HusqvarnaAutomatic21E

I thought I had told you about Marilla but when I tried to seek a link for this blog post I realized I still had not. I am truly sorry about that. I did mention about Marilla but after that I never introduced her to you. I bought her 3½ years ago on internet second hand shop. I paid 100 € plus 20 € postage cost. Plus 130 € to a technician of the service fee. Helga was really getting old and need a retirement home. She lives with YoungLady now and sits happily on her wardrobe shelf waiting small duties to accomplish.

So, this is Marilla. She is Husqvarna Automatic 21 E. She arrived with original but stinking carry on box which I quite soon threw away. I know it might have had some antique value but I don't want anything moldy into my GreenOldHouse. The box was made of cardboard and fabric so just washing it was out of the question. I cleaned Marilla, tested her and took her to the service. 

I didn't tell you about her because I was not sure will she stay or not. Would she work or not. Would she last or not. And yes, here she is, still with me, Siiri and Anne. But because I had thrown away her original cover she has been needing a new one. Sewing it has not been the priority no 1. I already had an idea of her cover but when I received another gift I knew I will make a certain kind of cover for her.

I received this beautiful The Liberty Book of Simple Sewing by Lucinda Ganderton and Christine Leech as a gift from a dear friend few years ago. In this sewing book is many beautiful sewing projects. It is an excellent book also for the beginners because of proper instructions. I have a bible written by Lucinda Ganderton and it is Stitch Dictionary. 

In the book is this kind of design and pattern for a sewing machine cover. I did some personal touch to it but the basic pattern is from the book. I used the fabrics I have received from the same friend who sent me the book. Also, I used fabrics from my grandma's stash I inherit after her passing away in 2010. And I used fabric I received from a student for my personal use as a thank you gift. 

On the back side of the cover is a pocket for the extension plate. Inside the cover is another pocket. It is for the foot controller.

I can tell you Marilla is very happy with her new cover. She is a very good worker and does the best despite of her high age. 

There she sits with Siiri; side by side on the decoupage drawer chest. If you pay attention on the picture you perhaps notice someone else is sitting there with them... 

HeelPartPatching

For Yule 2024 YoungLady didn't receive any new pair of woollen socks. Instead she received the old patched ones. Her AAW Fair Isle Socks No4 faced a cat catastrophe and she was very sad about it but still loves her cats.

I could easily have just cut off the foot part of the sock and just knit a new one. The problem was, the socks were still in perfect fit. Someone had just chew it in the darkest hours during the night while she was sleeping. I didn't want to waste the material. That´s why I chose the most difficult option. I decided to mend it. That's why I need to use the same method I showed you in ToePart -tutorial. Now I just needed to stay in the middle of everything without cutting off anything.

So, I just (haha, not only just) started to climb up by knitting the hole to be closed. I needed some extra yarn to be able to do so. On the edges I used needle to fasten the side stitches to the new knitted row. So, I didn't knit from a yarn ball but from a long piece of yarn which I was able to pull through the stitches. For that I used the duplicate stitching method.

At the end I need to make sure everything is ok and fastened to something in the way it won't unravel itself. If you really use the woollen socks in your daily life the inside of it like felts quite soon. So, my only concern was to get it all stay in together until the felting begins. When the inside surface starts to felt, it is very difficult to get anything unravel. 

This is how it looks finished. Not perfect, not like the original one. But this was one of my most difficult wool patching project and I spent hours doing it. It was difficult because of the place the chewing appeared: the lowest part of the leg (ankle) and the uppermost part of the heel. In the same time I could have just cut the foot part off and knit a new one. Instead I chose FashionNOW. YoungLady is very happy for it and the whole project. She really appreciates I did this and all the trouble I had for it.

ToePart -tutorial

AAW Fair Isle Socks No1 needed new toe parts. Instead of patching I decided to make the whole new toe parts. I could have just unravel it by seeking the end and pull it all out.

Unraveling is not always possible or it might be the most difficult solution. That's why I decided to show you another option.

First you pick up the stitches you want to keep. Then you cut off the part you are not going to keep. Cut as close as possible to ease your work but make sure you don't damage the stitches you want to keep.

The unravel the rest of the stitches you want to get rid of. Then you just knit the new toe parts -or what ever needed- for your knitting project. 

It is not difficult to save the materials and the planet Earth. It is not difficult to bring the FashionNOW into your lifestyle. It is more about the attitude and respecting the life.

Sámi National Day

Today is The Sámi National Day. I always feel a bit sorrow on this day instead of joy. It is because there is discrimination among Sámi people.

I was brought up in the Sámi minority group among Sámi nation. Despite I have relations to all northern Sámi groups like we all have, still some persons from the bigger Sámi groups experience they have the right to discriminate us who belong to the minority groups.

There is no such a thing existing on the planet Earth that we could call a pure blood Sámi of some certain Sámi tribe. We all are mixed up more or less together and many also to other nations like Finns, Swedish and Norwegians. 

The discrimination of Forest Sámi and Inari Sámi people appear because they have lost the spoken Sámi language. They claim these Forest Sámi and Inari Sámi people lost also the culture. They connect the ethnicity to the language only. In practical, if your grandparent have spoken Sámi language but all the other parts of the cultural heritage have been missed and lost you can have the status to vote at Sámi Parliament elections. If the spoken language has vanished OR they don't believe your testimony but all the other cultural parts are alive, you are not able to receive the status to vote.

Always on The Sámi National Day I wish Forest Sámi people will some day be equal to the other Sámi people. I wish they stop telling lies about us and accusing us being fake and after their rights... We talk so much about the rights today. Who has which right to what ever. What about the responsibilities? As a Forest Sámi I don't have much rights compared to some other Sámi groups. One reason for that is that according to Forest Sámi tradition it was more about the responsibilities than the rights. We, perhaps, spent more energy on our responsibilities than fighting for our rights.

One of my biggest responsibilities today as a Forest Sámi is helping out to breathe alive our own language. It means I need to study first the closest possible language: Inari Sámi. It is so similar to Kemi Sámi language that they can be called each others dialects. I am studying Inari Sámi for the 2nd year now. The progress is slow and needs time but I can hear the whispers of my great grandfather and great grandmother already. 

Breathing alive our own Sámi language as spoken is a slow process because we don't have the right to vote, so we don't have the right to the sámipublic funding to reactivate our Sámi language as spoken. Because we don't have the funding, we have no proper formal research group not to mention school books to start to learn! It doesn't stop us, it just slows us down. Here we come!

Puerre sääme kaažâpeäive puokkâid!

Merry Sámi National Day to Everybody!

NB Hat No1

A year ago I started to learn needlebinding which I have wanted to learn for a long time. He made me 3 moose bone binding needles. Past 12 months -every now and then- I've been practicing this ancient skill. Practicing has included also planned pauses. In my learning process these pauses have had the deeper meaning: to forget. And to be able to start again, to be able to jump back in when you have no idea what is going on. 

Today I have something to show you. It is a traditional style round start hat made with Finnish stitch (2+2 F2). I used our old ethic produced dog wool OOW (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) collection. This hat I started and finished last week when I was at a conference.

It is a brand new woolen hat. Despite it includes an ancient method needlebinding, it is made with FashionNOW ideology. It is made of locally produced ethic wool. Manufacturing the hat itself has not needed electricity or other energy except my needle and hands.