Monday, February 19, 2018

Joy at last!


Bright and beautiful day up here! Crisp and sunny, but truly, very cold! These winter pictures are from quite close by, but higher up than what we are. Our trees don’t look like this as we are further down. Look at those poor snow-covered trees, it is hard to picture that the trees are there under all that snow and ice.
I have kept crocheting the second side of the cushion cover I showed you last time. I love this join as you go -method and the back side looks as if there is a braid where the pieces are joined.
I like the outcome of that, so much that I am even thinking of making a blanket with this method. As you can see, I have planned the colors this time and I am growing more and more fond of the look. This kind of crochet is stress free; there is enough change not to become boring. I am making the fourth side (one and a half cushion covers done), still enjoy the process, and am not looking forward to being done.

But the quilting…
I tried to continue this quilt a week project, started another little picture, but no… there was no joy, nor had I any idea what to do next. Since this is how the creative process is sometimes, I am recording these thoughts here. I got stuck. Truly, stubbornly stuck, with no way to get out of the stickiness. I had to stop racking my brain and just let it rest. 
When I let go, I remembered that last year I started 2017 BOM by Sarah Fielke. It is called “Down the Rabbit Hole” and got as far as almost half way done. (The link takes you to her book Down the Rabbit Hole that she published after the BOM 2017 was finished.) Since I did not know what else to do, I decided to continue it and I have loved every single stitch. The bright colors feel just right and appliqueing sun flowers with the bright sun above in the blue sky, feels right.

My quilting life has finally reached a quiet, calm spot and I have no plans to leave this sweet place soon. I did join 2018 BOM  called Simple Folk too but have not yet decided on the color scheme. My first thought was to make a Christmas quilt (traditional green and red and off-white), somehow the layout and the creatures seem wintry to me, but I have doubts, because part of me wants to make this quilt with browns and blues.
I would have loved to design and make my own quilt, but as it has not happened so far, I will continue this Rabbit Hole Quilt. I am grateful that there are great designers out there, who put out lovely designs, that are not only beautiful and entertaining, but also very informative and they teach a lot.

Thank you, Sea, for the question about the tassels in mittens.

I guess one of the reasons, why the mittens up here have strings, or braids, on them, is for the decoration, particularly when there are tassels attached to the braids. When there are only strings, they are easy to tie to each other and hang to dry, also when you tie them to each other, it is harder to lose them. In the old times when working outside, men and women wore heavy leather mittens for heavy duty tasks, but when they needed to do something, that required more control of hand movements, they took the heavy leather ones off and used woolen mittens instead. As you can see from the winter pictures, one could not use only thin woolen mittens in this climate, so the woolen ones were used just for little periods of time and when not in use, they were tied together and stuck under the belt. This is one explanation that I have read, there might be other ones too.

Both of my projects have brought lots of joy. I hope I can get the sun flower border done this week and can start the next border, which is piecing for a change. I wonder where my sock mojo has hopped, because I have not seen her for a bit. Maybe she is sound asleep in the sock drawer, as it is quite full… not that I am saying that there is such a thing as too many woolen socks. I am not too worried, she has come and gone many times before. She will make her appearance, sooner or later.


Wool with you,
Lene

PS. Ruusu's eyes continue to improve, little by little. Thank you for your well-wishes. xxx

9 comments:

  1. Glad to hear Ruusu is still improving - great news! Beautiful snow pictures. So stark and lovely...but yes, cold. We had snow Saturday and now it is warming - up to 70 tomorrow!!

    Your quilt is so bright and cheerful. Love the name Rabbit Hole - perfect!

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  2. Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. I didn’t know about the leather mittens - I live where it’s cold, but only wool mittens cold. It’s clear from your amazing tree photos (so beautiful!) that it’s so cold there that not losing a mitten is vitally important. Are the leather mittens lined? When it’s “really cold” here (probably a mild winter day for you: -15C) I wear two pairs of mittens, or mittens over leather gloves. It’s still not too cold for brief times of bare fingers. Very different climate!

    I was delighted to see that a Finnish snowboarding coach at the Olympics was knitting at the starting line. (He made a special mention in our tv coverage!) From the brief glimpse I saw, it looked like something on double pointed needles. Mittens? A hat?

    Your Rabbit Hole quilt is lovely. Something about the grey months of winter make me crave bright colors like that.

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  3. So glad Ruusu is continuing to get better!

    Now I am fascinated by your join-as-you-go patchwork crochet. Is it done like intarsia knitting, twisting the yarns together and then dropping the old color at the change? I am trying to figure out how to do this on the return row!

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  4. Oh, Lene, that next to last picture is just breathtaking in juxtaposition to the exuberant quilting. Your creative process and surroundings are a delight. Thank you for sharing them with us.

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  5. Your photos, snow covered trees and bright flowery quilts, are beautiful. As always thank you for sharing your part of the world. The trees must be quite hardy and strong to survive winter after Arctic winter.

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  6. deni16:17

    Good to hear Ruusu is improving. The quilts are stunning. Thanks for your updates into your world. stay warm - pet the furry ones.

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  7. I always enjoy perusing your creative projects and this post is no exception, but I admit I came today just to see if there was news of Ruusu...SO glad to hear there is improvement!!

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  8. Hi Lene, I miss your inspiring blog posts! I hope all is well in your world and that spring is slowly, slowly coming. :)

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  9. Waiting for some news after more than 2 months... I'm somewhat worried about you... but hoping you're feeling well !

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