One of the things that I've learned while living abroad is that your appreciation of things typical to your home country all of a sudden get more important. I'm finding myself listening to really cheesy music, dreaming of bread, and hanging my little Swedish flag outside the dye shed to cheer myself up.
Midsummer has always been one of my most favourite holidays, I think a lot of it had to do with where I grew up. When I was five years old my parents packed up the family and moved us to a small house in the Stockholm archipelago that was, let's say, not fit for purpose for a family with two young kids! We spent the first winter traipsing down to the outhouse every time we had to go to the toilet, and washing in the sink, since we didn't have a bathroom.
But they somehow made all of that fun, and of course the summers were incredible. There were no cars allowed on the island, so all the kids would just run wild between all the houses, and we had the best time.
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Fighting for my team -01
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Flower Crown -01
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Mum -98
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So naturally, midsummer was very special. Friends and family would come flocking to stay with us, and people would sleep wherever there was space, and the parties would be wild. We'd join in on the communal midsummer celebration on the "Midsummer Field" (referred to that all year long), spend all days eating (and drinking for the adults), and finish off the evening at "Logen", the barn. Which was a communally organised barn that would be used for island parties every Friday night and on Midsummer.
That's a very long winded way of saying, it would've been impossible for me to grow up not loving midsummer. The appreciation of warm summer nights, spending time with friends and family, and running wild with all my friends. What else could you ask for as a child?
With my brother -98 |
Now I'm channeling that love into yarn. I have so many fond memories of midsummers past, and endless ideas of colourways. I asked myself whether it was too much to do a midsummer collection two years in a row, but you know what? I don't think so. Especially now that the colourways are all dyed up and they look so different to last years.
So, as part of this blog post I wanted to run through the different colourways and the thinking behind them, and why they mean so much to me. I also want to start off by saying all of these colourways are named after songs on my cheesy Swedish party playlist, so they don't really make sense unless you're Swedish.
First up, "Nobody wants to know where you bought your top" and "Hot Night Crash".
These two colourways were inspired by a Midsummer staple - a strawberry cake. I'm pretty sure no midsummer is complete without buckets of strawberries and cream, ideally in a cake. I've always been a keen baker (my parents would distract me as a toddler with cutting out biscuits while they were doing chores, and it snow balled from there...) and the strawberry cake is something I've spent years perfecting. And every time I make it I have to remind myself of how it'd made, since I only make it once a year tops. But it's a very special cake, and I'm excited to bake it again this week. (both in cake and yarn form!)
Second one up is "Falling" and "Sommartider".
So... I'm sure all cold and miserable countries can relate to this, but new potatoes are exciting every year! When feeling finally arrives and all of a sudden the potatoes are no longer slightly tasteless and floury. Instead you get the good lil nuggets of steamy deliciousness, and in Sweden we cook them with dill and serve them with lots of butter. Yum. They're a staple at every midsummer, and some poor soul always gets stuck cleaning them every year. So there you are, these two colourways are inspired by potatoes and dill, and I'm ok with that.
Thirdly, we have "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "King of Sand"
Flowers are a very important part of every midsummer celebration, and I knew I needed some colourways that reminded me of that. Every year you go foraging for birch branches and wild flowers, and turn them into a flower crown. I've always been fond of a slightly wilder one, and that's the vibe I wanted to encapsulate in these colourways. King of Sand, the tonal, may seem a bit neutral for that vibe, but I really wanted a good hay/field type of colour to be a part of this combo!
Ok well done for making it this far - the fourth combo are "Dancing Queen" and "Shoreline".
With these colourways you're moving further into the evening and dusk. The nights are so long in Sweden at this time of the year, so by the time sun even begins to set it's 10pm (or never, if you're far up north!). But it gives you the most glorious light, and means the heat never really goes. A lot of midsummer celebrations tend to take place near a lake or the sea, and going for a lat night dip is almost an essential part of the celebrations, and it's those calm waters and sun setting kind of vibes I wanted to show off in these colours.
And finally... "The Whole House" and "800 Degrees"
These are trying to sum up the vibe of basically the middle of the night. Most people are already asleep, the whole house is filled with people sleeping wherever there's space, and there might be a bonfire and a couple of people chatting with blankets outside. It's calm, and you're all sleepy but happy. It's the post-afterparty vibes.
And there you go, that's it! This post definitely turned out longer than I was expecting, but I hope it gives you some fun insight into the thinking behind the colourways. It's always difficult to really cover this in social media posts and newsletters, so I'll try to create these kinds of posts more regularly in the future!
