knit it or quit it!

today i started my new knitting project - which actually means to learn how to knit. i've done it before, but since that was about fifteen years ago i consider myself a newbie at this. but a friend at work showed me the basics today (thanks sofia!) & this is the result... just a practise piece, but i guess i'll find some kind of use for it (note the handmade kylesa bag in the backgrund - i accidentally shrunk my t-shirt when i washed it, so i made it into a bag to carry around my craftstuff in). so, to celebrate this fantastic event & the fact that today is payday (stora löneutbetalningsdagen!) i dwelled in some mindless consumerism & ordered this wonderful t-shirt from buyolympia:

words to live by

a very hasty birthday gift for a friend, that i put together yesterday. now my hands hurt... the quote comes from johan staël von holstein, a neo-liberal writer & entrepreneur who always makes us laugh with his columns in the swedish newspaper metro. the english translation would be something like "just work hard & don't complain".

the deers comes from the book korsstygn på nytt, by swedish artist annika huett. it's a really funny book with lots of new & different cross stitch patterns that are pretty easy to make & very inspireing. the plan was to get som red roses or other flowers on it too, but i just didn't have the time.

can someone PLEASE think about the children?! (a.k.a. my gay dad wants you)

when i was about 17 years old i had a teacher who very often ended our social science classes with the very enthusiastic frase "just e-mail the government!". today, ten years later, i've taken his advice. well, sort of - i didn't really e-mail the government, just a member of parliament. her name is yvonne andersson & she's representing kristdemokraterna (the cristian democrats, a right wing, christian party). the reason was that i happened to see her on tv yesterday, debating the proposed change of the swedish marriage law so that it would be gender neutral (which means that not just heterosexual couples would be able to get married). of course yvonne, representing a conservative party with christian values, was against this change & her argument was that we have to "think about the children". there are few things that upset me more than the moral majority christian fuckheads that try to claim that their arguments against non-heterosexual families & parentship comes from consideration for THE CHILDREN. so i just had to tell yvonne that i'm one of those kids who's rights she says shes protecting (okay, not a kid anymore but still) & i've had it with the likes of her. that she should stop disguise her own agenda as something representing me & my life. let's see if i get an answer...

craftwise i'm still working on the housewarming gift for my father. but i started this little riot grrl-patch the other day, too keep myself busy while i was waiting for my turn at my favorite tattoo studio:

how do you wanna change the world?

for those of you that live in gothenburg, there's an exhibition at the museum of world culture (världskulturmuseet) that seems to be very interesting: TAKE ACTION! - 83 ways to change the world. i saw a presentation of it on tv earlier & i think it would be fun to visit. according to the website it's "about individuals who occupy land, refuse to follow orders blindly, create armies of clowns, crochet their own gucci bags or start up their own banks. it is about people who ask questions and fight for a better world." the idea behind the exhibition is to show & discuss creativity in political struggle - different strategies to change the world with focus on the constructive & creative. there will be a section of craftivism too - on tv they showed the gigantic knitted "posters" that are being put up outside the museum & you can by your own DIY-kit to take home & start your own crafting. good planning from the people at the museum, since i'm going to visit a friend in gothenburg pretty soon & this will definitely be on my to do-list. i'm so excited!

lazy middle class intellectual

ok, so i'm not very creative right now. it's the same old lame story; to much to do so nothing gets done. it's sort of my trademark, i venture into projects and ideas just to realize i have no energy or willpower to actually finish them. right now it's the last essay for the course i'm taking at uni that is due on friday & i haven't even started writing it... haven't really done anything when it comes to studies for the last two months or so, a fact that i try to rationalize with excuses like "i can't concentrate on this right now 'cause of the problems at work, the strike & so on, oh poor poor me" but in reality i know that it's just my own fucking fault that i once again started something that i won't finish. the story of my life. so i've spent the last days on the couch, watching tv, thinking about all the things i should do instead of doing nothing & going back & forth between selfhatred & selfpity. & then i start thinking about all the people in the world that have real problems & what a stupid crybaby i am that only complains & whines over shitty stuff like the fact that i can't pull myself together enough to get this done. & then i cry a little bit more over the fact that the world is such a mess & that it won't get any better even if i actually sit down & write the essay, 'cause who the fuck cares about my "vision of africa in 2030"? it just feels so presumptuous to even think about it, like the lifes of millions would get any easier just because a bunch of middle class twenty-somethings from one of the riches countries on earth writes a paper about the future of africa. fuck it. oh i just love myself right now!

sorry for the rant. i'll get back to the crafting when i'm done with my first world anxiety attack. i'm working on a housewarming present i'm making for my dad (he's moving away from stockholm at the end of january). also thinking about learning how to knit, but i'm guessing it won't happen any time soon.