Some inspiration

I'm back from a nice and lazy week in Greece. I survived the heat and mosquitos. At the moment I'm house-sitting for the in-laws, and the things I have to occupy myself with, apart from household chores (there's an impressive amount of plants to water!), are sockknitting (ruled out due to a case of wry neck) and the computer. Long live the internet, if you can't craft, then craft-surf!

I came across an amazing wedding dress while looking for some sweater yarn. This would be the one thing that could convince me to get married, if it justified knitting a baroque wedding gown. For anyone seriously interested in the dress a free pattern will be available at Järbo Garn in October according to their announcement. However it will probably only be in swedish. To accompany the dress pattern there will also be one for the bridal crown. For some reason I don't feel the same urge to make the crown...

The reason I found the dress was because I was searching for yarn to make a sweater similar to the one on this book cover:

I love the color combination used, the location of the patterned panel, and the overall style of the cardigan. In fact I would like an exact copy of it. I've already begun to draw a chart for it and I added it on ravelry. However I'm not quite sure how it's made, the image shows no trace of raglan or sleeve attachment seams. Are the seams concealed in some clever way I don't know of, or is it simply knit in one, maybe two pieces? I think I've seen something with similar shoulders and neck in one of my craft magazines. As soon as I get back to the flat I'll go through my enourmous pile of magazines and see if I can find it. I really want to make this cardigan!

Swaps Galore

(For my Matrioshka Doll Swap partner koi, if you by any chance read this and haven't recieved your package yet, it will spoil the surprise!)

Here are the photos of the swap items I've been making that I promised to post.

First some wallets for the Sweat Shop Swap:

I made a bunch to try some different ideas. I'm going to make more of the orange one, the one with green chairs and the retro flower print one and put up for sale on my etsy.
I chose five of them to use for the swap:




And now over to the Matrioshka Doll Swap! I decided to make a stenciled t-shirt, which was on my partners wishlist, and some other useful trinkets.

T-shirt sizes can be trucky when you don't have the right measurements. I had a men's size small baggy white t-shirt to start with and needed to transform it to a size small womens t-shirt... I looked up clothing patterns for measurements, and did my best, hopefully it fits. At least I'm certain it won't be to small! Then I got to the fun part stenciling! I made the stencils from adhesive plastic. The black lines are done with a fabric marker.

I loved the result and I'll have to make one of these for myself. It was really sad to part with it! Hopefully koi will like it as much as I do!

The notecards below are made from magazines that I surprisingly, but also very conveniently, found in one of Chris's stock magazines a week after starting the swap.


I also wanted to use one of the cross-stitch diagrams I designed, so I made a cross stitch keyring to go with the rest.

The grass is greener on the other side

I am blogging from my brother Adam's student's room in a Stockholm suburb. It's my last night here and I thought I'd give a brief account of my visit. I've done the necessary walk in the city, but this time I had Adam as a guide, which was far more enjoyable than getting lost on my own as I did last time I was here. He took us out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants, Same Same But Different, a thai place on Södermalm. Getting used to the dim rooms, lit only by fluorescent UV-lights and a candle or two took some time. The food was all right, very spicy indeed. Definitely a fun place to have lunch, and probably an awesome bar in the evenings, but beware of the washrooms! People washing their hands only need to turn their heads slightly to get a view straight into one of the booths. I learned the hard way. I won't tell if I was the one washing or weeing, though. ;)

We spent day two in the archipelago on the quaint island Grinda. It takes a good two hours by boat to get out there, but it's a nice boat trip. Out there I saw this:

Apparently in Stockholm, like everywhere else, the grass is greener on the other side...

Today, on our third day, dad and I went to Sigtuna, a small town with a with ancient church ruins and rune stones everywhere. Interesting, indeed.

Before I end this for the night, I have some crafting content. I've been working on the theme matrioshka dolls, because of a swap I am organizing on craftster. I've been trying different techniques on the theme, and here is one of my favourites, cross stitch on a thrifted remodelled giant tee:



I'm very proud of the fact that I designed the cross stitch diagram myself! I'll see if I can post a template here if anyone is interested.



I will be back soon with more matrioshka doll stuff, and also some pictures of the wallets I made for the Sweat Shop Swap.

Cheers!