Easter 2025

This Easter we spent at home and had some visitors up here in the North. I had few moments when I had some time to enjoy about the sunshine, warmth and knitting outside.

We made the 1st bike tour in the local area for this spring. It was windy and a bit chilly there where you could not hide from the wind.

But there where you could hide from the wind was very warm and comfortable. We climbed to the bird watching tower with our binoculars to look out over the bay to spot swans, mallards, greylag geese, golden eyes, sea gulls and mergansers. If you remember we are participating in the nature conservation project of goldeneyes.

If you compare the pics of this post to the spring trip 2024 you can see this year we didn't have so much snow, neither frost. The sea is still frozen but it is melting fast.

FeltedSoap1

One of my very special and great 50th birthday gifts was felted soap bar. I've seen ones few times but never tested it. Now I have used the one I received as a gift and had great experiences with it. It was a surprise that the felt cover shrunk with the soap. My expectation was it gets loose little by little when the soap shrunk. But only at the end the felt was loose! Wow!

Because it was such a great experience I decided to have a new one. I  made my 1st ever felted soap bar. This soap bar is first wet felted. Then I continued the process with needle felting. You can't push the needle straight down because the soap bar is inside. But you can use the needle "sideways". Just testing how it works best. Felted soap bar is an excellent for full body wash and scrub. I used Marseille soap and Finnsheep wool. Usually they use merino wool for the felted soap bars. I do have a lot of Finnsheep wool so I use it. Its more rough and harsh but perfect also for this body scrub soap!

AAW Dyes

I have desired and planned this for quite a long time. Finally, I have found some time to do it. I used plant dyes to get some more shades for our AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). You can see the original shade above and dyed ones below.

I used Fair Trade coffee to get 500g light camel brown  and 500g camel brown shades. It's been years since I've been doing plant -or any kind of- dyeing. I didn't stir at all the camel brown shade during the process because I wanted to create uneven and spotty result so that at the end the finished product will have a bit lively look what comes to the shade.

AAW Mittens No6

 

I designed and knit simple plain mittens of AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). I made two pairs in two different size. They both have similar amount of stitches. I just used knitting needles size 2,5 mm for one and size 2,75 mm for the other. Such a small difference in the needle size create even visible difference in the practical and actual size.

AAW LegWarmers No3

I designed and knit another pair of AAW legwarmers. No2 you can find here. See, the pattern is quite similar but the leg warmers are longer. I used our own ethic produced arctic angora wool AAW snag grey shade (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m).

AAW LegWarmers No2

 

I usually knit woollen socks to warm up toes. This time I designed and knit legwarmers of our pale fog blue AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). It is a very simple design and easy to make true.

Happy Easter

My Easter is always filled with wool work. I finished spinning 100 g of natural white Finnsheep wool with Liinu. Another 100 g to go and then I can ply it for further use. I also blend Finnsheep autumn shades to create some SleepySnowyAutumn yarn for a project I have in my mind.... I have started to spin that yarn by a drop spindle. 

I also found some time to use my stamp collection to create writing paper for my letters. The shade of this paper is pastel blue. Unfortunately the picture fades away that shade.

I usually am dusting my (and others') sewing machines and empowering them to keep going on. This Easter I participated on dusting old typewriter Olympia 8. It's YoungLady's new laptop which she loves over the moon.

Because it is Easter and we had several reasons to celebrate I -of course- had to bake a cake. It was delicious and just enough. I -after all these years- have learnt to bake smaller cakes! I am very proud of myself! 

See how I used the extra left over edges to roll up narcissus to decorate the cake! If you try out to do the same just make sure there forms out enough wrinkles when rolling up the left over pieces you cut off. I did't tidy the outer edges and let them be "broken". It creates even more narcissus like expression.

I used yellow sugar mass instead of almond because the local shops had ran out of it. I used just a tiny drop of rapeseed oil when I started to work with it. I feared the sugar mass dries up but this oil helped to avoid that.

AAW Mittens No5

I designed and knit AAW Mittens No5 to match with AAW SingleClableSocks NO4. I used our faboulous AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m).

I knit single cables to decorate the mittens and to make them match better with the socks. The socks and mittens form out together a warm pair for chilly weathers. 

 

AAW SingleCable Socks No4

 

I designed and knit new pair of single cable socks. They are fabulous knee length. I used our own ArcticAngoraWool AAW for the socks. AAW consist of 50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon (100g = 238m). 

AAW SingleCable Socks No3

I designed and knit this pair of AWW woollen sock for myself. I need thin but warm sock for my horse riding hobby in arctic weather. For these socks I used only our AAW snag grey yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool and 10% nylon). I have already used them and they are really really warm.

I started them already in October but after my injury it has taken for weeks to finish the last sock. At first I could knit only few rounds, then max ten per day. But, now they are finally here on my blog! Yeppee! Craft making is such a good rehabilitation also for shoulder injuries. Just make sure your knitting needles and yarn are light enough. Make sure to make just a little bit and go on with small steps. It also keeps your mind out of depression because of the injury and pain.

AAW SingleCable Socks No2

I designed another pair of AAW SingleCable Socks. On December 2016 I did the 1st pair. For this pair I used AAW snag grey yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool ,40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool and 10% nylon).

This pair of woollen socks is made for the Christmas 2018 for a very special person who came into MyLife in this year at late spring. I work as a teacher but sometimes a teacher needs a teacher too. 

Working on with loom

 Do you remember how I cut off DogWoolShawl from my loom by the last Christmas? Since that MyLoom have been standing abandoned in MyLibrary.

Now I finally had time to create the new knots and get on it!

I was so happy! This is -again- my own design.

This is how I change the shade. I just make sure old and new shade run for a while (at least 10cm) together; one a bit further than the other so the ending points fade away easier.

Then I cut off the loose ends...

...and then it looks more tidy. The base shade is natural white & our own dog wool yarn (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool). Brown and yellow shades are also our own dog wool yarn which we dyed years ago at home with cones and tansies.

It is lovely listen to the radio and weave in MyLibrary now when the spring sun is shining and flooding everywhere to reach even the darkest corners of the house.

WoollyTime

TheTime has arrived again. 6,5 kg of our own ethic produced angora wool is waiting to be sent to the mill. Yes, our angora rabbits have produced that much in a year.

Well, it was a bit cold moment in my snowy garden where I spread the wool on tarpaulin over the snow to sort it out and clean it from the trash when arctic wind was blowing from RussiaDirection all the way from Siberia. Bhrrr... But the wool was warm so my hands were not too frozen.

Last June we finally got our first AAW out of the mill. The angora wool was mixed with natural white FinnSheep RawWool. This time we mix it with natural black and grey (above) FinnSheep RawWool and ArcticDogWool.

It is going to be very interesting spring again to be patient and to wait how it all will turn out and how does it all look when the mill has done its job! Most of the FinnSheep RawWool we added was natural black (above; with blink of grey) but ArcticDogWool we use is pure white! Before we have made AAW and OOW but this is the 1st time to mix all these three elements together: DogWool, AngoraWool and FinnSheepWool.

AAW SingleCable Socks No1

My own design SingleCable socks made of our own wool AAW (50% arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m) for YoungLady's fencing teacher. It seems that woollen socks are the most desired wish from Santa Claus here in Finland. They are also considered made by love and care. Even kids & teens wish to have them!

AAW HorseShoeCable Socks

 

 Another pair finished for the set of 4. For the 1st ones I did BasketWeave decoration. These have HorseShoeCable decoration at size 40.

The decoration is at back...

...and at front.

My own design. 

My own wool AAW.

50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool
40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool
10% nylon

100g = 238m

BlanketNo5

 Apples in MyGarden are slowly getting ready to be picked up.

BlanketNo5 got just finished up.

It is for MyLibrary.

It is 100% FinsheepWool.

It is my own design 

for this OldLittleHouse.

It still is August in Europe but up here it is already making autumn. Today I saw 1st cranes to escape the north. They flew above us in three wedge shaped formation to southeast direction calling each others like something had rout them up. I wanted to shout after them to come back; there is still fortnight left of the summer!!!!

BlanketNo5 started

I was OnTheRoad again and started my own design BlanketNo5. I could have finished this one but I never thought it could happen so I left the last 200g of yarn at home... and was very bored in the car when ran out of yarn. With this blanket I use 100% FinnSheep yarn; the same as I used with my WinterProject. The structure of this blanket is very much like BlanketNo1.

OOW HatNo2

I was happy to knit this my own design hat for someone special. It is made of OurOwnWool (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool). It is actually made to be match with LegWarmers and Hand Warmers. 

Dear December, hope you'll be here soon!

With love by me!

FinishedWinterProject

These are buttons. They are HomeMade. The material is reindeer antler (horn). And actually made of ones which a reindeer drop down and then found by a human and collected for the further use. My father-in-law made these CuteLittleButtons. I got six of them for MyWinterProject which I started on July.

For years the idea of it was just in my head. This year I finally picked it up and made it to be seen on a paper and touched by hands.

I love polo turtle necks, wool, cables and just a little bit of romantic country style spice.

The shoulder area was very easy to make true at the end. I was a bit afraid of it but no... it was easy.

The turtle neck is made to be multi-usable.

The buttons can be seen or hide.

Turtle neck CLOSED & DOWN...

...and CLOSED & UP.

And here it is on me. I love it. Just in the way I wanted. My own design. All in natural shade without chemicals and 100% FinnSheepWool.

FUN - NO - FUN - NO!

This is 100% Finnsheep wool bought few years ago from a spinnery. It has the natural colour. I was given 1kg of it to do my magic and make it to disappear. I was home alone -not alone- but felt very alone with it all. It was in skeins and I needed to wind it up. Easy to say. But the disaster happened and it all got mixed up. Well, not all, just one 100g skein... But it felt like all...

No, oh no, no, no no. She had nothing to do with it. Or had she? But I found her by following the yarn...

She was not interested about it at all. But it took me for 2 hours to roll it all up to a ball and then wind it up with the yarn winder. She was lurking in the shadows and somehow the yarn changed a place...

Eventually I caught her. 

Or did I? 

Noooo, yep, nooo...