Puikkomaisterin Lapaskirja

Puolitoista viikkoa sitten sain kunnian osallistua Puikkomaisterin uuden kirjan julkistamistilaisuuteen. Kaikki osallistujat saivat käteensä upouuden Lapaskirjan. Viime viikonloppuna ehdin jo hieman kirjaa selata, mutta kirjoitanpas siitä muutaman sanan vielä tänne.

Tapahtuma pidettiin ravintolalaivalla Nikolai II, jossa sähkökatkoksesta huolimatta (tai sen ansiosta) saimme nauttia ihanista pikkupurtavista. Ja ai että lasi kuohuvaakin maistui hyvälle pitkän työpäivän jälkeen! :)

Puikkomaisteri Tiina kertoi hieman lapaskirjan synnystä, tulevista kirjaprojekteistaan sekä nyt syksyllä pidettävistä neulebaareista. Itse olen menossa kahden viikon kuluttua Veera Välimäen tähdittämään iltaan.

Lapaskirja tuo ihanaa väriterapiaa pimenevään syksyyn. Lähes jokainen malli pursuaa eri värejä, mutta toki niitä yksivärisiäkin vaihtoehtoja löytyy. Ja nimestään huolimatta ei Lapaskirjassa ole ainoastaan lapasia - päinvastoin. Sieltä löytyy myös monia sormikkaita ja kämmekkäitä. Eli toisin sanoen käsineitä moneen makuun. Itse pidin myös siitä, että mallit on toteutettu myös monia eri tekniikoita hyödyntäen aina perinteisestä kirjoneuleesta briossiin ja palmikoihin.

Kunhan alkusyksyn työkiireet hellittävät voisinkin laittaa ensimmäiset lapaset puikoille! Omat suosikkini ovat Allison ja Sini. Mutta kummastakohan aloittaisin?

All four one

...as in we made a fourth baby patchwork blanket for a colleague who's having a baby.

While the last one was a celebration of colours, we tried to make this one a little bit more calm and simple.



Those who wanted to take part made at least 5 patches using leftovers from their own stashes. I'm always so amazed at how nice these patchwork blankets turn out in the end, even though we don't plan them too much in advance. This one might be a little bit too white in my taste, but I hope the soon-to-be-mom is happy with it.



My favourite patches in this blanket are the red crochet squares. They're just so beautiful! I really have to ask for the pattern...
 
I also happened to stumble over a new book: 200 crochet blocks by Jan Eaton. Just couldn't resist it after being so inspired by all these cute blankets. Am I becoming a crazy patchwork lady? Probably not. But at least I won't get bored doing the same kind of patches over and over again.

And yes, taking photos at this time of the year is a real nightmare! Sun, where are you?!

More babies!

Another colleague at work was also leaving for maternity leave yesterday, and of course we had something soft for her too. Remember the patchwork baby blanket we made earlier this autumn? Well, for this unborn baby we made a similar one, but with different colours:

Pattern: just basic garter stitch squares

Yarn: we used left-over yarn from our stashes

Needles: 3 mm & 3,5 mm

Ravelry: Patchwork blanket II

Then, since I am actually going to do my colleague's work, I couldn't resist the chance of knitting something else for her and her baby as well:

Pattern: Vauvan lapaset by Sanna Vatanen

Yarn: Novita  7 Veljestä

Needles & hook: 3 mm & 4 mm

Ravelry: Teddy mittens

These are baby mittens, but I guess she can also use them as socks or as handpuppets if she wants. The idea is from a knitting book I got for Christmas. In finnish it's called Neulo. Virkkaa. Kirjo. Jämälangasta! by Sanna Vatanen, but I actually got the swedish version of it. I also slightly modified the pattern by knitting the mittens in a round, casting on 38 stitches and decreasing 2 st every second round in the end.

Lovely book, by the way! Now I finally know what to do with all my waste yarn. I hate it when my stash is filled with small skeins of different coloured yarn. I've promised myself to do something about those before I allow myself to buy any more yarn. And now that promise is public, so I guess I'll have to try and keep it! :)

For someone small

Since I mentioned the baby boom in my last post, here's still another small knit for a baby. It's for the same soon-to-be-born baby that got the soft baby blanket I showed you in my previous post. Since I happened to have just enough left of some white yarn, I decided it was time to start using it up. You see, a winter baby absolutely needs a lot of woolen clothes!

Pattern: Pebble (Henry's Cobblestone-Inspired Baby Vest)

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles: 3,5

In Ravelry

This was such a fast knit! Yeah! I love miniature-sized clothes! :) At first I was going to embroider something on the vest, but since I got a bit short of time (and became I felt very lazy) I just sewed on a small teddybear in stead. Turned out pretty cute, didn't it?

I also got a new knitting book: Knitted Lace of Estonia. Really love the cover, it's so very beautiful.

So now I'm just waiting for the inspiration to find me. But hopefully I wont get too carried away since I have at least six unfinished projects waiting for me. But maybe after those ;)

Presents to me!

Time to show some of the many, many lovely presents I or we got for Christmas this year. Better late than never, right? ;)

First some knitting and crafting related presents:

My aunt gave me this box full of linen yarn designed by Gianni Versace! Forgive me if I now show my total ignorance, but I actually didn't know fashion designers also design yarns. I didn't find this yarn on Ravelry, though. I think it's quite old and not in production anymore. It would be interesting to know how my aunt came across it... Although, she has a diploma in crafts and design, so she probably knows a hell of a lot more of this stuff than I do.

Then I also got two wonderful books:

The bigger one is Martha Stewarts' Encyclopedia of Crafts and it has more than 200 project of totally different kinds. Then the smaller one is the new finnish knitting book I already talked about earlier: Neulekirja by Ilona Korhonen and Jenni Österman, and I will actually very soon show you my first project from that book. Maybe already in my next post, if I have time to finish it.

I just wish I'd graduate from the university soon, because for some reason I imagine that once I don't have essays after essays to write and exams after exams to study for, I'll suddenly have lots of free time to do all sorts of handicrafts. Still I know that once you start working full time, you become a slave of "nine to five" in stead. But the evenings and weekends will still be free, right? If not, please don't crush my hope, because that's what gets me going right now. I haven't done almost anything else for the past two weeks than writing on my masters' thesis. And it actually goes better than I thought it would. I'm already on page 51, so only some 20-30 pages to go! Plus all the corrections. Plus all the extra reading. But still. I can already see the end. Yay! :)

And from these happier thoughts, let's move on to me showing off two of my collections:

This year two cups were added to my collection of Moomin cups. And now they are 21. But believe me, I don't have all of them yet. The two new ones this year was the two cups on the lower shelf on the left: the Muddler (Hosuli) and the Skiing Competition (seasonal special 2010). I think my favourite cup (at least at the moment) is Mymble, the pink one, because it's just so sweet and girly.

Then my other collection:

Disney cartoons! Now you must think I'm crazy, but I actually have 37 Disney movies (some are Disney-Pixar, though), almost all of them on DVD. So the shelf in the picture is only 1/4 of the movies I have. And this years' new ones: Robin Hood and the Beauty and the Beast <3 So if you have kids that needs a babysitter, bring them to me! At least here there will always be something to watch ;)

Seeking inspiration

The past few weeks have been so hectic that I haven't really had the time to do anything else than sleep and run from one place to another. All the spare time I've had, I've just been spending in front of the TV. Haven't even felt like knitting. All the project I have in progress felt so dull. But now I've finally found my inspiration again, and that is thanks to these:

I went to the library for no particular reason and a few moments later I found myself at the crafting section. Most of the knitting books were pretty old and didn't really have anything that interested me, but these books are different and I just had to borrow them and take them with me home. My aboslute favourites are Haiku Knits and Neulekirja. Haiku Knits has beautiful japanese-inspired knits and Neulekirja is a quite new finnish book with lovely, happy and slightly different patterns. I immediately had to start knitting on a pair of socks. I hope I'll be able to show them here soon.

Then I also did something I had promised not to do until I've used most of the yarn I already have in my stash: I went to the lovely Lankamaailma Nordia. It's the biggest yarn-shop in the Nordic countries. Therefor it's very deceiving and dangerous for my wallet. But now that I saw they had an autumn sale, I just couldn't resist. But I'm actually really proud that I managed to stick to yarns I already knew I needed for some specific projects. Here's what I came home with:

Looks so soft and lovely, doesn't it? Oh, I can't wait to see how they turn out in real, finished projects :) The yarn with the beads I actually got for free, so I don't yet what I'll use it for, but I'm sure it'll find its' place.

Now I have to study some more again, but I promise to catch up soon!