Kotitiikeri

Here they are, my first project from the lovely knitting book I got: Neulekirja by Ilona Korhonen & Jenni Österman. I actually saw one version of these socks on Napit puuttuu at first, and since they looked so lovely, I had to look up the book itself searching for the pattern. Then the book turned out so lovely too with a lot of patterns I'd like to knit, so I just had to add it to my bookshelf.

Pattern: Kotitiikeri and kulkukissa

Needles: 2 mm

Yarn: Hot socks Marrakesch by Four Seasons Gründl

As always, I changed the pattern just a little bit. In stead of making five small holes for buttons, I made three bigger ones for these beautiful wooden buttons I found on (believe it or not) Stockmann. The 2 mm needles were killing me, though... It's so SLOW! I'm actually working on another project too, using 2 mm needles there as well. Who knows when that one will be finished...

Anyway, these socks turned out to be perfect for work since the "official colour" of the museum is almost the exact same shade of red as the yarn I used. So I guess they can't kick me out since I match their interior so perfectly ;)

Yesterday I went to the library to get (hopefully) the last theory books for my master's thesis. "Introduction to social psychology", "Introduction to psychology", "History and social theory", "What is cultural history?", an article about analyzing letters, some book about socialization within a society... Ugh... These books do interest me on some level, but the other part of me would just rather enjoy some fiction. But I guess it's the same for everyone: as soon as you're forced to read something, it starts feeling boring even though it was something you had chosen to study in the beginning. Sigh.

Well, back to work now.

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 ;)

Snowflake mittens

This is the last Christmas present I had time to finish this year. Hopefully I'll have more time next year.

I promised already over a year ago that I would knit a pair of mittens for my friend, that would match her winter sharf (which is somewhat orange-pink-ish). And since this winter has been sooo cold, I decided that now it was really time to get it done. So here is the result:

Pattern: a mix of several ones

Yarn: Marks & Kattens Carolina Tweed

Needles: 3 mm

I call them snowflake mittens since I happened to stumble over those big white buttons and thought they looked just like snowflakes. Not more complicated than that :)

The other day I noticed that I had way too much milk, so I decided to bake a little.

This is only 1/5 of all the buns I made, all with cinnamon and sugar, because those are my favourites! Yummy.

The same day I had also been to the supermarket and picked up the newest Pirkka Ruoka -magazine (it's a small magazine filled with different recipes) and I decided to try out a recipe for bread that I found in there, just because it was made out of milk, too. But as I am horrible in following recipes, I had to make some small changes. I chose caraway in stead of fennel and mixed in some rye flour too to make it a bit darker. And I have to say it turned out delicious! Probably because I like caraway-bread so much :)

Winter wonderland

Here's some photos I took one morning when I went to work. They're all from Espoo, more precisely from Glims.

 

Gingerbread elf

I know I've already said it, but I absolutely love this winter with all the snow <3 Everything's just so, so beautiful.

More Christmas presents, part 2

My mom got to choose her Christmas present herself, all the way from the pattern to the colour. She has an old hood, but I thought it's time she'll get a new one. So I suggested I knit this for her:

Pattern: Luxury cowl / Hood by Lion Brand Yarn

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles 6 mm

It was an quick and easy knit, maybe even too easy since it got a bit boring in the end. And since the pattern is called luxury cowl, I decided I had to do something to make it even more luxury: sew on some pearls around the edge. I actually added one more row of white pearls after taking the photo, mostly because I was at work at the museum and didn't have anything else to do since it was the day before Christmas Eve and NOBODY had time to come and visit a museum. But that was even better for me since I got my last presents finished AND had the time to make some small cards for the wrapped gifts.

Some presents, part 1

Finally I can start posting some of my latest finished knittings! Here's at first a Totoro hat that I made for my lovely little godson:

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet with Anime Character

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles: 3,5 mm

I actually made it already during the summer when I had lots of time to knit. But now during the autumn when I've been watching him grow really fast, I've been afraid it'll be too small, even though I made the biggest size available! And, well, he did grow too fast. I just hope the hat will stretch a bit.

I also had the time to finish a phone cover for a friend. He just got a new phone with a big touch screen, so he wanted something to protect it from scratches.

Pattern: my own

Yarn: Novita Tennessee

Needles: 2 mm

I decided to improvise the pattern, and it wasn't even that hard. I just started with an invisible figure 8 -cast on with 13 + 13 stitches, and then increasing 2 stiches on both sides. After that, I knitted in stockinette stitch until it was big enough to fit the phone. 

Some autumn photos

I almost finished the essay I had to get done today, so now I'll finally allow myself to have a free afternoon. And guess what I'll be doing? This:

Chilling on the sofa, drinking tea and of course planning what to do with all my yarn. And then I'll try to finish a pair of mittens I promised to make for one of my friends already long ago. But better late than never, right? :)

Then I also managed to take some autumn pictures before all the bright colours rained away. I was a little bit dissapointed with the colours my camera showed me, though, so I have to admit that I slightly brightened them on my computer. The last pictures is taken with my phone, so I blame the weird colour (even after the first-aid session on the computer) on that.

But still they do look a little bit flat. I've been looking at photos taken by other people, and I've finally understood how important it is to have a good camera if you want to take nice pictures. Our small camera is ok if the light and everything is perfect, but if it's a little bit dark or the light is too bright, the pictures can turn out horrible. So next on my wishlist: a new camera. Let's see when on earth I can afford that one...

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!

The owls are hooting in the morning mist

You remember the knitting project I started in July while I was at my parent's place? Well, I did finish the knitting part itself only three weeks from there, but then it took me ages to find the inspiration to "decorate" it. I've been working on it on and off every once in a while, but this morning I finally sewed on the last pearls. So here's the result:

The pattern is called Owls and I found it so cute that I just HAD to make one for myself. And I really like it. It's soft, warm and sweet :) Although the knit itself turned out a bit too loose, but I don't actually mind. At least the size fits perfectly. The original pattern suggested just buttons for eyes, but after looking at some other versions of this sweater, I decided to take it one step further:

Although these two owls are a bit special. There's one girl owl with eye-lashes and then a guy beside her that can't seem to believe his eyes :) The rest of the owls are just basics with eyes pointing to different directions. And then there's one owl with a beak.

The weather has also been lovely autumn-ish today. The mist never cleared, but the sun was still shining. I actually love this time of the year when the sun is getting a bit lower. It brings so wonderful colour-variations to the nature when the upper parts of the trees are coloured by the yellow sunlight while a shadow is covering the lover parts. I think it's really beautiful. And the mist makes the lanscape so mysterious. Lovely.

Weeruska!

I'm sorry that I haven't updated anything in two weeks, but I've just been so busy with studies, work and other stuff. And then, most of my freetime I've been working on my new knitting project. The minute I saw it on Jatta's blog last spring, I hoped she would write down the pattern for it, and finally, in August she did! So I've been knitting on it since then. Especially for the past week I've just been knitting, knitting and knitting as often as I had the chance, because it felt that since I was so close to finishing it, it was almost impossible to put it down and go to bed in the evening. But now, after hours of "hard work", it's finally finished! And I aboslutely LOVE it! It's wonderful!

It's not too hot since it has short sleeves, yet it's not too cold either since it's made out of woolen 7 Veljestä yarn by Novita.

Although, it ended up a few centimetres shorter than I had intended (I don't know if I miscalculated it or if my gauge was so different to Jatta's), so even though I wanted it to be a dress, I think I'll mosly use it as a tunic in stead. I don't like showing as much of my legs as I do now with it. But there's nothing wrong with a new knitted tunic either! Maybe I'll knit another version of this later and then I can make it longer.

This colorwork I actually had to redo once, since I knitted it too tight the first time. It felt horrible to rip it, but now I'm glad I did. It fits much better now :)

But in short, this Weeruska dress is most likely my favourite knitted project so far! It's aboslutely marvellous! <3