We study the avoidability of long k-abelian-squares and k-abelian-cubes
on binary and ternary alphabets. For k=1, these are M\"akel\"a's questions.
We show that one cannot avoid abelian-cubes of abelian period at least 2 in
infinite binary words, and therefore answering negatively one question from
M\"akel\"a. Then we show that one can avoid 3-abelian-squares of period at
least 3 in infinite binary words and 2-abelian-squares of period at least 2
in infinite ternary words. Finally we study the minimum number of distinct
k-abelian-squares that must appear in an infinite binary word