CostumeHistory

In 2024 I encourage you to read specific genres of literature. August 2024 theme is history.  For the challenge I read a book I borrowed from work. It is Finnish but has text also in English. It is publication of National Board of Antiquities: Costume in Finland 1750-1900. Not too thick and published in 1996 but full of facts and actually not outdated. History is a very wide genre because it can be history of anything. In this case it is costume history. If history is not your passion but fashion is, costume history is an interesting topic to read publications about history!

Cards

I have made few more cards. I used partly up-cycled materials. This card has a cut off from a magazine. It was a full page photo.

This card has the other half of the photo. I think both half parts are as pretty! I make cards for the environmental reasons and use as much up-cycled material as possible. But the other reason is financial. Cards cost a lot here in Finland. Usually at least 5€. When I do it myself I save at least 4€ per card, usually more. And they are unique and individual like the love ones to whom I make them!

This is a small card & gift that has started its journey to overseas. The card has a cut off from a magazine. The bookmark is from a kit that was included with a magazine I once bought.

The bookmark has a pretty tassel to decorate it. Mix and match seems to work just fine. I think a beautiful bookmark is a good gift. I always cherish and use the ones I've received.

I've found a treasure at our library clearance sale where they sell books they don't need anymore. I paid 0,20€ from this one. We have it already at our home library but I bought it for card making. It includes fabulous pages for up-cycling. 

This is an interesting birthday card for a person interested about dinosaurs and dragons; and who can speak Finnish. 😅

Chiengora

This is 100% hand spun chiengora (dogwool). It is made of our own dog wool from our own dogs Nuka and Pii. It is going to be something extremely warm for a hunter. It is a slow process because I do it on my free time. I do have 2 more skeins resting. They need to rest for a couple of weeks before I twine them to balls. I won't dye any of this yarn. It will stay in its natural shades from white via beige to black.

BobbinLaceJourney

In my previous blog post I was a bit lost and missed my teacher but managed to correct my mistakes and go on.

I was able to finish the tiny bobbin lace project. It was my 4th practice. I started to learn bobbin lace 14.9.2023. After the start I did my 2nd practice a bit longer than asked. And because I once forgot my bobbin lace equipment at home and picking it up would have meant 1 hour extra drive I chose to start an extra project by borrowing community college's equipment. That's why I did the extra practice. 

And that is how come this project with corners and turns ended up to be my 4th instead of 3rd practice. I am happy with it and learnt a lot with it.

My blog has been silent for a while in August. The reason is I had to get ready for my course at Valamo Monastery college. There was 5 days long very intensive bobbin lace course I participated on. It is 6 hours drive away from home but it all was worth of it. 

At Valamo I started to learn to make Idrija lace. This is my 1st ever practice of it. I had to use totally wrong thread to get started but that was ok and very educative. This should be a mushroom with Idrija flower. It do is but looks like a mushroom with acne and abscess with a sea star on it. And then they all got run over by a truck and dried. 😂 But I am proud of myself because you can see all the elements there!

Here is my 2nd practice of Idrija lace. By the start my teacher had found me the right thread from her cottage (she didn't bring things with her because she had sent us email about the materials and equipment we need to bring but the email never reach any of us). You can see the difference very well. When you are a beginner it matters a lot that you have exactly the right equipment and materials for your learning. Doing this practice was so much easier than the 1st one because I had already practiced by the totally wrong thread. I am very happy with this project. Now I have my 3rd Idrija lace project going on. That one you will see later...

Anyway, the intensive course was great and now I feel instead of doing bobbin lace only for a year I feel I have done two years course. 

MissMyTeacher

Today I took my bobbin lace base out off my hobby bag. This is the back side of the base. The fabric cover is a thin jersey fabric that is a left over material from my sport shirt project in 2015. 😅 The pattern of the cover is just a round circle and has an elastic band to make it a sheet like cover which I can easily take off and wash.

I miss my bobbin lace teacher and hope the notes she gave me and the words I wrote were good and rationale enough to guide me through my first ever table cloth bobbin lace project with corners and turns.

I made the arch of the edge on the course. The course end in April. For the next I needed to make the heart (orange arrow) and spider (red arrow)... on my own all alone. The first half of the heart was easy but with the spider I needed to think for a moment.

The instructions were simple and good so I managed to finish the spider quite easy. Which of course lead to the fact that I made a mistake in easier heart at its end half. I noticed I had made a mistake only when finishing it (4 orange arrows) because I had not enough bobbins left. That lead to the point about which I always remind my own students: you can make it only if you can fix it. 

So, I took all my patience out off my hobby back and stared to see if I can first find the mistake, then unravel it and at the end to do it again without a mistake. I managed to find the mistake and unravel the lace to get into the mistake point. I took these pics especially for all of you to show we all make mistakes and it is ok. Making mistakes is actually something I want my students to do when they start to learn new skills. You can learn so much and quite fast from the mistakes. If it is not up to life and death, the mistakes should be accepted and given the educational value they are about. Also, understanding it and doing so is good for mental health. 

Yeppee! Here it is done again. It is better that the 1st one because its done twice!!! 😂 I am proud of myself. I missed my teacher but am happy I learnt it all and still hear her words in my mind about learning to make bobbin lace.

This is where I park it for tonight to wait the next moment to make the next arch of the edge. The Finnfoam base is excellent and chap option for making bobbin lace. Anything into which you can put pins does just fine... as long as it is thicker than the needles are high... If you use a base like this you don't need to buy an expensive bobbin lace making pillow. And on a base like this it is easier to make table cloths and things like that which need wider area. 

NotYet

 

I was wrong. I told you that after finishing this you will see the complete rag rugs I've woven. I found out I can still weave one more rag rug. 

Pii is my loyal assistant. She lives behind the loom... and partly behind my desk, as you can notice from the pic above. It is her nest, her own place and she doesn't like the distribution but she doesn't mind me to step over her every now and then when I need to get behind the loom. 💕

When I finished another rag rug I realized I can do even one more. So after finished this one I have already chosen the materials for the next one. Which I will start -obviously- tomorrow. 

I actually didn't know nor realize how much rug fits around the cloth roller of my loom. I had my loom in 2016. I have used them. But I actually have never before had this much around the cloth roller. There is over 10 m of finished rag rugs around the roller. I have always taken my loom as small one but they are small only what comes to the size and width compared to traditional Finnish looms. 

The Reading Challenge No8

 The Reading Challenge 2024 is here!

On 2024 I encourage you to read books in different genres. No other rules but the genre. The meaning is to introduce different kind of literature and authors to yourself. But, you can still choose your favorite one if the genre is familiar to you. Notice, you can always drop out the book if you dislike it. It is highly recommended to use second hand books, borrowed books and your local library collection. If possible, read in all the languages you can. Also, don't be afraid of to pick up a book you have already read in the past. The second round at different age may bring you new experiences. 

August 2024 theme is HISTORY!

What history? Which history? You decide. As long as it is up to history. It can be very mind capturing when you choose a subject that fascinates you or you are passionate to. It can be a full fat book with thousands of pages or just a short essay about some specific topic. I think the first lesson to learn in this genre is to remove your attitude about it that history books are only big & fat and very extremely sleepy. If it feels so, you've chosen the wrong book and you need to pick up another one!