Roses on rocks

For the past three weeks I'll just been knitting, knitting and knitting. A deadline really is the best way to get things done! You see, I signed up as a testknitter for a new cardigan pattern, and the testknit had to be finished yesterday. And eventhough I still have some things from the winter to show you, I decided to let this one go first:

Pattern: Rock Rose Cardigan by schneckenstrick
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä, beige
Needles: 4 mm
In Ravelry

I'm very pleased with the result. This is a perfect cardigan for a chilly summer evening! The pattern was also very well written and easy to follow. Only the rose pattern was actually quite annoying to knit at first, but then I got used to it.

The cardigan is knitted from the top down and it's compleatly seamless (me likes!). In fact, this time I made only two minor modifications: I added some waist shaping and some length to both the sleeves and the cardigan itself. What was even more perfect, was that I also managed to use up some of my stash of yarns! Yay!

So far I've only been knitting sweaters using a rather thick yarn (or well, Tender lavender being one exception to the rule), so I was actually quite terrified at the beginnin. After two weeks of knitting I was sure I wouldn't be able to finish it in time. But there I was yesterday, ready to shoot pictures of a brand new cardigan!

I'm not that sure of the buttons, though. I found them in my mom's old stash and they are perhaps a little bit too "bling" for my taste. But I'll see. They were after all the easiest part of the cardigan, so it won't be hard to change them later if I feel like it.

As a bonus picture I'd like to present a quite new friend of my: Miss Owly. She's making sure I always know what time it is. Sweet, isn't she? And I'm just crazy about owls. Funny thing I actually don't have that many things with owls. At least not yet... :)

Hoot hoot!

Poor models...

Just a small sneakpeak from behind the sceenes. Sometimes a sockmodel has to put up with quite much for a "good-enough picture". This, for example, was a very cold winter day with almost half a meter of snow on the ground. At least my fingers were quite cold once we got back inside... Not to mention the sockmodel's toes...

Yes, sometimes I knit socks too!

Look, I made two pairs of socks this winter!

Pattern: G. Pienikuvioinen kirjoneulesukka from Novita sukkalehti
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä
Needles: 3 mm

Pattern: from my head
Yarn: Marks & Kattens Carolina Tweed and Novita 7 Veljestä
Needles: 3 mm

I made the green ones as a present, but I actually modified the pattern quite a lot :) I used thicker yarn, and didn't cover the whole sock in the diamond pattern. Only two diamond stripes and then some easy colourwork in between. 

The other ones were made for an introductory knitting course at the university. Or actually we had to make only one sock for the course, but then I decided to make a pair for it as well. In stead of a ribbing, I just worked a few cm in garter stitch around the ankle, which actually turned out quite nice. The yarn is horrible, though. 100% acrylic. Feels disgustingly plastic. But I chose it for the socks only because I wanted to get rid of it, and I didn't think I would use them anyway. But now that I have them, I thought they might as well serve as indoor summer socks for a while. At least they're not too warm... And now I'm also one step closer to using up all the leftover yarn in my stash! Yay!

Light spring breeze

This spring has been incredibly hectic, both at work, at home and in school. Sorry this blog almost died out because of that :) And since I haven't had time to update, most of my upcoming updates won't be of new finished projects but of older ones, photographed already during the winter... or autumn, as this one.

Last autumn I took an introduction course in weaving at the univeristy. And I have to say it was awesome! I've never tried weaving before (at least not since high school) but I LOVE IT! Too bad a loom is just a "little" bit too big for my living room ;)

This was my main project for the course:

My original plan was to make a small and light carpet for my living room. This finished carpet is 46 cm wide and 115 cm long. The yarn in the warp is Gianni Versace: Lane Profilia, 100% linnen. I got a box of this yarn from my aunt a few years ago. Haven't found any information about it, but the labels look quite old. So maybe my carpet is actually half-antique. Yay, suits an historian well ;) Anyway, I didn't know what to do with all of the yarn until this project came along, but it turned out to be perfect for it!

For the fill I used Drops Lin that's also 100% linnen. The green details are woven with Järbogarn: Lovikka, 100% wool. And even though the woolen yarn was very rough and nothing I would use for knitting, it actually turned out pretty nice with the linnen. It feels kind of soft now, which is pretty amazing, if you ask me!

Funny thing is that I actually didn't use this as a carpet after all. Everyone told me it was too beautiful to step on, so in stead I sometimes use it as a runner/tablecloth on my dining table. I'll show you pictures of it in use another time! :)

Here's a small detail of the braids in both ends of the carpet. Although now that it's a runner in stead, I think I might actually redo the loose warp ends... Just have to decide how...

Not far now!

The summer, I mean! Stay strong!

That was summer 2012 in Finland, Denmark and Slovenia. Let's hope this summer will be as beautiful as that one!

Branches in the snow

Or actually branches waiting for snow, as these were photographed already in September when the leaves in the trees where just so wonderfully beautiful.

If you look closer at the pattern, you'll perhaps notice I've used it before in this sweater two years ago. Back then I fell in love with the owls, but even though I'm still crazy about owls, I decided I didn't need another hooting sweater. But since I still think the pattern is really good, I wanted to follow it anyway. Just leaving out the animals. And moving the waist shaping a little bit closer to the sides.

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies

Yarn: Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky

Needles: 6 mm

In Ravelry

The Rowan yarn is absolutely LOVELY. 100 % wool and still so amazingly soft! Doesn't itch at all! It's a shame it's so expensive... This stash was brough to me by my parents last time they were in London. So thank you for that!

Warm and comfy! Just what I need when there's still a lot of winter left <3

Warming up for 2013!

A late Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! You know, I was so inspired the whole of December by all the supernice stuff I saw on blogs right before Christmas, but I never found the time to make any of them. But then I finally decided to join Pinterest and therefor I now have a huge bunch of ideas piled up and waiting for me. Now I only have to find the time for it all, which might be a bit hard again due to the fact that I already combine a full-time job with studies at the university. But nevertheless, I do have a lot of things to show you (and more to come, too, I hope!), most of them with pictures taken already before the nature turned white... But I'll get back to that later. In stead I begin with the very first knitting project 2013:

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Novita Saana
Needles: 3 mm

What is it then? Well it's a cosy cover for something very useful this time of the year: a hot water bottle. This was made for a friend who uses these kinds of bottles during the winter. It used to have an old cover, but that one was too thin, so she asked me to knit a thicker one. And here you see the result.

I used the figure 8 -cast on, so the only seams is on the top, on both sides of the ribbing. That also means the cover is knitted onto the bottle, so you can't take it out anymore, it's stuck inside :) The crochet heart in the middle is called Hearts by Barbara Summers and you can find it here. For my heart I used Novita Tico Tico and hook 2,5 mm.

Hope she'll like it! :)

Tweet tweet!

Be free and fly away!

My mom used to have a really ugly keychain attached to her car keys (or at least I thought so). Now that problem is solved! Since she's very fond of birds, I made her this tiny, stuffed yellow bird keychain as a birthday gift. It's sweet (if I may say so myself), light as a feather and, since it's soft, it won't make any noice while driving. Perfect for teh purpose!

For someone in love

These socks were made for my best friend and her fiancé after they got engaged last summer. On top of all they nowadays also live in a very old house where the floors are quite cold during the winter. So at the same time, this was kind of a house warming gift. Or foot warming gift :)

Pattern: Neulotut miehen palmikkosukat by Novita (also in the magazine Novita syksy 2010)
Yarn: Gjestal Janne and Novita 7 Veljestä
Needles: 3 mm
Ravelry

Actually only the green socks are made following the pattern, but I used the same cabled pattern for the violet socks too, just to make them a real sock-couple. I've also always thought that violet and green look great together. Almost like made for each other. And people who's in love definitely also need socks that are in love! <3

Hand dyed baby socks

This autumn I met a really cute and sweet baby boy who happened to turn 6 months old in September. Since I didn't want him to freeze during the winter, I decided to give him a small half-year-present:

Pattern: Vauvan ryppyvartiset villasukat
Needles: 2 mm
Yarn: Novita Wool, hand dyed with birch and onion

So, the first skein of hand dyed yarn used! The 50 g of Novita Wool was almost perfect for a pair of baby socks. There wasn't much of the yarn left when I finished these. I guess I have to hope there'll be more babies soon! :)

A 6-months-old little fellow is also very, very curious. Everything around him is interesting, especially if the things are colourful. Therefor I thought the boy also should have something to look at, and I sewed on these small teddybears :) Really think they brought that something little extra to the socks.

Happy yellow  and teddies for a happy baby boy