Fashion trend SS2012 pastels and my new scarf

I made a new shibori scarf after a loooong time, inspired by the beutiful pastel hues that are so trendy for this spring/summer season!

Pretty pastel hues popped up all over the Spring runways from many designers such as 

Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Issey Miuake, Carolina Herrera, Versace and Valenitno. 

I  love this feminine color palette – lavender, mint green, candy pink, saturated coral, light yellow and sky blue !

 The upside for this trend is that it's both pretty and appropriate for the season. The downside for petites is that light colors tend to visually add bulk.  For those who still want to wear pastels, but don't look their best in pastel clothing, it would be easy to add a touch of light color with pastel fashion accessories, such as a pastel handbag, a bag or jewelry in pastel hues.

The shibori technique

After the lovely comments on my first shibori scarf -thank you all so much-, I thought to write a liitle about this art.

 Shibori is an ancient Japanese art and has many interpretations. It essentially denotes shaped resist textile, and is commonly associated with dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing it.

It is utilized in knitting and felting, for transformative knitting, either by the use of physical resists (marbles, corks, hazelnuts) that prevent specific areas of knitting from felting, creating unique fabric with bobbles and dimensionality, or by the use of non felting fibers as resists, for example a silk yarn with a wool yarn.

 

  

  

 

ΑtticaSos & Mater Matrix Mother and Medium

Almost two months I have not posted anything in my poor little blog! I admit that I was not in the mood to sit in front from the computer this interval. The overloaded July from work in the office, the heat and laziness of August, kept me far from net! Now however that fall is here and the days are cooler and the first raindrops fell, I'm starting to get organized again! Beginning a first surfing in the net, I found yesterday a splendid initiative for the reforestation of Attica, from Manya Maratou! I copy from the blog:

Attica Sos

The wildfire that has swept over the land northeast of Athens, Greece, raging from Friday 21st August until Monday 24 devastated forests and homes, burning more than 23500 hectares. This blog, published in English and Greek shall be the meeting point for all that are interested in the project ART FOR TREES, a call for the donation of works of art to be sold at an exhibition to raise funds for the reforestation of the area. The idea was sparked by the passionate response of jasmine of natureswhispers to the news of the fire.

The organization that will be hosting the event is the Folklore museum of Varnavas who are situated in the area and have a long history of actions for the environment and the community, including clearing of rubbish and dry plant matter in the forest by volunteers, planting of more than 3000 native trees in the past three years and many environmental educational programs for schoolchildren. I will be posting more about the museum and the event later.
I will also be posting photographs of the works as they arrive, press releases, and when the time comes videos and photos of the events. Also I will post about the area, the wildlife, environment and plants and its importance for the city of Athens.

Works should be sent to po box 66, Marathon, 19007, Attiki, Greece c/o Manya Maratou

And while here we burn our forests, in another corner of the world they are used for cultural purposes:

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium is a process-based temporary public art installation by Seattle-based installation artist Mandy Greer. Τhe project is an installation woven into the trees of Seattle's urban forest, a 200-foot-long Fiber River, and the embodiment of that river in a performance, later this summer, by visionary choreographer and dancer Zoe Scofield.

This new work is commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art Funds, and administered by Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, as a way to celebrate and interpret the splendor of Seattle's urban creeks and encourage community involvement in the stewardship of our essential watersheds.

Fairies

I went yesterday to a seminar held by my good friend Sofie Vamvaka at Kangaroo, for fairy making. I had attented this seminar again in the past, but I didn't take notes and I forgot how we make them, hense "the epanalipsis mother of all knowledge"! We made lovely fairies and enjoyed it very much (I took notes this time ;)



These are Ioulia's creations





The two last ones are my creations. I have not finished the black-white one yet, I want to stitch stars on her dress.

This week’s creations

The cool and rainy weather of the last days inspired me to knit and craft a lot. I starting a capelet for the weekly challenge "minimalism", but didn't finish it on time, so I made these simple felt bangles.

And since I started working with felt, I made these cute pins.

The winner of the challenge was Matilou, and she chose the next theme, which is : "revival"
I searched my stash and found a piece of lovely multicolor yarn, that was a leftover from a scarf and I gave it life, making a pair or cabled gauntlets J

In the meantime, I finished the capelet with the chunky Colinette yarn:

And now I'm knitting a scarf with several grey, white and black yarns J