My impression of Sweden as a colour chart of greys, based in all those Scandi noirs I binged on, has just been blown away. Those gorgeous colours!
As for the yarn shops… Check out Ewe & Ply (Shrews & Oswestry shops) who deliver. Ethically sourced yarns always. Run by three wonder women whose after service is worthy of a medal.
Thank you for opening doors of wonderment. I have put Sweden on my bucket list.
It sounds wonderful. My only visit to Sweden was a week of lectures at the university in Halmstad, but I did open 24 hours in Gothenburg which I LOVED! I came back with 4 pairs of gloriously warm and furry boots. It must have been about 30 years ago.....but this post made me think of it again. Thank you!
I’ve been to Stockholm twice and very much feel like I could live there — very much helped by the fact 2 close friends from London did make the move there. However I have not been in winter yet ! So much beauty round each corner. Hoping to get to the design museum on my next visit. We went to the Vasa old ship in August instead (there was a Lego exhibit that meant I got my history fix and the others had something to look forward to at the end 🤣) Thank you for this lovely Sunday morning bundle of colour !!
Oh my! So very timely for me - we’re off to Stockholm and Helsinki this summer and I’m already starting to make lists of places I’d like to visit/things to do. Had hoped to visit Carl and Karin Larson’s home but it looks to be too far for a day trip on public transport - very disappointing, but I’m sure we’ll find other places to delight. Thank you!
It might be possible to get the train from Stockholm to Falun then the bus to Sundborn - and back - all in one day. I was looking at timings while we were in Stockholm as I'd like to go back by train.
Oh thanks - I’ll check timetables again nearer tje time, maybe they’ll look more feasible in the summer. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on if you do try it by train
Thanks so much for sharing all the color! Heart-enlarging!!
Kaffe Fassett had a breathtaking 80s sweater pattern featuring the Wise and Foolish Virgins — I did see someone on Ravelry use it as the basis for mittens. I have the pattern & yarn, but always too timid to start it 🤭
Oops—sent too soon! I’ll just add how nice it is to see this antidote to the pallid beige “Scandi” (hate that word”) school of design. And as long as you can find a kardememmumbullar all’s right with the world.
I would love to visit Sweden. My Great-Grandparents emigrated from Sweden to America in the 1800s. My Grandmother, my Mother and my Great-Aunt would speak in Swedish when they didn't want me to know what they were talking about. LOL I am named after my Great-Grandmother, Karin.
My great-grandparents also emigrated from Sweden, to Minnesota, like so many “scandihoovians.” Unfortunately I never knew that side of the family tree—my mother’s father died when she was a teenager, and my Russian Jewish grandmother didn’t keep up contact with his family. But my mother was by all accounts a beautiful golden-haired child and loved Scandinavian design so our house was full of mid-century furniture and decor. Probably worth a lot now had I kept it but not really my style.
In the nineties my then-to-become husband (but not husband anymore) and I drove around in the ”svenskbygderna”, the area of Swedish settlements in Wisconsin and Minnesota and met a couple of old med who gathered together in a cafe once every month to speak Swedish and they invited us and recorded us on tape. As we had breakfast in a cafe in Stillwater, a woman started crying, telling us we sounded like her parents used to talk and she and her husband immediately invited us home. We stayed in contact for many years.
My Great-Grandparents also went to Minnesota - they had a farm in the Princeton area. My Mom decorated like that also! She had dark hair, from her father's side. His family emigrated from Norway. They had a general store in the Princeton area. I was able to contact two of my Mom's cousins a few years ago and they sent some photos and more info. My Mom died when I was 19 - I was the oldest of 4 kids and none of my siblings were/are interested in genealogy and neither was my Mom. So the only family history I have was from those cousins or from my own research.
Beautiful, bright, clear… so unlike my mtns this week which are bleak, frigid, and grey. Those wee chunky baby feet make me smile… what is it about those feet and round bum that are so so precious??
What an amazing place! Proper winters where cold is expected and dealt with accordingly. We have a lovely Swedish café/shop on lots of higgledy-piggledy levels on the river front in Putney, Blä Bar. I’ve yet to get there early enough on a Thursday (only day they are made) to experience a Cardamon bun, but there are other traditional baked goods to enjoy and very good coffee, before looking at the lovely textile, wool and ceramic artisan made things-you-covet-but-don’t-really-need!
That yarn shop reminded my of the Jamieson one in Lerwick, on Shetland - overwhelmingly inspiring! And I am currently obsessed with Svenskt Tenn - I want to order fabric samples but am put off by the shipping costs.
It is indeed a lovely place. My husband worked in a geriatric hospital there in university vacations (he was studying Swedish at a UK university), which really improved his Swedish, tho with a heavy emphasis on geriatric topics, and made him adept at sympathetically caring for older people according to respectful and humane Swedish standards (useful for both of us in later life??!). We are going to the west coast of Sweden this summer and I plan a shipping-costs-avoiding Svenskt Tenn order to our Swedish friends' house, to be collected by us. Looking forward to many kanelbullar and cardamom-flavoured coffees.
Barnbarn - I love how the word can just be extended into the next generation - barnbarnsbarn for great grandchild.
The New Orleans fabric is incredible. Reading about the three main sections and the depiction of the sea and continents, makes me wonder how large a piece is needed to show the entirety of it. Any idea? It would be worth getting a sample and framing it - as you say, it would be possible to get lost in it for a long time.
My impression of Sweden as a colour chart of greys, based in all those Scandi noirs I binged on, has just been blown away. Those gorgeous colours!
As for the yarn shops… Check out Ewe & Ply (Shrews & Oswestry shops) who deliver. Ethically sourced yarns always. Run by three wonder women whose after service is worthy of a medal.
Thank you for opening doors of wonderment. I have put Sweden on my bucket list.
It sounds wonderful. My only visit to Sweden was a week of lectures at the university in Halmstad, but I did open 24 hours in Gothenburg which I LOVED! I came back with 4 pairs of gloriously warm and furry boots. It must have been about 30 years ago.....but this post made me think of it again. Thank you!
I’ve been to Stockholm twice and very much feel like I could live there — very much helped by the fact 2 close friends from London did make the move there. However I have not been in winter yet ! So much beauty round each corner. Hoping to get to the design museum on my next visit. We went to the Vasa old ship in August instead (there was a Lego exhibit that meant I got my history fix and the others had something to look forward to at the end 🤣) Thank you for this lovely Sunday morning bundle of colour !!
Oh my! So very timely for me - we’re off to Stockholm and Helsinki this summer and I’m already starting to make lists of places I’d like to visit/things to do. Had hoped to visit Carl and Karin Larson’s home but it looks to be too far for a day trip on public transport - very disappointing, but I’m sure we’ll find other places to delight. Thank you!
It might be possible to get the train from Stockholm to Falun then the bus to Sundborn - and back - all in one day. I was looking at timings while we were in Stockholm as I'd like to go back by train.
Oh thanks - I’ll check timetables again nearer tje time, maybe they’ll look more feasible in the summer. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on if you do try it by train
Thanks so much for sharing all the color! Heart-enlarging!!
Kaffe Fassett had a breathtaking 80s sweater pattern featuring the Wise and Foolish Virgins — I did see someone on Ravelry use it as the basis for mittens. I have the pattern & yarn, but always too timid to start it 🤭
Oops—sent too soon! I’ll just add how nice it is to see this antidote to the pallid beige “Scandi” (hate that word”) school of design. And as long as you can find a kardememmumbullar all’s right with the world.
What a glorious burst of color to find in my mailbox this morning—the tiles, the flowers, the fabric, the rugs!
I would love to visit Sweden. My Great-Grandparents emigrated from Sweden to America in the 1800s. My Grandmother, my Mother and my Great-Aunt would speak in Swedish when they didn't want me to know what they were talking about. LOL I am named after my Great-Grandmother, Karin.
My great-grandparents also emigrated from Sweden, to Minnesota, like so many “scandihoovians.” Unfortunately I never knew that side of the family tree—my mother’s father died when she was a teenager, and my Russian Jewish grandmother didn’t keep up contact with his family. But my mother was by all accounts a beautiful golden-haired child and loved Scandinavian design so our house was full of mid-century furniture and decor. Probably worth a lot now had I kept it but not really my style.
In the nineties my then-to-become husband (but not husband anymore) and I drove around in the ”svenskbygderna”, the area of Swedish settlements in Wisconsin and Minnesota and met a couple of old med who gathered together in a cafe once every month to speak Swedish and they invited us and recorded us on tape. As we had breakfast in a cafe in Stillwater, a woman started crying, telling us we sounded like her parents used to talk and she and her husband immediately invited us home. We stayed in contact for many years.
My Great-Grandparents also went to Minnesota - they had a farm in the Princeton area. My Mom decorated like that also! She had dark hair, from her father's side. His family emigrated from Norway. They had a general store in the Princeton area. I was able to contact two of my Mom's cousins a few years ago and they sent some photos and more info. My Mom died when I was 19 - I was the oldest of 4 kids and none of my siblings were/are interested in genealogy and neither was my Mom. So the only family history I have was from those cousins or from my own research.
Beautiful, bright, clear… so unlike my mtns this week which are bleak, frigid, and grey. Those wee chunky baby feet make me smile… what is it about those feet and round bum that are so so precious??
Another lovely start to my Sunday, thank you Jane 🩷
What an amazing place! Proper winters where cold is expected and dealt with accordingly. We have a lovely Swedish café/shop on lots of higgledy-piggledy levels on the river front in Putney, Blä Bar. I’ve yet to get there early enough on a Thursday (only day they are made) to experience a Cardamon bun, but there are other traditional baked goods to enjoy and very good coffee, before looking at the lovely textile, wool and ceramic artisan made things-you-covet-but-don’t-really-need!
That yarn shop reminded my of the Jamieson one in Lerwick, on Shetland - overwhelmingly inspiring! And I am currently obsessed with Svenskt Tenn - I want to order fabric samples but am put off by the shipping costs.
Marvellous…makes me want to visit Stockholm without delay🌺
I have immediately Googled "New Orleans" and will pass my day creating justifications for spending that much money on 1m of this glorious fabric.
Thank you Jane for such beauté.
We thought maybe we'd just get a cushion cover in "New Orleans'. But even that was too difficult to justify!
It is indeed a lovely place. My husband worked in a geriatric hospital there in university vacations (he was studying Swedish at a UK university), which really improved his Swedish, tho with a heavy emphasis on geriatric topics, and made him adept at sympathetically caring for older people according to respectful and humane Swedish standards (useful for both of us in later life??!). We are going to the west coast of Sweden this summer and I plan a shipping-costs-avoiding Svenskt Tenn order to our Swedish friends' house, to be collected by us. Looking forward to many kanelbullar and cardamom-flavoured coffees.
Barnbarn - I love how the word can just be extended into the next generation - barnbarnsbarn for great grandchild.
The New Orleans fabric is incredible. Reading about the three main sections and the depiction of the sea and continents, makes me wonder how large a piece is needed to show the entirety of it. Any idea? It would be worth getting a sample and framing it - as you say, it would be possible to get lost in it for a long time.