Monthly Archives: January 2011

a blog face-lift!

It looks a little different around here now, doesn’t it! They are certainly not drastic changes, but I have been wanting to make some changes to the blog. After three years, now seems like a good time to make some updates! For posterity’s sake, this is how my blog has looked (with some header-design changes) since I started in May, 2008:

In addition to a new look, there are a couple of new things too! I’ve added a couple of pages – one is a collection of my “finished objects”:

It’s a nice way of collecting all my creations in one spot (at least the ones I’ve blogged about!), and it has links to the blog-posts too.

The other page I added is for “how-to’s” and patterns:

Right now there are only two entries on the page – which hardly seems worth a whole separate page! I’ve got heaps (ok, maybe handfuls) of stuff I’m planning on putting on there though, and I’m so excited about growing that section of the blog! I’ll write up how-to’s and patterns and post them as regular blog-posts, and then add links back to those posts on this “how-to’s & patterns” page.

Both those pages are easy to get to with the handy links I now have to all my pages, right at the top of the blog. I’ve also added clickable buttons in my sidebar, which you might have noticed looks a little different. Gone is the flickr-link, because – honestly – I just don’t use it much any more. Ok, really honest? Really never. There is now a new link to my burdastyle profile (which I hope to add to regularly), along with links to the new pages.

Lastly I’ve added a little list of what sorts of projects I’m working on right now. That list will of course be ever-changing as I finish things, and add new projects!

There will probably be minor tweaks for a little while as I fine-tune things behind the scenes. But all in all I really like this new look, and I hope you do too!

Eddie and his six incarnations

This was my Eddie Bauer sweater when I had thrifted him, before he turned into six different things:

Eddie is on the bottom. A little submissive and unassuming, you can say.

Then I started to take Eddie apart, and he looked like this:

And now, a digression. There is a traditional folk song in Norwegian called Kråkevisa (text, and youtube-video). I believe it’s a very common song to learn as a kid, and I remember very proudly answering “recycling!” to the question of what this song was about.  In hindsight I think the answer is much closer to “resourcefulness”. You see, there is a farmer, and a giant crow out to kill him. So the farmer shoots the crow (with bow and arrow!) and makes use of the entirety of the bird. He puts up the meat for the winter, then makes shoes, ropes, horns, and of course, from the beak, fashions a boat to go to church in.

The last verse of the song, by the way, goes like this: Og den som kje kråka han nytta så, han er ikkje verd ei kråke å få. — And he who cannot make use of the crow like so, is not worthy to have a crow.

So when Eddie, after being completely disassembled, turned into no less than six new knitted things; a sweater, three hats, a scarf, and a pair of socks, well… He is my crow.

*      *      *

1. A sweater.


And not any old sweater – my first ever! And for my boyfriend. Who is still my boyfriend (take that sweater curse!). Blogged here, ravelry link, Pattern is Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Seamless hybrid sweater.

2. Socks

Another first – first toe-up socks! As the first, second, and next pictures show, there was some light grey yarn in the sweater, which was pretty textured, and as far as I could tell, spun with some sort of nylon-thread. Perfect for socks! (Ahem.. the socks in this household acquire holes pretty quickly).

I went with toe-up construction so I could just keep knitting until there was no more of the grey. I knit with a strand of the main yarn, so they were even thicker, more reinforced, and a little more comfortable. I used a mash-up of several different toe-up patterns I found online, I don’t remember how I even did the heel (which was a headache), and I’m not sure I’m a toe-up convert. Even if it was extremely convenient to use up all of that grey yarn.

3. A hat

And not just any hat – my first ever published knitting pattern (hat)! Hop on over to this blog post introducing the Reversible Biking hat, and here is the ravelry link (38 projects so far – woo!).

4. A baby hat

(Photo by Rogue Sheep)

And not just any baby hat, my first ever baby hat! Just to clarify, the hat in the picture is not the hat I made. I don’t actually have a picture of the hat that I made, but this unbelievably cute hat is made with the same pattern, the Aviatrix baby hat.

5. Another hat

I’ve run out of first. This was just a hat, enjoyably knitted for a friend. Blog post,  and raverly link to the pattern.

And finally…

6. A scarf

This is the Shifting sand scarf I recently posted about, and it’s making itself into my wintertime staples! What was great about this scarf, was that I could keep knitting up everything that was left after all these other projects were done. There is rarely a limit to how long a functional scarf could be, so it became my leftover yarn scarf! It also took me more than a year to knit this… but I blame in on waiting on all these other projects! Blog post, and ravelry link.

*      *      *

Thanks Eddie, you’ve been a dear.

the doll project

This is the story of a project that starts with a doll. This is the long, and picture-heavy story of this doll:

I posted about “Giacometta” earlier, and apparently promised to be  back in a couple of weeks with the finished dress.

Ops.

Can we say I’m making up for it now with extra many pictures? Pictures are good! Right?

Design journal pages.

This project came at a time when my grandfather had just passed away. I went home to see him, and spent the week at his house looking at old pictures, and thinking of my grandmother, who passed away twenty years ago. Just looking at the pictures, the objects of his home, and the memories from decades of living put me in a pensive and nostalgic mood.

With this design project we were encouraged to represent ourselves as designers – to let our designs come from a personal place. My mind was filled with images of my grandfather at a typewriter at his work in the late 1930′s, looking dapper in highwaisted, wide trousers and a period haircut. It was filled with thoughts of my grandmother, and the socks and mittens and sweaters and embroidered pillowcases she made that we still have.

There is often an emphasis on visual research in a design process. I tried adhering to it – half-heartedly collecting images of iron-wrought gates and intricate Victorian era designs to inspire the decoration of my doll. But rather than inspire me, the images made me feel stuck and un-interested and cold towards it all. It wasn’t leading me anywhere at all, so I put them aside and let my mind wander completely as I stitched silk chiffon pieces and clock-parts and copper-thread on the doll with my thoughts guiding me, rather than imagery I had collected.

It was a very stream-of-consciousness approach, and it felt completely right. All my thoughts on hand-work and gender-roles and the trace of the human hand – even in mechanical operations – came together. Thoughts on being directly involved with the objects and outcomes in your daily life; of working machines but still being the physical driving force behind the actions; of the beauty of these mechanical parts, broken down; of the beauty of handiwork techniques, broken down; of the similarity of the involvement of the female hand and the male hand in their gendered work, juxtaposed by their respective soft and the hard materials.

Moodboards for the doll project.

I wanted my finished garment to represent this juxtaposition of the soft and the hard, and the involvement of the hand – the images of my grandparents in their youth, belonging to a different generation, with different expectations. I explored different techniques of manipulating fabric, and also included corroded metal into my list of materials (already combining nude mesh and silk chiffons with clock-parts). I worked on ways of including the circular shape of the clock- gears. I finally deciding to create a three-dimensional shape with it, making a shoulder-piece with allusions to armour, with its hardness and protectiveness.

Process photos from my design journal.

The design of the dress itself was a process of draping, tacking on, stepping back, and seeing if it was evolving in what felt like the right direction. I actually found it quite a challenge to be working on a design that was so open-ended – there just wasn’t any exclusivly “right” way of doing things! Slowly, the organic shapes came together, with the angular lines of the pleated bodice balancing against it. The dress doesn’t fully cover the body, but unprotected, bare skin against the angular and hard shoulder-pieces really does express the juxtaposing feelings that were at the core of the design.

It’s become more and more apparent that the issues that guided the making of this dress, are issues I’m bringing into my work, over and over again. In this way, this soft, mechanical dress has been the start of a particularly personal and more focused design aesthetic.

a new year

I guess I’m already a little behind with this new-year-post-thing, since I’ve already posted something in this new year that had nothing to do with accomplishments and resolutions. I’m enjoying people’s resolutive and summing-up posts out there in the blog-world – especially the crafting ones – so I think I’ll follow suit!

2011 is looking like it will be a whirlwind of a year: I’ll be working hard towards my graduation in May, and the boy and I will also be packing up our life in Chicago at the same time, and then head…. well, I’m not sure yet. The ultimate goal is to move (back home – for me) to Norway, but we’d like to take advantage of the time post-May to travel a bit. With no obligations anywhere, I guess we’re looking at a bit of a nomadic life before we settle down somewhere!

And that’s why I think setting very concrete crafting goals for myself this year is a little futile.  I easily feel bad if I don’t accomplish self-imposed goals, which isn’t all that fair towards myself when I have plenty of projects to work on! I think having resolutions can be wonderful, but I’m worried they might feel constricting in a year that will see so much change for me.

Anyways! I’d like to sum up what I did – crafting-wise – in 2010! (click any image for the blog-post)

So there it is – 14 projects. And a whole lot of them knitting! I’m nowhere near what other productive ladies have managed this past year, such as SouleMama‘s 12, 13, 14 sweaters (and that’s counting only sweaters, knitted ones!), Tasia of Sewaholic‘s 28 items, or Mena of sewweekly‘s whopping 52+ dresses. I did release a pattern for my reversible biking hat – and that feels like an accomplishment! I also have a couple of projects I just haven’t posted yet, so let’s call the total number 15. Or 16.

There is a lot of things I’ve been (and am!) working on that doesn’t really show up as finished projects yet, but here is a peek at projects I technically started last year, but haven’t finished yet:

• My Bayview Street cardigan is a sleeve away from being done
• A kind of secret cardigan project is started
• Another baby-blanket has been started
• I’m well on my way on creating my 3, hopefully 4-look collection for my final semester at school
• I’ve started a February fitted sweater
• My pocket-pencil-skirt is on its way

And I do have some projects in mind for 2011 – well, at least the first part:

• Did I mention the collection?
• I have several ideas of some how-tos to put up on this old blog
• A pile of things to mend and re-fashion
• A perfect summer dress
• A little blog-improvement
• My perfect pants project
• A 1930′s reproduction dress in a mustard-colored rayon chiffon
• A couple of self-made patterns I’d like to share (!) (this I’m very excited about!)
• More excitement – an upcoming give-away to celebrate my 100th post (which hasn’t happened yet, but soon!)

Any other crafting-resolution-makers out there? Thoughts on making resolutions – or not? Do share!

the yarn that did not want to be knit

Ok, let’s start with the good. I have a lovely new scarf in my arsenal!

Way back, let’s say, the summer two years ago, I went on a tour of Lorna’s Laces, a small yarn-dyeing company right in my neighbourhood. It was so much fun to see the process behind their dyeing, and the local names they give their colorways. And of course, the factory-sale! I fell in love with a couple of skeins of their Bullfrogs and Butterflies yarn (ravelry link to the yarn), in a variegated red colorway:

It ranged from a dark, blueish purple, through a pure red, to rich orange-browns. It’s a single-ply wool/mohair blend, and it was beautiful in yarn-form; luscious, vibrancy, smooth, lustrous… Ok, you get the point.

So what’s the problem? The problem was that I didn’t really like how it knit up. I loved the yarn in the skeins, I loved the yarn wound up in balls, but I did not love the yarn when it was knit. I tried a triangular shawl, but once the purple stitches on one row met the light warm orange stitches on the next, I couldn’t stand the contrast it was creating. In short, I thought it was far more beautiful just as a yarn!

In progress – the balls of yarn were quite pretty I think!

Two skeins of gorgeous yarn sitting on a shelf wouldn’t do me any good, so I eventually decided on a technique that would take away the random color-matching. I read about intentional pooling in a forum-thread on ravelry (am I able to write a post on knitting without mentioning ravelry? I’m afraid not…), and the basic premise is to control the color-blobs that occurs when yarn is dyed in multiple colors.

I wanted a fast, reversible knit that would show off the pretty yarn, so garter stitch was quite an obvious choice to me. By knitting rows that uses half the length of the skein (when it’s laid out as a circle), the same colors will stack up on top of themselves, and you get stripes of the same colors going up the length of the scarf.  Since I was working with two skeins, I decided to alternate them. I didn’t want to knit one, then change to the other skein and get a different pooling-pattern! you can kind of tell the colors aren’t quite the same on the edges, but I like the subtle striping it creates.

This scarf has seen almost daily use since I made it, and while I can deal with the inherent stretching of the garter stitch, I’m a little disappointed to find that the yarn is fuzzing up quite a lot. I loved the shine and luster of the yarn when I first bought it, but even just knitting with it seemed to take that away. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised since it’s a wool and mohair blend, but I really wish it would have stayed shiny. Oh well!

I sewed the two edges together to create one giant loop, which I’ve decided is very handy – there are no ends that can fly away and get untucked in cold and windy weather (I’m looking at you Chicago). It is a very squishy, cuddly, and warm scarf, so I’ll have to admit that this gorgeous yarn became a successful scarf in the end!

Triple-wrapped protection against New England winters!