Scrub Scrub There...

Here are my 3 newest scrubs hot off the sewing machine. The dark blue one looks almost like stained glass and has snowflake motifs. The peppermint and candy cane one was just pretty, but the poinsettia one reminds me of a tablecloth or a handkerchief or cocktail apron from the 1950's! I just love it! Recently I've been putting linen water in my steam iron and used up a bottle that was citrus scented. I really enjoyed the lavender and the rose scented waters, but the citrus scented smelled like I'd filled my iron up with Sprite!

Back Burner

I have had this flannel for ages and finally got around to making baby blankies out of it. Three of them went to coworkers' children or grandchildren and one will go to my sister's baby on the way. I made all 4 of these in one afternoon and was quite tired of satin blanket binding by the end of it! Incidentally, my younger niece calls her bound blankie like this her "silky". :)

Melissa and Deedee and I got together for Crafty Fun Night the other day to make ornaments. Deedee was working on photo resin ornaments and Melissa and I finished up these cinnamon and applesauce ornaments. We'd mixed them and cut them out last week and they'd since dried, but they were so plain and boring. We didn't really have any set ideas when we began and just sat down with some acrylic paint and some irregularly shaped glitter and started to decorate them. I have to say I am very pleased with how these turned out! The glitter almost looks like coconut and they smell like cinnamon. I love too that we used cookie cutters I'd gotten at an antique store to cut them with. My mother has these exact same cookie cutters and they are what I would use for baking the Christmas sugar cookies every year growing up. We've already talked about making these again for Valentine's Day.

Farewell Knitting

Three more very dear coworkers (and friends) have left or are leaving our floor and will be sorely missed. Melissa P. and Melissa H. left us last month but are loving and adjusting to their new positions in an entirely new department. I knit each of them a pair of these fingerless mitts out of bulky Misti Alpaca that I bought at Prairie Yarns in Fargo. It was a pleasure to knit with this yarn and they knit up very quickly. I never got a picture of the other pair but they were a lovely blue-ish colorway.

Rachel will leave us next month and I knit her quite possibly the ugliest socks known to man. These were knit from scraps of the Licorice yarn from Joann's that I used for Christmas socks two years ago. They are mismatched and quite homely but are very warm. Best wishes to all of you and we miss you every day.

The Great Storm

Last week we only had a mere dusting of snow on the ground when I took this picture. These are my sister's finished birthday socks (her birthday is in July, btw) knit from Lion Brand Sock-Ease in the colorway "Rock Candy". But then...



...we got hit with a terrible blizzard on Tuesday night and got almost 12 inches of snow with freezing temperatures and terrible winds. I outgrew my apartment YEARS ago but one of the reasons I stay here is because I am so close to the hospital. Scores of employees were stranded here in town and I'm thankful that I can share my apartment with my out of town coworkers. My good friend Laura slept here after work and we rode together back to the hospital for her to work her shift and for me to collect my car as I was off for the evening. We had quite an adventure just getting IN to my apartment because there was 2 feet of snow blown into the driveway and we waded through snow past our knees to get in the front door. Upon returning to the hospital, not only did my car start, but I was able to dig it out of the parking lot and go do my shopping for the week. The stores were not busy at all that night so it was rather a pleasant shopping experience.

While I was out and about, I got a phone call from Brenda who invited me over for some wonderfully comforting chicken and noodles. We watched Julie & Julia next to a roaring fire and played with yarn. You couldn't PLAN a better way to spend a snow day! Thank you again Brenda. After a night like that, I felt like Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby when she said, "I hope we have the coldest winter ever."

Blossoms

These are my new favorite cookie right now and I have literally baked and brought dozens and dozens of these to work lately. It is the Hershey's Kisses recipe as published in the November issue of MSL and I just love them! I prefer using chocolate stars to actual Hershey's Kisses and I used my 2 tsp. scoop and got about 5 dozen out of each batch which is incidentally just about the number of stars per bag. The only thing I don't like about them is they have to cool for quite some time for the chocolate to firm up before you can stack them in containers, but they are definitely going in the repertoire. These are commonly called "Peanut Butter Blossoms" but that always makes me think of my cousins because they used to call each other "Fart Blossom"! Maybe I should call them that! ;P

Fabric Find

My family got together for Halloween and we girls went out and did some local shopping. We stumbled across a local quilt shop I never knew existed and then to walk in and see front and center--Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler fabric! I told the proprietor I'd only seen KF fabrics on the rack in London and Amy Butler fabrics in Lacrosse. It was also much cheaper than I could have gotten it online so I was very pleased and will be returning. I came away with a nice little addition to the stash.

Provisional Government

I fooled around with my first ever provisional cast on, also known as a tubular cast on. I had always shied away from projects that called for this technique and I could just kick myself now because it is a really useful and easy trick to have up your sleeve when knitting. Mom gave me this pattern for a hot water bottle cozy and I finally got around to making one with some souvenir stash from Helsinki as well as buttons from the harbor market. I didn't follow the pattern exactly so that I could fit the dimensions of my bottle, but this is a really simple and easy to follow/adjust pattern.

I just love yucky shades of green and this yarn was no exception: Naturwolle-Ingeborg Michels Gernsbach handspun 100g/100m. It's kind of a blurry picture but if I took a focused picture with a flash, the cables disappeared. This is kind of a busy yarn for cables but I just love it and it makes such a difference when the bottle is filled.

First of the season

I've been waiting for it to cool down and dry up around here to make the first frosted sugar cookies of the year. However, the day I'd set aside to bake these it was raining and they were in fact baked in 100% humidity. I had to let them sit out a bit longer after they were frosted but they behaved for me. I'm working a three night stretch and taking a few dozen every night. Oh how I love festive sprinkles!

Scrub Scrub Here...

Melissa and I had Crafty Fun Night over at Brenda's house the other day because Brenda is an invalid this week ;) I cut out 6 scrubs that night and have made a couple of those and a couple that I already had cut out.

We also hit Jo-Ann Fabrics and I got this sweet little pumpkin kitchen timer!

Overdue Commissions

About a thousand years ago, a co-worker of mine asked me to make a blanket for her granddaughter. Before I got around to making it for her, she left our floor but I ran into her and got her mailing address. I've had this fabric sitting in my living room where I've had to look at it every day for literally months...and this week finally put it together and mailed it this morning. The man at the Post Office said he'd quick get it to the mail carrier so she'll get it today!

My poor Aunt Mary Jo asked me a while back to knit a hat and mittens for her granddaughter to go with her new navy blue snow suit. They were meant to be for her birthday...in August. Once again, better late than never. This is Lion Brand Wool knit on size 4 needles. The hat was a smaller gauge version of the Le'Slouch hat pattern that I just love and the mittens came from my favorite source book Homespun, Handknit.

And of course the whole time I'm finishing up obligations, I'm getting impatient and want to start the next project. I was finishing up that hat and sitting there coveting this ball of yarn from my chair. It was a skein of Boku from Plymouth Yarn that I got up in Rochester because it looked like Noro and came with a free felted bag pattern. I'm a sucker for anything that comes with a free pattern! I was working on a Le'Slouch hat and couldn't help but think what a great hat that Boku would make. I knit it as long as I could and had maybe a yard or 2 left over but I think I'll give it to my niece because it isn't quite slouchy enough for an adult. That pattern with that yarn was just addictive.

Fussiest Cookies Ever!

And the award goes to...palmiers! They are well worth the trouble though! I made a batch of puff pastry earlier in the week for crafty fun night and I've always wanted to try these. You roll out a piece of dough on the counter with regular white sugar until it's an 1/8" thick rectangularish shape. Roll up both long ends into a tight double spiral and slice 3/8" thick. Press them onto an ungreased pan with the palm of your hand and chill while you preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Bake them for about 10 minutes and they become THIS! The mashed in sugar and the folded in butter melt together and become this delicate covering of caramel over a buttery puffed bite. You must watch them very closely as they can very quickly burn. Did I mention they were worth the trouble? Num num.

Ornamental Trial and Error

A couple of us gals got together to work on some photo resin ornaments earlier in the week. We went through 12 ounces of the stuff on quite a few ornaments. The instructions are very specific about mixing for a few minutes and then changing containers and stirring sticks for further mixing. We cheated a little on the mixing process towards the end of the evening because we were running out of containers. I wonder if we didn't accelerate some sort of chemical reaction by reusing the containers because the last batch set up and was actually hardening while we were sitting there which I've never yet seen happen. Still it was fun to sit around in a group and work on these and yik yak!

I made an ornament of my late beloved Buzzy with his doggie tag and I finally got around to pouring Mom's lemon curd label that is a painting of Elizabeth I. I attempted one with my grandparents' wedding photo and a field trip photo from last year but they fell victim to our resin malfunction. They have flaws on their surfaces and really were hardening before we could blow the bubbles out of it. They're ok but I'm just crabby about them.

Scrubbing

I finished a couple scrubs tonight. The busy owl one is mine (I just love how "folky" it looks!) and the other two are Melissa's. The blue/green butterfly print was a lovely batik fabric and so crisp and nice to work with. The paisley one is just a print we got off the wall at Walmart if memory serves. I'll have to tease her, but she was so excited about this purple one, and I can't say I'm crazy about it. I don't dislike it, but I guess I wouldn't have chosen it and she just gushes about it. It's very purple-y ;)

Sweater For Marshall

My cousin Steph had a baby in May and I am a rotten relative! This sweater has been finished for probably a month and I need to get it in the mail so Marshall has some time to wear it! It was knit side to side in a honeycomb stitch pattern which was actually a very clever slipped garter stitch. I used Patons silk bamboo yarn which is very soft and has a lovely sheen to it. It was also yarn that I bought here in town so that was kind of a luxury in itself. They also had an angora blend that would be very pretty and soft, but maybe a bit too drapey. I was worried about knitting him a sweater in the middle of summer, but the fiber content will breathe and should keep him cool in the heat, but they also live Up North and he will need the long sleeves ;) The pattern came from the fabulous book Greetings From Knit Cafe and the sweater can be worn backwards or frontwards. I will put this in the post this week!

I set the sweater out on my new linen pillow sham from Tallinn. Mom and I went out exploring in the evening our first night there and found a wonderful linen shop. At the moment I cannot locate my travel journal but I'm sure I wrote down the address. We saw a lot of beige and oatmeal colored linens, very pretty but very subtle. This shop had all kinds of thread dyed and and piece dyed items and I fell in love with this sea urchin print. I also bought a runner with a brown background and mustard yellow lining. I'll have to finish something so I can use it as a backdrop for the picture! Mom bought some napkins and pieced them together to make a new valance for her kitchen window.

Meet Mat

Melissa and I had a pleasant surprise last night! She and I were both at work until 2300 when she was flexed home off call and I flexed home on call. We stopped at the grocery store on the way to my place, had some supper, and proceeded to enjoy a Crafty Fun Night. We set up the sewing machine and she got to practice hems and top stitching on some Halloween kitchen towels, and then we practiced running around on scraps and turning corners. We then watched a movie and spent tedious hours around the kitchen table digging through findings and hand stitching them onto felt from the stash. Oh how I love fussy little projects! And I never did get called back in to work!

Oh the humanity!

We got together as a family this weekend and made lefse for an upcoming Family Event. My sister and her husband brought their dog Kaiser. While we all went to the swimming pool, we kenneled my parents' dog and let Kaiser run around. We came home and found a chair next to the kitchen table and a sizeable chunk gnawed out of a stack of lefse! Bad dog! But in true family fashion, we just cut off the chewed part and packaged it up for our hotdogs in a few weeks. That was a big pile of potatoes, cream, butter, and flour and I'm amazed that dog didn't throw up!

A few words about Kauni yarn...

I'd bought 3 balls of Kauni yarn in Denmark last year. We'd never seen it before and thought it was a Danish brand. We'd since looked at their website and learned that it is in fact an Estonian yarn. When we arrived in Tallinn, we went to The Old City Wall knitting market and even from a distance you could immediately spot the space dyed color changes.


They had hats and scarves and stockings like this that were clearly Kauni and I kept asking about "Kauni" and they kept saying "No, it is made here in Estonia." Then we literally stumbled upon some in a souvenir tourist trap. It was just on the shelf wound in unlabeled and unmarked balls. I didn't buy any just then and we went into the Jolleri Wool and Craftchamber near Town Hall Square and saw the same yarn in a skein.

This yarn can be really deceiving! It is hard to believe they are the exact same thing unless you really look! The ball on the left is the stuff I bought last year in Denmark and the skein on the right was purchased last month. I was so pleased to almost accidentally find exactly what I was looking for!

There was no website on the label but I found a website to navigate but most of the English links appear to be dead. Mom bought a few skeins of several colorways and there are pictures on their site. From what we can tell, it is made in Estonia and sold in these odd lots. In this case, this skein weighed 244 grams and cost 171EEK. They were all in random weights that were handwritten on the labels, but no dye lots. The skeins match each other exactly though and it matches the packaged and wound ball I bought last year in another country. So from what I can see, it is one and the same and Kauni is just a brand name for the repackaged and wound yarn. We've done searches for "Kauni yarn" and there are only a few people who import it and the way they describe it, it comes in these odd skeins and we still got it for less than half the going rate. So there again, sometimes it is easier for us to go to Europe to shop for yarn! ;) It would be worth contacting them to see if they would ship overseas, but I have plenty to keep me busy for a while! :D

Fiber Field Trip!

My mother and I recently traveled abroad to Finland, Russia, and Estonia for our yearly field trip. Thanks to my mother who moonlights as my travel agent, we traveled very smartly this year. This trip really has been the most knitting/fiber-related of all our European travels to date. Instead of posting pictures of all the trinkets and treasures purchased on this trip (and believe me there were many!), I decided to "return the favor" and post information about the yarn shops visited along the way. We always scour the net for knitting blogs and yarn shop reviews when we travel, but we found a lot of yarn by accident.

Our first stop was at the Hakaniemi market hall, Hakaniemen Kauppahalli, which is a charming

old market building right next to the tram/metro stop of the same name in Helsinki, Finland. There is a small outdoor fruit/veg/flower market with a few vendors selling baskets and household items on the actual square there, but the market building was a little adventure in and of itself! The entire lower floor was crammed with bakery stalls, fishmongers, butchers, cheese shops, and vendors selling all different varieties of olives, spices, mustards, preserves, sausages, sprouts, organic and specialty foods, etc. as well as a few small cafes/coffee shops. It was an absolute maze in there and if you miss the escalator the first time around, it's kind of a puzzle to find your way to the upper level! Upstairs were more craft/gift-type shops.

There was a Marimekko shop where you could get finished items as well as yardage and I couldn't leave without a meter of their flagship poppy print. There was a woven rug place that sold poppana woven items, a sort of haberdashery shop with trims, beads, buttons, appliques, and patches but I wasn't thrilled with anything and then we unexpectedly came across a stall named Vihrea Vyyhti Oy. The gal there spoke Swedish with me and was very helpful, as well as being gracious enough to pose for a picture. We'd read about poppana before the trip and she explained what it was (more on that later) and took us down to another stall to show us examples of the material. I bought 2 skeins of a local handspun bulky yarn and a ball of sock yarn in some lovely shades of green.

We ventured down to the harbor market half by tram, and halfway on foot. This market was a major attraction because it is right next to the harbor where ferries and cruise ships unload cash-laden tourists. Many of the vendors there were artisans selling any and all kinds of handwork and handcrafts: wrought iron, carved juniper wood items, amber and silver jewlery, pottery, handknits, baby clothes, nic nac paddywhacks, t-shirts, birch bark woven items, fused glasswork, handwoven items, you name it. They also had ice cream stands and huge grills with fresh seafood and veggies-watch out for seagulls! We also noticed upon returning from Russia, that several people had stands of common Russian craft/souvenir items we'd seen there--but for 5x the price! We wondered if they didn't ride the train to St. Petersburg every few weeks and bring back a suitcase full of stuff to re-sell to the ferry and cruiseline tourists.

We were, however, specifically looking for The Riihivilla Mitten Man I'd read about in Piecework. When I told him I'd read about him in an American knitting magazine, he laughed and was kind enough to let me take pictures of his wares. I really liked the luse mittens and wanted to get them as a kit but they were only available already knit, so I instead bought some yarn to knit myself a pair.

The market building opposite the harbor market houses mostly cafes, coffee bars, and specialty/imported food vendors which were very interesting. We walked through and looked at everything before sitting a bit for a cup of coffee and a cardamom-y apple strudel and map review. We then headed to the Taito shop on Etelaesplanadi 4 which is visible on the corner if you're standing next to the fountain. Taito had housewares, glassware, linens, etc. but we were interested in the yarn in the back.

They had several shades of a few different weights of what looked to be local brands, but nothing truly fabulous in the way of yarn in my opinion. They had heddles and carders and other small equipment, as well as a large selection of poppana for weaving. Poppana is a uniquely Finnish cotton ribbon that is used for weaving. It reminded me of inch wide strips of cotton t-shirt material and when woven is almost a chenille texture. Mom bought a beautiful poppana wallhanging from a woman at the harbor market, so it was interesting to see what it was made of. I bought knitting nellies for myself and my two nieces and learned they are called nuelenukkes in Finnish! :)

We specifically went looking for the yarn shop Menita because I'd read that it was THE yarn shop in Helsinki. It is located at 20 Korkeavuorenkatu which is across from The Finnish Design Museum. I thought I had died and gone to heaven in there. Seriously. They had several different weights of Finnish yarns in several shades, a large selection of Drops yarns, as well as staples like Jo Sharpe, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Regia, etc. I could have spent hours in there just walking around and around looking at it all.

The staff were very helpful and spoke both English and Swedish. They also sold needles, notions, patterns, tools, etc. and there was an adjoining embroidery/needlework shop. It really is a shame that they do not have a website, but maybe that is for the best because you truly need to experience this store to appreciate it. I have no doubt if you contacted them, they'd bend over backwards to ship you whatever you wanted if you were able to describe it or send pictures of what you wanted. They were SO helpful and friendly and I enjoyed myself immensely. I should also stress that Helsinki has an excellent public transportation system with easy to navigate bus/tram/metro lines which made yarn hunting very easy.

I picked up some Finnish yarn as well as some Drops including a lovely linen yarn. We were visiting with the gals in there and saying how for us living in the Midwest, we may as well travel to Europe to shop for yarn in an actual yarn shop because we simply don't have well stocked yarn shops here. The nicest shops I've been to here in the US have thus far been in Fargo, ND and that is an 8 hour journey by car. In this case we traveled 8 hours by plane and hit the mother load.

We spent another day at the open air museum and toured around the various buildings and visited with some of the demonstrators. I couldn't believe how many working antique wheels and looms we saw as well as flax brakes, swingle knives, and hatchels for processing flax into linen. Until then I'd only seen pictures of them and I kept expecting Tasha Tudor to walk into the room.

I loved how the buildings had all kinds of furniture pieces and tools and items just sitting out in the rooms. I especially liked these stockings hanging over the fireplace. They are flammegarn or Flame Yarn which is basically a peasant tie dye process where the yarn is wrapped in birch bark strips and it creates a mottled effect when knit up. I'd read about them in Nancy Bush's book "Folk Socks" but had never actually seen any. These must have been well worn because they have patches sewn onto the heels and soles.

We traveled on to St. Petersburg, Russia by train where we were met at the station by Sergei and Vladimir, our guide and driver respectively. We were accompanied for a few hours each day to tour the city, tour The Hermitage, and travel just outside of town to Tsarskoe Selo Palace. The rest of the time was spent frantically trying to see as much as we could which left no time to look for yarn. We'd found a few yarn shops mentioned in blogs, but the addresses we had were in the Latin alphabet and of course the signs were in Cyrillic. Navigating was a bit nerve wracking at first too because it is the closest you'll ever feel to being illiterate when you can't recognize the characters of what you're trying to read. There is no place to start, no root words, you can't discern suffixes or prefixes let alone see patterns in them, etc. I experienced this years ago in Greece too and it is the strangest feeling, almost alarming. This photo of a statue of Lenin is one of my favorite photos from the trip, even if it has a streetpole in the middle of it. Vladimir was an excellent driver but he was aggressive and kept up with the traffic which means we were literally being thrown around in the backseat at times. I feel lucky that we got the shot that we did! ;) We braved the Metro alone and were the only tourists riding the trains and bought blinis from a street vendor! We also visited The Ethnographic Museum and saw all the national/folk dress/costumes from the entire and absolute expanse of the Soviet Realm and you have to stop and think of the huge area that entails. That place is a national treasure and it's a good thing they didn't have a guide book in English or I'd have paid any price and then carried it even if it weighed 50 pounds. We took pictures of almost every display in there. I was reminded of the costumes from the newer treatment of Dr. Zhivago by some of the regions.

We could not come to Russia and not look for any Orenburg Lace. You can get lace shawls from the markets, but they are not the real Orenburg. I was reading before we left that they use the word "sherst" to describe any fiber content. Sherst literally means "fiber" and sometimes they are made from wool and mohair blends and sometimes even dog hair blends. The knit shawls we saw on the street were soft and pretty and I wouldn't have cared if they were in fact made from dog hair, but the point they were trying to make is that there is no such thing as a $10 Orenburg Lace shawl. Mom found Nevsky Souvenirs online and sure enough they had the real stuff in the back and we had to ask about them. I bought a square gray shawl and Mom bought a white lace stole for my sister in law and white square shawls for my sister and herself.

I could not figure out a way to take a picture that gave some sort of justice to this beautiful item. It is as fine as gossamer and shiny and delicate and you'd swear it was knit on piano wire needles. It drapes beautifully and you can actually pull it through a ring it is so fine. You have take care not to snag it on your jewelery or buttons and even rough skin can catch it because it is so fine and delicate.

We visited St. Isaac's Cathedral with Sergei and marveled at the dome and the mosaics and paintings. We visited an Orthodox church in each country which was fascinating. Sergei was a wealth of information and Mom and I both really enjoyed him. We've both said, "Anyone who knows his way around The Hermitage without a map really knows his stuff."

We traveled on to Tallinn, Estonia and stayed in the Old Town area of the city. Last year in Copenhagen, I bought some Kauni yarn which we later discovered was made in Estonia. We set out for the market in Town Hall square and stopped into several shops selling knitwear along the way. Most of the shops appeared to be craft guilds and sold a variety of locally handcrafted stuff like hand knit socks and mittens, carved juniper wood items, amber jewelery, horn handled cutlery, silver jewelery, pottery, wirework items, woven braids, felted hats and slippers, linen items, etc. The Old City Wall had niches built into it and every day they would set up huge knitting stands in the recesses. The knitwear seemed to be priced fairly consistently wherever you found it, but you really had to pay attention to the prices of amber. You can get very beautiful amber pieces almost cheaply and a few other places had mediocre items at horrendous prices. Our favorite amber shop was on Viru #7.

We saw this sign for "crafts and wool" on the corner of Town Hall Square next to Raekoja plats #18. It was a small shop that sold the Kauni I was looking for! I bought all 5 skeins they had of the same rainbow colorway I bought last year in Copenhagen. The woman working there was so very nice and helpful despite the language barrier. She kept apologizing that she couldn't speak English very well and told us she could speak Finnish very well. She directed us to their sister store which was 3 times as big as the shop there on the square.

The sister store is located just a little past the corner of Suur-karja and Muurivahe. It is #11 I believe. The Old City has close pedestrian streets with almost almost starburst intersections of 5 and 6 streets so it is easy to get turned around. They had a larger inventory of the other store and I bought 5 more skeins of that rainbow colorway. Each skein was twice the size of my forearm so that was a lot of yarn, but I was thrilled because it was exactly what I was hoping to find and I never thought I'd be so lucky! As we were entering the store though, I heard a man behind me calling out, "Madame. Madame," and I turned and looked and here was a man standing on the stoop across the street beckoning to us. He said, "Come. Look. We have beautiful yarns." Turns out there was another yarn shop just there across the street from this sister store. But talk about competition! We did stop in there after we finished in the Jolleri shop, but his inventory was mainly novelty and synthetic yarns and I have no interest in that.

We also saw what appeared to be space dyed pencil roving made by the same factory as the Kauni. I could not believe all the felted items we saw for sale, both wet and dry. I looked at this but didn't buy any because it was so thin that I don't know how you'd spin it because it would just pull apart and it was too delicate to knit with, or so it seemed to me. I saw some wet felted panels and wallhangings that appeared to have strands of this felted onto the surface.

Pikk #15 housed what appeared to be multiple handcraft guilds. The main showroom had bead knit wrist warmers, braided trims, what I would call "bunad shoes" or shoes for their national costumes, sweaters, jewelery, beautiful and ornate knit stockings or almost hose, and actual woven yardage of their national costumes. It appeared to be 60" wide or so, but it was almost 80USD/meter. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures in there because it didn't seem too browser friendly. It was what I'd call the closest thing to a Husfliden that we saw on this trip. Through their back hallway was a felt workshop called Vildikoda with wet and dry felted items like elf-ish slippers and hats, animals, and objects, pallets of wool roving, more Kauni yarn in variegated and solids in fingering and sport weight, and more pencil roving.

I bought some flax for spinning and some linen yarn in odd lots. I am so impressed with the flax and linen processing and history that we've seen. When spun and woven or knit, flax is known as linen. It lightens and softens with each washing and old pieces are quite valuable. I was reminded of the expression "flax colored hair" and it makes sense when you see raw flax. I have flaxen hair ;) We visited Estonia's open air museum and were very impressed with the buildings and the spinning and the weaving and the knitting and the history and the people. We rode the city bus through the city and saw the evidence of Communism in the buildings and the rows of apartments. We climbed up into the Old Wall and walked the ramparts and climbed the Nun's Tower which was the view from our hotel window. Utterly enjoyable.

I did buy myself a machine knit lace linen sweater from a vendor next to The Old Wall for about 55USD which is an absolute steal. This picture does the garment absolutely no justice because it is just stunning. Mom bought a linen stole knit in the same pattern.

I also bought some handknits from the vendors along the Old City Wall. The lace socks and the patterned mittens are hand knit and cost around 15USD. The colored Kauni stockings were machine knit and also cost around 15USD. The lace mittens were purchased in a shop and were about 21USD and are absolutely gorgeous.

One of my other favorite photos from the trip was this statue of a peasant girl. She was just standing in a clearing on the way to The Museum of Occupation. She looks like a Soviet propaganda poster and was so pretty.

We had such a good trip and I bought a lot of yarn! I still don't quite know how I got it all home, but thank heavens for space bags, that's all I can say! In Finland, everyone spoke Swedish or English and we got along just fine. In Russia and Estonia not all museums or not entire museum collections had English descriptions, but lots of people spoke English. We were able to communicate by pointing and counting on our fingers and we learned to say "thank you" in their language which makes such a difference. Once or twice we used the Visual Translator and of course we had our frustrating moments, but for the most part we were just fine.

I am so lucky to have my own Travel Agent/Travel Buddy in my mother! She planned another great trip. Once again she was the brains and I was the brawn!