The End. Or?

It is the end, I finally graduated from textile school. Three years of insanely busy times, lack of sleep, untidy home and then 2 months ago it all suddenly ended. The soft sculpture, a white textile bird, was my graduation project, I was rewarded with the highest grade.

But there was no joy. I felt totally out of place, empty inside, numb almost. After processing these feelings I understand that at one hand the change was huge. Suddenly I woke up in the morning and had no urgent to-do list awaiting. This transition took couple of weeks.

But the other cause for my grief-like state was the emotional temperature at the final exam. The appraisal committee was polite and diplomatic, but in my case also indifferent. They couldn’t fault anything, but didn’t say anything in favour, either. My topic was surprising, as they said, and perhaps that is the reason, they simply didn’t know how to react.

All this emotional turmoil made me doubt myself, feeling incompetent, imposter syndrome kicked in hard. I feel sorry for myself, a meant-to-be happy occasion turned out to have a rather devastating effect.

Today, 2 months later, my mind is clear, my house is tidy and new projects are forming.

I’m very exited about a nonprofit organisation TIA (Tee Ise Akadeemia, Do it Yourself Academy). It’s still in creation process, but with dear friends we’ve been talking about for couple of years already.

The catalyst behind TIA is a concern for continuously decreasing crafting skills. I see teenagers who can’t sew a button or make a difference between knitting and crochet. I’d go as far to call it a crisis prevention.


I started knitting very special stockings. They are called wedge stockings and the end result should look like on the right picture. First one for me!


This is a very special project. I’m set out to create 5 animal dolls. Each designed with a certain person in mind and an old sweater as an obligatory material.

These dolls will warm the hearts of 5 siblings and the sweater belonged to their long deceased mum. I’m honoured, puzzled, exicted, terrified. I so very much want this to turn out nothing but perfect!

Hedvig

Decorative doll. Leader of birds.

“Leader of birds is a big white bird, swanlike, with a beautiful maiden head. She lives on top of the Northern Rock, looks at the midnight sun and other birds feed her with sweet northern berries. All birds of prey are afraid of her.”

This is an Estonian folk tale I wanted to capture in textile. I had several ideas in my head for her and perhaps in future they take a physical form, but for now this embroidered and layered version came to be.

She clearly has a mind of her own, contradicting me along her creation process. For example I had a totally different vision for her head, but she refused it and I simply had to give in. Nevertheless, this dialogue with material taking form is fascinating!

Her body is made of linen towel, handwoven by my great-grandmother’s sister-in-laws, 3 spinsters who never stopped building their trousseaus. Her body is generously embroidered, feather-like texture is created with different fabrics. She is free-standing, 40 cm in hight.

This decorative doll is my graduation project. But my doll-making journey doesn’t stop here, already I’ve got five dolls lined up to be wrapped for Christmas.

We had our first little snow this week. Sounds romantic, but I’m not overly keen.

Hedvig

Crochet tunic

Finished at last! It took me about a year from brainstorming the idea to sewing the pieces together. I had a serious creative block during the process and some technical challenges, but overall I’m happy with the result!

Model on photos and future owner of the tunic is my dear friend Monika.

The tunic is made of linen thread with 1,5 mm crochet hook. The circles are combined with leather.

A small lacey part is on the front and a larger piece on the back, holey diagonals create hidden patterns. The base colour is dark blue, geometrical shapes are green, yellow, grey and a little accent with red.

The most challenging were the circles. To turn a rounded shape into rectangular one in a large piece in a way its’s even and flat is quite a conondrum. On smaller circle I increased and played with stitch hight. On large side piece I decided to crochet the corner pieces separately and then join everything together. Lastly smoothed the lines out with last allaround rounds. There’s a previous blog post about this large tile.

Hedvig

Crocheted pouch

I’m working really hard to finish the last big school project, a crocheted tunic. And I curse myself for the intricate design. Of course, a simple thing would be boring and not a chellenge enough, but honestly I’m tired of it. And yet again, I need to unweave a part of it, because I’m not totally satisfied with it. Aargh!

So I decided to take a break and share with you a completed project. It’s a small crocheted pouch, designed and made by me.

This picture is my starting point and inspiration. The aim was to translate the feeling of the image into tapestry crochet pattern and create a balanced composition within the limits of technique.

My esthetics is not overly colourful and bright, so I restricted myself to four colours, base colour + pattern colours.

For crocheting I used 10/2 (2-ply fingering weight) woolen yarn and 1,5 mm (6 in US chart and 2,5 in English chart) crochet needle. The pouch has a rounded base 10 cm in diameter and is 21 cm in height. The top edge is finished with picot stitch. For fastening the pouch I made a 3-colour twisted cord.

If you like the design and would like to make a pouch for yourself, grab the free pattern here!

I would like to see your pouches! Share the images on Instagram, using #omailmpattern.

Back to my tunic,

Hedvig

Sketching and crafting

It’s getting warmer outside and my green fingers a bit itchy. But the more I want to do outside stuff, the less time I actually have for it. For some reason the last couple of months before summer holidays tends to be crazy busy at work. But windowsill gardening is in full swing ๐Ÿ™‚ And I’ve done some sketches.

Drawing needs to stay on the back seat for a while, since I’m focusing on finishing my school projects and I just can’t handle doing everything all the time. My big goal is to complete my crocheted tunic by the end of May.

Crocheted tunic design.

Love,

Hedvig