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Knitted mittens

27 January 2023 by Monica Björk

I’ve started knitting Lovikka mittens, and it’s so much fun! The design was created in 1892 in the village of Lovikka (not so far from where I live, it takes about three hours to go there by car). The Lovikka mitten has a double collar and a pattern border embroidered at the wrist, often with different coloured crosses. They also usually have a braided cord with a tassel, but I have skipped that part.The Lovikka yarn is a soft thick loosely spun wool yarn.

I have an old antique wool carder I use to brush the mittens with. The mittens become so soft and nice after a soapy wash and carding. I also card the inside.

I’ve knitted three pairs in women’s size and right now I’m working on a smaller pair. I’m going to knit two pairs in men’s size as well, but I’m waiting for more yarn to arrive.

/Monica

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A new card is uploaded!

29 December 2022 by Monica Björk

I just stumbled upon a card design I made earlier this year and then forgot about it. It’s a gate fold card with lots of snowflakes on it. I don’t know why I forgot about it but I’m glad I found it now and not during summertime. 🙂

The design is quite delicate and you need to be careful when lifting it off the mat and weeding it.
You can find the new design here.

I wish you all a Happy New Year 2023!

/Monica

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My new paved corner!

12 September 2021 by Monica Björk

Last summer I was casting oriental paver stones like crazy. This summer I have finished the paving and built a nice working bench.

First I removed the grass from the area and filled it in with fine-grained gravel to get a flat smooth base to put my stones on.

Then I started to fill up the area with my beautiful stones. This went fast but I lacked five stones in the end and had to cast them to be able to finish it.

To keep the stones at the edges from sliding, I hammered down some rebars all around. I also put extra rebars outside the paving to reinforce the string of concrete I put around the edges to even out the level between the grass and the paving.

Now I wanted to build a working bench. I edited a drawing that I found on the net and started sawing up the wood I needed for this. After removing all the saw dust from all over me, I finally could start building. This was fun and I’m amazed that everything fitted without modification, except for the hole for the sink!

I’m so pleased with how it turned out!

/Monica

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My big concrete ball

15 August 2021 by Monica Björk

Two years ago I wanted to try making a huge concrete ball by using a Pilates ball that I covered with concrete-soaked pieces of terry towels. After covering it with several layers of towels I put on just concrete and tried to get the surface as smooth as possible. I left an area in the bottom uncovered so I could remove the Pilates ball.

At first I didn’t know what to make of the big ball, but after some thoughts, an idea began to emerge. I wanted to make a big face on it!

It is not easy to shape concrete freely, but it is possible! You can just do a little area at a time and let it settle before you put on more and also make sure to turn the ball so that the concrete does not start to slide. It takes layer after layer to build up the shape. The ears where hardest to make.

It’s fun to make free form concrete but it takes much longer time to make a finished item than using moulds. I will also make feet for it. It will be a big head with feet! Ha ha!

Now I had to decide where to put it. The best place was not far from where I made it, only four meters away but then there is a staircase in between. The head is huge and it’s heavy, 65 cm in diameter and it weighs just over 70 kilos. We had to drag it around the whole garden instead!

Now it has been in the garden for two years and the colours has faded a little since I made it, but that is easy to restore. During winters I just put on a small tarpaulin as protection.

Maybe I will make a hat for him also!

/Monica

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I love salmon

27 April 2021 by Monica Björk

I often buy lot’s of salmon when I can find it at a good price. I love fried salmon seasoned with salt and black pepper. To this I serve oven-fried sweet potatoes seasoned with rosemary, salt, black pepper, garlic and a little olive oil. A good salad and hollandaise sauce goes perfectly to this.

Cured salmon

Another thing I like to make is cured salmon. I do this every now and then because it tastes so good. It’s very easy to do Just mix sugar and salt in equal amounts, then add dill and black pepper. Place a layer of the mix in the bottom of a food container. Lay down a piece of salmon and spread more salt-sugar mix on it. Add more salmon and salt-sugar mix until the container is full. Put the lid on and put it in the fridge. Turn the salmon once a day for three days, then it is ready. Smaller pieces only need two days to be cured. You can check the taste to determine if it is ready. Store in the freezer.

Sushi

This time I also made some home-made sushi. I love sushi and wanted to make some of my own. I don’t do sushi that often because it is so time-consuming. This is how they turned out.

/Monica

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