Flower corner once again

I almost forgot to show you this year's "flower pots" in the ugliest corner of Järvenpää. The local businesses and organizations have used their imagination for the sixth time: in 2017 they used rag rugs, in 2016 chairs, in 2015 bicycles, in 2014  old bags and in the first year, 2013, rubber boots. This year they have attached mail boxes for the flowers in the fence

and added little painted houses.

Today there is a big building site across the street. The old buildings have been torn down but since then nothing has happened. Maybe this side is no longer the ugliest corner after all!

I managed to sew together the 30 knitted squares, one row is hanging on the other side. Somehow I mixed the arrangement and the less striped blocks are not together in the middle like I meant them to be.

I crocheted two rows around the blanket to help keep it in shape.

My next project will be something cooler!

End of Tour ...

...de France and my own Tour de Knit. I could wear a Yellow Jersey too, because I'm a winner as well. Last week I found these blueish sock yarns in a little plastic bag in my sock yarn box, and used them for the last couple of squares needed for the blanket. Without these I would not have met my goal.

This is what is left of my sock yarn rests for 3.5 mm needles now. 

And this is what I managed to knit with the rests I had plus some new balls. 30 squares, all ends sewn in by now.

This week I need to arrange them nicely and sew them together. That will be the warmest part of the project! We have tried to keep cool with the sound of water from our new garden pond. Too bad is is too small for swimming!

The little indie artist and her victory of sorts

I'm upset! My daughter's work has been copied and put on sale by Anthropologie. Please visit Kaija's blog Paperiaarre here  and see with your own eyes. Her journals have been copied. She has also given a link to another case of copying by this firm, so it seems to be their habit to look for beautiful things on Etsy, Pinterest etc. and have them made in a cheap labour country. As little as it may mean to them, I have written an e-mail to Anthropologie and given my opinion about this. I can be as biased as I want; they have wronged my daughter! - I didn't have time to finish this blog post last night, and I'm glad to tell you that meanwhile the issue is resolved and the big company has offered to withdraw their copied journals. Naturally they don't admit they have copied anything, so maybe it was their supplier who did it.

 

 On the knitting front, I have been working on a multi-coloured baby blanket. 

 

 

Here it is all finished. Knitting on the circular needle makes it easier for my hands and arms, as the weight on the blanket rests on my lap instead of on the long needles and my hands.

 

 

Speaking of hands and arms, in a week I will start a long break from all things crafty, and also from writing in any form. I will keep reading your blogs, I hope, but can't comment for a while with my good hand immobile in a sling. The sling thing causes a dressing problem I didn't have 8 years ago when my other shoulder was operated on. It was against the Summer, so I just altered a few tops so I could step in through the neckline. This time I need something against the cold as well, so I took another step as a designer and made a poncho:

 

 

The lining is there to protect me from wind, and I even added an interfacing for extra warmth. Now I'm knitting wrist warmers to give a final touch:

 

 

Today is Autumn Equinox and the days are getting shorter so fast that you really notice it: 40 minutes in a week now. The temperature has dropped close to freezing point for the day as well, but at the end of the week we can expect some +15C days. Warmer clothes are needed, summer dresses can be stored away for eight months at least. Enjoy the colours of Autumn, the fresh air, and cosy evenings in the warmth of your home. 

Busy weeks

September is such a short month. I have been busy making apple sauce, 91 jars in all. That ought to be enough for the year, anyway I can't squeeze any more jars on the cellar shelves.

 

 

In the evenings - the days are getting shorter every week - I have knitted the last squares for this little blanket and crocheted them together.

Then I have knitted a secret gift which is also my first Craft Olympics project. I'm sorry I can't show more!

I made new curtains for one of the new windows we had installed this Summer.

The trees have started to change their colour, some birches have even dropped their leaves already.

 

Our garden must look a bit like a witch's garden with so many poisonous toadstools

 

 

and berries. Lily of the valley - Convállaria majális - is also poisonous.

 

 

The open college sewing group I have attended for many years already was too small to start this Autumn, only three of us wanted to join. We decided to have our own group without any fee, and tomorrow will be our second meeting at Mr. K's conference room. It is a "bring your own sewing machine" night, but I think I will bring my own light box and start preparing for my next Craft Olympics thimble.

First Swan report of the year, and some knitting

My regular readers may remember my pictures of whooper swans nesting in our village. For several years already, a whooper swan couple has built their nest by one of the little ponds around the village and brought their young to the village centre for flying lessons. This year made no exception, the couple - together for life - arrived in the spring and walked their babies to the bigger ponds for a first visit in June already. Local bird friends were worried about them and put up a self-made traffic sign:

 

There are two bigger ponds on different sides of the road through the village, and the birds would need to cross it if they wanted to change scenery. The bird looks more like a mute swan with the curved neck, but everyone will understand to look out for swans. After WWII the whooper swan was almost extinct in Finland, but the books by a beloved author, Yrjö Kokko, changed the situation and the estimated number of nesting couples for last year in Finland was already 5,000 to 7,000.

 

In August the school begins, for little swans as well. They have now moved to the big ponds in the village and learn to find their food in deeper water. This year there are seven (7!) babies in the family.

Later when the parents have grown new feathers, flight lessons will begin. They need a long runway to get in the air. There is often already ice on the ponds before the swans are ready to leave for the winter.

Mother or father is keeping watch while the cygnets eat with their heads under water.

On the crafty front I have been very passive lately, just knitted some squares for a new blanket in the evenings while watching TV.

There is a touch of Autumn in the air already, today is the last day of Summer. Enjoy your weekend!

One finish and lots of gifts

This week the Tour blanket was finished at last. It is bigger than I thought it would be, as my squares refused to be 20 cm as instructed. No sewn seams here, I have picked the stitches for a new square on the side of an existing one, and knitted two squares together at the end of each row of a new square.

This week has been a Very Nice Mail Week. First came the 100th Houseelf blog post giveaway mail from Melanie: a bright tea towel, a rainbow coloured lavender bag, a Kaffe Fasset tissue holder and some special teas and sweets.

Today I received another parcel from her, from her summer trips she has been showing on her blog. Coal tar soap and mustard bath to keep me clean and my toes warm when the winter comes. I'm not old enough to have lived in the war time, not to speak of the time of the Bronte sisters, but Melanie and I have read old books together and she makes the world of the Swallows and Amazons real for me with products that have been there already at their time. Thank you, Melanie!

Today's mail brought me another surprise, a parcel from Simone. I had admired her zakka projects, and she sent me a hand made ribbon:

Beautiful thoughts! The ribbon is hanging by my sewing machine already. She also sent me a cheese cutter for young cheese - we are comparing models, it seems! Thank you, Simone!

There have been very little birds in our yard during the summer, they live in the woods and find their food there. They don't have time for songs either, they are too busy raising their families. Mr. K found something different, a slow-worm, when he was clearing something in the yard. This reptile has been called brass snake because of its beautiful brass or copper colour. It is not a snake, but a lizard.

A break between projects

Today I enjoyed a peaceful moment in the sun. I had a new book, a cup of hot chocolate on my new coaster from Melanie, and some home baked gingerbread in the little basket I made. These were the little gifts we sent together to all the ladies who have been stitching Scandinavian Christmas with us.

A closer look: Melanie chose the little bird from the appliqué for her wool coasters, and I used a churn dash block like the quilt had between the blocks and snowflake stitcheries. I will keep updating the link list on the right when our stitch along ladies post about their achievements.

For my part the Scandinavian Christmas is finished, but I bought a new book by Lynette Anderson. There are some smaller projects in it I think I can manage by myself. The SC was such an amount of cross stitches that I could not have finished it without the others.

My next project for the evenings looks like this:

Kaite from Australia sent me some soft baby acrylics for charity baby blankets. My fingers are already itching for them, but I have two and a half squares to knit on the heavy wool blanket I started during the TdF. Actually, the wool is a bit itchy but the baby yarns feel super soft.

The hostas are in bloom in our garden.

Time to smell the flowers

The end of the Tour was exhausting and I was too tired to even report for the final stage. Instead, I took time to smell the flowers, or at least see and notice them. My favourite bellflower the Campanula persicifolia, or "the crane's bellflower" in Finnish. Cats, magpies, deer, elks, goats, foals and even old men have their own bellflowers in Finnish.

Prunella vulgaris (common self-heal) colours our lawn with beautiful purple. Finding the link for you I learnt that this flower is edible. I have not yet tasted!

On a little shopping trip I found these delicious Autumn fabrics 20 % off the price. I tried to explain to Mr. K that 6 fabrics with 20 % off the price would mean a discount of 120 %, but he is so good with numbers that he didn't believe me.

My blanket has grown a little even after the TdF. I pick up the stitches by the side of a knitted square and join the last stitch at the end of the row to the other square's finishing row, so there will be no sewing the squares together.

This was my secret sewing during the Tour, a clothes pin apron for Simone for her birthday.

TdF day 18 and 19 - Book hunting and knitting (again)

On Friday my blanket was at this stage.

We made a little Summer trip to Hämeenlinna, a city about one hour from us.

The church is from 1798. This Summer cafe is to the left of the church.

We wanted to continue our book hunting. Mr. K. had better luck than I, but I was happy to find a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in very good condition.

Yesterday was spent recovering from the trip and a lunch in town, so this post covers two days of the Tour. The knitting has grown a little:

New flowers have opened their buds in our garden:

TdF day 17 - foggy day

The Tour was riding through fog yesterday. Our views are foggy too, as the new windows are covered with plastic as long as the house painters have finished their job. The new blanket is growing.

I added a white first border to the Helping Hands quilt

and now I'm going through my stash for ideas for a wider border.