Vipera berus

In last March The Forest got us. Since that it has shown many miracles to us. Today when visiting Forest I found something very interesting. We have been aware of that there might be snakes but now I spotted a real sign of it. It is the skin of the common European adder (Vipera berus). On the picture you can see only a small part of it because it already was so dry and broken. 

In Finland you can meet three snakes: the common European adder, grass snake (Natrix natrix) and Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca). Smooth snake you can meet only on Åland Island. Grass snake you can meet in South Finland. The common European adder is the only snake you can meet in Lapland. And it is the only poisonous snake in Finland. But it doesn't use its poison each time it bites. 

The common European adder is protected animal and you are not allowed to disturb it. Which means that only if you find it near your house you are allowed to remove it to a different location. 

Later today in Forest I noticed one adder in the swamp. I have never seen a snake/adder in wild before. It was beautiful and I felt no fear at all. It was adorable flexible and limber when it moved to hide from me. Meeting the adder was one of the big moments in the wild, like spotting the grey seals a year ago. Actually, from these two blog post you can see the years are never the same what comes the seasons and weather. This year our spring has crashed in fast and assured.

The mosquito are here, which is very early. But also the blooming has started. This is Hare's-tail cotton grass (Eriophorum vaginatum). It is one of my favorite swamp plant. We can meet also cotton grass in Forest.

This is bog rosemary (Andromeda polifolia) which also grows in Forest. It is relatively small swamp area flower. But when it appears with many other bog rosemary plants it is like a pink pearl blanket has spread over the swamp. It reminds wild rosemary / Labrador tea (Rhododendron tomentosum, syn. Ledum palustre), which is my favorite swamp flower, but bog rosemary is much smaller.

SweaterHemming -tutorial

I bought this wonderful Devold 100 % wool sweater from Svalbard, Norway in 2018. That means 8 yrs ago. I also bought that Svalbard-Longyearbye -badge I sew on the sleeve. This sweater has been in "all year around" -use and very dear to me. Now the hems of its right sleeve has started to worn out. (I am right handed.) There are signs of it also in the left sleeve and trunk hem too. That's why I have been thinking how to fix it because otherwise the sweater is still in perfect fit.

Instead of patching I decided to use crocheting. I used simple crochet stitch. It is easy to make also for the beginners and it fades well into the knitting. If the hem has already broken yarns, make sure you make your crochet stitch far enough to make sure you catch everything. You get it very neat when you crochet each stitch equal distance, according to the deepest point your yarn has been broken.

At the end -like in my case- even the new yarn would be different shade, it fits in well. I could have used also white yarn, but I didn't want to. there are different shades of whites too and because the other shade is red I was afraid of the new white would not hide the red under the white so well. Make sure you choose as similar quality of yarn as possible compared to the original sweater. You can go seeking it wearing the sweater. 💕

On the tutorial video above you can see and learn how to make it. It really is FashionNOW. It also saves your personal time, energy and money... not to mention the PlanetEarth. I bet this makes your favorite sweater even dearer because now you fix it yourself and created a new memory!

OOW Mittens No1

I designed and knit mittens for myself. I used loose end yarn from my own design WaterGrassVest project. These mittens match well with the vest. I am knitting woollen gloves to wear under these mittens. It is going to be something extra warm for my hands for the next winter. I used our own OOW yarn. (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) (100g = 220m) This is not fast fashion. It is slow craft and FashionNOW.

RainbowMittens No1

Only in January 2026 I was learning Shepherd's crochet. And by MayDay 2026 I was having a workshop about it at annual Rovaniemi Craft Expo because of my job together with all the community colleges of Lapland. Each college had their own workshop around the same table. Next year I'll be there again. Next year the annual Craft Expo in Rovaniemi Lapland will be held 17.-18.4.2026. I will be there again on Saturday 17.4. showing up some other artisan work. You are always welcome to pop in and chat. We don't sell anything, we share only the information. There will be also craft/artisan small business to sell their products.

I designed and made these beautiful RainbowMittens No1 for the show in Rovaniemi. I used Novita 7 veljestä yarn (80 % wool, 20 % polyamide) (100 g = 200 m) for both blue and rainbow yarn. They are made by Shepherd's crochet.

BlackBlack

Yep. It is true. It is dry now and been in the sun light. Accidentally I ended up to plant dye Iron Age black shade. How? Can't tell you yet, because it is the information for my upcoming book, but black it is. Made by the sources that have been locally available always and officially for 300 years, perhaps at least 500. I have used 2 different baths for this black.