The Culture That Is Finland

From the Associated Press' Twitter feed:
PURL JAM –

PURL JAM – Knitters from around the world thrash around at the first-ever #HeavyMetalKnitting World Championship in eastern Finland. pic.twitter.com/LSFhjROO1r

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) July 12, 2019

Using Jakub Marian's Metal bands per capita map:

it's easy to see the thrasher part of the equation but I tend to associate the yarn gig with Norway's Slow TV.

"National Knitting Night":

was followed by the sequels

• National Knitting Evening
• National Knitting Morning

because, as Rune Moklebust, one of the the producers said:

"Well, it has to be unique -- not a copy of the last one,"
"So we have to push the boundaries for each show, I think."

We'll be back with 18 hours of salmon swimming upstream if I can find it.

First though, back to Finland.  As I learn about the country and its folkways I've also stopped at the Encyclopaedia Mettalum:

FinnTech: What To Do With Near-Indestructible Black Plastic

...I remember asking a Finnish woman why it sounded like people were laughing when they spoke Finnish, were they happy?
"Oh no" she said and then she stopped talking.

Someone, I can't recall who, mentioned that on public transportation Finns sit and stare at their shoes. It is considered very forward to stare at someone else's shoes.
I don't know as much about Finland as I do about Norway but here are some of our posts:

Thousands Of Migrants Flee Finland Hoping For A Better Life In Iraq

 "Embracing päntsdrunk, the Finnish way of drinking alone in your underwear"

The Finns used to dance the Tango but maybe not so much anymore. The only Finnish band I could name is an old-school Finnmetal band, Children Of Bodom described as:

"Melodic death metal meets virtuoso guitars: Children Of Bodom took the spirit of eighties heavy metal and thrash, and married it to a contemporary death metal framework"

or, as Encyclopaedia Mettalum thumbnails it:

Genre: Melodic Death/Power Metal 

Lyrical themes: Death, Hate, Lake Bodom, Anger, Antagonism 

Current label: Nuclear Blast

And then there was the time "Norway Invades Finland":

That's really all I've got. They fought the Soviets to a standstill in WWII, The famine that started in 1866 was the last natural great starving in Europe but nowhere near as bad as what Stalin and the communists did in the Holodomor, 150,000 vs 3.5 to 4 million. 

And the people sound like they're laughing when they talk, but they aren't.

Related:
Climateer Line of the Day: Great Name For A Korean Metal Band Edition