Not Melbourne, but Helsinki has green and yellow trams as well! I rode around in these all day Saturday, they are very convenient for getting around the centre of town if you don't want to spend too much time walking on the cobblestones - which I did on Friday evening and Saturday morning, my feet were a bit sore after this.

I visited two yarn shops - Menita and Helsky - and two bookshops - Hobboks and Academic and General, plus assorted other shops, where I didn't buy anything, plus the Picasso Exhibition at the Ateneum, just across from my hotel. I was lucky enough to be given a suite in the hotel, they were fully booked and for some reason chose me to be upgraded.

At the yarn shops and the bookshops, I did buy a little bit, including three novels, three knitting magazines, two knitting books, and quite a lot of Drops yarn at Menita, and at Helsky some lovely hand-dyed silk / alpaca yarn. Helsky is very conveniently located, on the South Esplanade and they also have handcrafted goods, very nice jewellery and household things. Menita is easy to reach on the number 10 tram, get off at St John's Church (Johanneskyrkan), it is really a great shop, a huge variety.

In Helsinki, it is funny, everything is in both Finnish and Swedish - street names, tram stops, signs in shops, whatever. But virtually no-one seems to speak Swedish, which seems strange to me, but I guess Helsinki may not the place where many Swedish-speaking Finns live. I must read more about the history of Finland, I think it would explain a lot of the questions I have about this.

The other linguistic remark I have is that I can now understand a fair amount of actual Finnish on signs, and this is due to knowing some Estonian words. Although some are different, for example the Estonians call Stockholm Stockholm, while the Finns call it Tukholma.

Margaret, the linen is Weeks Dye Works 28 count, light grey / straw gingham. I actually had to wait ages for it to arrive, I don't know whether Loose Feathers caused a run on it and they had to dye more. It is very nice, and I am glad I did wait. I was nearly on the point of going out and buying some Graziano gingham, but I don't think this would have been anything like the correct colour.