There used to be a convenience store on that corner where the construction machinery and builders’ barracks stand right now. Apparently it wasn’t a real building but one of those removable ones that you lift with a crane onto a giant truck and suddenly it’s not there any more.

More apartments are being built in various places in Spånga, and I’m sure they’re making room for another one here.

Several large buildings with student apartments have been built (and more are on the way) in the other direction, and another one a few hundred metres to my left. And the buildings behind that tall one (barely visible at the right edge of the photo) got two storeys added to the top a few years ago; that’s why they’re a different colour.

Cherry blossoms, down at central Spånga…


… and pink hepatica flowers in a little grove nearby.

My current embroidery project is a glasses case. I don’t need my glasses often at all but they still deserve a nice case.

The starting point was a technique I saw posted on Instagram, called stacked running stitch. It looks like satin stitch at first glance, but builds up very differently. Instead of making one branch at a time, the yarn goes all the way across the motif, building up all the branches simultaneously, a millimetre at a time.

Instead of something purely abstract, I did the stitching in the shape of a coral.

It sounded interesting, and was definitely interesting to work with. It took a lot more concentration than I had thought. The running stitches had to be kept straight (probably easier on a fabric with visible threads) or the lines would start to lean or curve. And I also had to think about the branching all the time, to make sure they didn’t run into each other, or all end at the same time, or all split at the same time.

The end result is perhaps technically impressive rather than beautiful. It was an interesting experiment, though. I think it might have worked better for a purely abstract design after all.

The motif on the rear is also a coral, but a quick and simple one in feather stitch. In all its simplicity I think it looks better than the laborious one on the front.

Bushes and perennials that take a long time to wake in spring make me anxious. The buds on some bushes are barely visible, while others have new leaves the size of a finger joint. Some perennials are already knee-high, but others haven’t even broken through the crust of the soil. It makes me worry that maybe they’ve died over the winter.

In my eternal project of removing lawn and replacing it with better things, I’ve now tackled the bit just in front of the house, to the right of the stairs. It’s a hassle to mow, with rocks peeking out of the ground along the edges as well as a large rock just at the corner. And it’s really boring to look at. For a spot that we walk past every time we come home, it really isn’t well utilized.

First step: remove the lawn. I was expecting this to be relatively arduous, based on past experience. The soil here turned out to be light and dry, not at all like the clay to the left of the stairs, and the grass is thin and weak. So I got all this done much faster than I had thought.

Next step: figure out what to plant. I had this spot marked as deep shade in my head, but it was full sun while I was digging this afternoon. But of course that’s because the cherry tree is bare right now, and will change in just a few weeks.

The older I get, the pickier I get. Or perhaps more charitably, the better I know my own likes and dislikes.

I’ve been trying to buy new everyday summer dresses for several years, but can’t find anything that’s to my liking. All I want is simple sleeveless knee-length dresses in cotton jersey, with a minimum of fuss. No ruffles, gathers, drapes, panels, cutouts or anything. When the weather is hot and I’m all sweaty, I want no extra seams touching me. But the current fashion is all about fussy details, and besides, jersey dresses currently tend to either be mini-short or maxi-long.

I’ve got two comfy home dresses that I actually like, both about 10 years old. In desperation I’ve bought two others – because it’s hard to get through a hot summer with just two – but they’ve both got scratchy “stuff” so I only end up wearing them in emergencies.

As usual, necessity is the mother of crafting. I bought several bolts of nice jersey fabric at the crafts fair in February, as well as some basic dress patterns.

I haven’t really sewn much clothing before. Plenty of curtains, sofa cushions, dress-up costumes etc, but nothing that actually needs to fit. One can get away with all sorts of hacks and shortcuts when sewing a wizard hat in polar fleece – but not with a dress.

The pattern looked like the clothing patterns I remember my mum tracing from Burda Moden magazines in the 1980s. Except the Burda pattern sheets had tens of items all on the same sheet, so you had to trace the ones you wanted, whereas these modern ones are apparently meant for single use. I couldn’t make myself cut up my pattern, though – because what if I want a different size or something – so I traced it onto some old plastic shopping bags.

The scary thing about sewing, as compared to knitting for example, is that once you cut, you can’t undo it. With knitting you can just rip it up and reuse the yarn, but that doesn’t really work with fabric. I like my undo buttons.

To properly sew in jersey you’re supposed to use an overlocker, rather than an ordinary sewing machine, but I’m not going to spend thousands of kronor on a sewing machine when what we have works perfectly fine. I just zig-zagged everything. The seams don’t look as professional as overlocked ones, but they’re stretchy enough to be functional, and nobody is going to inspect my seams up close.

Getting a basic dress cut out and assembled – two short shoulder seams, two long side seams – took a couple of hours. And then all the hemming and finishing took the same again. The pattern even had neckline banding. The whole thing came out looking pretty smart.

I couldn’t think of a good way to photograph the finished thing, so I’ll have to take a selfie of me wearing it when it’s warm enough.

PS: The blog archives remind me that I have actually sewn two skirts.

Winter gravel has been cleared from many streets in central Spånga, but ours is clearly not prioritized yet. The street sweepers have reached the beginning of our hill but decided to turn back. Hopefully it’ll be our turn in a few more days.

For the sake of this backpack, I learned how to repair nylon coil zippers, when the stitching attaching the coil to the zipper tape wears out.

There’s nothing particularly special about the backpack. I got it for free when I joined tretton37, five and a half years ago. Since then I’ve gotten a new, more stylish bag, on which the zippers actually close without any need for mending. But I don’t want to switch. The bag is tied up with my daily habits, and changing my habits would be a bother.

The bottom is just the right size to fit one of my standard lunch boxes. My mousepad fits perfectly against the back. There is a perfect pocket for small stuff I always want with me (charging cable, pen, handkerchief, etc).

Also, by now it’s almost one of a kind. When I first got it, I could count on seeing dozens of similar bags at any tretton37 event, which made finding mine in the line-up a bit of a hassle. Now most people have switched to the new model, so mine stands out again.