Travel fever...

Started knitting my first Cookie A. sock today. It's not actually from the book, but another, free pattern from knitty.com. The sock is called Pomatomus after a fish or something because it's kinda scaly. But I'm knitting it from the multicolour yarn you can see in the last post, so it's probably not going to resemble a fish.

I am getting a little nervous because of my trip to China, which is actually tomorrow, as I am writing this after midnight. I hope my blog is going to work there, you can never be sure with those Chinese blocking everything. And I had to download Firefox as Chrome is probably not going to work there, either. And I won't use the Exploder!

I am taking with me enough yarn for two pairs of socks and a turban. I hope that's enough. And ah well, what could be "worse" than having to shop for more yarn... The turban I plan on making is a vintage model from the 30's. I have already knit one but it didn't turn out fantasticly so I am making a new one. In the last one, I used two strands of yarn and the result was much too bulky to be worn on my head so this time I'm knitting with only one strand. Also, I changed the colour. Last time, I used darkish but still quite bright red which might have been a little too much. So this time I am also using red but a much less bright one, it is kind of greyish red, actually quite pretty and I think it will make an excellent vintage turban.

Socks socks socks

Don't you just love knitting socks? And wearing knitted socks, all day? My sock-love started when I finally mastered that heel, a few years ago. I had tried it years and years ago, with my mother, but it just didn't clock. My mum didn't really herself remember how to knit the heel so her teaching it to me just didn't happen. But when I tried it on my on later, with Novita's (Finnish yarn company) instructions, it was suddenly so easy and straightforward. Since then I have knitted numerous socks, but all kind of basic. Now I am going to embark on a whole new adventure as I have familiarised myself with Cookie A.'s Knit.Sock. Love., a wonderful sock book with so many lovely sock patterns. I don't really know why I haven't knit more elaborate socks before, maybe it's just that I've been too busy knitting sweaters and stuff. But now, now is the time. I am leaving for China in less than a week and I'll be staying there four weeks. As that is much too long to abstain from knitting (I usually knit every single day), I need something small yet time consuming to do on the way. Cookie A.'s beautiful lacy socks are perfect for this! I have already bought yarn for four pairs, I was at Lankatalo Nordia's summer sale in Oulunkylä, I just love that shop. Every time I have yarn-buying needs, I just go to their website and they are always having a yarn sale! I bought four different colourways of Hjerte Garn's Sock Wool. One is darkish yellow one colour, and the rest are multicolour with only short lengths of each colour so they are not striping. The multicolours are green, blue and one real multicolour of green, blue and yellow.

The yarns for my new socks

Below some socks I have knit.

The colourway of the multicolour yarn of
these socks was called "cloud berry"

These lacy socks are no longer as they
were too wide for my feet.

Thigh-high different colour socks from multicolour yarn

About blogging and vintage things

This blog is something I have thought about a lot and for a long time. I have knit for quite some time and as more and more people have started up their own blogs, I have also felt the pull to do so myself. Writing about knitting feels natural as it's something not everyone does but what I do a lot.

Recently I have been very into vintage knitting. I'm not sure where it started, but pretty early on I saw Susan Crawford's A Stitch in Time books that have vintage knitting patterns rewritten with more sizes and more understandable directions. I really fell in love with those books with all their pretty patterns and pictures. For last Christmas I got the A Stitch in Time vol. 2 from my boyfriend. It's been a regular leaf-through ever since, and I have also knitted some garments from it, for example the rose jumper of the last entry.

A few weeks back I was staying at my grandparents house for a night. I went through the knitting and other handicrafts supplies there, as there was a lot of real treasures there as you can imagine. There was a whole bucketful of buttons and it took me hours to go through all of them. But it was all good fun, and my mother really enjoyed it too, as she remembered most of the buttons from her childhood, having played with them. The best part is that I have already found use for some of the buttons. It is so great, having real vintage buttons! And they don't even have to be on a vintage sweaters, not all buttons have really even changed that much. Right now, I am knitting a bright green collared jacket and among the buttons I took from my grandmother's stash are just the perfect ones, they are of perfect shape, size and colour. It's almost too good to be true!

I also found some vintage knitting magazines at my grandparents house. I took a few back home. It was so fun to leaf through them as some of them were from the 50's, others from 70's and 80's. I noticed that crocheted peter pan collars that are quite hot right now have also been in style in the 60's. I think it's kind of funny how fashion is nothing but recycling. My uncle has had long legged tennis shoes today worn by all teenagers in his teens in the early 60's.

Buttons

The perfect buttons for my jacket to be

The very first entry

Welcome to the first entry of my first blog. Very exciting! In this blog I plan to write about knitting which has been an important hobby of mine for almost nine years now. I'll probably also write about other handicrafts I do. And because movies and TV shows are tightly connected with knitting for me, as I always watch something while knitting, it is inevitable that I'll write a line or two about those as well. I'll confess this upfront: I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Hate me if you must but she is a goddess to me. But that doesn't mean I like everything she is in. Just today me and my boyfriend discussed how unimportant a movie The Air I Breathe actually is! Even with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Brendan Fraser starring. But here I go, rambling on my first entry. Better stop here. Below a picture of my 50's style jumper I finished couple months back but which still deserves to be the first knit to be displayed on this blog. This picture is taken in action: I'm looking at pictures my boyfriend took of the jumper (and me, naturally). What I chose to display you can see on Raverly, on Blue Roses