Helping Bunnies for Red Cross

As many of you know, I love to knit socks. That means many balls of yarn, and finally many tiny leftover balls of those yarns. Luckily the Finnish Red Cross has published a knitting pattern, designed by Anu Pensola, a soft toy to bring comfort to children in need. This bunny is a cousin of the Trauma Teddy from the Australian Red Cross. Currently there is a campaign to get new bunnies knitted for every child coming from Ukraine to Finland.

I happened to have all these bits of yarn just waiting for a useful purpose, so I knitted five bunnies. They are knitted in the round so only minimal seams need sewing. The bunny is stuffed through the feet left open when starting, and through the final opening between the ears.

Even a few meters of  leftover yarn were enough to make some stripes in the sweaters. The scarf has been sewed tight in the neck so it will not get lost. The knitting café Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten, is one of the places where knitters can bring their bunnies. The campaign has been running from the end of March, and on Friday when I took my bunnies to them, they had two baskets full of bunnies waiting for delivery. The campaign will last until the end of May, so there is still time to knit a bunny or three.

Before getting the idea of knitting bunnies I used some leftover yarns like they are usually used, for striped socks.

These went to Villa Cooper and the selection sold to raise money for the Red Cross. Both pairs are knitted in a finer wool and that makes them perfect for Summer use in wellies or crocs at the holiday cabin.

I don't spend all my spare time knitting, I have a soft spot for quilting as well. This month's colour in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink, and I found two suitable plaids in my cupboards. I made these six 9-patch blocks:

I wonder what the colour for May will be. I decided to keep to this 9-patch block only in this challenge. 

September's woollen knittings

At the beginning of September I met with a good friend from so many years ago as she was back in Finland from abroad, visiting family and friends. We meet almost every year here for a latte and a chat. At home she spends a lot of time in an ice skating rink so I thought she would need a pair of warm socks to protect her feet from the cold.

The pattern is Lady-in waiting by Tiina Kuu, a free pattern available in English and in Finnish. It was fun but slow to knit as I'm not used to cables and using the extra needle. It was easy to see where I was going on the pattern, but I think I will leave cables for now and keep to my trusted methods.

My next project was to create "cheerful hats" for a lady who has lost her hair in chemo treatments. I searched the Internet for inspiration and found that the beanies for little children met the requirements better than any other patterns. The Flying Mitten, Lentävä Lapanen, had this baby merino wool in strong colors, so I knitted a basic hat in adult size and added the octopus tentacles on top.

The other favorite was a fox hat. My sister's idea was to add a tail to get some volume for the back of the head. As I worked without any pattern, just the idea, both the ears and the tail needed a second version before I could sew them on. This yarn is 50/50 merino wool and cotton, warm and soft and not itchy at all.

I hope these hats will be what the lady was looking for, and help her keep her spirits up. Maybe she will put a smile on other people's faces when they meet her wearing one of these!

New kids on the blog

Finally I got my sewing machine back and these new kids got their clothes on! Instead of the usual two days my machine had to stay away for more than two weeks because a spare part took so long to arrive.

I could not show this lot dressed in just undies or jumpers. I used many small yarn rests for their jumpers. The multi coloured yarn works fine in the small garments.

The girls' dresses have zippers in the back, the jumpers have buttons on the shoulder. It looks like Pertti here below on the right has grown fast! I was sure I knitted the sleeves long enough before starting to knit in the round with the front and the back. That's teenage boys for you.

I try to find more of that funny yarn for the boys' hair, it makes hair creating easy. I just crochet in the round and sew the wig in place. These dolls will be a part of the Villa Cooper Christmas display of Good Gifts for charity.

Another finally is here:

Our daughter Kaija was here yesterday and I managed to remember to ask her to pose for the Aino 2.0 fingerless mittens pattern. The Flying Mitten will publish my pattern as a spin-off of their original Aino'S mittens pattern based on the original mittens knitted and worn by Aino Sibelius. Fingerless mittens are useful for anyone who wants to use their smartphone in cold weather.

New quilt top, last socks and this and that

Today I finished this Paper Lanterns quilt top, just ten days after starting it. It has 100 blocks like my previous one, but half of them are just plain solid squares and the others are not too complicated either.

The pattern is Stephanie's Paper Lanterns, and you can buy it here. Her version is smaller and very feminine. I wanted to make bigger blocks and a bigger quilt, so I enlarged the blocks, and I made my lanterns shine in a dark August night. - I think I can manage to quilt this one on my sewing machine.

I used all my "impossible" fabrics, large prints, almost no colour in some, and fuzzy cut some big flowers from an odd shaped leftover piece. Some of the fabrics are from my mother, corner pieces left over when she made a round tablecloth. Some are my own curtain or cushion cover rests, and many come from my sister P. The fabric in the bottom row center is from a summer frock of my dear great auntie Saima. So once again I have sewn memories of the family into my quilt.

The blue and white sock challenge for babies born in Finland this year is doing really well. Of the 56,556 pairs of sock estimated to be needed, 55,706 pairs have been delivered to maternity wards throughout the country. A few hundred pairs are still missing from the big hospitals in the metropolitan area, and it is only March. I used up all my blue and white wool yarns and finished this lot last week:

I took them to the Flying Mitten on Monday, and once again they had a basket full of socks waiting to be collected and delivered. I reached my goal of 60 pairs, and even exceeded it by one pair. This has been a fun challenge, but it is over now and I have gone back to other colours and larger socks.

Little grandson has been busy painting and drawing, and his apron needs to be washed a lot. Therefore I was asked to make another one, and as there was some material left, and the pattern was there, it only took a little while to put this together for him:

It is time to clean the bird houses again for new residents. One house had fallen down in the strong wind, and another one had a big hole after an attack by a woodpecker. Mr K. made six brand new houses, with some variation in the opening diameter so the blue tits can take the smallest ones and others can choose between the larger entrances. Our trees have their birdhouses, so the new ones were placed in the woods around us.

We can see almost all of them from the kitchen window or from the places where we drink our afternoon tea in the garden. Not yet, but when the birds are nesting.

100 finished, one lost and found

Finally the one hundred different blocks for my Splendid Sampler quilt are done. This was a tricky one but I liked the look of it:

This one, Centered, is the number 100.

I placed the blocks approximately in the numerical order and made some changes to avoid big light areas. While doing that. I misplaced the XOXO block. Couldn't find it anywhere, not on the floor, not under the rows already sewn together. Not under my table, or the ironing board. Not in the bin. The next day, no result in my search. Frustrated, I started to arrange a new row for sewing, and there it was, lurking under another block, completely hidden because the other block had the sashings on but the XOXO didn't,

I need to quilt this in two halves, and join them in the end. I hope this will work out. The two halves of my top are now finished, with borders and all.

The binding will be in the same gray as the shadow and the border.

Today Mr K. took me to the big fabric shop the get the batting and backing for this quilt. I only bought one other fabric, and it will be for my next project.

The campaign for blue and white hand knitted socks for every baby born in Finland this year is going well. Many hospitals have received their full estimate of socks needed, and the others are at least at 60 %. This week I took my newest lot of ten pairs to the Flying Mitten:

With the yarn I have left, I think I can knit five more pairs and reach up to 60 pairs.

Dozens of socks and some blocks

The new year has started with knitting projects so I thought I'll show you some progress on that front first. Remember the Blue and White Baby Socks project? Our area is doing very well, about 47% of the socks needed  have been delivered to the local hospital's maternity ward. This lot is among the socks they already received.

These I took to the Lentävä Lapanen, Flying Mitten, on Wednesday, and they had two baskets full again waiting to be collected.

For Christmas I experimented with coloured yarns and my sock variation of the Aino'S mittens. These were all gifts to friends near and far.

This funny pattern was in a magazine, and I just had to buy some of that rainbow yarn to make them exactly like in the magazine, for someone who loves rainbow colours.

The rest of the burgundy yarn was enough for a pair of socks for our grandson, and he will get a pair of mittens too.

Sock front finally dealt with, I can show the little progress I have made with the Splendid Sampler quilt blocks. I have 79 normal blocks now and 8 bonus ones finished.

We had a late breakfast today, and before that I caught the beautiful pink and blue shades in the sky opposite the almost rising sun.

Day 16

We are still at the Flying Mitten, trying to choose between tea or coffee, cake or no cake.

I just popped in to deliver my first three pairs of baby socks for the big 100th anniversary project. I got some more yarn for my knitting too ...

Day 15

The Flying Mitten, Lentävä Lapanen, has flown to a new address, Postikatu 10, Järvenpää.

Their new premises are easily accessible.

There is more space and it looks like there is more lovely yarn too. A group of happy knitters were having coffee and tea by the window.

Day 9

A knitty picture for a change. I've been knitting socks for Christmas gifts and using up little balls of rest yarns.

This blue and white pair begins my new project. I'm going to participate in a nationwide project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Finland's independence. The aim is to donate a pair of hand knitted blue and white socks for every new baby born here during next year. Yarn shops like Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten, collect the socks from knitters in their area and deliver them to the maternity wards, where every new baby will get her or his own pair. Some other people sew and donate quilts, but knitting socks seems to be our "thing". Almost every girl and woman here knows how to knit, a pair of socks takes less time and money to make than a quilt, and it still includes as much warmth and love from the maker to the person to receive the gift. 

New Sock Pattern

You may remember the white mittens I knitted last year. Our local knitting café Lentävä Lapanen, in cooperation with the Ainola museum, created the pattern based on a pair of mittens knitted by Aino Sibelius, the spouse of the famous composer Jean Sibelius, to celebrate his 150th anniversary.

The pattern can be bought here in English or in Finnish. A kit with yarn and pattern in either language is abailable at the knitting café and at the Ainola museum shop. I have used my pair a lot, on very cold days I wear white fleece gloves inside.

This Winter I had a great idea. Why not knit a fancy pair of socks to go with the pretty mittens? Knit, knit, knit, said my needles and soon I had the prototype finished. It was a special birthday gift.

The next thing to do was to introduce my idea of Aino'S socks to The Flying Mitten, Lentävä Lapanen. They liked the idea, gave me a ball of the original 100% Finnish sheep wool by Pirtin Kehräämö, and asked me to knit a sample pair and to write down my pattern. The pattern can be downloaded here in Finnish for free.

I'm knitting yet another pair for my own  use now:

I changed the heel from the prototype, thinking that Aino Sibelius would have wanted her socks to be a little special all over. This is the heel I used when I wrote the pattern and knitted the socks for the Flying Mitten. The leg part is like the mitten cuff, and the top of the foot part is like the top of the mitten, so there is really not very much of my own design here apart from the heel, and the idea of making socks to match the mittens.