Vuoden viimeisessä TAITO-lehdessä ilmaantui minulta huiviohje ihanalle Suomenlampaanvillalle suunnitellulle huivimallille. Ohjeessa esittelin samalla hieman erilaisen huivin päättelyn kuin mitä normaalisti teen. Tässäpä vielä askel askeleelta huivin reunan siisti päättely kun huivi on vielä kiinni kangaspuissa. Itse tykkään tämänlaisen päättelyn ulkonäöstä ilman sen pitempiä hapsuja, koska menetelmä on nopea ja jotenkin mukavan modernin näköinen. Reuna on jotenkin siisti ja

Kuva: (C) @taitolehti No niin! Tämä on ohje jota aloin suunnittelemaan jo helmikuussa 2017 ja mielessäni sillä oli aina työnimi "Plussaa!!" koska silloisessa elämän vaiheessani tein elämäni ensimmäisiä positiivisia raskaustestejä, ja hurahdin hetkeksi itsekin netistä löytyvään plussa-tikku -huumaan jota muutkin juuri raskaaksi tulleet naiset levittivät. Jos olet testannut positiivista some-aikana, tiedät todennäköisesti mitä tarkoitan! Viltin lopullinen kuvio ei sitten lopult

I-ha-naa! Taas läpsähti postiluukusta uusin TAITO- lehti! Uuden taiton (hahaa, -Taiton taiton-) myötä lehdestä on minusta tullut varsinainen visuaalinen herkkupakkaus meille käsityöläisille, se on suoraan sanottuna eräänlainen karkkipäivä kun uusi alan lehti ilmestyy ;) NAM NAM. Ja tällä kertaa minulla oli siinä ohje laudeliinaan nimeltä Kyly. Ja arvatkaapa mitä! Myös sen puuvilla-pellavainen loimi on varioitavissa! Viime kesänä aloin ensimmäistä kertaa kokeilemaan miltä tunt

...vs. the pattern in my head. At the beginning of the year I had my first pattern for weaving published in the first-of-the-year-renewed-110year-old classic, the finnish Taito-magazine (no-pressure for a first-timer, right), but the very same night as the magazine came out, some more experienced weavers noticed mistakes in my pattern. And they weren't small either, the numbers were wrong, the pattern repeat did't add up.. Fark I thought! My first pattern and I landed flat on

Weaving can be back-breaking work sometimes, anyone who's done hours of dressing the loom or warping or putting threads through heddles knows what I'm talking about! My main body ache issue from weaving comes from me being absolutely and conclusively right-footed; that means I always work the treadles with my right foot. Needless to say, it creates an imbalance in muscle tension between the right and left side. Also, because of the seat and loom being of a different make I ca

Ooohh these dusky mornings. Sitting here, savouring a lingonberry smoothie which I spent sunny days picking last September; having exactly these mornings in mind. Need these vitamin and flavour bombs to make it through the winter. It's also the link between the seasons, and while I may sit here and wonder whether those warm green days in the woods ever really happened, the berries in my hand reassure me; yes they did. It was real. And summer will come again. Snow came late, a

It just went straight from autumn to winter here! These two photos are taken 7 days apart (at locations about 7 km apart): Can you believe it! It inspired me to make this infinity shawl. Next to hand weaving I did some research last spring on what it would look like if I made some designs for machine weaving. I found a small weaving mill in Southern Finland, run by a lovely couple. Last month I finally got around to actually producing some of my own designs. It's still a bit

And so it went, summer turned into autumn and I am diving into new challenges again. It has been a crazy two years and the crazy keeps coming. I have found new partners to work with and new connections in Japan, who would've thunk it from a small crafter in Lapland!!! I've got new stuff coming out for winter 2016-2017, both in handwoven shawls and something new too; more on that later ;) Being involved in many projects at the same time I have discovered is something I both ch

I came back from Urkult World music festival late last night feeling tired, but at the same time very inspired. Such interesting artists and people I met there, especially my travel mates from Ireland Urs Harttung from Bearfoot Enterprise, Airmid All Natural Soap, Patricia Miller Ceramics, Sally Ann's Handmade Bags, The Journeyman Saddler and Ciara Campbell Ceramics plus of course our organizer Creative Momentum Project! In fact I've been such a roadshow this summer I haven't

Oh man, trying to set up a home studio has not been an easy task I tell you. First of all; looms, or at least the kind I use, are BIG. And not only are they big, the entire process of setting them up is laborious, and quite, eh, physical. Depending on your level of organization, and mine is, well it could be improved, it'll take half a day. Then there's the dressing of the loom and threading, that'll take another day or two. The parts of the loom are quite large, whole wood,

Oh my god! I got invited to come weave at Strömsö! Strömsö is a Finnish lifestyle TV show on national public tv that features and shares how-to's on all kinds of arts and crafts from textiles to woodwork and wholesome recipes of course. And the show is in Swedish, so I got to stretch my mother tongue a bit too! Strömsö has an interesting history of very versatile projects from the past like building a sauna in a day while broadcasting live, upcycling clothing (just to mentio

After weaving more actively for the last two years it just hit me this winter how much I'm completely in love with stripes! This year I've been cruising the second hand shops in town more frequently and discovered the abundance of stripey textiles out there from generations gone by. I also couldn't help but notice what high quality hand woven goods are out there just screaming to be discovered and put to new use! So it felt natural for my spring window exhibition at Taito Hel

Today I felt like writing about weaving and how it is not only an outer but also an inner process. This month I'm working on a new batch of shawls, and I know in my bones these are going to be special. And by special, I mean they may not feature as intricate designs as the shawls I've made before, but they are rather a step back into the basics and a more personal exploration of colors and different yarns together. As some of you may know, I learnt about weaving through frien

At the end of last year I joined FibeShare's The Weaving Kind online community because I want to explore new ideas and materials in weaving and hopfully create new concepts while I'm at it. The idea is every month we are faced with a new weaving related challenge and then share our experiences of it in the form of photos and descriptions in Instagram. The January submission is to weave with something we've never used for weft before, and potentially also a material that isn'

TellUs @ Oulu University - Glad to see one of last year's projects come to a successful conclusion. Handwoven lampshades with the notable size of 100cm diameter are now hung at the TellUs entrepreneurship hub for students. 4 of them are greeting people as they enter and two shed their light on those who choose to have a quiet moment in a space intended for relaxing and thinking. TellUs is a new space for students, start-ups and entreprenurs to innovate and develop new busines