweight it with some "but..." which scales down our achievements so they would seem small and insignificant? Who taught us so?

Think about the answers to those questions as I will.

For all of you - a piece of Polish tradition: carnival cakes called faworki (one cake = faworek). You can find the description in my post from last year.
Smacznego! *^v^*


BTW, The International Pajama Day is coming (3rd Feb)! *^v^*

And journal again

My page for the LIST prompt by d'Blogala.
I think I must get braver with lettering, I'm a bit stuck with one kind of writing and cannot go beyond that.

Journal

This is my spread for two prompts: d'Blogala's STATE OF MIND and Inspire Me Thursday's BEYOND THE COMFORT ZONE.

Productivity

The Girl says "hi!" and thanks you for the compliments! *^v^*
Still without a name, she boldly jumps all over my art journal pages and accompanies me wherever I go.
Dawn, frankly speaking I have no idea what she symbolizes - as I wrote before, maybe she is my muse? or my inner child? or my future child? or my guide?
She just started to appear on my art journal pages at the beginning of 2008 and so far existed on every page I created. When I get a prompt, an idea for the spread, she is there as if it was only natural that she should be there. Intriguing, right? *^v^*


100 Day Challenge - day 63

One of my goals was to be inspired everyday to create something new and interesting, and life goes along the strange paths sometimes. I had in mind my paintings and my journal pages, and I couldn't ask for more inspiration in those two areas, but what also surprisingly "took off" was my art merchandise productivity.
I sell things at some on-line galleries and to be frank I haven't done any updates in a long time... I just didn't feel inspired, motivated, I felt lazy and couldn't bring myself to sit at the sewing machine... But with the beginning of 2008 I suddenly followed some of my ideas and realized them!

I prepared a new batch of pincushions, created the "sleep goggles" out of fabric scraps





and, what I'm most proud of, I made a whole batch of leather painted bracelets!





More to see (and buy) here: LudowoMi.pl

What's more, I already started the next batch of bracelets and also new products for Easter (but more about it when it's finished, I'm even happy to share the pattern, so please come back! ^^).

Somebody, stop me! =^v^=

Tomorrow I'm meeting Anna for an art evening together and I'm making faworki - the traditional Polish cookies for the carnival season. Stay tuned! *^v^*

Paper doll

First, I've never made a single paper doll in my life. Yes, I know it's strange, but when I was a little girl I never played with any dolls - I played with teddy bears and Lego. ^^
Second, I never made a single ATC - I enjoyed them all over the blogs but never tried my hand in it.

So, today, after a hectic week of finishing and taking photos of my new products for the folk gallery (pictures tomorrow), I just slowed down, got inspired by the wonderful creation of Sharon's from All Norah's Art and made my ATC paper doll! *^v^*



You may know her from my art journal because she suddenly appeared on the pages at the beginning of this year. She hasn't told me her name yet, so I'm still waiting for this.


She consists of two ATCs, head, a pair of legs and and pair of hands split in the elbows.
Next time I would change one thing - I would choose harder paper for the legs because they bend too much, but on the whole I'm happy with how she looks.


On Tuesday I'm meeting my best friend Anna for the journaling and painting session, maybe I can talk her into making a paper doll herself as well! *^v^*