Baby Boom

 This summer  has been one of small sewing and knitting projects. A real baby boom has taken me by surprise, eight new Unicef dolls have come to this world during the time my sewing room has been the coolest and most pleasant place in the house. You have seen Orvokki, the nurse, in June, and Tiina, Anni and Nelli earlier in July. After them came Karoliina in her flower frock and apron,

and Satu  wearing a baby corduroy dress and flowers in her hair.

Siiri is a sporty one. I tested my skills on an Icelandic/Norwegian style sweater for her, as they are very popular here now. People have time for bigger knitting projects while the Covid-19 restrictions continue. This was my first attempt, almost OK.

Ronja is wearing the second sweater I knitted, and here I succeeded with both the shaping and the colours better.

Here is the whole lot of them. The two on the left have already found a home through my sister, and the remaining two will join the other dolls at Villa Cooper. I hope they will find permanent homes soon too.

Now I have used all the identity cards I had from Unicef for the dolls and will have to wait a little to get more. Ideas for new dolls are already jotted down in my notebook.

New Quilt

My new quilt is now finished and hanging on the wall.

The living room floor level is five steps higher than the floor here, so the wall is very high.

Close up showing the light grey binding. I wanted the wall hanging to look like it has always been there, not popping out in any way.

I picked the colours from this painting in the same room. Taking photos against the windows is challenging!

The hot weather is challenging too. I'm waiting for some rain and cooler weather. Just for a change, not for weeks to come. 

School project revisited, new dolls

When we moved house last year, I came across some special notes from school days. When I was 12 or 13 years old we knitted a pair of socks in the handicraft class. (We learn to knit a potholder when we are 8, to knit and purl and knit in the round to make mittens when we are 10.) Here are my notes about making the heel, which is for many knitters the trickiest part.

We also learned to knit cables and simple lace patterns, and after making this sampler we could select our personal favourite for our own pair of socks.

I chose the simple lace pattern. As you can see, I liked the socks and wore them out.

I decided to try my notes and knit a similar pair using modern yarn.

Funnily enough, my notes didn't mention how many stitches to cast on (I figured it out from the heel instructions), nor how many stitches' repeat each pattern was. It looks like the teacher took it for granted that everyone knows how to knit a basic sock! I decided to knit the new socks in a child's size. Here they are before damp stretching.

While at the pink yarn, I knitted a simple striped pair in a woman's size.

And then I used up the beige rest from those stripes, and a brown rest yarn with an orange rest.

I ought to have chosen a smaller size, because I had not enough of the orange so I had to buy some more. So now I'm sitting here with with about 80 grams of orange yarn, not enough for a normal pair of socks. Need to dig in my yarn stash and look for stripe yarn again.

The ground floor where my sewing machine is, is the coolest place in the house. I have been spending time there too, making new dolls for Unicef. The adoption fee of each doll will guarantee the vital vaccinations for one real child. Meet the new group of three:

Tiina is a 12 year old sporty girl from the 1950's, loves cross-country skiing and swimming in the lake.

Anni loves wearing her "almost princess" dress and thinks long curly hair is overrated.

Nelli loves flowers and strawberries and other girly things.

I hope they will soon find new homes. I hope I will soon have new ideas for new dolls!