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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.