Thursday, April 28, 2011

Quanun


So, here's Verena 01 /2011 front page cardigan Quanun. As the weather is rather cold these days, but I'm too impatient to show it, just a preview indoor photo session. I do hope to be able to take some decent photos outdoor this weekend. Anyway, I'm really pleased with the final result and I believe the cardigan will see lots of wear this summer.

Бележки по жилетката на български ТУК:



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Easter Picnic in Pics

A picnic at the skirts of the Vitosha mountains, still covered in snow.
An over a hundred years old tree. A black bird in the branches.
A peaceful clearing, covered with wild violets, flowers and singing birds

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Reading Matters

to me.
A lot. I learnt to read when I was 3.5 years old - or so I've been told, my first reading memories date back to reading stories to my fellow kindergarteners :) I've always read a lot, no matter where or when. My latest obsession with cross stitching and knitting however presents a real challenge to my reading cravings, as it keeps my eyes and hands occupied. And as an accomplished multitasker I might consider myself :), I have found it totally unsatisfying to do reading and knitting, not to mention reading and cross-stitching simultaneously. That is, until I found audiobooks! For the last four years I've read with my ears hundreds (I mean it, hundreds!) of audiobooks. And as my mind dislikes staying idle, I also take language audiocourses (Spanish and Italian, I also tried Greek but - ugh, I'm too old for such a difficult language :) and audiolectures from The Teaching Company - so far I've covered two courses on the History of the World, I especially enjoyed the one on Ancient Greece and Rome and two of their courses on linguistics (presently I'm listening for the second time to The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter - he's such a brilliant lecturer).

Some of my latest readings -

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Actually this was my second reading of the book, as I read it in its paper version in Bulgarian some years before. An absolutely brilliant book, I believe I might want to read it again. Given that there are so many books worth reading, re-reading a book might be considered a waist of time, but I love it. Sometimes I get tired of experimenting and new things and want something pleasant for sure - then I grab a favourite book. (I've read Pride and Prejudice more times than might be considered healthy :). Besides, every time is a new experience. When I first read The Curious Incident, I felt so much for the boy and was almost furious with his mother, but this time ... well, I saw things more clearly from her perspective.


We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Another first-person narrative, constructed like a puzzle with tiny pieces of information, which gradually build the whole story. I loved the first two thirds of the book immensely, but it somehow lost momentum towards the end, probably because I figured out the secret halfway through the first 10 minutes and then expected something bigger to happen, but the end was somewhat flat. Still a good read.




The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene is quite a mouthful for me, so I take it in small bites - some 30-40 min a day max. It's lots of heavy physics and cosmology (Brian Greene is a theoretical physicist) on the origin of the Cosmos, the Big Bang theory, Einstein's Relativity, parallel universes and such.






And these arrived today in paperback:



The third volume of The Hunger Games has been eagerly expected by husband, daughter and me, we'll see who'll get it first :)

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!



Happy Easter to you all!



I've dressed three of the eggs with the beaded egg shells by closing the second circle around the egg. When the holiday is over, I'll cut this new thread of the second circle, free the egg and save the shell for next year.

This year one of the Easter cakes was made by my 12 year old daughter. She's been pretty much into cooking lately, and though the cake is somewhat on the far side of being edible :), she put several hours of mixing ingredients and kneading, so kudos to her!



Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Beaded Easter Egg Shell

Photo Tutorial

A couple of years ago I found an excellent tutorial on how to make a beaded egg shell - and I made this one. I've lost the tutorial, but I have the old egg shell, so I decided to reconstruct it in this new photo tutorial.
I bought several kinds of beads and I chose these four to make the shell:




Cut 2.5 m thread, run it through the first round bead and make a knot. Thread three more round beads, then alternate 9 long with round beads, finish the row with four round beads. Run the thread back through the three but last beads and start the second row. Every second round bead is the bead from the previous row. Continue in this manner until the shell is big enough (11 diamond rows):







Close the last row without round beads - thread through the beads from the previous rows. Finish with a circle of round beads. Leave the other end of the shell open to put in the colored Easter egg, or use a wooden decorative egg.









And another one:



Sunday, April 17, 2011

A Bag On My Mind

The fronts and back of my Quanun are ready to take a bath. The shoulder seams were done with 3-needle technique, no side seams as yet (just pinned).



I bought two more skeins of the yarn, as I've been thinking of a knitted (or rather crocheted) bag to go with the cardigan. So far I've short-listed these three patterns, however none gives me the feel as being "THE BAG" :(

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my son's 11th birthday! As the kids are too busy all day at school, the children's party will be on Saturday, but of course, there was a small family party at home, with some delicious homemade cake: