Visitors and pretty dresses

A bunny the size of my fist. And my hands are small.

 
We had a little Easter visitor here on Monday. It tried very hard to remain invisible there in the empty flowerbed just in front of our door. Smart, because we all kept an eye on it until its parents came back. Last summer they were not as lucky when they hid their baby in our garden, and my cat found it instead of me. The downside of evidently having a rabbit family in the garden is that now I have to worry about them every minute I'm outside with kitties.

Remember when I said I would be going away for the weekend? Well I did. Checked out Stockholm and two exhibitions there with my very good friend Malike: Voudou at the Ethnographic Museum and Lust and Vice at the National Museum. I especially loved the voudou exhibition; I've always said that voudou would be my religion of choice if I was a religious type. It's inclusiveness, lack of a black-and-white worldview, as well as shamanistic aspects appeal to me.

And don't forget really, really awesome paraphernalia.

Luckily for my wallet all the yarn shops of Stockholm were closed, but I did make some pretty spectacular finds at one of the local Beyond Retro stores. I went there looking for a dress to modify for a certain event later this year, and against all odds actually found one:

It's as if it was made for me, the fit is perfect, which means that I won't have to do any sewing alterations to it. It's from a California-based teen label, All That Jazz, and I would date it to the 90's. Meaning that I won't feel bad about putting a ton of sequins on it. It says dry-clean only, but I have this urge to just toss it in the washer. What's the worst that could happen? It's just nylon and rayon after all. Maybe just a gentle cold cycle. Would the lace suffer for it? Any suggestions?

The next item is the real treasure. I saw it, squealed a lot, looked at the price tag, squealed even more (still out of delight), put it on, squealing the whole time because it looked like it just might fit, had to call Malike over to button it up and then almost fainted because it was just so perfect.




It's hand-made, I'm thinking someone's wedding dress from the 50's judging by the length. You can't really see it from the pic but it's deliciously creamy and the hem is ragged and stained - hence the very generous pricing. The hem is exactly why I fell in love with it, it gives it an air of decaying romance which I find very hard to resist*. Apart from the hem it is in fabulous shape. It has 27 little buttons in the back.

Why yes, I do need someone to dress me!

The neckline is a lovely shape and has a lace edging. The bust has that 50's conical shape, but it's easily fixed. A couple of the buttons are a little bit loose, too, but that's really all I have to do with it. I'm considering letting the side seams out just a little bit to put less pressure on the buttons, but it depends on how easy that would be.

Apparently I am exactly the shape and size of 50's women because this is not the first time something roughly from that era fits me like a glove. If I was wearing a conical bra, that is.

It was very productive weekend trip, as you can see. I even finished the secret knitting project I mentioned, thus probably breaking some sort of a record. If you think there's no way you're the recipient and simply cannot wait for me to publicly post pictures, go here.

I went thrifting again yesterday (I may or may not have a problem with that) and, among other things for new, exciting projects, found this gorgeousness:

Pretty pretty pretty pretty!

A 50 gram skein of beautiful, shiny yarn in an intensive, bright, burnt orangey red. I'm guessing mercerized cotton, viscose or a blend, but it's hard to tell. And the weight? We're talking about sewing thread thin. It's crazy. I could make a shawl out of this thing. The thinnest, most delicate shawl ever. Or tons and tons of lace edging. Or socks.

* I blame the 1986 film Snow Queen, which I quite frankly think is one of the best and most visionary Finnish films ever. I had a massive crush on the robber princess, who in retrospect is definitely the weakest link in the whole damn film. But she was really cool when I was 4! You can actually watch the whole film on YouTube. It has influenced me immensely, aesthetically.

Thrifted treasures

It probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone that I like thrift stores. I love looking for, and finding, treasure. Mostly treasure I can turn into something else. I've been obsessed with little porcelain cups and plates for a while, ever since I started my teacup collection. (What, I didn't tell you about my teacup collection yet? You can rest easy, that's a post for another day.) Teacup collection soon spread into a saucer collection, and then plate, teapot, sugar pot and creamer collections... you get my drift. All this has gained more purpose recently when I started picking up pretty candle holders, too.

Take a couple of pretty, similar but not matching plates and saucers, add a bit of epoxy (and fix other broken stuff while you're at it) and you have fancy-pants multi-layer cake plates:

Pretty, no? They're quite sturdy, too. Perfect for mad teaparties.

It's always fun to go thrifting with some actual goals in mind, but equally pleasing to see surprising potential in something frivolous and almost free. Like this for example:

It's a little plastic frame that looks like leather with pictures of what I can only surmise is some sort of a crime family lead by an evil naked baby. To hide the atrocity I went through a collection of old photographs and printed three out on photograph paper.

Now that's what I call improvement! It still needs a bit of cleaning up and perhaps a lace trim. We will see.

In knitting news I started an exciting new project and cast on Roxanne Mystery Shawl from Feministy. Two clues have been released, but there's plenty of time to catch up! I'm not going to spoil by posting pics until the whole thing is done, but if you're curious, you can see the result of the first clue on my Rav project page. Mystery knitting is always fun, I heartily recommend it! Even if you don't like the result you can always gift it to someone who will. I myself intend to like this one, because I lack a nice soft shawl I can wear next to skin, and purple is just my color.

The only downside is that you have to wait for the clues. Hence another project, because I'm going away for the weekend. And what is a weekend away without knitting? Nothing, I tell you, nothing! This one's going to be a present, though, so no links or pics for you! It's another shawl, that's all I'm going to say about that now.

Pushing buttons

I continue recovering, although it feels painfully slow. My main occupation is still being a snot factory and I get exhausted quickly, but every day sees improvement. The goal is to be able to dance and wrestle by the weekend and if that doesn't happen, then I'll complain.

In the meanwhile I've been finding pleasure where I can. When my mother came by to bring me supplies over the weekend she brought me the greatest thing a sick person could ever wish for: a bag full of buttons. No, not that kind of buttons.

These kind of buttons.

I know! Amazing, right? There must have been over a kilogram of them. It effectively doubled my button collection. Oh... didn't I tell you about my button collection? Well you're in luck! You can just let go of the reins because those horses are gone.

Some years ago, when started seriously obsessing over crafting in 2007 or so, I realized that whenever I needed buttons for something I had to go out and buy some. And as most of you probably know, buttons are damn expensive, and it's hard to find the perfect ones. So I decided that any self-respecting crafter should have a button collection and started systematically picking up nice ones from craft wholesales, trips and thrift stores. (Of course this thinking spread and now I have pretty extensive supplies of pretty much everything). Then my mother (love you mom!) found this amazing old sewing box full of knitting needles and lace and buttons and everything sort of got out of hand.

That right side? The one that doesn't shut anymore? Yeah... that's my button drawer.

So I have been sorting the buttons little by little. I have a system you see: First I separate the ones there are two or more of and tie them together using sewing thread. If there are perfectly identical ones in different colors or sizes I sometimes tie them all together. Then I assort the rest according to color and store them in ziplock bags. It's like building a jigsaw puzzle. Especially the hundreds of nearly identical little white buttons closely resembled the sky parts of certain 1500 piece puzzles.

This is about half of the bag.

And every now and then I would run into something fabulous and go "OMG MUST BLOG ABOUT THIS BUTTON!" I would blame the fever, but let's just face it: I get really pumped up about buttons. So do you want to see the Best Of? Of course you do! Why else would you be there if not for morbid curiosity or desperate procrastination and I know that at this point, anything goes!

Item number one: Occultists have uniforms? Who knew!

If you really want to avoid doing something right now, find out what that is. Is it a khamsa, protection from the evil eye? Some freaky Danish coat of arms (it's made in Copenhagen)? What ever it is, it's pretty cool. Too bad there's just one.

A measuring tape for your convenience and amazement.

Next, tell me these aren't the most precious thing you've ever seen. They are mother of pearl and about 6mm in diameter. They are tiny and absolutely gorgeous and wouldn't seem out of place in a dollhouse. Here are some other favorites:

Glass flowers! Pretty as ice.

Tiny blue stripes!

That on the bottom right? IT'S A LITTLE HAT!

Hand-painted!

Tentacles!

Probably some berries, but they really remind me of cells and blood vessels.

I'll admit that most of my more eccentric buttons are going to be hard to use because personally I tend to favor simple, basic forms, like these steel ones I searched high and low and paid way too much money for, on my dropkick cardi:

Autumn photoshoots: I need more of them.

Or these on my first and favorite cardigan (click for better picks on Raverly): simple but the colors slide from bright yellow to deep red (picked up from Edinburgh, actually):

Also featured: droll colors and my squid dress.

So far I have always chosen buttons for a project, but with my current selection I think I should start designing projects for buttons. These, for instance, would look very pretty on a between-seasons wool coat:

Brains or roses? You choose!

And these really want to be on a pretty gray cardigan - there can never be too many cardigans:

They have deer on them! And stars! And speaking of deer:

I haz them.

There is something about metal buttons with pretty pictures on them, I'm telling you. By the way, here's another question for you curious types: that flower button on the bottom there really, really reminds me of something but I cannot for the life of me think what. Something by Gallen-Kallela or Simberg, maybe? Perhaps it's just this, perhaps it's something else, all I know is it strikes a chord and I love it.

This was only a small glimpse, but I feel sorry for you now (the feeling is mutual, I'm sure) and shall finish on another note entirely. After all these weeks I finally blocked my Geodesic cardigan and now there are only a couple of yarn ends to weave in! Ironically, there will be no buttons on it.

That needle cushion sure is an attention whore.

Oh, by the way, look down! I added voting buttons so you can feel rewarded for your reading experience and make your mark, if you wish. Suggestions for better options are accepted in the comments!

Back from the dead.

Wow. Good thing I never actually wrote it down that I was going to update once a week because that would have been embarrassing. I have a lot of excuses though; not only was I busy with clothes for Riazan but I also got myself a translation gig, the deadline of which I managed to push to Monday after the game. The fever set in on Monday night and oh boy have I had a fun week since! I'll spare you the details but I'm slowly recovering and today I'm even able to form entire thoughts and sentences, as you can see for yourselves, and even better, lift and move my hands enough to type them down in a satisfactorily accurate manner.

So, where were we? Riazan, right. As it turned out I didn't have time to take my sewing machine to be serviced and my housemate's Pretty Woman at the very least needs its bobbin screw, which I couldn't find, tightened so I ended up sewing all the visible stitches by hand. As a direct result I didn't finish the green coat at all and went with just the apron and lots of layers. Luckily it was warm, but I wouldn't be surprised if first sweating indoors and then wearing no actual outer garments and getting my boots and socks wet twice in the forest had something to do with the flu that followed. The curse of Koschei indeed.

I did iron it, before the game.

Here are some pictures from before the game, the only ones that have been linked so far. Some of the costumes were insanely gorgeous and I felt very plain, but that was appropriate for my character whose clothes were, after all, the ones that had been buried under the floor of the house of her Chinese husband (who thought she was a crane maiden) for years before she managed to find her way home. With a fake plait I think I looked very much like the inspiration for my character, though instead of Beautiful or Wise I reckon she had earned the name Wily. I had heaps of fun, in case you can't tell.

I think I've had enough exercise for now. Time to pass out for a while, but I'll hopefully get back to updating before the week is out. To compensate, you know.

When you have nothing to say, compensate with pictures!

This week has been more about planning things and less about actually finishing anything. Annoying, especially when the not finishing part is because of technical difficulties and indecisiveness. First my new ink cartridge refused to work and I have to wait for a new one. Next I found out that my sewing machine is making a brutal sound even though I've only used it once since oiling it thoroughly. I think it needs to be serviced. After all I got it for my 18th birthday which means two things: first of all it has served me for 11 years without complaint, and secondly I feel really really old.

Say hello.

I better get it to a shop next week because things need to be sewn. Luckily I have another sewing machine I can use for everything my serger cannot handle. This absolutely adorable one on loan from my housemate:

Hello!

Riazan is approaching fast and I'm very conflicted about what I want to wear. I have bits and pieces and none of them go together very well. I already made a pair of Really Big Pants out of black cotton/linen from a thrift store and then I found this gorgeous old curtain here that really wants to become a Bilibin-inspired coat:

Yes, it's woven and the colors are reversed on the other side.

To makes things easier, I also found this pillowcase with beautiful embroidery just dying to decorate a blouse or a dress:

Sometimes the best things also cost 50 cents.

What is even more helpful is that what I really, really want to use that pillowcase for is this apron:

Except that I'm not sure how black pants, a white apron and a green-yellow coat are ever going to live in harmony. Maybe a short-sleeved apron so that the coat gets more screen time? And of course I have this purple coat and hat I made for the last medieval Russian adventure and could easily use:

For the record, I was running a high fever and drugged senseless when this pic was taken

Oh, and my character could also incorporate Chinese and Mongolian elements in her dress. Head, meet desk. Looks like I'll just make ALL THE THINGS and then decide which ones look best together.

Among all these other things I hope I get the printer to work soon because I have a special in mind. Here's a teaser:

Teasers gonna tease.

Home improvements and charity knitting

The picture above illustrates the past week pretty well. I've discovered that doodling something with my Wacom often helps me get past the worst lack of inspiration - it's something about being able to zoom deep into detail that I find reassuring. Being able to forget about the daunting bigger picture and concentrate on something seemingly insignificant. Yet when I pull back, suddenly everything falls into place. That angry cloud does not fall into this category though, as I treated it as a "how about I finally learn to use Illustrator" experiment.

Another thing that I've found is that chaos around me = chaos inside my head. Sometimes just cleaning up helps. So, today, that's what I finally did. And since it's a sunny day outside, I decided to capture some photographic evidence of Order as long as it lasts, i.e., until my roommates decide to overrule my home decoration decisions, probably tonight when I'm sleeping. Somehow just because I feed, groom and cuddle them they think they make all the decisions in this household.

This is why I cannot have nice things, the tablecloth edition.

I like to store things on tables and shelves - they'd rather keep things on the floor. It's a constant battle. There is, however, one item that never gets messed with: the doggy that lives on the windowsill.

Don't mess with the doggy - he will fuck your shit up.

The doggy has lived here longer than any of us, I found him covered in sawdust in one of the storage rooms. My first housemates thought he was creepy and warned me to not remove him, but I thought he would much prefer to live somewhere he can see outside rather than lie in the sawdust. But they were all a bit chickenshit anyway - can you imagine that they were even creeped out by the lonely child's shoe that appeared from nowhere in another storage room doorway weeks after we had already moved in? Psh, city kids.

I'll freely admit that I have a thing about old toys.

And maybe books.

Perhaps even octopi.

My mantelpiece is a fine example of a place that looks nice for approximately five minutes before it all ends up on the floor. Bluetack? Super glue? Or maybe I can find a way to attach the items on the mantelpiece instead.

That cross stitch there, by the way, I found from a flea market (for 2€ like everything good, it seems?) and tried to replicate but it was going to take the rest of my life so now I just appreciate it all the more. The black on orange is awesome for a rococo chick.

I also finally hung that new cross stitch of mine. I have almost as little wall space as I have bookshelf space, but I think it goes well with my cock. What? My measuring tapes are always AWOL, so I have a cock.

There is a joke in here somewhere.

Well alright, I may also have a thing about cocks.

This used to be my favorite mug until a tragic accident that for once was my own fault. I still haven't found one to replace it. I have Moomin mugs for tea, but they are too small for hot cocoa. I'm also on the lookout for a new small teapot since the cats destroyed the one you can see in the background there. In fact I found the perfect pot to replace it, but can't really justify spending over 20€ for a teapot I don't exactly need. Still, it's so very pretty, isn't it?

Okay, so, now that the pretty pictures are out of the way I can get down to the business of what makes this post more than "lookit my stuff!" There are two different Finnish charity knitting projects that I find extremely supportable, so do take a look and if you feel like advertising or contributing, please do so:

Villaa ylle -keräys collects hats, socks, gloves etc. mainly in men's sizes to hand out to the homeless next October. The knits must be sent off by the end of September.

Kotosukka, on the other hand, collects hand-knit socks to make asylum seekers feel more welcome. There is no organized send-off or time limit, and all sizes are welcome. It can only be found on Facebook atm, but if you're not on it and want the address, let me know in the comments.

Both the homeless and asylum seekers could probably use some warmth and love that comes in a hand-knit and while a pair of socks doesn't solve many problems, at least it's a nice and personal gesture.

They call me the pie master

I watched Twin Peaks for the first time in its entirety last year with my flatmate, who cooks. It started with brie and butter baguettes. Then came the donuts. Soon enough we were stuffing our faces every other night and dreaming about the perfect cherry pie. Apple, bilberry, pumpkin too, but especially cherry. I'm a sucker for that poisonous essence found in canned cherries, Dr. Pepper and arsenic.

The reason it took me about eight months to actually get around making said pie was that it's impossible to find fresh or even frozen sour cherries in Finland and even canned tend to be hard to find and expensive. Miraculously at least Citymarket now carries huge jars of both sweet and sour cherries, and this pie is made with the latter.

Damn good pie, this is. Glossy, too!

I have to say, I am extremely pleased with this pie. I don't know what the secret is because it was all very simple, but let me take you through the process so that I, or you, can maybe replicate it later and pinpoint the source of fabulousness.

The crust

5 dl flour
225 g cold butter

All crumbled together. The secret to a nice flaky crust is to handle the dough as little as possible to keep the butter from melting. The consistence should be teensy crumbs of butter encased in flour. I am now dreaming about a good pastry cutter, but a kitchen blender should do the job as well and I just pinched little cubes of butter in the flour with my fingertips until it was suitably crumbly.

Now, for a regular shortcut pastry you usually just mix a small amount of water in with the butter-flour mixture. Apparently you can replace some of the water with vodka, which will then evaporate from the pie and result in a deliciously flaky crust. The recipe I used contained a small amount of vinegar, which I suspect works in a similar manner. I added

0,4 dl water
0,1 dl vinegar
0,75 egg (I mixed the yolk with the white and left a little in the cup for later)

I then smoothed the pastry into a lump, divided it into two (I even used a scale to do it!), wrapped the halves in cling wrap and put them in the fridge.

The filling

1 jar (350 g) of sour cherries + about half the liquid
3 dl brown sugar
a healthy dose of cinnamon
1 dl flour

All mixed together. Now, this is the point where I took a two-hour nap, so I let the filling stew and the pastry cool in peace. It's imperative to keep the pastry cold, but who cares when you combine the filling ingredients, not me.

After I woke up I took one half of the pastry out of the fridge, sandwiched it between cling film and proceeded to roll it into a thin, pie dish sized shape, readjusting the cling films every now and then to avoid wrinkles and stickiness. I let the bottom cool off in the fridge while I rolled out the other half and cut it into the lattice strips. Then I brushed the bottom with the remaining egg, added the filling, made a pretty lattice top, brushed it withe remaining egg remains and baked the whole beauty in 220°C for 35 minutes. Let it cool for a bit and served with ice cream. OMG perfect! For the record, there was no cherry essence taste: apparently adding a little almond extract makes it even more delicious. I couldn't use it because of an allergy, but do try it if you will! And the vodka crust, too. Just don't eat it raw too much.

Om to the fucking nom nom!

In other news I've been more inclined to start projects than finish them. There's a pair of wool pants on the needles that will probably only premier next winter because it's most definitely spring now, commission hats are waiting to be cast on, a sock pattern awaits proper inspiration, I think I promised to make two pairs of socks for different people... but most excited I've been about Geodesic cardigan (links to Rav, here's the link to Interweave store).

I'm at the first tucks, how exciting!

I was originally going to splurge on some Malabrigo lace for it, but in some fit of common sense decided on this mystery laceweight wool I found from a thrift store. A bit disappointingly the first of two skeins had numerous cuts here and there, but no trace of any animals and all my yarn is nowadays safely tucked away in ziplock bags so I decided not to worry about it. I ended up with two bigger balls and several tiny ones. But hey, 150 g of laceweight for 2 euros, what am I complaining about? It's a very pretty purple, too.

I've also been on a cross stitch highway. I decided way before Yule while making the kitty-vomit-thing that I needed motivational sign myself. Something like a motto I could live by, that would inform anyone visiting my home of the values I live by. Something pretty, sophisticated and subtle. Something like...

The antique frame compliments these delicate stitches perfectly.

The font is from freepatternsonline.com and two of the birds from tipnut.com. The frames and the bird on the bottom left I designed myself. As before, the picture below should be big enough to work from. Because I know what's been missing from your home decor.

You're welcome.