Happy new 2014

I´m sitting here with Roger and writing post number 500 ( That´s Pol Roger...I know what you where thinking....;-) )
This time of the year I usually share some goals and look back at the goals from last year. I went through the blog the other day and saw that there where more knitting than sewing and unfortunately that´s a sign that I spent to much time waiting for doctors appointment.
2013 will always be remembered as the year my mother passed away.
My mother can take credit for a lot of my crafty and sewing life, not by  passing on her knowledge...she really hated to sew and as I can recollect she knitted 2 sweathers in her lifetime. I think someone, or maybee the era told her that she was supposed to do that. She also took a sewing class when I was little and I can remember a skirt and lined jacket she made me when I must have been 7 years old, I can remember playing with the lining on the right arm that must have been slightly too long and I can also remember going to her sewing class to get fitted.
My mother did not show me how to sew, she said: - You can play with the machine as much as you want...and I did and tought myself through false and error, I wish I would have known about the internet back then...
My mother was a fenomenal cook and the last two years, after her stroke she passed on a lot of knowledge to my dad who easily whip up a majonnaise from scratch or a hollandaise to go with his fish,

Goals for 2014 is as always denim but one thing has changed, I always been intimidated by the distressing part, but after beeing to a lecture on back store sewing jeans that you are supposed to break in yourself, I think that´s the way to go for me. I found some pictures of for me a classic jeans skirt. Do you remember the front buttoned Lee skirt with the zig zag stitching? That´s what I´ll be making this year!

2013 was the year I fell in love with Liberty´s cottons.
I visited London twice, first time with my niece and second time with Maria and Vibeke for the PR gettogether. I also visited Ireland and Edinburgh and got some really nice wool pieces for future projects.
San Fransisco, loved everything about it and looking forward to Austin next year and the long time dream of mine; New Orleans!
I´m looking forward spending time in my sewingroom that I rent in the basement of my building as well as some more yarn stories, My local group has a KAL to finish twelve things next year and twelve unfinished things was not hard to find....


Me and Roger wish you a Happy New Year!

Endangered sheep mittens

I think I knitted these mittens 2 years ago, but when it comes to knitting it´s such a thing called weaving in the ends...and I did that two weeks ago....
There are two interesting things with these mittens, the first one is the wool that´s from an old swedish sheep called "Värmlandsfår" Värmland is like a county in the middle of Sweden close to Norway and the colors are natural, as I can recall it there was one more color.
The second interesting thing about them are that they are knitted spiralvise using 4 threads.
I started by knitting an I-cord and then picking up stitches from it, but now I learned a much better way to do it as I´m knitting Fiddleheads mittens ( Ravelry)
The inspiration was a red and grey striped mitt by Filippa K some years ago but I think mines are nicer thanks to the spirals

It´s the inside that counts

You can never have too much shoes or too much bags! Right? And the fun part is that no matter how many bags you have there´s always a suitable bag that´s missing...Before my trip to Ireland I realised that I needed a bag that would be large enough for ordinary stuff and would also have room for my camera and since my beloved Ness bag is to winterly I decided to sew one. The hardest part with this bag was to find the closures and I still havn´t bought the feets for it...

I used Burda style sewing books bag pattern as a guide and did some changes to suit me. The flap/opening could have been slightly longer but apart from that I like it! I used denim from Stof och stil for the outer layer and quilters cottons from stash for the lining

 

 I like doing linings for bags becourse you can custumize them, here I did a variation of pockets, the zip pocket is sized after my passport and the hook is a idea that I stole from my Ness bag

 I might as well show you my thimblecollection as it´s visable in the background, it´s a combo of silver, plastic, china and advertising thimbles. The chimney sweeper has it´s own story. My maternal granpa was chimney sweeper as well as most of his brothers and also my oncle. My oncle collects chimney sweeping things and when he saw my collection he decided that I should have this one, you can even flip his hat

Addicted to Craftsy

I bought two new classes on Black Friday sale. The lowest prices I´ve ever seen part from the zipper class...
The new one´s are Lynda Maynard about edges ( I will never sew a facing agin!) and Kenneth D King´s Jeanious.
I took a serger class two weeks ago with some friends and no wonder I had problem with my serger since I didn´t tread it correctly and had wrong settings and you name it! After class when I was about to start sewing on my own machine the stitch lenght and the dif. feeder was stuck! totally stuck! A trip to the "doctor" and some money later it´s now working. I have to work on my serging skills and my jersey sewing in general and I started on a t-shirt from an old Burda with a V-neck and used Lyndas method. This trick was worth the price of the class!!!
I also "found" a dress and a Sandra Betzina top already cut ...I think I did that 2 years ago...
the good thing is that I don´t have to work until Wedensday so I´m going to spend some qualitytime for the next three days.