By George, I've got it!

Big news from the tatting excercises. I think I've got it! The double stitch was like this when I asked my sewing class teacher for help:

My red crochet yarn is the dark green one in the book, so it should be covered by the blue if the stitches were OK. The blue stitches seem to be made by Anne.

This weekend I took the shuttle out again and paid really good attention to the tension of the left hand thread, this time a thinner, white thread I bought with the book. Look:

   

I would call them perfect little stitches! And making them made me no longer twist and turn and drop the shuttle. At this point Mr. K. said that I seemed to be doing the same moves as he does for his flies. I immediately remembered how I taught him to use two silk threads in different colours, and a small crochet hook, to make his fishing fly have a dark back and light underside. They just have the row of caps on both sides.

My success made me rush to lesson 2 this morning, and like I thought, the next step was not that difficult:

My first attempt to make a ring, and I think I've really got it! It tightened without difficulty, and now I can start learning to follow a pattern, to make picots, make rows of rings ...

Yesterday I had mail from Ireland. Some time ago I won a consolation prize for Heckecty's doggerel poetry challenge, and now the prize arrived.

A big bag of Jelly Babies, a crocheted brooch with a sweet little yo-yo and a flower shaped button, and a bookmark. I was happy to notice that the delicious jelly babies were not sticky at all, so I could have my share of them in spite of the brackets on my teeth. (I'm going to see the orthodontist again today, with no damage to the wires this time.) Thank you, Heather, it was a very nice prize for scribbling a few rhyming lines. The purple of the brooch matches some of my shirts just perfectly.

Big Sort Out Day

Yesterday my big sister P was being my little elf like she promised in December. We spent almost three hours here in my cellar sewing room:

She had promised to bring me a couple of old white sheet so I can make more Unicef dolls, but she came with three big plastic bags. I was being brave and rejected one bagful of her things, and later gave her back some curtain fabric of hers I hade been taking care of for a couple of years.

Then she helped me lift boxes, sort out rags and history and flannels and shirts

and re-name boxes and start new boxes and empty some plastic bags and fill some other plastic bags until it started to look like this in Mr. K's end of the room which we had borrowed:

You are supposed to notice the empty floor there!

My end looked like this when we came up and made some tea:

Unfortunately there are still 5 untouched boxes under my desk, and four big ones on the stove. What we managed to do gave me hope that this project one day will end. Thank you P, you have been a tremendous help! I forgive you the two plastic bags of lovely fabric. And the lace and the yarn, too, and the pins and needles.  After all, we said goodbye to this:

    

Five bags tightly packed, and in the background are the two bags full of my old study papers. Someday, I hope, Mr. Kotkarankki will sit at his desk tying flies, and I will sit at my desk sewing seams, music is playing quietly and every now and then one of us says something, and we both live together happily ever after.

Fly Fishing Friends

Earlier this year I found a blogger with whom I had lots in common, like age, hobbies (quilting)and husband's hobbies (flyfishing). We have been e-mailing, and it lead to mailing things. Around Easter we received this lovely mail from Candace and Mr. Squash:


There were several fly fishing magazines for Mr. Kotkarankki, a sweet little fabric basket and a wool appliqué project and a needle threader for me, as well as Peeps yellow Easter chick sweets for Mr. K. So generous of Candace and Mr. S. Thank you again!

It took us a long time to put together our package for them, but this week it arrived on the other side of the world. This is what Mr. K tied for his fellow flyfishermen. The greenish fly is SL-pupa, a larvae imitation for Candace, and the furry one is Nalle Puh (like Winnie the Pooh) for fast waters, for Mr. S. The hooks are barbless so the fish can be released without damage.

I made a messenger bag using a fishing fly print fabric for their shopping or fishing gear, and added an embroidery needle threader for Candace (like I said, we are about the same age!) and some healthy dark chocolate. There were also some Finnish fly fishing magazines for them, so they can at least look at the pictures.

Sometimes I hear people speak about the virtual world and virtual friends you can make in it, but I'm sure I have found some real friends through blogging. You know who you are. It would be so nice to be able to meet for a cup of tea and a chat. Then you would notice how slow my English is, but I can listen quite fluently!

Report from the Handicraft Fair

Last Saturday I went to this handicraft fair with my daughter Kaija (in the pictures are not any people we know). It wasn't a very big fair, nothing to go crazy about, but we saw many 'quite nice' things there.

There were knitted scarves.

And lovely pieces of quilting fabrics. I kind of wanted to buy the teal bunch, but I didn't.

But from this wall I picked 10 pieces (50 cm x 110 cm), including the light blue for the binding of Kaija's quilt I'm quilting this winter and spring.

Felted clothes and felted almost anything are very popular at the moment. There was also fine merino wool for sale. I only bought a little bag of curly wool in mixed colours for my husband. He said it was OK for his fly-tying. I have learned to choose mainly good colours for him. We share a hobby room, and if I'm not sewing at full speed with my machine, we can listen to music or just enjoy the peace. When he shows me his flies, I often ask and learn something about them as well. This helps me when I choose treasures for him when shopping for yarns or trimmings for my own needs.

And then there was one good and one 'usual' book seller. From the good one I bought a book-binding book for Kaija's birthday, and gave it to her in advance. (She brought me a book for my birthday in advance!) I'll show my book tomorrow.