i'm going back to weaving!

when i went back to the magical randbøldal on wednesday evening, it was like coming home. and i wondered how it was i stayed away so long...sometimes we have to lose ourselves for awhile to find ourselves. i'm going to make a long runner for the kitchen. and it doesn't matter how long it takes.

a burst of color in the midst of a grey, dreary january

soft and supple, fabric-like goat leathers + a springbok hide in purple (i know it looks blue here, but it's really purple). i'm planning on making myself a new purse in these couple of weeks i have before i start my new job.

the leather store is a decidedly dangerous place. i couldn't resist these four hides. the dark purple is for lining the springbok purse. i'm not sure yet what i'll do with the others, but i intend to think of something. sometimes it just helps, having new supplies.

i got these rolls of bright felt to use as table runners on the dining table. amazing how a little color can brighten up these dull, january days.

we saw the sunshine today for the first time in several weeks. it was most welcome. and my stack of the new anna maria horner line (which i got from my sis for christmas) looked fetching in the late afternoon sunshine.

next weekend, we're having a weekend drink & draw at a friend's summer house, so i thought some new inks were in order. i also got some fabulous teeny tiny brushes in a higher quality than i'm accustomed to, so i'm going to be painting some stones while we're there.

and lastly, a bit of soft, snuggly alpaca to make a scarf. i'm going to venture away from my knit-stitch only knitting and actually try some other stitches! wish me luck!

i'm not sure there's anything that makes me as happy as having new supplies to make into something wonderful.

yarn porn and a few interesting links

i've bought yarn for this.

at my local yarn & bra shop.

as one does.
i got extraordinarily sweet and helpful service.
this photo doesn't do the yarn justice.
it's still a bit too dark outside.
but i'm impatient.

edited: here's a bit better shot.
but it never did get that light today.

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in light of recent intrigues events in the peyton place little town where i live, i thought that to comfort myself, i'd make a little list of the things i understand about danish culture after 15 years of living in the midst of it:

~ 

well, that was a short list. odd that one can become more bewildered as the years pass rather than more enlightened. actually, the problem isn't that i don't understand the danes, it's that i understand them very well and reject some of the tribe-like aspects of their cultural behavior. but that's something quite different. and it apparently provokes the hell out of them. 

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i adore the oatmeal. this is a seriously well-done sponsor post.

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the stern report got it wrong. it's way worse.

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rather disturbing insight into hitler's life through his own home movies. 

i'm not sure what i make of it - i'm intrigued by the story of the search for them and the finding of them,

but disturbed by the idyllic scenes of the movies themselves.

it does make one understand hannah arendt's banality of evil all the more.

weighing the good and the bad

husband has calcific tendonitis and can't use his right hand. he writes like a kindergartner with his left hand. i find it somehow very endearing. it's pissing down rain. i had a dull caffeine-induced headache all afternoon. i'm not sure if it was from not enough caffeine or too much. and have i mentioned the rain? the bunny chewed off a bunch of the nail polish from my thumb when i wasn't paying attention. the rain made the satellite dish go out (i think it may have drowned) and now that poor lawyer girl from philly will eternally be stuck with her old wardrobe. the dishes are piling up in the sink because i don't feel like doing them and husband can't with his gimp hand. i want to say that it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but i already used that previously and i'm supposed to be getting my edge back, not repeating myself...in all, it was a tuesday that felt like a monday. and i'm glad it's over.

scenes from a gathering of vikings

it was a glorious, sunshiney day for a visit to the viking market at the viking harbor museum in bork havn. 250 people who spend their summers dressing and living as vikings (if you don't count the campers i saw out back) gathered and sold traditional viking wares - hand-dyed yarns, ironwork, jewelry, bows and arrows, hides and the like. we came away with a lovely bow and some safe-for-children arrows for sabin, a bit of hand-dyed embroidery thread, a couple of skeins of yarn and a lot of ideas. we tried to buy a viking "stove," - handmade by one of the viking blacksmiths, but none of them seemed to be for sale (we encountered the same with several of the arrows sellers had on hand) - they were for their own use and not for sale (making me wonder why they were there with a stall, ostensibly to sell, but i digress). but here are some highlights. i definitely wouldn't mind spending my summer this way...

viking yarn candy - all hand-dyed with natural plant dyes.

clothing fit for a viking. i did wonder if the main audience for many of the stalls was the other vikings

mmm, food fit for a viking - a pancake with tart forest berries,
served in a smart, environmentally-friendly wooden bowl with wooden fork.

more yarn candy, tho' the woman here admitted she was a cheating viking since she had used some dyes from south america and the vikings wouldn't have done that (the pinks and purples came from those).
i wanted to be good, but i did buy two shades of gorgeous purple from the far left.

we will definitely be getting one of these at some point.
tho' oddly and totally against the viking spirit of trade and commerce,
the ones we saw were not for sale.

the tools of the trade - if you're a viking jeweler

pretty shiny beads make lovely viking jewelry.

see, i can take pictures of random people in public.
but apparently only if they're not facing me.

another of those fabulous viking stoves - one of these WILL be mine even if i have to take a welding course myself to get it.

beautiful baskets. and yes, another people picture!

more yarn candy - and look at that embroidery!

a feast fit for a viking.

i definitely NEED one of those bread dough bowls.

look at that baby viking.

and another adorable baby viking. isn't she sweet?

crocheting and blog camp and gratuitous yarn porn

learning to crochet granny squares

elizabeth and her family came to visit today and thankfully, they brought the sunshine with them. it actually hasn't rained here at our house since they were here. and that's a good thing. i'm really, really tired of this rainy, cold summer and could definitely use some consistent sunshine. especially as tomorrow is the solstice  and i would like to be able to see the sun in all its glory. so let's hope it holds!

beautiful crocheted basket liner by elizabeth + pears in the evening light of our terrace.

elizabeth is able to crochet anything she likes without the use of a pattern or most of the sight in her right eye. thanks to her expert tutelage, i am now crocheting granny squares with that yarn stash of which i have been so proud (see below). i hope to achieve elizabeth's facility with crochet one day, but at the moment, i'm having a few challenges figuring out exactly when it is you change colors (please tell me this is normal and if it's not, please keep the sniggering to a minimum) on the granny square, so i'm thinking they'd look quite nice all in one color. and do they really have to be exactly square?

yummy yarn stash

elizabeth brought a wonderful gift that's meant for the next blog camp, which is fitting, since it was one year ago today that we were enjoying the first blog camp! and the sun shined the whole time! so the danish summer is capable of being a good one. and i was supposed to have learned to crochet already back then.

back row: polly (who isn't polly) and marie (who isn't blogging anymore)
front row: b, me, sabin and extranjera

thinking of all of the good and creative people and things the blogosphere has brought to my life and feeling pretty grateful.  i think it's going to be a very good week.

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oh, and since it's father's day, i wrote a little something to my dad over here.

scenes from an atelier: by sabin, age 9

i turned sabin loose with the cameras at my weaving teacher's atelier this afternoon and these were the results...

pencils await inspiration to strike.

a peek through a plant at the beautiful, unique, fish-laden woven window panels.

jewel-toned materials await their chance to be used.

wool in waiting.

i'm just blown away by the child's natural eye for composition. these photos were all taken with the nikon D60, but she took quite a few with the nikon D300 as well, tho' at first she complained that it was too heavy. afterwards, she said, "mom, now i like the "big camera" best and it doesn't even seem heavy anymore."

more about paul's beautiful works in the coming days...i have to process both my photos and my thoughts about his unique and wonderful work.

on memory and forgetting and taking a picture every day

because you can never have too much yarn porn.

january 1, i started a 365 photo-a-day project. and, in consultation with many of your good selves, i created a flickr group to support it and for us to have a place to share our photos and give feedback to one another, with the idea of improving our photography. in the initial, heady days of january, it was so much fun! it seemed like the year would fly by and the inspiration would continue to flow like a fountain. all these people who knew one another from the blogosphere and a few new ones joined in and we became friends. and everyone learned and made explore and was happy.

then february struck. most of those in the group live in the northern hemisphere, so it was the darkest, coldest, most dreary part of the winter and it was hard. now it's march and spring is taking its sweet time in coming, at least where i live. there are days when i look outside at the aging snowbanks and the bare trees and i think, "i can't possibly take a  picture of anything worthwhile today." but then i take a wander around the house or i look at the photos the others in the group have taken and i feel inspired by something someone else photographed, and i get through it. because i promised myself i would. and my promises to myself have to mean something. and you reach a point where you keep doing it BECAUSE it's hard and because doing things that are hard can be good for you, and because it makes you buy fresh flowers on a regular basis.

my reasons for doing this have already changed in the 75 days it's been running. at the beginning, if i'm  honest, i wanted to show off my ability to take breathtaking pictures and develop more consistency in that. now, i realize that such a project is more about documenting what's going on in my life. and i admit that it's most decidedly not breathtaking on a daily basis. some days, i use my iPhone (thank goodness i've got hipstamatic and camerabag and other apps to make that more interesting). when the weather gets good, i'm going to use some of my film cameras (they're best at outdoor photos). i realized that a profound macro of the inside of my cat's ear doesn't actually help me document my life on a daily basis, so i've worked at pushing myself away from those and towards things that will help me remember what was going on and what was important to me at a particular moment in time. i think ultimately i'll find that this project is about memory for me.

the other reason i did this was to be more mindful of the world around me. to notice things. to see differently. last year at about this time, i got on a total eyeball kick, which i later realized was about my wanting to SEE differently. having to take a photo every day makes me look differently at the world.

i'll admit it's hard for me not to see the current exodus from the group as a personal rejection of sorts, despite endless explanations to the contrary, but i'm trying. and until i can forget about it, that's all i can do.in the meantime, it makes me quite sad to see people give up and leave us, whatever their reasons. but although i'll admit it shakes my conviction, especially because it's people i love and respect, i remain committed. after all, i read recently about a guy who took a picture every single day from 1979 'til his death in 1997. now THAT's commitment.

if you're not now totally put off the idea of taking a photo every day and you'd like to join us, please check out the blog camp 365 group on flickr. it's never too late to start!

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and the picture at the top? what does it have to do with all of this? well, it was one of THOSE days, where i took what felt like 600 pictures of the new yarn that i'm going to use to make granny squares after kristina and ulrika teach me this coming weekend, and i wasn't pleased with how any of them turned out. but then, i played with them in lightroom and i think this one came out ok. a process that was good for me and which framboesa talks about very thoughtfully here.

proof of progress

march 7

march 9

march 11

march 13

i'm especially pleased with that row of yellow. it's some yarn i bought last summer at the viking fair in roskilde. it's hand-dyed with natural plant dyes - gyldenris as it's called in danish (not sure what that is in english).  the colors are slightly less vibrant than this in real life. i've got the saturation dialed up a notch (or two) in my camera at the moment.

i should have bought the entire basket of this yarn dyed with natural plant dyes

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 a big congratulations to molly, my very first follower, and long lost sister in south africa. 

she just had a beautiful baby girl.