So much to do, so little to do it with...

I hate being poor. I hate needing to choose. So much things I would love to do, so little to do it with.

About gifts and such

I'm listening to Knit Picks' Podcast about gifts.
Some good ideas: give everyone the same, like socks or hats or scarves or so on.
Also, the "Secret Santa" tradition might be a good idea :-) You put everyone's name in a hat and all pick a name from the hat and gives a gift to that person and no-one else. Everyone gets one gift :-)

A couple of ideas, perhaps?

Blog surfing

Yes, I'm still sick... I don't like this at all. Sick, tired, miserable, in pain... :-(

But there are nice things in life.

Zelicroches presents this basketful of crocheted plenty :-) Very pretty.


Now I have made myself the Norwegian 8 square felted houseslippers. I hate them.
I made myself the Turkish slippers from Simple Crochet. Love the image, hate the slippers.
I suppose I don't like slippers.

I borrowed Rose Embroideries from the library. I love that book... Zeli presents some very beautiful rose cloths she has embroidered (I think - I am not good at Portuguese).

What to do with a toy loom

I have mentioned earlier my toy loom. I found something else to do with it:


This is Beach Bands Bag from Knitting Universe. I think it would be really nice if it was made of woven strips of fabric. :-)

Here's a very nice blog entry on Danba Woven Sashes

Here's a wonderful blog for all doily crocheters :-)

Fishy post

I have been at Picasa lately and found these images there. I don't know who made the original, whose idea it was, whose pattern, but I like the ideas :-) Very colorful and joyous. I think it's good to have some color in life for a while :-)

Someone has dropped something in my laptop's keyboard - it doesn't want to write "l"... I'm slightly p'd off :-( It's MY laptop, my NEW laptop, my BIRTHDAY PRESENT LAPTOP!!!

Yes, I'm a horrible snob!

I was surfing Ravelry, watching what other people have made, leaving groups I haven't been in for months, trying to get my Ravelry life a lot more organized. It's stupid to be a member of over 200 groups, you cannot possibly be active in all of them, and as I host some groups, I hate the lurkers and "number-members" - those who just make me happy of having over 200 members when in reality I have like a dozen. At least pop in every now and then and say "hi, still here, nothing to say"

Anyway - in a group with the intention to show off your work - I thought it would be something extravagant, something amazing, something awesome, jawdropping, to which people react with "WOW!" It is not. People post photos of their 20 stitches first ever fun-fur scarf, which looks more like a ferret skin which is so old it is more mold and holes than skin. Sure, they are proud of their first ever knitting, they are proud of having knitted something, and so they should, so they should... but WHERE IS MY WOW?
In another group about color, people post photos of things that are grey, white, black, marine, beige, brown...
But it's like that all around - knit things in crochet groups and the other way around, single color things in fair isle group, color knitting in single color groups, girls' things in "knitting for boys" group, thin girls in thick girls' group, knitted sweater in crocheted toys group...

Also, I think your baby, dog, cat and chinchilla are all really cute, and I love to read about them in threads, so please share, but they are not craft projects. In "shared projects" I want to see fiber projects, knitted, crocheted, naalbound, tatted, woven, or other such things you do with yarn. Make a hat for your guineapig or show off your delightful baby in the new coat you made for him, if you just must show off your offspring and pets, PLEASE!!!

Also, someone posted a photo of the magazine that published an article about her and her work as a "project". The article was not her project, the magazine was not her project, the photograph used in the cover was not her project, nor was the item in the cover photo... DON'T PUT OTHER PEOPLE'S PROJECTS ON YOUR PROJECT PAGE AS YOURS!
People were commenting and praising the cover item. It wouldn't have taken too much to flip a couple of pages and photograph the page where the article was.
Now, I think it would have been ok to use a photo of the magazine as one of the project photos. Some people put a photo from the magazine or book on their project page to replace the photo of their own project, and that's ok, I think, as long as you mention this very clearly in the description, and intend to replace it with a photo of your own project in the future. Otherwise it's better to leave the project pictureless.

So, yes, I'm a snob and I have an opinion on everything. ;-)
Whine, whine, whine, now I go and get some cheese :-D

I don't get this...

I'm still sick.

------------------------------------

Then to something else:

I watched a video on how to wear your knitted lace shawl.



I'm a bit... well... There really isn't much difference there. Make a sort of triangle of your shawl and wound it around your neck... Eh.
Ok, then there's the granny style, and the granny style where you cross the ends of the shawl triangle in front of your breast, then you can wear it as a sarong/kanga/sari/toga/chiton/stola or any other "one square piece of fabric" dress. You can wear it as tartan shawl, going around your body pinned on one shoulder. You can wear it as a cape or as burka... There really are no limits on what to do with a piece of fabric, even when it's knitted lace.

Added 15.7.-10; from Knitting Club - how to wear a shawl :-)

Huh... all kinds of things one learns...

When I was in school, we were taught an old Finnish technique called "viitelöinti" - or an old Viking craft called "språngning" or "needle ribbon lace" - or "sprang" in English.
Now I read that it's called "ceinture fléchée" or "assomption sash", and that it is a French Canadian tradition...
Really fascinating :-)

I wonder...

if there's a magazine with EVERYTHING I would like to read about... a lifestyle magazine focusing in crafts.

with knitting patterns, crochet patterns, sewing patterns, patchwork stuff and crazy quilting,
embroidery and cross stitch patterns
fashion doll clothes and doll sculpting and doll making
miniatures and dollhouses
paper dolls,
toys of all kinds, knitted, crocheted, sewn, paper toys, wooden toys, mechanic toys,
paper crafts, art journaling, card making, scrapbooking, origami, cardboard sculptures, napkin folding and packaging
recipes and cake decorating
polymer clay sculpting
beading and jewelry making
and then a little something about the more obscure techniques and crafts, like tatting and so...
Something about art, drawing, painting, perhaps a picture one can remove from the magazine and frame...
Then there would be something about houseflowers,
and something about... hmm... how to put it... occult stuff, spiritual stuff, witch stuff...
and something about books, a feuilleton (serial story, a popular novel shortened and published in the magazine in weekly installments) and perhaps readers' own short stories
and weekly tv appendix with special focus on lifestyle... all the food, gardening and decorating programs highlighted and chick-flicks reviewed :-D

Well... yeah, sort of like Martha Stewart (yuk) Living Magazine, but not that.

I'm brilliant

even though I'm sick :-D I know, I know, there's a Finnish saying "oma kehu haisee" - bragging about oneself stinks - but also "kukas se kissan hännän nostaa, jollei kissa itse" - and who will lift the cat's tail, if not the cat itself. There shouldn't be any shame in recognizing and acknowledging my own worth :-)
I would be even more brilliant if I DID something ;-)

I have been surfing the internet and there is this French girl at Picasa, with a lot of romantic pictures and lace and such. She has been making "whitework" on paper and it's very inspiring... she uses paper pricking (or piercing), painting and Richelieu lace ideas. I look at what she has made and I get angry with myself. I COULD be making things like that.

Reminds me of the totem animal I made for my husband:

I should be making Christmas presents and decoration, and I started crocheting tablemats... because they are so cute :->
I don't understand how people are able to crochet an afghan in a weekend... I have been crocheting my tablemat (in filet lace) for three days now, and it's not even half way done. But - I'm also sick, so I don't have the energy to crochet for a long time. Nevertheless, I don't think I would be able to make an afghan in a weekend. I might be brilliant, but I'm not THAT brilliant :-D

There's also an fascinating use of macrame in Latin countries. I love tassels and fringes, and would love macramé lace edging on my bath towels... It would feel so rich and baroque ;-)
I do NOT like the 70's style macramé, the horrible, cheap, hippy belts and string bags, rude stuff made with horrible hairy jute string with huge wooden beads and tassels that look like wild ponny's tail - just as messy and dirty... Plant hangers and string curtains... the Japanese - who otherwise make very nice craft books - have made some macramé craft books AND FILLED THEM WITH THE HORRIBLE 70'S PATTERNS!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!
I mean... I like all fiber crafts and knotting is one of them, and it's worth so much more attention and renewal, just as any other fiber craft.

Another 70's thing living renewal is "spirelli"...
When I was little, I loved the string "paintings" on velvet. The colors were so vivid and lovely against the dark velvet, and the strings formed all kinds of interesting figures. I have been wondering what to do with that and how to develop it beyond the 70's tacky and kitschy reputation. Now, some have done that. My husband told me we have an artist here in Södertälje, who does these images with string and nails.
Another wonderful use of this technique is the Temari balls.
So, when I read about "spirelli", I got interested and excited... and this is what I see...

I got a hysterical laughing attack. I had to leave the computer and repeat to myself "all creativity is good, it's wonderful people create" but it took me almost half an hour to stop laughing.
Now, I want to make it clear that I have nothing against "craftycardmaker", and I am sorry for laughing and making her an example of what I am laughing about, and it's not about her, it's about me being a horrible snob and all that.
But, they seem to be using ready made punches; stars and flowers, and wind thread around them, like... er... like something we did in kindergarten. Now, I am not talking about the artistic talent required for choosing colors and composing cards and scrapbook pages - that is way beyond any kindergarten kid - even the results of winding the thread are quite a lot better quality than what kindergarten kids produce - it's just that there is so much more in this technique, so much more possibilities and THAT is what they do?
I have made Teneriffe lace, and this is like using the daisy loom and filling the house with daisies, all made the same way, all the same form and shape and size... probably also made of acrylic or mohair or something like that...
Now, please remember, I am an awful snob with crafting. I do sincerely think that all creativity is great,

Use what talents you possess:
The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
-Henry Van Dyke

and I fully understand that there are people who are quite happy with daisy looms and premade spirelli punches and other uniform kits, and using the simplest possible elementary techniques without any interest of developing it further, and I am also quite aware that ANY of these people are already "better" than I am when it comes to actually CREATING things - because, let's face it, I do nothing. With all my education and knowledge and intelligence and creativity and artistic talents I create nothing, so I have absolutely no reason to laugh at people who create something without all that... on the contrary. Nevertheless...

It is sad that these techniques are reduced into kindergarten stuff and no "real" artisan would give them even a thought, because the possibilities are there... Only 20 years ago crochet was considered "grannies crocheting doilies and afghans", today we have crochet revival :-)
I do hope these elementary crafters will lead the way to reviving the rest of the wonderful fiber crafting techniques and in 10 years people won't be thinking "tacky and yucky" when they hear the words "teneriffe", "spirelli" and "macrame".