Today´s entry, mostly in swedish

Jösses anåda! I dag har jag uträtta storverk! Storverk av det slag som får en att bara vilja utföra fler, större, bättre högre - ja ni hajar. Jag har färgat garn till min materialsats. Det blå blev egentligen alldeles för mörk och den orangea lite fööör - skall vi säga köttfärs? Inte helt lyckat - men SÅ trevligt. När jag blir stort skall jag färga mer garn. Massor med mer. När jag blir stor och bor i Bohuslän och har en massa snälla får. Då jäklar i min lilla låda. Då ska jag färga. Ska fota lite i morgon. Så här dags får små Erikor nämligen inte alls vara vakna.

Dagens lärdom: Köttfärseffekten uppstår när garnet är för mörkt. Det borde man (Erika) ha lärt sig för flera år sedan (när den nu mera klassiska Köttfärs-kyperten uppstod vid en omsjungen krappfärgning på Björkö - inte ens ett offer bestående av en flaska bättre norditalienskt rödtjut kunde ordna detta...).

Jag kanske går dit och smygfärgar nästa vecka. Smyyyyyyg.
______________________

Well. Maybe a short summary then! I spent the day dyeing yarn for my exam, although I managed to get the perfect pink/brown shade of minced meat on one of the skeins. I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow. Dyeing makes me happy. It makes me feel like an alchemist.

Something that makes me sad though! Yesterday I was not able to attend the opening on the exhibition on the collaboration between Camilla Engman and Karin Eriksson. I hope you had a grand opening and that there will be a print or two and maybe a bowl left for me next week...

Fabrics

All pictures above comes from the Purl Soho website and just happened to fall into my shopping cart. I have not bought them . Yet.

So. I had a lot of things to do today. Such as applying for some classes for this autumn, talking to my physician, writing a review of an artexhibition for Kravallslöjd, knitting at my swatches and so on. The applicationpart took me a bit over three hours. Hours I did not have, and the most frustrating thing of it all was when I finally got the verification on my application (after those three hours) the application website was updated with a message that the nationalapplicationdate has been moved to this friday. Grrr. Well. At least I am finished with my applications now. There are only evening, distance or part-time classes since I really want to work this autumn, but there is always room for learning something new. Got a suitable JOB for me, anyone? Part-time, fulltime - anything goes. Just e-mail me :-)

And also: Here is a link to a swedish article in Nerikes Allehanda
(showing a photograph of my friend Eva) on the workshop with Pasi Välimaa we attended this last Saturday.

Home again.

I got home from Eskilstuna this afternoon. I had a wonderful time; long walks, a workshop with textileartist Pasi Välimaa at the library in Kumla this Saturday, time to knit at my degreeproject, to sketch and to attend a quiltmeet at Haneberg. I dived into Evas scraps, stripes and threads and made something, quilted it by hand and made a cover/cozy for my PC. I think I caught the bug. The quilt and patchworkbug. Perhaps it was always there, but I sure have seizure at the moment.

I will post some pictures from the workshop later.

Valdar got me some flowers when I was away.

Birds, baskets and a whole lot of knitting.

Above: Wirebaskets by Eva snd a kingsfisher carved by Nicke. Pictures from Hand och Tanke

Yesterday I left Stockholm to spend a couple of days in Näshulta outside Eskilstuna at the Svensson-Helldorff residence. I will be back late this weekend, hopefully showing you a handcarved bird or two, some of my knitting-in-progress and some wirework by Eva.

The hightlight of the day was having lunch outside on the patio. Spring! Finally!

Corners of my home

Today, some corners of our home. Preparing lunch and noticing the colours. Greens, beige and whites. The geranium I received yesterday with my grant. Finally getting to decorating the wall above my side-board in our bedroom next to the part I use as a workspace.

The word GOD means lots of things i swedish: fair, sweet, nice, good - and is therefor a good word. My dear friend Eva Svensson - who makes beautiful things in wire - made this and I will ask her for more.

I have tried to sleep of a persistent headache, without any luck. Not even the Tom ka gai-soup helped. Maybe a nice cup of coffee and a good friend will?

Tired and happy!

What a day! I started by spending the morning at Skansens klädkammare. It is sort of an open collection - not a museum - where they not only keep clothes from different timeperiods and areas to show and keep traditions and tecniques, but they also use some of the items in the different farmsteads and scenes in the Openair museum. So, if you wish study some part of this collection - be it a certain tecnique or a certain garment you can apply to do so. I studied everyday knitted garments. The pictures above shows of to of my new friends from today. The one on top is a coat knitted in one of the most traditional Binge patterns. The next picture shows a detail from a 1940´s cardigan. Plain and very beautiful.

After lunch it occured to me that the had a Fabricsale at Klädkammaren. So I stayed. And bought some fabrics. Mostly scraps and small pieces but also larger pieces. Perhaps I will show you some of them tomorrow!

And then, this evening I attended the annual meeting of Stockholms Läns Hemslöjdsförening and received a grant! I will use this grant to develope a set of classes on different craft-tecniques. I am honoured and very happy about this encouragement!

I hope you had a nice monday!

Excursion

I am soon of to Ann-Kristin and her craftshop in Norrtälje - Tyllra. This will be my first visit and I will have time to ask her some questions concerning my project and probably some knitting aswell, Lady E is my travelcompanion of the day.

Hi there. This is a message from Erika. She is sleeping, this is her hand typing.
She started her degree project (is that the correct word for it?) yesterday. Today she spent about six hours looking at mittens. That´s luxury for you! And she listened to a song about a hundred times, maybe the Best Song Ever.

It´s from the soundtrack of Once that I - well Erika - mentioned the other day and it is called "Falling Slowly". Another recommendation from the Wynjacraft recorddepartment is of course the collaboration album "Raising Sand" by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Every track is a masterpiece!

Bye

If in Stockholm:
Undersöka form, Etnografiska museet, 125 kvadrat, Mikaela Willers and Blå porten