A new start

It's been such a long time since my last post on this blog, that I think I need a completely fresh start. I'm moving. See you at hndesigns.wordpress.com.

Striped vest

A short post about something else than soakers (still more to come of those, don’t worry!).

Since my mom got her Aeolian, I also wanted to knit something for my dad. A warm vest to wear over t-shirts during colder spring/summer days seemed like the perfect project.

It’s much too big for the model, and I hear it’s also a bit too wide for my dad. But who cares? It’s warm and should be functional enough.

Yarn: Riihivilla Aarni. Dark brown for the dark stripes, armholes and neck, beige for the lighter stripes. My absolute favorite yarn! I still haven’t found another yarn that even comes close, and I doubt I ever will. I also used one skein of Noro Silk Garden for the stripes at the lower part of the vest.

The stitch counts and measurements are based on Peter Easy by Berroco.

Now, back to knitting diaper covers. Only one month left until they will be used…

Soakers

Just a quick post about some baby knitting I’ve finished. Three diaper covers. I’m trying out different patterns to see which one I like the best. So far, this is my favorite.

Soaker pattern by Ms. Crafty Galore (ignore the content warning)

Not only is it really cute, it also looks really functional.

 

I also like this one.

Villapöpät by Meri Markus.

The pattern was really easy to knit, and no seams! But I have a feeling the waistband will be too tight…

 

And then there’s this one.

Wool Diaper Cover by Studio Tuumat.

This pattern wasn’t for me. I didn’t like knitting it, I hated the seams, and I don’t like the result. It also turned out much bigger than I planned. There’s nothing wrong with the pattern, it’s me. I’m allergic to everything that involves seaming. Meh!

Nothing more at this time. Prepare yourselves for more soakers in the future. I have a few other patterns I want to try out.

Oh, and the yarn is some unidentified unspun that I bought at the market a year or so ago. It’s gorgeous! I wish I had more…

Pinwheel

I've been finishing projects at a fast rate lately, I just haven't had the time to blog about them. Here's one.

Pinwheel Sweater from Elann.com

Yarn: Evilla Artyarn 8/2, color A-8 and Vuorelma Satakieli, color 964, for the sleeves.

I had a small problem with the sleeves for this project. The Evilla yarn was just enough for the body, and I had to find another yarn that matched the blue color. Not the easiest thing. Luckily, I had a Satakieli color card, and I found a perfect (well almost) match.

Blocking did wonders for the size. I was a bit worried that it would be to small. I mean, I am a little bigger than I used to be, and there's something ball shaped protruding at the front. But it fits perfectly, and it's a great baby belly cardigan.

The circular shape is a bit of a challenge. I like this version where it creates a hood at the back. And you can never go wrong with the Evilla colors.

Cisco

Back to the baby knitting. After seeing this version of Cisco over at brooklyntweed, I knew what my next project was going to be.

The ears are just too cute for words! I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It's pretty big, and it stretches a lot, so with a little bit of luck, it will fit next winter too. This one is going to a very special, brand new, baby.

The yarn is Sandnes Smart.

Aeolian shoulderette

I had to take a break from the baby knitting frenzy and knit something "grown up". When the spring 2009 Knitty was published, I knew I was destined to knit the Aeolian shoulderette. It took me one week, and this is what I ended up with.

(Yes, the picture, once again, leaves a lot to be desired...)

I absolutely love the yarn. It's Evilla 8/2 that I got from Tinttamarelli. The colors really aren't properly displayed in the picture. They're much more beautiful, the dark parts are darker, and the lighter parts are brighter. I really like how they almost follow the pattern. A dark part in the middle, lighter around the "leaves", dark nupps and a bright red border.

I'm not keeping this one, so I might just have to knit another one...

Color Therapy

I'm really looking forward to spring right now, but it's still very wintery here in Finland. Time for some color therapy to cheer me up.

Apparently, blankets are the new socks here at the moment. This is Ten Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown. You can find it on Ravelry, if you're there. The yarn is Noro Kureyon Sock. One repeat of all the colors got me this far (it's about 30 cm wide). I think there are two or three more of the repeats, so it won't exactly be a huge blanket. I'm thinking of adding a white border or something to make it larger. I'm not really thrilled with how the blues and greens are gathering in the same place, but I guess I'll have to live with it. I just wish there was more red and yellow... Bad photo again. I blame the winter light!

There's also color therapy of another sort going on here. I'm a big fan of subtle colors: brown, beige and "natural" shades. This yarn is one of my favorites: Evilla. It's veeeery woolly, some might even call it scratchy, and it has a lot of lanolin left in it. It's a bit smelly too! Perfect! This will be a Pinwheel Sweater. I'm already waiting for warmer weather so I can wear it as a jacket.

Gift knitting

I'm not the only one with a bun in the oven at the moment, so I've been doing some gift knitting. Let's just hope the recipient doesn't read the blog before the package arrives...

Baby Booties again. This time the yarn is Sandnes Smart. This pattern is so versatile. It's simple, but you can adapt it any way you like. And all little babies need little booties!

I also made something for the mom and dad to be.

Pomatomus for mommy. The yarn is Storm in the Attic, Storm in Wolhalla.

Adapted version of Resoleable Socks from Favorite Socks for daddy. Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä. I added a twisted cable to make it more interesting. Let's just hope these fit. Rumor has it that Mr dad's feet are slightly on the gigantic side...

February Lady Sweater

Pattern: February Lady Sweater

Yarn: Rowanspun DK, held double

Needles: 5,5 mm

Also in my Ravelry notebook

 

What can I say. I love it! I wanted to knit myself a quick and easy "belly cardigan", and this turned out to be a perfect choice. I actually did finish it in February, but I've been a bit lazy with the photographing lately. And it's still winter her, which means crappy light.

I used up almost all of the yarn. I wanted to be on the safe side, so I started knitting the sleeves before the body. Then I just continued with the body until it was long enough.

Oh, and remember this?

Yup, it is now a finished February Lady Sweater, instead of a Green Sweater Experiment in never ending progress.

Comeback attempt

After a looong absence from blogland, I've decided to try this blogging thing again. I probably don't have many readers left out there anymore, but I'm hoping at least a few of you will find your way back here.

There wasn't that much knitting going on here during the fall, but I'm making up for that now. There's definitely a theme to my knitting at the moment. You can probably guess what we've been doing instead of knitting by looking at the pictures... ;)

Quilt (Square Counterpane with Leaves)

Yarn: Novita Tennessee

I only knit the leaves part of the square and used a much thicker yarn than the pattern called for. The squares are crocheted together, and I also added a matching crocheted border. I'm really pleased with the result.

 

Top Down Bonnet

Yarn: Madame Tricote Almina

The ears are too cute!

 

Handle and Baby Booties

Yarn: Regia Crazy Color 6-ply

 

 

Another pair of Baby Booties to match the blanket above.

 

Modular Tomten Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. From Knitting Without Tears.

Yarn: The green is Araucania Ranco Solid, and I used Sandnes Garn Lanett for the buttonband and cuffs. It still needs buttons.

I do have a few non-baby projects on the needles, but I'm saving those for another post. If you're allergic to baby knitting blogs (I know I was before), you'll probably need to avoid this blog until June. These little projects will be popping up in between bigger ones from time to time. Let's just hope I can keep going with this blogging thing. The laziness has been overwhelming lately!

A whole lot of knitting going on

Just because I haven't been blogging in a while, that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting. But I guess I don't need to tell you knitters that...

Anyway... The garter stitch jacket I've been working on for a while is almost finished.

It just needs a button band, some buttons, and one more of these:

I've also been working on some seeeecret knitting... Shhhh!

Check these out on Ravelry if you're there.

And what else... Oh, that's right. I've been thinking about hemp yarn for a long time, and I finally got around to ordering some from Titityy. It knits up really nicely, not as strawy as I expected. And it absorbs water really well.

Kitchen towel with stripes in two-color linen stitch. (Sorry about the unevenness... I really couldn't be bothered to iron it!)

Here's a close-up of the stripes. Linen stitch in two colors creates a really nice effect.

Nothing else this time. I do have a million plans for coming knitting projects. But I should really make a serious effort to finish something first! Oh well... Let's see...

Quick update

Finished this.

 

Face cloth in old shale pattern. Yummy organic soap from here.

Working on this.

 

Druid Mittens by Jared Flood, Vogue Knitting fall 2008. I'm knitting with two colors. The purl stitches on the cuff were a bit tricky. I had to tweak them a little to make it look less messy. Other than that, fun project.

Project Spectrum - Water

The theme for Project Spectrum 3 in August/September is WATER. Before I pulled out my blue/black/purple skeins, I thought: "Meeeh, not really my colors. I probably don't have that many skeins in my stash." Well...

I guess this proves that my stash denial is pretty severe. To be fair, a large part of my blue stash consists of those Jaeger Extra Fine Merino that are already on the needles becoming a sweater for my Significant Other. The rest is mainly sock yarn. But still, I had no idea! Again!

What about purple and black then? I knew there COULD NOT be that much purple in my stash, since it's one of those colors I just don't use (like yellow). And this time, it turns out I was right.

Oh gee, who would have guessed there would be some more Rowanspun in my stash?! What the heck am I supposed to do with those bright purple skeins? They look almost lilac in this picture, but they're actually really bright. Sigh... On the plus side, there is some Noro Silk Garden, and that single skein almost makes up for the purple Rowanspun-craziness. I looove me some Noro!

Vacation knitting

This blog has been hibernating long enough, don't you think? Now that I'm back from my vacation, and I have regular Internet access, there is no excuse for not blogging. I have been knitting, after all...

My first project for the summer was a merging of two beautiful things. I've had this blue/brown/natural Evilla yarn in my stash for quite a while, not knowing what to do with it. I just couldn't find a project that was worthy of its gorgeousness. I finally decided that it needs something spectacular to show it off. To me, that means fair isle. And the most beautiful fair isle pattern I've found to date is Eunny Jang's Venezia.

It turned out to be a perfect match! Just add some white and the magic happens. I can't wait to finish this. I'm going to make quite a few modifications. I've decided to completely eliminate steeks, and to use raglan decreases instead. Let's see how that turns out...

Brown and natural colors seem to be the theme for this summer. I've been swimming in a sea of cotton.

And lately, there's also been some green waves.

This green garter stitch bonanza is being knitted especially for someone, and so far it's progressing at an amazing rate. I haven't really knit a large project in garter stitch before, and I can't believe how fast it is!

This isn't all of my vacation knitting, but some projects still haven't been unpacked, and it's too hot to do that now!

Zero blogspiration

Helloooo, is anyone still there? My blog has been feeling very neglected lately. I've had absolutely no inspiration to blog. It's been too hot to bring out the yarns for Project Spectrum's AIR theme, it's been too hot to photograph other projects, and it's almost been too hot to knit (not really! but you get the idea). Today, I finally decided it was time to kick myself off the couch and do some blogging.

Is there any better way to come back after a long absence than a little stash-flash? The colors for the PS AIR theme are gray, white and yellow. I couldn't find even the shortest thread of yellow in my stash, which was to be expected since it's a color I never ever use. I did have some gray though.

I was really surprised that it wasn't more than this. I have some Rowanspun of course, 10 skeins of 4 ply at the top and 3 skeins of DK at the bottom. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that a big part of my gray stash is "natural" yarns. Those are to the left in this picture. I have a skein of Kainuunharmas, two skeins of the wonderful Riihivilla yarn, one skein of an unidentified finnwool yarn, and a skein of Silkeskaninens garn. I also have two skeins of a wool yarn that I got in an exchange, and three skeins of Novita 7 Veljestä. No crazy acrylic yarn or any other "difficult" yarn.

My white stash wasn't that terrifying either. But it wasn't as nice as the gray one.

There are only two yarns that I really like here, and surprise surprise, those belong to the "natural" category. There is some Silkeskaninens garn, and a skein of 100% finnwool. The rest is blaaah yarn, and there's even a squeaky skein of horrid acrylic in the bottom left corner. Why oh why did I ever buy that?

I also have some AIR projects on the needles. One that I'll finish, and one that will be frogged. This one will survive.

Scarf with edging 21 and insertion 25 from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, Thompson Bros., Kilmarnock, Scotland 1850 from Victorian Lace Today. Couldn't they come up with a longer name for that one? The yarn is an unidentified Novita cotton yarn. I really like this pattern. I've modified it a little and made it more narrow. The goal is to finish it by Christmas, preferably Christmas this year.

This project will be fed to the frogs.

Travelling Roses Scarf. The yarn (100% finnwool that I got at Turku Christmas Market) and pattern just don't match, and I'm getting a little bit bored. I think this yarn would be better for something more lacy and airy.

I still have a million other projects on the needles, both new ones and ooooold ones. I'll do my best to blog about those soon. The weather is supposed to get colder next week, so maybe that will make it easier to use my brain for other things than work and sleep.

Ruffled Jacket

It's finally finished!

I couldn't be happier with it! Everything turned out just the way I wanted it to.

I can wear it with a pin (or a knitting needle if no pin is available...).

Or I can be really classy and wear it with a belt.

Ruffled Jacket, James Coviello

Vogue Knitting, Fall 2007, #44

Yarn: Rowanspun Aran

Modifications: A million (sleeves in the round, knitted on borders, ruffles instead of "bells", modified size/needle size, etc.)

Daylight/Nightlight

Yesterday, a friend reminded me of why I can't wait for summer. The days are getting longer and longer now, and it doesn't get dark until around 9.

There is much more light to come, though. This photo was taken at our summer cottage, midsummer (June 23) 2006, 3 minutes to midnight. View from Iso-Lemuri towards Renö, Kelviå, Finland.

Can't you just hear the wings of the seagulls and the waves slowly reaching the shore. The most peaceful place on earth. My piece of paradise.

Ruffles!

I'm in this strange knitting mode right now. I knit a lot, but there doesn't seem to be anything worth blogging about. I guess it's because I'm mainly working on sweaters, and there really isn't much point in taking photos every 10 cm... But I did make significant progress on my Ruffled Jacket. Look: Ruffles!

I've made so many modifications on this jacket already, that I can't remember them all. Again, I'm avoidin sewing, so I'm knitting the ruffles onto the edge instead. The ruffles are supposed to be knit separately, casting on at the outer edge with k9p3 and then decreasing two stitches for every repeat every other row, ending with a few rows of k1p3. Then you're supposed to sew the bind off edge and the main edge together. Well, you all know I can't do that! I'm doing it the other way around. I picked up stitches around the edge, started with k3p3 instead of k1p3 because I wanted just ruffles instead of the "bells", then increased every other round until I had k9p3 and then did the bind off. I also much prefer the bind off edge to a cast on edge. I can't wait to finish this!

I got the latest issue of Rebecca in the mail yesterday, and I already have plans for some of the patterns. Not sure about the yarn though, it might be too heavy, but I know I want brown and beige.

And then there is a veeery seeeecret project, that I can't really tell you anything about. These are the ingredients.

Let's see what kind of soup comes out of it.

Avoid sewing at all costs!

Wow, I fell off the radar there for a while. Well, I'm back now, and I actually have something to show for.

My Ruffled Jacket has sleeves now, and I finished sewing them on! But maaan, do I hate sewing! Don't you just find it to be the ultimate anticlimax to a knitting project? "Yay, I finished knitting! Oh crap, I still have a whole bunch of sewing left!"

I tried to minimize the sewing on this cardigan by knitting the sleeves in the round, and I thought I was safe. But then I read further on in the pattern, and I discovered the HORROR. According to the pattern, you're supposed to knit a 10 stitches wide, cabled strip that is long enough to go around the whole outer edge of the cardigan. And then SEW it onto the edge! I mean, come on! Who in their right mind would enjoy doing that? I wasn't having any of it. So I'm doing this instead.

Picking up stitches around the edge of the cardigan and attaching the cabled strip as it progresses. Sooo much more fun than sewing!

Cheating...

Ok, that's it! I can't take the PS3 FIRE theme anymore! Even though it's not April yet. But I still have these red/orange/pink UFO's left. Bugger!

 

(Basic sock, Catriona, Morning Surf Scarf, Anemoi mittens)

I'm going to try to finish at least some of them before the end of March, but I just had to move on.

To more EARTHy yarns. My favorite colors! Green and brown. But holy SHI..........EEEEEEP!!!! I strongly suspect that my yarn has mutated and developed reproductive capabilities. How else do you explain this?

  

And now you're thinking, "well... that's not too bad", right? Ok, so what if I show you this then?

Some nice dark brown yarny yummyness. Still not rocking your boat? Alrightie then, take this!

If you still don't think I have a slightly abnormal yarn habit, you're probably either immune to yarn, or have a stash the size of a yarn store. And if you know me in real life and you thought I had knitting as a "hobby", I'm out of the closet now. For the love of wool (or alpaca, or heck qiviut, if that's what gets you going), how did this happen?! And keep in mind that this is just part of my stash. Add the red yarns to the mix, and the yarn that belongs in the remaining two PS3 categories, and you have a pretty substantial amount.

To distract you from the yarn madness, I give you two UFO's in the EARTH category.

Little Miss Green Sweater

Or she's not so little anymore. She just needs another sleeve and some sewing, and she'll be done.

And the other star is Miss Ruffled Jacket.

She's pretty much at the same stage as her green sister. Just the sleeve and some sewing left. I can't wait to start knitting with these colors! The FIRE colors make me see red (haha).