Oolong knits

On the Shore by Jana Huck is a blanket that reproduces one of the tessellation patterns created by M.C. Escher . Using Jana's own words "don´t you worry. This pattern might look complicated, but it really is not". And here is her brief description of the technique involved: The animals are shaped by various stitch patterns (rib pattern, seed stitch, stocking stitch, twice turned ribbing, garter stitch) and short rows. [...] includes seaming as well as cutting/steeking. She forgot the bobble stitch used for the eyes of the fish. Not complicated indeed! Just as complicated as one can easily imagine looking at the beautiful damned thing. I am definitely not going to attempt this, but if anyone would be so kind as to do it for me, yes, please, please, yes, I'd love to have this blanket. I'm not even that ambitious, just to see one of this, even if it didn't belong to me, would be fun.

My mother had a sewing machine that she only used for doing simple modifications, like resizing the length of trousers. Using a sewing machine is so easy that I didn't really need to learn anything to start doing the same. I was never one to care much for what I wear (usually the first item I find on my closet) and the idea of sewing my own clothes or anything else was totally ridiculous to me. But being able to sew the hem of store-bought trousers actually saves time besides money. It is so easy and fast that it beats taking the trousers to a seamstress. That is why I have always planned buying a cheap sewing machine for this and similar purposes. This I have done recently. I have bought the cheapest machine I could find that is strong enough to sew some jeans (this is important because very cheap machines usually can only sew lightweight and normal fabric, not denim and other heavyweight ones). Normally I would leave it at that and would not have bothered to learn new sewing ...

Arrows Down by Natalie Volyanyuk. I am lost for words, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So, no need to say more.

I'm back after the longest interruption ever on this blog. I have moved house recently, moved from a tiny apartment to a reasonably sized house. Nothing huge, just big enough to be comfortable for two people. The bad news is that I have been sick. I have spent two scary weeks waiting for a scan meant to rule out cancer, where I did very little, not only because I was exhausted, but because I was too scared and depressed, but that is over now. I don't recommend anyone to move while sick. It's a nightmare. Unfortunately I got sick just after setting my moving date and there was no way of postponing it. So you can see I've had a couple good reasons keeping me away from this blog. The good news is that the house has a small, pretty garden. I'm in love.

After reading last week's post and thinking a little more about its subject, I realized that I may have been a bit too harsh on Marche by focusing on individual differences. From a cultural perspective, it is true that our society educates women to keep higher standards of cleanliness. And this is one more example of sexism that feminism attempts to eradicate, and it is in part the argument that Marche sets forward (nothing revolutionary, feminists have been saying the same thing from the beginning of the movement). On one hand, I admit that when people come to my house and it happens (as frequently is the case) not to be "perfectly" clean and tidy, I feel particularly ashamed as a woman and feel very strongly that people judge me and not my husband for it. This must change! I must change and more importantly people (mostly women in this case) must change, because I am not just imagining things when I say I, not my husband, am judged. On the other hand, I admit I unas...