Handcrafts and travels in Jyväskylä, Finland

The final instalment of my Finland handcrafts and travels in March took me to the town of Jyväskylä for a few days of exploring.

Frozen lake with boats in Jyvaskyla

Yarn shops

Titityy

A beautiful and plentiful yarn shop with lots of example pieces (with information about yarn usage and patterns) to encourage my spending on a few more balls of yarn including some Danish Holst Garn yarns.

a label on a knitted shawl explaining how much yarn was used and the name of the pattern

Pikkulinna

A sewing and yarn shop with yet another different selection of wool and other treats for knitting.

Museums

Friday in Jyväskylä was free museum day so I visited the main ones in the centre of town:

Craft Museum of Finland

This museum was my main reason for picking Jyväskylä from all the many places around Finland and it did not disappoint. At the front desk a person gave me a lot of information about the exhibitions before I wandered around the three floors.

traditional woven fabrics A cabinet containing knitted mittens

The permanent collection showed traditional dress from around Finland and different types of traditional handcrafts including those made by children at school. There was a room upstairs about the history of Finnish handcrafts (sadly the information there is not available in book form). And there was a temporary beautiful felt craft exhibition.

Felt artworks Felt animals

Attached to the museum is another Taito Shop showcasing Finnish design.

Keskisuomen Museo

This was the Museum of Central Finland in Jyväskylä containing four floors of historical and new exhibitions including a temporary textile exhibition of fabrics by Eija Nevala.

Entryway for Eija Nevala exhibition

Alvar Aalto museum

There are several places around Finland to explore Alvar Aalto’s work and while this museum had a focus on his architecture there were also examples of his glass design, iconic chairs and other objects.

A cabinet containing glassware designed by Alvar Aalto

Cafe

Katriina

I adored this busy cafe. There was a long queue that  moved fast and I had to ask at the counter how the whole thing worked. They kindly explained the selection from a combination of soups, salads, etc. It was only open at lunch and it was full of students but they happily shared the tables with whoever needed a seat.  Super cheap and very tasty vegetarian food!

a try with bread, salad, soup and coffee

 

 

Heading to Finland and interested in yarn or handcrafts? I’ve also posted my experiences from Helsinki, Rovaniemi and Tampere.