Making Memories of Us

Things that will always remind me of our honeymoon in the U.S. West Coast:

• freshly-baked cheddar-crusted bagels from Safeway
• satellite radio (I still find myself glancing at the car stereo for track info sometimes)
• scrambled eggs, which I had all the time because I don't know of any other way to request eggs!
• Diet Mountain Dew and Root Beer in enormous bottles (2-3 litres) that fit just perfectly into our rental car's cup holder (as does a ball of yarn, btw)
• Baby Ruth chocolate bars, the closest thing to an Australian Picnic bar I've come in a long time
• Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" which came out while we were travelling
• Green apple flavoured Tic Tacs
• Adult Swim, the only TV station we watched on our trip. After 8 hours of driving, we sometimes just sat in the motel room and watched it in morbid fascination.

I also had a few odd encounters with shop checkout staff:

• At a Target in Santa Rosa I was informed that I was not allowed to buy a bottle of wine since I did not possess an American passport. Seriously. Asking to speak to the manager took care of that very quickly though...
• At Old Navy in San Francisco (of all places) the person serving me insisted on getting my husband to sign for my credit card purchase. I told her it was my card, but she kept asking for my husband (standing a few metres behind me) to step up and sign for it. I had to be very stern about it being my card before she "let it go".
• I was and continue to be freaked out by the fact that some places require no PIN code or signature to use a card, you just swipe it through and you're done. O_o

All in all, we had a wonderful trip. More wonderful than I expected, to be honest - the thought of driving 5-8 hours most days kind of scared me, but it was fun and we saw so much! Amazingly we also didn't get sick of each other's company. ;)
My favourite things were hanging onto the San Francisco cable car while going up the steep hills (a roller-coaster for adults) and snorkelling with tropical fish in Hanauma Bay in Hawai'i. I don't look back fondly on getting bitten by a parrot fish in the latter case, although Tristan thought it was hilarious - the fish went for a mole on my side, thinking it was a mollusc I guess!

Do you believe in serendipity?
While we were driving in Oregon on our way to Eugene, Tristan got a sudden hankering for coffee. Normally we didn't really make impromptu stops, but he really felt like a cuppa so we decided to stop at the next town, which was Canyonville. I searched for cafés on the GPS navigator and was delighted when "Canyonville Fiber Café" came up. Unfortunately, when we got there, it turned out that it was a typo - it was "Canyonville Cyber Café".

Forlorn, we turned around the corner and saw a sign advertising coffee in front of a shop with no name sign, figuring it looked as good option as any. We stepped in and were faced with shelves and shelves of hand-spun (and commercial) yarn and the sweet smell of pie.

We'd quite accidentally stumbled upon the only yarn shop in this small town, one that had only opened the week before in fact (hence no signs). The owner explained that she spins most of the yarn on offer and also bakes the pies. I told her I had given spinning a go but was quite rubbish at it, and she taught me to spin on a spindle (I had only used a wheel before). While I was spinning silk, Tristan had his cup of coffee. I left with two skeins of hand-spun yarn. Plus we bought an apple pie to take to our hosts that night, and it turned out delicious!

I guess we found the Canyonville Fiber Café after all.

Like I mentioned, the shop had no name signs when we were there, but it's quite easy to find; I believe it was on the corner of SE Main St and SE 4th, next to an antique shop. The brand name is Weaver Creek Ranch. Both yarn and pies come warmly recommended.

As for the two travel projects I mentioned in my previous post, neither one is quite finished yet unfortunately, but I'll show you what I've got.

Incidentally, I had just cast on the Carnaby Street Pullover a few hours before stopping in Canyonville - yarn calls out to yarn, perhaps! I still love the texture and am very much looking forward to wearing the finished item, but I must admit that it's slow going. I'll get there eventually.

Of the Endpaper Mitts, I have finished one. I love it - it's beautiful. The reason I started the mitts was that we were scheduled to have an "engagement" photo shoot in Portland, OR during our travels, and I had this vision of wearing the mitts and having my wedding ring peek out from underneath. Sadly, our entire stay in otherwise lovely Portland was very, very rainy, and the photo shoot was cancelled. Therefore the time pressure motivation also went out the window. Again, nothing wrong with the project itself.

I did, however, start and finish a project on the road! While in Reno, NV, preparing to leave for Yosemite National Park, I realised I had not packed a hat. How stupid is that, huh? Luckily I had scheduled a stop at Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno to spend the rest of the gift voucher Tristan gave me for my birthday. Needless to say, I had a blast! I ended up buying a skein of Malabrigo Rios (100% superwash merino wool, in 611 Ravelry Red, of course) and two sets of dpns and made a Felicity hat by Wanett Clyde (Ravelry link) in one sitting. I bound it off just as we were entering Yosemite at dusk.

Initially, I was not that thrilled with the finished product. It's a very simple design and it showed. However, I must say it started to grow on me immediately - not only was it warm and stayed on very well, it matched my brand new Columbia hiking jacket beautifully!
I'm still pondering whether to frog the hat and make it into something else, but we'll see. This was my first experience with Mmmmmalabrigo, and like so many before me, I was hooked from the start. Soft and squishy goodness. Thankfully my LYS has recently started stocking some Malabrigo yarns, but only the Sock and Lace varieties (oh, and Rasta). No Worsted or Rios.

In 2010 I knitted just short of 9 km of yarn. This year my goal is to reach 10k. In both knitting and running. Although I suspect the first will be easier to achieve...

Luna de Miel

I mentioned earlier that my husband and I are about to embark on a 3½-week honeymoon! Yay! (They always say not to say things like this on the internet, but since we have a housesitter and two protective guardcats, I'll take the risk.)

On our trip we will be visiting California, Oregon, Nevada and Hawai'i. The flight to LAX alone takes 17 hours! Not to mention hours upon hours on the road as we drive along the West Coast. This naturally begs the question: what to knit?!

After much contemplation, I settled on the Carnaby Street Pullover by Melissa Wehrle (at left). The pattern was published in the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene and it is also available for purchase on the Interweave Knits website. My poison of choice is Novita Florica (100% wool) in 080, which is a muted purple/mauve shade.

To be fair, I am not entirely convinced that the neckline will work with my... erm, ample bust, but I lovelovelove the waffle-like pattern and the off-center buttons. I'm making the 36½" size even though it's supposed to be worn with negative ease - my gauge is likely to be tighter than required and the neckline may sit better that way.

One of the deciding factors was that even though this is knitted in Sport weight yarn, the needles are large enough for me to use my Denise set (the smallest of which are 3.75 mm). I did not want to risk losing bamboo or metal needles to fickle airport security staff.

My secondary travel project is a pair of Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts (at right). I may not have disclosed this before, but I suck at colourwork. I always pull the travelling yarn too tight and my gauge goes all over the place. Therefore I'm surprised to say that I have already finished one! (Not the one in the photo, I haven't gotten around to taking photos yet.) I'm using Rowan 4 Ply Soft (100% wool; discontinued) in 397 Teak for the main colour and Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk Solid (52% bamboo, 43% superwash merino wool, 5% combed silk) in 3204 Natural Ecru for the contrasting colour. The Crystal Palace Panda was leftovers from my wedding garter, so it seemed appropriate for a honeymoon project.

If everything goes to plan, these mitts will have a very special role to play soon. But I'll tell you more if/when it happens.

It is currently 12.30am and I'm biding time until we leave for the airport at 4.30am. My suitcase is nearly packed and I'm starting to feel jittery. Weirdly enough, the older I get, the less I enjoy flying. I used to love it. Now I get nervous. Luckily I have Tristan to hold my hand - plus as a hobby pilot, he knows to give me a heads-up if something really is going awry!

SSSocks

The human mind is a most curious thing. It may be perfectly happy doing certain things, but once these things become compulsory, it'll avoid them like the plague.

Take, for instance, knitting socks. In my queue, I have 20 sock projects that I would love to make. For most of them, I have the yarn ready and waiting. But since I am partaking in Sukkasato 2010 (Sock Harvest 2010), which is a drive to knit as many socks of possible between September 1 and October 31, I am naturally dreaming of sweaters, hats, even scarves. The mere thought of turning a heel makes me bored.

Not to mention the serious case of SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) I'm experiencing. You know, once you finish one sock, the pattern ceases to be exciting and interesting and you want to move on to bigger, better things. Some people give in to SSS and wear mis-matched socks. SSS also affects gloves, in which case knitters speak of "wearing it MJ style".

So, even though I reaaaalllly don't wanna, I have started a few sock projects for Sukkasato. Could you have guessed I am halfway through each one?

The sock on the left is what I was hoping would cure my sock boredom (and land me at least one pair in at Sukkasato). It is Konnichiwa by Judy Sumner, from her excellent book Knitted Socks East and West - another "Japanese-inspired" knitting book. The yarn is Novita 7 Veljestä Moniraita (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 842, a long since discontinued yarn that I've just been looking to get rid of, since it's only really good for socks and I don't love thick socks like this. The pattern is fun, but I think these socks are waiting to be owned by someone else.

The sock on my right foot, on the other hand, might just be my favourite sock ever. The pattern is Julia by Emily Johnson and the yarn is Araucania Ranco Solid (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 108 Teal. At five full pages, the pattern is a bit unnecessarily verbose, but the end product is lovely. And the yarn! Teal is a difficult shade (I learnt this the hard way by having it as one of my "wedding colours"), but the Ranco yarn got it just right. I could wear these socks all the time! The main issue here is that with Fingering weight yarn and a pattern with 50% twisted stitches, this is very, very slow going.

I don't know if this counts as a sock per se, but here it is anyway. It is one of those genius designs of an origami nature - you knit one piece, fold it a few times and BAM you have a slipper sock. The pattern used here is Mountain Form Slippers by Jun Miyamoto (direct link to pattern PDF). The yarn is Novita Jussi (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 828. Jussi is one of Novita's weird kind-of-seasonal yarns; it doesn't appear in their official collection, yet it is almost always available if you look in the right places. I used it here to get rid of some leftover yarn after I knitted a pair of socks for Tristan's grandmother.

Like I said, I really like the design, and the thick yarn is definitely called for here. The problem is that the sock came out much too big. The nature of the pattern is such that you cannot try it on before it's finished. The pattern is supposed to fit a US shoe size 6-7, however I wear a size 8 and knit very tight. Yet as you can see from the photo, it is much too big for my foot. I think I'll frog it partially and make it smaller, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

(The nail polish on my toenails is Mavala's "London", the most perfect red there is.)

Why is it that all of the socks I'm working on are blue?!

Ohai

What a glorious summer we had! The all-time heat records were broken in Finland. We had beautiful days filled to the brim with sunshine, another after another after another until it seemed as though autumn would never arrive at all. One of these summer days was incidentally my wedding day.

The only Finns who dread hot summers seem to be yarn shop owners. Business is slow as many stop knitting during a heatwave. If you have paid attention to the counter on the right-hand side pane, you have noticed that I am not one of them. Since my last entry, I have in fact completed exactly 30 projects (counted 'em!) - don't worry, I will not show and tell all of them. Instead, I will give you a "Best Of" collection of my favourite FO's, just to bring you up to date.

Okay, so this photo is not great, but I had to include this hat. I call it the Queen Bee Hat because of the honeybee nest shape. I finished it in January but never remembered to mention it.

Being a deep, 1920's-style cloche hat, it is not only visually interesting but also very snug and keeps my ears warm. It is also the best hat for Bad Hair Days!

Pattern: Sideways Grande Cloche by Laura Irwin (from the book Boutique Knits)
Yarn: Leftover Cascade 128 from the yellow cardigan I made last year (100% Peruvian Highland wool).


In my Christmas entry I mentioned that by New Year I had already started another pair of socks to give away. Well, these are the ones, and I must say I was kind of sad to let them go in the end. For some reason anything that I knit as a gift has a much higher chance of working out great than if I'm making it for myself.

It was my dear friend Elina's birthday in February and I wanted to make her a pair of socks, so I took her to Lankaidea in Tampere (where we both go/went to uni) under the pretense of "just looking". Elina is very much not a knitter and usually just sits down patiently while I do my ooh and aah rounds at yarn shops. This time I tried to get her to pick out something, but she didn't fall for it, so I picked the yarn for her. She loves all things blue, so this colourway was perfect.

While working on these, I called them the Atlantis socks because Tristan and I started watching Stargåte Atlantis (having finished all 10 seasons of Stargåte SG-1) when I cast them on.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Multy (75% wool / 25% nylon) in 302 Pacific Sunset (discontinued colourway)


(Sorry about the picture quality - I had just gotten my new iPhone and was testing out the camera)

Remember when I said I couldn't sleep at the start of the Vancouver Olympics and stayed up and knitted instead? I would be lying if I said this was a once-off. In fact, the Totoro mittens above are the result of more insomniac TV knitting. This time it was the night of the Oscars in March, so I stayed up and made one mitten, then the other the next day while watching the re-cap.

They came up ever so slightly snug, but they never fail to bring a smile to my face when I wear them (or to attract comments from strangers and friends alike). I have even been offered money for them! Of course, the sum offered wouldn't even have covered the cost of the yarn... O how underappreciated us hand knitters are, sigh.

Pattern: Norwegian Totoro Mittens by brella (direct link to the pattern PDF)
Yarn: Dalegarn Falk (100% wool), main colour 2611, contrasting colour 3841


Let's jump to the summer. Elina, whom I mentioned above, was a June bride this year and I was thrilled to attend her wedding. I had only one problem: no suitable evening bag to go with the pink dress that I bought for the occasion. I knew exactly what I wanted - a silver-clasped, sparkling purse with some old-world charm. Searching high and low for the right bag in the shops and later, for the right pattern on Ravelry, I came up empty-handed. So I wrote the pattern myself.

Now, I'll let you in on a secret. I dislike knitted bags. Something to do with the floppiness, the way the contents sometimes poke through the fabric, the whole homemade look of it. In fact I made a conscious effort to remove myself as far as possible from all of these issues with my design. It is lined with two layers of silk organza, so it stands upright on its own and nothing short of a knife will poke through it. I used two sizes of Swarovski crystals for the beading and an antique-patterned clasp to maintain the look through the details.

For a first-ever pattern, I am pleased. What's better, I got the purse I wanted!

Pattern: A Kiss is Just a Kiss by Moi (buy it for $1 on Ravelry!)
Yarn: Jaeger Pure Silk DK (100% silk; discontinued) in 08 Cameo


Many knitters choose to make intricate lace shawls for themselves (and sometimes the bridesmaids) to wear on their wedding day. I was never much of a shawl person, so it was not something that tickled my fancy. However, I did want to make something to be used during the ceremony.

A wedding rug has long roots of tradition in Finland. It is usually a rya rug, but felted and knitted rugs are also known to be used. The original purpose of the rug was to provide a protective layer between bride and groom and the goblins underground who might be tempted to snatch one or both away at the key moment.

The rug was supposed to be square initially, but I simply ran out of time. In fact, I was still binding off half an hour before the ceremony started! Admittedly I should have been more organised about the whole thing, but on the other hand, one of my favourite memories of the wedding day morning is of getting my hair done and knitting. It soothed my nerves and I was very zen.

After the wedding, I looked at the rug and pondered whether I should finish the tree pattern as I still had plenty of yarn leftover. However, for better or for worse (no pun intended), this is our wedding rug. This is what Tristan and I stood upon when we became husband and wife. It is what it is, even if it didn't become the heirloom lap throw I had in mind.

Pattern: My own composition based on the Tree of Life Afghan by Nicky Epstein
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Eskimo (100% wool) in 001


Once the brou-ha-ha of the wedding died down and we saw the last overseas guest off at the airport, Tristan and I spent a mini-honeymoon week at my parents' summer cottage. We swam, sauna-ed, fished, canoed and read - a lot. Walked barefoot. Chilled. And I knitted.

Because I knew I would have a lot of knitting time in my hands and no yarn shops kilometres around, I packed a project carefully. This varied top-down pattern in a Sport weight cotton blend was a great choice: it maintained my interest while being repetitive enough for stretching in a deck chair with a wide-brimmed hat for sun protection, listening to the birds sing their little hearts out.

I finished the top the day we returned to the city, and it instantly became my favourite summer garment. The organza ribbon at the neckline was used to wrap one of our wedding presents.

Pattern: Paloma by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (from the book French Girl Knits)
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Shine (55% cotton / 45% viscose; discontinued) in 2741 (it's supposed to be an antique brown but it looks grey or green depending on the light)


And finally - la pièce de résistance, if you will. If I had to choose my all-time favourite knitted item, this would have to be it.

Most of my life as a knitter I have rolled my eyes at the Noro fad. The garish colours, just plain weird colourways, coarse texture, ridiculous prices... Don't get me started. However, somehow I found myself a proud owner of seven skeins of Noro Iro and a determined plan to knit a long cardigan that would double as a light jacket. Happens to everyone, right?!

It took me roughly 10 days to make this from start to finish, which was unexpected. In fact, I ran out of yarn on a day trip after having finished a whole front piece in one sitting, and I didn't know what to do with myself!
I got two requests for more of the same cardigans while I was still knitting it, and a fair few more after it was done. Of course, when I mention that the yarn costs $20 a skein, most sane people backpedal. Then again, I have never yet regretted it. Not even when I had to drive to the airport cargo hall to declare the import duties and VAT on the yarn. And listen to the customs officer make jokes about 100 euro socks.

(Tristan says I look smug in the picture, and maybe it is true. It's just quite rare that I am 100% pleased with a project, so I reserve the right to be smug!)

Pattern: Great Lengths Coat by Jane Ellison (from the book Knits to Fit and Flatter)
Yarn: Noro Iro (75% wool / 25% silk) in 66 (discontinued colourway)

So there we have it: winter knits, then summer knits, then autumn knits (well, one). Such is the turning of the wheel, and the wheel turns again. And I still haven't made that Owl sweater!
My husband and I (oh how I like the sound of that) will be embarking on our three-week honeymoon in a few weeks' time, and I have to start thinking about projects to travel with. But more on that later!

Don't fill your stomach with sweets (an old Finnish saying)

Last night This morning I ordered three 300g cones of yarn from ColourMart (one of 51% baby alpaca/49% cashmere in fingering weight and two of 100% extra fine merino in DK weight). I stayed up until 5am ooohing and aaahing at the yarn options (and the prices) before I made the purchase. The fact that I will likely not get the yarn for ages yet because of the airport closures did not seem important.

Today, I woke up and felt like I've had enough. Yes, you heard me correctly. I have bought enough yarn.
My stash is rapidly approaching the infamous SABLE status (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) and something's got to give. Besides, since I always favour whatever yarn is the newest, if I keep buying stuff, I never end up knitting things in my queue that I originally made the purchases for.

Therefore I do solemnly swear that I will not make any new yarn purchases until I have knitted at least 5000 metres out of my stash since the beginning of 2010. You can watch my progress by the ticker on the right-hand side of the page. I am currently at just over 3500 metres, so it's not a hugely ambitious goal, but baby steps, baby steps. Yarn received in swaps or as a present naturally doesn't count.

(I hope my LYS doesn't go out of business because of this!)

(As a side note: I have two pairs of socks, two hats, a pair of mittens and a summer top to share with you! I also have a spring scarf, a shawl and two bags in the WIP rotation. I'll post photos as soon as I get off my arse to do so.)

Hiihdä, hiihdä, vihdo, vihdo, jeeeee!*

*) Finland's official 2010 Olympic support cheer as is demonstrated here:


I'm not much of a sports enthusiast - indeed, I usually only watch the opening and closing ceremonies of Olympic games, and even those only when the hosting country is somehow interesting or significant to me.

The night of the Vancouver games opening ceremony I found myself once again suffering from insomnia, so I gave up trying to sleep and watched the live 4am opening ceremony instead. I love Canada; I spent six months there in 2005 and found the nature beautiful and the people extremely friendly and hospitable. Seeing the Rocky Mountains in the horizon wherever I went grounded me in a way that I had never experienced in Finland (which is very flat). The only annoying thing about Canada is the fact that sales tax is not included in price tags!

The (other) reason I was looking forward to the opening ceremony was Ravelympics. No, it has nothing to do with dance raves. Ravelympics are the "alternative Olympics" at Ravelry, spurring knitters into producing wonderful things with sticks and yarn. One is allowed to cast on once the Olympic fire has been lit and hands must be off the needles when the flame is extinguished. I am pleased to announce that as of now, I have earned four medals for Team Finland, and have another two medals pending!

I took part in Scarf Super-G with two entries: a scarf for myself and one for Tristan.

You may remember the scrumptious Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend that I received in my Christmas swap package. Originally I had other plans for it, but it was just begging to be a scarf. Hey, I never met a silk and merino scarf I didn't like!

When handling the yarn it made me think of seashells, and I knew I had the perfect pattern for it. The Spiral Scarf from Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan consists of (in my case) 17 hexagons, each one a stitch smaller per side than the one before. Although it may look complicated, it is actually a very simple pattern and excellent TV knitting. I hate picking up stitches because I suck at it, but since the stitches of once side of each hexagon were picked up from the previous hexagon, I learnt to live with it and maybe even got a bit better at it.

I knitted Tristan a cable scarf last year for Valentine's Day but underestimated the required length - usually a good scarf length is the recipient's height. This time I played it safe and the scarf ended up 2½ metres long! Despite the length, the scarf was started one day and finished the next, thanks to the bulky yarn (Rowan RYC Soft Tweed; 56% wool / 20% viscose / 14% polyamide / 10% silk; colourways Oatmeal, Twig and Slate Blue; discontinued).

The pattern is Men's Rustic Scarf by Joelle Hoverson from the book Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. The scarf is knitted lengthways and it is pure garter stitch. Very meditative. The problem is, Tristan loves the scarf and so do I! I may have to knit myself one too.

I had grand plans about making a fine-gauge alpaca hat for myself as a Ravelympics project; unfortunately the scarves kept me too busy to even consider it. However, I were still able to partake in Hat Halfpipe and Single Skein Speed Skate with another quickie project, namely a Calorimetry (pattern by Kathryn Schoendorf).

Half a hat, half a headband, this... thing is excellent if you, like me, often wear your hair up and still want to be snug in the winter weather. It is constructed by using short rows, a technique that I had previously not really tried, so yay. The pattern says to repeat the short row sequence 15 times but I only did 9 as my yarn of choice was bulky and also I preferred to make a slightly narrower band.

The yarn here is Schoeller+Stahl Cornwall (70% virgin wool / 30% acrylic). The project only took three hours from cast on to bind off, so it would be an excellent project for a beginner!

In addition to the above new projects, I entered Aerial Unwind with two projects. Aerial Unwind is perhaps the quickest event to take part in; it involves unravelling (or "frogging") a previously knitted project. My two projects were the Un-Lucky Clover Lace Wrap (a cardigan in fingering weight cotton that I worked on and off on since June 2008; a study in how one should not keep knitting if there is a nagging voice in the back of one's mind saying that it looks awful!) and the red hat that I knitted last October.

Why oh why, you ask? I know, I loved that hat. In fact, I loved it so much that I wore it almost every day. What I didn't take into account is the fact that silk doesn't stretch, therefore it is very poor in bouncing back. The hat, with its ribbed edge, kept growing and growing and GROWING until it was more like a bag and would regularly fall off my head. Sad.
I have interesting plans for the yarn though, as I've been tossing the ball from hand to hand, imagining new (non-ribbed) things that it could yet become. And that, my friend, is the beauty of knitting.

Knit your heart out

Those who know me personally know that Michael Jackson was and continues to be an extremely important person to me. Needless to say, last summer was very difficult time for me, particularly as I held tickets to the first of what were going to be the O2 Arena concerts. Since my plane tickets were non-refundable, I ended up going to London anyway.

Life goes on, as they say, but there has been soreness in me about his untimely passing ever since that day in June. As an attempt to purge some of that soreness and to pay my respects to him, I decided that a knitting project was in order.

The idea was loosely based on Poster Boy from Debbie Stoller's book Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. However, I don't like knitted tote bags, so I decided to knit something and felt it, then sew it onto sturdy fabric for the rest of the bag. Therefore not only did I not use the same chart and yarn as the pattern, I also used different techniques and dimensions. So I don't know if I can even call it the same thing.

Tristan was a great help in drawing up the stitch chart. He measured my gauge in width and height, then produced a chart out of a photo that I chose and tweaked. Indeed, this was the first time that I'd ever knitted something that wasn't straight out of a pattern.

Watching the face I love so dearly emerge from stitches of yarn was magical and nothing short of therapeutic.

The yarn I used was Schachenmayr nomotta Wash+Filz-it! fine (100% wool, obviously) in 00122 (dark brown) and 00102 (off-white). The width of the project was 85 stitches - the height was "enough".

The photo on the right shows what the finished knitted product looked like. Once finished, I knew I was supposed to toss the thing into the washing machine to be felted, but I felt uneasy for some reason. In the end I put it into a pillowcase and washed it at 40°C for 1½ hours with towels for friction to prevent it from felting too much.

FAIL. The panel shrunk to about 35% of its original size instead of the expected 60-70%. Also, the brown yarn felted much more than the white (which I've heard is common), so it was also awkwardly stretched and pulled across the pattern.

What a disappointment! I hate it when you really put thought into something, thinking it will become an heirloom of sorts, and then it turns out unusable. Mind you, I haven't given up; I intend to knit this again, only wiser. I will not twist the yarns on WS (after all, they will be felted into the fabric) and I will do the felting by hand to control the results.

I guess this is the universe's way to tell me that I have more healing to do. (And more learning about felting wool.)