New hats and an old shawl

I needed more hats so I made some. :) I finished the first one on 18th of January, I started it last November but for some reason it became a UFO for a while. I wanted a hat that is loose so it doesn't flatten my hair. The pattern is from my head. Here comes: "Pearl"

"Pearl"

Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Karisma, colour 52, 100g (yarn doubled)

Needles: 6mm

I was in need a very basic black hat. One that doesn't have Toyota or Playstation written on. ;) I stumbled upon a "Snowtracks Cap"-pattern and made my version of it. I made the smallest size and also shortened the pattern since I have a small head and I wanted it to "fit like a glove". Link to the pattern in the name below.

"Snowtracks Cap"

Yarn: Schachenmayer Extra Merino, colour 99 black, 100g (yarn doubled)
Needles: 3,5mm and 4,5mm

In May 2012 I finished crocheting this shawl. I've had it at the office to fight against the air conditioning so I forgot to take a pic. Pattern is from Garnstudion website.

"Frosty Heather Shawl"

Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Delight, colour 05, 200g

Hook: 3,5mm

And one more pic of my new start. I am knitting a baby sweater for my dear niece. The pattern is Sunnyside (pattern here).  I got this much done last night. Most of the time went to find the perfect pattern for the sweater. :)

Stay warm, winter is here! :)

 

Peek-a-boo, guess hoo?

My needles still have the speed. And this time a crochet hook also got part of the action as I finished the "Peak-a-boo, guess hoo?" soft toy on Tuesday.

Materials, as seen before, 50g of Hjertegarn Lima (colour 710) and about 20g of sorted Novita 7 Veljestä yarns. Pattern again the honeycomb and rest from my head. :)

I can do it! :)

I thought I'd show you that the third time really was the charm this time. :) I finally understood the pattern and have done some crocheting. The yarn is Drops Delight, colour 05. I really like how it stripes.
One ball of yarn now crocheted, three to go.

2010 Weekly SAL - 4th and 5th week

Last week I forgot to show you my SAL piece so this week I'll show you two wips so you'll see how this is progressing. I managed to get rid of the migraine with the massage so I have actually been able to stitch! :) But my SAL piece didn't get so much attention since two babies were born two weeks ago (a girl to my cousin and a boy to my friend) and I have been stitching and sewing baby gifts for them. I'll show picture when they have been received by the lovely babies. :)

My Wild Ones Alphabet looks a whole lot sunnier now that I have stitched the orange leaves on the left. They are still missing a couple of orange stitches and the backstitching and I will get on those right after I have posted this. You never know what fun things will appear on the fabric next week. :)

My SAL on 31st of January 2010:

And on 24th of January 2010:

Little pumpkins and a birthday present

Me and my friends had a girls' weekend a bit more than a week ago. Or should I say women's weekend since we are all already over 30. :D We have a tight group of five and we all have a birthday in autumn so we decided to celebrate us all at the same time with good food, a lot of talking and some wine. We decided not to buy any presents. I wanted to crochet a few pumpkins so I gave the others one each as an "autumn gift". :)

Here are the little pumpkins on my friends' hands:

My birthday was on 9th of September and on that same day a package arrived from Japan. Michiko had sent me a birthday gift and it's perfect! She had made the cutest little sheep for me herself and she also sent some Japanese Misuya needles, actually a LOT of Misuya needles. :) Those needles are the best there is for cross stitching. They came in a beautiful little wooden box. Thank you Michiko! You made me really happy! :)

I had bad luck with Stitching Bloggers' Birthday Club since the woman who was to send me a present has vanished from the blog world and Edgar hasn't been able to get in touch with her at all. So I didn't receive a birthday gift but Edgar was so kind and promised that I'll get something Angel Stitched later. He really is very kind and doesn't wan't anyone to feel sad or left out.

And I think I haven't told you all what a I got from my husband. I got a tattoo! :) Well I haven't got it yet but he's paying it when I go and get it. Can you guess what I'll get? I'll post a pic when it's done. :)

I sent these to Kirsi

I stitched my "Autumn set" exchange to Kirsi. She likes orange so I got the idea for colourway from it. I stitched a notebook cover and a bookmark. The chart is Herbst Herzen from Kissy Cross. I used DMC's Color Variations thread number 4126 and Polstitches Designs' fabric "Fallen Leaves", 28ct Lugana. The bookmark I stitched one over one thread and the notebook cover two over two. As the other pair I made two pumpkins. The first one I crocheted, the pattern is from Learn to Crochet, there's a written version and a video. I found the video very usefull since the English crochet terms are not so familiar to me. I sew the other pumpkin with a pattern I found from Schlosser Design.

Here is a picture of them all:


Detail from the notebook cover (colours are a bit off in this pic):


And here are the pumpkins:


I am quite happy the way these turned out. It's always a little thrilling when making something I've never tried before. And since I tend to make the last bits at the eleventh hour there isn't a lot of time to change plans if something goes wrong! :D

I'm glad that I can show something I've made. I've been making secret things like these and the ones I've made for Christmas have to be kept even longer! :D

A green bag and some vacations photos

I'm back at home after visiting my brother and his fiancee in Hämeenlinna. We had a lot of fun. :) On Tuesday night I finished a crocheted bag that had been a wip for so long it almost became an ufo. I was making it for my mother so I had it ready just in time before we left on Wednesday morning as she was coming with us. The yarn is Avanti Cotton by Marks & Kattens and the desing is from my head. I crocheted a little pocket inside the bag for a cell phone.


On Thursday we went to Särkänniemi Adventure Park in Tampere. There was only one ride called Tornado I didn't have courage to go on to but my husband and brother went. We also went up to Näsinneula Tower (it's 168 metres high but the deck we went to was at 120 metres) and I took this photo from there. You can see the Adventure Park at the bottom of it. Another high place for a person with fear of hights. :D

We also went to see the lovely dolphins at the Dolphinarium. Aren't they cute!


Today after leaving Hämeenlinna we visited the Häme Castle. I really like castles. It's nice to walk around there and imagine the life back in the middle age.


This is the courtyard of the castle.
And this is the Main Hall.
And this is me as a nobel lady in one of the chambers! :D

I'd love to crochet something...

Interveawe's Crochet Winter 2008 issue came yesterday. I found at least one design I'd love to crochet. I haven't even thought of crochering something bigger before I saw this magazine. All the stitches are explained with pictures which makes it easier for me to follow instructions in English.

The jacket on the front page is nice too but this one really cought my eye. I love it. And it's red. :)

So many lovely things

I've had such a great week. Postman has been busy bringing me lovely things and on Wednesday I heard that someone had caught the flu (sad for her) and I got her place in the bus to got to the biggest crafts fair in Europe in Tampere. My friend also got a place so early in the Friday morning we started the jouney to Tampere. It took 4,5 hours in the bus until we arrived there and then we walked more than five hours watching all the stands and shopping yarns, cross stitch suplies and the great things people had made. I had a blast! :)

First I show you what arrived from Japan. My friend Michiko knows I like Kokeshi dolls and she sent me five dolls! She is so great! Thank you Michiko! There was also some Japanese Misuya needles and they are the best needles I've ever had. They glide through the fabric really smoothly and the eye is made so well that it doesn't break the thread. The dolls are really beautiful and I put them where everyone can see them in our living room.


Other thing that arrived in the post was the Warm Winter Welcome chart that I won at Julie's blog. Thank you Julie! It arrived really quickly.

And here are the things I bought at the fair:

I bought two balls of Twilleys of Stamford's Freedom Spirit from the Käsityötalo Priima's stand and three balls of Drops Alpaca from Tinttamarelli's stand. I am going to knit myself mittens from Alpaca and Freedom Spirits are going to a secret project. And I also found two 100g spools of the Manos del Uruguay yarn (6610) that I fell in love with about two months ago and now I got some! The yarn is really soft and I just keep looking at them over and over again. :) These treasures I found from Secret Wool's stand. I don't know yet what I'll knit from these, maybe a scarf or a hat for myself.



I also bought some things for this years Christmas cards. Some papers, stamps and inks.

And of course I bought some cross stitching suplies. Margaret Sherry's Father Christmas is from Käsityökori's stand and Tournicoton's Père Noël Charmant from Violarium's stand. I also found DMC's pink Baby Bunny. I have been looking for one of these, it seems they are discontinued and I have found all the other colours except this one, until now.

These little troll girls are hand made by Kerttu Kankaanpää. I just had to buy these since they look like me in the morning on bad hair days. :D


Being at the fair was fun and I also got to see two of my stitching blogger friends: Mustikka and Lennu. It's so nice to see the people behind the blogs. I hope we'll meet again.

Sheep from Shellie and parts of a lamb

Shellie asked if I'd like to have some sheep charts and of course I said yes. :) Today an envelope arrived packed full with lovely sheep designs. Thank you so much Shellie! Here is a picture of some of the charts. There was some other farm animals too and I bet I'll stitch many of them too. Thank you also for the Quick-stitch designs, there's many charts I can use for cards.


I started to crochet the Fuzzy Lamb. I use a thicker yarn than in the pattern so I also use bigger crochet hooks. The yarn that I use is Novita's "Foxi" and it's not the easiest yarn to crochet since it's hard to see where the next stitch should go but it's so fluffy and sheepish that I just have to use it. :) The yarn for the face and hooves is also from Novita and it's called "7 Veljestä" ("7 brothers", name comes from a classic Finnish book by Aleksis Kivi). I have the front legs and part of the face done.

Fuzzy Lamb

Like you might already know, I love sheep and lambs and etc. :) I bought a Fuzzy Lamb amigurumi crochet pattern yesterday on Etsy from PlanetJune. Aren't these cute! I hope I have some time before Christmas to finish at least one of these.

Added Freebie Links List

I have found many great freebie sites and blogs and don't always remember where I saw something nice since I have stored the info all over. So I decided to write them all down and you can see them too! Just click the link Srinity's Freebie List which you can also find from the side bar. I'll add more when I come across new ones.

Stitching Bloggers Links

I found this bloglist blog Stitching Bloggers Links and have found many great stitching blogs that I love to read. I hope I'll be listed soon too. :)

I WILL buy this yarn!

I took part in an attempt not to buy any knitting yarn during October, since I have lots... So I only plan what I want to buy. :) I saw absolutely beautiful shawl on the cover of Interweave Crochet Magazine's Fall Issue (I don't have the magazine since it's not sold in Finland so if anyone can sell and send me a copy please leave a comment). It's made of handspun and kettle dyed Manos del Uruguay silk blend yarn and I totally fell in love with the yarn and have to have some! Look at it! Isn't it just SO beautiful! I finally found a stockist in Finland, she'll have some new colours in November so I'll place my order then. I don't know if I will ever be able to knit/crochet a shawl from this yarn since I just want to touch and look at it... my precious... :D

What is it going to be?

This is what I have been making for a while. I won't tell just yet what it's going to be. :)


This post is going to be short since I'm aching all over, caught the flu I guess. :(