“snowed under” coat

"I don't know how it is, Christopher Robin, but what with all this snow and one thing and another, not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn't so Hot in my field about three o'clock in the morning as some people think it is. It isn't Close, if you know what I mean — not so as to be uncomfortable. It isn't Stuffy. In fact, Christopher Robin," he went on in a loud whisper, "quite-between-ourselves-and-don't-tell-anybody, it's Cold."
"Oh, Eeyore!"

When we were coming to Finland for a winter, it was pretty clear that we will need some warm clothes. Warmer than ones we had in Canaries for sure; warmer than ones we used in the UK. But, while I like to shop, I hate to waste money on something that possibly will serve one season.

So, soon after moving over, we discovered a few second-hand shops that we started to comb methodically. The problem we encountered is that you can find quite interesting brick-a-brack there, but not so much clothes — it appears the Finns tend to get the full money worth out of theirs before finally throwing them away or trying to sell them on. No matter, eventually I found this heavy canvas padded coat (which reminds me in general idea of телогрейка, "bodywarmer", except that telogreikas usually came in "one size doesn't fit anybody", while this one fit me rather snugly. Thick leather belt was soon found for it, and I could have stopped here I suppose.

Except I wanted something a bit more interesting. My original idea was simply to paint something bright, possibly floral, in acrylic over the canvas:

Unfortunately, the acrylic paints that I used almost immediately lost their vibrancy, and the round spots started to look rather drab.

So I decided to apply knitted patches over them. Fortunately, as always unable to resist a long-section variegated knitted yarn, I recently bought a ball in (almost precisely) my favourite colour combination. But I bought just one and couldn't for the life of me think what to do with it. So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to use it up. I found how to knit hexagons and that was it pretty much :)

And here I am, dancing a little “пить надо меньше” dance from the New Year Movie Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!

Photos by Kirill

Knitting pics on Shutterstock — here