Cutiepie socks

Pattern: Maariat II (free pattern)
Yarn: Novita Nalle
Needles: 3 mm

I made these socks as a birthday present for a friend when I went to see her in Hankoo earlier this summer. Hankoo is a perfect summer city, at least if it's a warm and sunny day. I went there with Mr V and my parents. We all had a nice cup of coffee (or tee), looked at the city from the top of the water tower and then we even stumbled over a flee market.

I really fell in love with this pattern. Too bad I don't need a new pair of socks at the moment, otherwise I would make another pair for myself! On the other hand, is it actually possible to have too many socks? Maybe not...

All photos taken by my friend Linda. Thank you, they are lovely! <3

Liebster Award haaste

Sain Kurjenmarjalta Liebster Award -haasteen. Kiitos siitä! Onkin ollut hauska lukea eri bloggaajien vastauksia mitä erilaisimpiin kysymyksiin.

Haasteen jujuhan on seuraava:

1. Kiitä sinut nimennyttä bloggaajaa ja laita linkki hänen blogiinsa.

2. Vastaa sinut nimenneen bloggaajan 11 kysymykseen.
3. Nimeä ja linkkaa 11 Liebster Awardin ansaitsevaa blogia, joilla on alle 200 seuraajaa.
4. Keksi 11 uutta kysymystä blogisteille.

Tässä vastauksia Kurjenmarjan esittämiin kysymyksiin:

1. Oletko tehnyt ja tykännyt tehdä käsitöitä jo lapsena?

Olen kai aina pitänyt näpertelystä ja käsityöt olivat kyllä yksi suosikkiaineistani koulussa. Siitä huolimatta hurahdin kunnolla käsitöihin vasta 2007, jolloin aloitin uudessa työpaikassa, jossa "kaikki" työkaverinin harrastivat käsitöitä. Siitä se kaikki sitten lähti... :)

2. Onko sinulla käsitöiden lisäksi muita luovia harrastuksia (piirtäminen kirjoittaminen  jne…)

Haluisin sanoa piirtäminen, mutta se on kyllä jäänyt harmittavan vähäiselle huomiolle viime vuosina. Sen sijaan olen lapsuudesta asti soittanut eri soittimia, tällä hetkellä aktiivisimmin pianoa.

3. Onko käsityöt sinulle harrastuksen lisäksi työ tai toivositko niiden olevan?

Kyllä. Aloitan maanantaina uuden työn käityönopettajana! :) Jännää! Ja oli käsityöt kyllä edellisessä museotyössäkin hyvin isossa roolissa. Onneksi. Käsityöt ovat kyllä monin tavoin rikastuttaneet työelämääni.

4. Kuka on ”Idolisi”  käsityötaiteen saralla?

Tämä onkin hankalampi kysymys. Romanttisin vastaus lienee iso-isoäitini, joka oli ammatiltaan omepelija mutta todella monipuolinen käsitöiden osaaja. Minulla on monia hänen tekemiään töitään. Parasta niissä on se, että niistä kyllä huomaa että hän on osanut ottaa käsitöiden tekemisen rennosti. Mitä ne pienet virheet muka haittaavat?

5. Oletko luontoihminen?

Mielestäni olen. Rakastan eläimiä ja kauniita ja rauhallisia luontokohteita. Mutta aina on mukava palata kotiin nukkkumaan.

6. Tunnetko luontoa (esim. eläin ja kasvilajeja) hyvin?

Haluaisin ehdottomasti tuntea paremmin. Varsinkin luonnonvaraisia hyötykasveja sekä lintuja.

7. Opitko silmin korvin vai käsin eli lukemalla, kuuntelemalla vai tekemällä?

Riippuu opeteltavasta asiasta. Käsitöissä ehdottomasti tekemällä, mutta esim. tiedonhankinnassa kuuntelemalla. 

8. Mikä on mielestäsi paras kahden värin väriyhdistelmä?

Liila ja metsänvihreä. Esim. näin:

9. Suositko suomalaista?

Mielelläni, mutta en takerru siihen loputtomiin.

10. Keittiösi tärkein väline? Mistä et luopuisi?

Tätä kysymystä jouduinkin pohtimaan kaikista eniten. Ehkä en luopuisi pilkullisesta keittiövaa'astani. Se on yllättävän kätevä myös keittiön ulkopuolella.

11. Käytkö käsityö tapaamisissa tai muissa vastaavissa ”kokoontumisajoissa”?

Kyllä. Meillä on kaveriporukalla säännöllisen epäsäännöllisesti kokoontuva "ompeluseura", jossa kyllä useimmiten tehdään muita käsitöitä kuin ompelemista. Virallisissa neuletapaamisissakin olisi kyllä hauska joskus käydä.

Seuraavaksi se vaikea osuus. Omat 11 blogia ja heille tarkoitetut kysymykset.

Aina on vaikea tietää kuinka monta seuraajaa milläkin blogilla on, mutta olen valintoja tehdessäni katsonut joko Bloglovinin tai Google-seuraajien määrää. Sen perusteella haastan seuraavat blogit:

Bewitched fingers

Berenice´s Hair

Silmukkasatuja

Puikoissa kakkonen

Made with love

Marittan

Kutomus

Lempileikki

Pipon ytimessä

Sormustin

Vihreä lanka 

Ja tässä kysymykset:

1. Mistä itse tekemästäsi käsityöstäsi olet ylpein?

2. Onko sinulla jokin lempiohje johon huomaat palaavasi aina säännöllisin väliajoin?

3. Paras koulukäsityömuistosi?

4. Entä huonoin koulukäsityömuistosi?

5. Miksi päätit ryhtyä bloggaamaan?

6. Mihin haluaisit seuraavaksi matkustaa?

7. Millainen ruuanlaittaja olet?

8. Suklaakakku vai juustokakku?

9. Lempikuukausi?

10. Mikä biisi soi juuri nyt päässäsi?

11. Onko sinulla muita harrastuksia kuin käsitöiden tekeminen?

Toivottavasti tartutte haasteeseen! :)

Squirrels on a spring break in Paris

I made these socks already in May as a birthday present for my other half. We also had a mini vacation in Paris during that time. And since I've photographed more than enough there during my spring as an exchange student, I decided to take my old pocket camera with me in stead. You know, just to get some decent pictures of these socks. But when we got back home I just couldn't find the cable I needed to transfer the photos to the computer. I looked everywhere, but it's gone. And it took me this long to finally buy a new one.

Pattern:  Ekornsokkene (but only for the squirrels)
Yarn: Drops Alpaca
Needles: 2 mm

From the moment I saw this pattern I knew I would have to knit these socks for Mr V. He loves squirrels. So I took him with me to a yarn shop and, without telling him what they were meant for, I asked him to choose some yarn in three different colours. And the funny thing is that he chose exactly the same colours as I would have chosen!

I actually used the pattern only for the squirrels. I decided to skip the other stripe and knit the squirrels twice in stead. Then I also had to design an oak leaf and an acorn to make the pattern fit the required amount of stitches. The rest is just a plain, simple sock.

Warmth in July

Warmth is what I expected to have in July, but if you can't rely on the weather, you have to fix it yourself. I participated in a challenge where you have one month to finish something according to a theme. The theme of the month was WARMTH. You can find more information about the challenge in the blog Silmukan ytimessä kept by the bloggers Pipon ytimessä and Silmukan saalistus. 

This shawl is really everything about warmth. It's knitted with warm 100 % wool yarn, the colours are all of warm shades and the shawl itself is big, soft and warm thanks to the garter stitch.

Pattern: Tailwind by Clara Falk (you can find her blog here)
Yarn: teetee Kamena & Ohut Pirkkalanka
Needles: 3,5 mm
In Ravelry

I especially like the slightly asymmetrical design of the shawl. Reminds me a little bit of the wonderful shawls by Veera Välimäki.  This was also a perfect yarn-eater project. All of these yarns are leftovers from a fabric I was weaving in school last spring (yeah, a year ago!), but I'll tell you more about that later in the blog once I've finally made something out of it ;)

The pictures are taken on the small island Kuusiluoto just outside Arabia here in Helsinki. And look who came for a visit while we were taking photos! Just gotta love sheep! They're so friendly and always ready to be petted <3

Eternal sunshine

When I finished my craft studies at the university last spring, my friends gave me gift cards to two different yarnshops in Helsinki: one to Menita and one to Snurre. I have to say that this was a brilliant present for me. I've promised myself that I'll try not to buy more yarn before I've used at least half of what I aldready have. But once you have a gift card with an expiration date, you just have to use it, right? Oh, that's just too bad...

People have been talking a lot about the yarns by Louhittaren Luola (Knitlob's Lair) so I wanted to try a skein too. After fiddling around with a lot of different skeins I ended up buying Väinämöinen in colour Vilja.

Pattern: Good Day Sunshine (free pattern)
Yarn: Louhittaren Luola: Väinämöinen
Needles: 4 mm
More pictures in Ravelry

At first it seemed like the yarn was just a little bit too thick for this pattern, but I think it turned out just perfect anyway. I wanted a soft but warm shawl for the autumn, and that's exactly what this is. The yarn was soft and really easy to knit. I wish the colour had had just a little bit less orange in it, but I guess it's ok after all. The different shades of yellow and orange gives the shawl a lively and interesting look.

This wasn't exactly the easiest shawl I've knitted. Especially the textured top part required some thinking but it didn't take me too long to get the hang of it. The lace edge was easy and wonderful to knit.

The shawl eventually ended up just two rows short since I ran out of yarn, but I don't think it messed up the pattern at all. The rays of sunshine just ended up a little bit shorter than in the original version. Hope they'll still inspire the real sun to shine throughout the summer!

Dyeing

Here's some photos I've been thinking about posting already for a while. Last spring I attended a course on how to dye with different methods and here's a few of the things I tried:

Ikat and gradient dyed yarn. Haven't used them for anything yet, though.

Two different shibori methods udes on fabric. The two-coloured fabric was dyed twice. The first time I only folded the fabric to a square and dyed it yellow. The second time I folded the fabric into a triangle and then used clothespins to make the dotted pattern. The yellow fabric was wrapped around a tube, tied with string and then scrunched down.

I also used the red and yellow fabric to practise embroidery with a sewing machine. Here I've decorated the fabric with small pieces of fabric in different colours, covered them with tuile and then I used free-motion embroidery to attach everything to the fabric underneath. This machine embroidery was actually a lot of fun! You should try it sometimes, if you have the chance!

Winds of change

There's been a lot going on over the past month. Some stuff that will affect this blog. As you can see, I changed the name of the blog. It will from now on be called "ME made". I'm sure all of you agree on that this is a good change. The old name "The Comet" didn't really represent the things this blog has become. It didn't bring your minds to knitting and crafting. It had basicly just been hanging around since the beginning, when this started out as a travel blog back when I was an exchange student in Paris in 2009. And now it was time to update it.

Edit: This is the new blog. I've copied all of my handicraft-related posts here to make a nice archive. The old blog will go back to be called The Comet and will only have the posts from my spring as an exchange student in Paris back in 2009. The old blog can be found here. 

But then why ME made, you might think? Well, ME stands for my initials M.E. and since this blog is all about handmaking things... Well, it clicks kind of perfectly, don't you think? I will change the URL for this blog too, but don't worry. I'll give you a heads up before I do.

Also, I am now happy to inform you that I also registered my own firm with that very same name. Don't really know where that's heading yet, but there might be some visible changes in the blog due to that too. In the future. Right now I'm just starting out by selling some handmade things to the museum shop at the Espoo City Museum where I work at the moment.

Which brings me to my next announcement. The fact is, I won't be working there for long. You see, I've been offered a permanent job as a craft teacher at a high school here in Helsinki! I'll start in August. And that's like... I don't know. So amazing! But in the same time so scary to start a new job! And there's a lot to plan before school starts in the autumn. I'm super excited about it. I have loads of ideas of what I could do with my students but it's still quite hard to picture what it will really be like. Will it be hard? Will it be fun? Will it be awful or absolutely great? I don't know. Time will tell!

I also hope that I'll still have both time and inspiration to do my own crafts outside work and to keep up with this blog. At least I'll try my best, I promise! But please be patient with me and hang in there, ok?

Colourful cuteness

Do these projects really need any explanation anymore? :) This is the FIFTH baby blanket we've made for a colleague at work. Everyone who wanted to participate made a few knitted or crochet squares using leftover yarns from their stash. Then I offered to crochet it all together - and voilà! Another blanket is ready to warm someone small and cute!

This time some of us wanted to try something new, so especially the crochet squares are made with a little bit more complicated patterns than in the earlier blankets. Most of them are from the book I bought resently: "200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afgans" by Jan Eton.
 
I still think this blanket is my all time favourite, but this newest one doesn't come far behind. I especially like the bright colours and the wonderful different textures in it. 

 

Hooting needles

I haven't actually been able to finish any of my knittings, but one piece of sewing is ready to be shown!

Have you ever been in a situation when you just can't seem to find that one neede you need, even though you know it is somewhere in that box? Well, I experienced that a lot of times. And sometimes it just felt too "hard" to fix a piece of clothing since looking for suitable needles was soooo time consuming. (Actually, it was just an excuse for being lazy...)

This is, therefor, the perfect solution for me. A needle book. And even pretty enough to have lying around in the living room.

Owls are just so my thing. I know it's srarting to be boring since everyone has owls at the moment, but when I thought about what I wanted to embroider, the owl always kept on popping into my mind. So I gave in, at last. It turned out quite nice, if I may say it myself.

A nice tutorial for a needlebook can be found here.