A gardigan for my niece

I was shopping with my friend and saw this beautiful pink yarn on sale. Eventhough my goal is to reduce the amount of yarn I have I still bought four skeins (200g). I justified it with a promise to knit them right away. :)

For a while I have been meaning to knit a gardigan for my dear niece. So I already knew in the store that the yarn is going to be a pretty little sweater for her. The yarn is perfect in weight, colour and it is also machine washable.

It took me a few hours rummaging through the internet before I found the perfect pattern, Sunnyside. I knit the "girlie" version of it with the picot edge.

Sunnyside

Yarn: Novita Wool, colour 534, took about 110g of yarn.

Needles: 3,5mm

Still some of that yarn left so I'll be knitting her some socks. :) And maybe a hat too.

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! :)

 

Beauty and the Beast socks

I'm in a Facebook group called Addicted to Sock Knitting. Last year there arised an idea of a sock yarn club but you took all the yarn from your own stash. 12 yarns, one for each month. The Knit-from-stash Sock Club was born and Heatherly Walker was so kind that she will offer 14 patterns for the year 2015. We get the pattern of the month on the last day of previous month via Ravelry.

First pattern is called "The Hornet" (will be on sale in Ravelry in February). I call my socks "Beauty and the Beast" socks since I watched a lot of that romantic police TV-serie while knitting these. :) And the other one is the beauty since it's perfect, the other one has a funky one-row blue stripe on the ankle therefore that one is the beast. Still gorgeous though, like Jay Ryan as the Beast. ;)

Yarn: Schachenmayer/Regia's Stripemania Color, colour:Leaves 6363
These took about 135g of yarn.

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. :)

... and mitts to match

Wow, I'm on a roll! :D I wanted mitts to match the Honeycomb Hood that I finished on Saturday. So yesterday I made these. :) I got the idea from the hood and then figured it out as I knitted. Maybe I'll write the pattern if I remember how I made these. ;)

So here comes Honeycomb Mitts by Srinity:

(someone is in need for a manicure...)

Yarn: Hjertegarn Lima, colour 710 (you can see the real colour here better than in the hood pic)
Took about 45-50g of yarn

 

Honeycomb Hood finally finished!

A project that has been marinated for a few years (started on November 2009) is finally finished! Yay! I am a speedy knitter, right? ;)

Pattern: Honeycomb Hood (from Patternfish)
Yarn: Hjertegarn Lima, colour 710
Took 230g of yarn

I made the front edging my way. I wanted a bigger hood part and nicer edge so I picked 40 stitches from the center (1st every other row), knit one row (right side), purl the second. On the first purl round and every row after it I picked one stitch from the side of the scarf and knit/purled it and then turned and continued. I did 14 rounds of plain stitch and 5 rounds of garter stitch to prevent the edge from rolling. Then I bind the stitches off very loosely.

  

More weapons against the cold

My knitting needles have been busy again and yet another warm knit is ready for the winter.
Another One nighter, this time the yarn was Katia Odisea, 8mm needles, seed stitch in round, 45 stitches.

Let the cold weather come, it has nothing on me now! :)

Warming things for winter

This Autumn I have been really into knitting. And as a result I have two hats and two scarfs just for myself! :) I won't be cold this winter and I now have the kind of warmers I really like.

In the first pics is my One Night scarf. I used 8mm needles, 51 stitches, seed stitch in round, yarn: Novita Karuselli (oh my it's acrylic(!) but really soft and doesn't itch :) ). Really easy and fast to knit. As it says in the name it took me one night to knit.

In these following pics one sneezy knitter shows Lina (free pattern in Ravelry or in joko knits blog), Hedda (Vilma Vuori's pattern in Ravelry 5€)  and a scarf that I made up. I used some familiar knitting styles to a scarf that I really like. It has a loop in the end to pull the scarf through.

 Wishing you warm and sunny Autumn days!

My Kai-Meis

There is a challenge in a Finnish blog Sukkasato (sock harvest). People who take part in it are in three sub blogs and knit all the things you use in your feet; socks, leg warmers, slippers etc. and post pictures. I am in the sub blog Heinälato (Hay barn). After one week all the partisipants had knitted 116 pairs. I only got something ready on this second week since I've been knitting for the wrong end of the body (all those hats you've seen :)). The harvest runs through September and October so I hope I get more done before the end.

I knitted these socks from Sock Innovation book, written by Cookie A. The pattern is called Kai-Mei. The yarn Mokkasukka is hand dyed in the shop called Villamokka, sadly it's closed. Colour of the yarn is called Trabant. I think I used about 50g from the 100g skein. I knitted the cuff about a half shorter than in the pattern since I like shorter cuff.

There is still time to sign in to my giveaway! It ends at Midnight so hurry up! :)

Knitting some hats... again :)

 I have been thinking that I want to knit a hat for my self. I have been thinking that every autumn for like at least three years. So I finally did it! Didn't take that long, or what? :D It took me two evenings to knit.

This pattern called Hedda is from Vilma (her blog and patterns here).
I used Novita Wool, yarn doubled. 4mm and 4,5mm needles. This is a chunky version of the Fitted Hedda. I wanted to have really warm hat for the winter since we get -30C (and sometimes below that) here.
And yes, that's me in the pic... looking really tired! :D

My cousin saw the hats that I knitted for charity and asked if I could knit hats for her son. So I did. I sent these two yesterday, I hope they are the right size.

Boxie Hat (my own creation, no pattern available) 

This is the same colour that my hat, the picture is just a bit too light.

Pixie Hat

Birthday exchange and some more hats

I am taking part in the Birthday Exchange in a Yahoo mailart group and I got this beautiful, amazing mailart from Marja! I love it!

I have also been knitting. More hats for tiny tiny babies. I and some of my kolleagues at work have been knitting hats to our local hospital. They will give these to all those cute little new born babies.

Hats for little people

I have been knitting this week. I made these two hats, one is going to my co-worker's new baby girl and another for charity.
Pink hat is Aviatrix (pattern in Ravelry) and the beige is a pixie hat (different patterns are available online, this one is from my head). Yarn is Finnish yarn, Novita Wool neliraita.

Knitting and crafts fair

This autumn I found knitting again. When the weather started to cool I found myself admiring lovely knitting patterns, soft yarns and new knitting needles. :) I ordered some yarn, printed some patterns and started knitting. This far I have knitted socks and leg warmers. At the moment I am knitting mittens. It has been fun. :)

 The pattern for these socks can be found here: Drops Socks with cables.

I saw many leg warmer patterns online but couldn't find the one I really liked so I made up my own pattern. I really like these chocolate brown leg warmers.

I went to Oulu this weekend. I spent time with my dear friends and cousins and also went to a crafts fair. Here you can see all the lovely bits and pieces that I bought. :)

Aleena

My dear friend had a little girl about three weeks ago. I wanted to make something for her and I found this lovely pattern by Laura Uusitalo. The baby is so tiny and cute! I was happy to give her something cute and handmade. :)

Pattern: Aleena (free pattern in Finnish here, in English in Ravelry)

Yarn: Gjestal Maija, about 90g, colour 271

Needles: 3,5mm 60cm circular, 3,5mm double-pointed knitting needles

Sari + knitting = not a good combination?

I have seen so many Crazy January Challenges ready in many blogs. I started knitting for a change and cross stitching is now on hold. But my knitting project hasn't gone as planned. I knew that because the yarns is thicker the result will maybe be a teeny tiny bit bigger and I don't need to knit the gauge swatch... Yeah right! It was supposed to be a dress for a new born but it's now a dress for about one year old toddler. So I will stash it as soon as I'll finish it and start with another pattern. There was nothing wrong with the pattern though, just the yarn, but I don't want to knit the same thing again so I'll change to another pattern. :) And this time I will use the same kind of yarn that the pattern uses and maybe I should knit the gauge swatch too... :D I'll post some pictures later of both of the dresses. And I will continue cross stitching as soon as the dresses are ready... in the near future I hope. :)

Me knitting? ;)
(In the picture: Actress Rosalind Russell, at 1940's)

Shopping some socks and a new start

For a long time I have wanted to have woolly socks knitted from the Novita 7 Veljestä Raita yarn. I just haven't had the time to knit so I asked Nöpöstiina if she could help me. I bought these beautiful socks from her and she made these after my wishes, just the right size and short cuff, the way I like them. Thank you Nöpöstiina! :) Go and see her beautiful hand crafts that she is selling here on Nöpöstiinan Lipasto blog. Beautiful socks and everything! I just wish I could make so many wonderful things.

You can also see my new start in the picture. Yarn is Marks&Kattens' Eco Baby Ull Color. Later (hopefully not too much later) I'll show you what that funny looking knitting is turning into.

In the picture: Socks knitted by Nöpöstiina

My catch from the crafts fair in Tampere

The crafts fair is now over. I was there on Friday and the time just flew by. We didn't have enought time (since some older ladies wanted the bus to leave back home earlier) but we did get to do the most important thing: meeting friends. I met two of my dear stitching friends, Lennu and Ritva. I just love to spend time with them, they are (almost) as talkative as I am and we laugh and laugh all the time. :) I also met Heidi, we have been emailing and keeping in touch earlier but now we saw each other for the first time and hit it of instantly. We would have had so much more to talk about if we had more time.

But now to the items that emptied my purse. :D



From Violarium I bought many things. I blame Marja for buying the wooden pine tree frame since she showed that to me in crafts fair in Oulu. :) She had bought it before we had a tea break and I had already spent so much that I just couldn't get it then so I corrected that in Tampere. I also bought two Tralala's charts "Duo Noël" and "Kokeshis". I love Japanese Kokeshi dolls so I just had to get that as soon as I set my eyes on it. My dear friend Michiko sent me five Kokeshi dolls from Japan last year, you can see them here. I also bought some Atalie thread for the charts but for some reason they are not in the photos.

I think I complained a while ago that I needed 6mm knitting needles and I had all the needles between 3 and 10 but not number 6. Well that is now corrected too since there was a sale on Novita on knitting needles and I got the straight ones and circular ones.

In the center of the pic there are some fabrics for finishing. There are monsters and crazy cats fabrics from "Scrible Monsters" series by Leerè for Clothworks, cute girlie fabric "Heart to Heart" by Moda Fabrics, a set of three autumn themed fabrics and a Christmassy and a bear fabrics. There's also a Little Red Riding Hood ribbon that I just had to buy since early in the morning when we were waiting for our bus an older lady told me a poem about the Little Red Riding Hood (maybe because of my red hair, red coat and a red jumper :D)

Down in the middle are some dollhouse decorations that were really cheap. They are for the dollhouse I one day make, as soon as we have more room. :)

I saw the vendor that sells wooden jewelry in Oulu and bought some wooden hearts from him then. This time I bought two pins and some red wooden hearts. I have many ideas for the wooden hearts.

On the right in the center there are little pieces of felt that were left overs from the products one seller had made. They sold bags of the left overs with just one euro. There's also the only knitting yarns that I bought this time, some Panda bamboo&wool yarns. The red one is really a dark red, it looks like orange on the photo.

Down on the right are two funny elves made from conifer cones and a fridge magnet with a fun saying.
I bought a few other things too but they are for presents so they are not in the pic. So that's my catch from the fair, I spoiled myself with my last paycheck. Now I have plenty of materials until I get my a new job and can buy new ones again. :)

I showed you the Lima yarn on my last post. I took it with me for the bus ride and this is how it looks now. Not much done since we mainly chatted and slept in the bus. There is Honeycomb pattern in the middle but I won't tell you just yet what it will be. :)

A small stitching finish

Tomorrow I will be at the crafts fair in Tampere. We leave early in the morning and come back late at night. Before I start packing my snacks for the bus ride I'll show you one thing I just finished. Or actually it has been almost ready for ages, I just wasn't very happy how it turned out. I wasn't able to make the edge nice enough and as it's a present I didn't want it to look horrible. I tryed again today and I think it's quite ok now. Well time to tell what this rant is all about. :) I stitched one matryoshka doll from Tralala's chart "Poupées Russes". It looks like I attached a ribbon to it but...


... there is actually another smaller matryoshka inside. I modified one of the dolls from "Poupées Russes" and made a mini version of it.


I also had to make up the backsides myself since the chart only has the fronts. :)


I have been knitting while watching TV from our bed (not enough light to cross stitch). This is a part of a tunic. The yarn is a Finnish yarn called Puro (creek in English), colour is Kanervikko ("heather field"). Still quite a lot to do but I wanted to show how lovely the yarn is. Oh, who put that Mozartkugeln there? I never eat chocolate while knitting... lol!


This yarn is coming with me for the bus ride to the crafts fair. It takes about four hours to get there and the same coming back so I have plenty of time to knit. I let you know later what this and it's five friends will turn in to. :)


This is how it looks at our backyard at the moment. It's the first snow that have stayed and I hope it stays permanently now. I took these when the sun was going down already so they have that nightfall blue ambience.