Þrjóska eða klikkun að gera við flíkur, staga og bæta þær?
Það er spurning nú átímum í heimi ofneyslu og að sama skapa ógurlegs ruslarferlíkis þar sem á ekki svo löngum tíma hafa menn tamið sér að kaupa flík í búð, nota hana nokkrum sinnum og henda henni ef á henni sér, eða án þess að nokkuð sjái á henni. Kaupa svo nýjar jafn endingarlitlar flíkur.  
Það er ekki mjög langt síðan að það að gera við flíkur oftar en einu sinni þótti sjálfsagður hlutur. Sænska tímaritið Hemslöjd hefur mikið fjallað um neysluhyggju og offramleiðslu mannkyns. Þar var ein grein sem fjallaði um síðu nærbuxur karls eins á 19. öld. Þær voru stagaðar og bættar út í eitt. Hið áhugaverða var að karl þessi var ekki fátækur heldur í góðum efnum og átti virkilega fínar flíkur. En það þótti bara sjálfsagt að gera við flíkur.
Allt var unnið í höndunum og þar af leiðandi þekktu flestir í samfélögunum hvað flíkur kostuðu: Kind>rúningur >ull>þvottur>tóvinna>vefnaður>saumaskapur>flík.
Flíkur voru oftast framleiddar á heimilunum af heimilisfólki eða af þar til fengnum sérfræðingum t.d. komu vefarar eða skraddarar og saumakonur á heimilin og unnu sín verk. 
Flíkur eru orðnar ódýrar vörur  framleiddar í  vélum og þrælum. Mottóið er að framleiða og græða sem mest á  fjöldaframleiddum flíkum sem bera brennimerki (brand) einhvers þekkts hönnuðar þannig að neytandi lætur glepjas.  Þeir sem eru efst í fatatísku pýramídanum fá fúlgur í sinn vasa en hinir sem eru neðst fá sama sem ekki neitt.  

Flíkina á myndinni keypti ég á flóamarkaði fyrir nokkrum árum síðan. Var svo óheppin að mér tókst að gera gat framan á henni. Gerði við hana sem hægt er að sjá hér.
Svo rifnaði blússan  meira, ég hafði asnast til að halla mér upp að eldhúsbekknum þegar ég var að  brytja rabbabara. Að þessu sinni klippti ég neðan af henni og bætti hana með heilum bútum úr hálfslitinn silkiblússu. Blússan er aftur nothæf. 
Við eigum sífellt að bæta flíkur okkar til að berjast gegn ofgnótt. 

I am a constant mender of clothes. The blouse in the picture was bought in a flea market a few years ago. I managed to make holes on the front of it so I mended it as you can see here . But then I managed to tear the front again when I was cutting rhubarb last summer. Now I decided to cut off the lower part of the blouse and add to it the whole parts of an old worn out silk blouse. And voila, not too  bad. 
Not so long ago, less than a century, it was obvious that if a garment got torn and worn it was mended, not thrown away or given to charity as a pacifier as today. As long a garments were made at home more or less people were more aware of the real value of garments. Sheep>wool>shearing>washing>wool work>spinning>weaving>sewing.
Today there is simply an overflow of garments coming out of the textile industry where slavery thrives and it is the source of  pollution and massive heaps of trash in all societies.
​We have to be constant menders to fight this overflow. 

Fire within the basalt was my thought and so the woven piece I made in 1996. Already then I was  preoccupied with waste and pollution as I still am. The difference is that in those days people thought I was a mad pessimist but now they have learned to understand that what I knew then was correct. (I am boasting of being smart, of course ;)
I have learned a lot since then and hopefully matured a bit. Sometimes when reminiscing I feel I haven't changed at all and react and do things as before. But in some cases I realize that I wouldn't have been able to tackle certain situations then as I do now. Some progress made.
People often say they have changed for better or worse depending on the person. I wonder if people change at all, well some get hit in the head and actually their character changes but that is another story. Of course I can only speak for myself and some maturity has taken place. But I still think this ragrug is rather alright. 

I have chosen to weave with rags and use that medium to create art. Some of my pieces are hung on the wall others have been put on the floor or offered to a dog to sleep on. 
No matter where these pieces are today they are all united in the need and joy to create. Every one of them took their time to revolve inside my mind and then emerge as an idea that needed to be pondered and turned until I saw it fit to start the process of rigging the loom and beating the rags into the warp to realize my idea and narrative in a rag-rug.
The material is vital, the discarded garments of friends and relatives, something that will be thrown away of shredded elsewhere on the planet earth to make whatever they make of old rags. 
I have believed that I am doing something wise and not using any new stuff (apart from the warp)  to create art and by my means relating the subject of waste to the audience be that an art lover or a dog lover. I have put crativity and love into my pieces believing that will be carried by the rugs. But my vision is tottering as I have realized that I am part of the world manufacturing, though on small scale. 
There has been considerable amount of news, media programmes, discussions and so forth about waste of material, waste of food, waste of human resources, waste of product, waste of energy in all contexts and a huge waste of time. 
Human beings waste too much time in figuring out how to produce more, to sell more and to gain more stuff that already exists and therefor wasting a lot of time convincing other humans that they are obliged to by the newest designs, hottest devices and coolest items in order to be real humans that others think highly off. 
This is a total madness and I am convinced that this rat race is the humans' slow but steady suicide. The planet earth is probably better off without us cool and hot beings that are preoccupied with pumping the inside of the earth out claiming it ours and  burning it away. Vain and so vain that we destroy in order to keeping up our appearances. 
All this above has made me think twice, even thrice. 
I like to create. I am pleased when it takes a while for my creations to become ready items. 
Should I stop creating in the name of sumptuous?
There are plenty of beautiful rugs around the world. I don't sell a lot of rugs as they are dire and not well branded and marketed. People rather spend their pennies on items that are more famous due to good marketing, advertising, and behold, branding! Items that can be more expensive and their existence based on slavery, pollution and corporations full of greed whose aim is to make more money to make the world go around according to their wishes. Sod the human race apart from the ones who believe in fashion, style and shopping.
Even if my manufacturing of rag-rugs is small I still  feel bad about making stuff that people don't feel the urge to by even if the product is rather environmentally friendly and on a small scale. 
The human world is so full of waste that it scares me. I think we will drown in our own stuff sooner or late. There is plenty already, a lot of old solid stuff that could be used for generations with good care in contradiction to a lot of the stuff that is being created these days and hardly survive a year due to poor manufacturing and splendid branding and marketing.

Gálgaprjón er ekki gleymt, ekki búið að vera og heldur áfram af fullum krafti. Nú þarf að klára síðustu 50 metrana! ég er komin með 3- 4 núna.  Ef einhver vill leggja hönd á prjón þá er hægt að fá lánaða prjóna nr 9 hjá mér. 
Síðan þarf bara að kaupa 2 hespur af lopa nr 9983 og 1231, fitja upp 21 lykkju og hefja prjónaskapinn. 
Í dag prjónaði ég við Gullfoss með anda Sigríðar frá Brattholti. 



Gáglaknit was performed today at Gullfoss with the spirit of Sigríður from Brattholt.


Hann mældist 160 m! Þökk sé Sesselju Guðmundsdóttur, Marítu Garðarsson og Guðrúnu Lovísu Magnúsdóttur mældist trefillinn í gær 160 metrar. 50 metra vantar uppá til að hann sé 210 m í minningu viðburðanna í Gálgahrauni 21. október 2013.
Fleiri myndir bráðlega á blogginu.
It measured 160 m thanks to Sesselju Guðmundsdóttir, Maríta Garðarsson og Guðrúnu Lovísu Magnúsdóttir still 50 m to go to commemorate what happened on October 21st 2013 in Gálgahraun.

Hér verður prjónað 19. júní og trefillinn mældur.

Hér eru nokkrar myndir frá ósköpunum í október og  úr Gálgaprjóni vetrarins.

Spring is here! This year I find it almost unbelievable that it really is so. As age proceeds time seems to gain more speed with every week I live. It seems it was autumn just a week ago. But oh the colours the colours of the preciously frail spring. I have set them in a strict pattern but the colours are softly lingering on. Combination of the strict and the free. I have not had time to organize a Gálgaknit event this month that will be over tomorrow when we embrace 1st of May. But Gálgaknit will be there where it is needed sooner or later.
The blasted road is where it is now. Strange however how conveniently the road is in the part of the Lava where it is now called Garðahraun or Garðalava. Authorities have their ways. 

Tommorrow on the FIRST of May will be a green and red march that begins at Hlemmur in Reykjavik and proceeds down Laugavegur to Ingolfstorg and the green part will end on Austurvöllur where we shall plant thousands of green flags. 

More here about the march

Þegar aldurinn færist yfir þá líður tíminn hraðar með hverri viku sem líður í lífinu. Mér finnst eins og eingöngu sé liðin vika frá því að það haustaði. En þessir stórkostlegu litir vorsins.  Ég er með skarpt mynstur í vefnum en á móti eru mjúkir litir vorsins sem að síga áfram í dreglinum. Það hefur ekki orðið mikið úr Gálgaprjóni upp á síðkastið vegna anna annar staðar sem hafa verið skemmtilega og nytsamlegar annir.

 En Gálgaprjón á eftir að mæta þar sem þess er þörf. Bévítans Krimmvegurinn í Gálgahrauni er kominn. Merkilegt að það skuli hafa verið svo hentugt vegstæði akkúrat þar sem að yfirvöld kjósa að hraunið heiti Garðahraun. 

Á morgun er 1. maí og mun gangan vera rauð og græn að þessu sinni. Hefst við Hlemm og áfram niður Laugaveg að Ingólfstorgi. Grænu göngunni lýkur á Austurvelli þar sem þúsund flöggum grænum verður stungið  niður. 
Meira hér um gönguna

The long long scarf is long thanks to all the participants who have knitted at home or knitted on site. 
Marvelous how many have participated! 
Þökk sé öllum þeim sem hafa prjónað heima og þeim sem hafa mætt á staðinn og prjónað er trefillinn orðinn langur. 

More images here
Meiri myndir

Making a nature protection scarf is a heavy duty job. Some great pics from the latest Gálgaknit meeting in Gálgahraun lava field March 23rd. More soon 
Að prjóna náttúrverndartrefil er ekki létt verk.  Frábærar myndir frá seinasta fundi Gálgaprjóns í Gálgahrauni 23. mars. Brátt koma fleiri.