Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

These are the pictures of all three book covers, from the edition printed by Orion Children's Books, the edition I've read. The cover artist is David Wyatt , and I've seen his other brilliant covers for Ursula other books, like Tales from Earthsea . It's really good (as well as sometimes really annoying) that you can read about this trilogy on Wikipedia . It makes reviewing the books both easier, and a bit unnecessary... but I want to say my part to. First, I want to say that if you've read other books by Ursula, you SHOULD definitely read these too. Her writing is, nearly, always phenomenal. And the books will not leave you untouched. book one - Gifts This is the story about how the boy - Orrec of Caspro - and the girl - Gry of Barre - grow up in the mountains of the Uplands, a quite barren place where small communities eke out a living by farming and keeping animals. Orrec's father is an important man in that he is one of the gifted ; people who have abil...

Okay, so I had been thinking about re-doing the first granny square blanket I ever made. I did the blanket way before I even met Micke, so it's more than 5 years old! The squares are all in white and brown; some of the white was from an H&M woolen sweater that had shrunk in the washer by accident. The rest if the yarn were left-overs I got from Mom. Back when I made it, I put the squares together using needle and thread, but I was NEVER happy with the result. Since I wasn't that good at crocheting then, no two squares were alike in texture or size. The blanket was clearly a mess, and you can see it on the first pic! For lack of better words: it needed makeover. Taking apart the blanket, square by square. First, I had to remove the old seam without harming the squares. After that, I had to re-crochet a MAJOR part of the squares (all except maybe 5...). This because I needed the majority of them to have the same gauge and thickness, otherwise the new blanket would be as wi...

We were invited last Saturday to dinner at Micke's sister's house, and I volunteered o make the dessert. Rhubarb-pie with ice cream is one thing you'll just have to eat when it's summer. No matter what your diet says. Pie dough. I so like these small glassware pie forms. Put in the rhubarb (mixed with some sugar and potato starch). I'm sorry - there's no "done" pie picture, because we ran to the dinner as soon as they got out of the oven. Bummer! I knew there was something I forgot, guess that was it.

Well, here in Turku the bridge Kvarnbron (Myllynsilta in Finnish) is falling down. Mainly because of bad workmanship back in the eighties when it was built. It's now all the rage to write about in the local papers. I know it's hard to see the difference from this photo, but if you enlarge it you'll see it better.

Fanttinauha! First time I saw felted "yarn" (fanttinauha in Finnish), I thought it would be super fun to try and use it for some small crafts-project. I had bought a meter each of red, light green, yellow and brown while shopping with Mom, and I had this "vision" of a rose and a sunflower brooch. Working free-hand with only a long needle and some yellow thread, I pieced together this sunflower brooch. Materials used were ~1 m yellow and 15 cm brown of the felted yarn. The metal-part of the brooch (the needle) I superglued into place. The brooch is about the size of my palm, and it weights hardly nothing, which is great. Front... ...and back.

This Sunday, after helping Mimi with her laundry (the washing machine in her household has broken down, and her room-mate ain't obviously thinking about getting it fixed anytime soon...) , I finally got together all the clothes I've been meaning to dye for a while now. Dyeing using a washing machine is quite easy - the first time I tried was back in 2004 when I had this gray jacket with a trench-coat cut I liked but made me look like a mouse. I dyed it a warm brown instead, and was very happy with the results. Since then, I've been dyeing things and clothes at least once a year. Last year, I dyed Mimi's white IKEA-bedspread a sunny yellow , but we forgot to wash the spread beforehand, so the resulting color was splotchy. Sometime now, I'll get her to re-dye it. (Otherwise I'll remember that failure forever!) This time, however, was the first time I wanted to try and use mixed colors. So I bought a violet and a red dye packet, and the results were clothes ...

Using the weft I had bought from Mom's favorite craft-store in Sökö , I made my first rag-rug. The crochet-pattern I used is a "granny triangle", which is just the normal granny square pattern in a triangle. This little rug didn't take much time to make at all, so it's great evening craft-project. And you can use any pattern you want. 1.   Start off crocheting as you would normally. Be optimistic: try to keep the weft in the bag it came in ( :P ) 2.   Get crazy at the weft, then roll it into a ball. Cont. with crocheting. 3.   Fasten off the weft and say "Ta-daa!", because you're done :)

If you're spending your "Valborg" in Turku, there are places and events you just "must" take part in. These include: - During April the 30th - Attending the student-picnic. Hearing the Brahe Djäknar choir sing in the Vårdberget-park (Vartiovuori in Finnish), and put on your student cap alongside every other Swedish-speaking student. Attend a Vapp-dinner party. Attend one-three after-parties: preferably at least the one held at Kåren.  - During May the 1st - Attend the picnic in the Vårdberget-park. (Have a roaring hangover from all the sparkling wine and champagne you've drunk). We went to put on our caps at Vårdberget, while the ever so lovely Brahe Djäknar-choir sang songs to hail the new spring. The list of songs they sing is very traditional, and the whole event is both televised and recorded for the radio. [video to come here!] Here's some pictures we took while on Vårdberget. It was quite chilly this year, but I'm so glad it didn...