A post in which one thing goes from good to bad

You remember that mohair scarf for which I had to trawl the whole country in order to find 9 different colours? Well, as it turned out, only about half of each skein was eventually needed so I ended up with 9 tiny feathery wisps of very thin mohair yarn, whose future, after the project was finished, looked bleak at best. They seemed destined to spend the rest of their lives at the bottom of one of those three plastic boxes in which I keep my stash. Nine sad little mohair wisps.

But as I'm trying to destash, they got lucky! (or so it seemed at the time...) The colours I had clearly fell into two categories: pastels and Christmas. So I took the five pastels (upper row) and started knitting a scarf... Yes, I know, I made a vow to cut down on scarves but what else can you knit with 5x8 grams of mohair yarn? As it turned out, you can't even knit this, but when I realized, it was too late, the scarf was already finished. And this is how it looked:




Soft and light like a breeze. I know it's a literary cliche but it really felt like a sea breeze against your skin. Fluffy and feathery and wonderful. True, it came out too short but with a clever knot or with a help of a scarf pin, it could have been worn. Could have been, yes, had I not turned it into this:





A jumbled, clotted mass of felted mohair! You can't even unfold it! What was I thinking? Where was my mind wandering while I was putting it in the washing machine? I'd really like to know because it must have been a wonderful place if it made me forget it's mohair, for goodness' sake! It cannot be machine-washed!

To make matters worse, it was supposed to be a birthday present for a little girl. Now, I know mohair is no yarn for little kids, but her Mum really liked it :) Now I don't have a birthday present either! What a sad ending for 5 little wisps of mohair...

Needle felting

After the epic disaster last year, felting has been a no-go area for me. And understandably so, considering the miserable result of the aforementioned disaster! I reconciled myself to the fact that it was not my craft and that it would stay out of bounds forever. But then, some time ago, I could hear a little worm gnawing away my determination. Silently, gradually, out of nowhere, a thought was forming: how about needle felting? I mean, it's still felting but it's a completely different technique. And it involves needles. And I'm good with needles.... And then the right project came along - a plain, k3xp3 ribbed grey scarf for a girl that needed some but not much embellishment.

Now, although this is far from perfect, I daresay it already looks much more promising :)

Noć muzeja / Night of Museums

For this year's Night of Museums (also known as the Long Night of Museums) we found ourselves in Zrenjanin, where there were not as many events as in Novi Sad or Belgrade (or elsewhere in Europe, for that matter) but nevertheless, we enjoyed it a lot. What I like about the Night of Museums is the festive atmosphere, which, it is true, does not exactly contribute to one's ability to appreciate works of art at leasure, in peace and quiet generally found in museums in galleries, but it does stir some artistic activity in sleepy little towns such as Zrenjanin. And it draws people out. To see so many people go out in the cold and wind and driving rain just to go to the exhibitions was really good. Yes, many of them raced through the exhibitions as if only to put a tick on their list, without paying too much attention to the exhibits themselves, but these people would have never visited these places had it not been for the Night of Museums. Let's hope that at least some beauty brushed against them in the process.

We had two little kids with us so the choice of venues was limited. Among these, Zlatinka Kovačev's wool dolls were a definite highlight for me:



There were many more dolls, most of them mythological creatures, but it was crowded and we couldn't get decent photos. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a page I could link to or any relevant information about the author.

Upustovani vanzemaljac / Felted alien

I subotu smo bensedin art i ja bile na kreativnoj radionici o pustovanju, tj. filcovanju. Na njenom blogu možete pročitati detaljniji prikaz i pogledati fotografije, među kojima je i slika prelepog lista koji je ona napravila. Bilo je odlično i dobro smo se provele tapkajući vunu, do lakata u vrućoj vodi i sapunici. Bilo je prelepih radova, sa cvetnim, geometrijskim, alfabetskim i drugim motivima. Međutim, kad je došlo vreme da se prikažu gotovi radovi, ispostavilo se da moj rad ne liči ni na šta do na vanzemaljca iz Rozvela! Ako mislite da preterujem, možete se i sami uveriti ako pogledate fotografiju:

On Saturday bensedin art and I went to a felting workshop. You can read about it and see some photos on her blog, including a photo of a beautiful leaf she made. I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a good time soaked in hot water and soapsuds. There were some truly beautiful designs involving flowers, geometrical shapes, symbols of all kinds, letters and what not. But when the finished pieces were revealed, mine turned out to resemble the Roswell alien. If you think I'm exaggerating, check for yourself:



Iskreno, zar nije ovo nešto najružnije što ste ikad videli?!

Honestly, isn't this the ugliest thing you've ever seen?!

Doduše, dobila sam krpicu na kojoj je već bila iscrtana šema pa me je mrzelo da crtam svoju. Reko' nema veze, to je ionako samo proba, nebitno je kako će izgledati. Ali svejedno! Pošto je korišćenje makaza najstrože zabranjeno u tradicionalnom pristupu ovoj tehnici, morala sam krišom da mu ošišam kosicu, da ne vidi učiteljica. To mu je donekle popravilo izgled, ali ipak nisam uspela da se izvučem - kad sam došla kući, muž mi je umro od smeha kad ga je video. Prva reč koju je uspeo da izgovori bila je 'elijen'! Ako ništa drugo, bar imamo iste asocijacije, hehehe!

Truth be said, I was given a cloth that already had this pattern on it and I couldn't be bothered to draw my own. But still! As the use of scissors is forbidden in traditional felting, I had to hide from the presenter to cut its 'hair' off. It was a slight improvement but still my husband laughed his head off when he saw it. The first word that he managed to pronounce inteligibly was 'alien'. At least we think alike, lol!

In conclusion, I think it'll suffice to say this is not my craft. Don't worry, I promise to stick to machine felting!