The story of one dress

I'd like to share with you something that gave me a real food for thought, and it's connected with my recent holidays.

One day before our trip I sewn this dress out of two pairs of my old jeans (yes, it's a dress). I worn it for the first time on Thursday, 14th, and used it throughout our holidays. I traveled in the car in it, did some sight-seeing, visited a museum, ran up and down the stairs in our guest house several times a day, even went for a long walk in the mountains.
It was absolutely comfortable all the time and I never thought it could be otherwise.

Then, on Wednesday after we came back home, I was in a hurry to get to my Women Circle meeting, so I had to do big steps and even run to catch a tram.
And you know what?
This is not a dress for being in a hurry.
It's too narrow, my legs got caught in it when I was rushing through the city and I felt like I'd fall down for a moment or two.

Me, in this dress, doesn't fit the city rush anymore.
*sigh*



Some more photos from my trip:
Our guest house.


Me knitting Durrow. *^v^*
Robert in the snow.

Robert keeping us warm. *^v^*

Folk Art Museum in Sejny.


Kate and me (in Lucinda cardigan! ^^).

The gang in front of the old Lithuanian style house (unfortunately it was closed during Winter and we couldn't see the inside...)


PS.: Durrow is eating up the skeins like a hungry animal, I'm glad I bought additional yarn! I also made some modifications to the pattern - as you know I'm knitting a cardigan, not a pullover, but also I added two cables at the front and two at the back according to Robert's request. *^v^*

PS 2.: Yes, Krissie, it is a Suwałki region, and I was high up, very close to the border with Lithuania, at the Hańcza lake.

PS 3.: Thank you, my dears, for your offers of sending me the glue and brads, you are great! *^v^* PJ, send me your email, please, because I cannot find yours on your blog...

I'm back!

Still a bit tired after my short holidays, I'm back and full of energy and inspirations of different kinds! *^v^*

First of all, I've brought several cooking recipes that I'm going to try out at home very soon (I'll share them with you, of course! ^^)

I finished knitting both sleeves of Robert's Durrow's, sewed them both and knitted about 15 cm of the body of the cardigan. Am I fast or what?! *^v^*

(Here is me modeling one sleeve in our bathroom mirror, the bathroom was really tiny in our room! ^^)

On the other hand, I didn't knit any rows on my mittens (they even stayed at home...) and didn't touch my art journal... In my defense, I have several ideas in my head and collected some ephemera for the spreads. ^^

I let myself be inspired by the colours of the Winter landscape of the Suwalszczyzna region, just look at those photos and see for yourself:











We stayed at a very nice place with friendly owners and great food, took several trips to the nearby towns or places of interest but mostly we stayed indoors, drank beer in front of the fireplace with cats in our laps, crafted a lot, talked a lot, had fun and forgot about the outside world. *^v^*

Back to reality, I have some journaling and painting plans, I cannot wait till my Rowan comes, I'm knitting Durrow and it eats the yarn skeins up like crazy (lucky me I ordered some more skeins...), I want Spring to be here already!, I'm having another Women Circle meeting tonight, a new batch of paints came and Robert was so kind as to go the Post Office to pick them up *^v^*, and I have lots of laundry waiting for me, so off I go for now. =^v^=


Now, one more thing, here is my big request to my American readers: who would be so extremely kind to send me a bottle of Mod Podge or Golden Gel Medium Matte and a handful of simple flat brads?
I can offer you a big thick envelope full of collage papers and ephemera, you won't be disappointed!
I cannot find any good glue for my journaling here, I've tried acrylic medium matt by Talens but it doesn't work... I can see that it leaves the thin white smudges on the paper, and it's not what I need for gluing down the papers or napkins in my artworks... But I've heard wonders about both Mod Podge and Golden medium. And brads - well, the only ones I could buy were the tall metal ones, which are not suitable for my journal.

How about that!...

Today I used the pearl sugar I got from Hanna - and look at the result, a whole gang of cute kanelbullar! *^v^*

Tomorrow I'm leaving you, my dear Readers, for 5 days, because we are having a short vacation with our friends, so I baked the cookies to take a piece of home with us. ^^ We are going to the Polish Great Lakes region, although there are no swimming plans, not this time of the year. I promise lots of photos and maybe some finished journal pages (I'm taking with me my big journal and some art supplies, what to choose, what to choose?...), I'm also going to knit, of course. And drink wine, and sit in front of the fireplace, and generally have fun! ^^


But first, I promised you the photos of my new products for the folk gallery - here they are:
The Chickens!
And The Eggs!

The Chickens can be used as egg warmers for your breakfast boiled eggs, and the Eggs are the Polish Easter tradition - called Pisanki (plural).

Here is how I knitted them (you can modify the pattern, these are just guidelines):
- cast on 11 stitches (leaves a proper size hole to fill the egg with a cotton wool after it's finished), distribute them among three dpns
* means "repeat"
r1: k
r2: k1, [m1, k1]*
r3: k
r4: k
r5:k
r6: k2, [m1, k2]*, m1, k1
r7: k
r8: k
r9: k3, [m1, k3]*, m1, k1
r10: k

- here insert a 10 or 12 row pattern of your choice

r10: k
r9: k3, [k2tog, k2]*, k2tog
r8: k
r7: k
r6: k2, [k2tog, k1]*, k2tog
r5: k
r4: k
r3: k
r2: k1, [k2tog]*
r1: k
r0: k1, [k2tog]*
- put the yarn through all the remaining stitches, pull tightly
Fill the egg with cotton wool, sew up the other end. Voila! *^v^*


And two new spreads from my journal:
This one is based on a saying about the rat race, it just came to my mind in the form of such picture:

This is the Year of the Rat after all! *^v^*

And this one is a response to Suzi Blu's prompt - accordion pages. I added two kinds of "beyond-the-surface" elements on my "Body is my temple" spread.


The accordion page on the right - it can be closed with a paper band or open ad unfolded,


and the Turkish fold page.

I love such elements and I want to add more of them in my journal and my paintings, yikes! *^v^*


Look, what I found in my mailbox this morning:

A handmade Valentine postcard from Myriam! Thank you very much, it's one of these moments when I think to myself "I should have thought about that, too!...", but in fact my letter to you is on the way! =^v^= Darling, you will be soon working in your own art journal, I can feel it!
Happy Valentine to you, and to all of my dear Readers, have fun as I intend to do tomorrow and for the rest of our 5 day vacation (and for the rest of my life, in fact! *^v^*).

PS.: I've just found out that my dream pattern from Rowan 41 - Joy cardigan, is not knit but crocheted!... Oh, no!...

PS.2: My dear American readers, I will have a big request to you when I come back from my vacation, so please remind me about it, okay? =^v^=

PS.3: Jezzabell, nie zostawiłaś mi adresu email i nie mam jak Ci odpowiedzieć, napisz do mnie a odpowiem Ci na pytanie o etsy! *^v^*

Tree in a cup

My latest finished art journal pages:

"Talks with Relations" is the name of the first Clan Mother (details in the book by Jamie Sams , we work with this book on my Women Circle meetings). I feel that stones are my very close relations.



D'Blogala's prompt IT'S TIME.
I know that clocks have usually two hands, but that's how I wanted it to look like. Surprise - the hands are actually movable! *^v^* (I sewn them onto a page, couldn't find flat brads for it, they are not available in Poland it seems...)
More and more I'm having this feeling that I want to leave the flat surface of the page and go 3D!



Knitting
I started Durrow for Robert and I love, love, love the yarn I bought!
It's a Polish brand by Interfox called Merino, 50% wool/50% acrylic, it' soft and very good for cables, a doesn't have this acrylic squeakiness, if you know what I mean. ^^
I also am very pleased with the on-line shop I bought it from - the shipment was quick and I got tons of yarn samples, yikes! ^^ I will buy this yarn for more projects, as soon as my Rowan arrives! *^v^*



I'll leave you with a Saturday morning tea art - Robert drank the tea and that's what was left on the bottom of his cup - a tree (or is it a cloud?...): *^v^*


Happy Sunday! =^v^=

I want to be a Rowan girl!

I finally made up my mind and bought two Rowan knitting magazines, number 41 that I wanted for a long time and the fresh number 43, the new Spring/Summer issue! *^v^*
Here are my favourite designs from that issue (click them to see the larger versions):













I know it's A LOT and there's no way I could knit all of them, but I will knit some of them definitely, because they are just lovely and I want to be w Rowan girl! *^v^*
I cannot wait when the magazines land in my hands!

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!