Too many socks lying around the house?

You can make art of anything. Even old socks. This portrait of Chinese film director Zhang Yimou by Red Hong proves it. She made it by arranging 750 (probably new) socks using pins and bamboo sticks. A pretty good work, don't you think?

 More pics here.

Longing for summer?

This spring has been so looooong. Feels like the summer is never coming! It's almost May and people are still wearing their winter jackets and boots in Sweden! Maybe I should knit me some grass to walk around on... this pattern is from www.lionbrand.com. It's free but you have to sign up to get access. There's both a knit and a crochet version.

Having a romantic Saturday evening with my man

Add some color to your life!

If you have ANY interest in colors whatsoever you need to visit www.design-seeds.com. It's an inspirational website "for all who love color". I didn't even realised that I love colors so much. You could certainly not tell from my wardrobe or my home for that matter. But then I found this site by chance months ago when I was looking for some color codes for this blog. I have almost obsessively browsed the color charts since then but still haven't been able to chose one. There is just too many to fall in love with. I want them all! And they are a great inspiration or guide if you want to redecorate your home as well. Here is just a teeny tiny drop of the color heaven that the site provides.

Witty and gross knits...

A friend of mine posted a link to Facebook user "Anatomical Knitting" on my FB-page. Isn't it both gross and funny at the same time?

I googled a little and sure is there more weird knittings out there.. how about this Lab Frog? The pattern is for sale on Ravelry here, and there is a Lab Rat too...

Round rag rug and super deals

Isola has been very ill the last week, with high fever, a cough from hell and an ear infection on top of that. We have been locked up inside the house for days and I have really wished that I had a project to pick up in between blowing noses and giving medication. OK I always have projects, I meant that I had yarn. The right yarn. To match my mood. But I had time to try an experiment that I've been thinking about lately, namely knitting rag rugs. But it didn't work out well. Not even my fatest needles were fat enough. So I tried to crochet by hand instead. It's really really mindless and sort of calming...round and round it goes... looks like this so far:

But I made a real bargain yesterday. Found out that Garnstudio had a special edition release of one of their Drops yarns for only SEK 7 a skein (which is a tad more than a dollar) and I managed to put my hands on 25 skeins before they were completely sold out after one day in the stores. So now I suddenly have several projects just screaming for attention. I think I will start with something for Isola though. Some of the finds I made...

On the needles in april, Alpaca Flamé

A big warm hug

is what I think of when I see this piece of art. From the collection "More or Less" by Nanna van Blaaderen.

Interesting reads

Found pics of these funny how-to-books on Huffington Post. They make me curious! I especially like the subtitle on the second one!

 

Sleepy monkeys

It's already April and I realize that I didn't have any "Interview of the month" in March. Sorry about that but it has just been too busy! .But there is certainly no shortage of inspiring designers, knitters or fibre artists out there. Here is one that I would like to share with you right away: Mary Ann Stephens has been knitting since she was five and sort of specialize in Norweigan and Fair Isle designs and seems to always knit in multiple colours. She runs kidsknit.com and have had designs published in Twist Collective and Vogue Knitting.

Just look at that beautiful Rosalia Kimono! You can buy her patterns on her website and on Ravelry and she also shares her inspiration sources for her designs on her blog Two Strands.

Another of her designs that I really love is the Sleepy Monkey Blanket. It's a reversible stranded baby blanket that you can make in several colourways. On her blog she even have listed several charts with alternate colourways for you to choose from, most of them unisex. Every baby should have a blanket like this! And it seems so fun to knit... Alas, if I only had the time.