Christmas presents, handmade!

This year the period before Christmas have been really busy! In addition to all the regular things I do, I also had made promises to make some Christmas presents. So the deadline was set.. Well, one of the presents had to be finished the 11th and that was hard..

I had three main projects, two hard ones and one easy.

The first one was a hand knit cardigan for a niece. I had a ready made pattern bought from Sandnes Garn, so the only thing to do was knit. I'm not an experienced pattern knitter so it took me a while to get the whole knitting with multiple threads thing going, but I think I got the hang of it. I'm happy with the result, after steaming it looks almost even..

This cardigan is made in the Smart, a yarn from Sandnes Garn, the pattern is called "Eskimo" and it's knit in size four years.

My sister in law is mad about anything involving animals, especially dogs, horses and sheep. She has been wishing for a Icelandic style sweater with a horse pattern for a long while, drooling over craft stands at different fairs.

So this year I teamed up with my mother and we decided to give her a sweater specially made for her, My mother bought the yarn, I designed and knitted the sweater.

During the process I ripped up some of my knitting a couple of times, I was not entirely satisfied with the pattern.. Then rethinked and tried over. It was a fun experience to do the whole process from designing and finishing up a knitted garment.

The result:



My sister in law loves the sweater and I'm pleased too.

This is not the last time I will design a sweater!


Sonja

Viking hood

Finally started to make viking clothing after a long time just thinking about it.

Have started with something simple, a hood. The hood is based on a Norwegian archaeological find in a bog at Andøy in 1936, the "Skjoldehamn find", link.

There are a lot of different interpretations on how the hood can be made, if you search "Skjoldehamn hood" you will get a lot of hits. It's mainly two categories of hoods made, those who try to reconstruct the hood as correctly as possible and those who make their own version, I'm in the last group.

The felted wool fabric used for the hoods.

The hoods I'm making are made of a felted wool knit fabric, not especially historical correct. The sizes are made loosely with a measuring tape and with a portion of my own taste for proportions. Now they are cut and we will see if they have a nice fit.

A hood cut out and pinned together

Hope to finish this soon..


Sonja

Joined Blogloving

Now you may start follow my blog at Bloglovin

Sonja

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For the love of Japan

About 9 years ago I got to know my husband. I moved in to his flat and started to look in to his stuff. One of the first things I noticed were boxes of anime series. My first thought: seriously? Then I got curious. One time browsing a DVD-shop I found a copy of "Spirited away", I picked it up, brought it home, watched it and I've been hooked ever since.

Since then I've been watching anime a bit on and off, read about Japan, seen documentaries, tried to figure out the language a bit, but what really caught my interest were the different types of textile techniques.

Kanzashi

Kanzashi is a way to fold small square fabric pieces and join them into pretty flowers, mainly used for hair-ornaments.

Kanzashi flower hair pins

Shibori

Shibori are techniques used for making pattern on a fabric when dying it.

Shibori samples

Sashiko

Embroidery technique using simple running stitches to make geometrical patterns.

Sashiko sample

Clothing

Japanese traditional clothing is a complex world of how to dress proper. I've taken an interest in the construction of kimonos and other traditional garments.

Haori - worn over a kimono as a jacket.

Amigurumi

Simple crochet technique used to make 3D objects.

 

Amigurumi pokemon

Indigo-dying

Japanese have a long tradition for dying fabrics blue using indigo, Indigo creates lots of beautiful hues of blue.

Indigi-dyed fabrics

I haven't got the time to dig into it all, but I've started to sew a bit of clothing and are playing around with some sashiko embroidery. Hope to have my first haori finished within the next week and some small pouches and bags with sashiko, also done in November.


Some day I hope to go to Japan and experience the whole country from north to south!

Sonja

Week 1

Been working on my own this last week, trying to sort out what I'm actually doing, hard work..

What I want is to make products designed by me. I mainly work in textile materials, knitting and sewing.

Started to do some research on what products are wise to start with and concluded on simple and easy to make products like mittens, slippers and hats. I have to think season and the season coming up is winter, in Norway it gets cold, really cold. And everybody like a pair of good mittens.

Expansion plans.

I want to maybe open a little atelier, studio, salon, shop, boutique, something, one day. I think it's possible. But I don't think I'm ready at the moment. I know where and how to get products to sell and the basics in how to run a business. But the big but is that I'm living a life where it don't seem to be any room for me working all the time. It isn't something I want either even if the society wants me to.

At the moment the right thing for me is to think about family and make my business in between.

My business is crawling slowly forward, but I am positive and think something good may come out of it.


Sonja

On my own

Finally started doing something.

I've been itching to make my own business since I was... hmm.. since ever really. And now I'm doing it!

After I quit my job I wondered a lot about how I will manage. This is a time when I'm really happy to be married. Not just because my husband may help me financially, but also for advise and support.

My decision came after a long time of wanting to become my own boss.Then I asked a simple question to my husband: May I? Answer: Do it.


Now I'm planning and going slowly forward. I don't want to make any stupid mistakes, just because I didn't read "the rules".

First things

- Finances

- Products

- Branding

- Selling


Lots to do.

Sonja

News

Okay, maybe a bit dramatic, but sometimes it's the only way.. As written in an earlier post I got hired as a shop manager, and now I quit.

Why? Well, when you try to manage something that isn't manageble, at least by me, you get tired. I like to solve problems so I try to make things work. But now it doesn't work any more.. I'm stressed, nervous and totally worn out, my hands have started shaking.. Thats my limit. Yet again I'm looking for work, but I'm relived.


From now on you will see more of my products and activities. I have great plans for the future!


Sonja

What happened!?!

The spring flew by and now it's just a memory..

My plan for being more active on my blog totally failed.

Deviant Art's new logo..

Deviant Art has reinvented it self. And people are both shaking their heads and nodding..

First day of 2015

A day not much different from other days, but the first day of a new year. The kid doesn't take a day off and that's why we do stuff rather than sit and relax. To day we are trying to put up the ceiling at the first floor. 

In between I manage to sit down and think a little bit. And this is the day for thinking ahead. I've got no new years resolutions, but I've created a list over things I wish to do within the next year.