Travelling business

Hey!
These past weeks have been crazy busy with finishing work in school, saying goodbyes, packing up 2 years of accumulated textile ephemera and trying to store everything in smart places before me and my boyfriend get access to our new apartment in august. I had planned to post some concluding things about my time at Capellagården, some pictures of the exhibition etc. but time has really been to scarce. 

Now me and N (the boyfriend) are heading out on a month long backpacking trip in southern Europe, so here will be quiet for a while and the textile life will be put on hold. Although I could not help bringing some crochet for the trainride...crochet because my precious knitpro sticks might be too fragile for a backpack. :).Maybe I'll find some interesting textiles on the way, if so, you'll see them on my instagram @elinakelius.

Over and out until july!

9/9 Yellow square mittens

Yarn: Mitten- unknown 2 ply wool yarn, dyed with onion peel and white Tuna filtgarn from Borgs vävgarner. Cuff – brown 2-ply wool yarn that I recieved as a present (made from Värmland sheep!) and grey 2 ply wool yarn from Filtmakeriet. Needle size 2.5 mm. 

I am very fond of simple geometrical shapes, like squares. The colour yellow is also a favourite. Here I wanted to combine them into a simple, easy-to-knit pattern. They were the last I had time to make for this project and also, I think, my personal favourite!

8/9 Meadow mittens

Yarn: Random two ply wool yarns. Yellow- tansy, goldenrod and oak. Beige – velvet roll rim, orange – blood red webcap, green – tansy on grey yarn. Needle size 2.5 mm. 

When you like to experiment with dyeing, you rather soon end up with lots of small balls of yarn that are almost to tiny to use. Here I try different yellows and beiges in a pattern inspired by a flowering meadow. If I work more on this pattern, I think I will change the 'inside' - I am not completely satisfied with the stripes.

These days I always light-test my natural dyeing experiments, but the scraps I used in this project are old and I don't really don't know what will happen. I will get the full picture first after the mittens have been used. In anything changes - I will post!

7/9 Moon mittens

Yarn: Three-ply white wool yarn from Ullcentrum Öland, dyed with indigo after knitting. Needle size 2.5 mm.

I have experimented a lot to learn a more environmentally friendly way to dye with indigo. One way to do it is to make the dye vat with slaked lime and fructose, something I found work rather well (read more about my tries here). I have mostly experimented on cotton and linen fabric, but here I got the opportunity to try it's effect on wool yarn. I managed to keep the pH low

enough to not damage the wool. The mittens were dipped twice, but only for five minutes each, to cause as little damage as possible (low pH in a indigo vat is around 8-9, and that can still be bad for the wool if it is in the vat for a long time). 


The white moons were created with a clamp resist, and I really like that they became so exact, like a print.

6/9 Red dip mittens

Yarn: Three ply white wool yarn from Ullcentrum Öland ullgarn dyed with madder after knitting. Needle size 2.5 mm.

Sometimes one just want to make something really simple. I had been knitting so much with two colours, and thinking so much about floats and construction problems that I really longed for making a simple one colour mitten. I choose a three ply yarn so the mittens would not be so thin. After knitting, I dyed them with madder – a small experiment with dyeing a ready made garment. It took two dips to make the colour really even. They really are crazy red and I love them!

5/9 Random squares

Yarn: Filtmakeriets klassiska ullgarn (Filtmakeriet's classic wool yarn), 2 ply natural white and dark greyish brown. Cast on edge in madder and indigo dyed pieces of yarn. Needle size 2.5 mm.

Last year I discovered the wonderful yarn from lovely small scale wool producers Filtmakeriet, but I never found time to knit with it until now (the dark yarn in my Sållväv shawl is the same as the dark in these mittens, but single). It turned out to be a lovely yarn to knit with, full of grease! 

The pattern is a development from the previous one, where the squares go crazy. I like the look, but it was horrible to knit, and did not block so well (I'll redo it as soon as I get them back from the exhibition). I also had to knit the first mitten twice, because I totally miscalculated when I cast on. I had planned for a thumb with a wedged increase (like in the Mirrored flowers mittens) but I cast on really late at night and totally forgot that the thumb stitches are created as you increase during knitting, thus making the wedge. I cast on all stitches from the beginning, and didn't notice anything peculiar (other than that the mitten seemed very big) until it was time to bind off (se picture below) and I had 13 extra stitches on the inside of the mitten. I frogged it, and angrily finished it at double speed, with a normal straight thumb so I did not have to re knit the cuff.

The yarn Is lovely though, I will definitely use it more in the future!

4/9 Nisse's mittens

Yarn: Kampes 2-trådiga ullgarn(2 ply wool yarn from Kampes) in antracite gray and gray. Needle size 3 mm.

These were knit for my partner who really needed a new pair of mittens. He wanted muted colours and a geometric pattern. I took the opportunity to develop a men's size. I already had a pattern (see picture below) that I created for Capellagården's participation in the Swedish charity event "Musikhjälpen" autumn 2014 (Serious request in other countries) and I choose to work a bit further on that.

3/9 Birds eye

Yarn. White Tuna filtgarn from Borgs vävgarner (2 ply wool approx. 300m/100g). The reddish pink is an unknown yarn of similar quality, dyed with blood red webcap (Cortinarius sanguineus). Needle size 3mm.

I created the pattern for the student Christmas market at Capellagården in 2014, inspired by the weaving technique Birds eye twill. My goal was a simple and easy-to-knit pattern to help people get started knitting with two colours. The pattern is for sale (in Swedish -when I get time to translate it I think I'll try putting it up on Ravelry) this summer in the Capellagården summer shop. 


I am very pleased with this pattern, mainly because it is so simple and I am very fond of simple things. It IS also easy to knit, no long floats or tricky irregularities. I have only had time to knit two pairs yet, one that I traded with a friend for some ceramics, and the mittens in the picture. They have been my main mittens this winter, and I have used them A LOT The worst time so far was when I had to use them to wipe the windscreen of my car free of dirty, half melted ice when the car got deep frozen and the windscreen wipers stopped working one time around christmas. They got clean again when I washed them, but if they look a little fuzzy, that's why...

2/9 Mirrored flowers mitten

Yarn: Kampes2-trådiga ullgarn ( 2-ply wool yarn from Kampes) in antracite gray. Tuna filtgarn from Borgs vävgarner in white and red (dyed with madder at 70 degrees C, alum mordant). Needle size 2.5 mm.

These you might have seen in a post from earlier this year. I wanted to knit a mitten with a classical look and an inserted thumb wedge, and I was really, really happy with the fit. The motif was created an afternoon when I was sitting at the library, doodling on a squared paper, trying out different shapes and seeing how they change when they are mirrored and the colour change from black to white.

If I'd knit these again I'd swap the gray for a natural natural dark grey colour. When I chose the yarn, I thought it was natural grey, but come spring and more light I realized it is dyed, and compared to natural coloured yarn it looks a bit dead. It is still a nice yarn(Kampes 2 plied wool is my other staple for two-colour knitting together with Tuna from Borgs), but I have more and more come to prefer natural wool colour or natural dyed yarn over factory dyed yarn.

1/9 - Spring time at Capellagården

The first pair of mittens in my series of posts for the exhibition is the tulip mittens - Spring time at Capellagården.

 

Yarn: Tuna filtgarn from Borgs vävgarner, natural white, dyed with madder (red) and indigo (blue). Madder dyed at 70 degrees C with alum mordant. Needle size 3 mm. 

This pattern was created in spring 2014 and was for sale in the Capellagården summer shop 2014 (I am working on an english version..). The tulips growing abundantly in the school garden was my inspiration. It was a challenge making a pattern that continues unbroken on both sides of the mitten, and I'm not 100 % satisfied, but that's OK :).

Originally the cuff was green and the tulips in pink or orange, but I really wanted to knit a pair in yarn I dyed myself. I might look a tad unnatural, but I just love the indigo blue and madder red together!

The yarn I used (see link above) is sold as weaving yarn (vävgarn) but works fine for knitting. It is a classic Swedish wool two ply around 300 m/100g. It might not be the most luxurious and beautiful yarn, but it's reasonably soft and very durable, suitable for mittens. It also takes natural dyes in a nice way, and I use it as a staple yarn for dyeing and two colour knitting.

 

Upcoming exhibition and massive mitten posting

Long time, no see! This past month I have been crazy busy finishing my last big project at Capellagården.

Every year the students of the school finish the spring term with a joint exhibition. Most put a lot of effort in their project and I'm no exception. This week, a group of students under curator Carina Seth Andersson has been working very hard setting up the exhibition, and it looks very promising! The exhibition open next friday 29/5 2015 and stays open all summer. If you are visiting Öland this summer, come to Vickleby and Capellagården and have a look at all the amazing crafts and art!

This year my project is called 'I knit, therefore I am' (or 'Jag stickar, alltså finns jag', in Swedish) and I am exhibiting nine pairs of mittens, all designed and knitted by myself and dyed with natural dyes. I have also made a little booklet about my process and my thoughts around knitting and natural dyeing.

However, for some reasons (the most important being that I changed my mind) this booklet will not be exhibited or sold. Instead I will publish all the texts and photos, together with some additional material here on the blog. So, the coming week before exhibition will be full of mitten related posts. Stay tuned!

The Sållväv shawl finished

This really seems to be the week when I catch up on blogging this past months projects..now the time comes to my sållväv shawl that I finished in the beginning of march.

The shawl before hemming and washing

This was a wonderful project, and I am very satisfied! Sometimes things you make turn out awkward, no matter how well you plan, but this one was the opposite - It turned out better than expected.

I had seen several linen towels woven in this technique that after wash gave them a fluffy and interesting structure due to how the material shrinks, and I always wanted to do it in wool in some way. I also very much wanted a super big shawl that could double as a lap blanket and keep the cold winds out, so I designed this one.

It was a joy to weave! Weaving can be a bit similar to knitting in the way that if it is simple enough you just ..do. Your mind wanders and suddenly you have a fabric.

It is large - 0,85x2,2m after hemming and washing, and I love it! The warp yarn is Mora redgarn from Borgs vävgarner (9500m/kg) and the weft is a single thread yarn from Filtmakeriet, made from swedish finull, gotland and leicester-wool (450m /kg).The ýarn is perfect for me, but if you are a wool-is-itchy-kind of person it might not be right for you.

As expected, it changed a lot after wash, the long floats (dark squares) shrinking more than the rest, giving it a fluffy surface. I don't remember exactly, but I think the shrinking after wash (handwash, a bit rough) was about 5 percent.

Now I have no special weaving planned, but I'm afraid next project also will be a shawl.. I can never get enough. And the bigger I make them, the bigger I want to make them next time. Big shawls is my ultimate luxury! (together with a single malt, some chocolate, a footbath, a fire and licorice..) But then I need to use thinner yarn, otherwise people will think I'm wearing a blanket :)

A happy weaver

Before wash

After wash

Experimenting with indigo vats

Natural dyeing is a big interest of mine, it really is the corner of the textile world where I really can use the fact that I am a biologist, and where my knowledge about plants and chemistry come in handy. I was taught the basics by my grandmother about ten years ago and have been experimenting since.

I have mostly dyed with native plants, mushrooms and lichens (and madder, of course), but since I came to Capellagården I have also added indigo to the palette. There is much to say about indigo, but now I want to talk a little about the dye process. I'm afraid it will be a rather long text, so skip to the end if you want to see the results of my current experiments.

Contrary to most natural dyes Indigo is a reductive dye (kypfärg in Swedish), which, somewhat simplified, means that the indigo dye vat, besides the actual indigo also needs a reducing agent that takes away oxygen from the indigo molecule, thus reducing it to a watersoluble state that can stick to the fibre you dye. In reduced state, the dyevat is yellowish green, and when you lift the fibre out of the dye vat, exposing it for the oxygen in the air, the molecule changes back to indigo, turning blue and sticking hard to the outside of the fibre.

The most common way to do this, these days (or since indigo dyeing was rationalised into a modern industry) is to add sodium dithionite (often called sodium hydrosulphite, in swedish, natriumhydrosulfit) to the dye vat. It is a white, bad smelling powder that acts as a strong reducing agent in water. It works really well for this purpose, but it is also a chemical which one might want to avoid since it is harmful to breathe in or get on the skin, and should not be poured down the drain. To keep the vat alkaline enough for the reduction process to properly take place sodium hydroxide, and/or ammonia (natronlut och ammoniak på svenska) is also commonly added added to the vat, and these chemicals are common but none the less harmful to the skin, and in case of ammonia harmful or toxic to both humans and other organisms depending on the concentration. To dye in this way, you need to know basic handling of chemicals, use gloves in the vat and generally be careful.

In the old days (and still in some places) indigo was obtained by fermentation of the leaves of different indigo producing plants (or with indigo powder extracted from this kind of fermentation), and the reducing process was helped on the way by adding different natural ingredients such as rotten fruit, bran or pee (there are thousands of ways). It was and is a complicated process, that took time to master and a skill that was almost mythical and that only certain dyers knew about. Indigo itself was hard to obtain since the plants had to be grown and taken care of and the dye content of the plants is low. With the chemical vat and the invention of synthetic indigo, almost anyone can dye with indigo - and that is, I think, in some ways a good thing, because it is a wonderful experience. (I don't think industrial indigo dyeing is a good thing though.. google it if you want to know more.) However, if you had that experience some times and start to understand the process, I also think you should start to think a bit deeper.

I'm not generally opposed to the use of chemicals but if it is possible to do without I'd rather, in dyeing as in anything. For me the act of dyeing and working with textiles is an act of sustainability, and frankly, the chemical dye vat is not a sustainable thing. It also totally lack the charm and inpredictability of dyeing in a more natural way, and it is also, in my opinion, a bit boring. You just measure and pour.. just as if you were mixing a colour of any kind. No magic, just chemistry. It is not in my opinion, natural dyeing.

Now we come to the reason why I started to write this post! I have started to experiment with other kinds of dye vats with indigo, to be able to get these gorgeous blues without all the nasty stuff. My dream would be to make indigo from scratch, from the plant so to speak, and this I will try this summer - I plan to grow woad (Isatis tinctoria) which is a indigo producing plant that was traditionally used in Europe and is suited to our climate. In the mean time however, there are other ways.

Indigo stock solution

I have been experimenting with the so called "Fructose vat" lately (google it!). Here you use indigo powder (natural or synthetic which both can be obtained over the internet, I vote for natural of course), and for reducing agent you use fructose, common fruit sugar, that you can buy in you local food store. For keeping the alkalinity of the vat you use slaked lime (Calcium hydroxide - kalciumhydroxid eller släckt kalk på svenska) which is a common constituent of mortar or plaster, easily obtained from a hardware store. I got hold of the necessesary ingredients and started making a vat. Here is a good link to a general description of how you do it - I used together with some other websites and books. Most recipes use dry slaked lime, but the one I had was wet, so I had to improvise since the weights are different.  I was amazed to see that the reduction actually was taking place - it was working! The water turned deep green and a copperish sheen (hard to see on the pic, I know..) was building up on the surface.

 When the vat was prepared I test dyed some old cotton sheet fabric, and it turned out very light. Not at all the deep blues I was used to with the chemical vats I tried before. I could also see some non-reduced pigment floating in the vat, so the reduction had not fully happened. I added more sugar and lime and waited. After an hour or so, I got a little bit deeper shades, but still very light. Then I decided to try multiple dipping.


One of the bad things with the chemical vat is that it is harder to obtain darker shades on the fiber by multiple dippings. This because the chemicals are so strong that they dissolve the indigo already fixed on the fibre. With the fructose vat it works well!

The fabric squares on the left in the picture below are dipped (bottom to top) 1 -2-4-and 8 times.
The one to the right is dipped whenever I had time, but not the whole piece, creating a gradiating colour. I probably could have gotten even darker colours, but due to things not concerning dyeing I had to pour the vat out before it was exhausted.

In descriptions of old time indigo dyeing, one often reads that they had to dip the fabric or yarns maaany times to obtain the blue colour they needed, and now I can really see why :).
I think. however, that  I would be able to get a stronger initial colour if I could get the reduction to go more complete and keep the right pH of the vat - something I had no means of measuring this time.

Now I have ordered pH -measure paper and is ready to try again! If I find a good way - I'll publish the recipe here!

A Wettex dish cloth dipped multiple times in the fructose vat

A little spinning

Since I got my Victoria I haven't really had time for spinning, but I managed to squeeze in a little here and there.

It's amazing how relaxing it is! I'm not very experienced, but as soon as I got over the initial struggling state, I started to completely forget about time when I spin. It's a good thing the bobbin fills up after a while so I have to stop and come back to the world...

I spun two skeins (approx. 100g each) of Z-twisted single finull yarn and two similar skeins of S-twisted (just to try).

Then I decided to try to spin thinner and try my first plying. It turned out great! The finull (from the nordic finull-sheep) is amazingly soft, and the plied yarn is crazy soft and fluffy!
I realize that my spinning pictures will be quite boring to look at, since I have all this white finull to work with, but you have to spare with me ;) I just love it.

Two of the singles and my first two-ply on top

Close up on the plied yarn

I still haven't made much out of my homespun, and I think it will have to rest a while because of all the knitting I have planned, but I am working on a testweave in wool, and some of the singles will go into that. It's going to be really interesting how they behave when I cut the weave down.

Mitten project on it's way!

The first pair of mittens for my exhibition project is ready! In fact they have been for a month or so, I just did not find time for blogging. I'm quite satisfied with how they turned out, and the fit is perfect for my hands (average Swedish woman hand size I'd say).

Yarn is different kinds of standard Swedish two-plied wool, the red dyed with madder, the other two natural colour. Needle size 2,5.

The heap of mittens is growing! First I had decided to design and knit ten completely new patterns for this project, but I realized it might be too much given the time limit and other projects I need to finish, so I decided that I also will exhibit some other mittens that I've made during the year, and that feels totally fine, the more the merrier!

Now I'm working on some all-white pairs that I will dye. Exciting!

A peek on a mitten project

I still find it hard to let go of the spinning wheel, but this weekend I got some knitting done! The reason was a trip to Lund to help my boyfriend pack up his old apartment (or more like being moral support -you know, throw this, keep that), and I even if Victoria IS very portable I had other luggage to care for, so I got lots of lovely knitting hours! The train ride (3hrs) went quick with a new project on the needles, a pattern I drew last week. All free moments during the weekend was spent knitting, and yesterday I finished the first mitten in a pair, the one you see below. They are going to be a part of a new project of mine.

Those of you who followed my old Swedish blog know that I love knitting, and that I'm very fond of colorwork, especially in the traditional style we use in Scandinavia (google it if you don't know). During my time at Capellagården, and particularly the last months, it has built up to something like an obsession. An obsession with mittens.

I really don't know why I'm so drawn to mittens in particular, but maybe because there seem to be a neverending need for them, because they are relatively easy to construct, or because they are in a manageable size. Maybe because it is a good way to use up leftover yarn. It doesn't matter. 

Since I came to Öland, I have designed seven different mitten patterns (and four patterns for tea and coffee cozies and some other things), but never really felt I could spend any time on it, just doing it for fun when I needed a break from other projects. Two of the mittern pattens were sold (in Swedish) in the Capellagården summer shop last summer, and they sold OK, but I was and still am not 100% satisified with the construction (too little time spent). Even so, I have got a lot of praise for my mittens, which I did not really expect..for me it's just been a way to get an idea out of my head, and an excuse to knit :).

I have also felt that there have been so many other tracks to follow during my time at school, weaving, printing, experimenting with dyes, spinning, stampmaking, felting, drawing, watercolour and much more, and I really didn't want to spend too much time on a craft I already knew.. so the knitting was put on hold for a while. Now however, I have started to think more on it, started being more confident about my ability as a pattern designer and maybe listened a bit to the nice people who admire my work. Why should I not make knitting patterns when I like it so much, and other people seem to like the outcome?! I can still have time for other craft if I plan it well, and knitting can also be brought on trains, which most other crafts can't :)

Then it came to me.. why not give the knitting what it wants- make a design of everything I can think of, and knit them all? And I decided to give it a go! The mittens from the train is the first of many to come, and if all goes well, I will exhibit them in the Capellagården summer exhibition this summer!

Welcome Victoria!

Last spring I turned thirty, and the only thing I wanted for a gift was a spinning wheel. I actually alreade have two old ones that I've inherited, but they are bit broken and a bit tricky to spin on, and I have wanted a modern one for ages so I can learn to spin properly (nothing against old ones, but now is not the time - I will take care of them and mend them when I am a better spinner and can figure out what ails them). I got some money to buy a wheel, and started researching. Unfortunately, the tires of my car were also quickly getting worse, and in the end I had to spend the money on car wheels instead of a spinning wheel.

Since then I have been looking longingly at several nice wheels, and mostly at Louët Victoria, which is very small and portable, which is good since I have very limited space. This monday I decided I could not wait no more, and ordered it off the internet (from Ullbutiken i Råda). I expected it to take a week or so, but already on wednesday I got a text that the wheel could be fetched from our local post place! Incredibly fast delivery!

I went there and picked it up, and then I spent all evening getting to know it better. It unpacked verly easily, and I could start spinning in five minutes. I had lots of finely carded swedish finull (a very fine and supersoft wool from a nordic heritage breed called 'finullsfår') that I originally bought for felting, but now I started to spin it. I am not an experienced spinner, and have mostly spun longer fibers before (the finull is said to be close to a merino in fiber length), but it worked allright on the Victoria!

The bobbin and flyer

Now I simply can't stop spinning! I sat up late at night when I got the hang of it, and yesterday morning I set the alarm early so I could spin a little after breakfast..

Yesterday I wound off my first skein of handspun from the new wheel! I can not really control the fiber thickness yet, and in some places it is quite overspun, but I am so happy! Now I have sleep troubles because I can't stop thinking of all the handspun knitting and weaving I will do in the future :)). When I know the wheel better, I will publish some sort of review, but for now.. Spinning!

My first 100g skein of handspun finull!

A little something about weaving

Me in my first ever woven shawl

Most non-weaving people I meet seem to believe that weaving is extremely hard and that it is extremely slow work. Even people who do other kinds of textile craft keeps telling me weaving seems soo technical and mathematic and scary and what not. I don't agree! 

Three wool shawls from the last year

OK, weaving is technical, and you need some space and equipment - but it is one of the most awesome crafts-  so if you have access to a loom- do try! In its basic form weaving is definitely not harder than any other craft. Sure - setting up a weave can be tiresome and time consuming (I actually like it, but I don't do it for a living..), but weaving is like meditation! And compared to knitting - weaving is quick once you are set! The shawls (each 0,5 m by 2 m) in the picture took approximately six hours to weave each.. compare that to knitting!

In Capellagården, a lot of the first year education is focused on weaving. You get all the basic knowledge about setting up a loom, calculating yarn weight, basic weaving techniques and so on. I, and most of my fellow classmates were almost complete weaving rookies when we started, but the learning was quick. After a month or so, every one had woven their first rag rug (trasmatta), and around x-mas, we were weaving shawls.

Now I'm in second year at Capellagårdens textile program and the students set a lot of our schedule ourselves. Some people dig deeper into certain weaving techniques, other search for the perfect fabric quality, and some don't weave at all. I have chosen to focus my second year on natural dyeing, pattern design and learning different textile print techniques, but I still want to have a weave going at all times if I have the time. Mostly I weave shawls (I am a shawlomaniac..), all in wool.

Currently I am working on a big shawl in a technique called "Sållväv" (I don't know if there is an English term for it but it is a simple four shaft weave) traditionally used in linen towels. I am using wool instead, and I can't wait to finish it so I can cut it down and wash it and see if the weave will shrink funny or not :). In the old towels the effect after wash is quite bubbly, and it would be fun if my weave also turned out that way. We'll see!

The Sållväv shawl in the loom

The beginning

Hi, I am Elin, I live in Sweden and I have a textile life!

My preferred textile activities are knitting, weaving, printing, dyeing and spinning, but sometimes I sew (badly), sometimes I crochet and sometimes I do ..other things.. I'm up for most crafts really, as long as they are intresting. I love the process of making, and in this blog I will try to share that love with you. Here comes my textile thoughts, pictures, patterns, ideas and experiments.

Garden inspired mittens that I designed for the Capellagården summer shop in 2014. (I need to rework those patterns so I can put them up on Ravelry).

Some short personal facts - I was born in 1984, grew up in the Swedish countryside, county of Värmland, and have since then moved around a lot in southern Sweden. I have a MSc in Conservation Biology and I work with nature conservation. However, these past 2 years I have been on leave from work to attend the two-year textile course at Capellagården, Öland- a life long dream come true! In the future I hope to work part time with textiles in some way.


You can also find me on instagram: @elinakelius and ravelry: anura
Feel free to comment! Comments in Swedish will be answered in Swedish.


Vi ses! (See you!)



And for the swedes - I used to blog about textiles in Swedish, but decided to start a new international blog life after getting to know more and more non- Swedish speaking textile lovers. 
However, - you can find my old posts here : Ur ett insnöat liv...slöjden.