New Year's Resolutions

Here is my first finished object of 2013, a pair of socks for my mother. I'll give them to her on Saturday when I see her, so I don't yet know whether she likes them or not! I however are really pleased with them, and they were lots of fun to knit, too. All the cables were done without a cable needle which was a new experience for me, and worked out surprisingly well. The pattern is a free pattern, found in Ravelry, called Bly by Caoua Coffee. They have some other fantastic patterns as well and I'm sure to try some of them later!

Bly cably socks for my mum

Now for my resolutions. I have a few knitting-related goals some especially for this year, others in a more general way that apply pretty much whenever. I decided to write down here to ensure a better follow-through or something...

1. To not buy any more yarn before I have finished even some of my ever-growing stash. (I think this is a goal many knitters share and find ever so hard to achieve)

2. Finish at least some of my nine projects marked as "in progress" on Ravelry

3. Decide what to do (finish, frog...) with some of the six projects marked as "hibernating" on Ravelry.

4. Knit this beautiful long cardigan with bunnies in the colours shown, I have them already in my stash

This pile of yarn will be a cardigan

5. Knit Magic Mirror mittens by Kristel Nyberg. For these I also have yarn (below) and am dying to get started! When I saw that beautiful light green I just could not resist!

Spring must be coming!

6. Knit more socks. Not because I particularly need them but because I have bought so much sock yarn. I have yarn for at least five pairs so those really need to be knit up. Luckily I am not short of sock patterns either, I have browsed through Ravelry in search of free sock patterns and found so many I love. (And let's not forget that I own Cookie A.'s Knit.Sock.Love which still has so many patterns I have not yet knit.

7. Knit three berets I already have yarn for: Selbu Modern by Kate Gagnon Osborn in white and the awesome multicolour yarn below. The colourway is called ´bluebell´.

Bluebells :)

The second beret is from A Stitch in Time vol. 2, it's the Sunday Pictorial Beret by Susan Crawford. I'll knit in stripy, like some people have done, in red and white. I think the candy cane -look suits a beret beautifully. The last beret is River Tam (by Jessamyn Leib) that I am going to knit in deep green. The name of the beret is a reference to a character in the awesome TV-show, Firefly, in case you were wondering.

8. Knit the Echo Flower Shawl by Jenny Johnson Johnen. For this project I also already have yarn, that is Malabrigo Yarn Lace in colour ´sealing wax´. The yarn is so awesome and the pattern so beautiful I cannot believe I haven't knit this yet.

Malabrigo yarn lace in sealing wax

Well, I think that is quite enough goals for one year, don't you? If I can keep my promise on number one, the rest will probably happen pretty much by themselves. I love yarn, I am always tempted by new colours and brands but there is only so much room in a 39 square metre flat!

Me and my boyfriend were in London for five nights last week so I though it would be good to finish this mammoth post with a good old-fashioned London tourist shot. Enjoy!

Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year everyone!

This post should probably have been written yesterday, as I intend to show you some projects that have been finished for a while but have not been photographed before, due to both extreme laziness and extreme darkness. It's pretty much impossible to get good natural light in Finland during the winter, but we'll just have to do with what we get. The first project I'm going to introduce is a hat, a 20's style art deco hat that goes by the name Regina and has been designed by Carina Spencer. As you may remember, I knit this hat with leftovers from the cable hat I knit for my boyfriend and another vintage hat I knit for myself, the 50's Bobble Topper (which I also should get better pictures of). But as it turns out, this hat has made itself a regular wear as it's so cosy and and goes so well with my new coat, too! Here are some pictures taken in Winter Wonderland with Santa's little helper, my boyfriend's mother's dog.

The other project I'll introduce are these great slippers by Drops design. It's a free pattern, as is Regina by the way, and you can find it on Drops design page along with hundreds (I think) other free patterns. And they also come in a variety of languages, they have all the big European languages along with smaller ones. Here are my finished slippers, which I'm wearing while this as well as almost always when I'm home. They are really soft and kind of massaging, as the bottom is so thick in moss stitch.

The picture is not of the best quality, cue the lack of natural light. It looks like it's really dark outside in the photo but it really is the middle of the day! Still, they are dark blue and look kind of like that...

During Christmas time, I knit quite a bit but I'll post about that later. I have so many exciting knitting ideas for this new year and I can't wait to finish some of my already started projects to make room for new ones!

Haruni

 No more about Christmas cards as they are all sent to their new owners! It was a little difficult to determine who would get which but it doesn't really matter that much, does it? I hope everyone likes my cards :)

This time I am going to post about my newest (probably?) finished project, the Haruni lace shawl. As I wrote before, it is a free pattern by Emily Ross, and one I thought was quite easy to follow and the main pattern before the edge leaves was easy enough to memorise, too. I used green multicolour yarn, teetee Aurea, in colour 102. I used total of four skeins with just a little bit left over. The yarn is a very soft blend of 50/50 silk and alpaca. But I don't know, I think I still prefer 100% wool, I guess I'm just weird that way. But enough facts, it's picture time!

Before blocking a funky looking crumbly thing

A wet bundle ready to be blocked

All pinned down in blocking

Out in the snow

From behind

Happily wearing a new shawl!

Christmas Card Frenzy, part 3

Made a few new snowflakes yesterday and new cards this morning! They have to be sent next week so it's good I'm pretty much done. It's really starting to feel quite Christmas-y, with it snowing almost everyday and all. There's already so much snow, it's hard to believe there was none like ten days ago! I'm pretty happy with these three new cards, the flakes were a little smaller but I think they look  nice on the cards.

I also made some parfait yesterday, I'm calling it Christmas parfait as it had crunched gingerbread in it, and plum marmalade. The recipe can be found here (only in Finnish). It was quite a symphony of tastes as there were the honey-baked peanuts which were both salty and sweet and the lovely, tart lingonberry topping. Sorry for the poor quality picture, but I though you might still like to see them.

On not Christmas-related news, I have continued to knit the Haruni shawl, I'm almost done with it. I can't wait to get it blocked and in use! It's going to be so soft and comfy :)

Winter is Here

It has finally snowed for real, and it's gonna get pretty cold, too, if you believe the forecasts. I honour of that, here are some snowy pictures of my new mittens, that are made from my grandmother's book printed in 1946. The book is called "Kirjokintaita ja muita kansanomaisia neuletöitä" that is "stranded mittens and other traditional knitting patterns". I think my grandma knit almost all the mittens in the book (there are a hundred or so) and some many times over. These are my first ones, so I have some catching up to do!

One day I was on the bus and saw a woman with mittens knitted in similar colours and liked them so much that I decided to conquer my fear or suspicion towards knitting stranded mittens, especially traditional Finnish ones. It's not that I don't like them, I love so many patterns from the book but stranded knitting it not really my strong suit, and given how good my grandmother used to be, I have had kind of unrealistic aspirations when it comes to stranded knitting, i.e. that everything must be perfect, like hers were. But now I think I'm over this "problem" of mine. The mittens I knit aren't perfect, there's a visible mistake in the middle of the left mitten, but I am not letting that upset me, I am not going to do anything about it. And it's actually quite liberating. I already have plans to knit at least two other patterns from the same book, but at the meantime I have these to enjoy. I knit from Gjestal Maija, in colours 204 and 237. I used 2.25 needles and I really like the result. The fabric is thick and warm, and it keeps the wind out surprisingly well.

Now I am partaking in my knitting circle's charity project, we are knitting Mother Theresa quilts for the Red Cross. At the moment I've knit 15 18cmx18cm squares, one blanket uses 30. My goal is to get one blanket done by myself, I plan to crochet the squares together, too. I'm knitting garter stitch, from corner to corner. It's very easy, and I get to use some of my stash I have no other use for. And at the same time I get to help someone in need. I really feel it's very important that out knitting circle does charity work. Here are my finished squares so far:

The one colour dark gray and dark red  plus the light gray are Gjestal Raggegarn, the dark gray multicolour is Novita 7 Veljestä Nostalgia and the pink-gray multicolour yarn is Novita 7 Veljestä Raita.

Christmas Card Frenzy, part 2

Here they are! Or, here some of them are, since I am going to make more. But I am really happy with the cards, I used a lot of glitterglue but that's fine for Christmas, right? :)

I have finished one more snowflake, it's really pretty, too.

I haven't finished any more since I started knitting Emily Ross' Haruni, a lovely shawl that I am knitting from teetee Aurea, a lovely soft blend of alpaca and silk. You can see the colour in the picture below, but as all you knitters know, lace really doesn't look like much before blocking!

I also finished my Regina hat and it turned out great! I still haven't taken pictures as it's been so dark even during the day... My boyfriend says my I look like a giant strawberry wearing it. But that's okay, strawberries are good!

Snowflakes

I'm so happy with my snowflakes that I want to share some of my favourites:

Royal Crown Snowflake by Sandi Marshall, pattern

Chain Loop Snowflake, pattern

Vintage Snowflake from 1952, pattern

Aren't they lovely? I have also finished some cards already but I haven't yet taken any pictures. If there only was enough light to take good pictures but this time of year those days are rare...

I finished my Bobble Topper and the slipover for my boyfriend, now I'm knitting another hat for myself with the leftovers from Bobble Topper and the cable hat I knit for my boyfriend. This one is called Regina, it's a free pattern by Carina Spencer with a vintage 20's style twist. I bought a new winter coat and now I'm having trouble with finding matching accessories since it's plum-coloured and I'm not sure if anything I have matches is very well. What a lovely excuse to knit something new...? I saw this great soft orange scarf but a graphic cable on it. Orange is not a colour I usually go for but in that soft tone it was quite beautiful and I think it would be quite smashing with the plum... Well, here's my Bobble Topper anyways!