OOW Horseshoe Cable HandWarmers No1

This bag travelled over 600km to find me.

(Thank you for the transportation!)

And this was inside. Arctic Dog Wool from a dear friend.

This is what goes back via mail. HandWarmers made of Our Own Wool (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool). Fair Trade I would call it.

They are very warm but light. I crocheted the edges around wrists and fingers.

My own design but easy to be made by anyone.

Cable Hand Warmers of alpaca

This view waits for me every morning when I wake up. I just love to watch it from my bed for a while.

We are around a very special day so I baked a small cake to celebrate it. It is gluten free orange cake. My own recipe. Yummy!

And I bought some chocolates too...

TaijaS Travel Agency has been working hard to solve out many and more things...

But still I have had few moments for a special gift which time is not yet at all. It is my own design; as usual. Customised to someone special.

I used Novita's 7 veljestä yarn to knit the Single Cables. It has 75% wool and 25% polyamide (150g = 300m). That fluffy light beige yarn is teetee's cacao yarn. It has 89% alpaca and 11% polyamide (100g = 5000m!!!).

These are for a very special person who has rheumatism. The cables form thick and supportive wrist part. The alpaca yarn is light but even warmer than sheep wool. It warms up the small joint areas of hands and knuckles. The left hand warmer has crocheted decoration flower. It is only in the left hand because it makes easier in the darkness of the night to separate the left from the right and wear them in the right way.

Winter Fun With Camera

Oh it has been cold. She is a very special cat. She doesn't know much about life but how feeling cosy; that's all about her character when it gets cold in the OldHouse.

The BunnyWorld is doing just fine. Just look at this beautiful color of Sulo. He actually has also blue eyes despite they look a bit rubine red because of the flash light. At the moment boys grow up in their cage and learn some litter tray habbits before they will get bigger space.

But how many bunnies you can see on that picture above there? There are the girls; Viola, aunt Lulu, Sleipnir and Pernilla. All in the same pile of wool!

Today I had some fun photographing outside. Clear blue sky means frost if it is winter. The world looks so beautiful.

I made some photos also in my garden. Believe or not but on the top left is my bush of roses and on the top right my apple tree... When the snow melts away and summer rises up its head it is always very interesting to see which survived.

There are my raspberry bushes and poppies...

There are the clouds above MyGarden. And there is the window of my GreenHouse decorated by FrostFlowers.

No, these are not tracks of my angora rabbits. A real hare was there. Hares don't like MyGarden. It is too windy and open for their purposes. But sometimes they run across...

The blue barrel is for my summer purposes. I collect rainwater into it to water MyGarden free.

I love skating. I loved it as a child, teen, young adult, adult and now, on this very moment.

- - -

Dress Bow -tutorial

Do you still remember Little Lady's Turquoise Dress? This bow is big and made for it. But you can use this tutorial for any dress or hair decoration... or what ever you desire.

 

The bow consists of the central part, bow itself and two ribbons.

We used Swarovski hot fix crystals to decorate the bow like the dress. This is the central part of the bow. If you want the centre be 6 x 6 cm you need to cut 14 x 14 cm piece (including 1 cm seam allowance to each edge).

Sew the central part to be circle styled so that you can later on pull the bow through it. First make it to be like a tube and then fasten the heads of the tube together to form out that circle or ring.

You need tulle inside the bow to keep it in shape and fit. The tulle needs to be 1-2 cm more narrow than your bow's desired width. If you want the bow be 30 cm wide, the tulle needs to be 28 - 29 cm wide. You can easily ruffle 29 x 140 cm tulle on desired area. Make sure there is enough!

Sew the tulle from its middle part right in the middle of the bow. Make sure the tulle is as long as needed on both sides. If not; shorthen the longer side by using scissors.

Then sew it all up so that the tulle stays hidden inside. I you want the bow to be 12 cm high and 30 cm wide you need to cut a piece 26 x 62 cm (double to each direction plus 1 cm seam allowance for each edge).

This is how the bow's front side looks when the tulle is inside. Fasten the tulle before other sewing of the bow. These fastening stitches can be seen at front side but soon the central part of the bow will hide it.

Fold the bow like this and fasten the left and right edges to each others on the back side.

Fold the back side of the bow like this to make it stay better in the desired form.

Pull the bow through the central part.

Tack the central part with hidden stiches to keep it there where it supposed to be.

Make 2 ribbons. If you use satin do not iron them because then they would get just flat.

Now there are the bow with its central part and ribbons.

Sew the bow ribbons together. And then tack to the back side of the bow.

How you want to fasten the bow?

I used small sew-on snaps. They are easy to locate on ready dress. You can use tiny hand stitches to avoid damaging the fabric. And the best of all; the bow can easily be removed if wanted to use the dress without it or if the dress needs to be washed up.

L e t t e r s

I love L E T T E R S. I have always loved. 

Correspondence has been my dear hobby -and then LifeStyle- for 30 years. Every year, every month, very often and going on. Via letters I have found unbeliveable loveable life time friends.

For ages I have made my own stationery. I do this for three resons:

1. To personalize my l e t t e r s
2. To keep it cheaper
3. Around here it is difficult to get stationery in big packs. If you get them, they usually are just boring college styled white with stripes or squares. If you get pretty ones, there are just few pieces of papers with high cost.

This time I used A3 papers which I fold to get 4 pages. I used snow flake and this cute girl stamps. I colored the girl with my favourite Derwent Water Colour Pencils. They are over 20 years old. I have used them a lot. But they are still there. Some of them are stump. But if you ever desire to buy ones and think they are far too expencive; I can promise they will last and last and last...

I hate water colouring but with my pencils I love it. You just colour and then add the water. Brilliant!

It is up to you which effect you want. More or less...

The next one goes to dear B...

WinterFrost

Lately it has been warm

(if I can call it so)

and cold. 

Look how the water drops have frozen!

I like rowans. 

In any time of the year.

Before Christmas the snow finally arrived to stay. Blacky has been there. She is always welcomed. She is neutered so she doesn't mess up the places. She just comes with the shades, does her job, rest in the hides and fades away. No voles, mice or rats in MyGarden. Thank you Blacky!

There it is! MySun!

These photos are taken today around midday.

When it has not been cold

(I know you still call it cold)

it has been snowing.

I - L O V E - S K A T I N G

The ice is there for that!

Striped Socks

Only these little balls of yarn were left after me knitting long woollen socks. I used Novita 7 veljestä yarn. (75% wool, 25% polyamide, 150g = 300m).

I did many stripes. It is a good way to make your left over yarns to disappear.

I worked on them both at the same time. I was not sure for what my yarn was enough. Because I wanted to avoid disaster I knit just a bit of this and then a bit of that all the way from the begin to the end.

Such a warm pair of striped woollen sock. Because they include 25% synthetic fiber they last better in use than just the ones made of 100% wool or synthetic. Approximately 75 / 25 is such a good mix for woollen socks made for use.

They are veeeery long socks. But that's why they are so loved. 

My own design.

70 days

70 days ago our teenage pregnancy accident baby bunnies were born. Today 2 of 7 had BigAdventure. The girls -Pernilla and Sleipnir- were put in the cat carrier bag. Without the cat of course.

Angora rabbits' first shearing happens at the age of 70 days and after that in 90 days. It is not so necessary to do it exactly after these days but it is more than recommended if you are new to this or are not sure. Today we cut only 2 of 7 because Pernilla was really in the need of it. For a week she has needed daily grooming. Today morning she was very doleful and heavy-hearted. At first I thought she was sick but then I remembered it was the D A Y.

I took also Sleipnir because they live in the same box and are good friends. Sleipnir is very barave, adventurous and always hungry for love. She does anything if she just can be like this; loved and pampered. During the grooming and shearing she didn't want to be on the table. She did everything to be able to be in our arms, laps, mouths, noses, ears...

This is Sleipnir's wool before the shearing.

And here she is afterwards. As you can see I didn't cut much. Simply because her wool doesn't bother her, doesn't bother me by getting messed up and she is just tiny angora baby who needs her wool to stay warm in our -7 Celcius degrees BunnyHotel.

 Then it was Pernilla's turn. Pernilla was as suspicius about the operation as OurCuteLittleCat.

But it didn't need a long time to make her to understand it is for her very own best and eases her being as angora rabbit. Her poor wool was messy. It was nothing a proper grooming could not solve out. But her hair type is much different than Sleipnir's at this point. That is why I needed to cut bit more and all around. But it was just 1-2cm I cut off. She too needs her wool over the winter. They are from accident winter litter. Our job is to make sure they will do just fine. No matter will we waste their wool or not. I collected all the wool I could and saved for felting. These short fibres do just fine in felting but for spinning they are useless.

Pernilla did so fine that she got many kisses and a lot of love after the shearing operation. As you can see she still has her wool to warm her up. Now she feels so much better. And I can tell you AuntLulu was very happy to get these two cuties back after two hours.