don’t fret

Completely inspired by Elise Blaha’s recent text art and this watercolor invite, I made a little card today.

Just like Elise, I eyeballed my letter-stickers on the paper…

… painted with watercolor on top, removed the stickers (which adhered just a *little* too much to the paper)…

…. and called it done. One address request later, and this will be on its way to a friend. I’d love to make a large size version of this – I actually liked the red and the green together so much I might try for a two-color version too.

on the needles: autumn hats

Photo by John B.

Well, this hat is clearly not on the needles anymore! All of our winter stuff is currently being shipped from Chicago to Bergen, so no matter how many hats and socks I’ve knit before – we need some hats and socks right here, right now!

I used my Reversible biking hat pattern, but tweaked it so the pattern goes in a diagonal line, instead of straight up. It’s a little hard to see in that picture, but I’m coming back with a post on how to customize the pattern! (Ravelry page here)

My other hat project is KristenMakes‘ beautiful Cabled Watchcap. I absolutely love her pattern, and the only reason mine looks a little different is that I am torturing challenging myself. I decided to frog a thriftstore sweater that was incredibly fine knit, and reasonably enough – the yarn is about the thinnest I’ve ever seen. It’s hardly thicker than sewing thread! I’m holding it quadruple, and it is still producing such tiny stitches, haha!

You can see in the top left corner how wavy the yarn is too, since I didn’t wash it after frogging the sweater. The knitting is a little rippely at the moment, but I’m hoping a good soak after I’m done with the hat will take care of that!

Tasia of Sewaholic had an interesting post a couple of days ago, about memories connected with things you make – she asked “Do you remember what you were thinking while you make things?” I often have strong memories of what I was watching while making things; my mustard colored socks remind me of watching the 1995 BBC version of “Pride and Predjudice”, and this hat is already becoming my “House of Eliott” project, incidentally another BBC-production. I’m sure they plan their mini-series for us knitting people in mind!

Amanda fra Haugesund

The premiere has come and gone – who wants to see what I’ve been working on for the last two months?

© Harald Nordbakken/Haugesund Teater (2011)

Costumes, costumes, and more costumes! Haugesund Teater put on a newly written musical, called “Den (halv)sanne musikalen om Amanda fra Haugesund”. Dealing with story of a woman in the 1920s who is bootlegging to provide for her family, as well as a story of a contemporary woman, this show has close to 60 people on stage! Several of them have lots of costume changes too, so the costume count was very, very, high.

© Harald Nordbakken/Haugesund Teater (2011)

I worked mostly with the costumes for the “grey people” – see those folks in the background? I patterned the sailor pants and shirts which were needed in different sizes, and had some help cutting and sewing them. We ended up needing almost 50 sets, and all I could see when I closed my eyes, was pant construction! It really was a lot of work, but they looked great on stage, and that is always such a reward in working with costumes.

© Harald Nordbakken/Haugesund Teater (2011)

I had a lot of other sewing tasks too – we needed to make 10 different girls’ dresses, and of course there were the clothes for the lead actors; coats, dresses, skirts, and blouses. I certainly didn’t do it all of it – and that’s the interesting thing about costumes; often you have a part in some stage of construction for a lot of different clothes, so instead of just some costumes feeling like they are “yours”, they all feel like they are!

There are some costumes I worked on that I can’t find any pictures of at the moment – in the meanwhile, see more of Haugesund Teater’s pictures here. Janne Robberstad was the costume designer for the show, and she also has some pictures here.

corners of my home

For anyone familiar with the soulemama blog, this title will sound familiar. It’s almost a movement by now, with the simple idea of documenting and sharing the little things in a home – the things that seem insignificant, but yet when you’re reminded of them, feel so very familiar and laden with memories.

These are some corners of the home I am just getting set up and setteled in to. Some early corners, so to speak!

I’m reunited with my old bike! It’s so beat up, and I’m not terribly nice to it. But it’s a workhorse, and I think having a bike to get around on makes any town lovelier to live in! Also, our new apartment has a woodstove, which we’ve already used several times. It’s getting cold and dark, and there is really nothing like a roaring fire. And finally, the moving this summer took its toll on my poor sewing machine. It is making some quite un-nice sounds, so I haven’t dared use it until it gets some attention. It does mean that I can’t work on my sewing projects!

So what is a girl to do? Well, besides spend all her time sewing costumes in Haugesund? (See my boss-lady Janne’s blog for some sneak peeks of what we’re doing, and even some pictures of me!)

(Photo by John)

Turn down the lights and knit by candlelight, of course! In general, there will be a lot of knitting while I wait for both my internet and sewing machine to become reliable again! But that’s not the worst way to spend darkening fall nights, really.

elvish leaves scarf

It’s October, it’s fall, and I’m wearing my cardigan backwards so you can see my Elvish leaves scarf all nice and clear! (Oh, and check out my new glasses from Warby Parker! I got two pairs – I have a wardrobe of glasses now! Ha!)

I actually finished this a while ago, but it was still summer, and a lacey mohair-blend scarf in a muted blue didn’t seem very summery. So I held on to it until now, when it feels more appropriate!

 The pattern I used is my own concoction, but the lace pattern is not. I first saw it in the Elvish dish cloth pattern, and after having made a couple of those, realized I really liked it, and that it would be perfect for this yarn I had lying around after frogging a thrifted sweater. It was an Abercrombie and Fitch thing – fuzzy from the mohair and angora, and yarn that was very prone to breaking as I was undoing it.

 

As I usually do, I set out to use up *all* of the yarn, which included taking the half-finished scarf to the post-office, alongside the rest of the yarn, to weigh and calculate how long I could make it. I even figured out how many yards I needed to have left when I started decreasing, which tells you how obsessed I am delighted I get when I can really use it all up.

 

I’ve been working on writing up the pattern for this, in case anyone else would be interested in making this. Let’s see… What else? As soon as I started this scarf, I just knew who’s it was- I mean, who it was intended for, and I can’t separate this scarf from thinking of her – she’s been present in my mind as I’ve been making it. I hope she feels the thoughts! Oh, and my most vivid memory involving this scarf is wrapping it up in a tent in Montana a night we heard a bear walking about. We’re pretty sure. But that’s another story. And yes, it was terrifying.

my ravelry project page | the pattern