Tour de Baby Hat, second day of rest

The cyclists are reaching the Alps and enjoying their well earned rest today. Many have been hurt in crashes during the first stages, many continue the race with bleeding limbs patched on the road and later properly. Last night I experienced some dangerous moments with hard cheese and a cheese slicer:

My grip slipped, and I sliced away the scar on my thumb from a previous cheese slicer accident some years ago. There was a lot of bleeding, but luckily I just missed a proper vein. This picture is from this morning, with a new dressing on the wound. I'm just showing you how far I was with the next baby hat before I had to stop for the night.

Here are the week's hats, the last bits of the light green and the white I used during the Giro, and a collection of the tiniest rests in the green, blue and multi colour hat. On the right is the first hat with the Sirdar Kisses baby acrylic, the second one is on the needles. I found a bag with six balls of this yarn, in green and blue shades. This will look a bit boring but keep me busy for the rest of the Tour and beginning of the Vuelta d'Espagne.

In celebration of the 50th year since I hurt my knee I'm on the waiting list for a knee replacement. My old stick from the school days didn't look too great, so I decided to do some yarn bombing. I didn't want to look like an old granny with a walking stick, so I crocheted some bright granny squares to cheer up my stick and maybe to get a smile or two when I limp around.

Close-up of my grannies:

I was wondering if the doctors would give me a smart looking knee after all the years I have been walking around with chubby knees and a huge scar in one, but I can forget about mini skirts for the rest of my life: they will only replace the damaged surfaces of my old bones and add another scar to the knee. Now it is just waiting for Winter and my turn on their long list.

Blue light

On cloudy days the light here is blue. Even when I take the photos outdoors there is often not enough light. This quilt top is mostly blue, with light blue backgrounds and dark green sashings.

This picture was yesterday. Today I have spent a lot of time on my knees, and the quilt layers are now sandwiched with safety pins, just waiting to be quilted. My machine can manage a quilt of this size but not any bigger. I can quilt about an hour a day without cramps in my shoulders. I wonder why I can't keep them relaxed when I'm quilting; my shoulders just seem to seek my ears within minutes when I quilt on the machine.

Last Saturday we had a planning meeting at the Villa Cooper. The Christmas Shop was taken down, so I can only show you a view to the garden where our yarn bombing from last Summer still looks great. The renewed veranda will get a dark colour in the Spring.

We usually have small exhibitions in the closet under the stairs, sometimes collective work and sometimes from just one member. The exciting news is that my quilts have their turn in April, not just in the closet but also on the walls around it. I'm planning to borrow some quilts back from their owners, and make some new, small items to go on the shelves of the closet. Here is a picture of our Old Toys exhibitions over a year ago. As you see, quite a lot of space to fill with table runners and potholders!

Crafty Tourism, part 2

On the second day of our stay in Jyväskylä we visited (again) the Craft Museum. I have shown you their window exhibition in 2011 and I'm sure I have shown an exhibition with potholders on the wall and soap cups on the floor but I just can't find that post. Well, this is the same place, now with quilt buntings outside.

 

I wonder who made all these.

The trees in front of the museum were covered with knitted graffiti.

This one looks like a milk carton or a fancy birdhouse with no door opening.

Many colours have faded already. They could be hand dyed yarns.

 

  Or someone just liked earth colours.

 

I believe the trees all have fairy lights in the darker months of the year.

 

In the museum it wasn't allowed to take pictures of their new exhibition, but the permanent exhibition was also new to me. The lights were dim and flash was forbidden, but I managed to make some photos. This corset was made of candy wrappers, the delicious mint caramel and chocolate Marianne.

 

A bed quilt used as a coat.

 

A museum must have something old too, and this is an example of Carelian redwork in double running stitch. It is a long (2.5 m), narrow towel typical for Carelia in Eastern Finland.

Headwear to be used with different national costumes. The national costumes are reconstructed after festive clothing worn from the beginning of the 18th century onwards.

 

They can be bought, but also made by hand from the beginning: even weaving the fabric for the skirt and maybe the apron too, sewing and embroidering all the necessary pieces. The price of the DIY kit with fabrics is about one third or half of the complete costume.

 

They are mostly worn by folk dancers or at big celebrations like weddings or big birthdays, but they are not something one would be expected to have in one's wardrobe.

 

The men in the picture above are holding carved  parts of the spinning wheel system (where the bundle of fibres is attached before spinning), a typical gift item from the groom to the bride. Translation for this part was nowhere to be found.

 

At the end of our visit we had a nice surprise: Kaija decided to come home with us for a couple of days. We took a scenic route back home across a lake landscape. This one is through the car window,

but we also stopped where it was possible.

This is from a bridge to the opposite direction. Finland has thousands and more lakes like this, but on a day like this they look at their best.

Today we are melting again, the last few days have been new heat records one after another (yesterday 32.5 C/90.5F), and I would love to be at a lake to keep cool. Today is the final day of the Tour de France, and our three weeks long watching marathon will be over. While watching the cycling with Mr K., I have been crocheting these African Flowers after I finished the socks:

Crafty Tourism, part 1

This week we made a short holiday trip to Jyvaskyla to meet our daughter Kaija. She took us around her home city for a private tour, and we saw this charming group of houses, the Toivola Old Courtyard. The link is in English, you can see old photos and read about the history of this site.

 

We had some coffee and cold lemonade in this café, it was such a hot day.

Yarn bombing!

Antique dirt in the windows?

The blacksmith's workshop.

Some of these houses are relocated here from other parts of the city. There are artisan's shops and boutiques on the right.

 

This building is a yarn shop. I thought of all the yarn I have at home and just admired their collection.

 

 

Yarn bombing on the other side too.

 

 

Back in the modern part of the city, the rag rug in this pedestrian area looks realistic but it is painted. Kaija told there had been sofas too, but our rainy June made the organizers realize that they are not comfortable when soaked!

 

We must continue our tour to the Craft Museum in another post. Keep cool and enjoy your Summer/Winter.

Yarn Graffiti in the Garden of Villa Cooper

About a month ago I promised you pictures of the knitted art in the garden of Villa Cooper. While I was in the office filing papers, Mr K. was taking photos on my camera outdoors.

 

 

This big sign says "Hand Made", and it comes from our old shop by the lake.

 

Knitted stones.

 

My granny triangles in pink and grey.

Crocheted spirals. I remember these from kitchen towels in the 70's.

Knitted chair, quite charming!

My little knitted bunting between two pines.

Five weeks of rain and wind have not done any damage.

A Granny gazebo!

 

I could imagine a sweet old granny serving afternoon coffee, and cordial for the grandchildren, with freshly baked cinnamon rolls here.

All this has been done in broad daylight, as this is our garden and our rules.

 

No ski masks or boot polish were required. No growing trees or bushes were hurt. The pompoms in this oak tree are yarn wrapped around a foam core so they are very light.

 

Visitors have admired our free knitted (and crocheted) art exhibition. This was only a part of all the lovely details. I hope you enjoyed it too and picked up some ideas for your own environment.