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!

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.

Good morning 2010

My fiancé is "a maths person" and his tendencies have rubbed off on me to a certain extent. Therefore it makes me want to pull my hair out when people say that we have just started a new decade. Or when magazines announce the This-n-That of the Decade. Of course, if you normally start counting at 0 in everything, then be my guest and celebrate the new decade now. If not, wait a year.

In other news today: Finland is experiencing its coldest winter in years - indeed, the last few have been nearly snowless in the south. Yesterday the landscape outside my home looked like this:


Sunny with temperatures down to -25°C. It doesn't get much more wintry than this!

In the end, I was able to finish all of my Christmas knitting in time, just. I was still knitting the foot of my mother's second sock on Christmas Day while expecting them to visit, and had just finished kitchener stitching the toes when the doorbell rang. Talk about timing!

This Christmas I made mostly socks and hats. Here's the lowdown (photos may be replaced later on with ones of the recipients wearing their gifts)...

As a notable exception to the above, my fiancé received the gloves that he requested awhile ago. This was the second pair of gloves I had ever knitted, the first being a pathetic specimen created at school when I was 11 or so. Of that pair, the middle finger could have fit two fingers in and the rest were woefully small. All this considered, I think I didn't do tooo poorly this time. The yarn is scrumptious, too.


Pattern: Garter-Cluff Gloves by Deborah Newton (from the book Weekend Knitting)
Yarn: Sublime Yarns Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK (75% extra fine merino / 20% silk / 5% cashmere) in 0051 Button

Originally I planned on making my friend Elina a scarf. However, when I asked her what colours she likes to wear around her face, she got excited at the prospect of me making her a hat, so a hat it was. As soon as I saw this 1920's-inspired pattern, I knew it was the perfect hat for her.


Pattern: Side Slip Cloche by Laura Irwin (from the book Boutique Knits)
Yarn: Rowan RYC Soft Lux (64% extra fine merino wool / 24% nylon / 10% angora / 2% metallic fibre; discontinued) in 001 Pearl

Another case of "she-must-have-that-hat" happened with the next specimen. My friend Anna loves kooky things, cats and the colour pink. I had some pink yarn left over from Veera's Hello Kitty sweater, so I whipped up this hat for Anna.


Pattern: The Official Kittyville Hat by Kitty Schmidt (from the book Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook)
Yarn: Novita Samos (50% cotton / 50% acrylic) in 568 (main colour) and 628 (contrasting colour)

Maija is a friend of mine from secondary school times and will be my maid of honour at our wedding in July. To show her some love, I knitted her a pair of socks with hearts on them. The poor yarn is truly lovely, however it had been frogged twice already as I was trying to figure out the right use for it. Although it has no nylon in it, it proved to be great for bed socks.

Pattern: Seven of Hearts by Omly
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Mystique 8 Ply (75% wool / 20% mohair / 5% alpaca) in 769 Bolero

I mentioned earlier that I only just finished my Mum's socks in time. To be precise, I responsibly started the socks already in October, finished one, then put the other in the back burner thinking "the first one was so quick, I'll whip up the second one in no time", eventually casting on the second on Christmas Eve. Not a good idea. Mum loved them though - she had been secretly hoping for socks!


Pattern: Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd (from the book Favorite Socks)
Yarn: Novita Nalle (75% wool / 25% polyamide) in 248

The idea was to knit both my parents a pair of socks. In fact, I bought a skein of dark red Novita 7 veljestä for my dad's socks. However, my mum decided that red socks were not appropriate for men so the idea was scrapped. Dad got a book instead. The 7 veljestä became socks for my sister, which I unfortunately forgot to photograph before giving to her.

As soon as my sister found out that I was knitting gifts, she submitted a request for her husband - a dark grey hat with no cables or other fancy bits and one or two rust-coloured stripes. I love it when I get detailed requests, it takes the guesswork out of it (especially if I don't already have my heart set on something). This hat is very simple in design but it actually fit very well, Tristan wants one now!


Pattern: Rib-a-Roni by Jane Tanner
Yarns: main colour Novita Aino (100% wool; discontinued) in 044, contrasting colour Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12 Ply (100% wool) in 938 Russet

I have already showed you Oona's earflap hat in progress; here's what it looked like when it was all done and done (like father like daughter, or something):

Pattern: Fancy Ribby Hat by Anadiomena
Yarns: main colour Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK (57% extra fine merino / 33% microfibre / 10% cashmere) in 501 Sweet, contrasting colour Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply (same fibre content) in 432 Bark

December must have been a busy time for storks - two little bundles were delivered to people close to me. My sister and her husband had a baby boy and a friend of mine from university had a daughter. Both babies received a pair of bootees:


Pattern: Saartje's Bootees by Saartje de Bruijn
Yarns: Rowan RYC Cashcotton 4 Ply (35% cotton / 25% polyamide / 18% angora / 13% viscose / 9% cashmere) in 913 Peppermint and Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply (57% extra fine merino / 33% microfibre / 10% cashmere) in 432 Bark

We had the opportunity to spend Christmas with two friends from Adelaide who were stranded in Europe for the holidays. I made a little something for each of them to go under the tree.

Tristan's cousin Kim had just about finished her exchange in Denmark and was preparing to go back home to Australia, so I didn't want to make her anything too warm or bulky to pack. Because I was so pleased with the washcloth I made for myself, I decided to make one for her as well.


Pattern: Knitted "K" Cloth by Rhonda White
Yarn: Novita Bambu (68% bamboo / 32% cotton) in 381 (yarn held double throughout)

Rogan, Tristan's friend from university, received a hat. I didn't want to make just a basic old hat, so I tried the alternating stripes ("Noro") technique that is very fashionable at the moment. I asked Tristan which colours I should go for, and he just said "not pink". OK.
This was another hat that turned out surprisingly well and made me want to keep it for myself!


Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood
Yarns: main colour Novita Luxus Stone (100% wool) in 009, contrasting colour Novita Puro (100% wool) in 807 Iltanuotio

Phew! I think that's it.

Now that Christmas is done, guess what I started? Another pair of socks. To be given away. Don't worry, I started something else for myself as well! Deets to come later on.

Finished: S is for Salla

I've got ants in my pants because I can't show you any of the Christmas projects I've been working on recently! How annoying.

Yesterday I felt as though I needed a break from my usual UFO rota. You know when you hit a nerve in your elbow and it gives you a shock, then maintains a dull annoyance that shreds your nerves apart without being painful as such? Well, at the moment I feel like that about one particular project that is a lot of work (possibly because the yarn is laceweight...). I'll go back to it eventually, but last night I just couldn't deal. I still wanted to knit, however, so I produced a fun little thing for a change.

I have a love-hate relationship with face washers; I love them when I get around to using them (especially if I'm using a washing product that is in bar form), but I never remember to launder them enough and, let's face it, using the same face washer for days on end isn't exactly hygienic. Also, Finns don't use them and they're difficult to find in shops.

Enter half a skein of spare Novita Tennessee (100% cotton) and the above pattern by Rhonda White (told you I love to have my name or initials on everything). It took about three hours to knit, the S pattern kept me interested and, most importantly, the purled stitches are great for really scrubbing your face clean. Win! It's a bit smaller than your average face washer, but it covers my palm and fingers and that's big enough for me.

If I weren't already covered when it comes to Christmas presents, I would make a bunch of these (with the recipients' initials of course) and wrap them together with a Lush soap. If nothing else, it would be fun to see what the recipients end up doing with these little squares of cotton, the purpose of which they probably can't conceive.