CoffeeBagBasket

I finally had time to finish the latest basket project and ta-dah here it is. It is a basket made of coffee warps. Meaning the bags in which you buy your coffee beans. For decades this has been very popular craft all around Finland. There are many different kind of ways to use the coffee warps / bags. Ten years ago I made CoffeeBagPatchWork bag for Anne. This small basket I made now, is actually a sample item for my work, where we are going to have some Erasmus+ workshops at early December when having Erasmus+ job shadowing guests from Ireland and Germany at our community college. It will be up to for example green sustainability. This basket is one good example of it and FashionNOW. At work we have started to participate in interesting project where my role is to work with sustainability competence in handicrafts. One of my passions! 💚

UpcyclingToBasket

I return back to basket weaving in 2024 but it has been a bit silent in basket weaving. Now I have started a small interesting project for my work. It is up to upcycling something into a brand new different item. You'll hear more about this soon. It is going to be FashionNOW home decoration project.

FairIsleVest

Take a look what I've been up to lately during the autumn. It is my own design loose fit woolen vest. It is made or our own AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m) and dark brown Novita 7 veljestä yarn (80 % wool, 20 % polyamide) (100 g = 200 m). I plant dyed AAW yarn by coffee, tea, mushrooms and carnation. I used many loose end yarns for this project!

Last weekend I made many pictures for my upcoming Forest Sámi costume history book but I also made a pic of this super warm vest of me&myself so that you can see it.💚

The Reading Challenge 2026 - Part 5

 In September-October I've read novel and science book. 

Victoria Hislop's One August Night (in Finnish, mine) tells the story that was not told in her 1st book The Island. It is the story we all want to hear, because we are curious and can't just let the things to be. She wrote this book years and many books after The Island. It is more about noisy continental Greece than the island(s). If you liked her other book, this is a good choice for you.

Petri Halinen's Lapin arkeologia (in Finnish, mine) translates to Lapland's Archaeology. Unfortunately it is available only in Finnish. It tells the history of Lapland from the archaeology point of the view. Very interesting and educative. 

Hanne Andreassen Hjelmås & Torunn Steinsland's Knitting from Astrid Lindgren's world (in Finnish, library item). You know I read also craft books. I mean really read-read. I crashed at this super cute knitting book at the local library when I went to fetch something else there. Anyone who loves Astrid Lindgren's world and desires to knit should see this. Some of the designs include a link to tutorial video. The instructions are easy and understandable. This book brought me back to my long nights at the local library as a kid where I just sat and read by the shelve where Astrid's books were placed.

HealthyTea

Last week I juiced the last berries of the season. I make berry soup of it. And it is part of my daily diet. I must admit that this mixed berries soup was incredibly good. Buck thorns created interesting but great taste with the cherries to it all.

In the woods I have picked up juniper berries. Did you know that it takes 2-3 years of juniper berries to get matured? That's a long time. At first they look green but when they turn black they are ready. I crushed some juniper berries.

I mixed it with dried rose petals, dried meadowsweet leaves and blossoms, lady's mantle leaves and common yarrow blossoms. All from my award winning arctic garden.

 

I added good quality plain black tea. Now we have a great and healthy mix for the autumn and winter! Notice this mix is not for pregnant ladies.