Category Archives: crafting

our low-key christmas tree

So low-key I only have cell-phone pictures!

wpid-20121214230449926The first night of decorating we put up gingerbread hearts and ornaments we already had on hand.

I really loved Solveig’s recent advent calendar, which includes both an activity, as well as hanging one ornament on the christmas tree every day. So when we picked ourselves up a small tree a couple of weeks ago, that was my plan (already a late start being a good week and a half into the advent period, oh well!). We don’t have a tree-stand, but John fashioned a makeshift one out of a bucket and an upside down metal lamp shade. I tell you, he’s pretty crafty this man of mine.

Anyways, that went pretty well with my desire for really low-key christmas tree decorating. I wanted to do something like Solveig with a couple of decorations a day, but it sort of fell apart after a week. No worries! We still put stuff on the tree, and I’m happy with how non-stressful it still was. Gingerbread-decorating with the girls provided the hearts; John and I did some papercutting one night; I found ribbons in a box looking for something completely different, so those went up too; a dried flower; some ornaments we already had; and of course the popcorn-chain we made while watching Lewis the night before leaving. All in all it’s a charming, funny little tree! No lights though. Maybe we’ll get some tree-lights when we decide to be grown-ups and get a proper tree-stand as well. I couldn’t tell you when that’ll be.

IMG_0130All done!

I’m sorry there are no detailed pictures, we snapped this one right before leaving to get on the train. Note the printer and the easter egg to the left, and the gifts in a bag and traditional knit sweater to the right! This is real-life christmas straight from our apartment. And on that note, I’d like to wish all of you a peaceful and lovely holiday, and I’ll see you all in the new year!

designing knits, part 2

Picking up where I left off: My yarn arrived, I’ve cast on, and started knitting! The yarn is as soft and delicious as I remember – and yes, it will pill a little since it’s so soft. That’s the nature of the beast for a single ply merino wool, but it’s a trade-off I’ve chosen to deal with to gain the soft feel, the drape, and the pattern effect. Actually, that leads me nicely into what I wanted to share about the process of designing this top: compromises.

That doesn’t really sound like a good thing in designing, but here’s the deal – knitting this lace top the way my original pattern is written would be somewhat convoluted, and probably a little irritating. Let’s go back to how I made the pattern in the first place: I used a soft jersey to drape the top on a dressform to the look that I wanted, then transferred that to a paper pattern. Knowing my gauge from having knit my sample, it was just a matter of marking all the places that had changes in angles (like the waist, or the tip of the shoulder, or the collar line for example), measure the distances, and calculate the amount of rows and stitches that needed to change in between all those points. It was quite a lot of math work, but I think it was a pretty accurate way of coming up with the shaping of the garment.

Now, I followed these numbers accurately. This meant counting rows all the time, and in order to keep track of where I was, I kept having to note on my pattern what row of the 8 row pattern-repeat the next increase or decrease would happen on, so I knew I was on the right row. One decrease might happen on row 5 of the repeat, then I had to count 17 rows and make sure the next decrease in fact was on row 6 of the repeat, and so on.

I don’t think most knitters would find that approach very enjoyable, or logical, or clear. So here is where my compromises come in: in order to make it easier and less frustrating for the knitter, I am choosing to move the decreases and increases to always be at the same point in the pattern repeat. That way, all you have to count is how many of those repeats to go before the next decrease. Yes, the shaping won’t be as optimal as the original, but the tradeoff is a pattern that is better to work with. In the end, I think moving a decrease 3 or 4 rows won’t make too significant of a change to warrant a more knitpicky kind of counting.

Any other pet peeves in knitting from patterns? Mine is knitting in sections and sewing the back and fronts together when it could just be knit in one piece from the start!

corners of my home, pt. 4 – my sewing corner

Breezes are coming through open doors and windows, it smells like fresh cut grass, and an enthusiastic game of soccer is happening somewhere out there, out of sight, but making up the noises of summer.

While I’m enjoying a week of vacation back in my home town, my sewing corner as I am showing it to you, is soon a thing of the past. We’re moving apartments in a week, so things are looking a bit more like this corner of my home post from six months ago – boxes everywhere!

Still, I wanted to show you where I’ve had my little sewing nook in this apartment. The bedroom is a long room, so we stuck the mirrored wardrobe in the middle, and created a walk-in-wardrobe slash sewing space.

A thrift-store table, recovered chair, a lamp, a shelf for my patterns, boxes filled with notions and supplies, and jars for my spools of thread, and some hooks for my scissors. It’s not much, but I’ve been very pleased with having found space for my sewing stuff. And… how can I forget those boxes on the floor overflowing with fabrics and projects! Very stylish, I know.

My favorite part must be the hooks for the scissors. I didn’t realize my scissors matched so well – or, that they happened to be organized by size that day!

(From the left is my super-heavy paper scissors, a pair of 10″ KAI scissors, my 9″ all around Ginghers, and another KAI, 8″. Um yes, I love my KAI’s. Best scissors ever.)

I feel like you get into this strange little bubble when you take apart the home you’ve made for yourself in one place, to pack it down, carry, and reassemble in another space. It’s a little stressful, but I’m looking forward to setting up in a new apartment with (spoiler alerts!) a view, daylight, and hopefully soon, a little kitten too!

happy easter

Easter in my windowsill: painted eggs on branches, with cranes and mountains in the background.

Happy easter everyone! We have almost a week off for easter here in Norway, so I’ve been spending it with lots of good food, beer, and wine; mountain hikes; knitting and sewing; fires in the woodstove; reading; and of course – painting some eggs.

The painting of the eggs was kind of a mitigated success:  we didn’t have a very good technique for blowing those eggs so it felt like it took forever, and I even managed to break one before we got started! But eventually we could decorate our brown eggs (we get our eggs at the health food store, and I didn’t even think about the brown-ness of the eggs!) with some watercolors and some markers, and hang them in our little vase full of twigs. And John has got a new fancy phone from his new fancy job, so of course we’re playing around with that as well. Taking pictures of our beautifully decorated eggs!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter weekend!

outfit: first day of spring

We had two whole days of sunshine here in Bergen, and the unofficial, but highly followed, rule here in rainy Bergen in these cases is to drop everything, and soak up as much of the sun as possible.

So after my bikeride back from work, I switched shoes and jacket, and went on a combined photoshoot/grocery-run/sun-seeking walk to the shopping center down the street.

I wasn’t trying to coordinate, but after switching from a bike-jacket to my spring-like short trenchcoat, and nude heels instead of black shoes, I decided my grey, khaki, and curry colored outfit felt really appropriate for the lovely spring weather we were having. That usually warrants an impromptu photoshoot!

Even my tote-bag matches!

The skirt is a recent refashion from a pair of pants, and it’s been getting a lot of wear – a definite new staple in my wardrobe. I made the cowl over the winter, and it’s been in heavy rotation too. I think I’m a complete cowl convert! The jacket and shirt are thrifted, and the heels are from Payless and finally getting some use after I bought them right before a three-month roadtrip were heels weren’t deemed worthy of room in the very tightly packed car-trunk.

So, spring – want to stick around? Please do!

more costumes

Kaspar, by HANNE KRISTIN LIE
Photo by Hanne Kristin Lie/Studvest 

Just a little sneak peak of one of the many projects I’m working on right now! I’m doing the costumes for a student theater show, and as always – lots of work, but fun! I shared the colors in my last post, and here you can see that the shapes are a little… freeform! There is a plan, I promise.

This is the article from the student newspaper. Now, if you will excuse me, I have five days left and a lot of costumes to finish!

making costumes & missing crafting mojo

There has been a lot of life happening lately, and life needs attention (and paperwork apparently!). My crafting interest is nowhere to be found right now, and since I really don’t want crafting – or blogging – to feel like a chore in any way, I’ll just be waiting until it shows up again. I’m thinking some tea, chocolate, and lots of “Downton Abbey” is the normal cure for this, right?

Now – I have been crafting a little. I just haven’t worked on any of the “real” or big projects, like my Minoru jacket, which got half cut out before it got abandoned for now. Single-sitting projects are more like it at the moment; some underwear from old t-shirts (I have a free pattern is you want to make some too!), and a pillow-cover. It’s certainly not a big important project, but I like it all the same.

I pieced together the cover with left-over pieces from this lovely, dense herringbone wool we used for the Amanda show – see all the lines on the right side in the picture above? I stuck a zipper in there since this is for a regular pillow doing duty in the livingroom whenever we don’t have sleepover guests. That was a last minute addition as I realized I would be needing to get the pillow back out of the pillowcase!

This is our little reading nook, with a bed turned-into-sofa by folding the top mattress in half and covering it in fabric, putting up some shelves/backboards, and filling up with pillows. I’m working on the pillows part.

That’s it. I made a pillowcase, and it made me glad.

Also, I’ll be making some costumes for the student theater group here in Bergen! Right now I haven’t actually made any yet, but they are designed, and here are the fabrics. Should be fun!