Old

Old.

No longer young.

They all tell a story.

Green

Green revolution is taking place outside.

I took on a new challenge, also in green:

Pomatomus by Cookie A.

Time will tell if I'll finish them by the time the green leaves turn yellow.

Lace shawl

 Pattern: Annis by Susanna IC (ravelry link)

Yarn: Manos Silk Blend

No pain, no gain!
I made millions of mistakes, but who cares, it's done now. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't that difficult. Nice pattern, will definitely use it again.

Spring

 

Gorgeous day. 

Wasn't expecting to see a snake, let alone four of them.

I must have been no more than 5 years old when I last saw an adder or any kind of snake in Finland. Hopefully I'm done for the next few decades now.

The yellow coltswood was like sunshine pushing through the grey ground. Those I wish to see lots more!

One more scarf and some lace

This scarf is a true traveller's scarf. It's travelled from Finland to Spain and back, then to Estonia and Latvia. I run out of yarn, but luckily found one more skein at home.. but it wasn't enough. There were just a few rows left and I had to use two short bits that had been cut off earlier. Even that wasn't enough. I didn't want to unravel half of the scarf just to make it a tiny bit shorter, so I sent an e-mail to the yarn shop Lumoava lanka. I was a bit worried, because I had found the yarn in a sale basket some months back in winter. They replied with good news: they had 18 grams left! So today I went to pick the yarn up and was finally able to finish my project. 

Thanks, Lumoava Lanka for your excellent service!!

 

Very basic triangle scarf

Yarn: SWTC - Karaoke (50% soysilk®, 50% wool)

New project: Lace shawl/scarf. First time knitting lace and the start was a pain. I had to unravel an redo the first rows (with 363 stiches) 4 times until I got the hang of it. Now struggling with nupps... But I won't give up.

Scarf

A scarf for my sister

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn, 

which I bought in London earlier this year at I Knit.

Refilling the stock: Latvia

In Riga I continued my yarn shopping at Hobbywool.

I also bought a pair of fingerless gloves made using a traditional technique of needle-binding, and decided that I want to learn the technique myself. I bought the needle with instructions, but unfortunately they only had them in Latvian. I couldn't quite figure it out from the pictures, but I'm sure to find help in the web, even in Finnish as the technique is also used here.

Riga seems to be a crafty city. I spotted a couple of knit graffitis in the streets of the old town, and sat by a sewing table at a café. All the tables were old sewing machine tables converted to normal tables. I'm not sure if I was happy about it or not. There were also a number of old Finnish Tikkakoski machines. I just wish they were broken down and for that reason repurposed, because these old sewing machines are becoming really rare.

Refilling the stock: Estonia

I've been away for work for a couple of days in Estonia and Latvia. It was also a good chance to refill the yarn and fabric stock.

Suur Munamägi is the highest peak in the Baltic states. You get a good view over the Haanja upland from the observation tower and after the climb you can treat yourself with a skein of 100% Estonian wool.

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Võru is a small city in Southern Estonia. I found some really nice and soft, dyed linen for a good price.

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Our final stop in Estonia was the university city of Tartu. My colleagues told me they'd walked past a large fabric shop which had a 50%-off sale. I couldn't miss that, could I? In fact, I went there twice. 

I bought some basic stuff: interfacings, pins, chalk, blind zippers...

... and brown linen.

On the second time at the counter I asked if they knew if there was a yarn shop in Tartu. "Upstairs" was the answer. Oh, boy. 

From Tartu we drove to Riga, Latvia. Good time to do some knitting while mobilizing my colleagues.