Spring ramblings

Spring has finally come to Belgium!

(1) Milkshake season has started! (2) Walk (and climb) in Kasterlee forest (3) Wild hyacinth season in Hallerbos

Stash update & fleamarket finds

More yarn, more fun! I got another delivery from Latvia, a very colourful one. I haven't decided what to do with this fiery colour-combination but I liked the quality for fair-isle knitting. The only problem is that the shades resemble each other too much and there is not enough contrast so it might be difficult to find a good pattern. Any suggestions are welcome.

The white yarn is going to be used for a Shetland lace shawl, at least that's the ambitious plan I have after receiving a book on lace knitting from Scotland from my Mum. The blue yarn is a similar quality but a different brand so that might go into some nice woolen mittens, ideally with another contrasting colour. I'll see if I can find something from the same brand online.

Oh, and did I mention that I was a regular at fleamarkets this autumn? This also included an excursion to Germany where I found those amazing original 1970s Swedish clogs. What can I say, it was love at first sight (although I'm sure my downstairs neighbour will love it a little less, those wooden soles are damn noisy).

 

Alice Pattullo

I was googling some info about "Pearly Kings and Queens" after my recent trip to London and the image search result gave me one of Alice's prints. I checked out her website and I was instantly charmed by her work, especially because it plays a lot on traditional British tales and folklore. And in such a beautiful way! Check out some more of her work on her website.


















All pictures taken from www.alicepattullo.com and http://alice-pattullo.blogspot.be/. 

Tugboat Printshop

Just discovered these wonderful woodblock prints by Tugboat Prtintshop. It reminds me of illustrations in a fairytale book, lovely colours! Might be an idea for Christmas presents this year....

"Robin and Juniper"

"The Moon"

"Garden"

"Mama Bear"

Making of "Mama Bear"

All images taken from http://www.tugboatprintshop.com/

Wolfgang Tillmans photography

I discovered Wolfgang Tillman's work at an exhibition at the Serpentine Galley in London in 2010 but I have come accross his works several times since then, most recently in the Transport for London campaign on the 150th anniversary of the tube.

My favourite photographs are the ones of the night sky, even though I don't think they were meant to go together as a set.  I also like the more abstract, colourful ones that were on display at the Serpentine Gallery and which also feature on the tube campaign:

"Venus Transit"

"In flight astro II"

"Kilimanjaro"

"Freischwimmer"

"Urgency XXII"

More information can be found on Tillmans' website.

Palestinian embroidery

One thing I noticed especially during my trip to Palestine was the beautiful embroidery that women sport on their traditional gowns, especially the older women that I saw in Jerusalem. Of course most of the tourist shops sell cushion covers, blankets, iPhone holders, pencil cases and pretty much everything else you could somehow embroider but I actually found it one of the more interesting souvenirs.

Since I'm interested in textiles, handicraft and textile design I was searching the internet to find those traditional patterns which are usually worked in cross-stitch and contain mainly geometric or natural shapes such as flowers, trees or leaves. I was even looking around shops if you could get a "DIY Palestinian cross-stitch set" with the pattern and the yarn but this doesn't seem to have a lot of demand. Maybe a good business idea? The Palestinians sure don't lack a sense for that!

Here are some of the sample patterns I found online:

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42957090@N06/7926022786/

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ramallah_woman_15029v.jpg

Source: http://www.photographium.com/woman-in-embroidered-costume-ramallah-palestine-1898-1914

 And this is a website which had a very good overview of charts (well, basically the only one I found):
http://palestinianembroider.tripod.com/traditional.htm


 I'm seriously thinking about ordering some of the books as the internet does not have many ready-to-use patterns.

Marimekko

Marimekko ist probably my all-time favourite brand (although I generally don't care much about brand names) but their design is very unique and timeless. In Finland it's an institution and items are handed down from one generation to another, I suppose it's also a question of national pride in way. I especially like the organic inspired patterns but there are many other beautiful ones. Here a few examples: 

And here are some more abstract patterns I like:

These ones use images, too [and I'm trying to think what word represents the opposite of "abstract"]:

And this is probably the most famous pattern, "Unikko". I don't like it very much but it has become almost synonyme for the Marimekko-brand.

You can find more information on the official Marimekko website.