MOONSTITCHES

... but with long sleeves, please!

200 g wool, stone grey (ishi / 石 = stone) a few simple cables and three wooden buttons. A grown up sized cardigan with cropped sleeves made for my seven-year-old. It was about time for me to try cables, hopefully I’ll do more in the near future!
Name of the pattern: 七分そでのカーディガン, page 29 Hand Knit Story おでかけにっと　vol.1, ISBN 978-4-418-10127-6

... is what I wrote back at the beginning of September on my ravelry project page for this cardigan.
It was a very quick knit, took only about five days, quite easy and fun.
The result was lovely, I thought. But on my daughter's side the love for this cardigan didn't last long - in fact she wore it only twice. For the photo shoot and once to school, after that it was completely neglected, due to "those odd sleeves". She's not fond of cropped sleeves then.
A version with longer sleeves was wished for... so I gave away this one to a friend's three year old daughter and started afresh. Hopefully finished soon because I have new yarn for myself and want to make a cardigan with a snuggly, cozy collar, because the one I have been making back in September is way to airy around my neck now...
Oh those girls, always wishing for what they don't have!

The button is a again a slice of our little Christmas Tree from four years ago and the black velvet (no pattern) skirt was made of a sample curtain I bought for 100 Yen at Yuzawaya ages ago. Here a picture which shows the skirt a bit better.

Take care!

Edit: Totally forgot about the mentioned three buttons...
The cardigan initially had three buttons, but I found they caused too much disturbance to the border which has a vertical ribbing. One larger button and one loop looked much better to me.

Observation

Hi!
I noticed something... apparently for me there seems to be a window for blogging and writing emails each Monday. Every week I am looking forward to it, imagining the wildest things I'm gonna do... like starting a whole series of new postings with that one first posting that will break the ice.
But Mondays come and go, followed by Tuesdays which usually simply make me realize that I have been missing that window again... Again!
I think I am just incredibly lazy and instead of being your ordinary Scarlett who would wait for tomorrow, I have developed an aggravated Scarlett Syndrome, always waiting for another week.
That's scary. Getting older one should be getting quicker because time's running out, sooner or later.
In this sense, I'd like to kick off a week of quick postings, maybe daily postings even, to discipline that old, lazy Scarlett again.

Before getting to my latest craftings, I'd like to let you peek into our home a bit.
We recently have been getting some furniture for our washitsu (Japanese room). Nothing surprising. Awfully new and clean and just what would be expected in a home like ours.
Some chabudai (low table) and zabuton (cushion) and a classic lamp made of bamboo and paper. All so unoriginal but also all so very fitting and highly enjoyable. Especially now during rainy season. This room has become a favourite of all of us. So great to sit and play or knit, have some sweets, looking outside.

I love the tenugui "Soda" (detail here) I got from Jennifer, so simple yet effective. What a great design for a summer tenugui.

Just as simple is the dress I had been making for Dagny last month. Similar colours, too... must be the weather which makes us want fresh things.

The pattern is from a Japanese book, kids no fudangi, happy homemade vol.2, ISBN 978-4-579-11243-2. I really like the simple style of the clothes in the book (which I bought only last month although it has been around for some time) and intend to try out a few more patterns. The pieces all look quite easy and seem to not overwhelm neither the sewer nor the child wearing the clothes.

Dresses, tops and pants. No essential book maybe, but one that's charming and makes you want to sew.
The dress turned out a bit large but Dagny doesn't mind.

I hope they won't take care of that wonderful meadow across the street too soon!!!

The summer holidays have just started.

Until tomorrow then!

Mein eigener Norweger*

*My own Norwegian

In German sweaters like this are simply called Norwegians, thus it seemed just appropriate to attend the concert of Kings Of Convenience (Norwegians!) in April wearing my very own Norwegian! Truly a motivation for finally finishing this Elizabeth Zimmermann Seamless Yoke Sweater.
Almost five months after having started working on it... happy it got finished eventually.

I love the yarn (ravelry link). It is soft and durable and gets more beautiful over time. The sweater has been worn almost every day since I finished it, been washed and gently dried in the dryer (to increase the density of the fabric a little), too, and see, photographed as well. After all. If I don't do it right after finishing, things tend to just be incorporated into my wardrobe, never being spoken of again.
The slight pilling which occurs under the arms and some other areas after some time of wearing the sweater is nothing to complain about. It is getting less and less and can easily be removed. I'd say in case of this yarn the fabric is simply maturing from its maiden condition right after being knitted. No fault or flaw.

The fit isn't perfect but well enough, with or without a blouse.

And as I said earlier, having been finishing this one, Dagny and I just love going out together, dressed all おそろい (osoroi = matching). So much fun!

Have a good day!

turning the page and a lot of leaves

So much to tell about... where to start?!

I forgot to turn the page on my calendar, just noticed... .
Must have been distracted a lot since the trees in front of my window looked like that:

One thing that seemed to be more important than turning that page or blogging was my sweet girl's seventh birthday and her first party. I was a bit nervous, naturally, first time and of course you want everybody to have fun, which isn't really plannable (not sure if this word is really existing)... but it turned out, my decision to entertain the children as little as possible and let them do most things on their own worked well and we all had a great time.

Still, I am happy that it's over.

Of course some preparations were necessary. For the hand written invitation（using tea stained, soldering bolt burned cardboard), the decorations (black flag and a bunting, sails for the cakes, skull shaped template for decorating the cake with icing sugar) and for the goody bags that seem to be common these days (skull stenciled totes, personalized notebooks)... Yes, we had a Pirate Party, with an extensive treasure hunt through the woods,to be sure.

Maybe next year I will try an
old-fashioned-no-motto-just-having-some-cake-and-lemonade-and-play-old-
fashioned-party-games-party to keep things simpler. Definitely worth thinking about. Things have become too complex. Perfect invitations for well planned events. Should all be less perfect.

I was glad when all preparation was finished and did, of course, not bother to take pictures of any of the things I had been making... it was a month of more important things to do. :)

Meanwhile the trees had turned into this:

Isn't it amazing how green it is now?

I LOVE my view.

The important things to do?

For example sewing five night gowns for Dagny because I knew she would be more than happy unwrapping a little suitcase packed with all kinds of cute nighties.

Or finishing my very own Seamless Yoke pullover for having something to wear when getting together with this girl to see Kings Of Convenience and those boys (so cute), too... what a wonderful evening it has been!!!

Pictures of the sweater will be taken soon, promised. It's pretty much a copy of Dagny's third seamless yoke, this here. Now we can have the sweetest outings ever...

Something I must mention in this posting certainly  is this.

See the leaves on the cover? Mine :)

A little proud and very happy to have been given the opportunity to take part in this lovely book by Kathreen Ricketson.

I am impatiently awaiting the book to take a look and tell you more about it. Until then just head over to whip up and read what Kathreen has been writing about the contributors during this month.

I wish you a happy week!

A month of hina arare...

Hello again!
It's Hina Matsuri (Girls' Day) today. And of course we have set up our hina dolls and pray for the happiness and health of our daughter.
We don't hope she'll be marrying too quickly, so we let the dolls a little longer on display and hope that there some truth to the superstition, that girls whose families are slow on putting the dolls back into their boxes will be having trouble getting married :)

The final bag of hina arare (puffed, sugar coated rice and beans) will be eaten during this week. It has been a month of puffed rice, and I look forward to see the supermarkets redecorating the shelves, putting away all the pink stuff that seems to be overly appealing to my girl...

Detail of a group quilt at this year's quilt show:

They come out for Hina Matsuri every year, too. This year gathering on the floor of our washitsu - japanese room.

In our living room, on the floor: I am watching the falling petals with diligence as there are quite some caterpillars mixed into, mysteriously only visible when having fallen off the branches...

Another mystery going on here is my new found love for cute and colour.

After about a year of preferring simple and natural looking things and staring at my stash of fabrics in a rather reserved, even stunned manner, I started making a really bright and happy quilt for Dagny.
Using many of my old favourites, a lot of pink and red, cute japanese patterns, treasured tenugui as well as fabrics that I used for making clothes for Dagny when I started sewing for her about six years ago.

The main part of the quilt is constructed with a single block, which makes it a One Patch Quilt as Jennifer of moving hands explained to me (yes, I indeed do not know much about quilts!) when we met at the quilt show in January.
And while the quilt's design had been on my mind for some time, the motivation to actually make it came from the Wa-Quilts (Japanese Design) on the show - always the ones that capture and inspire me most!

The block I use is looking like waves or scales and the quilting will most likely simply follow that shape. But we'll see about that when it is time.
Hopefully soon.
I mean it.

I am sewing by hand, which takes some time, but the seams are soft and it's easy and I am enjoying it a lot. I feel like slowly getting back to be a patchworking person again.
Stitch by stitch.
I will take more photos of the quilt from now on and tell you about my progress here on the blog.
Hope this will be the one full sized quilt I finally manage to start and finish...!!!

Tomorrow I'll be joining a Ikebana class and am curious how that will be.
And after that there will be the knitting class again. That took of well, by the way, but I must talk about it another time.
Now I am off to bed.

Take care!