Where did all the dyes come from??

For many years I swore I woudn't start dyeing. My reason for that was I didn't have time. I don't know how it came that the plastic box I kept my few dyes in suddenly had filled up with more and more dyes... Today I dyed the BFL/silk yarn I spun for a Shipwreck shawl, and I also found some Finnwool that needed to take a dye bath:

This is what my Shipwreck yarn looks like now. A nice cerise/pink that I will overdye by painting the finished shawl. I wanted a not so even color, so I didn't take off the threads I tied the skein with before washing and the result is a yarn with lighter spots:

Summer isn't far away! A bumble bee resting:

Shawl yarn and rhubarb

This is meant to become a Shipwreck:

The skein is not washed, but as I can't wash it yet I show it anyway. It's BFL/silk (50/50) from Ullaffären, a wonderful fiber combination of excellent quality. Sadly Renee doesn't have any more of it. It may be that my yarn is too thin. It's 345 grams, 1340 meters, 3-ply. And it all fitted on to one WooleeWinder bobbin! OK, if it's too thin, I'll spin another yarn from something else. I love spinning, if you haven't noticed ;)

In the garden shy little red hats are showing amongst the withered remnants of the leaves from last year:

I won't clean up around them yet, there will still be cold nights and the small rhubarb babies need their blankets. Beautiful colors!

Cushion and sweater

I knitted this cushion with yarn dyed by Sarah and Jon Dunn Ballam. I also used a few commercial sock yarns. Yes, that's a reflexion of me in the window :) The sun was shining when I took the photo, so imagine the colors deeper and stronger, as in the upper part of the cushion.

On the other side is the first item I ever dyed with plants. I learned how to dye with madder in a workshop some ten years ago, and only now found a companion for the fabric.

 Kasper thinks it's nice. Me too!

I also finished the sweater I started knitting i January. The yarn is Jamieson & Smith's Jumper Weight, a lovely yarn. I love the feel of the yarn, rough and at the same time soft. Can be bought here: Jamieson & Smith. By the way, if you plan to go to Shetland Wool Week in October, you better start looking for accomodation today! Link to the week on J&S's site.

The lace design is one Margaret G. Walker's. In the sleeves I used a simple yo, k2tog through the back loop. That makes the holes better defined and in harmony with the garter stitch lace pattern. K2tog in the usual way would leave the holes more flat.

I will soon show my new cushion and my new sweater

OK, so I've got the flu. I have a couple of new things to show, but I can't reach my camera from where I sit...

So while you're waiting, please have a look at this: International Fleeces. The business is for sale. I really hope a fiber enthusiast will go on with it. There are marvelous articles about sheep, beautiful pictures, loads of information about fiber, spinning tips, and more.

And: it's spring! Flowers in our garden! The grass is growing! Birds are coming back from wherever they have been!

Estonian wonders

Please have a look at this blog with it's beautiful photos: Vana-Olevi. It's all in Estonian, but the photos tell a lot. And Mr Google can translate for you :) Stumbling, that's true, but even a stumbling text can be understandable. Also watch the videos, they are amazing. To make it even more amazing: the shepherd's name is Ylle, which means "woolen fabric" or "made of wool" in Swedish.

Coffee

Mocca, Camden Market, London, June 2011. Best coffee I've ever got. Yirgacheffe, I think.

Nostalgia.

I found a new spinning bowl in Kokkola

This is Kokkola:

OK, so that's not the whole town in the photo, and there are people out in town even if that street happend to be almost empty the moment I took the photo. Kokkola (Karleby in Swedish) is a small town by the Gulf of Bothnia. Hubby and me go there once in a while just for fun. There's a lot of small, wooden houses, but also newer parts with tower buildings and shopping centres, factories, harbour.

Kokkola was an important tar centre for several centuries. Tar was used to preserve wooden boats and ships from rotting, but also as medicin. In my childhood wooden skies were tarred in the autumn. My daddy used to warm the tar so it run easily, and then he painted my skies with it. The smell was heavenly. The smell from a newly tarred boat is beyond description. To sleep in a boat slowly rolling...

We have a proverb that says "if sauna, vodka and tar won't help, the disease is fatal". The first two are easy to find, but tar is rare nowadays.

This time we went to the craft's centre and the shop:

I'm sorry, I was not allowed to take photos in the shop, so I can't show you the beautiful and nice things they sell, and I can't show you the looms and the ladies weaving. You can go to the Taito crafts centres in most towns in Finland and borrow a loom for a few weeks.

I can show you one thing though. I bought a beautiful raku bowl I thought would work well as a spinning bowl, and it does.

Only a few kilometres from Kokkola is another small town, Jakobstad (Pietarsaari in Finnish). We had coffee and cake in a cafe before we went home. Latte and chocolate cake for hubby and espresso and macaron for me.

Sleave cap

I have been fighting with this sleeve cap for several days. I have started all over twice. But now I think it's OK.

The yarn is Jamieson & Smith's Jumper Weight. Like it? I do. Wonderful woolen yarn from Shetland sheep. You find it here: Jamieson & Smith

Sheep and crafts

A wonderful blog about sheep and sheep farming in UK: Shepherd's Blog

An amazing Finnish (written in English) blog about spinning, knitting, crochet, fabric, paper, painting... Peony and Parakeet

Enjoy!