Treasure in the Garden

Finally I have finished my newest bag called "Treasure in the Garden". I have started it already in January and blogged about it then.

Thanks to my graduation, I was finally able to finish the bag. I started the bag by thinking about the Scandinavian porcelain in the 40s to 70s. It is somewhat challenging to try to create something like that from woolen yarn. But I think I made it, I love the colors and the simple motifs. Furthermore this bag really shows how Scandinavian Kukkilintu really is.

I have to confess here that I am so bored about the "form follows function" obsession among industrial designers in Finland.

Probably I should not express myself so strongly as many times there are no alternatives really, trying to keep the manufacturing and material costs low. And yes, I find many modern design fairly inspirational. But still, I cherish the colors, ornaments, everything that is full and organic. It's nature's patchwork, as lively as the tulips in my garden!

When the pattern is needed

When there's too much going on, I love to open a pattern book, choose a knitting pattern to my liking and just start knitting. No sketching, no measuring, no nothing to worry about.

This spring, when writing my thesis, I got these two scarves finished. Both very simple, mindless knitting. The white one is Clarence Scarf from Victorian Lace Today and the red one is Raha Scarf from Estonian Lace Knitting.

I love the yarn on the white scarf. It is hand spun by Yarnspider and it's organic shetland lambswool. It is such a pleasure knitting hand spun yarn! I have dreamt about having a spinning wheel of my own, but I'm afraid I don't have enough time for another hobby.

The red scarf is made from Marks & Kattens Sarek wool yarn. It is a bit too thick for me to really fancy it but I got few balls as a gift and bought few more and the scarf was finished pretty quickly.

After finishing my thesis I had few days when I thought: why people knit? I had no desire to pick up the needles. It must have been exhaustion as after reading an entertaining book and sleeping well, I went to my stash and started knitting again! Hopefully there will be something little more creative in my next post.

I am on Twitter

You can find me now on Twitter, my username is Kukkilintu. I am micro-blogging mainly about ... guess what!

Knitting!

Graduation!

I am sorry for being so lazy blogger and crafter this year. Finishing my industrial design studies has taken more of my spare time than I expected. But it's over now, I am now Bachelor of Culture and Arts and so ready to get back to my routines.

It has been great two years and I hope I will be able to make use of everything I have learned in the future. One of the best things have been that I have been able to combine both my previous degree in computing and this one by developing user-friendly online service concepts in my day job. But even more than that I wait for the new challenges in making textiles.

I feel very curious nowadays, there are so much to discover!

Spoonflower contest and Karelia fabric

My fabric design Karelia is chosen for Spoonflower's fabric of the week contest.

Vote for the fabric of the week

I have been extremely busy writing my bachelor's thesis. Therefore I have been forced to take a short break at blogging like most of the things I usually do on the regular basis. My apologies and happy easter holliday for everybody!

Old Times

I have become more and more fascinated by the old craft work. So I made a couple of pouches that combine tapestry crochet and fair isle knitting. And these had to have tassels like the old Finnish pouches did.

There have been wonderful winter days in Finland recently. Very sunny and there has been snow in the south too. I hope that all the tourists are now here enjoying the good weather and smiling Finns.

Me and Emily of New Moon

I have two older sisters. I had my 40th birthday a couple weeks ago and my sisters are on their way to 60. The big age difference has caused that we have not always been the best soul mates but recently we have got along pretty well. It probably means that I am getting old, a terrible idea to be honest!

I have to praise my oldest sister this time. She sent me a poem which she wrote herself, to gratulate me. And that's not all, she had bought me a wonderful book!

The book's title is freely translated: "The Year of Girl Poets". It is about Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels and written by two Finnish women. The book is like a collage: it has beautiful illustrations, stories and calendar pages - all about Montgomery's great novels and their influence.

L.M. Montgomery was very popular in Finland when I was a child. My childhood was spent reading about Anna, Emily of New Moon, little women etc. I feel very nostalgic about them and just love the book, made for women from the 60s and 70s.

I got so nostalgic that I named my next folk bag "Emily". If there's a color of my childhood, it is this deep blue. I used to have a velvet skirt, cotton jacket and cotton hat sewn by my mother - all blue and I loved wearing them.