We're just settling in at home after a long holiday. It's nice to get back into a routine again. While we were away I managed to experiment with some tiny weaving samples. I'm just itching to get back into using my loom!

Have a lovely Tuesday.

  

        

                      

                      

I just finished my second weaving project that I've been fooling around with at home. I'm not sure if you can even call it weaving. This small rug was made on a loom using a rya technique. It was a lot of fun to make and feels great under foot!

Happy Tuesday.

       

       

I just recently started taking weaving classes and I'm learning some very helpful techniques to measure out the warp yarn and keep everything all orderly and tidy. It's all in German though so the proper terminology is missing from my English vocabulary. As impatient as I've been to get started (I've just finished setting up the loom to start weaving), I've been experimenting a little at home. 

Happy Monday.

Happy belated New Years! I spent most of December dealing with health issues and then the beginning of January recovering from minor surgery. Now pretty much fully recovered I feel like my year is finally beginning. 

I've been spending lots of time making things for around the house, like this rug that I finally finished. I had been working on it on and off for about a year now. It's perfect under our feet for the arrival of this cold weather we've been having.

Happy Saturday.

Hello strangers. It's been a while. I'm hoping that this was my last long silence for a long time. We've been busy reorganizing and rearranging the apartment and had my family visiting for the past two weeks. It was a great whirlwind of activity.

Now I just want to spend tons of time in our warm cozy apartment, finishing off some of the projects that I've been ignoring for the past month. My rag rug construction is under way again, and the end is in sight. I keep undoing it to fix snags and redo the colour scheme.

I've also been inspired by a few blogs out there to try my hand at weaving. I bought a portable weaver almost two years ago and need to finally dust it off. My goal is to have a weaving project under way by December.

Happy Tuesday.

Weaving weaving...

Wow. I'm blown away by the response I've received for my Etsy Euro Week giveaway. It makes it a little more exciting to be able to use that random number machine tomorrow.

communally woven blankets, Travis Meinolf's work from the Vancouver Art Gallery, via Lena Corwin, via banquet.

I've been super interested in getting into weaving for the past couple of years and sadly the closest I've come is darning my socks. I've been looking into Travis Meinolf's work and have even ordered one of his Mini Laser Looms to try my hand at weaving. I'm super pleased that he lives in Berlin and hope that he puts on another workshop in the near future so that I can attend! I missed the workshop he did a few months ago.

Happy Friday.

textile mania.

It's been a week of sleeping in late... and then sleeping some more. I've been home from work with bronchitis the entire week. Hopefully I've had my fill of sickness this year. It's starting to feel like a bad joke.

With all the extra time I've had this week to think, I've been daydreaming about things that I'd like to start working on... as soon as my health returns. I've also been getting a little embroidery practice in.



Spending almost an entire week in the apartment I was starting to climb the walls. So yesterday we braved the elements and went over the Kunst-werke to see the Owen Land exhibition on it's closing day. I think it was a good call health-wise. Even though I'm not such a big fan of his older work, the Dialogues series was pretty funny.

I also picked up this book on weaver Gunta Stölzl. I'm super excited to dig into it, and I decided to challenge myself and bought it in German. It may take me a little longer than usual to read. For me she is one of the most inspiring bauhaus weavers, though I am also smitten with Anni Albers work, Gunta Stölzl's enourmous and intricate pieces at the Modell Bauhaus exhibition just blew me away. I would really like to learn more about both of these ladies. Unfortunately the stacks are closed at the State Library here due to an asbestos problem so I'll have to suffice with my beautiful new book.





I've even started working on a Gunta Stölzl inspired embroidery piece.



Some nice blogs from Berlin that I've been reading this week... Ninon, The making of eden, and aitch.

I also came across dottie angel last week and was impressed with her undertaking of only buying second hand items or making things for herself for an entire year. It reminds me of needled when I first came across her blog late 2008. I've been thinking of doing one of these personal challenges myself but haven't quite formulated what it will be.

Happy Sunday.

Fall activities.

It's sick time again. Luckily my week isn't so packed with things to do. I've been lazing around the house today knitting, reading and napping. I think this is the perfect way to cure a cold.

We had a lovely weekend and finally ended up going apple picking. We loaded up a van full of friends and drove the gang here... just north of Potsdam and about 40 minutes outside of Berlin. It was just really nice to get out of the city for a couple of hours. And I have tons of apples that I'm going to whip into apple sauce and apple butter. mmmmmm.

I'm resting up today so that I can go and see Wendy and Lucy tonight at FSK. I've been wanting to see this film for awhile now and it has finally been released in Germany.

I've also started taking advantage of the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. It is an enormous library of spacious modernist architecture. I tried to find some good photos to post, but have not had much luck. It feels good just to set foot in this place. I've also come across a few great books... one of which is on Josef and Anni Albers of the Bauhaus movement. Over the past year I've seen a few of Anni Albers weaving projects and keep falling in love over and over. I think that this means I should start experimenting with some weaving of my own. We'll see about that. Until then I'll just pour over books of her work!

Happy Tuesday.

Ps. Yes, that is our friend Justin climbing trees for apples.