An Estonian girl who has found a home in Sweden.

Monday, May 17

May 17, 2004 Posted by Vaire

Today is Monday and on Wednesday we are leaving for Double Wars. And I'm well again.

No knitting but some braiding and sewing to tell you about. I was counting on wearing my 15th century outfits, but I've gained a size and the blasted industrial washing machine downstairs* shrunk the dresses since the last time I wore them. Either one I could have dealt with, but not both together. So what's a girl to do? My Estonian peasant persona came to rescue and I'm a new owner of one frock ca 1200. Thank goodness for peasants and their simple clothes that are fast to make.

I've been playing with the braiding technique, but I need to play some more before there is enough to show.

* One of the Swedish things I really like is a "tvättstuga", a laundry room in apartment buildings. Every tenant can use the washers and dryers for free. (Well, not really for free, it's in the rent, but you don't pay per use.) A very nice arrangement if your apartment can't even acommodate a miniature washer.

The only problem I have is of calibration. The industrial machines shrink clothes more than my washer in Estonia used to and I'm used to my mashine. Modern clothes are no big deal, but the 15th century dresses are very form-fitting with no room for shrinking. I had prewashed all my fabric in Estonia to shrink it before sewing, but it seems that I need to wash everything again or face the consequences. What irks me most is that I used a wool wash program to wash the dresses and they shrunk.

Oh well... I'll just make new stuff and calibrate my fabric for this mashine.