Leather bound Bible

I dawned on me that I actually have one leather work project I can show you. I made this Bible cover from an idea in my head and I think it turned out fairly good. I really like those celtic crosses.


It covers my school Bible and is nice and soft. It was a fast project as well, the most difficult part was drawing up and cutting out the cross. I only had finger glue (i.e. 2 seconds glue) on hand, but it has hold op marvelous in spite of all the use.  

A day of being cultural

My friend and I went exploring in Copenhagen today. We went to Glyptoteket, where we looked at wonderful busts and statues and paintings. Not to mention all the ceilings.




Then we walked from the museum to Christianshavn. On our way we acted like tourists and took some pictures... 





I love how beautiful our capital is. The reason we walked across the city was to get to Vor Frelsers Kirke (Our Saviour's Church) because we wanted to climb the tower.


 It is a long way up, but look at the view...





 And yes we made it all the way to the top!


Afterwards our legs were shaking from the work-out, but we still went inside the church because it is such a beautiful and peaceful place.




And yes, I do have a fascination with ceilings.


This day has felt like a whole vacation and I feel rejuvinated and a little tired at the same time. Do you go exploring your city from time to time?

Leather

It is no secret that I am bi-craftual. My love of all things hand made doesn't come from strangers, so when I mentioned to my dad that I had wanted to do some leather work, but had rejected the thought again when I realised how much even only the most neccessary tools would cost me he offered me all his tools and what leather he still had, there was even a book included.
I have fond memories of watching my dad work in leather and later sitting opposite him trying to work in it myself. There was no tool I wasn't allowed to use. I even played with the burner. Back then I mostly played with the scraps from his projects, but I did make some simple projects like key chains as well.
Two bags with all his tools had been sitting in our basement for a while before I had an idea for what I wanted to make, but this week I got it all up and surveyed it.


I was so eager to start my project, that I sat down and reached for the cutting board... That was when it hit me, there was no cutting board. I was more than willing to shell out the money for one, but I called my parents just to find out what had happened to the one I remembered. At this point I had also noticed the lack of the burner, which made me sad, but I was thinking my dad might still use it for marking wood. Turns out the cutting board and the burner both lived at a different spot in my parent's basement than the rest of the gear and therefore had been forgotten, so they will be coming to live with me soon.

Going with the flow - going well.

I've been pressing on with my dad's final pair of socks. I've turned the heel and knitted the gusset of the second sock and I really want this final sock to be done already. But lets be realistic. I have knitted an entire socks worth since Monday. No wonder my hands are a little tired and I had to stop knitting today.
I really wanted to do something with thread and I wasn't in the mood to spin. So I got out my embroidery hoop and started working on my mum's christmas gift:


So far it is turning out just like what I had in mind. But obviously I have not gotten very far yet. All those french knots are the reason  I decided to start this one early in the year!


How has your crafting week been thus far? 

WIP overload!

If I was on facebook I would probably have a status saying WIP overload at the moment.
I am a fairly monogamous knitter and do not thrive above a set amount of projects on the needles. By fairly, I mean that I like to have two projects going, I do however mostly knit on one at the time. I can work on a project for months, then put it down and work monogamously on something else for a while, then return to the original project. This way I have an option, but not so many choices that I don't see any real progress because I knit one row her and one row there all the time.

Currently, I have 4 projects on the needles of which one is designed by me and one design project that just needs the finishing touches before it can be released.

Not surpricingly I'm knitting socks for my dad. I'm on the final pair of the year and hopefully you will not hear about those after Pentecost. I have turned the heel on the first sock, so I'm 25% done with the pair.

Secondly, I'm working on that design I told you about. I had to frog the bulk of it and I finally finished the last of the pre-knitted yarn. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Thirdly, we have the John 6:12 baby blanket. I was fine with it being dormant as long as I didn't have any sock yarn in the flat. Now I do (see the first project) and after I did the math and know how little I have left I just want it done. However as long as I'm not done with the socks for my dad this project is still dormant, it is just snoring so loud!

Finally we have the insouciant . Ahh the tee that was supposed to be smooth sailing, plenty of stockinet knit in the round. That was until I decided to supstitute yarn, which lead to the change of gauge from 19 sts to 26, which lead to a whole lot of math, which lead to a lot of insecurity, which lead to frustration, which lead me to not touch it for a long time.  This is what friendly ravelers and my mum is for. Together we re-calculated, measured and figured it out. I am now fairly confident that it will turn out good.

Now remember how I said 4 things on the needles and a design that needed finishing touches? Well, I almost have a fifth thing on the needles. I'm swatching for a Bulgarian skirt. Yes, I want to knit a skirt in ribbing, on 2,5mm needles with a gauge of 30sts. No, I am not insane. I have however decided to focus on one thing at the time and just go with the flow.

Baking kisses



I went to the meat district today, but not for meat. I went to get piping bags so that I could make something I made not once, not twice, but trice (love that word, trice, and you so rarely get to use it) over Easter.

This is what I'm talking about:


Liqourice kisses!

You'll need:
3 egg whites
265 g. sugar
1 tea spoon vinegar (any kind will do, I have used plain white, raspberry and finally apple cider)
4 tea spoons of raw liqourice powder


Whip the egg whites, sugar and vinegar till it is the consistency of  soft ice. Add the raw liqourice powder. Put the mixture into a piping bag and make small kisses, tons of small kisses. You are likely to need 3 baking trays.

Bake at 110 C in a convection oven for 50 min.
Split one to see if it is the consistency you want and enjoy!

NB. These kisses can be highly addictive, so be warned you may find yourself surrounded by friends and family constantly asking you for more kisses, not that that it is a bad thing...






Shh, it's sort of a secret...

I am finally doing something I have wanted to do for a looooong time. I'm working on my very first design. I had the idea for a pattern over Easter and unlike the other times this have happened, I could not stop obsessing about it. I wanted to know that if I were to put all that effort into it, then it would be able to pay me a little over time.
This was no easy thing, as the Danish tax is fairly high, so between that and Paypal's cut (which is also higher in DK because they charge a conversion fee), there wasn't much left for me. I was looking at having to sell 11 patterns or so just o be able to buy 1 pattern on Ravelry. That is when my dad suggested a visit to the local tax office.
So I went the next day and lo and behold, the nice lady told me I didn't have to pay taxes as long as I earn less than X in a year (and there is no way I'm going to make even 1/20 of X in a year). In reality you have to pay tax on every single dime you earn, but if I were to pay taxes I would also be intitled to write off a computer etc., which would put me in the negative for decades. You should have seen the nice lady's face when she asked me how much I expected to earn in a year and I told her that $10-20 would be awesome! (clearly I'm doing this for the fun of it and not planning to make a living off of it.)
I wanted to be sure that I was setting out on this venture the right way though. I am happy to pay my taxes as they enable me to get an education my parents would never have been able to pay for and provide us with free health care etc., but I have to say I'm glad I don't have to pay them on this possible side business.
So what am I designing? Well, there are two things for your head in the makings, which will be offered as a combined pattern and one thing for your hands, which is still very tentative. I told you it was sort of a secret ;)

Dying for the first time

Over Easter I tried my hand at dying for the first time. I think I've mentioned the kill-me-now-UGLY orange fibre I've been spinning forever because I have so much of it. Well, I brought 3 skeins =150g with me to the island and had fun with my mum overdying it with black. I wanted a nice brown but all you could get on the island was black, but take a look at how it turned out:
soaking the yarn

mixing the dye


still wet, look at the change!

All dry and brown with hints of orange.
I think the pictures speak for themselves. I am one happy camper and plan to spin away so that I can overdye a lot of skeins next time I go to the island. We don't have room to dye in our tiny studio. I can also tell you that it is wonderful to knit with and the orange pops really make it come to life.

Easter was..









:: sporadic use of the internet on borrowed computers.
:: good meals shared with family and friends.
:: relaxing.
:: trying out new things, such as overdying handspun and working on my first design
:: Deciding to try out designing as a 'job', in hopes that it could cover the patterns I want to buy.
:: Finishing and wearing my first long-sleeved t-shirt.
:: getting new things from the family 'yardsale' for free.
:: baking sweet kisses with liquorice.
:: playing with my cat, who turns 15 in 11 days.
:: Watching old Danish movies with my dad.
:: sipping wine and talking into the wee hours of the night.
:: looking at old family photos.

Easter was a bliss. I hope yours was as well.