Paco Peralta top and skirt

Two weeks from now I´ll be in San Fransisco, doing sightseeing and attending the PR weekend and shopping of course...
I will probably be the person with most RTW but I figured out that it was time for me to finish my Paco Peralta skirt and then I realised that I never blogged about the matching top that I´ve used a lot and I didn´t even blog about The PR weekend we had in Barcelona...
Here is a picture of Vibeke, Paco, me (and a sample of my postcancer curly hair ) Maria ( Mariadenmark )and Åsa. The picture is taken by a friend of Paco´s ; Cristina who joined us, and stolen from Paco´s FB page.

Paco gave us patterns for the draped top and the semicircle skirt and I did the top shortly after but the skirt was left behind. I´ve used the top a lot this winter and it´s so smart with the insertion of the draped part. I used a knit so I did straight grain. The top is elegant, dressed and easy to wear and sew!

The semicircled skirt is not just a half circle, it´s much smarter than that! Today I decided to do an elasticised waist and the tecnique is something aI learned from Threads a long time ago and I learned from Sandra Betzina then deciding of the lenght of the elastic you should measure your waist and reduse that measurement by 4 inches. It´s important that you use your true measurement not the one you want to have or the one you´ll had at 19. I don´t know if these pictures helps you but you attach the elastic to the fabric and then turn it and it´s really very easy, much easier than doing a casing

I´ll need some help with the hem and then it´s ready!
Paco´s patterns are hand drawn in three sizes and are exeelent drafted. Paco said that you might not like his style of clothing but every patternpiece fits correctly!
The elastic is a non fold elasic that are "boned" but totally sewable, I bought it in Seattle and I think that it is easy to find in the states I think I bought it at Joann´s.
If you are interested in Pacos pattern here`s a link to his etsy shop!

Mixing merino

I spent yesterday with two friends mixing merinos. We looked at a video with Deb Menz that was bought from Interweave and started to play with the different theories she had using the colorwheel from the book. We used boring merinos and I never thought that they would end with these wonderful batts. next step is to spin.

New hallway

My new hallway is almost ready the walls are not as smooth as I hoped for but with the grey color they have a rustic, industrial feeling


and here´s a pic on the front door that might be white instead of red, don´t know yet...


The floor before I removed the stuff between the tiles, actually it´s the floor in the kitchen and I will do the same thing there when I forgot the labour that went into it...


And the new look with dark grey "stuff"


Also a close up on my new bag that I bought on "Ness" in Edinburgh

Scottish sheeps

We saw lot of sheeps and deers along the road, ate some haggies too ( like it) and fish and chips ( not so much ) The sheeps are close to Loch Ness and where the picture of me is taken I don´t know....and my hair is getting longer with every picture I put up here

Edinburgh

Spent last week in Edinburgh and what a joy if you love wool and traditions. Edinburgh Castle, no tattoo until august but well worth a visit, the entire place is quite remarcable and so is the scottish crown displayed here Ness a local store that became my favourite, use tartans and tweeds in a very modern way. They have a webshop a more traditional use of tartan but in a very playful way shown here on our guide Alistair who guided me to the highlands, Loch Ness and more Just off the castle on the Royal Mile was a shop called Jeffrey tailor kilt shop and they also had looms and was making kilt fabric there and selling it of course as well as costum mede and RTW kilts. If you want a kilt I would suggest a visit to Armstrong and son a vintage shop chain in town for a better price. Men´s kilts are quite heavy!!! I visited 3 fabric stores and they where all nice. These fabrics is from Edinburgh fabrics that I visited with Debi from "My happy sewing place" It´was her favourite shop and I bought 3 fabrics and straps for a kilt, the purple green fabric is going to n´be a Billie kilt that a talked about before, and for that reason I bought a kiltpin with a purple stone on ( matchy matchy...) I visited one yarnstore too and bought a skein of locally hand dyed lace yarn and I also spent a night knitting with a local group also

Bra making again

It´s been a long time since I made lingerie but yesterday I teamed up with two friends for an entire day of sewing...and food and cakes. The leopard fabric and the lace is from a kit from Kantjeboord and the elastic is from Elöingeria and some old stuff from sewsassy that did not take the heat of an iron well.... The straps are from an old bra and it is missing the closure, I have to buy a black one. I also reduced the cups of a bra I bought to close to my surgery before all the swelling went down, now I can use it! It was a lot of fun sewing again and I have some more plans but the hallway is prio 1!

Kilt and tartans

I´ve been scouting the fleamarkets for years for the perfect kilt; my size, nice plaid good condition, lately I looked for one for my niece who loves Union Jack, I thought she would look great in a short skirt but it was not all-things-english so I skipped it. I was also prepered to through in a decorated pin for a fun look. I might have a word with here about it after all... I had a kilt or two back in "gymnasiet" that´s like collage... but since I bought myself a trip to Edinburgh next month my kilt fever rised and thanks to google I learned that a kilt is about 7 meters of fabric and this photo showes how it´s constructed

That´s a lot of fabric in areas there I don´t need any extras so I found these two models that I like better

To my knowledge my family does not have a family tartan so I can choose what I like the most!!! Yey!!! There are several kiltmakers in Edinburgh and also some other fabric stores that carry tartans for half the price. And they have a good selection of tweeds too. Yes I think we have to bring the big suitcase... There´s also a book on how to sew a kilt that my online source does not have and that I will be looking for and then I will be having afternoon tea, haggis, fish and chips and maybee some whisky and beer and a lot of sightseeing My hallway is doing some progress instead of small pieces of wallpaper there are now just dust everywhere and I need to focus!

Resumé 2012, goals 2013

My goals for 2012 where: Focusing on a few key pieces I want to make a Odd Molly look alike knitted blazer using my knittingmachine A couple of nice dresses for summer There is that sampler sweather from Rowan that I´ve saved to do for 20 years and I want to make it with handspun yarns on the knittingmachine I would like some pieces that say "night", after work oriented that I could not wear to work, a little fancy stuff. I bought fabric for a blouse when visiting Annika and I will sew it next year. You can´t have too many shawles! More spinning There is a Vivienne Westwood skirt that I like to make. I adore both her and her clothes! I need a slip or two Have fun! Focusing on a few key pieces... well there where not much finished Odd Molly lookalike knitted blazer is still on the list,I punched some cards for the knittingmachine... A couple of nice dresses for summer turned into 1, the chambray dress The sampler sweather is still on my list and I´m spinning for it but is going to do the knitting by hand. Nighty pieces, no such thing Shawl Yes I did some of those and really nice ones too! I spun some yarn and will continue doing so, homespun is so nice I forgot all about the vW skirt, I made a Beignet though, and a very nice one I need a slip or to and I bought some, mostly due to not being able to find the fabric and It doesn´t matter becourse I love to wear them! and do so even when I don´t really need to So goals for next year: I want to make one or two really nice shirts, Nice dress for going to PR weekend San Fransisco Casual jacket for spring summer, have a Sandra Betzina pattern that I like I bought the Susan Kahlje class on craftsy so a really nice dress would be fun. Maybe something to shop for in SF Double and twined knitting I would like something a little retro, like the details of vintage clothing and since I don´t sew so much I might as well do nice things then I do Right now my hallway is in focus and I´m making progress Project 333 is going really good. I have not used all the clothing and have done 2 months now so one more month and then doing som switches and then planning for a spring- summer closet. and hopefully some sewing there... The best thing about it is that laundry is simplified Happy New Year!

Christmas again

I don´t salubrate christmas, I´m not religious, I don´t like swedish X-masfood and honestly I don´t need to eat a lot of chocolate... But what I like is the tradition of hanging electric stars and putting electric candle holders in the windows. And when januari comes I always tell myself that I should buy a lamp to put in the window and last year I did, so this year I kind of forgot to put the star up... Anyway I´m making progress in my hallway and have decided to have white walls, keep my white floor and paint the entrance door red, the same red as the wallpaper in my livingroom, let´s pretend I´m Elisabeth Arden for a while. I will buy a a closet maybee in black or oak. My horoscope is really good for next year. I´ll be falling in love with an old love in january, get very angry in july, get better work conditions after summer and I will also totally change the way I dress, hairdo ( that´s true, I´m still post chemo growing it) and I will change my makeup, the last thing is very exciting since I only wear mascara I havn´t been sewing for a while and I know my machine is somewhere behind all the things I moved from tha hallway waiting to be used, I plan to sew in the kitchen instead while waiting for the extra space I planned to rent in the basement of my appartment building. Still have some wallpaper that wants to go so Merry Christmas or Happy Hannuka everybody!

Shawls with and without beads

Some people stash sock yarn, I stash lace weights and I can+t get enought shawls

Lace shawls weight almost nothing fits all sizes are great with any outfit and I really like what beads can do to them and the thrill when blocking is unbeatable, they are so much more fun to knit that tearing down wallpaper....

Woooool

Tearing down the walls

I´m currently doing something I´ve never done before so I´m tearing down the wallpaper in my entryway. I´m not sure yet how I will style the room but I´m thinking of white walls and a closet to hide jackets and shoes

I have been spinning a little lately, This top is merino from a local craftstores outlet ( Panduro) and the other three are from Rain City Fiber Arts bought at Serial Knitter a local yarnstore somewhere close to Seattle. The fibers include yummies like yak and silk

And yesterday I started a new knitting project. I saw the cute cardigan from favourite designer Nygårdsanna in a magazine and picked the Holst yarn cone up and started knitting

333 444 or whatever....

I´m really obsessed with wardrobe planning and on the PR weekend in Barcelona Vibeke talked about the 333 challenge, to only use 33 items for three months including shoes and accessories. I put google to work and found out that you don´t have to count lingerie, atletic wear, lounge wear and jewelry like wedding rings... After googling a little more I found that you can really make your own rules... I will have to rework my list tomorrow. I have a lot of clothes and a lot of clothes that don´t fit and that I don´t want to wear. The worse part is that my limited storage space is full of stuff that I don´t use. No more!! Now my storage space is empty and my appartment is filled with bags of clothes...I take it as a new start and the thing is that I doubt that anybody will notice becourse I wear only a fraction of what I have. The wardrobe includes the two things I started after Barcelona, the half circle skirt and the drape top that Paco Peralta gave us as gifts...The cut on both are really clever and I´m using a rayon knit from Stof och Stil

Less is more

Lindex is a Swedish kind of H&M chain but a little more grown up style wise. This poncho sweather was found there

and after my restyling it looked like this:

SIP- Spin in Public 2012

We had a SIP this year at Form

I´m giving you a link to the english page. It´s in the middle of Malmö and really beautiful and inspirational This is my rock, it´s a Kromski Symphony and I have to admit I have not used it a lot the last year but after the SIP I´m at it again

This is me, Anna-Karin ( who tought me to spin)and Åsa, we are trying to get Åsas rock to spin, it´s an old rock that I think was her grandmothers, and it still worked

I´m wearing a vest from Zizzi with the back in croched and the front in fake fur and some trim and buttons, I had plans for making myself a fake fur vest but could not find the proper fur so Then I saw this one i bought it.

Look at my hair, this is how curly it is now after chemo! Oh and I almost forgot...The chairs are called "spin" too

One size fits all

I´ve not been sewing so much lately, and I have spent a lot of thought on why. One reason is that I can´t find the fabric I want so lately I started to buy clothes on thriftstores that have the potencial amount of fabric to be reused into something else and the proper content of natural fibers. It´s so hard to find rayon and cottons in nice pattern and weights. I´m also loosing weight and are going through my wardrobe and making different piles of stuff I want to keep and might use tha fabric, things that are to small now but will work in a couple of weeks etc. I´m also putting away summer clothes but since I´m going to Spain in a couple of weeks I have to save what I will wear then... I´ve been knitting a little. This cardigan from Drops has a beatiful kind of celtic braid in front,

I decided to do the borders mirror imagswise and missed

So using an old Yarnharlot tip I redid it

and now it´s perfect or at least as perfect it can gets pre soaking, I´m currently on the second sleeve, the yarn is a OOS superwash yarn bought from a colleage´s wife who used to have a yarnstore and still has some stock left

Missan has some favourite spots, one is behind my back when I sit on the couch, the white stuff is a crochet bedcover, croched in one piece with a swan pattern by my paternal grandma and used on my bed growing up.

October breast cancer month

So it´s time for the annual pink ribbon campaign. This year the ribbon is designed by Dagmar A swedish three sister act named after their paternal grandma. They do a lot of knits and have some interesting cuts on their clothes