Pomeranian Advent

There are Christmas fairs in many cities across Europe in the month of December to get you in the real holiday mood. I visited the one in Gdansk, Pomerania region of Poland on the Baltic coast - a beautiful place I had wanted to see for a long time.




The fair takes place on The Coal Market (Targ Weglowy) near the main railway station and stays open until December 23th. Looking quite empty as pictured here on the opening day, the square filled up with many more fair booths over the next few days.




All sorts of Christmas themed decorations and souvenirs, sweets and lollipops, warm socks and fur slippers, and leather goods are to be found. From the catering side, hot sausages and Glühwein is a must to stay warm in the slightly subzero temperatures.






Part of the fair is placed indoors, in the hall next to the market square, and decorated with many colourful light installations.




The booth displays are also very colorful and abundant.




The warm and festive atmosphere generated by all of those nicely wrapped and displayed items will certainly last longer than the visit itself.




Santa was sitting among his helpers and snowmen, gazing delightedly at the merry visitors around him.




After just a short walk in the old town, the inevitable is bound to happen: knitter spotting a yarn shop (Lawendowa St. 2).




There is also a shop of ready made woollen clothes and accessories on the famous Mariacka Street (the mannequin should be wearing some knitted stockings in this weather!).




On the upper floor of the Main Town Hall museum, the vintage room displays of various professions include this seamstress' room.




And while in the area, it is worth visiting the art museum in Abbot's Palace and the etnographic museum next to it in the Oliwa park, which are just a tram ride away.

Le beau voyage

When travelling, why not do it in – homemade style. Fabric toiletry bags are so much nicer than the plastic ones. The bags can be made exactly the colour and size necessary to fit all those little things needed to take along to the road.




All it took to make this bag set was actually quite a pile of bits and pieces in black and ivory: light cotton fabric, wadding, ribbons and cord, lace and tulle, elastic band and zippers... Arranged as you go and sewn together in the right order – well, mostly.




La Belle Époque, the amazing era around the turn of the 19th and 20th century, was the source of inspiration for this project. I have collected many lovely pictures associated with that period on my Pinterest pinboard.




Although the times have changed, the combination of black and ivory never seems to go out of style and is still widely and elegantly used.

Argyle Autumn

Classic argyle pattern can be seen on all sorts of knitwear and hosiery, but it is always more fun to find things in a little unexpected places. I used the repeating pattern in a scarf that is basically a closed loop tube worked in the round, as this seemed like the best way to incorporate stranded colourwork.

The pattern for this scarf can be found in the newly published Knit Now, Issue 13.
Knit Now is a terrific UK based magazine, concentrating mainly on trendy accessories and quick little knits.

© Practical Publishing

Choosing, which colours to use in this scarf, was quite easy: something blue to go well with denim and something contrasting like the autumn sun. It would be really exciting to see the scarf in other colour combinations.

© Practical Publishing

© Practical Publishing

The styling and setting is just lovely. I do hope to visit the English countryside someday - some autumn, preferably.

© Practical Publishing

This sample scarf was knitted using the wonderfully soft Artesano Superwash Merino yarn in shades Navy, Sand Yellow and Grey.

Plum and olive mixture

Just accomplished my first yarn painting experiment with purple and green textile dyes. That seems like a dangerously addictive activity, no need to look for that perfect shade of yarn again.




As there were no better vessels for this operation to be found in the household, a cake tin had to be sacrificed, and it worked out very well.




The colours came out really bright, except for some parts of yarn inside the hank, that remained unintentionally a bit too light.




This is how the yarn looks after knitting:




Leftover dye made it into more experiments, a painted piece of lace




and plain cotton fabric (so many new ideas for making a matching wardrobe instantly coming up):

Lacy days

No time for a shawl, but the lace bug still needs feeding from time to time. These are simple tube shaped lace cuffs, with nupps, of course.




The stitch pattern used is the third lace edging in the pink Haapsalu Shawl book (page 172), with some improvised rounds added to form the diamond shapes.

Teddy ready to sail

A little playtime in summer is allowed, I hope. After all, the yarn stash is all sorted out and detangled and ready for the autumn season. Some leftovers found their way to this seaman's sweater, teddy can now enjoy the summer and the sea.
The naked glass buoy got a rope net around it and does not roll off anymore.

Antique finds from the closet

My great aunt was making an inventory in the closets and I asked her, if there were any old needlework pieces survived that were handmade by the women of our family. And here are the results.

This round framed cross stitch flower picture was made by my great grandma in the 1930s. Just love the colour scheme.






The blue and white decorative kitchen towel is also embroidered and crocheted by my great grandmother, probably in the 1920s or 1930s.




The oval shaped lizard doily was embroidered by the sister of my great grandfather possibly around 1900, when she was in her twenties. Pure art nouveau!

A little bit of crochet

Found a piece of silk-like fabric in my stash, that looked great but was too small for anything but a scarf. To add that little something, I crocheted two lace trims using two shades of pearl cotton and sewed them on the scarf ends.




Really like these dark teal colour accents.

Rosy times ahead

There can never be too many small vessels at home for this and that, especially in the craft room. After taking a look at the expanding tin and napkin pile, it was quite clear, what sort of experiment should be carried out. (And there was a big sale at haberdashery). So these rosy lacy cans were born.



The tins were painted first, then roses cut from napkins positioned and moistened with water using a brush, and then three layers of mod podge applied. Finally, the cans were trimmed with lace and twine to protect against sharp tin edges.

Cosy needles

In order to make the finding of double pointed needle sets easier, I made some special cosies for them. Although I liked the look of them all together in a jar, this way the sets are always handy and any member less likely to be misplaced.




The cosies are simple tubes worked in the round and embellished with a tiny crochet flower.

Cotton baskets to put things in

There can never be too many vessels at home, where to put smalls things in. These white baskets with 'woven' pattern are knitted in the round almost like hats. Firmness is not their strongest quality, when empty, so all the more reason to fill them up.

Takeaway knitting sack

To make knitting projects portable and take them outside now that the weather is warming up, one needs a suitable bag that would blend in with the natural environment.
This drawstring bag is made of linen fabric and cotton yarn, the knitted embellishment, of course, is essential to show that this is a knitting and not sewing bag in question.




The drawing strings are made as knitted i-cord. They end with vintage wooden beads that are attached using yarn tails.