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!

Sock Yarn Challenge taken

In June I collected information about knitting projects for different charities to share with other knitters on WWKIP Day. In my own stash I found some squares I had knitted for what we call Mother Teresa's blankets. Originally they were sent to her organization in India but today most blankets are sent to the Finnish Red Cross and delivered to victims of catastrophes all over the world. One blanket is made of 30 squares, and they are a perfect way to use rest yarns from other projects. My friend Melanie has challenged herself to use up her sock yarns, and I decided I could do the same, limiting the challenge to the heavier yarns with 75 % to 100 % wool.

I have now used almost all my heavier rest yarns, trying to scatter the colours so that the last squares would not all be grey with beige.

When the small balls were nearly all used, I took some bigger ones from my sock yarn box, and bought a couple of new ones when they were on sale.

Here I used the tiniest bits, just enough to make two rows in a corner. My challenge is also to get all 30 squares knitted while the Tour de France lasts and we spend a lot of time watching TV, as usual in July every year.

This Summer has been the hottest I can remember. Lovely for the flowers, but very tiring for elderly people like me ;o).

New finishes

Remember the treasures my daughter sent me and I just found recently? The light beige knitting with needles sticking in was a beautiful lace scarf in the making, and the yarn lovely Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The reason it had remained a WIP was the complicated pattern with a hickup neither she or I could trace. I didn't want to waste the beautiful yarn so I unraveled her knitting as far as I could.

Because it is a mohair yarn, it was rather difficult to unravel, and I had to leave some of it as it was. Then I rinsed the skein I had made and dried it, and thinking of cobwebs on grass in an early morning I looked for a lace pattern I could keep track on.

Then I found this pattern, bought a number 4 circular needle that is as smooth as can be, and started knitting. I used all the yarn there was and was surprised to see how big the shawl finally was. light like a cobweb, a little over 60 grams I think it is.

Then I finally quilted the Windy Day quilt I made for our grandson number 2.

Detail of the fabrics.

Today I'm fighting with a puckering backing of the next quilt I'm trying to quilt on my machine. Rip, rip, rip ...

Blogger has stopped sending me the comments by email. It makes answering back more complicated, and I'm trying to change back to receiving them on my email again.

Edit: Now the comments are coming to my email again. Thank you for your help, Radka!

Knit in Public Day at Villa Cooper

Today was the day when knitters in 560 events in 53 countries gathered in parks, shops and other public places to knit together and to make the world a better place. We knitted at Villa Cooper, in the lovely big garden.

We had received lots of yarns ad other crafty materials as a donation, and auctioned them as the main attraction of our KIP Day.

We will pay it forward and give the money for local mental health work.

As you can see, the weather was sunny and so warm that we could sit and knit in the garden. Many knitters came to attend the day. I was able to give them different patterns for knitted bunnies and baby sweaters, and the address where to send the finished items.

I hope we can do this again next year, with more ideas and more knitters!

Quilt for a boy

It took me long but the quilt top is finally finished.

This will be big (120 x 150 cm) for our new grandson now but he can use it for years when he has grown a little first. I think he will like to look at the swing and the dog, find the different birds and all the little critters in jars and on leaves.

I'm organizing a Knit in Public event with our Villa Cooper club on the 9th of June, and it has kept me busy. We will be showing ways to knit for different charities, and I knitted this Apupupu bunny for the Finnish Red Cross as one example. These soft toys are added to deliveries of children's clothes sent to different parts of the world where help is needed after catastrophes.

We will also auction crafty materials for mental health work, and have table for yarns and needles and such to bring and take for free. I just hope this warm weather we have had for weeks will also help us then to get many visitors and enable picnic style knitting in the lovely garden. A popup cafe will hopefully also attract visitors.

Hidden treasure

Last week Mr K. had brought in a big cardboard box when he was reorganizing our storage. I had a sneak peek to see what was in it. Ooh! It was unbelievably lovely, everything was like hand picked for my taste. I thought it was like a dream come true ... well, before I thought of where to put it all.

A few seconds later I understood this loot was what he had brought for me last Autumn when our daughter Kaija moved to Helsinki and told me she was sending me "some yarn and scraps for fabric" she didn't need. (The fabrics need another post.) As I had not seen the box on its arrival I had forgotten all about it, maybe because I had enough yarn to keep me busy. Now the treasure box really made my day!

You can see that she had some unfinished projects, with needles and patterns and the necessary yarn.

It took me about half an hour to knit the thumbs for the mittens:

And two evenings, some trial and error, to make the second sock approximately the same size as the one she had finished. I needed to use smaller needles.The leg part was finished, I just knitted the foot in the darker yarn. Alpaca, lovely to knit. All the yarns in Kaija's box were really good quality.

Finishing other people's UFOs can be very satisfying, as I don't have the experience of the problem that made them stay unfinished. The pale beige mohair lace scarf may be tricky, as Kaija told me there is an error somewhere. Finding and fixing it may be difficult, and unraveling that kind of yarn is no child's play! I did unravel two of her UFOs, a fingerless mitten crocheted so tightly that I have no chance to create the missing pair, this is the brownish curly skein on the left of the thumbless mittens, and a black circle crocheted to make a hat. There was a big ball of that yarn, so I can give it a try and make her a black beret. At the moment I'm knitting something with the red self striping yarn from the top photo. 

This sock yarn I have knitted earlier is also self striping:

Suddenly we have Summer temperatures and I have planted the first summer flowers.