Saturday 23 June 2012

Midsummer flowers and unfinished business with my Grandmother

Today is Midsummer Day here, as most public holidays have been moved to weekend. The old Midsummer Day was June 25th. We didn't celebrate much, but we have fresh potatoes with butter and dill, herring and warm smoked ham for lunch. It is something you need to taste up here to understand why it is delicious and special. It is our favourite summer meal for the next month or so!

My irises are in bloom:


And the lupins by the road:


Ranunculus by the steps in the garden:


Phox subulata in pink and white:


And the early peonies:



We had our windows replaced this week and hope to get the builders back next week to finish the inside and weatherboards. I was hoping to get clean windows when I get new windows, but it looks like I have to clean these after all. Anyway, it will only be four surfaces instead of the six I had in the old ones. The new windowsills will be smaller than the old ones. We need to find a way to keep my pot plants happy with sufficient light.




On Wednesday I met with a friend from my student times. She lives in Germany but her family is from this area and we have met a couple of times while she is here. I made her an eye glass/phone pocket in a bright Marimekko fabric with Winnie the Pooh design.


Kaite has challenged me to use my tiny ends of wool yarn to make a blanket over a long period of time, and here is what I'm going to start with:


While I was digging in my bags and boxes for those yarns, I found these two unfinished mittens:



They are both from my Grandmother, who used to keep all her grandchildren well stashed with socks, mittens, hats, sweaters and even dresses she knitted. I have kept these two so I can copy her pattern and use it. I know I have used the pattern on the right for some mittens for my own children but never wrote it down. The one on the left is knitted on regular needles up to the end of the pattern. I will let you know if I can figure out how she made it.

13 comments:

  1. Hyvää juhannusta ja uudet perunat kuuluvat myös meidän juhannukseen. Ihanan kesäistä myös siellä näyttää olevan!

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  2. the meal you had sounds great! And what lovely flowers in your garden.
    LOVE the little case you made. Such pretty fabric.
    And what a fun challenge. That will keep you busy over the years to come.
    Wow, your grandmother made lovely mittens. Not just simple ones ...
    Have a lovely weekend.

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  3. Happy Mid-Summer! Here we have rain rain and rain with a lot of flooding nearby. We are fine fortunately.

    Your special meal sounds lovely.

    I hope you had a wonderful time with your friend. I'm sure she liked the phone pocket.

    Good luck with your challenge. I managed to use my ball ends with multi coloured baby booties.

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  4. Good luck with the knitting and figuring out your grandmother's patterns. My mother used up bits of yarn and made colourful blankets in crochet. Looks like your summer is beginning to get very colourful with all the flowers.

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  5. Such pretty flowers! Thanks for sharing your pictures.
    What a sweet story about your Grandma. I'd love to know how she made the mitten on the left. My very first knitted project was a pair of mittens. I wore those for many years. Thanks for that memory.
    Hugs

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  6. Warm woolen mittens...I'm singing "these are a few of my favorite things" from Sound of Music. Beautiful flowers. It's always fun to meet with a friend. That is an adorable little bag you made her. Happy knitting.

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  7. Thanks for sharing your Mid Summer traditions...sounds wonderful!!
    P

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  8. Beautiful to see your flowers Ulla, we have most of them in Summer also. How lovely to have Grandma's mittens to finish, so special.

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  9. Great garden photos, there is still no heat but we need to get out in open air any way..
    I have been out walking today with small rain in the air, love it !

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  10. Your garden is fabulous, Ulla! It must be so nice to see all that color after so much white snow! Hooray for your new windows. We did that as well and it really makes a difference in the winter cold! What a great idea for your yarn scraps. If you can't figure out how to finish the mittens, you can just add that yarn to your scrap blanket!
    Cheers!

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  11. Lovely flowers,so nice to see the sharp colours,what a nice garden!
    MidSummer Night is on June 23,but as it rained so much hardly anybody outside in my part of Oslo. Good luck with the mittens:-)

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  12. What beautiful flowers, I love peonies, although I've not had too much luck with them. My neighbor has beautiful ones that I envy. I'm anxious to see what you do with the scarf fabric.

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  13. Grandmother's mittens. It has been almost cold enough a few days this winter for mittens here. The patterns are lovely.

    Such nice flowers after all the snow. Enjoy the warm and light.

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