Here is something I've been working on recently. Ever since the Craftivists event, my mind has been itching to translate everything into embroidery. I have a feeling that I will be doing a lot more of it. It's lovely how an old hobby can be picked up again. This piece is particularly special/personal to me because it is stitched on some hand-dyed fabric, and the pattern is from a chair I own (most probably a Morris design) and the quote is wonderfully romantic and sweet and full of longing and just a hint of sadness (as if his lips will never be there). And, I always feel a strong connection to things that have to do with sleep/rest. I know that every flower had a very specific meaning in Victorian times- I wonder what this kind meant? (I would love to own a guide to Victorian floristry.)
Do you ever find that some things seem to have endless depth? Like a piece of art, or a book or certain song? You can read/listen/look at it many times and it keeps revealing more meaning to you? It may not mean anything to the next person, but to you it holds great magnitude?
I hope to one day inspire this feeling into someone with something that I've made. One day.Kimxo
On tuesday, Amy from Happy Daisy and I had a really lovely relaxing day in the sunshine. We knitted and crocheted all day, chasing eachother with little goals. It was such a good break from my stressing about college projects and Renegade prep and my health and all that. Just to work on something for myself and chat with a like-minded soul. Very nice.(Above photo from Amy)Also- I like to joke that we are twins. haha. She's lovely and humours me.One of the advantages of carrying a lot of colours of yarn with you, is that you can use it as a pillow! Then, of course we had to hang out at home a little bit, cause Negs wanted to play too...(Above photo from Amy) Big loves kxo. p.s. YES! I've been shooting Film again. <3 My Lomos and toy cameras and seeing the sun again.
Here is another batch of fleece that I dyed because I couldn't throw away the dyebath without exhausting it completely. Such beautiful pale colours.Due to my (most probably late night) neglect, you can see bits of white where I didn't prep the fleece properly and dye didn't get. Nevermind. Good thing I'm a fan of loving and embracing all mistakes!There's enough here to make a nice shawl I think. Or matching jumpers for twin babies maybe? Or some mittens and a hat for a cold spring day. We shall just have to wait and see what it wants to become. kxo
Been going through my sketchbooks from 1st and 2nd year, because I'm terrible and properly documenting them as I'm working on them, and lots of stuff never gets shared or finished up properly. I found some familiar faces in my Diner sketchbook, enjoy :]Kimxo
This is not really an outfit post- I mean, it is. It is me, in an outfit... but mainly this is to mark a little milestone.
One of the things that gets me down the most about my illness is how I have to be awkward about transportation when I'm out with friends. I always have to ask too many questions and plan my day out the night before and always always have a back-up plan if I find myself unable to walk or carry on. In London, it's very easy to hop on a bus pretty much anywhere- but I find even the walks between bus stops to be too much for me sometimes. And most people don't understand that, you see. To most people walking 5 or 6 bus stops is no big deal, a 10 min fast-paced brisk walk. To me, walking 5 bus stops feels me with the most horrible dread. Like, casually climbing up Everest or running a marathon. It literally pains me when people say 'oh, it's just a five minute walk'... because I know- to me that means I'll be aching and fatigued and unable to enjoy whatever is waiting for us at the other end. I just... It's just a physical limit that really gets me. And the look on people's faces sometimes when I ask 'oh- could we just get a bus?'. If they have no idea- the looks I get are full of reproach as if to say 'How LAZY are YOU!'. It kills me a little bit inside. Most of the time to overcome this, I say to people that I will meet them there. My nearest and dearest friends know better and often offer to accompany me- which is the best. <3
But it's something that (I feel) can ruin the mood of an entire day if I let it. I've been keen to get better and sort this out- but it's not really that easy. There is something called 'Graded Exercise' which is basically building up what your body can take gradually over time. To most people what I'm about to say is going to sound really small and ridiculous- but it's pretty big for me, and I want to be honest so here we go...
I can now walk to the Co-Op and back.
The distance between the Co-Op and my house is approx 1.5 bus stops each way. That's a total of 3 bus stops. This time 2 years ago, if I needed milk, I would go to my corner shop which is about a 1/4 of a bus stop from my house.
That means that on an average day, when I'm working from home (and not doing any other major energy-sucking activity) I can walk a total of 3 bus stops and not be totally comatose for the rest of the day. BIG NEWS. :] Obviously I'm still tired afterward, and I need to have a lie down (like I would do with any other activity) but it's definite improvement. So- yeah. YAY! For small steps. This is a picture of me on a pretty average work-from-home day. My big jumper was found on ebay- it's knitted and it's William Morris, and pretty perfect for the 'summer' weather we've been having here. haha. Kimxo
p.s. Just to clarify- this means that over and above my usual amount of activity, I am able to do a bit more than I could 2 years ago. On good days I can be a tour guide for half a day and on bad days, even the thought of leaving the bed makes me feel sick. But on an average, run-of-the-mill day, this means I can treat myself to some Chocolate Milk! Which, y'know, is all any girl really wants. :]
Okay- here we go! This is a video exchange type thing where we ask and answer questions. :]
I filmed this back in May, but never got a chance to edit it until now. Sorry! Nevermind the fact that Jazz and I both look ridiuclous and act like little kids and there is a fair amount of running around and giggling and... Please don't take us seriously- we don't!
Sorry for all the background noise. I live in London, it's noisy. haha. (also Jazz is adorable and tiny.)
Just in case you couldn't understand us- here are the two new questions: 1. What disease would you cure if you had magic powers. 2. Any animal you would have, as a pet that can talk to you and be your side-kick and fight crime.
We answered Q's from these ladies: -Megan, A String of Purls. -Rachel, Nearsighted Owl. And I just have to add this adorable Vlog by everyone at NerdNest (we only saw this after we recorded).
Please join in with video responses or answers in the comments. :] Big loves. kxo
I have a really hard time throwing away dyebath. Like- I just can't. haha. At least until I've exhausted it a few times. So I end up dyeing loads of fleece and end up with a pile of light shades from leftover dyebath. These particular colours were from when I dyeing Pink and Green for the 'Bi' exhibition. (I combined the blue and yellow to make green). It was using commercial dye and I kept getting it confused with my natural dye bits SO I decided to just spin it up and just add whatever there was to my stockpile of yarn ready for knitting.A very pleasent thing happened as I was doing this. I had two shades of each colour (the first exhaust, and the second). Instead of just mixing it together, I spun the first exhaust and the second exhaust seperatly and plyed them together. The result is a pleasing two-toned effect. And I like it so much- I think I'm going to try this with the next batch of Natural dyeing I do.Subtle but special. Also it was super fun to spin so tiny. I usually don't have the patience but I kind of wanted to make it go as far as possible. I know. I'm a dork. It's not enough that I've already saved some dyebath from waste. Sometimes my need to reuse & recycle gets me into trouble. Like all the paper I've been stockpiling for years... Perhaps I should make up some kits and sell them? Love you. kxo
Sometimes I like to draw things on paper that isn't in a sketchbook. Sometimes I like to write down my feelings. Sometimes I just need to glue stuff to other stuff. Sometimes I get that urge to document. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of something. I guess that's what I used to do with my art journals. I just used to do it a lot more often and perhaps with more cohesion? My art journals have taken a back seat (okay- more like locked away in a bag in the bottom of the boot where I never look), compared to Uni work and growing my knitting skills. But this year, I've kept a loose diary of sorts, along with my notebook that I carry around with me everywhere. Here are some pages from March and April that I thought you might like..."The city moved and we were still. " "Poetically sad and beautiful" "I turned my phone off." "The wind made my hair dance and the boats kissed each other." "I need to tell this to my pages" (just in case you can't read my messy writing. haha)This 'journal' is a free place for me. It's a place that never gets judged. It never has to be 'beautiful' or 'perfect' or even nice looking. I don't have to be happy with the drawings/compositions I make. It is literally a place for thoughts and bits of paper. I tend to keep scraps/offcuts from projects, reciepts, bags, etc and I like putting them together and marking them with a date. It's a nice reminder of what I was doing at the time- and I love looking back at my old ones too. Hopefully one day my kids will too. Maybe they'll see that we all struggle and get frustrated and hate ourselves now and again- but that if we really think about it, we are lucky and there is a lot to be happy about.It is also incredibly helpful for dealing with CFS/M.E. Being able to write your frustrations down- to make something that can't be seen... tangible- (or just complain) to a piece of paper is such a gift. :] Kimxo
Last sunday we spent such a nice day relaxing. Sam played guitar all day and I drew and took some film photos and it was raining outside but it was nice and cozy inside. He inspires me so much. Good heart, good soul, good head and tons of talent and kindness. These instax were my favourite from the day. I love the look of them when they are scanned in/printed up big. Something about the soft focus & vignette of the LC-A plus the hit-and-miss of the instax.This bottom one speaks especially loud to me. Double exposures are my jam right now. kxo
I could visit the Victoria And Albert Museum 1000 times and never get bored of it. It's my favourite place to go and be inspired, and it makes a really nice day out with friends. My friend Jack (who does Big Sounds Radio- good tunes!!) was down visiting London, and he is really into Theatre, so we had to go and see the big Costume/Theatre exhibition. (It's up stairs next to the tapestry room if you fancy seeing it. Free!) Jazz came along too, because she loves the V&A too.They had a few walls full of old posters. I love learning about the old techniques and for example: Upper class theatres wouldn't use illustrations on thier posters for the longest time because they wanted to attract a literate audience. But circuses and variety shows would use images to illustrate what you might see. This was also useful because then the poster boys knew which way was up (back when lots of people couldn't read). Apparently lots of posters were pasted up upside-down!!! And Red ink was super fancy. They also have A LOT of historical artifacts, (like a broken Pete Townshend guitar!!!!) but probably the most impressive was this...Jack told me that Shakespeare was really protective of his plays, and would give each actors seperate scripts with just the minimal prompts so that no one could reproduce the plays. After his death a bunch of actors got together and pieced it all together put together these 'Folios' and if it wasn't for that we wouldn't have the classics! Mind blowing!While there I did a little bit of drawing...But mostly I was just soaking it all in. We sat outside for a bit before it started raining, and I tried Freelensing for the first time:Super fun day. Thanks for letting me share. kimxo
