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!

Christmas Card Frenzy, part 1

It's that time of the year again when the already crowded grocery stores fill their few spaces with Christmas chocolates, when advent calendars fill the counters and holiday songs steadily gain more and more playtime each week. It's also time to start thinking about Christmas cards, at least if you plan to make them yourself! I have made Christmas cards myself every now and then, making cards really is a lot of fun but it also takes time. That's why I haven't really send holiday greetings to that many people. Last Christmas I made these kind of yarn rugs as cards, they looked like this:

Yarn-rug cards

I got the idea from Moda 6/2011. They were really easy to make: I just cut short lengths of all reds and green I could find plus some yellow and white to have all the Christmas-y colours present. Then I sowed them on green cardboard and applied a little glue to keep the strands in order. Voila! 

The year before that I put in a little more effort and made cross-stitch cards. That's pretty hardcore, and I couldn't make more than six but the ones I made I was really happy with and think that their receivers were, too. I really like doing cross-stitch but it really takes a while and it's not as easy to do while watching TV as knitting is. And I really go crazy with all the little leftover yarn pieces that are too expensive to throw away but too much trouble to sort through!

Cross-stitch cards

And now we come to this year! Just today I went shopping for supplies as I started on the cards yesterday. This year, I will crochet snowflakes! I already crocheted three, and they are the cutest, am I right? :)

Snowflakes

I'm also going to have all kinds of background material for them, I have so many things to choose from. I think these cards are going to be the best yet. Whee, card-making is such fun!

Other card-making supplies waiting to be used