{"id":11414,"date":"2024-12-07T06:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T05:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=11414"},"modified":"2024-12-06T19:27:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T18:27:40","slug":"all-the-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/all-the-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"All the projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today I show you all the projects I have going on at the same time, perhaps as a way to get away for a second from stress at work and a world that isn’t always kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cleaned out my bags and baskets of unfinished when I was putting together the last pieces of the manuscript for my book back in September. There was too much clutter in my mind. Once I had sent the manuscript to my editor I had time to craft, time that I had spent on writing for the past year, time I hadn’t allowed myself to craft anything other than words. Now I got that time back, a wave of projects came to me, many of which had lived in my mind for a while, projects I knew I wanted to explore. Techniques, designs or ideas that I needed to have gone through my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spedetr\u00f6ja\/Danish night sweater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The spedetr\u00f6ja or Danish night sweater<\/a>, a traditional sweater in Denmark and the southernmost regions of Sweden. A simple construction with patterns in panels and a knit and purl star pattern as the main event. I knit it in a handspun Sv\u00e4rdsj\u00f6 yarn and I loved the result. Quite time consuming with the 2.5 millimeter needles and 700 grams of handspun yarn, but a lovely knit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A muddy dye bath<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My new project within that project was to dye it, with extractions from my homegrown Japanese indigo. I hadn’t made a vat before and it turned out to be difficult. I gathered the 8 grams of extracted Maruba indigo from my 2023 and 2024 harvests and played the chemist all over the bathroom. In all the stress of getting things right I managed to get some of the proportions wrong and the many times dipped sweater stayed undyed, with perhaps a light tint of mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shed a tear or two but reminded myself of my friend Cecilia’s kind words, “You can always overdye it”. And I did. I got commercially grown indigo and set up a new vat, with the right proportions this time. I dipped and I dipped and there was no blue in sight. More tears were shed. Cecilia guided me into making a fermentation vat out of my mud bath and that’s where I am at the moment. The whole project makes me sad, but I stick to Cecilia’s wise words and knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the sweater I had prepared a piece of wool\/linen twill from a small Austrian mill that I wanted to dye. My plan is to sew a bodice. But I don’t want to dip it in the vat until I know I can rely on it. Time will tell. As will the mud bath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A contemporary Victorian walking skirt<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The same bolt of wool\/linen twill is the material for a Victorian walking skirt<\/a> I stumbled upon about a year ago. I have sewn for many years, mainly clothes for myself, but stopped when my first child was born. I didn’t want to risk having pins on the floor. He’s almost 22 now and has his own apartment. He may still crawl around on our floor from time to time, but he and his sister, are big enough now to handle more complicated things than pins on the floor. As it happens, he is sitting right in front of me, sewing a laundry bag out of an old seat cover. And he is wise enough to baste. Anyway, I have found my way back to sewing lately and I’m enjoying it tremendously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Victorian walking skirt in a wool\/linen twill (I honestly don\u2019t know which side to use as the right side they\u2019re both so beautiful), and a cotton\/linen rose fabric as lining.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I cut the fabric for the walking skirt \u2013 in a contemporary length \u2013feeling giddy of the idea of sewing it. Just the concept of something called a walking skirt from a time and a social tier when women weren’t supposed to walk for the sake of walking and the fashion didn’t allow a comfortable stride. A world about to change, giving the vote to women just a couple of decades later, women taking more independent steps into the world. Who wouldn’t want a walking skirt then? Also, the model is just smashing with the flat front and the gathered back. I eBayed a linen\/cotton fabric with pink roses for the lining. I’m definitely not a rose person, but I firmly believe in scrumptious lining patterns, and so roses it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trousers in Japanese<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There was enough fabric for more projects, and I decided on a pair of trousers. The idea came quite recently \u2013 I had made two pairs of pants this summer from vintage handwoven Chinese fabrics and bought more for another two pairs, and when I saw the remaining fabric after I had cut the pieces for the skirt I knew a pair of trousers would be the thing. My mother sew lots of clothes for me when I was growing up, but never trousers. She was of the opinion that they were complicated to make and rarely had a comfortable fit. So I didn’t sew trousers either. I’m making up for that trouserless sewing experience now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Close-up<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Josefin<\/figure>\n
Some trouser sewing on the balcony in July (left), with rosy pocket lining. The sewing machine is my 1965 Husqvarna 2000, weighing about 17 kilos [37.5 pounds], and she works like a dream. To the right I\u2019m cutting out fabric for another pair of trousers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had bought a book of a modular system for trouser designs \u2013 different styles, fits and details you could match to build your trousers according to your own preferences. A challenge no doubt, and one I was glad to take on. The biggest challenge, though, was that the book and the patterns are written in Japanese… Instead of letting that stop me I crawled around on the floor, chasing the right pieces for the pants on the three gigantic pattern sheets, with my Google Translate app as my saviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Why make sewing easy when you can cut the pattern from a book in a language and a writing system you don’t know?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And oh, I just had to start a sashiko mending project for a pair of much loved jeans. Despite an aching left thumb after pushing the needle through the denim so many times I did it in just a couple of days. It’s finished now and I’m very pleased with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n
I needed my trousers mid-mending and went for a walk. Now they are finished and the help lines are gone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is spinning too, don’t you worry. I have started spinning a z-plied yarn for two-end (or twined) knitting and I really love the result. I have spent many hours on the floor teasing the wool with my mini combs before carding and spinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rose
A rose brown V\u00e4rmland fleece has turned into a sweet Z-plied yarn for two-end (twined) knitting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Happy spinning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find me in several social media:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n