Bringing light

Today is Lucia day in Sweden - it is considered as the darkest day of the year and to celebrate the light returning, we have candle lit processions and serve saffron buns, or "Lucia cats".
It is possibly my favourite holiday, an occasion for a magical moment of a quiet breakfast by candlelight with the darkest of mornings still looming outside...and wearing tinsel in your hair!

This year however, I have opted for a distinctly warmer, fresh of the needles, tomte-hat. I am still looking for a good translation for "tomte". The swedish word is used both for Santa and for these small house-goblins who are kind in looking after your home and your animals but mischievous in their love for Christmas food...They are also the ones who get accused if anything goes missing in the house and turns up in a funny place!

Helsinki part 1

Finished my first instant gratification project with yarn bought during my recent trip to Finland!

Chinook Scarf  in Malabrigo Worsted, Colour VAA - 2skeins

Altered to a garter stitch body and added pompoms. An absolute joy of a yarn to work with, and gorgeous to wear.

                                                   

Helsinki has plenty of yarn shops! It was incredible to plan a trip not just around one special treat, but around 3 or 4, and then find out that there are more shops still from our non-knitting guide and then accidentaly stumble on yet more stalls and little shops here and there...

I bought the Malabrigo from one of these surprise shops, the beautiful and vast Priima Lankatalo .

Located on the second floor above the Emmaus charity shop - my second favourite thing in the world is hunting for bile coloured 1960s crockery - it's a huge space with a fantastic range of yarns. Not so many Finnish makes, but full ranges of brands such as Malabrigo, Aracaunia, Debbie Bliss and Lang, not to mention the Wall of Noro (although I did find the Noro priced a little steeply compared to here in the UK, but it's still beautiful to look at). 

                                                       








The visit to Emmaus and the junk shop next to it didn't yield that much by way of crockery (for which my luggage was thankful) but I found a few lovely vintage christmas textiles, and my mother spotted this fantastic, handmade, Marimekko-esque woollen wall hanging for me!

                       

The stillness before christmas

Wishing you all a happy 1st of advent - now begins the time when I perhaps feel at my most swedish, surrounded by candles and lights.
As I am home with flu, I've had a chance to make a little start on a Chinook scarf in some delicious Malabrigo Worsted I bought in Finland at the weekend....much much more about that as soon as I regain the capacity to string sensible sentences together!