Revealed secrets

In March the our local knitting café Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten, hosted their first secret swap. Of course I participated, and now I can reveal my gifts. This is what I made for my secret friend for her small knitting supplies:

 

The zippered pocket is for stitch markers like the ones here made with old Lego blocks. Under the scissors is another pocket, the knitting needle gauge goes there. As my first gift to her I made her two holders for her double pointed knitting needles, using the same red floral.

 

And this was my main gift, a pair of wool socks in her size and her favourite colour.

 

We all gave some information about ourselves, like favourite colour, yarn and needles, and shoe size (for obvious reasons!).  Having no idea of the friend's age, other hobbies or other details, it was easiest to think about the knitting hobby we all share.

 

I also challenged my secret friend to knit a pair of Train Socks for the new babies in town using the pattern and yarn I sent her, and was very glad to hear she took the challenge and has almost finished her pair.

 

The secret friend who sent me her gifts was not the same lady who received my mail. Here is what I got. First a crocheted flower with some heart chocolates. Yummy! I'm thinking of yarn bombing the town with this flower too. And by the way, it was noon when I left the red flowers shown in my last post, so the boot polish would have made me look very suspicious! Also, the darkness lasts only little over an hour these days, so no hope for real darkness until August. People were not paying any attention, or just smiling, because I look quite harmless even with tiny scissors in my hand.

 

The next month brought me this grass green yarn, hand dyed in Finland, and a bag full of useful stitch markers. The yarn will be used for a pair of socks for someone special.

 

 

The last parcel from her contained some useful kitchen items. The grey dishcloth and scrubber are knitted in linen (at least it feels like it), and the factory made sponge dishcloth has a funny text. The red pouch could be used  for toiletry or for a small work in process. The handmade lime soap with a built-in sponge adds a nice touch of luxury. Thank you, Secret friend!

 

 

Everyone sent photos of their gifts received to the Flying Mitten and they were published on their website without names to keep it all hush hush until the end of May. At the beginning of June the Flying Mitten invited us all to the café to meet each other. Unfortunately I was unable to participate, but I believe the meeting was a great success. The lady who received my gifts even left a gift for me at the meeting in the knitting café, some delicious home-made rhubarb jam and nice hand cream. Kiitos, Karita!

 

The weather has been odd this Summer: yesterday we had +2C/35F, and sleet and hails:

 

 

Today I met with an old friend from the time we were students together, and I gave her a couple of washcloths in my favourite patterns:

 

 

The Raindrop is from here, and the Bee Stitch is from here. I knitted both a little larger than the pattern and used pearl stitch in the borders of the Raindrop. Bamboo yarn is just lovely for these, so soft and it has antibacterial qualities and can be washed in the machine.

 

The Giveaway Gift

The gift to celebrate my 600th blog post has been sent over the ocean. I tried to choose goods that travel well.

 

 

The Finnish tastes are rye crisps, gingerbread, cloudberry chocolates and Xylitol chewing gum. Xylitol's dental-friendly qualities are a Finnish discovery.
In the background is a ball of Finnish Novita Nalle wool, enough for a pair of socks or two tiny ones.
The birch leave felted on white Finnish sheep's wool hides a soap, so you can have a washcloth and soap in one. This one came from Villa Cooper. The tiny black tin in front of the soap is Vitalis cream for chapped lips and hands. In my childhood it was used to protect the skin from frostbites. Later this proved to be not true, but the cream's other uses are still popular. The bigger tin on the right shows Moomin characters, famous Finns. The last item is a CD with typical Finnish dance music from years back. We have our own interpretation of tango, less passionate and energetic and far more serious and sentimental than the Argentine tango. I hope this record reflects the Finnish life in a way Dolores will somehow recognize as familiar.

Munich, a touch of Spring and a happy end

After the weekend in small towns and at the fly fishing event, on Monday morning we took the train to Munich. The weather was warming up and the sky was blue. Here is the Cathedral, Frauenkirche, built in 1468-1488.

 

 

 

We were walking in the city centre, Marienplatz, originally a market place. I zoomed my camera to look at  one of the many gargoyles on the New Town Hall building. New is a relative word, it was built between 1867 and 1907.

 

 

Here is a picture of the building, and you can see how many people have taken their coats off as the day was getting warm.

 

The Glockenspiel was playing, life size figures of people and horses. You can read about the plays in the link.

 

We were not just tourists looking at attractions we had seen already, but we were on a mission: I needed some red (304) DMC embroidery floss. We looked for it in the big department stores, some of which actually had a fabric and hobby department. But all they had was Anchor floss, and no conversion chart like this link I later got from Melanie: http://www.willowfabrics.com/shadeconverter.shtm. We looked into shopping arcades in hope to find a quilt shop, embroidery shop, anything. No luck. Such a big, big, city, and they don't have a quilt shop where one could find it and have some fun, and they don't even sell red floss. And that was almost all I really wanted!

 

 

Then we walked past the Fishing and Hunting Museum, another familiar place we already visited twice.  

 

This time I didn't dare go in, the exhibition was about life with Wolpertinger! You can see how awful they can look. (Yes, they are all different.) They may have a hare's body with antlers, feet like a waterbird and maybe even wings.

 

I have learnt at the museum that they specialised in eating "North German soft sculls", and one can't be sure how well they know their geography. Finland is even more in the North than North Germany! You can imagine how I was scared when I saw this creature through my kitchen window just after arrival:

 

Brown and white hair falling out, and the ears look a little like antlers when you are scared, don't you think? Originally the Wolpertinger were made in the 19th century by taxidermists from parts of actual animals, as a joke to fool tourists in restaurants and inns.

 

After coming back home I went to Hyvinkää just 15 minutes away by car, and bought the floss I needed. For those who should need Anchor floss, the nice lady at the shop had colour charts and conversion tables both ways! I packed my new floss in my new kit Melanie made for my birthday, and it was packed full with a matching project bag, scissors, ribbons, pins and needles.

 

 

Pincushion, needles book and scissor holder.

All holders with stitched names.

Some of the books she brought - I have read one and I'm reading two at the moment. The most gorgeous mug for my tea. I feel all girly!

 

Now I'm prepared for the next row of Kaaren's Happy Scrappy Spring next week. Happy End!

 

 

The snowdrops were in bloom when we came home, and now most of the snow is gone too.

 

 

Knitting

The new year has started with winter weather, some snow, some frost, some sleet. New bird watching list on the fridge door with ten species so far spotted. I have some projects started but no new finishes for this year, so I thought I could show you my end of the year knittings.

Craft Olympics socks and wrist warmers for DD. I made a similar set for another young lady but forgot to take a picture.

 

October knitting: infinity scarf and wrist warmers for someone special abroad. Here I combined a novelty yarn with some mohair type yarn in burgundy to add warmth.

 

First pair of mittens using my Granny's pattern I showed you last Summer when I figured out how she did it. She used to knit them on two needles to the end of  the two-colourd part, to avoid knitting purl stitches, but I used a circular needle and made both mittens at the same time.

 

That has become my favourite method and helps me make identical socks and mirror image mittens. This other pair is for a young man.

 

I just had to buy this soft wool blend yarn in Aubergine colour. Again, the rest of the yarn was used for wrist warmers to go with the infinity scarf.

 

 

That was all I can remember. Knitting soft yarns in the evenings in front of the fire is my main hobby nowadays. Preparing for the time when I'm really old an can't see any more, but my fingers remember how to knit!

 

Soon there will be more light to make decent photos, and I hope to get in the mood for sewing too. Now it is still time to semi-hibernate. Thank you for coming by again!

Craft Olympics - all my thimbles

Finally the secrets are revealed, Christmas gifts opened and I can show what I have been doing to get all those thimbles from Melanie's Craft Olympics. My first thimble was for a secret knitting project, toe to top two at a time socks for my daughter Kaija, and the rest of the yarn was enough to make wrist warmers for her busy hands. The yarn is hand dyed Araucania yarn from Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten knitting cafe, very lovely to knit. I'm also beginning to learn the idea of the toe to top heel!

 

 

 

The yarn was so lovely I bought another skein and knitted socks and wrist warmers for my daughter-in-law-to-be as well.

Second thimble is for this stitchery, where I learnt some new stitches.

 

My third thimble came with this Granny Square quilt I made for my sister, who is a granny. The grey and pink outer rounds of the blocks are from our Granny's old summer dress.

 

All the fabrics came from my stash as usual, and 90 % of them are recycled garments or bed linen.

My fourth thimble was a change of plans: I had no time to make the wool applique I had planned. Wreath making is crafty too, so this will be within the rules.

 

The fifth and last thimble was for a new skill, needle-turn applique. The pattern is one of Kaaren's freebies on her blog The Painted Quilt. My work is nowhere near perfection but I could give it another try, hoping for better results and rounder circles. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, the days are really very short and dark at this time of the year here.

The applique is on the front of this bag I made for Melanie as a Christmas gift for her knitting projects.

The Craft Olympics has been a fun challenge at the end of the year, not too demanding as we could choose our crafts and change our plans during the Olympics. Go to Melanie - she always puts the kettle on when visitors arrive! - and see who else has been a crafts athlete. Melanie has links to all the finished projects on her sidebar.

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.

Big Garden Birdwatch, Gifts & Sewings

This weekend is the second annual Big Garden Birdwatch I have participated in. The idea is from Great Britain, where they have been doing it for a long time already, and are doing there this weekend as well. The morning was sunny and cold (-15C), promising a good possibility to see the birds coming to our feeders.

We had a long mid-morning coffee break, with the camera on a tripod, and managed to see 11 bullfinches, 5 great tits,

1 blue tit,

1 yellowhammer, 1 jay, 1 magpie and 1 blackbird. The time limit was one hour, but there have not been too many birds after that so I think we chose the best time for watching. The weather is so cold now that the birds are saving their energy and only come a few times a day to eat.

The mailman has brought me some gifts from friends for no particular reason, which is always very nice. This cute potholder in shadow knit came all the way from Australia from Kaite:

This is a very clever way to create a pattern on a knitted surface. The link will take you to her blog post where she explains how to knit it. Thank you, Kaite!

A very bulky envelope from Melanie came the other day, and now I'm prepared for Halloween for the first time in my life:

Now I see one of her pumpkins needs fastening. It must have come loose when I filled the sack with some sand in a plastic bag to weigh her down. She has a lot to carry! This is a very Melanie project: stitcheries, wool, crow, ghost, great colours. Thank you, Melanie!

I have been busy too, and reducing my stash of fabrics. I made these three aprons for the Club people to wear as a uniform in Villa Cooper when they are working there:

Sorry about the busy background, I just threw them on DS2's bed on the 9-patch quilt because there was more light than in the other rooms.

I hope you are all having  a nice weekend. I'll be back soon with the Scandinavian Christmas quilt BOM.

Friends, Gifts and Dolls

Some time ago I received a gift from my dear friend Melanie. She was in Egypt earlier this year on holiday, and bought some beautiful handwoven cotton scarves there. After she made her lovely Helping Hands quilt, she sent pieces from all those scarves to each of us whose hands are shown on her quilt. As soon as I saw my new fabrics, I knew where to look for a pattern to use them and make something nice.

I have had this Kaffe Fasset book for a long time, and the handkerchief corner quilt on the cover has always pleased me. I'll show you the results later, the idea is just maturing now. Thank you, Melanie!

This week another dear friend sent me unexpected mail. This came from Simone:

Bicycles on the wrapping paper and the stamps (for Mr. K!) and the owl must be for me.

 

Inside was this cute little wallhanging for Halloween. Luckily I'm not afraid of spiders or ghosts. Thank you Simone! (Without my photo editing programme I can't turn the picture, so you'll have to tilt your head.) Simone is also one of the Helping Hands friends, and you can see what she did with her scarf  fabrics from Melanie if you scroll down her post in my link.

Finally a sneak peek at my dolls I'm making as Santa's little helper. They are my newest lot of "Anna ja Toivo" -dolls for Unicef. The names Anna and Toivo are also Finnish words and mean "give" and "hope". Very appropriate for dolls used to raise money for saving children's lives by giving them inoculations. Four pretty ones are at my sister's as I have outsourced the beautician's and hairdresser's services to her for the dolls going to her granddaughters.

Only one doll has a dress by now, but two dresses are in process and ideas for the other clothing are on paper. Everyone has at least undies, and they are sitting on the sofa near the fireplace so they are not cold. I think I'll knit some socks for them tonight.