Herbert and other birds

Been super busy, learned how to treat oil spill birds, met a talking crow, few swearing parrots and some pretty cool people at the WWF oil response training last week. I don't know how global this program of theirs is, but if you have the opportunity, then definitely take part. It is both fun and useful. Last week has been pretty bird oriented in more ways than one. We discovered a woodpecker that is nesting in the tree outside our window. He was named Herbert (dont ask..) but it turns out he might be a she so I guess it's now Herbertina. Hoping for some Herbertlets later this summer.

On a random DIY note: a rescue lamp:

My brother was moving into a new flat and someone had left this lampshade there. Instead of throwing it out, I spraypainted it and added all of my leftover useless trinkets into it. If only we had a place for it now :P

I am very fortunate to live right nextdoor to a second hand shop (or unfortunate if you think of it from a financial point of view...), which I visit about once a week. Usually I never actually buy anything, but it's nice to spend time there wondering if I could make something out of the old rags and rubbish they sell. However, few days ago I got very lucky and found a vintage suitcase, which was promtly made into a nest for Angus.

He's a happy little monster.

Much cheaper and prettier than some tacky bed from a pet shop.

This saturday I am finally learning how to dye wool with plants. I have found a sort of organic farm outside of Turku that organizes courses. In preparation I have been spinning like mad in order to have something worth dyeing. More about the results of that soon!

Oniontea! Let it burn into your retinas and live there forever!

That's right. This blog is experiencing some repair-works, because I got so bored with the sedate old me. I want this to be full of vim and vibrancy which is why the background also looks like an epileptic fit.


I had a scary moment the other day, because I was googling onion tea (as you do..) and discovered that a LOT of the images and links that turn up are from this blog. I seem to have stumbled onto something original with the name at least... Anyway, now I have to accept that as a blogger, I have a certain kind of responsibility to pay more attention to what I put in here, as well as keep a tighter control over my own privacy in this sell-people's-personal-information-for-money kind of world. Not that I ever publish anything that is worth a glance let alone a penny..

This means that the definition of Oniontea will probably change and hopefully become a bit clearer. Also the purpose is to become more interactive, actually exposing the process of making stuff and less ranty about my personal things. I will also try to stick to a few main themes, these being mainly textiles, art, and general treehuggerism. Recycling will become a big thing, because I have recently spent lots of time online avoiding work and discovered huge amounts of DIY projects made mostly out of rubbish (Here's a fantastic blog about trashion and here is another one!). It is just so unbelievably cool how much you can make out of the most random bits of crap.

On that note, here are a couple of knitting projects I have finally managed to complete!

Winter Thaw shawl, pattern by Beata Jezek

This was so much fun to make because at no point did it start to feel repetitive. I think yarn over is my favourite stitch, because it enables knitting of very spider web like lace. Completing this shawl made me feel that I am now ready to design my own project with lots of yarn overs.

It was mum’s birthday and she had pointed this design out in an Estonian knitting magazine. Of course I then had to make it. I completely underestimated the amount yarn the pattern requires, so I ended up using every ball and skein of red I could find in my home. Still it turned out pretty good.

More things and stuff soon!

Getting my hands dirty.

I recently watched this inspiring talk online:

On the importance of passions rather than interests

I have been thinking that I am no longer willing to sell my time for the highest bidder, unless it involves doing something I really can lose myself in. Office work just doesn't cut it anymore. I have discovered that my passions (sorry I lack the ability to come up with a less "american" word for it...) cannot be described as, "biology" or "art", but rather as the focus of mind and sense of abandon that comes from things like drilling a hole in the ice of a lake in pursuit of a water sample, or the feeling you get when tearing down huge chunks of wallpaper, or digging around in my mothers garden without worry of getting dirt under my fingernails, or painting on a reaaaally large canvas with a huge brush, or the hypnotizing effect of spinning wool, or.....

So I think I will narrow down my search of the perfect "career" on whether I can get my hands dirty or not.

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Soon there will be a post about knitting, because I am actually about to finish a project. Hurray!

Still obsessing about it.

All hail the mighty EOS.

dyetiedity's photostream on Flickr.

I bought myself a new and much wanted digital camera and of course I had to test it out on the cats. Angus turns out to be far more photogenic than Dio, but I am sure there will be endless quantities of photos from this mad cat woman...

Exhaustion

Been such a busy week that I have barely had enough time to work on my projects, let alone sleep. I've started my internship and it takes up most of my day and energy so I am finding it difficult to do anything other than collapse on the sofa when I get home. I need to find non-caffeine related energy boosters. Trying herbal teas at the moment, but I am finding that they just taste really nice rather than wake me up. I guess my tiredness also has something to do with the work..they've got me updating databases and doing excel graphs all day so my brain kind of shuts down. If nothing else, I have discovered that whatever I end up doing for a living, it has to be challenging and require some level of creativity in order to hold my interest.

Anyway, I have tried to push myself despite my exhaustion and it has been fruitful. I feel very proud to say that I have also done some volunteer work, which I enjoyed tremendously, so I think there will be more of that in the coming weeks. I help out by working a few hours at the local hippie cafe, and it turns out that washing dishes and learning how to work the cash register is much more fun than inputting numbers into excel. Maybe I'm not supposed to be anything amazingly academic. Maybe I would be happiest serving coffee and buns to people. Can't say yet.

I have several new knitting and spinning projects underway, which is largely due to a massive yarn shopping trip I did a week ago. Bought a scandalous amount of yarn from the most beautiful place on earth (largest yarn shop in Scandinavia).

Just look at the colours in those bad boys. 

As for my monthly challenge, it is going well and I have stayed away from meat and tried various alternatives for dairy. My current favourite foods are red lentils and barley (makes a great alternative for rice, since it's grown over here, thus having a much smaller carbon footprint). But I will blog more extensively about that later. Will drink some more coffee and get knitting.

Excited about WHOOL!!

Yes, whool. Finnish sheep whoool in fact:

I'd estimate that this is about 1 or 2 sheepfuls of the stuff drying in our sauna (that is the correct SI unit for whool. I don't care if scientists claim otherwise).

I had just enough time to travel up north to see my gran who has the knowledge and now also the material for me to work with, before my work placement internship thingy starts (tomorrow). This means that I will be more or less bound to Turku for the next 6 months.

I still left about 3 more sheepfuls for my gran to work on, because she has suddenly developed a keen interest in remembering how to card and spin. I also tried carding and ordered some beautiful new gear from a wee town called Toijala. Eagerly checking the mail for the next week..

Because the wool is still in its "raw" state and full of grease, gunk, poo, etc. it has to be washed, either before carding or after the yarn has been spun. I've chosen to wash it before, because I want to make sure that I get rid of as much of the gunk as possible, since I want to keep my carders clean and also dye the yarn later. I'd heard a lot about problems with the washing process, because this stuff felts really easily. I just finished my first test batch and I think I've got the hang of it. Just soak it in body temperature soapy water (I used dish washing up liquid) for about an hour, rinse a couple of times (not under running water!) and try not to handle the wool too much while it's in the water and ta-daa! Non-greasy, poo-less and spin-ready material! Cannot wait for my new hand carders to arrive.

Batch on the left has been washed and stuff on the right has not been washed. Pretty clear difference and the clean stuff also smells a lot less like sheep.

I am such a geek :P