Grey knitting, sunny days

Knitting in the evenings in front of the TV is my way of relaxing. It feels like I'm not totally wasting my time when I knit. I found this version of basket weave stitches and liked it, as it was very easy to remember and didn't require counting more than five rows.

The father of the little knight from the previous post got these mittens to match his son. The yarns are from a pullover I had started to knit for him when he was still a schoolboy living at home. At that time my arms refused to cooperate with long needles and big pieces of knitting, and I developed a tennis elbow, I who have never even played tennis! The son has grown a lot since I began the knitting, so the wisest thing to do was to unravel the knitted half of a pullover, soak the skeins and wind the dry yarn into balls for new knitting projects.

We have had lots of snow this Winter unlike last year when we had none. Mr. K pushes the snow further away from the drive so there will be space for more snow to come. These old apple trees are in our new garden in afternoon sun.

We are only half way done with Winter by now, there may well be lots of new snow at the end of March and it may snow some as late as end of April and beginning of May. Now we are enjoying some sunny days and clear skies, and having but not so much enjoying temperatures of -20 C.

The hares are making their paths in the snow when we are not watching.

Black and white

Lately, I have been knitting with black yarn. Like this:

Eventually it became this:

It may look like a big dishcloth, and would work well as one, because it is bamboo yarn, but it is my first attempt for a "knitted bandana" for my daughter. Garter stitch from corner to corner, very stretchy. She may use it later in the Spring, but now she will need wool. Like this, on the snow:

I found some lovely Merino wool, very fine, and knitted this reversible thing:

Yesterday was the coldest day of this Winter so far, -27C. The world is white!

We have more snow than in a couple of years.

The rhododendrons look like they would prefer warmer weather!

It was the morning of the beautiful big red moon eclipse, but I could only take a photo of the sunrise at 9. The sun rises before 9 and sets after 4 in the afternoon, and it feels like a big step towards the Spring!

Merry Christmas

Today is a December day at its best: snow on the ground, no wind, minus 10 degrees and the sun is shining for a little while. No more waiting, it is Christmas Eve, and we get to open the gifts tonight already!

Happy Holidays for all my readers!

December 20 - Snow surfaces

 Some days there is only little snow.

It covers all surfaces and creates nice patterns for quilt blocks or quilting lines.

Some days there is more snow and the squirrel must dive deep to find the sunflower seeds that fall from the bird feeder.

And sometimes there are lumps of older snow left when new snow gives a light dusting on the yew needles.

December 8 - Tracks in the snow

When there is new snow, you can see what has been going on in the garden.
Hare's paths crossing:

Squirrel's basic jump:

Squirrels' dance around the black currant bush:

And hares have been barbering our Spiraea japonica Little Princess:

Luckily they bloom in the new growth so we can cut the rest, if any, down in the Spring and have pretty bushes again.

Quilter's block

Once again, I seem to have a "quilter's block", which doesn't mean that I'm producing quilt blocks day in, day out, but quite the opposite. There are lists of quilts I would love to make, great patterns and lovely own design thoughts, but the fabrics stay in their boxes, rulers are sadly hanging on the wall, and the sewing machine gathers dust.

My way of dealing with this problem is, naturally, knitting. And doing it like my mother did with her knitting and sewing, trying to get the most of a small amount of material, and still pleasing the eye. Here I used rests of some yarns I used earlier this Autumn for men's socks. The mottled green and the dark green were very close, so making wide stripes with just those two would not have looked good. I separated them with thin grey stripes. Then I still needed the very last meters of the dark green for alternate rows with the mottled one to cover the toes. There it is, the biggest possible pair of socks out of those yarns.

Next there was the dark blue from the lime and dark blue socks, and the greyish blue from some other projects. I just knitted the legs as long as the lighter blue allowed. There is nothing of it left, but the dark blue will reappear in some stripes later.

Here I used the "knit as far as the yarn allows"  method again, this time it was the light grey that needed to be used up. This is the first project where I have used the second one of my own grandmother's traditional patterns which I managed to repeat and put in writing . They make a warm knit without having to run two yarns at the same time, and without long loops on the reverse. If you click on the link, you can find the pattern in the text.

As you can see, our black and wet landscape is covered in white snow for at least some days. It started snowing during the night, and it continues. Every day is 4 minutes shorter than the previous one, but in a few weeks the sun begins to set at the same time every day, in preparation for the winter solstice on the 21st of December.

First Snow

The first snow is here.

It has its own scent, something cold and very fresh and moist.

Blue Moment

Saturday morning at 9,  twenty minutes before sunrise. Using the flash I could make the snowflakes in the air visible.

New quilt in process

Happy New Year everyone! During the holiday break I have done some preparations for a new quilt. I have sorted through about 10 or 12 boxes, thrown away (recycled in energy waste, it is) lots and lots of fabrics I know I will not ever need, and re-organised the remaining ones.

 

Then I went through my Old Shirts/Green and Blue Box, and my Green Fabrics Box, and my 2½" white squares jar, and cut a little worn and well washed old sheet into 2½" strips and 3" squares and made these:

 

 

and ironed them.

I made them into blocks with the strips and show you later how they look.

I think my new ironing board cover with owls is very pretty. The day is more than half an hour longer already but the days are cloudy so there is not enough light for nice photos. We finally have some snow and - 10C temperatures. By this time last year we had had snow for two months already!

The Winner is...

... randomly generated number 36!

 

Counting from the newest comment back, number 36 is Dolores from True Blue Canadian with her comment on Colours are changing on October 17th. This is a funny coincidence: I promised to send something typically Finnish as today is our Independence Day, and Dolores has Finnish roots. Congratulations, Dolores! Rye bread will not be a mystery to you then.

 

Today we finally had some snow to lighten up the landscape.

 

 

 

I have been sewing a little, knitting a little and Tunisian crocheting too.

 

I wish you all lots of ideas and energy for your Christmas preparations.

 

 

New quilt in process

Finally I feel like making quilts again. When I pulled fabrics for the Happy Scrappy Spring quilt, I decided to use the same fabrics for another scrappy quilt I have been wanting to sew. It is Lori Holt's Bee in My Bonnet Row Along that started last August, but the free tutorials are still available on her blog. I have finished the two first rows.

 

For a long time already, I have cut the leftover bits of my fabrics into 2½" to 1" squares, the biggest size I can, and tossed them all in a jar next to my cutting table. I was lucky: I needed 44 - 1½" squares in white for the butterfly blocks, and that was exactly how many I had in my jar.

 

The 4-patch blocks of the first row were cleverly sewn from 3" squares and cut twice after they were joined together.

 

The Spring is really coming here too. You can see our snow is almost gone, but we need warmer temperatures and some rain before there will be any new green to see.

 

The blackbird has started to sing, early in the morning and late in the evening is the best time to listen. We had a couple staying over winter, but they don't sing then.

 

I have seen cranes flying over the village on their way from the South, and Mr. K saw some swans already. The ponds are all still under ice, but seagulls have arrived to wait for open waters.

A new project and some new houses

Mr. K has been building new houses again, for our little friends. If you click the picture, you can count four in the trees. One came to replace an old one the squirrels had used, and one of the old bird houses was damaged when we had to cut down some birches.

 

 

The morning after the six new houses were put in the trees and four other ones spring cleaned - did you know the birds make their own spring cleaning too? - I saw house hunters at four new houses. Here is a blue tit, he chased some great tits away as he was showing this place to his sweetheart.

 

This is a birch where we never had a birdhouse before, but it was obviously a good place, because there were many young couples interested to see the house. "A modern, compact house in a respected area", I think. An old birch would possibly have natural holes tits use for their nests. The titmouse went in and spent a long time checking the workmanship. I hope there will be happy families in all the birdhouses so we can enjoy watching birds during the non-feeding season too.

 

 

My new  project suitably begins with a birdhouse stitchery:

 

The first row for Kaaren's Happy Scrappy Spring ROM (Row of the Month) is almost done. Tonight I will stitch a juicy big carrot and add that block to the end of the row.

I'm using all kinds of scraps from my stash, recycling plaid shirts and whatever happens to please my eye. The light outdoors is strangely blue in the last picture, where my row is on the snow. Yes, still plenty of that on the ground, and we had some new snow on Sunday and Monday, to brighten up the world. - This quilt should be finished in the Autumn so I think I can find a suitable category for it in the Craft Olympics Sylvia is hosting this year.

Tracks on snow, and finally a finish

It has been so long since I last posted, there just haven't been any new finishes to show. I have been knitting squares for a blanket using leftover yarns and some unexpected finds from my stash, but on cloudy days taking photos is a nightmare. A couple of days ago this leftover piece of the moon was still on the sky when the sun was rising.

 

 

The nights are cold here, around -20C/-4F, when the sky is clear. Cold weather means the birds need nourishing food, so the woodpecker had some fat with seeds to keep warm.

 

 

Yesterday we had a snow shower that covered all the old tracks. Look how many hares, squirrels and birds have been running and jumping in our yard after that:

 

A hare's footprints closer, the smaller prints are from the front legs.

 

 

Here is finally my Helping Hands quilt with binding and label. The striped fabrics are all pieces of Egyptian scarves from Melanie, who made a quilt with her friends' hands in applique almost two years ago. I finished this top last summer but somehow it just became a WIP.

 

I used my scarf pieces to make this quilt. It will end up warming somebody, who needs a helping hand. I remember that Simone used her pieces for a scarf.  - Yes, we have this much snow left, it is still very much winter.

 

One last snow picture from some time ago. Can you guess what has been going on here?

 

 

Two hares (or one, making two rounds) have come running from the left and sliding down the steep slope. I have heard of otters playing like this down the riverbank, but not hares. I hope they had fun!