QueenBee

I made a scissor holder. Originally it is a free kit called Queen Bee that origins to Cross Stitcher Magazine (September 2022, issue 387). It was designed to be a card but I made something else of it. 

Bees are very important creatures and need protection. They also play an important role in biodiversity. You can help out in nature conservation by protecting bees and supporting the work that is done for them. You can read more on internet and get familiar with the issue.

Also, other insects are important for the biodiversity. In our gardens we should welcome them all and create natural ecosystem in there. When it works right and proper you don't need chemicals in your home garden!

SpringIndeed

When you look outside you see the spring. This year it is more snowy that in past years. The climate change means more rain and the rain means it falls down as snow around here.

You can see and hear the signs of the spring everywhere. We still keep our eyes on birds and feeding. There are days it is better still provide the feeding. They are already working hard in my garden but we still help them to survive over the snowy season.

Some days there is snow free areas and some days not. This path leads to our bird feeding station. For the next week they have forecast rain. This week it arrived as snow. If it arrives as water it  makes the snow melt faster.

The waters are still frozen: sea, bays, rivers, lakes... Only the stream and rapid places are open now. But it is enough for the swans, ducks and geese to eat and stay, not to fly back to south.

The quality of this zoomed smart phone pic is not so good but hope you can spot out a bit of blood and two pike heads. An otter has caught some spring time pikes for lunch.

Also, some warm shores of the bay seem to be exposed for the sun-sun-sun! Today the daylight time is 16 hours 36 minutes and keeps on increasing until MidSummer.

The spring means also school end season at work. 

It means also visits. Kirke and Kusmi have turn out such a good voyagers that even a taxi driver got worried and asked if they are still alive because they were so quiet and well behaving. Usually they travel in a bus instead of a taxi. They can use even a portable litter box so it is just fine to make a 12 hour long journey with them. 

The cats and dogs get along very well. The dogs, especially Nuka who is already 9 years, loves to watch them like a TV. There's always something going on! 😄

This spring means also a voyage for me. At work we were accepted in Erasmus+ accreditation so it has become a time to renew my ID-card. I am leaving the town... not quite yet but soon. Flights are already booked.

HobbyBag

I designed and sew another big fabric bag. It is for my bobbin lace base made of Finnfoam frost insulation sheet (you will see it later). 

It has an important pocket to carry things but also point out the side I need to place up when I carry it with me and place on the car seat or on anything else.

The opening of the bag's mouth is huge so I use a cord to close it up to prevent anything roll out.

Carder'sBag

At work I designed and sew a big fabric bag of left over fabric.

I need to carry something with me every now and then. For practical reasons I need a bag for it. But it came without a bag when I ordered it at work for the students' use.

It is a bag for Golden Fleece drum carder for spinning and felting. The students love it and I am satisfied on it too; both drum carder and bag. The carder and equipment fit in the bag so it is easy for me to carry it all around without fear dropping something into snow and lost forever.

RelaxedMind

My Northern Lights puzzle is finally finished. Before it was completely done I had to face the most difficult part which was the top edge sky. The sorting out puzzle boxes were really helpful in the process.

Finally I managed to do it. It is a beautiful winter scene from Lapland, Finland. I had a great time making it.

I don't know which one brings more satisfaction and pleasure: making a jigsaw puzzle or breaking it back to thousands of pieces. It is a proof of it that I was able to steal some me-time for absolutely non-productivity oriented busy work and world. Absolutely good for ones mental health! 

WeavingAndSewing

Last Autumn I participated on tablet weaving course at work which we arranged in co-operation with local museum Tornionlaakson museo. It has been a busy year but now I am about to finish the tablet woven band basing on 14th century textile in a burial from Valmarinniemi, Keminmaa. It is going to be a sample for my band weaving course in May 2024.

I have started also a sewing project. It is time for a new dress. I need a costume for an upcoming jubilee in May 2024. 

I can't do much gardening yet because the world still looks like this. 

Chiengora

It is early April and furry time of the year. Last Friday the morning temperature was -20 C (in some villages around -25 C). Yesterday morning -10 C and this morning only -6 C. My garden is still 100 % covered by the snow. The statistic fact is that average the snow stays on the ground for 6 months around here. It arrived (permanent) 10.10.2023 and seems is not melting away yet. 

Spinning dog wool (chiengora) is a warm thing to do. Spinning is for sure slow craft and can be very much up to mindfulness after you have learnt the technique. I love to spin with Liinu. This month I again have one spinning course and Liinu will come with me.

The Reading Challenge No4

The Reading Challenge 2024 is here!

On 2024 I encourage you to read books in different genres. No other rules but the genre. The meaning is to introduce different kind of literature and authors to yourself. But, you can still choose your favorite one if the genre is familiar to you. Notice, you can always drop out the book if you dislike it. It is highly recommended to use second hand books, borrowed books and your local library collection. If possible, read in all the languages you can. Also, don't be afraid of to pick up a book you have already read in the past. The second round at different age may bring you new experiences. 

April 2024 theme is SPEECH!

Yes, a speech. It doesn't matter who wrote it or when. The point is to read it, not listen to or watch it. You can find speech on internet, library/museum collections etc. Perhaps someone you know, wrote a speech or you were in a lecture where someone made a good speech. You can ask if you can see it and read it. Let's start to find an interesting speech to read!

BearGoesFishing

On 2024 I encourage you to read specific genres of literature. March 2024 theme is fable. Typical to fables is that -because they are spoken tradition- the story depends on the speaker but the basic idea stays the same. 

My favorite fable is Bear Goes Fishing. It tells about a bear who wakes up too early and is very hungry. It meets a fox who has got a lot of fishes (stolen) but doesn't want to share. The fox fools the bear to go ice-fishing by his long beautiful and furry tail to get his own fishes. The bear is very patient despite it hurts and sits there all night long. The fox makes people to chase the bear so he gets frightened and pulls his tail out of the ice hole to escape. Because the tail has got frozen into the ice hole during the night it snaps and the bear looses his long tail forever. The story is very educative and has many perspectives and the result is always the same: because it happened the bear doesn't have his tail anymore and the tail is could be useful in his life.

ThisEaster

My Easter and Spring are snowy. Today we had a small snow storm and my garden is still 100 % covered by the snow. Still it is spring and the first swans have arrived already. Still it is spring and time for outdoor adventure and Easter decoration. More about decorating the willow twigs for the witches who make good fortune spells you can find here.

I usually dye the eggs by onion peels but this time I tried out two different kind of onions and a tea bag. I included some chamomile with the yellow onion peels. The egg shells impact on the shades so the plants give different shades on eggs than on yarns. Anyway its fun scale of brown.

Of course I did also some spinning. You can't avoid that if spending traditional Easter and follow traditional lifestyle at this corner of the world. 

Our special family tradition is try out something new every Easter. It may turn out a disaster or discovery. This year it turn out discovery. It is traditional Swedish bacon pancake. Poor Pii who had her 4th birthday almost starved because she really was not allowed to taste despite it smelled so good! The recipe is very simple also for gluten free baking. We will definitely use it many times in the future. 

Gluten free bacon pancake

approx 200g bacon

chop & fry

pour over a baking tray covered by a baking paper

4 eggs

1 liter milk

4-6 dl gluten free flour mix

1 tea spoon salt

mix well together

pour over the fried bacon

cook in 200 Celsius degrees until beautiful color (30-40 min)

notice pan cake seems and feels a bit raw when you take it out from oven

let it cool down so it gets its final form

serve as cold with lingon jam (or your favorite)

Roll-UpPuzzleMat

I started Northern Lights Puzzle in February. For the first time I used puzzle mat because I knew when starting that I will progress slow and I need to put it a side at least for once.

It is TACTIC Roll-Up Puzzle Mat. It has inflatable tube (the white one on the pic) with three elastic fasteners. The fabric is 1mm black felt. 

The puzzle mat is easy to use for rolling up and opening. What I don't like in it is the felt fabric when you are doing the puzzle. I prefer slippery base. Because of the frost and cold climate my fingertips are usually dry no matter how I try to moisture them. The felt background feels tricky and sticky when making the puzzle despite they work perfect when needing to roll it all away in the middle of the process.

Finally there

I started a new hobby 14.9.2023. Over the winter I've been practicing. I still love it as much when started, If possible, even more. It is my long term dream.

I could have done it smaller but I decided make it longer. And finally I have approx 120 cm long bobbing lace made by me!

Then I just needed to cut it off and make end knots. It was a bit exciting because I did it alone at home, without my teacher.

Then I ironed it and made a photo for you to see it. Later you will see where I will put it on. How exciting!

Lumipallerot

I designed and made children wollen pullover Lumipallerot (=snow ball tots). It was an interesting project. 

I used blue Novita's Natural Colledction Islandic wool (100% wool) (50g = 90m) and white Novita's Isoveli (75% wool, 25% polyamidi) (100g = 130m) yarn. 

I used mixed methods to make it. It has themes from Icelandic and Norwegian pullovers, Fair Island knit and Bubble Stitch knit. It also has raglan sleeves.

There is tutorial for Bubble Stitch. I made it in 2016.

NewEnd

Do you remember BlanketNo4? I did it 9 years ago!!! Can you believe how the time runs?! BlanketNo4 is still here. Injured and fixed. Someone (dear Pii) ate (accidentally) a piece of it when chewing a bone meanwhile laying on the blanket. 

At the end everything ends up to animals when old and used enough. BlanketNo4 ended up to dogs privilege to use because in cold season when having my nap I allow them on sofa with me to warm me up. I always used BlanketNo4. So, the dogs learnt it is ok to lay on it. So, they sometimes lay on it without me. And that lead to the accident and moment I noticed there was a hole in the blanket.

No panic. Almost everything can be fixed. And well planned is half done. So, after planning it well and thinking a lot I took my scissors and cut off approx 35 cm from the end of the blanket where the hole located. Then I gently unpick the last 1-2 rows of crochet stitches and used a big plastic tapestry needle to take a thread through the remain and opening stitches to catch them.

Then I used white Novita's 7 veljestä yarn (75 % wool, 25% polyamide) (100g = 200m) to crochet the new end for the blanket. The original yarn is Sirdar's Babouska yarn. (52% wool, 39% acrylic, 9% nylon) (50g=115m) and after 9 years we still have the blanket also in human use. The Babouska yarn seems to be a real bargain.

TattingProject

In September I started a new tatting project. I have not had much time for doing only it. But it is progressing a knot by knot.

Tatting is a perfect carry on craft project for the moments you need to sit and wait. My winter holiday included waiting in hospital's corridor because I was just a chauffeur so it was a perfect moment for tatting away. This is how the project looks now.

GardeningSpring

It is spring! Indeed it is. My spring may look a bit different than yours. But it is there: the spring. I can see it in many ways. I can experience it all the time. Today we made a spring cleaning in the green house. The snow and ice has melted enough so we were able to open the door and get in.

The black berry is alive! We bought and planted it on 2021 in our greenhouse. It has never been covered over the winter but has Finnfoam insulation like all the other wooden beds. So far it has not produced one single berry but I hope soon it will. It takes a bit time -more than usual- of plants to adapt and accept the new colder location & climate. This year it seems the blackberry needs at least 3 years of time. Later we'll see, is 3 years enough for producing berries.

I bought and planted the grapevine Zilga also in 2021. We had a setback in Her first ever winter 2021-2022. And I still am very sorry for it. For my defense I must say autumn and winter 2021 was very hard. Zilga seems to understand it and survived after a great patience. Everything else except a piece of her root had frozen. In the winter 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 we have remembered to cover her by Finnfill and it has helped a lot. She was still late last spring but seems to be alive and waking up already now. I expect her producing grapes never because of the arctic location and non-heated green house. But hope some day her leaves will grow plenty and big enough so that we can use some for cooking.