Just basic socks

Sometimes it's quite therapeutic to knit just simple, basic socks. And sometimes it's so booooring that you really don't know how you'll ever going to finish them. Here's a pair of both:

Pattern: basic socks
Yarn: Austermann Step
Needles: 2 mm

My parents asked for new pairs of socks, and as we happened to be in Porvoo that day, they got to choose their own yarn in the teetee shop. The first pair (for my dad) felt so incredibly slow to knit even though I tried a different kind of triangular heel on them. But I did finish them after all and decided to have a small pause before casting on for the next ones. And I don't know if it was the pause or maybe I had just gotten used to knitting basic socks with a thin yarn or perhaps it was just my mood, but the socks for my mom felt like a really quick knit. It's funny how the same kind of knit can sometimes be so hard and so easy another time. But I guess it's something every knitter experiences sometimes?

 

Who's that teddybear?

Yet another baby found it's way to this world. Last Saturday one of my closest friends gave birth to a boy, and naturally I thought that boy should have a small welcoming gift.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä
Needles: 3 mm

This was a really quick knit. Took me only 2,5 hours. I guess an upcoming deadline really makes you faster. I practically finished these 15 min before I had to rush out of the door and hand over them to the new owners. Talk about making use of every single minute...

(By the way, the other teddybear just happens to look really sad in this picture, didn't look that sad for real!)

Already earlier this spring I also made this little baby coverlet out of leftover fabric for the same little boy. 

Last autumn I had to sew a bedcover corner during a course in interior textiles and just happened to stumble over this cute wadded fabric. The leftovers has ever since been lying around, waiting for someone who might need it.

 And yes, this is the kind of stuff we do at the university. We practise a lot of small details of things :) I guess it's important to learn stuff like this, but when the course if finished these small exercises become really useless. I mean, what do you do with just a corner?

Little Miss Ladybug

Well, my knittings aren't really progressing at the moment. There's just way too much work to do at the university. I'm there during the day, and when I come home I either continue with some homework or then I'm just too tired to even think about starting a project that's not compulsory. But only 2 months left and then I'm freeeee. Yay! :)

But, now I may say: Hurray for babies! They're just so small and knitting for them is just so fast and nice. Like knitting this little dress:

Pattern: Super Simple Baby Tunic
Yarn: Rico Design: Cotton Soft
Needles: 2 mm

This dress turned out wonderful and it's just so cute, isn't it?! And it fits the little babygirl perfectly (thank you so much for the cute picture!).

The dress itself is knitted in the round. I casted on for the bigger size, but since I wanted to use rather small needles, the finished size is actually quite perfect for a newborn baby. I didn't, however, find any nice pattern for a crochet ladybug, so I kind of had to come up with it myself. Never thought I'd manage that, since I'm so NOT a crocheter. But surprise, surprise! I'm actually very pleased with the result!

My parents also brought me a bunch of some wonderful buttons when they were in Paris last summer and now some of the buttons found their match in heaven.

Pretty good stuff!

Black winter warmth

Oh my, the time just keeps on flying by! And it feels like I'm getting nothing done.

But here's a cowl I finished already before Christmas. It was another testknit for Nadja, just like the Rock Rose Cardigan last summer. 

Pattern: Cloud Nine Loop 
Yarn: Sofil Carina
Needles: 4 mm

The pattern is really beautiful. Warm and airy and soft. And it was easy to follow too, so if you want a quick and easy project, here's one for you! This one ended up as a Christmas present for my mom, but I might just make another one for my self someday.

My biggest problem was really to get this photographed. I mean... Winter = dark, black yarn = even darker!! But I hope you'll still be able to figure out what it really looks like.

Last but not least, a behind-the-scenes-photograph. And yes, apparently I forgot to comb my hair that day... Nice of the photographer not to say anything... :)

A family of Apes

A cute little girl was born in October. She already got this hat and baby mittens as a pre-birthday gift. After finishing those, I still had some of the yarn left. Since I already have enough leftover yarn, I decided to still knit something small with it. But what started out as a small project, pretty quickly became something a little bit bigger. And something that ate up more of my stash of leftovers.

Pattern: Ape-socks (for children) by Novita
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä, Dalegarn Falk and Kotikulta Villainen
Needles: 3mm and 2 mm

I decided to make a whole family of apes for the brand new family. I started with the small babysocks. The ape-pattern is knitted using the same amount of stitches as used in the original pattern but the baby size is accomplished by using a thin yarn, 2 mm needles and knitting very tightly. The rest of the sock is knitted following instructions for a basic baby sock.

The Ape-Mom is knitted with exactly the same amount of stitches as in the pattern, but holding the yarn as loosely as possible. This turned out to be the perfect size 38-39. For the Ape-Dad I casted on 64 stitches for the ape-pattern, then decreasing to a sock sized 42 after that. I also tried to hold the yarn quite tightly throughout the sock. And this is how I achieved three different sized socks!

Seahorses!

Hi everyone! I'm finally back after a very busy autumn. So sorry for not updating anything in ages! There was just so much to do with both work and studies. But don't you worry, I still had the time to actually finish some smaller things, and here's one of them:

Double seahorse mittens! For the really cold winter that hasn't arrived yet... In other words, I still haven't been able to test how warm these mittens really are, but I'm feeling quite confident.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky (brown) and Novita tico tico (white)
Needles: 6 mm and 2 mm

I started by casting on 24 stitches using 6 mm needles and the chunky brown yarn, then increasing to 30 stitches after the k2p2 rib. For the thumb I used 12 stitches and the rest is just a very simple basic mitten. When I had almost reached the place for the thumb, I started to pick up 48 stitches for the inner mitten right where the rib ends.  (In other words, the rib isn't double!) For this I used 2 mm needles and the thinner yarn. The thumb for the inner mitten is knitted with 20 stitches. Then I actually knitted these two mittens at the same time, always a few rows at a time. I finished the inner mitten first, and then just knitted the outer mitten on top of that. And tadaa - my first double mitten was ready!

There's one tiny but quite funny little "mistake" with the mittens. Somehow I managed to pick up and start knitting the stitches for the second inner mitten the opposite way as the first one. This means that in the first mitten, the purled side is facing my palm, while the knitted side is facing my palm in the second mitten. And I actually like the second mitten better.... :)

Ready for the winter! :)

The soups of 2013

Last year we dyed a LOT at work, and the colours I got were simply fantastic. I actually like the colours so much, that I've still used only one small skein for a pair of baby socks. I do have plans for most of the yarn already, but I just can't motivate myself to actually start the projects. It's just too nice to just look at and admire the skeins... It's quite a dilemma that I have to start doing something about soon.

Luckily (?), we didn't have that much time for dyeing at work this year, so I dipped my yarns only in onion and cochineal. These are the colours I got:

From left to right: cochineal first round, cochineal second round, onion first round, onion third round (a colleague of mine filled the second pot).

We did hope that the cochineal would have turned out a little bit redder, more like the colour we got last year. But better luck next year, I guess. That's both the best and the worst part of dyeing with natural colours, you never really know what you'll get. The yellow colour isn't at all as bright as I had hoped for either, but it actually looks pretty good with the drak, dark orange. They're both already on the needles, but I'm afraid I can't show you the result until Christmas *< :) At least this one time even I managed to start in time. Yay me!

This is, however, a present that I can show you:

 
Pattern: just basic socks
Needles: 2 mm
Yarn: Novita Ticotico and some really old Novita Princess Baby (not in production anymore)

These leftover-babysocks were shipped to Sweden already some time ago. There they hopefully warmed the small feet of a little girl.

Ho-ho-hoot!

These baby owls and their retro cabled friend found their way to a new home last Friday. Two of my good friends are having a baby in a few weeks. We decided to surprise the soon-to-be-mom and organized a small yet sweet and warm babyshower. Have any of you ever been to a babyshower? This was my first and I didn't actually know what to expect. But it really was cosy. We ate good food, talked about babies, played a few baby-themed games and then gave the mother some presents.

Pattern for the hat: I Heart Cables
Pattern for the mittens: UuuuHu!
Needles: 3 mm
Yarn: Falk by Dalegarn and Villainen by Kotikulta

Since I used a thinner yarn than was suggested in the pattern for the hat, I casted on for size "child". In the end, it did turn out a little too big for a baby, but then again, I'm sure it'll fit the little girl soon enough anyway. One thing I don't like is the earflaps. For some reason they just keep curling up even though I've tried blocking them and all. Perhaps I did something wrong?! :/

The pattern for the mittens is written in Norwegian, but that didn't stop me :) I casted on 44 stitches and worked a k2p2 -rib. Then I just followed the pattern as it was written (except for the UHU-part). And I just have to say: aren't they just soooo CUTE?! I'd like to have mittens like these too!! I mean, awww! <3

The mittens are attached to the cabled hat by an icord strap. This feature was actually someting the couple had asked me to do. The strap is removable since it's fastened with buttons (and with crochet buttonholes). This way they can always choose whether or not to use the whole set at once.

I hope they liked it. And that the babygirl will like it too! :)

Inspiration

The shadow of the lace shawl made a very beautiful pattern. I might use it for inspiration in school projects in the future.

Green lace and white pearls

My dear grandmother turned 85 years old this August and I wanted to make something special for her. After a lot of thinking I recalled that she always complains about her back and shoulders getting cold during the winter season, so is there really anything that would be more perfect for a gift than a shawl made out of 100% warm wool?

Pattern: Ethereal Triangular Shawl by Lakshmi Junega
Yarn: teetee Kamena, 100 g
Needles: 4 mm
In Ravelry

This time, I also tried something completely new: knitting with pearls. And even though it was a lot slower that just plain knitting, it wasn't hard at all. I'm sure I'll use this technique again sometime. ...once I've forgotten how annoyingly time-consuming it really was.

If you wan't to try it, here's a good tutorial. And another hint: don't add pearls to a project that has a deadline coming up too soon. I almost didn't finish this shawl in time for my grandmother birthday party. The night before I actually spent knitting and blocking until 2 a.m. But that's just the way it is sometimes when it comes to handicrafts, right? They tend to take up more of your time than you expect. And ok, I have to admit that I started this project a little bit too late too, only 2,5 weeks before the party... But I made it! :)

I really think it turned out great with the pearls and all (even though you can't see them that well in the pictures, I swear they looked much better in real life! :)) and I'm pretty sure my grandmother was pleased too.  <3

(Photos taken in the park of Mustion Linna)