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Archive for the ‘Craft’ Category

On Wednesday nights, my dear husband goes out to do his woodworking thing. I get Anneli into bed, try to convince Frida to snooze, and get out some sewing.

It is usually accompanied by cups of tea, and an episode of Project Runway. As a bonus this week, I had some leftover mini Easter eggs. Yum!

Last week while enjoying a morning out in Gothenburg, I went into Strikk, a knitting store on Vallgatan.  I had seen the store before but never been in – usually because I am not often in the company of those who enjoy squeezing yarn!  This time the  company was right (thanks JL – great idea) and I’m so glad I finally got to take a look inside.

It’s like a candy store! They have their own line of yarn, plus some very expensive luxury yarns, and then plenty of affordable yarns as well.  And when Frida was screaming up a storm, the lovely ladies pointed me to an armchair in the corner so I could feed her.  The atmosphere is so nice in there, I could happily sit and breastfeed all day.  It was such a lovely place to visit, I just had to buy some yarn … nothing too extravagant though.

Here’s a picture from Strikk’s website:

Finding time to sew is pretty impossible these days, and when the machine does make an appearance I often get bogged down in things that need to be mended.  Sewing for myself is also problematic – tops need to be breastfeeding-friendly, and although I’d love to make myself a pair of jeans I would prefer to wait until I’ve (hopefully) taken care of the remaining post-pregnancy jelly belly.  Plus I was also set back recently when I found that I have mislaid the little bag that contains the extra presser feet for the sewing machine – so anything involving a buttonhole or a zip was out of the question until they were replaced (thanks to eBay).

However I did manage to recently throw together two t-shirts for Anneli, with some grey rib jersey I had in stash and some good old knicker elastic.  I also got inspiration from a tiny little gnome that I spotted on one of Frida’s lovely bibs, and added a cupcake tag into the side seam of the long-sleeved one.

I finished my mittens on Thursday night.  Hurrah!  I wore them on Friday on the walk to daycare, but had to take them off on the way home when my hands started to sweat.

In amongst all that yarn that I got from my husband’s cousin’s girlfriend’s grandmother, was also a fair old pile of various fabrics, including large-checked cottons in red, orange, and green.  It has a nice fifties-kitchen feel about it.

From the orange & green, I’ve made a dozen napkins, since we’ve been wanting “everyday” napkins so we can use less paper towels.

And with the red, I’ve been covering lids for some of our storage jars.  I like re-using glass jars to store some of our dry goods, especially since things so often come in crappy plastic bags that tear much further than you want them to on opening, and can then never be closed again.  That huge pasta jar was originally home to a large quantity of gherkins, and the smaller ones are Felix beetroot jars, which are a great size for things like cornflour, or nuts and seeds.

A couple of weeks ago I read on Johanna’s blog that Normi Garn was going to be closing down soon.  This is a yarn & fabric shop with a fabulously chaotic feel to it – stock piled high against the walls, chock full of treasures that must date back at least a couple of decades, waiting to be uncovered.

So, I went twice.

First time round was a family excursion, but to be honest it’s not that easy to yarn & fabric shop with a husband, a toddler and an infant.  The nice man in the shop gave Anneli a box of buckles to play with, and a Bamse book, which kept her (and Linus) entertained, but Frida was a bit grumpy and I felt a little rushed.  Still, I came away with some ridiculously cheap yarns.  I can’t remember all the exact prices, but I don’t think I paid more than 10kr per 100g for any of these.  The grey one is wool, the blue is cotton, and the cream is a cotton & acrylic mix that has a very nice feel to it.

Next time round, I met up with Johanna on a Friday, and took just Frida with me.  Thankfully, Frida was a little angel, and she just stared and snoozed and charmed the multitudes of little old ladies who were shopping.  I had expected the store to be a little calmer on a weekday, but boy was I wrong!  It was packed with bargain hunters, stretching for bolts of fabric and nearly tripping over Frida’s car seat.  I concentrated on the fabrics this time, and came home with these little gems:

I bought one more fabric, but some or all of it will be sent away to Clarkville, so I won’t ruin the surprise by showing it here.

I love me some paisley.  There’s really not enough paisley in the world these days.  When we brought home a carton of bag-in-the-box wine and I discovered a pale paisley design  printed on the box, I was inspired to steal the design and turn it into embroidery.  This is what came to be:

Occasionally, in the evenings, Frida stops feeding for a few minutes so I can get a few rows of knitting done.  This is what I’m working on:

I already have a pair of mittens, but I made them too loose at the wrists and they aren’t warm enough for a “real” winter like this one.  These ones are merino & possom, and I’m knitting on smaller needles than recommended, so they’re really dense and should be very warm.  I just really hope I manage to finish them before the winter is over!

Look at all this lovely yarn.  All this was acquired from the lovely Linda, whose lovely grandmother has (or had?) a yarn shop and who periodically brings over big bags of yarn.  This time I also acquired fabric and a preposterous quantity of embroidery cottons.  Before hurting my brain thinking about what to do with those, I sat down and wound up all the knittables into balls.

Just look at all that!  I’m still considering what to do with it all.  In amongst the bag of treasures, I found this Anchor embroidery wool.  What is interesting about this treasure is the weight: 36.46 Grains.  I have never seen anything with a weight expressed in grains before.  I didn’t even know that this was a measure of weight.  I had to ask Google about it – apparently one grain is the weight of a grain of barley.  I have no idea when people stopped measuring yarn weights in grains, but I’d hazard a guess that this is quite an old item of haberdashery.

My clever husband spent quite a few of our summery evenings whittling by the outdoor fireplace.  As well as making our garden markers, he’s been working on his first ever spoon.

This is made from a piece of hawthorne, which is apparently a very hard wood.  I think it’s come up quite lovely – so much so that I’m hesitatant to want to dirty it by actually using it.