The Accidental Finnish Baskets

Oh, the summer is here! I know I have no place complaining about the cold weather as I've been enjoying the warmth of Thailand for (almost) all of the winter. But the summer here and there are completely different animals. How everything smells, how the wind feels on your skin... Needless to say that as a complete summer girl I love them both.

Did I already tell you we're going to Finland for a holiday in the summer? No? Well, we are. And I'm so excited: it's always such a thrill to vacation in your home country, because you almost never do it. At least I rarely do: when it's time for a holiday, I pack by bags and go somewhere else. But now, I'm gonna go and enjoy Finland as the holiday makers might: long summer nights at the summer house, sipping wine (or bad cider, who am I kidding?), eating fish every day, meeting friends and family.

And that brings us (finally) to the crafts project of today: what to bring with me when I see all the lovely people again? It's pretty lame to bring foodstuff as you can pretty much get the same stuff in Finland as you do here. But luckily I'm a crafty little wonky person and already busily preparing little gifts, yay! Here's the first one:

Ok, yes, I know: they are completely in Finland's colours. But that was an accident, I swear! As I ordered the super chunky textile yarn, I was looking for ice blue or something a bit lighter in shade anyway. But Finland colours I got, so Finland colours I'll use. Plus I'm sure my mom will love them :)

I hadn't crocheted after primary school, but the basic stitches (double crochet and chain stitch here, mainly) are so easy peasy that it was no problem to do these little baskets. I looket at instructions from here, here and here. The pages are all in Finnish, but I'm sure there are gazillions of instrucions in English as well, just google for crocheted basket. The only thing that caused me some problems was the fact, that as the baskets are crocheted as a spiral, the finishing edge and the colour change spot will be a bit uneven. But wonky is good, right? Plus I figured out if I finish the edge with a slip stitch, it will be more even. //

Projekteja kesätuliaisiksi Suomen-reissulle, kas tässä. Ekana virkatut korit, joista tuli ihan vahingossa suomiväriset. No, äiti tykkää, kun laps ajattelee Suomea ulkomailla... :)

With love, Lilje