Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year! 

God Jul och Gott Nytt År! 

Hyvää Joulua ja Onnellista Uutta Vuotta!

Weaving

Something odd happened when I took my first weaving lesson in the 80s. I'm quite sure I had never used a loom before that evening. When I sat down and picked up the shuttle and put my foots on the treadles I new I had done it before. The loom was old and in a bad shape, but it didn't bother me. I was fascinated. The familiar feeling from that first evening never left me during the years I wove.

Some time later one of my friends also wanted to weave, so we bought a big loom together and I put it up in my living room. Yes, I put it together myself without help. I used stools and chairs to keep the different parts in place while trying to lift the very heavy warp beam and secure it. I'm not a big person, so getting a good grip of the beam was difficult, but I made it. My friend was off on a trip and I had no patience to wait for her. When she came back it was time for the warp. I had taken our yarns to a warping service, because warping a towel warp felt a bit scary.

A good advice: keep your puppy in another room while warping... we where a bunch of colleagues from my job having a good time warping the big loom, and suddenly there was a puppy holding on to the linen-cotton warp with her small sharp teeth. We had a hard time trying to fix that later when we started weaving.

Life went on into new directions, so some years later we sold the loom. Hubby and I moved into a small house with no space for a loom, and even if we later moved to a bigger house, I have no loom.

I'm weaving on a mini loom now. I bought one this autumn to calm down, because the weaving bug had bitten me once more and I found myself being restless and nervous because I couldn't weave.

It's fun to make small squares. I sew thread after thread and think of nothing. (As far as that is possible.) If you want to buy one, search Etsy for "mini looms", or buy one of these: Hazel Rose Looms. My 5 inch square loom is from bigfam15.

Here is one of the towels I wove on my big loom, and on top of it four squares woven on my mini loom. I used a very dull handspun woolen yarn that I didn't know how to use until I thought it would be a good weaving yarn.

Drama: December morning light!

Walking the dog, walking the sheep

It's the time of the year when you have to look very closely to see any colors but faint grays, beige, and white. On my walks with the dog I can get overwhelmed by the beauty of a landscape where the colors are so sparse.

Kasper can disappear in a moment. He's the same color as nature this time of the year, and if he's standing still it's difficult to see him. On an open field it's easier to keep an eye on him, but there are interesting things like hares also. He's fast, he's a herder, he starts in no time at all.

The beautiful yellowish grass I showed you some time ago has now got a layer of snow and will soon disappear.

The ice has funny faces :)

The anthill's chimney. They are warm and nice in there.

Foxgloves waiting for next summer.

My sheep...
And the valley we walk in:

Those clowds gathered snow. An hour later it was snowing.

New sheep

Gift from DH:

It's so CUTE!

Socks and first snow and spindle bags

I've been knitting socks. Surprise? And today we got the first snow. It melted.

The yarn is hand dyed Super Biffle from Easyknits.co.uk, a semi solid BFL yarn I like very much. Cat Bordhi's Ocean Toes to the left, Jane Cochran's Hedgerow to the right. Someone will get a Christmas present :)

I bought more sock yarns at the fair in Tampere. Surprise? Four skeins of Hopeasäie Sukka, BFL of course. It's finer than the Super Biffle and very good for really thin woolen socks.

The rest of the shopping is a new singing Tolvana from Tolvana to keep company with the one I bought last year, a nice hand dyed Merino top from Louhittaren Luola, and a box for my sewing whatever they're called in English (bobbins?). Now I have to buy more bobbins so I have something to keep in my new box.

My sewing is almost finished. Here are my first three box bags:

Long and narrow for spindles! Someone will get a Christmas present :)

Wovember

A link for all wool and sheep lovers: Wovember

Look at the Gallery on the site also. Great pictures!

A new sheep

This cute little sheep came home with me from Tampere:

 It's for putting out candle light, so it's hollow.

Presents for Christmas

This time of the year is dangerous. So many fiber and yarn shops have filled their supplies for Christmas.

Here are a few suggestions for shopping in the Nordic countries:

Finland

Hand dyed (semisolids): Hopeasäie
Yarns, knitting supplies (blocking wires!), spinning equipment (Schacht, Majacraft), and hand dyed yarns and fibers from KnitLob's Lair aka Louhittaren Luola: Villavyyhti
Knitting accessories: Succaplokki
Natural dyed Finnwool, knitting kits: Riihivilla
Fibers: Woolgrey
 

Sweden

Fibers, hand dyed yarns, knitting supplies: Limmo-Design
Hand dyed fibers and yarns: Friday Studios
Hand dyed, also custom dyed fibers: Kariola
Fibers, pelts, yarns, spinning supplies like very handy and well made wool combs, weaving supplies, knitting supplies: Gammeldags
Hand dyed yarns and fibers, handmade textiles: VickeVira
Fibers: The Wool Business - Ullaffären

Denmark

Yarns (also hand spun), fibers, spindles, knitting supplies: Garngalleriet
Roving: Henrichsens Uldspinderi
Fibers: Uldportalen
Fibers: Uld og Silke
Hand dyed yarns and fibers: Marezidoats


Norway

Stitch markers: Mono! =)
Yarns, fibers, spinning equipment, books: Spinnvilt
Yarns, fibers, spinning equipment: Fiber and Art
Hand dyed fibers, knitting bags, hand spun yarns: Tante Ull
Hand dyed fibers, felted items: Ullgruven
Hand spun and hand dyed yarns, knitted garments, soap: Maskesprell

Overwhelmed by beautiful things

I saw these fascinating paper bowls in a shop for paper crafters in Gothenburg in Sweden. They are made by Cecilia Levy.

The craft center Verkaranta in Tampere (Finland) shows design by Ritva-Liisa Pohjalainen until December 6 2011. She is a versatile designer, works with textile, metal, glass and cheramics.

The dress miniatures are small sculptures:

My main reason for going to Tampere last week was the gigantic yearly craft fair Kädentaidot. I didn't take many photos because the artisans are so afraid of copy cats. But I have permission to show this:

I fell in love with the red/orange bowl at the front. It's made by Tuula Herranen in raku technique.

The fair was big as usual, and as usual I got overwhelmed by all the beautiful things our artisans produce. I met a dear friend, saw a few vendors I've come to know, and met a couple of Ravelry people I hadn't seen IRL before. It was fun, I'm broke, I was SO tired the next day.

Still sewing...

Yes, I'm still sewing, spinning my Shetland, knitting socks, and knitting a nice scarf as a Christmas present for a friend.

Nothing to show yet, but tomorrow I'll show some of the nice things others have done and I've seen in Gothenburg and Tampere.

Our barn glows in the low November sunlight:

Sewing!

I'm so excited! Tini talked about a Sew Along on her podcast Twinneedle and I thought why not, maybe it could get me started sewing again. So I'm in! I've never taken part in a Sew Along before. Read about it here Ravelry thread and listen to the podcast here Knit Purl Gurl.

Autumn cleaning

Hubby is cleaning up in the garden.

I love mushrooms

Walking the dog in the autumn takes a long time. I love the autumn, there's so much to see. In November it's usually been snowing a few times so everything is grey and brown on the ground, but this autumn is mild with no snow so far. There are lots of mushrooms you don't usually see. The vegetation is still green in some places, but there are also the pale yellows and browns I love so much.

Here's what I saw yesterday. The first mushroom was someone's lunch. Probably a magpie, they are so curious:

In the garden my wild teasel has decided it's spring and started growing new plants:

Wouldn't it be better to do that on the ground?

The house plants are still pretty. This is Oxarv, an old Swedish pelargonium:

The Streptocarpus I stole from Sarah shows us two pretty flowers:

This glowing beauty I took from mother in law's summer house about ten years ago:

Spinning Shetland again

The gorgeous fleece I bought at Jamieson & Smith in Shetland last year, I wonder if I'll ever get it spun? I have combed it on my finest dog comb, spun a few sample skeins, I've tried a light spindle and my wheel... Now I've started again. This time I comb the already combed locks on Gammeldags' mini two pitch wool combs, and the result is amazing.

This is Oliver Henry showing Shetland fleece at J&S:

This is what I did last year: my fleece last year

And this is what I'm doing to my fleece now, combing the once combed fibers again:

Spinning suddenly became very easy :)

Swap yarns

I like swaps, you never know what your partner will send you. Two days ago I spun two singles and yesterday I plied, skeined and washed the yarn. I'm so pleased with this yarn! I spun the hand dizzed tops with merino, alpaca and silk uneven, and the commercial merino top even, and got a yarn with character and structure.

The merino-alpaca-silk tops to the left, sorry I don't have a better picture

Merino top

Singles

The finished yarn shows the different fibers in a nice way

I also spun the pink Shetland-Merino-Nylon batt in the photo above:

Now I'm thinking of what to spin to ply it with. Gray would be nice, but I can also imagine other pink shades in a 3-ply and another gray 3-ply for a warm Fair Isle hat.

The swans have been grazing in the fields for a couple of weeks. Soon they will be gone.

In the garden the plants show colors you didn't know they had:

This is a cactus I got from a friend a couple of years ago. She sent it to me in a milk package, I put it in a pot, it grew roots and started growing bigger and bigger. Last summer it was hanging in a rowan for a couple of months. A few weeks ago I got the sad news that my friend had passed away. I call my cactus "Marie" in remembrance of her. Marie has four flowers now.