Holiday Craft Specials

Last week we, together with my husband's family, took a boat cruise on the Baltic Sea. The itinerary was Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), St. Petersburg (Russia), Riga (Latvia), Gdańsk (Poland), Visby (Sweden), and back to Stockholm. And even with a so-so weather and the fact that we couldn't go to St. Petersburg due to a storm, the cruise was brilliant.

Vision of the Seas, our ship, was magnificent. We were lavished with great service, delicious colorful drinks, good music and most of all tones of  food!

 And the trips we took in the ports-of-call were very existing. Whenever I travel somewhere, I make a point of learning about the local crafts and trying the local food. On this trip the food highlights are from Helsinki, where I got to try reindeer meat, lingonberry wine and rainbow trout soup. These are all local delicacies and I am much in love, especially with the meat. 

Also from Helsinki comes this most awesome, life-size, police car crocheted and knitted in yarn. It is on display in Kiasma, Helsinki's modern art museum and it took the artist (whose name I sadly forgot to note down) 3 years to complete!

And last but not least, in the beautiful Riga, Latvia we stumbled upon this lovely little shop called Hobby Wool.

In the shop I got myself a book about Latvian knitting craft from the Rucava region by Aija Jansone. Latvia has a long tradition of knitting socks, gloves and mittens. These hand-knitted items were used both in every day life and as special gifts during weddings and funerals. Elderly people from this region would knit or order knitting of ornamented mittens in preparation for their own departure. 

And even better than that, I also got a DIY kit for Latvian style knitted mittens. Now, that is going to be challenging due to a sophisticated pattern...and the fact that my knitting skills are very basic...

Have a great summer and I'll get back to you when I knit like a Latvian!