cross yr stitches

DO IT YOURSELF - 100 years of Swedish handicraft

2011-11-17T19:23:00.008+01:00

Some of my cross stitches are part of the exhibition GÖR DET SJÄLV - Hemslöjden 100 år that opened at Skövde Stadsmuseum last Saturday. I coulden't be there myself for the opening (because I was in Stockholm to see the Norwegian black metal/punk rock cross over Kvelertak) but my father was there to represent the family. Here are some pictures:

that legendary divorce is such a bore

2011-10-28T18:54:00.008+02:00

This cross stitch is about family, about how sometimes it doesn't matter if you're connected by blood or by choice - family is family, even though you might not share the same genes. I've had the lucky fortune to have some people in my life that've always been there for me, always carried me through. I thought they deserved some recognition.

The quote comes from this song. Hopefully, some day I'll have the time to get it properly pressed & framed.

our house, was our castle and our keep / our house, in the middle of our street

2011-08-30T20:37:00.010+02:00

So, I wrote a review about this book for a newspaper here in Sweden where a friend of mine works as an editor for the moment (nepotism, ftw!). It's not published yet & it's not really a big thing, but it got me thinking about how important certain places can become in your life. Not just the people that build them, by spirit or by hand, but also the buildings themselfes. The colour of the wallpaper, the grafitti in the bathroom, the carvings on the surface of a table. Layer upon layer of history in the making. Lifes & stories getting mixed & turned around just because you happened to be there just then.

These houses are not important just because they provide a space for alternative culture, for the kids, the rebels & the vagabonds, but also as institutions. As a very real proof that something can be built by joint effort & that together we can make a difference, demand a place & a voice in the public sphere. Because of this, the very personal relationship many people have to them, it's always a tragedy when one of them gets destroyed. When Ungeren died it was the end of an era, when Cyklopen was burned down it was like getting hit in the face. But as they say in the song - Vi har 69 i hjertet / We have 69 in our hearts. A new era has already begun in K-town & just about a month ago the first steps was taken of the construction of a new free culture house in Stockholm. These houses, together with hundreds others all over the world, provide a safe haven for some of us, a place where to find like minded people, to plan a revolution, to learn a craft, to live. They are worth fighting for & worth documenting for the world & the future.

til ungdommen

2011-07-23T20:22:00.009+02:00

Kanskje du spør i angst,
udekket, åpen:
hva skal jeg kjempe med
hva er mitt våpen?
Her er ditt vern mot vold,
her er ditt sverd:
troen på livet vårt,
menneskets verd.

Fearful your question, / Defenceless, open / What shall I fight with? / What is my weapon?
Here is your battle plan, / Here is your shield / Faith in this life of ours, / The common weal

I have nothing more to say right now.

Thanks to Linnea for making me aware of this poem.

do they owe us a living? OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DO.

2011-07-11T20:22:00.003+02:00

A birthday patch for Siska. I've had the pattern for ages, but this is the first time I stitched it. Will try another version, with another type of aida, to make it a bit smaller. But I'm happy with the black back stitches framing it.

state violence / state control

2011-06-15T21:32:00.005+02:00

Hannes Westberg, seconds after being shot by Swedish riot police at Vasaplatsen (Gothenburg) June 15th 2001. Some days after, while he was still struggling for his life in a hospital bed, a representative from the Social Democrats handed out red roses to the police working during the Gothenburg EU summit, for a job well done.

and if I'm starving, you can feed me lollipops

2011-05-22T11:44:00.006+02:00

Birthday gift for Anna. The quote comes from Manic Street Preachers & the rose pattern from my friend Doris.

with my heart in my hands again

2011-05-11T22:09:00.001+02:00

I almost thought I'd lost this cross stitch when I moved to Gothenburg, but tonight when I was roaming around my craft basket it suddenly appeared again. It's actually one of my favorites, so I thought that it deserved to be properly framed.

It's not that it's the most complicated or political work I've done, but I remember being heartbroken & really hurting when stitching it, just coming to terms with the fact that I had to get on with life & leave something/someone behind. Plus, the death of the Gits' singer Mia Zapata (who wrote the lyrics that I'm quoting) is one of the saddest & most upseting ones that I know of. As Kathleen Hanna once put it:

another woman killed and hardly a pout about it / green river killer my fucking ass / the cops have gotta be deaf, dumb, and spastic / to not catch the killer(s) of one hundred woman / i guess it'd be different if they thought we were human

alienation is my nation

2011-04-17T13:13:00.010+02:00

The result of trying to take an "arty" photograph of Karl Marx in my kitchen:

This is a birthday gift for my friend Ida, paid by her boyfriend & made by me. I thought about illustrating the post with this video, but changed my mind. Just can't get over the fact that it annoys the hell out of me that they're only mentioning the men of the working class in the song & by default excludes everyone else. Can't shake the feeling that the clip contains two of my least favorite things in this world:

1) Nice commie guys in "ironic" t-shirts, who took an A-level course in political science & decided that the class struggle will liberate everyone in some sort of automagical way, without for a second stopping to think about or problematize their own position as white males of the middle class.

2) Katy Perry.

recycling for the masses

2011-03-10T22:32:00.003+01:00

A not so new pattern at the DIY page & a very new post at Zickermans. Here's a very bad pic of what it looks like when stitched. Have fun kids!

a luta continua (this ain't a love song)

2011-03-08T20:44:00.007+01:00

Today is March 8, the International Women's Day. Feels like one of those days when I should have something new & witty to present, but I don't. What I do have is a link to all the old posts tagged 'feminism' & some good old fighting songs for you.

come on over & do the twist

2011-02-24T19:04:00.009+01:00

Just a short update; I'm expanding my horizons & doing some guest blogging at Zickermans Värld, an online craft magazine named after Lilli Zickerman, one of the founders of the Swedish craft movement in the beginning of the 20th century. Today's contribution is a top five list of craftivist projects so even if you don't do Swedish, you can take a look at the links. Enjoy.

Hopefully it'll be a recurring thing so stay tuned to the site.

when she talks, I hear the revolution / in her hips, there's revolution

2011-01-27T20:08:00.009+01:00

Birthday gift for Stina.

I like this quote 'cause I think it's important to remember that the revolutionary struggle isn't some macho war ideal, it's life. It's the everyday choices we make, the choice to fight back, stand up and take control in ways that can differ a lot from time to time, situation to situation and person to person.

And I don't mean that in some sort of neo-liberal "anything goes!" way, but more in a "don't put yourself down 'cause you're not doing enough, look at the things you do, the choices you make & feel proud of them" way.

Edit: Sorry for sounding like a stupid self help book. Will do better in the future.

you would never sell out / just like I did in playboy / that was art, it didn't count

2011-01-23T12:19:00.008+01:00

I forgot to post this x-stitch that I made before Christmas. Once again it was my professor (who also bought this one) that wanted a gift for someone where she works, so now it hangs in the office of RFSU (the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education).

Apparently the guy who got it likes electronic music a lot, so I thought it would be nice to mix the sort of modern feeling of electronica with the old school Hungarian pattern.

gifts that keep on giving

2010-12-29T19:28:00.005+01:00

Hope you all survived the holidays.

Here's a wallet that I gave to my sister's boyfriend, some very hasty stitching there.

I went home to Stockholm over the weekend & finally, now that I can walk like a (sort of) normal person again, I could get all my stuff with me back to Gothenburg. Among other things, my birthday gift that's been up there since October: the wonderful Stitch lamp!

I sort of have a plan for it, but it's trickier than I though to stitch it so it's probably gonna take a while before it's done.

happy christmas your arse I pray god it's our last (I can see a better time when all our dreams come true)

2010-12-21T21:54:00.006+01:00

This is only funny in Swedish.

For visitors who don't speak this great language, I made some artwork that sort of illustrates the meaning of the cross stitch. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

let the last storm hit us / let it strike at the hardest part / turn us all to mutiny / turn this boat upside down

2010-11-23T21:23:00.006+01:00

Just a little thing that I made today for my friend Lisa.

There's another version of this at Rachel Mckay's & I'm pretty sure that Rayna's got one too, I just can't find it on the site right now.

up the punx!

2010-11-12T18:18:00.017+01:00

Since I like the combination of punk rock & cross stitch (see examples here, here & here) I thought that there must be others like me somewhere out there. So I went on the interwebz & searched for like minded stitchers, but they're harder to find than I thought.

Got a little bit frustrated, until I remembered that a while ago I found this reassuring piece from Whatever James:

As a bonus, here's another work of his that I really like.

I also tried my luck at Etsy, where I found Bombastitch who makes a lot of funny & cool x-stitch stuff. My favourite is the simple & elegant Black Flag logo (been thinking about stitching that one myself). Great work, great band.

PopSoupSupplies sells this multi-tasking Clash pattern, that works for "CROCHETING, KNITTING, CROSS STITCH, NEEDLEPOINT, BEADING AND MUCH MORE!". I love the frame, but I'm guessing it's not included in the price...

Another cross stitching punk genius is Lisa, who I met at Punk Illegal '07 where we discovered that we share a mutual love for Sju Svåra År. The quote on this pillow comes from the same song as this one.

Another favourite of mine is this one. The top hits on Google claims that Skitliv is a norwegian black/doom metal band formed by the former singer of Mayhem, but in my world it's a song by Skitsystem.

But I'm thinking that this can't be all there is? Leave a comment here or send an e-mail if you have any links to share.

EDIT: I forgot Confessions of a Crafter! Love this:

every day another conflict / I take it one day at a time and do the things I need to do

2010-11-10T21:57:00.011+01:00

Since I fucked up my leg & had to start getting around on crutches, I've had to carry all my stuff in an old ugly backpack that I don't really like. So to make it a bit more punk & personal, I stitched a Naked Aggression patch for it. If you want to make your own patch, I'll post the pattern in the DIY archive.

& I also got a late birthday gift today, well worth the wait. It's a handmade notebook with my name ingraved in gold. It's so beautiful that I almost cried when I got it.

strong I am with the force, but not that strong

2010-11-05T17:46:00.016+01:00

This is my friend Linnéa, taking her first steps into the magical world of radical cross stitching. We had a craft session at my place yesterday, complete with soup, cookies and the most postmodern moment ever - when I accidently spoiled the end of Jane Eyre to Linnéa by mentioning The mad woman in the attic.

I'm so proud of my new protégé! My plan is to become her Yoda of cross stitching. She will worship me & my skillz and maybe bring me offerings in the form of cookies &/or DMC embroidery floss. Moahaha! (<- trademark Mad Scientist laugh)

Yes, the patter that she's stitching comes from the DIY page of Radical Cross Stitch, but for swedish readers it might also be known from this ever so lovely compilation of songs from the women's rights movement of the 70's:

It sounds something like this:

we must stand unbroken, unbound & unashamed (this is what democracy looks like)

2010-10-14T23:28:00.007+02:00

Design stolen from some left-wing poster I found on the internet & a quote from Johannes Anyuru, one of my favourite poets.

It's from a radio show he did this summer, where he talked about how his early poems from the late 90's were filled with a burning furious now. It was a time when we actually thought that another world was possible, that things not only could, but would change. I sort of feel like I need to be reminded of that feeling sometimes.

museums are dead take a new art stance

2010-10-05T19:53:00.011+02:00

I haven't really been feeling like crafting/stitching these last couple of weeks, but going through the pattern map on my laptop, I found this one that I think some of you might like. It gets to join the other patterns on the DIY or DIE! page.

When stitched, it looks something like this:

In times like these, it feels good to listen to someone singing that hospital closure kills more than car bombs ever will.

Manic Street Preachers - New Art Riot

life becoming a landslide

2010-09-27T22:24:00.010+02:00

I'm back in Stockholm again, to see my mother who's visiting from Mozambique & also celebrate the first birthday of Alma, my niece. The original plan was just a quick weekend visit, but now I'm staying until Thursday (so if any friends read this, feel free to give me a call if you want to hang out this week).

The thing is that I managed to break my left leg after just one week in Gothenburg, when the brakes on my bike stopped working & I had to put my feet down to stop. Result: a tibia fracture where the bone got sort of crushed against the knee, the surgeon's description was "try visualizing it like a mortar". I spent one week at the hospital, the leg/knee needed to be operated on & now I'm on crutches until the end of October. The last couple of weeks I've been laying on my couch, popping morphine pills & eating candy, which migh sound great but I promise you, it isn't. I can't even begin to describe how much this sucks.

& like that wasn't enough, the suck-fest continued with the result of the general elections in Sweden last week; four more years of conservative right-wing government & a populist, racist party with it's roots in the neo-nazi movement got 20 seats in parliament.

Because of the pain & the pills & the general lack of enthusiasm I haven't had any energy or strength to do any stitching. I'm just feeling sorry for myself right now & because of that I'm thinking about buying this awsome and fantastic lamp. I think I deserve it.

there is nothin' fair in this world / there is nothin' safe in this world / & there's nothin' sure in this world

2010-08-29T15:25:00.007+02:00

I think this is my first pre-ordered cross stitch piece ever, sold to one of my old gender studies teachers at Södertörn University as a wedding gift to some friends of her. The design is a mix of patterns from an old pattern book I bought last summer, but I think I've seen those roses in some other pattern archives/books too. I was a bit inspired by this old piece when I made it.

I wrap you precious around my soul / and now I'm letting you go

2010-08-25T16:49:00.007+02:00

Okay, so I'm moving from Stockholm to Gothenburg tomorrow. Feels a bit strange, exciting and scary at the same time. I had a plan to post a better pic of the cross stitch above, but since all my stuff is in boxes and/or paperbags, I can't find either the cross stitch or my camera. So you will just have to do with this old, re-used photo.

And some songs about Stockholm and my love/hate relationship with this town.

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real

2010-08-09T20:38:00.010+02:00

First of all: go to Radical Cross Stitch and read what I meant to write about the cross stitch in the last post, but didn't have the energy or words for then.

Second: some time back I got an e-mail from a German publisher, asking if they could use one of my cross stitches for a book they where putting together. Last week the book finally arrived in my mail and it looks like this:

It's a compilation of feminist texts, from Sojuorner Truth, the riot grrrl manifesto, Emma Goldman, Audre Lorde, Judith Butler and a lot of other writers/groups that actually say something to me about my life. So if you speak German and you're into reading classic feminist critique, go to Orange Press, send them an e-mail and ask if you can buy the book, wait for it to arrive at your home and then flip to page 97 where this cross stitch illustrates the chapter on Valerie Solanas.

"Radikales Handarbeiten": Über Tätigkeiten, die lange Zeit als "weiblich" galten, werden subversive Botschaften in vertrautem Stil präsentiert - hier der erste Satz des SCUM-Manifests.

I have no idea what it means, but I'm hoping it's something good.

hello kitty kathleen (forever in her debt)

2010-08-04T21:09:00.012+02:00

When I started stitching this I had some grand elaborate idea in my head about trying to make a statement about girl culture, pop icons, feminism, cuteness-as-a-subversive-tool, riot grrl, feeling like an outsider even in the alternative culture & of course a bit of a homage to Kathleen Hanna, my punk rock queen.

Here's the song that inspired it all:

...and nothing for ourselves

2010-07-19T20:14:00.006+02:00

I've been stitching this for a while now and finally finished it last week. the pattern is originally from the rrrad and crafty Bee Listy, who you might recognize if you hang around Mr Xstitch a lot or just appreciate people who are

"mad as hell and sticks needles into things to sublimate [their] rage".

Except lovely flash tattoo stuff like this, she also blogs at queercraft and stitches amazing portaits that I could never finish, since I know how much time and hard work she must put into them.

I played around a bit with the pattern, mostly the colours (and now I think that maybe I should have stuck to the original, since I managed to fuck up the shadeing a bit) but also the text. The quote comes from the EZLN, the Zapatistas, in Mexico and in english it translates to "everything for everyone". Words that maybe should be the goal to set out for in any political project. I tried to make it come alive a bit more, using silver metalic floss for parts of the dagger, but it's tricky to photograph it well.

fuma, bebe, não pensa em trabalhar, fuma, bebe queremos é descansar (summer crafternoon in the park)

2010-07-14T21:17:00.019+02:00

So, I've been away for a while again.
No need to explain that more than the usual total lack of creativity.

It's summer & the last week or so we've had tropical weather in Stockholm - it's too hot to do anything except eat ice cream & listen to Neurosis, Cult of Luna or ISIS. Yesterday I tried to break the vicious circle of sweat, sleep & work by gathering my craft crew for some outdoors activities.

There was food! & Emilia.

Helena was a happy crafter.

it's the Batscarf!

Cross stitch for the newborn.

Emilia is still working on what she herself calls "the Turd".

You could also be this happy if you had a new sewing machine to help you patch up your stuff.

This is cross stitch history in the making.

To the right - our newest member Jenni.

To the left - her first(?) finished cross stitch!

We are very colour coordinated, Nadja & me.

Picnic is always the best food.

The Cutest Cat Ever(tm) appeared out of nowhere & joined us.

She had a thing for cuddeling with early 20th century anarchists.

We named her Emma.

old school vs. new school

2010-03-24T17:37:00.014+01:00

When my great aunt Karin passed away a while ago (she was 100 years old & really the aunt of my grandfather) I inherited this cross stitch from her. I really like it, even though the words sound a little bit too life loving for me:

Everyday is a wondrous gift.

But the pattern is really neat & in some way I like the thought of passing on a skill & craft that's been in my family for generations. So I decided to make my own version of it, using Karin's pattern.

I would have liked to get the text whole text there in just two lines, like the original, but there just wasn't room for it. Have no idea where I got the frase from, probably somewhere on the internet but I can't find it now. The best part is that I get to give it away as a very late birthday gift to a friend & co-worker.

patches for the masses (the kind of craft that your doctor warned you about)

2010-03-01T20:25:00.009+01:00

Someone googled "will my eyes get bad if I do cross stitch" & ended up here. I'm not sure, but I think the answer to the question is no, not unless you do it in complete dark & why would you do that? What you might get is a hand that looks somewhat like this:

So, what do you do when extensive crafting has left you with a stupid looking hand that hurts & doesn't want to be your friend anymore? You make patches! Just make sure to ignore your doctors advice about no crafting for the next couple of weeks...

If you want to make your own patches you'll find the patterns on the new & improved DIY or die! page. Instead of a plain old boring wrist support thingy, you get one that might get people to think that you hurt your hand playing cool tunes on your guitar, or smashing the system with your bare fists.

Here is Skitystem (Sweden's finest) playing at the Obscene Extreme festival a couple of years ago. Since then they've split up, but just last Saturday they reunited to play a show in Gothenburg. Let's hope it wasn't a one hit wonder.

still don't know what I was waiting for & my time was running wild, a million dead-end streets

2010-02-26T21:09:00.005+01:00

Hi kids! I've made a few changes here, hope you like it.

I've been thinking about making a pattern archive for a while, since one of the most common google searches that takes people to this blog is "punk cross stitch patterns". Below the banner you'll find a new link (DIY or die!) that takes you to the page with the patterns. I'll try to update it with new ones when I get the chance.

& here's a video with Cross Stitched Eyes!

219 friends on facebook, but no one that calls on a saturday night

2009-11-15T13:38:00.011+01:00

Apparently that's what it takes to get me back on the x-stitch track again. I stitched most of this yesterday & finished it this morning. I've had an idea in my head for quite some time to make something out of this Audre Lorde quotation & when I found a picture of her on the internet that really screamed "make me into a pattern!" I just had to do it. It's not easy to see, but there is two different shades of grey (oh good band! look here) in the portrait.

Audre Lorde was a caribbean-american poet & feminist, contemporary to Adrienne RIch & Sylvia Plath. She is often quoted in today's postcolonial & afro-american feminist critique, because of her early focus on racism & sexism & above all - how the feminist movement never will be part of the lived lifes of black or colored women if it doesn't confront its own power hierarchies. Racism & sexism is often based on the same type of structures & these structures are often so imbedded in the way that we perceive the world, how we make sense of it & how we judge it (in scientific terms), that if we do not confront this & deconstruct these structures then whatever freedom we get from it will only be freedom for some, not all.

See also the portrait of bell hooks.

fuck art, let's craft

2009-09-21T11:12:00.007+02:00

This past Saturday was the grand opening of Craftwerk 2.0, an exhibition at Jönköpings Läns Museum (Sweden):

Craftwerk 2.0 is an exhibition that explores the new “updated” textile crafts that are developed by a new generation of serious amateurs, innovative craftsmen, engaged entrepreneurs and political practitioners.

I haven't been there myself yet, but you can read a report from Cross Stitch Ninja at Radical Cross Stitch. It seems too good to miss out on, as soon as me & some friend can get our hands on a car & some gas money, we're going on a road trip to see it.

all apologies (now you know what I didn't do this summer)

2009-08-29T18:10:00.009+02:00

Once again I start this off with an apology & a promise to do better in the future when it comes to blogging. It's just that I haven't really done any cross stitching these last months, hence no updates (since I refuse to turn this blog into yet another whiny diary on the internet).

But don't think I've been totally lazy; I have a lot of projects that I've started but not finished. & now they're laying around the apartment as constant reminders of my failures & tendencies to never go through with stuff. Well, maybe not that drastic, but still - there's that little sting of I should have done better that is so annoying when you realize that something that once was joyful & fun has turned into yet another thing that makes you feel a bit... uncomfortable.

So, to get myself back on track again, I thought I'd ask you (if you're still there) which project I should concentrate on getting done? The portrait of Courtney Love? The wedding gift for swedish princess Victoria & her gym prince? The Buffy & Spike one? Or maybe the cross stitch based on the burnt down remains of Cyklopen? It's up to you now, just leave a comment.

Apart from that I've just finished one little thing this summer. It's a patch made from a stencil, but a bit modified. I did it around this years Punk Illegal festival in Munkedal - like last year it was a big success in every aspect (okay, maybe not the constant rain). Punk rock, good food, nice people & a good cause. I found it a bit funny that the festival was around the same time as the election for parliament of the european union, where words like freedom & the right to move across borders are often used. It's just that this freedom & these rights seem to be focused on capital, not people.

At the same time as we open up the borders for investments, money & exploitation, Fort Europa closes it's gates to the rest of the world, to the desperate people crossing water & desserts to get here & work for scraps from our tables. These are the people washing our dishes, cleaning our toilets & takeing care of our children & we thank them by makeing them into hunted animals, afraid to go out, to sleep, to live, to dream. All this because the much talked about freedom is only for those who can afford it.

oh, poor watcher. did your life pass before your eyes? cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea?

2009-05-09T17:13:00.011+02:00

I started making this cross stitch around 1st of may (when else?) & now that it was finished, I wanted to use it for something suitable. & what's better than a tea cozy? I've never made one before, but with a little help from the internet & my cousin who provided some of the material, it actually turned out pretty nice. I won't show you the inside of it now though, 'cause there you can really see that sewing isn't my line of business...

The plan is to also line it with some of that red satin ribbon. But after three broken sewing machine needles I felt that my patience was running out, so I'm saving that for some other day.

You wanna make your own tea cozy? Here's a tutorial in swedish & here's one in english. & here you have the pattern I used, I made it from one of the stencils at Radical Graphics.

While you're at it, take a look at this girls crafty blog, I really found it inspiring for today's project.

hegemony, media, power structures & punk

2009-04-20T23:26:00.004+02:00

This is my life right now & I love it.

But it doesn't leave much time for crafting.

does it bother you that I don't fucking care?

2009-04-14T20:31:00.007+02:00

& here's the result of yesterdays + today's renewed love for Nasum. Now I feel inspired to massproduce patches again, just have to figure out bands with logos that would work well as x-stitch patterns. Naked Aggression & Infect are good candidates...

he takes all manner of pills / and piles up analyst bills / in the country / oh, its like an animal farm / thats the rural charm / in the country

2009-04-14T18:42:00.008+02:00

This is the result of four days away from the big city. Don't know what to do with it though.

but they took our ideas to their marketing stars / & now I'm spending all my days at girlpower.com / trying to buy back a little piece of me

2009-04-08T22:33:00.012+02:00

I made a bookmark for my favourite librarian.

It went very well with the book I'm reading right now, The Popular Music Studies Reader. I mean, who could resist academic texts on topics like: Understanding hipness: 'subcultural capital' as feminist tool; Rules of rebellion: slamdancing, moshing and the american alternative scene; Voices from the margins: rap music and contemporary cultural production or Smells like teen spirit: riot grrrls, revolution and women in independent rock? It's really heaven for a sucker for subcultural nerdyness with a twist of academics like me. & I get to write about it & get credit for it! Makes me wanna start off every day with a song. Or some d-beat.

Anyhow, here's some close ups & since I'm off to the island for Easter vacation tomorrow (crafting! thrift stores! food! candy!) I'll leave you with a feminist anthem for the 21 century.

sometimes they come back (for more crafting)

2009-03-29T21:34:00.016+02:00

Hi kids, I know I've been a bad blogger this last month. It's just been the usual lack of inspiration & time when it comes to the crafting, thus no posts here. But today I gathered some friend in my home for an all day craft session with good food, good music & good conversation. & a camera!

That's all you get for know, but me & Nadja are planning a street art/activist campaing that hopefully will be realized in the near future. I'll keep you updated. & as always, I'll try to do better with the blogging.

Oh, almost forgot: I reacently re-configurated the hard drive of my laptop & it was a true moment of happiness for me - no more blue screens of death, no more annoying pop ups, no more hassel. But unfortunately I lost most of my bookmarks in the process, so if anyone of you out there got som good crafty/diy links to share, feel free to leave a comment.

warm hands, cold heart

2009-02-16T19:44:00.012+01:00

So I finished my first pair of knitted hand/wrist warmers today. Small step for humankind, but a huge leap for me. Tried to do something with a pattern this time & what could be better than to start off with the classic venus/feminist symbol?

It might not be the most neat knitting in the world, but I'm still learning... I found the pattern for the symbol at Subversive Knitting & then just sort of made the rest up. It was pretty easy & fast, good for a newbie like me. If i could, I would give you the pattern here but I actually don't know how to write out knitting patterns... They start with six rows knit 2, purl 2 (bottom) & end with four rows of the same, otherwise it's just plain knitting with two different colors & then sewing the two sides together & leaving a whole for the thumb. When you put them on it looks something like this (yes, it is very tricky to photograph your own hands):

just trash, me & you/it's in everything we do

2009-02-05T17:41:00.018+01:00

First: a hasty birthday gift for a friend, featuring his favorite quote from Tom Waits' Tango till they're sore. No, you don't get any close ups since I finished it while being absurdly hung over, which made the stitches not so neat...

Second: my friend Victor (who might actually be the smartest guy i know) is now a contributor at Everydaytrash, a blog about... well, trash. What is it? What do we do with it? How can we use/reuse all the stuff we throw away on a daily basis? & what happens to the trash that we do throw away? Check it out.

being oppressed means the absence of choices

2009-01-17T17:11:00.007+01:00

I'm re-reading bell hooks' Feminist theory: from Margin to Center right now, hence this small portrait of her. I'm thinking about removing it from the frame & making it into a patch to put on a t-shirt instead (just have to find a suitable tee).

For those of you that don't know, bell hooks (or Gloria Jean Watkins, which is her real name) is an american writer, feminist & scholar that deals with the relationship between sexism, racism & class. I like they way she challenges the contemporary idea of feminism as a movement & an expression that could mean just anything, depending on who defines it. According to hooks, feminism must be "the struggle to end sexist oppression" & that means that the dominant liberal feminism of today, that doesn't deal with class issues, can never be real feminism. She is relentless in her assault on white, middle class feminists (hey, that's me!) & the movements unwillingness to acknowledge & analyze it's own racism & class issues.

But at the same time as she advocates a raging criticism against how white feminists have excluded & marginalized black women or other ethnic groups & made their own strive for equality with privileged white men the goal, she's very clear on what has to be done: a turn towards companionship, solidarity & bonding between women (a bond that does not have it's roots in an imagined shared role as "victim" or "oppressed", but in shared strength & resources). She's even written a book that is all about love. I really recommend reading bell hooks to anyone who's interested in the ways that sexist, racist & class oppression works together & has to be challenged together.

there she goes again

2009-01-12T18:50:00.006+01:00

You have to take a look at the latest post on Radical Cross Stitch. I'm happy to know such an amazing political crafter who's genius, ambition, creativeness & quality works as a great inspiration.

knit 2, purl 2 (stuff I do instead of studying)

2009-01-07T10:26:00.007+01:00

With some help from Stitch 'n Bitch & Roliga Stickboken, I finaly finished my first real knitting project.

It might not be the most revolutionary & prettiest scarf ever, but I'm still proud of myself considering that this was the result of the last time I tried knitting. I made it as a gift for my dad (he chose the color, not me) & it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be. Now i'm thinking mittens, found some inspirational stuff here.

make up & ponies

2009-01-05T23:08:00.010+01:00

I'm not too sure about the new header/logo. What do you think? & yes, I got the idea for from some of the designs at Urban Threads. Credit where credit's due.

I started two new projects today & got two other in mind. Since there is no money & no fun & just fucking cold in January, I'm planning to stay indoors & spend my time doing some serious crafting next couple of weeks.

Cute craft/diy badges that I bought last week at Hallongrottan, Sthlm:

the pc x-mas x-stitch of 2008

2008-12-31T15:49:00.007+01:00

I had planned to write a long blog post about this cross stitch that I've been working on during December. Right now I'm just to tired to do it, but still wanted to get it out there before next year.

So the short version is this: during 2008 the situation in Zimbabwe has gone from bad to... well, catastrophic. I've been following the reports from Zim before, during & after the election in March this year & it feels like the whole country is turning into a black hole, like it's slowly imploding. Zimbabwe was once a prosperous country but years of bad government & raging inflation has left it devastated & unable to care for it's own people. The people who actually tried to do something about the situation by electing a new president, but got robbed of their democratic rights by Robert Mugabe & the ZANU-PF party. Today there is no sufficient health care, hunger & cholera is killing the people, those who dare to speak up are getting arrested & are "disappearing", Mugabe still holds his office & the talks between him & MDC about sharing government have collapsed. The money situation is bizarre, the inflation has reached heights that are pretty hard to grasp. In august 2008 it passed 11 200 000 %. As Anna Tibblin puts it:

In english it's called a quadrillion. In swedish there's not even a word for it.

So, with that in mind I've spent december working on an advent calendar. I used a pattern made from an old ANC poster (which unfortunately didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped) & a quote from the anthem of neo-colonialism as I know it: the Christmas song Do they know it's Christmas? by the 80's Band Aid project.

& the bells were ringing out for christmas day

2008-12-25T23:58:00.009+01:00

Some Christmas gifts that I've made this year: Two embroidered kitchen towels for my cousin Maja (patterns from Sublime Stitching).

& a sign of affection for Lisa. The quote comes from She's losing it, a song by Belle & Sebastian.

works in progress

2008-12-15T22:25:00.010+01:00

Craft night at my place last week:

I think Nadja's revolutionary x-stitch poster will be the greatest thing since sliced bread...

Apart from this I'm busy with life, Christmas prep & trying to keep up with my studies. But last friday I wen't to the release party for Wolfbrigade's new record Comalive & was happy to see that if you look closely on the photo inside the sleeve, you'll see this beautiful cross stitch on the wall! I'm such a groupie.

no truce, no mercy, no surrender, no rest, no more - this is war

2008-11-30T14:08:00.017+01:00

photo: stig almqvist/scanpix

Yesterday the alternative culture house Cyklopen, at Högdalen south of Stockholm, was burnt to the ground. The fire was categorized as arson by the police (the house was still not connected to any electrical power lines or heat system, so "the usual suspects" were easy to rule out). Most probably it was started by some of the neo-nazi scum that's in town for the annual fascist celebration of the death of Karl XII (swedish king who is considered as some sort of hero for the nationalist/nazi movement in Sweden - even though it was he who actually lost most of the land occupied by Sweden in the 17th & 18th century).

Cyklopen was built by & for the people, providing a free space for radical art, music, workshops & political meetings. The house has been under construction for about three years & was really starting to see it's full potential during the summer this year. Even though I've just been there once or twice, it feels like such a sad & heartbreaking & stupid thing that's happened.

Tonight there was two (legal!) nazi demos marching in Stockholm. An anti-fascist gathering was organized at Sergels Torg & afterwards a lot of people spontaneously continued down to Kungsträdgården & Nybroplan to try to disturb the nazi demo as much as possible. Of course the cops closed the street to protect the nazis, but about 50-100 people remained to wait for them. Not much happened, the usual shouting & some fire crackers being thrown, but it felt good to be there anyway.

Here is a statement in swedish from Kulturkampanjen, the organization behind cyklopen.

Idag 29/11-2008 har Cyklopen blivit nedbränt till grunden, ingenting återstår av byggnaden. Vår lokal har ingen anslutning till elnätet och inget värmesystem, vad kan ha orsakat branden? Brandkårens bedömning är att brandens förlopp var onaturligt snabbt. Brandkåren, polisen och vi är eniga om att allt tyder på att branden var anlagd.

När vi ankom till Cyklopen tidigare idag 12:00 var lokalen uppbruten och allt av värde var stulet. Det enda av värde som var lämnat kvar i lokalen var två gasoltuber (som vi vanligen använder till uppvärmning). Vi tillbringade dagen med att laga graffitiplanket, måla filmrummets läktare och städa. Vi lämnade Cyklopen strax innan 17:oo. Branden utbröt cirka 2 timmar senare, i lokalens nedre högra hörn, och övertändes snabbt. När polis och brandkår anlände till platsen var huset omöjligt att rädda.

Nätverket Mot Rasism skulle ha arrangerat en tillställning samma tid som branden utbröt. Tillställningen ställdes in några dagar innan men var utannonserad. Imorgon, 30 Nov, är det Karl 12:es dödsdag och nazistiska grupper arrangerar manifestationer. Nästa vecka, 6 dec, tågar nazisterna återigen i Salem. Stockholm är den stad i Sverige med störst nazistnärvaro under denna period. Kopplingen mellan detta och branden på vårt kulturhus är knappast en slump. Cyklopens aktiviteter och innehåll har präglats av icke-auktoritärt tänkande och mångkultur och har varit en vagel i ögat på samhällets totalitära strömningar. De forum i samhället som uttrycker en kritisk röst mot naziströrelsen är ständigt under hot.

Det står utom något tvivel att Cyklopen blivit föremål för ett nazistattentat. Nazismen får inte växa utan motstånd!

Stöd återuppbyggandet av Cyklopen ekonomiskt på postgirokonto:1607552-5

Gå ut och demonstrera Mot nazism och rasism Söndagen den 30 Nov. 16:00 på Sergels torg och Lördagen den 6:e dec, 12:00 i Salem C!

/CYKLOPEN

some entertainment, while you're waiting

2008-11-20T17:53:00.010+01:00

Just so that you all don't think that I've died/gone off with the circus/stopped blogging, here's two works in progress:

Look! it's not even x-stitch! I've evolved!

But this one is...

we were on a break

2008-11-03T16:51:00.007+01:00

I feel that I have neglected you for a while & I'll try to do better. There's just been a lot of things going on in my life right now, so I haven't really had time for crafting (or maybe, my mind's been elsewhere). But I've started a new project, moving on from x-stitch to other type of embroidery & it's really fun. Hopefully it'll be finished soon.

But at least I've found a new (for me) craft site that sell some really cool patterns, both for hand embroidery & machine embroidery. Check out Urban Threads.

Here's some of my favorites:

Also, take a look at this awesome needlebook/pincushion/craftkit made with one of the patterns.

there are too many candles in your cake

2008-10-07T21:44:00.008+02:00

I made a little birthday gift yesterday; an ipod case for my dear friend Lisa. The idea for this is not mine from the start, it's my friend Nadja who came up with it. She's an ace cross stitcher herself & hopefully you'll see some of her work here in the near future.

This is what it looks like open:

& here it is when it's closed:

madonna/whore, what a bore

2008-09-27T13:47:00.011+02:00

This one is inspired by my friends in the newly re-united band Sju Svåra År - or at least I stole the quote from them. It's the swedish translation of "I don't give a damn about my bad reputation" & of course they got it from Joan Jett.

But more important is the fact that a woman that's not afraid of expressing herself in any way, especially sexually, is still seen as a "bad woman" in societies eyes - she's a whore, a slut, a sinner & if something bad happens to her, well maybe she deserved it. It must be very confusing growing up in todays (western) world, where the girls are bombarded with images of the "perfect" female body, with the demand on being sexy, being available, to always dress & act according to the expectations of the male eye, but at the same time balance on that thin line that separates them from "loose women". Not to recognize their own sexuality & say fuck it, I like sleeping around, I like being myself in any way, because if they do they might be marked for life. It is amazing that the notion that a woman who sleeps around is a whore & a man that does the same is a stud is still such a unchallenged part of society. So, to not give a damn about one's reputation, whether it be sexually or in any other way, is one of the things that maybe should be most important in the feminist struggle today.

(Okay, so I'm a little bit stressed writing this - I will probably edit this post later, to get my point across in a better way.)

viva las vegas!

2008-09-18T21:27:00.008+02:00

I have a friend who participated in a game show on tv a couple of months ago. Unfortunately I can't find the clip on Youtube, but there was a pretty funny conversation between her & the host, something like this:

H: So, how are you gonna spend the money if you win?
S: I'm going to Las Vegas to get married!
H: Oh, does your boyfriend know about that?
S: Well, I guess he does now!

Of course she won & of course they went to Vegas to get married. with Elvis singing & everything! Last Saturday they had a party for friends & family to celebrate (since no one was at the actual wedding) & I made them a wedding gift.

As usual my crappy camera fucks up the colors... You have to imagine them a little more green/blue than they appear here. I really like they way it turned out & I think they did to. The phrase is actually something that Fox (no, that's not his real name) wanted engraved on their wedding rings, since he plays in the metal band Grand Magus, but Sarah vetoed it. But now he can at least have it on the wall in their home.

Here's some close ups:

back with a vengeance

2008-09-07T22:43:00.008+02:00

It's been a couple of weeks with no inspiration, due to a lot of... well, stuff. But I got myself back on track again, by going to the ladies only craft night at Café Edenborg last week & also with some help from friends. So now I'm working on two different projects & that makes me feel pretty happy. But to get back to that good feeling you get when you've actually done with something, I spent a couple of hours stitching this little piece tonight.

I think I'm gonna put it on my bathroom door, since the text comes from some bathroom graffiti at one of the crappy Indian bars where me & my friends used to go & drink beer a couple of years ago (can't remember which though - maybe Indian Star?).

I aint nothing but tired, man I'm just tired and bored with myself

2008-08-26T19:04:00.004+02:00

I'm sorry, but I'm suffering from a total lack of inspiration right now.

the revolution will be handmade

2008-08-09T21:09:00.009+02:00

Went to the punk festival at Fullersta yesterday, which led to a drunken night of mayhem - alcohol, punk rock & the usual disco dancing to old 80's hits (New Kids On The Block!). Today I've been feeling pretty shitty - or as good as I deserve, like some people would put it - so instead of going to the festival again I decided to spend tonight finishing this x-stitch that I've been working on for a while.

The original picture comes from a 1st of May poster from Umeå LS and you can find it here. First time I saw it I thought it would make a great x-stitch pattern because of the simple design. & it's been perfect for stitching on the bus to/from work, since I didn't need to look at the pattern all the time after the black outlines where done.

But now I don't know what to do with it... Thinking about adding a quote or something, but I can't really figure out what, or where i should put it. Anyone out there who's got any suggestions?

my fifteen minutes of fame

2008-07-30T21:28:00.012+02:00

I've been a bit absent minded, both when it comes to updating here & crafting, for the last couple of weeks. But now I'm at least done with "the Valerie Solanas project", wich is actually a cross stitch I've done on request for my friend Siska's birthday. The birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but as usual it took me a bit more time to finish than i'd planned.

It is of course the first paragraph/sentence from Solana's SCUM manifesto, the raging text about all that's wrong in society. You could discuss Solana's writing & thoughts for days if you wanted to - was she a complete lunatic who committed a violent crime (she shot Andy Warhol!) & promoted a hateful feminist philosophy? Or was she a brilliant writer/artist that got abused & mistreated by everyone & everything in her life? I'm too tired do get into that right now (maybe I'll edit this later) but I think that, if you're Swedish, you should pick up a copy of Sara Stridsberg's book Drömfakulteten. It's a beautiful odyssey into the mind of Valerie, from the authors own fantasies & conception of her. Just read it.

Here's some close ups of the cross stitch:

I'm not a hundred percent happy with the way it turned out, can't say exactly what's wrong but I think it's something with the colors... & it's a pity that I don't have a better camera, 'cause it would've been nice if the pics shoved that I've used metallic silver floss for the smoke coming out of the guns. But I guess you can't get all that you ask for in life. Tomorrow it goes in the mail down to Gothenburg!

I shop, therefore I am

2008-07-23T16:03:00.011+02:00

Some of my favourite stuff on Etsy right now:

Hardcore chicks cross stitch kit from craftylikeafox.

Everything you need to create your own 2 x 3 inch portrait of Debbie Harry, Tina Turner, Margaret Cho, Canadian feminist author Margaret Atwood, Sophia Loren, or wicked mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Lovely xstitch badges from MaMagasin.

This is a large button badge featuring a cassette walkman! I made this myself using cross stitch on canvas. My items are very time consuming but I enjoy every minute of the making process. Each item is made with love and care. These large badges make great statement pieces on your coat colar or clutch purse. Measurements approx: 6cm / 2.5 inches across.

Finaly, som edgy stitching from jayestar.

holiday in the sun

2008-07-12T14:30:00.005+02:00

Hey kids, i'm back! Had an amazing time (most of it at least) on vacation but on monday it's back to the everyday circle of work-sleep-work-sleep... Anyhow, I'm still stitching on the Valerie Solanas project, hopefully it will be finished before the weekend is over.

But while you're waiting, check out this new amazing project from my grrl down under: the Fabric of Resistance - a wikipage dedicated to the history of revolutionary crafting. If you have something to contribute to the page (it's an ever ongoing project), don't hesitate to do so.

Also, for those of you that liked the tattoo x-stitch that I posted here, take a look at Stitch'd Ink. Some really cool designs & diy kits available there (even though I'm still a bit hesitant when it comes to the old school fascination for pin ups).

pretty shitty city (it's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win)

2008-06-25T23:43:00.007+02:00

There won't be any updates here for at least two weeks now, since I'm off to Gothenburg tomorrow & then to Munkedal & Punk Illegal - a punk festival hosted by the network No One Is Illegal.

Then I'm staying in Gothenburg for a week to see Discarga (my favourite Brazilian band!) & Bruce Springsteen (the Boss!). But I won't be lazy with the crafting while I'm on vacation, just started drawing up the design for a birthday gift to my friend Siska - she asked for something "man hating" & well, I'm thinking Valerie Solanas...

punk rock is not just for your boyfriend

2008-06-24T15:28:00.006+02:00

Look, I made a new x-stitch! Read all about it at Radical Cross Stitch.

a hoop & a la & another kind of craft (I'm celebrating my love for you with a craftzine & a new tattoo)

2008-06-23T14:00:00.016+02:00

Today is not just the first day of my summer vacation (yay!) but also apparently a little bit of Christmas in the middle of June! I woke up to find that not just my order from Sublime Stitching had arrived (yes, I too finally succumbed to the greatness that is Jenny Hart), but I also got the latest issue of Hoopla in the mail! It's even bigger & better than #1, so I'm very happy & not just because some of my work is featured in it (Rayna, I promise - for next issue I'll write something proper & exclusive).

I especially appreciated the piece by Betsy Greer about stiching/crafting as a form of dealing with emotions & it's sort of therapeutic effect. I can really understand where she's coming from there, since I often use cross stitching as a way to focus my thoughts on something that doesn't hurt or as something that just blocks out stuff I don't want to dwell on anymore. But it also works the other way, when I feel happy & content with life & know that I'm making something that someone will appreciate 'cause it's made with a lot of love & attention. So it's really like the emotions go into the stitching & it can force you to think about stuff that you really don't want to think about, or sometimes not think at all... So go ahead & order you're own copy of Hoopla & if you have a distro or some other way to spread the word, why not order a whole bunch of them?

Last but not least, some of you wondered about the "handicraft for handicraft" swap from the latest post... So here's the result.

It does look a bit weird right now 'cause of the bruises & the fact that it's not really finished. It will probably take at least one more session to do the colour of the butterflies and the shading of the fairy. But I'll have to wait a while & see that it heals okay 'cause I have this palet disorder called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, which makes my blood all wonky... It's basically "hemophilia light" & is an autoimmune disease that makes my immune system target & eliminate the thrombocytes that makes the blood coagulate. So I have a tendency to bleed very easily & get a lot of bruises. But I'm really happy with the tattoo & think it's gonna be the prettiest one ever when it's completed.

I tried to date a tattoo artist & all I got was this lousy tribal...

2008-06-10T09:20:00.009+02:00

I feel that I've hyped this cross stitch so much that I don't even know what to write now... It's a gift for friends working at Swahili Bob's Tattoo & Piercing here in Stockholm. We're trading handicraft for handicraft... The text is the swedish version of "no pain, no gain" or literally "if you want to look nice, you have to suffer".

a little teaser (I'm so excited, I just can't hide it)

2008-06-08T22:04:00.008+02:00

Oi! Do I have news for you... Yes I do, just finished a cross stitch that I've been working on since around easter. & it's lovely! But you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the finished result, 'cause it's a gift for some friends & I don't want them to accidentaly see it online before they see it irl. Just felt that I had to brag a little about my own creative genius, haha.

For now you'll have to settle for this very simple bookmark design, inspired by the work of Sarah Utter.

you wanna live forever? sell your soul to radical cross stitch!

2008-06-03T20:58:00.008+02:00

There's big things going on now! Just wanted to let you know that today I made my first post as a member of the crew at Radical Cross Stitch, the best site on the internet. I'm so proud & honoured that the other grrls wanted me to participate in what is destend for total world domination... RCS will save your life!

Of course I'll keep posting here, 'cause this blog is my baby, But the more radical/political stuff that I do will be on RCS too (tagged as a crosspost here, or linked - haven't really thought too much about that yet).

essa é nossa contra cultura

2008-05-18T13:19:00.006+02:00

I got inspired by Rayna at RCS & made a bookmark.

Do it yourself in portuguese (yes, i'm in a portuguese fase right now, guess it's my brain that's trying to prepare for the eventual trip to Mozambique).

It turned out a bit bigger than I'd planned, but at least it works for coffeetable books.

anger is a gift

2008-05-09T19:30:00.007+02:00

& to celebrate my new lifeplan, here's the (almost finished) cross stitch that I'm gonna put on a tote bag that I made a month ago.

The text is in portuguese & comes from the Brazilian hardcore/trash band Infect's song Cansadas the ódio. In english it would translate to something like "tired of hate & oppression, it seems like the anger is the solution".

hello africa, tell me how you're doin'! (or: trying is the first step toward failure)

2008-05-09T10:59:00.004+02:00

I know that I promissed that this woulden't be yet another "hey, I'm putting my diary out on the internet for all to see!" blog, but i just can't control myself right now. I'm so excited! The future looks so unthinkable bright right now!

The thing is that I realized the advantages of distance tuition/studies. Went to my sister's & her boyfriend for dinner yesterday & we discussed what I was planning for this autumn (quitting my job, continuing my studies to get my masters) & I joked about the fact that I should move home (to my parents) like people do when they wanna cut the costs of living, except that I don't have a "home" to move to (well, not in this town at least). & then my sister's boyfriend said "But why don't you? If you've applied for a distance course (is that the right term in english? you know, studying over the internet) why don't you just move down to your mom in Mozambique?". & I thought, yeah why don't I?

The last couple of weeks I've joked a lot about my goal in life, my dream job; to sit in southern Africa and "do some blogging" (a plan that is both childish & neo-colonial, I know). & here's the perfect opportunity! I don't have to wait until I get my degree, wich was the original plan. So I texted my mom this morning & told her to make the bed in the guestroom, 'cause I'm on my way & her response was "Okay, get down here asap!" more or less.

& no, I refuse to listen to people who tell me that no one I know ever managed to finish their distance studies. That it didn't turn out that well last time I went to Moz to do field work & that I will hit myself hard for being stupid again, when I'm back in about a year with yet another unfinished course at Uni to deal with...

project increased salary

2008-05-07T16:40:00.007+02:00

Mine, Sofia's & Gabriella's version of the knitting cupcakes:

It's all a part of our mastermind plan to guilt trip our co-workers into buying us presents & bakeing vegan goodies for us. Hasn't worked out that well yet...

help wanted

2008-04-28T21:39:00.005+02:00

I'm struggeling with a lot of frustration & lack of inspiration right now... Trying to finish two projects that both include stupid birds, but nothing turns out the way I want it. Stupid, stupid swallows & magpies. & of course they're embroiderys that i've promised to do for friends so I just have to finish them.

Anyone out there who's got at good pattern/design for a swallow? Think traditional tattoo style. I just can't stand starting over for the fourth time & once again realize that the design or the colours doesn't work the way I want it.

Here's a picture of a stupid swallow:

my little anarchist (in between my beauty magazines & my credit card bills)

2008-04-24T12:06:00.013+02:00

All quiet on the crafting front (except the fact that I sold some patches at sunday's festival so that the cat & I can eat this week too). But I just had to post a picture of the Cutest Earrings Ever (is it still "earrings" even though there's actually no rings involved?) that I bought last week:

Tiny little anarchist ponies! The best combination ever! But I'll have to re-design them a bit, I'm gonna add a longer chain between the hook and the ponies & then some pearls or other stuff. I promise to show the finished result later.

Anyway, today is april 24 which mean that it's World Day for Laboratory Animals - an international campaign day to end animal testing & promote cruelty free alternative methods. For those of you that for example have a craving for cool make up & feel like the non-tested alternatives are too "homemade" & goody two-shoes for you - check out Urban Decay & Hard Candy. They both even have certified vegan products, which mean that they also are totally free from animal ingredients.

(& here I should add a disclaimer about the evils of make up & the beauty industry that corrupt young girls - & older women's - minds so that they put all their energy & thought into fullfilling societys ideals about our bodys & representation. But I'm totally paralyzed after filling my head with glittery eye-shadow & glossy lipstick)

capitalism stole my virginity (or; I'm so poor won't you gimmie some money?)

2008-04-17T21:27:00.009+02:00

Oh my goodness greatness! I just found the most amazing vegan cupcakes ever ! Check this out & then tell me that vegan food is bland & boring...

Apart from this, I'm stiching patches until my fingers bleed. Gotta have a stash ready for sundays market, since I've embraced my inner capitalist & set out to make some money. It's not without hesitation, I still feel a bit akward about the whole craft to sell-thing, but the truth is that I'm so fucking broke right now that I really have to jump at any chance I get to earn some cash. But still... I listened to the craft cartel podcast #3 today, where there's a discussion about craftivism & what makes crafting radical & subversive. & it is a pretty hard nut to crack I think. Take some of the patches I've made for sunday for example; they have explicit political messages/meanings, but I've made them with the intent to sell them for cash. Does that make a difference to the activist aspect of them? Or is it just the same, as long as the buyer wears them & can argue for the politics they represent?

Well, here's some of the stuff that you could become the proud owners of on sunday. Come on punks, give me your money!

fun for the whole family!

2008-04-14T10:17:00.006+02:00

As usual, sorry for the lack of updates (even my mom has complained). But I thought some of you might be interested in this: folk festival at the alternative culturehouse Cyklopen (Högdalen) on sunday, April 20. There will be bands, food, workshops, a diy market & crafting. I'll be there helping out & probably trying to sell some patches. More info here.

sweet dreams are made of this

2008-03-24T21:34:00.016+01:00

Yeay, an update! I've finished some stuff during Easter (a weekend spent on Öland with my cousin & aunt, doing nothing but eating & crafting & visiting yardsales) so here goes:

My first encounter with feminism was probably through music - the angry screams of Kathleen, Corin, Tobi, Allison, Jennifer, Carrie & all the other riot grrrls. It was through them I got my first insights about issues like sexual abuse, female empowerment & sexuality. My first analysis of patriarchy was definitely soundtracked & fueld by the pure force of songs like Double dare ya.

We're bikini kill, and we want revolution, girl style, NOW!

So, I made a pattern for the classic jumping cheerleader with the text on it, but then decided to go another way. & I think it turned out pretty good, the plan is to make a pillowcase out of it.

Speaking of pillowcases, this is one that my cousin made last summer. I love the expression in the boy's face:

I'm to tired to make this into a proper update with text & all, so you just have to do with a crappy photo of another patch I finished in the car on the way home today.

she's a man-eater

2008-03-13T21:59:00.014+01:00

I wish I had something to say, but apparently I don't. Had a friend over for dinner earlier & now I'm sitting here drinking tea & listening to Victor Jara by myself. The crafting is still going strong, but i don't have any finished pieces to show you, so you just have to hang on for a while.

In the meantime you could watch yesterdays edition of Uppdrag Granskning on Swedish television. For those of you who don't speak/understand swedish, here's a short summary: The meat industry is one of the biggest pollutioners world wide, mostly due to methane gas & the fact that tons & tons of soybeans are grown to feed livestock (often on land that used to be rain forrest in south america). Last year the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United nations (FAO) published a report named Livestock's long shadow (download it here), where it's concluded that 18 % of the harmful pollution that adds to the greenhouse effect comes from the Western meat industry. That's more than the whole sector of transportation all together (even if you don't count the transportation of meat & animals).

But still no one is willing to talk about this. All you hear when it comes to climate change, the greenhouse effect & the fact that we have to do something about it now, before it's too late, is that we need to cut down on transportation, use less energy & promote "climate smart" products. Take Sweden for example, here you get a discount of 10 000 skr if you buy a environment-friendly car & it's discussed if we should inforce higher taxes on for example flying. But no Swedish politician is ready to say that the food people eat, their desire to feed on the meat of other living creatures, is slowly (or nowadays, rather quickly) killing our planet. Why is this? What's the deal with the meat? It's pretty interesting that people are willing to cut back on other things & maybe change their way of living in many ways to stop global warming, but when you start talking about what they eat & why, it's all just a big fucking taboo to even bring the question up for discussion.

& speaking of eating, last saturday was march 8, the International Women's Day (a day that was established in 1910, at a meeting in the same house that later became Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen which was torn down just a year ago) . I wasn't too involved in the celebration this year (well, it's no celebration - what do we have to celebrate? not much) but I did go to a friends house to have brunch & eat the MANBREAD that she made especially for this day.

The slogan of the day was of course If you can't beat them, eat them!

being paraniod doesn't mean you aren't followed

2008-03-05T16:57:00.011+01:00

Oh I almost forgot, I got tagged by a french girl! Can't really read the blog though, since my french stops short after the compulsory voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? I actually did study french in school back in the days, but never learned anything useful (except maybe the frase "I'm gonna fuck your mother with carrots" which I unfortunately forgot rather quickly). Anyway, if I got it right the tag is about telling y'all six things in my life that i'm manic about... so, here goes:

One: I can't stand fireworks, backfireing cars, barking dogs or any other loud, sudden noice. This also means that I'm terrified of balloons ('cause you just know they're gonna go BANG at any moment). The combination balloons + kids on a bus (or any public transportation) can send me in to panic & I have to get off the bus before I start crying.

Two: The most disgusting thing I know is the sound of other people brushing their teeth.

Three: I very often find myself thinking "why are you all staring at me?!" when I'm in a public place & when I do I have to check that i have clothes on me about a thousand times.

(Hm, this does more & more sound like a list of paranoias, right?)

Four: I rarely leave my home without taking at least one book with me. You never know when you're gonna get bored.

Five: I guess the cross stitching fit in here. I'm often sort of manic about a new project, or finishing something that i've been working on - sometimes to the point where I cross stitch until my hands hurt & I cant use them properly.

Six: I need people/friends to answer me as soon as possible everytime I send them a textmsg or e-mail. If they don't, I (loudly) accuse them of hating me.

Well, I might change this list later. Makes me look like a complete idiot... But right now I don't have time, have to go & meet friends & drink beer. See ya kids!

poison in a pretty pill

2008-03-05T11:35:00.011+01:00

After months & months of searching for the perfect frame for the Wolfbrigade x-stitch (I wanted a big golden one) I finaly gave up, so since yesterday it's in the hands of it's rightful owners. Here's Dadde showing off the new backdrop & Micke channeling his inner emo kid...

(the photos aren't bad, they're PUNK ROCK, haha)

I've made some changes to the pretty punk embroidery since last time I posted a photo of it. Had to put som skulls & bones on it, so that the boys wouldn't feel too intimidated by the quteness. Then I accidentaly spilled some coffee on it, but i rationalize the stains as punk... & if you live in Stockholm, don't miss Wolfbrigade playing at Kafé 44 on Sunday March 9, (together with Imperial Leather & DSB).

here be dragons

2008-03-02T22:02:00.010+01:00

I've spent the weekend visiting friends in Gothenburg - yes finaly, after months of planning I got my shit together & actually went there. Almost cancelled the trip this time too, 'cause of a bad cold that had me floored during the whole week (or more correctly - horizontal on the couch). But I'm glad I didn't, had a great time going to club Koloni, drinking beer, bying records, eating vegan pizza & thai food, hanging out with the best people & trying to figure out the difference between a tram & a bus. It's kinda funny that I once spent a whole day at the international airport of Dar es Salaam without money, passport or a ticket to get out of there, without being too worried - but to go to another town in Sweden & try to figure out the public transportation system there totaly freaks me out.

Except everything above I also managed to visit the exhibition TAKE ACTION that I've written about earlier. It was pretty good, some stuff that felt a bit "been there, done that" but all in all well worth a visit. Especially since it got me thinking about som new cross stitching ideas. As you probably noticed I've been slacking off a bit during the last couple of weeks. But not totaly, I'm actually working on three different things but they're all pretty big & will take some time to finish (thus the lack of updates here).

A part of the exhibition covered the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, illustrated (amongst other things) by posters from the ANC. They might be on loan from the Apartheid Museum in Jo'burg - a museum I really recommend visiting if you're in the walled city. Anyway, they also reminded me of political posters from Mozambique & Angola during the fight against colonial opression & the years after independence. It's something about the aesthetic expression of these posters that I like, so I'm thinking about doing something similar in cross stitch. Found this site that has a big collection of posters to draw inspiration from & here's some examples:

cleanliness is next to godliness

2008-02-10T22:00:00.001+01:00

I've had a pretty quiet weekend, just hanging out with friends & doing nothing of importance. Ended it with a day of laundry, cleaning & washing dishes today, don't think my home's been this clean in months... Such a perfect little housewife! But I've spent the evening finishing some patches that you can see above (once again, sorry for the crappy pictures - I don't own a proper digicam, just useing my cellphone & it dosen't get better than this). UPDATE: I changed the pic on the right, at least this isn't THAT bad.

The pattern for the one on the left is courtesy of Cross Stitch Ninja & you can find it at Radical Cross Stitch.

& all of you who live in Stockholm, don't forget that tomorrow is the demonstration against the privatization & gentrification of our city (more info here). Be there or be a spineless liberal!

words are loaded pistols (sartre x 2)

2008-02-03T22:23:00.001+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates here, I'll try & do better in the future. even if I haven't finished an embroidery or anything, I could try & write about other stuff going on. Anyway, I just got home from Skövde, the tiny town where my father is moving to start his new job as cheif of the Culture House (apparently the oldest one in Sweden!). So today we packed his stuff (well not all of it - actually just stuff, no furniture) & drowe down to install him in his new basement apartment (we call it "the crypt"). & of course I've made a housewarming gift for him - yes it's finished, the fantastic gift that I've been mentioning here a couple of times & bragged about to my friends. Well, it's been finished for a while but I didn't dare post it here in case my dad would see it, 'cause that would spoile the suprise. So here it is:

The pattern is from Finland & I found it in a book with old eastern-european cross stitch patterns that I bought last summer at a small shop in Borgholm (Öland - one of the islands on the eastcoast of Sweden). The quote is from Jean Paul Sartre's book Nausea & says: and then there are idiots who can find comfort in art (can't find the exact translation to english right now). The funny part about this is of course that ART is just what my father is working with, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this on the wall of his new office. & also, it's sort of a comment to all middle age, middle class, male ARTISTS that are so full of themselfes & their great contribution to society...

& this is how happy my dad was for the gift:

Just relized that I've actually forgotten to post an embroidery here - one that I made last summer as a birthday gift for a friend. It's another Sartre quote, maybe the most famous one, so you get it as a little bonus.

knit it or quit it!

2008-01-25T23:36:00.001+01:00

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

2008-01-20T12:55:00.001+01:00

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)

2008-01-17T16:48:00.002+01:00

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 Christian 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?

2008-01-12T18:50:00.002+01:00

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

2008-01-06T14:09:00.001+01:00

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 complain & whine 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 Ijust 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 that 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.

tonight, thank god it's them instead of you

2007-12-29T17:06:00.001+01:00

These are the estimated figures of the 2007 AIDS epidemic update, released by the UN in november. Approximately 33.2 million people are living with HIV in the world today. 2.5 million were infected by the virus & 2.1 million people died of AIDS in 2007. Of the people living with HIV, 22.5 million live in sub-saharan Africa & 1.6 million of casualties related to AIDS were african. The numbers are so huge that it's sort of hard to grasp them. But the good news is that the epidemic seem to be stabilizing & the global HIV prevalence (the proportion of people living with the virus) appears to have levelled off.

I've had the idea for this embroidery in my mind for quite some time & now that it's done it feels a bit... small, in some way. The original idea was to cross stitch little human shaped figurines representing the numbers, but that was just to much work (I'm lazy). & in a way I felt that the harshness of the numbers sort of speak for them selves... Well, now it's done anyway & the plan is to make it into a pillow case.

Sorry for the crappy picture, the colours are infact much brighter blue & red than what you see here.

P.R.D.C.T

2007-12-21T13:38:00.001+01:00

Last update before christmas... I'm busy creating magnificent gifts for people I know (or people I want to know) so I'll leave you with this little piece. Patches don't get more punk rock than this.

join the revolution sisters!

2007-12-15T18:43:00.001+01:00

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, is one of the funniest men alive. He probably doesn't know it himself, but if you look at this list of quotes, you'll understand what I mean. The best part of this quote is of course that when you think about it, he's actually not that wrong... iId say that he's captured the essens of feminism with this, even though I'm still a bit confused by the witchcraft part.

reclaim the street (art)

2007-12-05T19:21:00.001+01:00

I'm guessing that you all know of Banksy, so I won't bore you with the details. It's another just-for-fun-project that I've planned since I started cross stitching. Had a lot of trouble getting the pattern right when I tried to do it att Dark Lilac's chart generator, But then I found this free one at Fuldesign. Since I don't have a printer I had to copy it by hand from the PC screen, so the finished piece is not exactly the same as the pattern... just almost.

I promise that I'll get something a bit more original to show you in the near future...

blogger, we have a problem

2007-12-02T14:14:00.003+01:00

Can someone please tell me what I've done wrong with the uploding of the last two photos? Or is it just me that gets the "save/open question" when I click on them, instead of a link to the page with the photo?

when in doubt, just ask yourself; what would buffy do?

2007-12-02T13:57:00.002+01:00

The first in a series of the carachters from BtVS. I found the stencil for it at Outlines of a revolution, that has a lot of stencils that are pretty easy to make into cross stitch patterns (& even easier if you use the chart generator at Dark lilac). Now i'm just looking for suitable portraits for the rest of the scooby gang...

& once again, thanks to Radical Cross Stitch for the useful links.

crazy cat lady

2007-11-30T12:35:00.002+01:00

A birthday gift for a friend, that took me about two months to finish due to all the detail of the cats. But I think it turned out really cute... The quote (in english: "I don't know any nice people so the cats are good enough company") comes from a documentary about "animal collectors", socialy disfunctional people who fill their lives (& homes) with animals, most commonly cats or dogs.

so this is christmas & what have you done?

2007-11-29T17:11:00.002+01:00

It's almost december again & that means Christmas for a lot of people. & these days Christmas = consumption for the greater part of the Western world. Last year the average swede spent 3000 skr (about 315 euro) on christmas gifts. Many of the things that were bought for this money were made in sweat shops in the third world, by workers deprived of their basic human rights.

I think it's time that we take a step back & look at the jolly season for what it is - a time for sensless spending of money we don't have, on things that we don't need. What we need is to realize that the way we live, eat & shop is based upon the work of others & that it's time to pay the real price for it. So, I'm thinking that this year I'm at least gonna try to make an effort, by creating my own gifts (guess what, haha), giving gifts that are activating in some way or buy them att the fair trade market En schysst jul! that takes place at ABF-huset, Stockholm 8-9 of december. I think you should too.

it's my strike & i'll cross stitch if i want to

2007-11-28T21:42:00.002+01:00

Well, this is really therapy cross stitching... I did it in response to the last months conflicts & strike at the place where I work. The quote comes from Against me! & sort of sums up my view of how my bosses are acting right now. It feels sad & upsetting at the same time, that people involved in the animal rights movement, who themselves constantly are being ridiculed, questioned & seen as "anti-democratic" because of a political standpoint, can use the same type of accusations & name calling when it comes to other situations.

pretty boys make pretty graves

2007-11-28T11:45:00.002+01:00

This is the master piece! It's one of my first ones & I love it. The quote comes from Nirvana's song Serve the servants. I've been a Nirvana fan(atic) since I was about thirteen & always loved the humour behind these lines as they start off In Utero, the album after Nevermind - which really paid off well for Kurt.

The chart/pattern comes from a shop close to Mariatorget in Stockholm, the only thing I changed about it was the text.