Google Reader is shutting down tomorrow, 1st of July.
If you don't want to miss out on my future posts I recommend you follow me on Bloglovin', which is really simple to use. And if you don't want to loose all the blogs you follow through Google Reader you can easily move your Google Readers to Bloglovin' by following THIS link.
You can of course follow me via Facebook, email or any other RSS feed. I am using Bloglovin' myself and think it is a great way to follow blogs.
I hope you will stay around. I've got some great news to share with you later this week. It is all about yarn. Lots of yarn... Yum!
I am taking Emmy to school after lunch. She is sitting like a lady on the bicycle bar in front of me on the bike (highly illegal and lots of fun!!!) and we go fast down the road. We pretend to be a race car making race car noises, changing gear, top gear, low gear. Stop and beep beep. I let her off and she runs into class. I sit up to go back home. And start making race car noises. On my own. Without a child on my bicycle bar. I am embarrassed to say, but that is what motherhood does to you.
Me and two friends took a trip across the boarder to France to visit a big craft store and have lunch together. It was a precious outing as we seldom get to have time for ourselves without kids... We chatted in the car about this and that when I spotted a parachuter gliding in the sky. "Look!!! Parachuter!!!" I shout and my girlfriends look at me like I am a weirdo and burst into laughter. Because I have no child in the car today who wants to see a parachuter, only two girl friends who thinks this is hilarious... That is what motherhood does to you.
And when I go shopping, walking up and down the isles of food, I sometimes find myself humming: "Na nah nah nah. Na nah nah nah. Elmo's world... Hum hum hum. Nah nah nah nah..." or any other children's cartoon intro... I think I know at least a dozen different ones by heart... I guess it would be more cool to hum a pretty melody from the pop charts but... This is what motherhood does to you.
Or what about the times you've gone for a walk with your baby in the pushchair and met a friend who wants to hold him/her, and while she is chatting and holding your baby you find yourself still rocking the pushchair although it is as empty as it can be... All the things that we do... Beacuse that is what motherhood does to you.
Motherhood... Fantastic. Embarrassing. Challenging. It owns you, it is under your skin, in your dreams in every breath you take. Everything is about them. It is the hardest work you will ever do. And the most important one. Lets spend more time together checking out parachuters, humming kids cartoon intros and pretending to be motorcycles. One day it will be all quiet around here... I acn't even imagine what it will be like...
Idag delar jag med mig av mitt mönster
"Maybelle Squares" på svenska. På svenska kallar jag den Maybelle Rutan helt enkelt. En underbart söt liten ruta som dessutom är relativt lätt att virka.
Av Maybelle rutan kan du naturligtvis göra plädar, överkast och babyfiltar genom atta nvända olika tekniker till att virka ihop rutorna, men de kan också bli till väskor, grytlappar, girlanger och annat.
Jag har använt garnet Tilda från Svarta Fåret och en virknål 3. Om ni använder grövre garn blir rutan lite större, ett tunnare garn gör en mindre ruta. Mönstren är relativt enkla och passar nog alla nivåer.
Du behöver: ♥︎ Garn (jag har använt Tilda från Svart Fåret, ett bomull/akryl mix garn.)
♥︎ Virknål som passar garnets tjocklek (jag har använt virknål 3 mm)
♥︎ Sax
♥︎ Stoppnål/trubbig broderinål att fästa trådar med Förkortningar m - maska/maskor sm - smygmaska lm - luftmaska fm - fastmaska hst - halvstolpe st - stolpe dst - dubbelstolpe
Varv 1
Starta med ny färg i en toppmaska på blombladet. Det är 7 maskor i ett blomblad och toppmaskan är 4:e maskan från nedtaget mellan två blomblad. Virka 5 lm, 1 hst i m mellan blombladen, 4 lm, [1 fm i toppmaskan på blombladet, 4 lm, 1 hst i m mellan blombladen] - repetera 6 ggr, 4 lm, sm i toppmaskan på första blombladet i varvet.
Varv 2
Gör 1 sm i 1:a luftmaskbågen, 2 lm (räknas som 1:a halvstolpen) följt av 3 hst i samma luftmaskbåge (totalt 4 hst i samma luftmaskbåge), 1 lm, 4 hst i nästa luftmaskbåge, 1 lm.
Nu gör vi hörnan och resten av varvet:
Virka 1 hst i nästa luftmaskbåge följt av 2 st, 2 dst i samma luftmaskbåge, 2 lm, 2 dst, 2 st, 1 hst i nästa luftmaskbåge, 1 lm. [4 hst i nästa luftmaskbåge, 1 lm, 4 hst i nästa luftmaskbåge, 1 lm, 1hst i nästa luftmaskbåge följt av 2 st, 2 dst i samma luftmaskbåge, 2 lm, 2 dst, 2 st, 1 hst i nästa luftmaskbåge, 1 lm] repetera 2 ggr, slut varvet med 1 sm i 2:a lm i 1:a “halvstolpen”.
Varv 3
Virka 2 lm (räknas som 1:a halvstolpen), 2 hst i de nästa 2 m, skippa 1 m, gör 1 st i mellanrummet mellan stolpgrupperna i föregående varvet, 3 hst i de nästa 3 m, skippa 1 m, gör 1 st i mellanrummet, 4 hst i de nästa 4 m, skippa 1 m, gör 2 st i hörnans luftmaskbåge, 2 lm, 2 st i samma hörnas luftmaskbåge, skippa 1 m, 4 hst i de nästa 4 m, 1 st i mellanrummet, 3 hst i de nästa 3 m] repetera 2 ggr.
Sista hörnan:
3 hst i de nästa 3 m, skippa 1 m, gör 1 st i mellanrummet, 4 hst i de nästa 4 m, skippa 1 m, gör 2 st i hörnans luftmaskbåge, 2 lm, 2 st i samma hörnas luftmaskbåge, skippa 1 m, 4 hst i de nästa 4 m, 1 st i mellanrummet, slut varvet med 1 sm i 2:a lm i 1:a “halvstolpen. Klipp av garnet och fäst.
Nu är din Maybelle ruta klar och du vill säkerligen göra fler. För bästa resultat kan du "blocka" din ruta men detta är inte nödvändigt om du ska virka en filt till exempel, men kanske för mindre projekt.
Gör så här: Lägg din Maybelle ruta på en strykbräda, dubbelvikt handduk eller anslagstavla av kork. Forma rutan så som du vill ha den och pinna fast den med nålar i kanterna och hörnorna.
Spreja med vatten eller stärkelsevatten och låt torka över natten.
Kärlek
Annette
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Tonight I am translating the Maybelle Crochet Flower pattern and the Maybelle Square pattern to Swedish and at the same time I am making a PDF version... I thought this would be done in an hour or so but now it is getting close to midnight and I still have a bit left to go... And I am loving it. The graphic design part. The "old" professional me playing around... The thought of making so many Swedish crochet crazy women happy with their own Swedish version of these pattern are well worth it. Soon to be posted.
Today it is Midsummer in Sweden. This is probably one of Sweden's biggest tradition, to celebrate Midsummer Evening. This day kicks off summer, vacation and is a symbol for being
together, raising the Swedish flag up high with pride, making your way
to a cute little red Swedish Cottage with white corners, picking flowers
to decorate a Midsummer tree. Listening to Swedish folk music and
dance around the Midsummer tree to "Små Grodorna" in delight no matter what age... You lay your table with nice decorations, you play games and the children stay up as long as they want to. You drink and eat and get jolly and happy (and sometimes you get so jolly and happy that you fall off your chair...)... This is the day every Swede is waiting for after the long dark winter.
But when you have left your home country to live abroad and you try so hard to stay tuned with all the traditions, holidays and native culture events it is not so easy. One child is born and it is very intense, you do it all with 200% commitment. Child number two comes along and a number of moves across the Atlantic, and you kind of cut out some of it out that you might not think is that important as life itself is so intense and busy... Child three enters this world and after another couple of moves between countries with adjusting, learning new languages and figuring things out, you suddenly find yourself struggle to keep up with it. Because you are alone pulling this "tradition train".
Your husband is from another part of the world and you are on neutral land. Your home language is not even Swedish anymore. Your children speak three languages depending on who they speak two, which makes you proud of course, but damn... It is hard work behind that one too.
11 years passes by and you find yourself checking Facebook one day in June just to discover Midsummer was yesterday. You forgot! You can't believe you forgot about this. And you feel sad, guilty and stupid... You are becoming dis-Swedefied. 12 years passes by and this year you are more okay with the thought that No, we don't really celebrate Midsummer anymore.
I tried. I have dragged my kids around with the Swedish Church events in rain and in Mediterranean basting sun but my kids are not Swedish. They are not even American. And they are not Swiss. They are International. A little bit of it all. And we are building our own traditions. We wing it from one year to another. Maybe we will celebrate Midsummer next year, but this year we will go light. I picked a Midsummer bouquet. I do have some pickled herring for lunch tomorrow and I might just introduce the "picking-7-flowers-to-put-under-your-pillow-and-dream-about-your-true-love" to my oldest girl who turns 12 this year. I am planning on baking a rhubarb cake and make my own vanilla Semi Fredo... That will be my way of celebrating Midsummer living abroad. Glad Midsommar everyone. Let the light shine bright all day and all night.
Kärlek
Annette
PS I big thank you to you all showing such great compassion on my latest post. Things are okay, time will tell how big the damage is but I look forward. It will all be fine. This is nothing compared to what other people go through but I do appreciate every single message. Lots of love to you all.
We control our work. We control our eating habits. We control our children. We control our time schedule. We control our lives. We control our purchases. But we can't control nature...
It started with a strong wind that made our flower bed wind mills spin like crazy. Then the dark clouds started to rapidly roll in. Within minutes everything turned dark. Who turned the switch off???
It ltterally felt like someone had put a lid on the world, not letting the sun come in at all. I went inside announcing that a thunder storm is on its way. The next thing I know was hail hitting the kitchen windows so hard we thought they would break. Larger than marbles they were poured down from the sky in frenzy with a wind so strong destroying everything.
5 minutes later it was all over. And I suddenly realized that this 5 minute hail storm must have made some damage. I went outside to have a look and came back in with tears in my eyes. It is all slaughtered, broken, destroyed. Every plant, every flower, every tree. The strawberries taht just started to go red are ripped and torn. The potato and tomato plants are lying spread out in pieces. Flowers are beaten to the ground. My lovely vine that just started to climb on my house wall is ruined. The pear tree hardly have any fruit left, torn, wripped... All the baby shoots are flattened to the ground... I don't think anything has survived these stormy 5 minutes.
We will probably have to start all over but most of all worry about the fruit trees. Will there be any apples, cherries, plums or pears? Will there be any raspberries, currants and strawberries?
Maybe this is natures way of paying back. Nothing is what it used to be. This spring has been the longest and wettest spring in over 200 years here in Switzerland. One day it is 32 degrees, the next it is 13... It is all so unpredictable. We can't control nature. And that is frustrating, scary and somewhat annoying as we want to control everything. But I also find it very refreshing at the same time. It makes me feel alive. This is real. Weather and nature is real, it is everywhere all the time. And we have to let it be that way. Live with it. Embrace it. Even if our garden looks like a war field.
Let me tell you the story about this Maybelle Square. A couple of months ago, or even longer, this idea of turning the Maybelle flower into a crochet square started to take form in my head. I had a few goes without luck. I am telling you, you do NOT want to see my terrible trials... I left the idea to sit for a while and one day one of my readers, a Dutch girl named Jane, sent me a picture of how she had turn the Maybelle flowers into squares in a blanket. I instantly contacted her to ask if she could give me some hints how she had made her squares. Within a day or two she replied with some instructions and she gave me the magic number - 4.
I have tweaked her initial instructions, as I always tend to put my own twist on things (typical me). However, this Maybelle Square was born and I am loving it. All credits go to Jane who does not have her own blog and who wants to stay anonymous, but I truly hope you read this. It was the magical number 4 that made it all work out. Thank you dear Jane!
I know many of you have waited for this pattern so here we go. Excuse my terrible hand drawn crochet symbols, but this is
better than nothing for you who prefer a visual pattern.
I have written the pattern in UK/US terms. I have used Tilda yarn on a 3mm / C-D (US) hook. A Svensk version finns här.
Row 1 Find the pattern for the Maybelle Crochet Flower here, picture tutorial here, and when you have your Maybelle Flower you are ready to get started with the square.
Join a new yarn at the top of a petal and chain 5 (counts as 1dc/1sc + ch4), *make a 1htr/1hdc in the valley between two petals, chain 4, 1dc/1sc in top stitch on next petal, chain 4*, repeat * * until end of row. Join with slip stitch in first chain made on first petal.
Row 2 This row is worked into the chain spaces: Slip stitch into first chain space, make ch2 (counts as first htr/hdc) - 3htr/3hdc (a total of 4htr/hdc in same chain space), ch1, 4htr/4hdc in next chain space, ch1. Now we work the corner: *In next chain space make 1htr/1hdc - 2tr/2dc - 2dtr/2tr, ch2, in following chain space make 2dtr/2tr - 2tr/2dc - 1htr/1hdc, ch1. In next chain space make 4htr/4hdc, ch1, 4htr/4hdc in next chain space, ch1*, repeat * * 2 times.
Make one more last corner: In next chain space make 1htr/1hdc - 2tr/2dc - 2dtr/2tr, ch2, in following chain space make 2dtr/2tr - 2tr/2dc - 1htr/1hdc, ch1. Join row with slip stitch in top chain of first 2 chains made.
Row 3
Ch2 (counts as first htr/hdc), 1htr/1hdc in next 2 stitches, skip 1stitch, 1tr/1dc in space between clusters, *skip 1 stitch, htr/1hdc in next 3 stitches, 1tr/1dc in space between clusters, 1htr/1hdc in next 4 stitches, skip 1 stitch , make 2tr/2dc - 1ch - 2tr/2dc in same corner space, skip 1 stitch, 1htr/1hdc in next 4 stitches, 1tr/1dc in space between clusters, 1htr/1hdc in next 3 stitches, skip 1 stitch, 1tr/1dc in space between cluster*], repeat * * 2 times.
Finish your row with: Skip 1 stitch, 1htr/1hdc in next 3 stitches, 1tr/1dc in space between clusters, 1htr/1hdc in next 4 stitches, skip 1stitch, make 2tr/2dc - ch - 2tr/2dc in same corner space, skip 1 stitch, 1htr/1hdc in next 4 stitches, 1tr/1dc in space between clusters. Join with a slip stitch in top chain of first 2 chains made. Cut yarn and fasten of gently.
She makes beautiful things. She is full of color. Her Silly Old Suitcase is always filled with treasures. She is wild, daring and unique in her style. A bit crazy and I love that. She is a great inspiration. And she wants to celebrate that summer finally has arrived. What a great reason for a fabulous Silly Old Suitcase Give Away.
If I am lucky enough to win I would wear one of her bracelets with pride, spreading joy with its colors in this world. I wonder what you would pick?
PS Thank you all for your sweet encouraging words on my last post. It means the world to me to have such great cyber friends. I already feel much better and much more organized. Soon I will rock again. :D
So many things I want to do. So many ideas in my head. So many things happening all the time. So little time to squeeze it all in. Too many WiPs, too many happenings in the calendar, too many hours spent cleaning and washing... cooking and caring...
So when I sit down I don't know where to start, which WiP to choose, what idea to add to my note book... If the week only had 8 days... Just for a few weeks ahead for me to catch up. One more 24 hour day with no distraction, maybe two or three 24 hour days with no distraction. And probably with terrible rain... I could really need that. To get things going here. I think this is called creative stress... It sounds kind of positive... but feels kind of frustrating... Kärlek Annette
Side by side they sit with virtual screens in hand. This is 2013. "Look at my girl. I made her a pretty purple dress." says one girl " Aaaaw, that is so nice. I am gonna make a dress for mine too. " the other one replies.
Before Christmas we had ONE stationary Apple computer in the house which we shared between FIVE family members. After Christmas we added an iTouch, iPhone and iPad to the home after years of resisting the technical revolution. Today I find it hard to imagine what life was like before these mini virtual screens existed.
As much as I want my children to climb trees and run around in the fields I also want them to be tech savvy. We have rules. Maximum 1 hour a day, more on a rainy day or the weekend. Homework and chores first, computer after. No iTouch in school and no screens after 6 pm and absolutely no screens in bed. And screen time is the first thing to go when misbehaving...
Looking at my girls having "screen time" like this, I am thinking: "Maybe I have become that old fashion Mama who just DOES NOT get it... Duuuhhh..." Because they are having so much fun sitting there comparing their dress up dolls and animals, giggling and laughing... What's the harm really? Why is it that I prefer them play with plastic real Littlest Pet Shops instead of Littlest Pet Shops in a virtual game? And if I sit for hours on end on my computer I can't really justify telling my kids to get off a mini screen to climb a tree, can I? So today I let them play a bit longer while I sit on the bench and crochet a few squares. It is nice to just be together anyway.
I tend to struggle with crochet basics at times. Things like making a straight edge/side or making a magic loop, crochet a flat circle or a nice slip stitch... I promised you a tutorial on this when I showed you my stripy pillow a while ago and here it is.
I am using UK crochet terms and this pillow was made from treble stitches in the back loop (double crochet stitches US terms). There are different ways of making a straight edge when working with a treble crochet stitch pattern. This is how I do it and I carefully count my stitches every other row or so to make sure I am not making mistakes.
How to crochet a straight edge/side tutorial Picture 1-3:
When you have made your last treble in the last stitch you finish off your row with a treble in the top stitch (3rd chain) of the first treble you made in your previous row.
Picture 4-5:
Chain 3 and turn your work.
Picture 6:
Skip the first stitch and make your next treble in the 2nd stitch. You can see I have marked the right stitch to start in with my tapestry needle.
Picture 7:
Make a treble. For this pattern I am working only in the back loop of the stitch as you can tell, it looks a little bit different from a normal stitch. Now you just continue to make your trebles in every stitch until you reach the end of the row and then you start all over from Picture 1.
Picture 8:
This way you won't get gaps at the edge/side. It is even and neat, although my large picture shows a bit of a wobbly edge... Hmmm... I blame it on the stone table and that I didn't smooth out my crochet piece before taking the picture (or maybe I failed with some stitches there - no one will ever know - Twink!!). :D
Good luck, and if you do miss a stitch in one row it is not the end of the world, right? You can always correct it in your next row unless you are WAAAY far out with your stitches. :D Keep counting. I hope this was helpful.
Finally the sun came out from its hiding place. Finally the air was warm. Finally we got some planting in the garden done. Finally I weeded my last flower bed. Finally I painted all my toe nails red. Finally the irises are in full bloom. Finally the the kids play outside ripping their pants and coming in all green from rolling in the grass. Finally the sky is blue. Finally I have crochet moments outside, sitting in the grass. Finally my Maybelle squares are growing in numbers.
The Wisteria hangs heavy over our windows, smelling and looking lovely. And the chives from last year has grown in to a beautiful bush in bloom.
Finally I can wiggle my toes, walk around bare feet and spend more time outside than inside.
