Category: Chit Chat

The path of not

PiaChit Chat
path
(yes we did go, as I didn’t have a good photo of a path where I didn’t go. Oh wait, that’s the whole point…)

It seems that lately – or maybe always, it’s not that clear to me – I’ve been saying things like “I don’t want to go there” and at some point that’s exactly where I’m headed.

So I started knitting again a few years ago after a 20 year break. But just using cheap supermarket yarns and definitely not wool because it’s scratchy. (it still is) And no way I’d want to hoard it and build a huge stash just sitting there because I don’t knit very fast. Until I discovered all the wonderful yarns and purposes that have emerged since the last time I looked at the craft.

Spinning yarn myself didn’t even occur to me. Until I saw someone online doing it with just a stick? So out of curiosity, I asked her how the hey that was even possible. And of course needed to construct my own stick just to test the physics of it all you know. After I found out it was doable I had to make actual yarn too. And then I was hooked and went on to spin for a lace shawl for my mum, but spindles were cool enough, it’s not like I’d ever want a wheel. 3 months later, I had one. (After finishing that lace which took ages on a homemade spindle of course. But it was a really lovely shawl in silk and merino)

lace6

Firmly stuck in the fiber world, next thing I wanted was to sample all sorts of wool. But really, I reassured everybody, it’s not like I want to muck about with filthy smelly fleeces, it just takes forever to work with something like that and it stinks and no way, look at all the pretty stuff you can just get online. Next spring I asked our hay provider if they ever did anything with the fleeces of their pet sheep because it would be cool to just try it. (incidentally I now also have sacks of really nice Gotland and Wensleydale fleece added to the collection)

So knitting, spinning, dyeing (which I never did say no to btw) – but that was it. NOT going to get into felting or weaving, no way, no how! I had planned some freeform knit/crochet picturemaking that never happened, so I really should have read the signs on that one…

There’s the mixed media art journaling craze that wasn’t for me (well, I’m not sure it is actually, as my collages tends to be the kind where I rebuild images rather than make cute intuitive decorative pieces with cool calligraphy. Mine are like “Tiny fat man with giant chicken in a forest of broccoli”). I may just keep it at looking at other people’s art journals, we’ll see. I’m not a journal journal person either, and that’s not a real no, that’s experience. But for some reason, some days I still want to try it even though really I don’t. 😉

sorry, couldn't find any of my actual collages...
sorry, couldn’t find any of my actual collages…

I guess I have a built-in desire to investigate things for no other particular reason than doing so. The world is filled with so much interesting stuff! I guess at least it’s a good thing that only some of the things I try out stay for good, or periodically, while others pass by. Such as learning about herbs, both in cooking and as medicine. But when it comes to gardening, I’ve at least come to accept that I do have limitations after all. In another life. Or if for some reason I can’t pursue my other hobbies. Later. Maybe. For now, I grow a few dye plants, salad greens and leftover potatoes. And an abundance of grass and thistles among the perennials. So that’s a different kind of no, an afterthought rather than foresight. I’m not showing you any photos of my 1000 m2 failed vegetable garden. (I mean it)

I’ve dabbled in websites, flash animation and I just remembered that as a kid (9-10-ish) I did classes in flower arrangement and pottery decoration! Where the hey did that come from and where did it go?

I wondered this morning whether I should devote some effort to learning how I distinguish real no’s from the fake ones. And a second later decided that I can’t be bothered, really. Things will change when they do and sometimes they don’t and it doesn’t really matter if I know in advance. But it’s a curious thing.

When I say the word “no” however, I still expect people to interpret that as “no”. If by chance I didn’t mean it I’ll take the responsibility/blame of missing out on something, thank you. How do you go about saying no? Am I really saying no, because part of me actually wants to say yes to everything? And we all know that’s just impossible.

botler
I also dabbled in 3D graphics once – created a series of robots on rollerblades. Clearly my talents are not from the girly cute department.

Ikke-vejendanish

NÃ¥, jeg mÃ¥ jo hellere prøve pÃ¥ dansk ogsÃ¥, ellers bliver Miri ked af det. 😉 Men jeg vil gerne sige, at jeg altsÃ¥ synes det er kedeligt at oversætte sÃ¥dan en lang smøre! (ogsÃ¥ selvom jeg sjældent skriver helt det samme – gassen gÃ¥r bare af ballonen nÃ¥r jeg har skrevet første version!)

Jeg har opdaget en tendens hos mig selv som er lidt spøjs. Jeg siger noget om at “det og det har jeg ikke lyst til” og kort tid efter er jeg lige nøjagtig i gang med dette. Det gælder naturligvis ikke alting, men det er alligevel pÃ¥faldende.

“Jeg kan i hvert fald godt nøjes med billigt akrylgarn fra Netto”. Lige indtil jeg ser alle de fantastiske garner man kan købe nutildags.

“Jeg gider ikke bruge uld, det kradser!” Ok, det gør det stadig, men farverne! er sÃ¥ meget mere fantastiske end syntet.

Spinde faldt mig overhovedet ikke ind, med alle de spændende garner i butikkerne. Indtil jeg sÃ¥ en som spandt garn pÃ¥ en pind – sÃ¥ mÃ¥tte jeg jo lige spørge ind til mekanikken i det, lave min egen pind og forsøge og ja, sÃ¥ var jeg fanget og skulle pludselig spinde et lace sjal til min mors fødselsdag. “Men en rok skal jeg i hvert fald ikke have, spindepinde er cool!” Tre mÃ¥neder senere havde jeg en brugt rok.

“Men jeg skal i hvert fald ikke have fÃ¥r og stÃ¥ og vaske stinkende uld, der er sÃ¥ meget flot og klargjort i butikkerne!” Ja, suk. Dog har jeg ikke nogen fÃ¥r, jeg KAN godt lade fornuften rÃ¥de af og til, man mÃ¥ trods alt kende (nogen af) sine begrænsninger. Men stinkende uld har jeg og ønsker mig nu en kartemaskine. Det gjorde jeg heller ikke til en start, “for hÃ¥ndkarter er helt ærligt nok!”

“Der er sÃ¥ meget at strikke, sÃ¥ det med at filte og væve, det gider jeg virkelig ikke.” Som billedinteresseret gennem hele livet burde jeg virkelig have fanget dén pÃ¥stand noget før…

Og sÃ¥ er der collager og “art journaling” som slet ikke er mig, men som alligevel drager nÃ¥r jeg ser andres. Der var den gang jeg i hvert fald kun gad ride skovture og aldrig ville interessere mig for dressur. Osv. osv.

Der er ogsÃ¥ ting jeg egentlig gerne vil, men siger nej af tidsnød. FÃ¥rene. Urtelære. Den kæmpe, pasningskrævende have (been there – fik ikke nogen t-shirt).

Og sÃ¥ er der ting jeg en gang gjorde, som jeg er holdt op med. Websider, flash animationer, 3D grafik. Og sÃ¥ kom jeg lige pludselig i tanke om for nylig, at som lille pige (ca 10) gik jeg til bÃ¥de porcelænsmaling og blomsterbinding. Aner ikke hvor det kom fra eller hvor det forsvandt hen…

Jeg er på en eller anden måde drevet og draget til at studere ting, undersøge, lære, fordybe mig. Jeg kan ikke lade være, også selvom jeg ikke aner hvad jeg skal bruge det til bagefter. Nogen gange ville jeg ønske, at jeg i stedet kunne fokusere så inderligt på noget nyttigt og vedvarende i stedet for at flyve rundt som en tosset lille sommerfugl og smage på det hele. Eller at jeg bare havde meget mere energi, så jeg kunne nå det hele.

Jeg tænkte på i morges om jeg skulle bruge krudt på at lære forskellen mellem nej og måske. Og i samme sekund at nej, jeg gider ikke. Ting sker og ændrer sig når de gør det og jeg behøver ikke vide det på forhånd. Men det er sært at jeg næsten altid skal den der omvej hen til tingene.

Til gengæld forventer jeg altid at mine nej bliver hørt som sådanne. Hvis jeg skulle sige det uden at mene det, så skal JEG nok tage skraldet og skuffelsen osv. over at gå glip af noget, tak. Nej er stadig nej.

Hvordan siger du nej? Og hvorfor mon jeg har det der behov for at berolige mig selv og omgivelserne om at jeg slet ikke har gang i en hel masse på én gang, for det er jo det jeg prøver på eller hvad? Det er jo i virkeligheden ikke, når jeg sådan ser hvad jeg har skrevet, noget med at sige nej, men ligeså meget om at sige ja?

Jeg ville gerne have sat flere illustrationer ind undervejs, men frk. Photoshop er ked af det i dag. Og nu skal jeg lige rydde et eller andet op inden jeg kollapser i hængekøjen før den bliver optaget!n Nåja, og tid til kamerahavetur er det vist også.

Getting tired?

PiaChit Chat

Of all the plant presentations I mean. I think I am…. Those “other” posts that I half promised seem to have scooted way down the to do list and my brain is running in circles.

siv1
Phragmites australis, birch left

So luckily I’m running out of plants to try right now while it’s season to pick. Just tried a batch with Common Reed, very nice green! It’s time for birch leaves, remember that it’s easiest to strip young trees for some reason. I don’t think I’m going to this year apart from the couple of skeins I did to overdye. Goldenrod is coming in, but I think I’ll just toss some in the freezer to see how that goes.

I have weld, woad and Japanese Indigo growing in the garden, but you either have those or you don’t, so I’m in no hurry to report… Madder likewise, I have a set of experiments lined up for that with various mordants.

weld
weld patch – vau/farvereseda

And I think that’s it! I’m going to use some of my remaining Tagetes and Coreopsis to make watercolours, that is, if I’m not too stressed, I feel a bit fluttery inside as well as having a wedding to attend the coming week. We’re trying to get a few things tidied up around the place and I’m awaiting hay and straw for the ponies.

One of my looms is done, for my first piece I won’t be making a tapestry though, but a rug to put under my spinning wheel. Or possibly it will be a bathmat. I’ve been twisting 8 strands of cotton yarn to make something resembling rep weave (ripsmatta). Just have to find a calm spot to warp up and I’ll show you. And no, I won’t be making anything as fancy as that image, I believe you need something like an 8 shaft floor loom for that, not a navajo style frame loom.

alger

Spinning, I really feel I need to start spinning again, but I also have this urge to paint. So I’m holding off on both until other projects are done, so that I don’t go completely nuts and split into a million little pieces. I left some fleece soaking in a tub outside for so long it started to go green! I have no idea if I can save it or not, it is of course the best bits that I started out with.

My quick knit holey sweater really is quick, or rather it would be if I had the time to actually work on it. The yarn seems to go on and on and on, I think I’ll have half the body done when the first 2 skeins finally run out. I was worried I didn’t have enough, so that’s why I chose the large needles, but I could have probably gone with smaller. And then it would have taken a lot longer. 😉

flagAnd I painted the flagpole. Way overdue. Windshield corner where the hedge died is all done! And seems to be helping, not that it’s been very important last week with temps up to 30 C.

So, a stream of silly chitchat and various musings await – at some point. For now, I’ll go clear all my dye pots off the stove so the kitchen can look like human habitat at least for half a day.

fence

“Trat” i hovedet af en hestdanish

Er I ved at være trætte af mine planterapporter? Jeg er. Det blev slet ikke til at skrive om noget andet, selvom jeg har en hel håndfuld kladder og emner.

Men nu er det vist ved at være slut med sæsonbetonet farvning og planter der bare skal høstes lige NU, tagrør var det sidste i rækken. Gyldenris plukker jeg vist bare og så må årets eksperiment være, hvordan de holder sig i fryseren. Vau, Vaid og japansk indigo har I enten eller også har I ikke, de kan ikke findes i naturen, så det haster ikke. Det er en god tid at høste birkeblade, husk at det er nemmest at ribbe de unge træer. Men jeg tror jeg springer over i år, bortset fra de par fed jeg har lavet til overfarvning med blå (ok, jeg burde også have lavet et til overfarvning med krap, som jeg har linet en række eksperimenter op med til senere, den er jo tørret).

Min ene væv er færdig men jeg skal ikke væve gobelin pÃ¥ den i første omgang, derimod en efterligning af noget der pÃ¥ svensk kaldes “ripsmatta”. Hvis det skal være rigtig flot skal man vist bruge en avanceret skaftevæv, sÃ¥ det bliver bare noget med 8 snoede bomuldsgarner og sÃ¥dan lidt kludetæppe stil. BademÃ¥tte eller tæppe til min rok sÃ¥ den ikke glider.

Jeg har virkelig lyst til at bÃ¥de spinde og male, men jeg kan mærke stressen blafre rundt indeni, jeg afventer hø og halm til krikkerne, der er lige et bryllup i den nærmeste familie som skal overstÃ¥es og 1000 ting der burde ryddes op her pÃ¥ matriklen og jeg kan mærke dampen allerede er begyndt at ligge pÃ¥ lavt niveau hos os begge. SÃ¥ jeg mÃ¥ lige vente… HÃ¥ber dog at jeg har overskud til at teste noget indkogning af tagetes til at bruge som akvarelmaling, kunne det ikke være super cool?

Men jeg har dog fået malet flagstangen for første gang i 10 år. Den knækker muligvis en dag i et stormvejr, men så tager vi den derfra. Vores plankeværk som læsted i stedet for den hæk der døde er også færdigt.

Min hurtige hullede striktrøje skrider fremad, dog ikke så hurtigt som jeg håbede men det er mest fordi jeg ikke får gjort noget ved det.

PÃ¥ et eller andet tidspunkt vender jeg frygtelig tilbage med mere sluddersladder. 😉

tagetes10

How often?

PiaChit Chat

grubleThe number of plant dyeing posts in my draft list is exploding at the moment, so I’ve run into a “problem” with frequency.

Even if I do 3 posts a week, I’m still 2 weeks ahead and that leaves no slots open for other stuff I’d like to talk about. I know that many people do a post a day, but do all the people read all the posts?

I also want to keep my current library structure of one plant:one post to keep it all easier to look up later, for myself as well. So making one huge post a week with 3-5 plants won’t work either. And what about the gardening, that’s right now as well! (of course there is always the option to not actually blog everything you do)

For myself, there is no problem in seasonal blogging, changing the main subject matter in cycles. But I realize that some people only come here for the spinning or the dyeing and they’ll most likely go away if I only write about philosophical matters or painting for 2 months. That would be sad. I do want to keep all of you here, a blog without interaction is useless.

That means I want your input, I really do. Seasonal subjects OR seasonal post explosions with intermittent dead zones? I expect at least 50 different replies. pift

Incidentally this post was written with my left hand, sitting sideways to the keyboard, because Arthur is having his midday nap on me.

And yes, I do have a teeny post for tomorrow with no plants in it whatsoever.

On a different note, can somebody enlighten me what the current trend of photographing your own feet is about? Often with flowers, in focus and out of. Because I just don’t get it. Mind you, I don’t really have a lot of cute shoes, so maybe that’s why. I do have red gum boots. Perhaps I should do a theme involving those? Or would that just be kinky….

sommer2

Hvor ofte skal man blogge?danish

-  svaret er naturligvis, så ofte man lyster, men:

Plantefarvningssæsonen er på sit højeste, og dermed bliver kladdelisten over blogindlæg meget lang. Selv hvis jeg kun skriver om det ene emne er jeg to uger forud, og så er der lissom slet ikke plads til at skrive om alt muligt andet! (kæmpe katastrofe, ja?)

Jeg ved godt at mange skriver hver dag, men bliver det også læst? Blog uden kommunikation er jo kedeligt tidspilde.

Mange kommer her kun for plantefarvning eller spinding eller måske et tredje emne, og jeg tænker at de måske finder andre græsgange mens jeg knævrer om de emner de ikke gider. Så jeg prøver at blande bare en lille smule, for at få nogen samtaler i gang og holde dem.

Selv har jeg ikke problemer med sæsonprægede emner, men hvis alle garnfolkene forsvinder når jeg så skriver om maleri eller hverdagens tanker om min nye cykel, så er det jo lidt trist. Samtidig ønsker jeg at holde planen med 1 plante = 1 indlæg, så der bliver en nem struktur at finde rundt i for plantefarvere og mig selv.

SÃ¥ nu vil jeg have input – her har danskerne chancen for at sige noget for en gangs skyld og fÃ¥ noget indflydelse. Skal det være periodevis masseblogning hvor det hele bliver skudt af pÃ¥ en gang med efterfølgende dødvande, eller emner der skifter med Ã¥rstiden? Gisp, og hvad med haveindlæg, dem er jeg knap nok begyndt pÃ¥, men de ligger jo ogsÃ¥ lige NU.

Jeg kunne ogsÃ¥ lave 3 blogge, men sÃ¥ ender de pludselig med at ligge halvdøde og glemte hen hele tiden. Hesteblog, fotoblog, dansk blog, haveblog, tanker og teser…. Jeg er ikke rigtig “jeg har lige lavet mig en avocadomad med purløg og tomat som jeg vil nyde i min skyggefulde pavillon”-typen, sÃ¥ det behøver ikke ligefrem sin egen blog.

SÃ¥ hvad vil I ha’?! Dem der siger noget vinder. (mÃ¥ske) Jeg har en mistanke om at danske bloggere kun kan finde ud af af bruge Blogspot, men I mÃ¥ rigtig gerne fortælle mig, at jeg tager helt fejl. pardon

Og nu vil jeg så forsøge at spise den avocadomad og huske servietten til når det hele falder fra hinanden. Avocado på rugbrød indtages nemmest som guacamole, men det havde mit blodsukker ikke lige tid til at vente på. Og hjemmelavet hyldedrik og sol, så bliver det ikke mere idyllisk.

Making…

PiaChit Chat

Elderflower cordial.saft1

The shops were all out of organic lemons, so I also made a batch with oranges and one with mint! A bit of an experiment, but I’m happy to report that it tastes really great.

It’s been a couple of years since last, so I thought it was time, we have a lot of elders right now, they spread like weeds. I’ll wait for autumn and make a batch with the berries too, it’s really good in winter, hot with lemon, ginger and honey if you have a cold, don’t want one or just need heating up. And then I’ll cut some of them down, because, well, there’ll be more. If I don’t keep them in check we’ll be known as Elderberry Jungle Farm.

Link to “nettle energy drink”

I’ve been making other stuff too – stay tuned. I’ve finally had time and “presence” to start painting a bit again this week! But not much, still have that hedge to cut.

Hyldeblomstsaft

Det var et par år siden sidst, så jeg fik lige lyst til at lave lidt saft, siden vi har rigtig mange hyld for tiden, de breder sig som ukrudt.

Butikkerne var helt udgåede for usprøjtede citroner, så jeg lavede også en portion med appelsiner og en med mynte. Det blev virkelig godt! Til efteråret skal jeg lige have lavet lidt bærsaft også, det er rigtig godt varmt med citron, ingefær og honning. Og så ryger nogen af planterne altså, inden vi helt drukner i dem.