finishing and swatching

I made an exciting decision today, and put it into action immediately. I am going to knit an Owlet pullover for my niece’s twelfth birthday, which is March 30. I’m not sure I can get it to her on time, but my aim is to at least have it finished and posted by that date. It’s been a while that I’ve been drooling over Kate Davies‘ o w l s, deciding to start and giving up because I didn’t have the proper yarn. Today, as soon as I firmly decided to do this, I bought the pattern online, then went straight to the store: I bought 400g of Rowan Felted Tweed Chunky, colorway Wode.

It was expensive, but I know it’s going to be worth it! I couldn’t resist swatching a little immediately, and it’s such a delight to work with. It also made me realize that I have never worked with proper bulky yarn before! The required needle size is 6,5mm so I need to pick up a pair, and I’m thinking I’ll treat myself to a pair of Hiya-Hiyas. I recently bought a pair by accident (because it was the only in the size I needed) and they were wonderful to work with. So I think the yarn and the occasion call for needles that will also be a joy.

While at the store, I also finally picked up the buttons for my Veyla, and in a finishing frenzy sewed them on, as well as the buttons for my Juniper Mitts (on them, the buttons are just decorative, while on Veyla they can actually be unbuttoned). It’s so nice to see them finished finally! Now I just need to block them lightly and we’re done! My baby pullover is also practically finished – I just need to seam up the sides. It’s so satisfying to bring so many projects to an end! Another thing that I did was to rip the WIPs that weren’t going anywhere, and get that burden off my shelf. Feels great! So, once the mitts are blocked and the pullover is on its way to Nicaragua, I’m getting seriously down to my Owlet and the swap hat. Yay, a structured plan. I luv it.

p.s. This also means you get lots of yummy FO posts soon! ;)

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yarnbombing

Do you know about yarnbombing? It is knit graffiti. You’re intrigued, aren’t you? Leanne and Mandy have a blog dedicated to it, and a book too!  Until you’ve seen it, you won’t believe it.

This is one of the latest examples.

And this one inspires me – there are so many statues in London, they could use some warm accessories… ;)

All photos from yarnbombing.com and linked back to it.

blocking

I actually stuck to the schedule I gave myself! Huh, if only I could be this dilligent when it comes to school…

The front and back are blocking. Next step: join them at shoulders and then pick up stitches for sleeves. I used to be scared of picking up stitches, but after I tried it a few times I realized it’s a piece of cake! :) As for blocking, I’m trying to be creative with my limited resources. Good thing I have a spongy armchair that has served me well as a blocking board… :)

p.s. The light is terrible, I know. It’s miserable outside and my window faces West anyway… :/

heart on my lapel

I’ve been trying to focus on school these past few days (mostly unsuccessfully), so I’m a bit quieter than usual. But I’ve also started incorporating knitting into my schedule, if that’s the only way to keep it a part of my life then so be it because I’ve realized I miss it too dearly when it’s not there. Today I finished the back of my second baby sweater, and before I go to bed I’ll weave in the ends and pin out the front and back to block over night. Then all that’s left are sleeves and seaming! And on a tiny baby sweater, that should be done in a jiffy, right? ;) Speaking of tiny cute things, here is something I made a while ago.

It’s based on Natalja’s free pattern and it’s done in a few minutes! It’s slightly fiddly because you end up with several ends to weave in, which is difficult to do without it showing on such a small project. But the result is great. I followed someone else’s instructions (don’t remember whose any more, sorry) on how to attach a safety pin to it and turn it into a brooch, and that was exactly what I did!

It’s made in this crazy yarn – the whacko combination of colors and the softness make me absolutely adore it! And it looks best in garter stitch so it was perfect for this little project. The whacko colors complement my dark blue raincoat very nicely. And the other day it was actually warm enough to wear only the raincoat outside, for about an hour!

Ravelled here. Have a sunny week! :)

partner :)

Aaand I’ve got my first swap partner ever! I have not been in touch with her yet, but the magic of Ravelry and blogging has already told me loooads about her. So let’s do a quick presentation. Everyone, meet Hanna!

Hanna is Finnish and she lives in Kuopio – here we are connected by a big blue line. :)

It looks like it could be mighty cold up there! I better make something waaarm for her…

Hanna does all sorts of crafts and she has been knitting since she was 7 years old! Phew, I’m getting nervous now. :) But still looking forward to it! I’ve had a quick look at her favorite patterns and it seems like I might at least have an easier job picking than her – she only has 31 favorites, as opposed to my 641! :D

Let the excitement begin! :)

first swap ever!

I joined my first knitting swap ever! Yay! So, I’ve been looking at various sorts of swaps for the last year or so, but I always seem to discover them too late to join… Today, I was browsing the Ravelry forums, and I came across this one. There was a little bit of frantic thinking, but the project seems reasonable given the time frame, and I think it may be just the right thing to keep my recently-rediscovered knitting drive on the rise! Yay for Ravelry bringing knitters together! I’m so excited. Sign ups end tomorrow, so if I’ve managed to tickle your imagination, go for it! So far there are less than 20 people participating, and I think that could make it nice and intimate… The idea is for your partner to go through your favorites and choose a hat pattern there, I love this concept. Of course, were you surpized it was to do with hats? You know me that much by now. ;) In any case, thinking about this inspired me to go through my favorites myself and dig out some wonderful patterns I may have forgotten about. My favorites folder is overflowing, there is enough there to knit for three lifetimes, so my partner will have a range of choices, whether they prefer simple knit-and-purl hats, lace, Fair Isle or something else. And they are all soooo pretty! I decided I had to show you a few of my favest favorites, so here we go! I focused on free patterns this time, I really don’t think the swap partner should be obliged to spend money on a pattern if they didn’t want to. And anyway, there are so many beautiful free patterns out there, as I am about to demonstrate. ;)

Selbu Modern

Amelia Erhart Aviator Cap

Maze

Topographie

Felicity

Clicking on the photos should take you directly to the patterns. All photos directly from patterns, except for Felicity, where I borrowed from Lapoli – I think her version perfectly demonstrates the simplicity and beauty of the pattern.

Most of these patterns are simple enough to allow people to add their own embellishments and show off their creativity. Do go on Ravelry to check out all the wonderful things knitters have done with these patterns! And have a wonderful weekend! :) I can tell you what I’ll be doing: dreaming of my swap…

pay attention

WordPress wasn’t working for a bit tonight – I realized it was back up two minutes before midnight and attempted a mad race against time to get a post in before the next day… Well, it doesn’t really matter.

Today I knit for about an hour at school. The one thing I really miss about this campus is that there are simply no comfortable nooks to settle yourself in and read or knit or just relax. I am a nook-addict and it’s hard for me, so I dislike staying on campus in breaks between classes. Lately it’s been too miserable outside to wander around, though, so I’ve been trying to create nooks for myself, even if they are not naturally there. I found a spot today and at first I was kind of uncomfortable taking out my needles, but after about 15 minutes I had gotten into the rhythm and to that place in my head when I really didn’t want to stop knitting for a long time. I was actually late for my class in the end! (Just another row, oh just one more, there’s still time… You know the drill! ;)

This is unrelated, but when I got home and headed towards the shower, I realized one of the tiles in the shower was a different color than the rest (they are all white, this one is dark beige). I was shocked! If maintenance had been here, they would have left a note, and anyway, why would they just randomly replace one tile? Has it really been there for 5 months without me noticing it?! Some things in our everyday lives really go by unnoticed… The event reminded me of this wonderful scene of tiles on a building in Lisbon, so I thought I’d share that with you as the illustration for today’s post. Of all the photos I have taken in my life, this one is definitely one of my top favorites.

“If we find some in the same color, maybe no one will notice…”

hair

When I don’t want to wash my hair but need it out of my face, I usually get it all pinned up. :) I’m so happy now that it’s finally long enough to be able to do that! I recently bought a new set of hair pins and Tuesday morning ended up being playful.

It kind of maybe sort of somehow resembles Ysolda’s little hair tutorial, which you can find in her Flickr set entitled ‘hair’.

Spent the rest of my day watching documentaries on the war in South Sudan. Not the most uplifting of days. But at least I could work away at my baby sweater simultaneously. I’m kind of having a rough period emotionally and knitting is putting the light back into my life, it’s so comforting.

what a difference a yarn makes

Same pattern, different yarn. This time I used a fingering weight yarn, as opposed to the Aran weight recommended in the pattern. To compensate for this, I added one pattern repeat.

I’m quite proud of the fact that I modified this to knit in the round myself. It involved some advanced knitting math (well, it seemed advanced to me, it’s been too long since I’ve done any serious math, and by serious I mean anything more than adding things up on a calculator), and the pattern I wrote out is definitely too complicated to be reproduced anywhere, but I understand how it works and that’s all I need! :)

This pattern isn’t particularly exciting or interesting to knit, but the results are just so yummy, I keep going back to it…

I’ve already written about how it sometimes surprizes me which of my projects get the most ‘hearts’ on Ravelry, and this was definitely one of them – it seems that it has gone by completely unnoticed. It doesn’t affect how much I love it (and I really do), I just find it interesting how my order of preference for my projects seems to differ from other people’s opinions. Or how flukes influence the whole thing: I am suspecting that one of the reasons it went by unnoticed was the fact that I uploaded the photos and shared them with a bunch of groups for five projects at the same time. This one came first, so in the display of recent projects shared it was pushed to the bottom. I am guessing this might have influenced it. Online ‘marketing’ works in such interesting ways, since I do have wild dreams about possibly one day becoming an Etsy seller (a long long way away in the hypothetical future), I’m glad I get to learn about it through such a painless experience as this. :)

If you fancy showing this white babe some love, here’s the project page. I hope you have a scrumptious Tuesday! :)

colorful!

I still haven’t run out of old projects to show you! And I’m working away at new ones so I can keep up! Today, I present the beret I made for my best friend. She needed a hat, I was still a very much dabbling beginner and I couldn’t promise to make her one because I was scared of how it would turn out. Also, I luuuuuuv surprizing people! ;))) So this was made in utter secrecy and it was sooo exciting!

It’s a Debbie Bliss pattern, from the first issue of her magazine. I didn’t check gauge, so it came out too big, though looking at other knitters’ projects (I heart Ravelry) I think everyone’s is coming out a bit too big, so maybe it wasn’t just a gauge problem.

In any case, it is extra extra soft and Maja loves it. I’ve made her another hat in the meantime, so this is her reaaaaally-cold-weather hat, while the other one is a more autumn like affair. She sometimes lets me know how the weather is back home by telling me which of the hats I made her she’s wearing… :)

The instructions were very clear and straightforward, though for some reason the hat’s not knit in the round. If I understand correctly, this is quite usual for Debbie Bliss patterns, but there is no design justification for it, so when I made another hat by this pattern I converted it to knit in the round. (More on that one later… ;)

Photos by my talented friend Milena. I wish she lived close by me so I could claim her as my official knitwear photographer.

Ravelled here.

Have a nice day! :)