WIP - My First Quilt

These rectangles...

...were put together two and two...

...in a long line...

...and then pairs were sewn to pairs to form 30 rows with 10 rectangles in each...

...which were sewn together in 5 groups of 6 rows separated by dark brown strips...

...and then JumJum helped out as the outer border was pinned in place...

...to make the finished top look like this after some sewing...

...and with my feet on it for scale.

What can I say? I love it!

Next on the list to do is the back. It'll probably go by much quicker than the top as I'll keep it much simpler; a single rectangle from one fabric surrounded by a border in another fabric.

Then these two layers will be put together with a "cotton webbing"-layer before I try my luck at quilting. I dread that part. Absolutely dread it.

I try to stay in the land of denial about the difficulties of quilting a big blanket (it's about 135cm*190cm/53in*74in) and focus on how proud I am over the work I've already done. And I'm looking forward to start working with the fabrics for the back as they're absolutely gorgeous.

Blogging break

Wow, has it already been 10 days since my last post? Sorry about that. I took a break from Internet to focus on "real" things and "real" people. But it wasn't really intentional.

I start working again on Monday and with that comes old routines. I'm sure blogging will get more frequent again.

Crafty vacation

We spent yesterday out of the house. First we went to an animal park that focuses on animals that are a natural part of the Scandinavian wildlife. They have moose, deer, beaver, seals, bears, wolves, lynx/bobcats, owls and hawks, badgers, boars and foxes to name some of the animals. They also have a Swedish breed of sheep (Gutefår), a Swedish pig and some other farm animals.

Some of the animals had offspring born this spring or earlier this summer. Cuuute.

After the animal park, we went to a place called Skäralid which is famous for its geology. We took a two-hour-walk in the beech wood along the edges of the cliffs and then down by the water at the bottom. Beautiful. I love beech woods. The light is amazing through those crisply green leaves, and as nothing huge grows on the ground, one can easily move around in them.

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So, if yesterday was all about being out of the house, today has been the opposite. I haven't stepped out the front door all day. And I've been dressed in my "sunkekläder" (loose and ill-fitted clothes I wear when I'm sweaty, relaxed and not showing myself to the rest of the world) all day. Sure, I've been outside but that's been in the garden and only to hang laundry or play with the cats.

Yes, I've done laundry today. Four loads. Good girl.

And I've been housewifey in the kitchen as well. Dressed in my Emmeline apron, I've made bread. Or rather buns. I used a recipy I just got in the latest issue of Allt om Mat (All about Food); Tomato and basil bread.

Not exactly the same size...

Close up of the loveliness...

I got 36 buns out of the dough. 20 of them are in the freezer for later enjoyment. I really like baking. And bread (or buns) do taste better when you've done the work yourself!

~~~~~

Before baking I made something related to yarn. I turned this:

into this:

Yes, that's my Laminaria. And yes, I was only 8 rows from binding off. And yes, I did love my Laminaria.

I ran out of yarn. And I didn't want a cropped version of Laminaria. I could've ripped back one repeat of the blossom chart and started the edging charts again, but that would've left me with a shawlette with very strange proportions with only two repeats of the blossom chart before the edging. And I would've been close on being short of yarn again... So, Laminaria hit the frog pond and I'll try the pattern out again with the ViKanGarn-yarn I bought a week and a half ago.

No regrets.

~~~~~

I've been thinking about making us a blanket for the couch. We have a big wooly blanket that is way too warm to use more than half of the year (even here in Sweden) and to be honest, I think it now consists more of cat hair than sheep wool... So, I thought I'd make us a cotton blanket big enough to be used when taking a nap on the couch. 'Cause that happens. Occassionally.

Earlier this week I bought seven fat quarters in a shop called Färg&Form. I fell in love with the colours and patterns (even the butterflies!). Aren't they beautiful?

Fabric collection is called Daydreams and is made by MODA

At home I realised that four of the fat quarters I already had at home would go great with the ones I bought. Agree?

Eleven fat quarters of fabric

These four fat quarters were a gift from iKate in a swap I participated in a couple of months ago. (Remember the Manos Silk Blend I use for Clapotis? Yes, that's the swap.) They are Joel Dewberry prints. And I love them. And they go so well with the fabrics I bought. The blue is exactly the same. And even though the green is more yellow, it works great with green of the MODA-fabrics.

Today I finished cutting the fat quarters into this:

Rectangels!

It took me a couple of days of cutting but now I have 300 pieces measureing 2½in by 5in. I love my rotary cutter! Cutting these pieces out using scissors would've been hell. I just wish I had a "quilter's ruler" (is that what they're called?) that had measurements in inches. I like using inches when I sew and cutting these rectangels would've been faster if I hadn't had to use my measuring tape to mark the fabric before cutting.

I hope to be able to start the sewing tomorrow. Stay tuned and I'll keep you updated on my progress.

~~~~~

Hope you have a crafty summer!!!

Vacation so far

I'm loving my vacation so far.

I have read a most fantastic book; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I cried my eyes out. Now, as I've said before, I cry easily, but trust me on this one. You'd cry too... Read it!!!

We've spent time in our garden "doing nothing". I've played with the cats, picked wild strawberries, knit some, done some hand stitching on a gift, slept, listened to boyfriend read a Torgny Lindgren-book out loud for me, and such. I have done some work in the garden too! I've painted some of the garage. Not done yet, but I'm getting closer...

We've been to the ocean once but only stayed for an hour as the sky became overcast and it was far too windy to be really nice. (Plus, I was crying my eyes out reading The Kite Runner and I was embarrassed about having to blow my nose in my sarong as we didn't have any napkins with us...)

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Denmark and went to Mön's Klint. Both of us were positively surprised over what we saw and experienced. Beautiful scenery! The light was strange though so most photos turned out bad. I'll see if I can find some to post here... On the way home we stopped by Dragör, where the ferries from Malmö used to arrive. Nostalgia!

Today my brother, his girlfriend and my niece came to visit. We had a really nice lunch. My niece is superduper cute! But as I've said before (at least I think I have), why wouldn't she be with those genes?

Boyfriend and I also spent money today. We bought boyfriend a camera. A Nikon D80. He's happy. And so am I. Even if it means that the rest of our vacation most probably will be spent in the garden as we can't afford to go somewhere. :)

My head is filled with ideas and I feel creative. I'm sort of hoping for a couple of days with real bad weather so I can stay inside with my sewing machine. I'm going to attempt making myself a skirt with some fabric I bought in East Africa some ten years ago. I also want to start on a quilt for our couch. We need a sewn blanket. Period.

Stash enhancement

My vacation has started off wonderfully. We've been lazy. :)

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I have added to my yarn stash... But not really on an impulse, to be honest. First time I saw and touched garn.dk's silk yarn, I knew I had to own some some time. I fell in love with one shade that's sort of olive-avocadoish and one that is more raspberry red. I couldn't make my mind up between the two. And then Thursday, at knit night, someone else fell in love with the same colours, and we decided to share. So, now I have 300m of each sitting on our dinner table. I can't bring myself to put it in my storage.

See why?

This will be some kind of striped scarf. Don't really know if I want it to just plain simple striped or something more fun like a scarf from Knitting New Scarves by Lynn Barr. The colours don't really need "something fun" but my fingers might.

~~~~~

The second addition to my stash (still not actually in my stash but on my dinner table) is lace weight yarn from ViKanGarn.se. The yarn is dyed by a woman who lives in the same part of Sweden as I do. She only dyes 1kg/2lbs at a time and she doesn't repeat the dyes. So, every project truly comes out uniqe.

I've seen this yarn (and a thicker one) dyed in a lot of different colours. And I've liked most. And that's also where the problems have begun. What colour should I chose?

Well, Thursday I made up my mind. And I got 450g (approximately 1000m) of an offwhite, beige, lightly toffee coloured one. It'll become a shawl of some sort. Maybe a large Luminaria?

Swedish vacation

I got a couple of comments about my writing in my last post about my vacation, and thought I'd write some more about vacation rights in Sweden...

2 weeks of vacation for every worker in Sweden was part of the Swedish legislation all ready back in 1938. That's 70 years ago! The thought was that the workers would do a better job during the year if they had two weeks off every year to do something to re-energize.

In 1951 the two weeks turned into three. The three weeks turned into four in 1963. And ever since 1978 every employee in Sweden has had the right to have five working weeks (=25 days) off every year.

So, my right to get 5 weeks of vacation every year is part of the Swedish law. And it applies to everyone who has a fulltime job as an employee. If you own your own business, you have no legal right for vacation as you are your own employer. These five weeks are a minimum and many people have more vacation than that. If you're working for the municipality or the state you usually get a couple more days as you turn 40 and 50. I think a 50-year-old would have 31 or 32 days of vacation every year. I know of private companies that offer the employees a sixth or even seventh week of vacation if they agree to not get compensated for working more than 40 hours a week.

I'm making it simple here, but to get the 25 days, you have to work for a year. If you get employed in the fall , you naturally don't get 25 days off for vacation, but you get parts of it, proportunate to the amount of months you work. I think you need a contract that runs for longer than 3 months though to be eligable for vacation as in "taking days off".

In the "vacation law" it's also regulated so that every employee has the right to take four successive weeks off some time during the months of June, July and August. It is, however, the right of the employer to decide when those weeks will be. This is to keep the businesses running. I think most work places circulate "wishlists" that the employees have to fill out, marking the weeks they wish to go on vacation, so that the employers can work out the puzzle of having enough people left in work at every time, but also fulfilling the right everyone has to take time off during the summer. It used to be that big industries shut down during the month of July and had everyone on vacation at the same time. July is often referred to as "the industrial vacation" here in Sweden (Europe?).

By law, all employers also have to pay the employees something called "vacation pay" or "vacation salary". In the paycheck you get before you use vacation days or the one you get after you've used vacation days, you get an extra 12 or 13% salary for days you were off... Yes, we get paid more when we're on vacation compared to the days we're actually at work... I find this hilarious. Do other countries have this as well?

If we decide to not use all of our 25 days (or how many you get) we can save them for following years. So, if I decide to use three weeks one year, I can technically take seven weeks off the following year. Most companies have a restriction though as to how many days they will allow you to save. (I don't think this is regulated by law, but I don't know for sure.) In most companies they will let you have 40 days on your "vacation account" when you go from one year to the next. If you have more than 40, they will simply erase the extra days from your account and not compensate you in any way. I have colleagues that every year are forced to go on vacation during Christmas time so as not to lose those extra vacation days they have saved. But then again... If you've passed the age of 50, are employed by the municipality or state, and you have 40 days saved 'til next year, you will be able to take something like 70 days of vacation in the next year. That's 10 full working weeks; 2½ months. And to be realistic, how many of us would be able to do our annual job with 2½ months less in the office?

~~~~~

My summer vacation starts in about 4 hours!!!

For the next three weeks or so, I will probably not be posting as regularly as I usually do. Just giving you a heads up.

As random as it can be...

The cake I made Friday night was excellent! It turned out a bit dry on Saturday (I had wanted to keep it in the fridge overnight but boyfriend had a very smelly cheese in the fridge and I was afraid the cake would take on some of that foot sweaty smell...) but we solved that with vanilla ice cream on the side.

~~~~~

Laminaria has grown! I managed to get by the pesky four rows in the transition chart that gave me trouble and I'm now working on the blossom chart. I think it looks lovely!!!

Have to say though, those 3-into-9-stitches make my hands hurt. Especially my right hand.

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I spent many hours working with fabric this weekend. I'm sewing a secret project that hopefully can be revealed next week or so when it has arrived at its proper destination. I have some bias tape left to attach and I'm sort of nervous about it. Think I might end up stitching the second side on by hand. Just in case.

I bought myself a fabric cutter a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get a cutting board/mat to go with it. Don't know what I was thinking. I got one on Saturday. And man, does it make cutting fabric easy, or what? I love it!

~~~~~

When sewing this weekend, I thought about Christmas gifts I can make for family members. And then it dawned on me... My sister won't be home for Christmas.

This will be my first Christmas ever without my sister... When I was in Canada for a year, she came over to see me during Christmas break and we celebrated with friends of mine. It was great spending Christmas with people I knew from before, and people I had gotten to know during my time there in Canada, but having my sister over was the best.

This year, she'll be in Canada. Or in the States. And I'll be in Sweden.

~~~~~

If Germany had beat Spain yesterday in the finals of the European Championships, boyfriend would've won 2000kr/US$330 in a betting we were in.

He didn't. 'Cause Spain won...

~~~~~

I fell asleep on our lawn yesterday. I had every intention to read a book but after a couple of minutes wrapped up in a blanket, I dozed off. The wind was a bit on the chilly side and I had rolled myself in the blanket to keep warm. I think I got about an hour of sleep out there on the lawn, only waking up twice when the cats wanted to join me. Skorpan was in there with me for about half an hour I think. Curled up by my side, purring.

~~~~~

Skorpan managed to get out of our garden twice this weekend. On Saturday I found him on the fence between our two neighbours' gardens. I called for him and he came closer but not close enough for me to reach him. The hedge between our garden and the neighbour's is too thick and high. He looked as if he wanted to come to me but was too afraid to jump from the fence to my hands.

In the end, I had to go inside and fetch a bowl with some food in it. That got him moving and I could reach him at the side where there's no hedge but just a fence...

Yesterday I found him outside the fence walking in the bushes that face the public "park" we live next to. I got out of the garden and walked up to him. He really didn't look as if he wanted to be where he was. When I sat down about a meter from him, he ran up to me and hid his face between my knees. I could easily carry him inside.

The combination of a curious cat and a cat stupid enough to not realize how to get back into the garden is an unfortunate one.

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This morning I decided to walk to work instead of using my bike. I got my Walkman (yes, an old Walkman) and an Enya cassette I didn't know I had and started walking. It takes me about 25 minutes to go to work on foot. This morning I decided to only breath through my nose during the walk and I have to say that I felt both calm and energetic when I arrived in my office. My head seemed clearer than it normally is on a Monday morning...

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We're changing phone system at work and this morning everything is chaos. Some numbers have been changed properly and some haven't. Some stationary phones don't work at all. Nobody can get through to their voice mail. The receptionists can't forward calls properly. And so on...

Interesting start to the week.

~~~~~

My vacation starts on Thursday. I have 3½ weeks off this summer. I'm using 15 out of this year's 25 vacation days and two days from working overtime. We don't have any special plans for this vacation. Maybe a few daytrips to Denmark and a visit to my parents' summer house. We have some things to care off with the house as well. I hope to finish painting the garage...

We might take some time off later this year and go somewhere. Boyfriend has a "dreaded" birthday coming up.

If I don't use the rest of my vacation days this year they will just get passed on for next year, which means I can technically take 7 weeks off next year. Just using my vacation time. And if I can get things organized for a trip over the Atlantic, that might come in handy.

Friday night fun

At about 8pm, I went out into the garden to check on the cats that were out on their own. I found them both down by our wild strawberry plants. I realized I hadn't picked any berries this week and got in to get a bowl for them.

After ten-fifteen minutes I had 2dl/0.75cup of wild strawberries.

Doesn't look like much, but trust me. There's 2dl/0.75cup in there.

Now, what to do with that many wild strawberries?

Sorry for the blur!

Well, cake of course!!!

Perfectly coloured cake if you ask me!

This is an improvised cake with wild strawberries and white chocolate. I used a recipy for the base but cut down on sugar and added my berries and grated chocolate.

The first piece - for me - is cut!

So, I picked the berries at just after 8pm and had the first piece at 9.45pm. Boyfriend was up all last night working and only came home for one hour of sleep between 5am and 6am this morning before going to work again. He was in bed before 8pm when I went to check on the cats, so no cake for him yet...

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We have tons of wild strawberries in our garden. Even though I picked as many as I did, you can't see the difference if you look at the plants. There are so many berries. I have picked this amount at least once a week for a month now and the berries keep coming. Some parts of the "hill" they're on are in the shade for more hours than some of the others. This makes the berries go ripe at different times.

I love wild strawberries!

Third time is a charm

I worked some on my Laminaria yesterday. Yes, no baby items. No cross stitch. No vacuuming. Just Laminaria.

I thought I was doing fairly well, swooshing through the star section (the part in the pictures in this post), but then I messed up on the transition chart between the star and the blossom sections. Not just once. Not twice. But three times. First time I accidentially forgot two rows and had to tink back. Second time I forgot to change some of the stitches to keep it symmetrical and I had to tink back. Third time I lost a stitch.

And there's where I am. I have identified in what area the stitch is lost, but I was too tired yesterday to try and fix it properly. I put my knitting down at 11pm cursing myself to stay up so late with a lace project... I am not tinking back three rows to get it right. I'm not. I can't stand doing that after a row of turning three stitches into nine stitches a number of time. Too tedious for my hands.

I'll swing it. And I'll live with it.

Wish me luck when I tackle it at my next break at work.

~~~~~

Update: I'm tinking back 2½ rows. I messed up terribly when trying to be clever and fudging it. Note to self: No lace knitting when tired.

WIP - Laminaria and Yarn Stash Enhancement

Yesterday I did something I shouldn't have done.

I started swatching for Laminaria in my Cherry Blossom Fibers' yarn. And when I saw that my 4.5mm/US7 needles produced the look I was after, I casted on. And I knitted a couple of rows.

Darn.

I was supposed to wait until I had at least one of the baby items done. Didn't I say so earlier this week?

Well, anyways. I think this might be love. Hope for it to be longlasting.

The start of Laminaria. Stitch markers from Etsy seller Wee Ones.

Detail of the Star section. I'm making the symmetrical version.

~~~~~

Now, trying to distract you from my casting on a new project, I present you with this:

Heavenly yarn. Or oceanlike.

Last week, Ulrika over att stickamera/knitmore asked if anyone was interested in exchanging yarns with her as she had a skein of Fyberspates Lacewool in colour Ocean that she found too thin to use herself. The skein weighs 100grams and has 1200m/1,300yards in it. It's Bluefaced Laicester wool with a bit of nylon.

I could eat this.

Don't ask me what it'll become. I don't know. I just saw it and fell in love.

In exchange, I sent Ulrika a hank of Knit Picks' Bare Lace Wool and some packages of Kool Aid. She thought it could be fun to do some dyeing in the summer. I thought it'd be fun to do some drooling in the summer. And the exchange was made.

I can only sigh at its beauty.