27 December 2010

Pripreme, 3. deo / Preparations, Part 3

Apart from being two atheists celebrating two Christmases, this year we're having two Christmas trees as well :) An old, boring one, trimmed in red and gold (I'm showing you just a detail because I can't get far enough to take a photo of the whole tree),



and a new, modern one in red and silver.



A not so eco-friendly project for which we needed a branch and a metallic spray paint. OK, we used old newspapers for the stars and that's, unfortunately, the only green thing about this project. I hope we'll at least save it for next year.

Sorry about the crappy photos, both trees look much better in real life, especially with light shining onto the little disco balls and projecting tiny dots of light all over the walls and the ceiling. We used a torch (that's flashlight for Americans and Canadians) hidden at the base of the tree for that. And because the disco balls are so small, they move in the circulating air and so the tiny stars twinkle all the time. It's magical!

As for the woven paper stars, the tutorial can be found here, at Houserevivals blog.

23 December 2010

Pripreme, 2. deo / Preparations, Part 2

U ovom delu, 2 ekološka venčića.

In this part, 2 eco-friendly wreaths.

Jedan je napravljen od ostataka prethodnih projekata ("ostosa", kako bi bensedinart rekla :) ) - pletenica je bila neuspeli pokušaj pravljenja drški za jednu tašnu, crveni cvetovi su trebali da budu ukras na nekoj drugoj tašni ali ih na kraju nisam upotrebila - praktično jedino što sam naheklala baš za ovaj venac jesu 2 listića imele (po uputstvima iz 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet).

One is made from odds and ends I had lying around from previous projects - the braid was an unsuccessful experiment in bag handles, the red flowers were meant to be an embellishment on another bag but were not eventually used. Practically the only thing I made specifically for this wreath are the mistletoe leaves (from 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet).





A drugi je Springtime Wreath Lucy of Attic 24 koji je, kao što se vidi i iz imena i iz izgleda, više pristaje za neko drugo godišnje doba, ali nema veze. Koristićemo ga i za Uskrs :)

The second is Springtime Wreath by Lucy of Attic 24, which is, as you can see both from its name and its looks, more appropriate for a different season, but so what? We'll use it for Easter too :)



18 December 2010

Pripreme, 1. deo / Preparations, Part 1

Ja sam od onih koji ne veruju u Božić ali volim sve što je u vezi s njim: atmosferu, jelku, ukrase, kolače, poklone... I to toliko da ga slavimo čak dva puta: jednom po gregorijanskom, a drugi put po julijanskom kalendaru :) Za jednog ateistu - malo li je? Ove godine sam čak uspela da napravim i poneki ukras.

I don't believe in Christmas but I like everything related to it: the atmosphere, the tree, decorations, cookies, presents... And I like all this so much that we actually celebrate it twice: first by Gregorian (Western) calendar, and then by Julian (Eastern orthodox) calendar :) And all this coming from an atheist, lol! This year I even managed to make a few decorations.




Ovi Dropsovi podmetači za sveće (je l' zna kako se na crkvenoj sveći zove onaj obruč koji služi da spreči da vam vosak kaplje na ruku?) su mi zapali za oko još prošle godine. Vrlo su jednostavni i brzo se prave. Uputstva su data i za veliki i za mali podmetač.

These
bobèches (I had to look up the word - it's a ring placed around a candle to catch the drippings) by Drops caught my eye last year. They're very simple and very quick. The pattern includes instructions for both a large and a small bobèche.

veliki/large:



mali/small:



Ovi mali su nastali naknadno jer mi je, pošto sam napravila dva velika, ostalo još crvenog konca. Međutim, izgledali su pretamno na crnom svećnjaku pa sam odlučila da ih malo razveselim zlatnim koncem. Meni ovako svečanije izgleda. Kako se vama čini?

These small ones were an afterthought because after making two large ones I still had some red yarn left but it looked too dark on the black candlestick. So I decided to lighten it up a bit by adding a layer of gold colour. And a boring old candlestick that looked more suitable for a spooky Halloween dinner table got a new, more Christmassy look. Definitely an improvement, don't you think?

pre/before:


posle/after:

14 December 2010

I won some yarn! :)

I won the second round of Škrinja's giveway and look what I got! A lovely Russian merino wool yarn in fingering weight! In a gorgeous rich red colour! Thank you, Škrinja! I can already see a pair of gloves on my hands :)

13 December 2010

Moher / Mohair

(for the text in English, scroll down)

Kao što znate, završila sam nedavno onaj šal od mohera. To me ponukalo da napišem post o tom materijalu.


Sudeći po reakcijama pletilja, ljudi se obično dele na one koji ga vole i na one koji ga ne vole - retko ko je prema njemu ravnodušan. Bio je naročito popularan 80-ih godina prošlog veka kada je u modi bilo sve što je čupavo i paperjasto i ja ga tada nisam mnogo volela. Zapravo, nisam mnogo ni znala o moheru, osim da je čupav, da je prirodnog porekla i da ga nikako ne želim na sebi.

I onda sam rešila da razbijem kod sebe taj tabu i da naštrikam šal od mohera. Veliki korak, nema šta! :) I dalje mi to nije najomiljenije predivo, ali sam ipak malo smekšala prema njemu.

Elem, moher se dobija od angorske koze. Ova sorta koze poreklom je iz Turske i ime je dobila po glavnom gradu, Ankari, koji se ranije zvao Angora. Angorska koza ima dugu dlaku i meni, kao laiku, više liči na ovcu, verovatno upravo zbog tako dugog runa koje podseća na ovčije. Evo, procenite sami:


Photo by Erica Peterson (IMG_0168) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Photo by Sharon chestnutt at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons


Je l’ da da više liči na ovcu nego na kozu?

Ne treba je brkati sa angorskim zecom, čija se dlaka koristi u proizvodnji jednog drugog čupavog prediva, angore. A ni sa angorskom mačkom, naravno! ;)

Moher je vrlo lagan i vazdušast pa je dobar toplotni (a i zvučni) izolator. Osim toga, vrlo je otporan na vatru pa se često upotrebljava u materijalima za opremanje javnih prostora kao što su koncertne i pozorišne dvorane, hotelski lobiji i slično, mada se koristi i u proizvodnji tepiha i štofova za odela. Kada se od njega pravi vunica, često se kombinuje s nekim drugim vlaknom, prirodnim ili sintetičkim, koje služi da poveže i drži na okupu svilenkasti i vazdušasti moher. Kvalitet prediva zavisi od udela mohera i što je taj udeo veći, to je i vunica kvalitetnija.

Iako je moher vrlo mek, kažu da zna da iritira kožu kao i sva prirodna vlakna.



English text:
As you know, I recently finished that mohair wrap and that experience inspired me to write a post about mohair.



Judging by knitters’ reactions, people either like it or hate it – not many people are indifferent. It used to be very popular in the 1980s when it was fashionable to wear anything hairy and fluffy and I didn’t like it much then. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know much about mohair except that it is hairy, that it is a natural fiber and that I didn’t want it on my body.

And then I decided to break the taboo and make myself a mohair scarf. A bold move, don’t you think! :) It still isn’t my most favourite yarn but I have warmed up to it a bit. Anyway, mohair is obtained from the Angora goat. This breed originated in Turkey and is named after the Turkish capital, Ankara, formerly known as Angora. The Angora goat has a long-haired fleece and to me, as a non-expert, this animal looks more like a sheep than like a goat, probably because of its long hair. See for yourself:



Photo by Erica Peterson (IMG_0168) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Photo by Sharon chestnutt at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Doesn’t it look more like a sheep than like a goat?

It is not to be mixed up with the Angora rabbit, whose coat is used to produce another fluffy yarn, angora wool. Or with the Angora cat, of course! :)

Mohair is very light and airy, which means it is a good heat and sound insulator. Apart from that, it is highly resistant to fire, which is why it is often used for public places such as concert halls, theatres and hotel lobbies but it is also used in the production of carpets and cloths for men’s suits. When it is used to produce yarn, it is often combined with another type of fiber, natural or synthetic, which binds the silky and fluffy mohair and keeps it together. The quality of the yarn depends on the amount of mohair.

Even though mohair is very soft, they say it can irritate the skin, just like all natural fibers.

05 December 2010

Kaleidoskop / Kaleidoscope

It's been a while since I last mentioned scarves, no? Almost two months and no scarf-related posts on this blog! Well, the abstinence is over! The last scarf from the Scarf Odyssey post is finished! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Modern Quilt Wrap by Mags Kandis!



First of all , my thanks go to Magrit and Olga, without whom I wouldn't be able to get hold of 9 colours of Patons Misty that I needed for this project. Originally, the pattern calls for Rowan Kidsilk Haze, but I used Patons Misty because it was available. Well, sort of available, I still had to ask friends to dive into their stashes in order to supply me with the missing colourways :) As you can see, the original colours are much livelier and I wish I could have used those, but I got to like these too. Beggars can't be chosers!

Impressions? The pattern is great and it knits surprisingly quickly for such a thin yarn. Don't be fooled by it being listed as 'fingering'! I've never knit with anything so thin and frail. You constantly think the thread is going to break, that's how thin and fragile it looks. But looks can be deceiving - all you have to do is try to frog it and this almost invisible thread becomes the most stubborn son of a yarn! All the mohair fibers stick to each other and entangle and it's practically impossible to frog it without breaking it. As for the pattern itself, I really enjoyed it, but as I kept putting it aside to do other projects in the meantime, it took me about 2 months to finish. The whole scarf, and it is huge, used up only a little over half a 25-gram ball of each colour! It is as fine as a spider's web!



And before I finish, I have a confession to make. The abstinence from scarves mentioned at the beggining of this post means that I abstained only from blogging about scarves. I sinned, I confess! And I sinned in secret! I've made a shawl for my niece and started another scarf for myself! But more about that in one of the following posts :)