Sunday, 24 July 2022

Blocks, socks and flowers

Still going purple with my quilt blocks, Rainbow Scrap Challenge's colour for July. I found a plaid with purple in my stash so I made two 9-patch blocks for future use.


My knitting has been with purple as well, using up last bits of baby merino wool I bought for chemo patient hats some years ago. I thought there would be enough light blue yarn to finish a pair of bed socks for my own use, but I was mistaken. I'm forced to go yarn shopping in a real yarn shop as this yarn is not grocery store quality. Poor me! I might have to buy some other yarn there as well, if I'm tempted, which I probably will be.


I have mentioned sock knitting in most of my posts, and here is finally a photo of my efforts towards using up my yarn stash. The all grey pair needed just a little more than I had, so I bought more, and then knitted several pairs of small grey socks with stripes that used up tiny rests. Now all I have left really is some black and some white, and I have started a pair of mittens for a change.


Villa Cooper's campaign to raise money for the Finnish Red Cross to help Ukraine is still going. I'm happy my Red Crosses quilt has been sold. I have made these mug rugs with flowers and with birds in raw applique. 


The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. Each set of two mug rugs has one sunflower and one other flower.


Here are some of the little birds:


 

Saturday, 9 July 2022

Purple blocks in July

This month I have been working on some blocks for my new quilt. I made a purple hat and another that is at least almost purple, if not just some kind of pink.


These mittens are more purple than the second hat.


And the second pair of mittens is definitely purple.


The knitting basket is full to the rim, but the socks in it are not yet ready for a photo shoot. After a long heat wave we are having a cloudy day with much welcome rain. I will wait for better light on a sunny day.

I'm linking this post to Soscrappy's blog for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022.

 

Saturday, 25 June 2022

More blue

Midsummer holidays have kept me from my sewing machine, so only two new blue blocks have been finished since my last post.


The one hat on the left is a really light blue. I designed the block myself, and it took me several attempts to get the pompom look somewhat round, and the proportions of the hat and bottom fold right. Now I'm pleased with the result, and will make more hats in different colors.

I'm linking this to So Scrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Next time I hope to have all my recent knitting sorted and photos taken. The mountain of socks is getting bigger every week.

 

Saturday, 18 June 2022

Blue blocks

This month the Rainbow Scraps are blue. My 2½" squares' box had enough squares in these blue plaids:


I felt like starting something new, so I went through my other blue and light blue stash and found these floral prints and one dotty fabric most suitable for mugs. The one in the middle is for me, a left handed mug.


Rag doll making leaves me with odd shaped bits of white sheet fabric from the ends and sides, where the sheets are not worn thin. I often cut these bits in 2½" squares for the 9-patch blocks, or even smaller like 1½" and 1" and even 3/4" squares for cutting corners like these mugs. Bigger leftovers are stored in a box and can be cut for longer strips like the ones I'm going to need when I join the mugs to a row and add background on both sides of the row.

I hope to add to this new quilt project something blue next week too.

 

Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Unicef dolls - two new ones

My fingers have been itching with some new ideas for Unicef dolls. Several of those I have shown earlier have found new homes, and I felt there was a need for a basic cloth doll with a pretty frock. For some reason I find the fabrics from my own childhood best for the little dresses, like this one with delicate red roses and blue stripes. She feels almost like a princess in it. The ribbons in her hair are pure silk.



The next doll has more character. Her name is Eerika. She has been at the library after work and is on her way to a vernissage at an art gallery. For tomorrow night she has booked theater tickets with the other girls, and they may go out for a meal too. I think she would make a perfect 50th or 60th birthday gift for any lady of her type. You know, leggings and a tunic that is wide around the hips so the latest cake-eating doesn't show, and the long scarf to hide age spots and wrinkles on her cleavage. The comfortable tunics in plus sizes tend to have such wide necklines. What you don't see here is a strand of her otherwise raven black hair tinted purple like her glasses.



Here they are together. The doll pattern is internationally used for all Unicef dolls, but creativity is allowed and recommended for the rest. I have never counted the hours it takes to make a doll from start to finish, but the hair alone takes hours. The dolls are not tested for safety and therefore Unicef has made a label saying the doll is a decoration and not recommended for children under 14 years. I have sewn the label together with the Unicef logo label in the side seam of their left leg, and the same warning is printed on the identity card I fill in for each doll. Years ago, before these warnings, doll makers were told to avoid buttons and anything that might be dangerous for small children. I think it is up to the parents to decide whether their child can play with a hand made cloth doll, but I also welcome people over 14 years of age to find the fun of playing with dolls, or just owning a cloth doll that is special to them for some reason. I have had some wonderful moments with my own Swallows and Amazons dolls, taking photos of them in different environments.




 

Sunday, 15 May 2022

Sage and forest green

After some busy knitting I decided to take the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for this month. The colours are sage and forest green, most pleasing colours for men's plaid shirts. My special stash is full of men's shirts, washed, cut apart and ironed, sorted by colour and waiting for inspiring projects. My RSC block is a simple 9-patch with white. The idea of forest green is luckily a very wide range of green shades, from pine and fir and juniper to early Spring or Summer leaves of birch, aspen, willow and alder, moss greens and all kinds of forest flowers. This is my selection:



Normally I would have chosen only plaids, but the solid green at the center was too nice to be left out.



I have not yet decided how to set the blocks. If I'm going to make several new blocks each month I may have enough blocks to make two new quilts at the end of the year.

Saturday, 23 April 2022

Helping Bunnies for Red Cross

As many of you know, I love to knit socks. That means many balls of yarn, and finally many tiny leftover balls of those yarns. Luckily the Finnish Red Cross has published a knitting pattern, designed by Anu Pensola, a soft toy to bring comfort to children in need. This bunny is a cousin of the Trauma Teddy from the Australian Red Cross. Currently there is a campaign to get new bunnies knitted for every child coming from Ukraine to Finland.


I happened to have all these bits of yarn just waiting for a useful purpose, so I knitted five bunnies. They are knitted in the round so only minimal seams need sewing. The bunny is stuffed through the feet left open when starting, and through the final opening between the ears.


Even a few meters of  leftover yarn were enough to make some stripes in the sweaters. The scarf has been sewed tight in the neck so it will not get lost. The knitting café Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten, is one of the places where knitters can bring their bunnies. The campaign has been running from the end of March, and on Friday when I took my bunnies to them, they had two baskets full of bunnies waiting for delivery. The campaign will last until the end of May, so there is still time to knit a bunny or three.

Before getting the idea of knitting bunnies I used some leftover yarns like they are usually used, for striped socks.


These went to Villa Cooper and the selection sold to raise money for the Red Cross. Both pairs are knitted in a finer wool and that makes them perfect for Summer use in wellies or crocs at the holiday cabin.

I don't spend all my spare time knitting, I have a soft spot for quilting as well. This month's colour in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink, and I found two suitable plaids in my cupboards. I made these six 9-patch blocks:


I wonder what the colour for May will be. I decided to keep to this 9-patch block only in this challenge.