Little knits: Alpaca baby vest

 My friends are busy making babies which, in return, keeps me busy knitting for them. As mentioned before, I like to those little knits and they're real stashbusters because I almost always have a spare skein or two that are perfect for those projects.

This time I stuck to my trusted old pattern for the "Raglan Baby Cardigan (Top-Down)" which I already used several times, for example here. It's a free Ravelry pattern and in its simplicity you can modify it endlessly. The yarn I used was still from my Peru stash of alpaca yarn, part of it handdyed in the workshop on dyeing with natural dyes I attended two years ago.

I'm not a huge fan of pink normally, mainly because of the gender stereotyping-aspect of it, but this one is very pretty. It's dyed with cochenille but came out a bit more subdued because the alpaca didn't take up the dye as well as the wool.

As an afterthought I should have probably given the pink cardigan to a boy in order not to conform with the stereotypes but alas, I wasn't that rebellious after all and it went to a little girl. I'm a bit reassured though because I think there aren't too many other pink items in her wardrobe so she can grow up with a healthy take on gender identity.

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Pattern: Raglan Baby Cardigan (Top-Down)
Yarn: Michell alpaca, natural white & dyed with cochenille

Finland

I've only been to Finland twice before: once for a wedding in 2012 and before that in 2008. So it's been almost 10 years since my first visit and I can still remember it as if was yesterday. To be fair, I also stayed for a month since I was taking a Finnish language class at Helsinki Summer University (did I mention that I'm a language geek?) so it was quite an intense summer.

In any case, I love Finland and so it was high time to come back for some sauna and salmiakki, two things you best enjoy on an island in a lake in the woods far away from "civilisation". So that's what we did! After taking the boat from Tallinn to Helsinki we didn't hang around but got straight on the train to Mikkeli in South-Eastern Finland. From there we took another bus to a village called Anttola where we rented a canoe and spent the next 3 days paddling around lake Saimaa.

It was beautiful! We paddled to a small island in the lake where there was a "campsite", i.e. some spots in the woods where the trees were chopped down to put up our tent and a basic cooking shelter with a fire place. Oh, and of course a sauna! It couldn't have been more perfect. On top of that we were also fairly lucky with the weather and it only started raining on the last day but we even managed to time it well and break down our tent in short break when it was still dry.

Having the sauna was great also because there was no electricity or running water of course so at least we could wash with warm water in lack of a shower. Plus you could enjoy the heat and then take a dip directly in the lake outside - so refreshing! That is kind of the essence of a Finnish summer holiday in my mind and we totally maxed it this time.  I have to admit though that I still missed the shower a little bit, especially because the lake water was very soft and made my hair go all funny. First world problems, yeah.

The canoe rental place "Wild Canoe" was great, by the way, I can totally recommend it. For a very decent price (250 € for two people) we rented the canoe, all camping- and cooking equipment except the sleeping bags for three days, plus we could stay at their base camp for free another two nights. The issue is of course getting there if you don't have  car so the opportunity to arrive the day before, stay over in one of their cottages, and start paddling the next morning is really handy. We did the same thing when we got back and because all our stuff got wet we even had time to dry some of our clothes before going back to Helsinki. On top of that, the guys were every so friendly and helpful and answered all our questions very patiently. Even when I asked if there were bears on the island.

All in all we spent 5 days in Anttola and we returned to Helsinki for another couple of days in the city, enjoying the perks of a real kitchen and bathroom and catching up with some old friends from Uni that I hadn't seen in years. Of course, I also needed to fit in a visit to the Marimekko outlet shop although I didn't find too many bargains this time (you can see the fabric and the shirt in the last picture above).

Oh Finland, you certainly didn't disappoint this time. Although I would probably not do the three-day canoeing tour again because I can tell you, I was EXHAUSTED.

Estonia

Our summer holiday started a little bit earlier this year because I had the opportunity to combine it with a work trip. We started off in Estonia, where we spent a week, and then we continued to Finland for another week. Since I took soooo many pictures and both countries are quite different I decided to split the trip into two blog posts though. So, today Part I: Estonia!

My, that country has changed A LOT over the last 10 years. The last time I visited was in 2008 and Estonia had recently joined the EU - you could clearly see that Tallinn was a city under development. Back then, there was not really much outside the old town worth visiting except of course Pirita, Kadriorg, etc. but I mean more the outskirts of the city. I remember mainly grey suburbs with Soviet-style tower blocks but actually not much worth visiting as a tourist.

Fast forward 10 years and Tallinn has one of the highest concentration of hipsters and young creatives that I've seen in any European city, including a completely new and uber cool area of town behind the Balti Jaam called "Tellesikiv Loomelinnak" (Telleskivi Creative City) and a brand new market hall with gourment bistros and delicatessen shops. Last time I was at Balti Jaam it was famous for its "Russian Market" which was everything but new or hip and there was basically nothing behind the station.

In contrast, the Old Town now almost feels overrun with tourists. I remember really liking it on my first visit and it was also much quieter but now I found it actually quite annoying to walk around with tour groups blocking your way all the time and literally every single shop selling souvenirs. I still liked it but it was a bit too much for my taste.

To escape the hustle and bustle of the "big city" (really an exaggeration in the context of Tallinn which is still very small in comparison to most capitals), we had rented a cabin next to the sea on the Estonian West coast, near the town of Haapsalu. Both the region as well as the town itself were really beautiful and we were extremely luck with the weather. We spent most of the time outside, hiking in the Matsalu National Park and touring the two islands of Muhu and Saremaa.

Of course I also did some yarn shopping and admired the beautiful handicraft, especially on the island of Muhu. But I think I'll make this a separate blogpost to go more into details. All in all Estonia was a great place to explore nature and catch our breath after a very hectic spring and early summer in Brussels.