Looking Back

With the end of 2008 upon us, it's time to look back before looking forward. I really began knitting only last year so this year has been incredibly productive for me. As with all finns (including men) I first learned to knit at primary school, but as most do, I sort of forgot about it until recently. I blame the Domiknitrix.

I probably should explain such wanton accusation, so here goes. I've been sewing clothes for myself and others for ages and I love corsets. So I bought myself Corsets and Crinolines the definitive work for anyone interested in historical undergarments. So Amazon faithfully started listing other stuff I might like which included the Domiknitrix book. It looked fun, and frankly I hadn't even imagined knitting looking like fun. Seems like a shock now, I know, but I was young and naive. So it arrived and with the first look of the Bob Dobbs vest Tommi asked if I could make him one and so I did. Nothing's been the same since.

So the completed projects for 2008 have been blogged about so recently that I don't see a need to blog about them again yet. What's up for 2009? I found out about the NaKniSweMoDo (or Nationa Knit a Sweater Month Dodecathlon) for 2009 today. The basic idea is to knit 12 sweaters during the year 2009. That doesn't sound too bad. This is when the knitting fates attack and make it impossible for me to complete even the one. Although that's been happening loads lately, so too late! *muahhahaha* I also intend to knit the garter stitch afghan by Elizabeth Zimmerman by the next time cold weather rolls around again. Add some socks in the mix and we have ourselves a productive knitting year to look forward to.

Knitting for peace

As the year is coming to a close I am grateful for so much. I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say, I wholeheartedly agree with the Harlot that I am lucky if only because I'm able to knit. With resent events at the Gaza strip and elsewhere it seems that peace and wellbeing for all is not possible.

But I'm going to try the best that I can. Martti Ahtisaari said "Peace is a matter of will" when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Even with the risk of sounding like the sort of person who makes their own granola (I'm not), I subscribe heavily to the sentiment voiced by Andy Maize of the Skydiggers at a concert before Christmas: "Things will be better if we all take care of each other than they will be if we don't take care of each other."

With that thought I'm challenging everyone around me, as well as any stragglers that might be reading this blog to make a point to do something to improve someone else's life better at least once a week for the whole of 2009. Being a knitter, I of course intend to knit many warm and useful things for people in need to be distributed by the SPR or Finnish Red Cross.

The Deal

The Darling Man (DM) has been making a lot of game purchases lately and I have been making a lot of yarn and other knitting related purchases lately. It's not like it's a problem, but we do have a wedding coming up and it would be a good idea to make more of an effort to save up for it. So we made a deal. Tommi will not buy any games for himself until he has played through half of the games he has bought lately and I will not buy any yarn untill I have knit through my WIP queue on ravelry + the Relm hat that I've been coveting for a while now and did actually buy the yarn for on my saturday trip to Priima. Both of us get one veto purchase, but if only one of us uses it, the other gets bragging rights.

We're both pretty happy with the deal. It's not like we're running out of room for either or anything, we just think it better that we "force ourselves" to take the time to enjoy the things we've got now. All the better to start after this self imposed fast.

In other news; christmas is starting to look dangerously close now. I've finished all the pieces for the baby jumper going as christmas present to Tommis brothers eldest, I just need to wash and block them and attach the sleeves and it's done. The torso and hood part are complete with all the ends sewn in and the hood secured and finished. At the moment the sleeves seem like a daunting task so I find myself putting off the blocking, cause that way I'm not scared of the sleeves. How stupid is that?

Tommi's cardi is not in such great shape. The body is worked up all the way up to the armholes, I've gotten one sleeve up to the elbow during today and I got the zipper today, but I don't think there's a snowballs chance in hell this thing will be ready for christmas. Maybe for new year's. It's going to be good though, when I finish it. I'm already loving it.

Spreading the word of the Knit

I've been sick since the beginning of November. Some kind of viral flu or something, doesn't matter. What matters on the other hand, is that I've been spending a lot of time waiting at the doctor's office, the lab and so on. Lot of knitting has gotten done during all that sitting around waiting. My doctor's been fascinated about my knitting and today I managed to egg her into to starting knitting as well.

Last night we were sitting as a group at a bar after a professional community meeting, having some drinks and talking about everything and anything that came to mind, me knitting away on my rinsessa hat when all of a sudden my little sister remarks that she might have to start knitting, because it looks like so much fun. This is a person who has never knit except for the mandatory stuff at grammar school. NEver even cared much for arts and crafts. I was so shocked I even dropped a couple of stitches.

If there's hope even for my little sister, there is clear indication that one day, the world will be run by knitters. And what a wonderful day that will be.

Kaamos

Kaamos is the finnish word for the perpetual darkness that comes in the winter. Many people living in the nordic regions of the world are effected by SAD aka Seasonal Affective Disorder. This manifests itself as increased craving for sugars and fats (aka chocolate), trouble sleeping, dramatically increased feeling of needing more sleep, tiredness, irritation, and in extreme cases clinical depression. Yesterday I finally copped up and admitted that I have SAD. I've been increasingly bad to live with, but I only admitted to having SAD, when I didn't want to knit anymore. How sad is that? (pun intended).

Last night I just couldn't bring myself to knit, on account of every single yarn I own being "all gray". I have pretty denim blue tweed, gorgeous yellow-orange-red sliding dyed wool from Estonia that made the rounds among Finnish knitters last year, Noro sock yarn that varies from bright turquoise to orange. But nonetheless, everything I own was "all grey". So I spent the evening admiring Cherry Tree Hill solid socks in colours so bright that they hurt the eyes.

The worst thing of it is, I have startitis as well. I've got waaaay too many things in the works, but nothing is getting done. Baaad combination.

Getting out of hand

One of the finest qualities in a mate from a knitters standpoint is absolutely an appreciation for hand-knit goods. Mine does, ergo he needs to get at least something woolly for Christmas, even if it's unfinished. I'm still working on the Bob Dobbs vest for last year, but I've begun another for this year. A cardi with blue Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed. In my defense, I did finish the actual knitting last year in time for christmas, but the double stiching is killing me. It's incredibly boring, long-winded work. I sort of wish I had punished myself by making it intarsia, but it was my first big piece and I wasn't a Knitter (as the Harlot calls fearless knitters) back then.

Besides deciding to do a "little" last minute holiday knitting, I also signed up to testknit a pattern by January 15th. With the Hey Teach! on the needles as well, I'm thinking that after January I'm finally going to knit the Garter Stitch Blanket by EZ that's been in my queue for AGES.

Although, I might need some instant gratification for a change, in which case I'm absolutely knitting something with Dream in Color Starry, a soft merino yarn infused with real silver. Don't you just see it turning into gorgeus gloves, a stunning scarf or a helluva hat?

Oh well... Before the end of January it's strictly sweaters for me.

Swiftly my dear

I've been sick for ages. Today when I went to the doctor, I dropped by Menita as well to get myself a little treat to make me feel a little better.

I got me summa this:



So I've been converting the Cascade Venezia hanks I got from SecretWool into neat little balls and giggling a little bit out loud while doing so. The swift and ball winder are such fun! I'm a little bit nutty, I admit.

F.O. Mania - Blue Flame hat

With this posting I am finally up to date with my finished objects, therefore no more F.O. Mania.



Pattern: One For All Cap (Ravelry)
Source: KnitLob's Lair - Louhittaren Luola
Materials: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in black, light blue and petrol
Amount: 2 balls; one whole of the black and roughly half a ball each of the colours.
Needles: 3.0 mm double-pointed needles
Finished Dimensions: 57 cm circumference

Started: 16.102008
Finished: 25.10.2008



I'm not very practised with colourworks and to me at least it showed bright as day during the making of this hat. I thought about ripping this back quite a few times, but I always made the DH try it on before I di that and it always fit and looked presentable, with the problems barely visible even to myself. Still all in all, I wasn't very happy with this thing. The pattern was clear and precise, seemed quite natural to be perfectly honest. The yarn was the always delectable Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, which I have no problems with whatsoever, quite the opposite in fact.

The negativeness of the whole thing basically comes down to my own knitting abilities to be frank. They stink when it comes to colourwork. I'm making great progress with regard to the evennes of my knitting, the cables are starting to look pretty good, even if I do say so myself. Mostly I'm meeting the size and fit I intend in my projects, but the colourwork sucks. The yarns I carried across the back made the front bunch up and the smaller sets of colour shrunk etc. I hated it. Which just means I need to practise more. :(

The Fear

You read about this, but you never believe it's going to happen to you. You lead your life without a care for what could happen. People warn you, it might well happen to you, if you're not carefull. And you still think, it could never happen to you. That is until it does happen to you, and The Fear of No Wool grips you hard.

I've been knitting like there's no tomorrow lately and it's inevitable that this should happen. I'm knitting my hubby's brother's youngest a hoodie for christmas. It's going to be a pretty hoodie, but I had to go and substitute the yarn. I hate knitting with cotton, so I exchanged the Sandnes Mandarin Petit the pattern called for to Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I've been happy with the change so far, a little bit too happy, to be honest. I love the Cashmerino line and knit with it whenever opportunity presents itself. Usually I'm so careful about these things, but this time when I bought the yarn, I forgot to calculate yardage. Come on, it's baby-weight, both come in 50 g balls and - like always - I'm going to get an extra ball anyway, it's not like it's going to end the world as we know it if I use up the extra ball, or some of it. But the yardage is off. Off by 20 yards/ball WITH the extra ball included! I just hope the yarn shop has more of the same dye lot.

On another note I seem to have come down with something very yarn-harlotey; overstashing. Or rather, I seem to be fearing that the world will run out of wool. I've made multiple purchases of yarn, not for any particular project, but just because it seems right. AND I'm planning to make more yarn purchases. I may have to be restrained, or my credit card taken away, if this continues.

F.O. Mania - Blue Poncho

Pattern: Improvised
Materials: Wendy Fusion
Amount: 4 balls
Needles: My 6.0 mm Denises.
Finished Dimensions: It's a poncho, one size fits all.

Started: 30.06.2008
Finished: 10.08.2008



I bought the yarn for this to make something to wear at a friend's wedding. I didn't manage to even start it on time, but I did get something very pretty out of it. I used my Denise circulars for the job, that way I was able to start out with a 16" cable, to get the neck right and as it started to get annoying touse such a short cable I was able to lengthen the cable on the fly. I really can't say enough good things about my Denises, I love them to pieces (pun intended).

The yarn is exquisite. It's incredibly soft and fluffy, the colours are beautiful in their own right and it was - mostly - a joy to knit. Unfortunately all four balls had knots in them! Sometimes the knots were there to change one colour to another, which I didn't like at all. On the other hand, I've just started envisioning a sweater and I picked up another colour of the yarn to play around with while designing the sweater, so it would seem that the other qualities of the yarn more than make up for the knots.

This thing is really warm, maybe a bit more warm than I intended, but it's wool (for the most part that is) and it doesn't really make me sweaty. Just warm and toasty. Just a little bit too much now and then.

All in all an excellent knit.

F.O. Mania - Lovikkaat

Lovikkaat or lapin lapaset in finnish (lapland mittens in english) are something that I've loved since I was a little girl. So soft and thick and warm as to keep one warm in the dead of winter.



Pattern: Lovikka-lapaset (Ravelry)
Source: Novita Fall 2007
Materials: Novita Huopanen
Amount: 2 balls
Needles: 7.0 double-pointed needles
Finished Dimensions: women's size

Started: February 2008
Finished: October 2008

I got a little bit carried away with these. :D I finished the first pair and then I just couldn't stop and cast on for the second pair. They knit up really quickly, the pattern was incredibly easy to commit to memory and there you go, instant gratification. I'm really bad at finishing things, which of course led to these taking such a long time to be finished. The actual time spent working on them was more like 20 hours or so. Fun to knit, although my row gauge was a bit off, so they ended up a little long for my hands.

F.O. Mania - Koolhaas

Pattern: Koolhaas (Ravelry)
Source: Knitting Daily Online Store
Materials: Debbie Bliss Kashmerino Aran colourway 012
Amount: 1,5 balls
Needles: 4.0 mm and 5.0 double-pointed needles
Finished Dimensions: 58 cm head circumference

Started: August 2008
Finished: September 2008



First project I started without knitting a gauge swatch since I learned what a gauge swatch is. Turned out great though. Don't get me wrong, I got nowhere near gauge, but I knew my gauge would be loads bigger than what the pattern specified for and that I have a huge head, so it all turned out nice and cozy. Really liked this pattern, the instructions were clear and easy to follow, fun to knit, most of the time at least. There were some rows that consisted only of fiddling with the cable needle which is why it took so long; a full 11 days.

One thing I have to say is that never ever attempt this project without a cable needle! It's a must have anyways, but for this project it's a live or die thing.

F.O. Mania - Noro Scarf

I just had to. Everybody else was doing it, so why shouldn't I?


Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf (Ravelry)
Source: Brooklyn Tweed
Materials: Noro Silk Garden, colourways 241, 8 and 2 x 47.
Amount: 4 balls in all.
Needles: 4.0 mm straights.
Finished Dimensions: 210 x 18 cm

Started: July 2008
Finished: September 2008

This didn't turn out quite as exciting as I hoped and the hubby was in dire need of a proper scarf so instead of a scarf for myself, it became a scarf for the better half. This, if anything was a instant gratification project. It was easy and fast to knit (I think mindless is the word I'm looking for here) and the stripes made by the yarn made it really fun, loads more than I expected. I'm still a littledisappointed with my choice of colourways, I think at parts they turned out a little more boring than I was expecting. But on the other hand, it didn't turn out too exciting so that the hubby wouldn't wear it, so all's well that ends well.

Be still my fickle heart

Sometimes I swear I have the attention span of a gnat on drugs. I'm going through a bad case of startitis, resisting as much as I can, but not succeeding very well. Startitis manages to convince me over and over again that the projects that I have on the needles right now are not suited to be knit for what I'm doing. Like I'm going to a movie and feel the urge to knit during it, but my sock project is unsuitable for that. I blame Ravelry. :D All the wonderful ways that people have knit up yarn. All the glorious designers I had never heard about. All that YARN! It's enough to make a knitter lose herself.

And now... Now I found Sundara. Enough said.

FO Green Hemlock Ring Blanket

On the lines of everybody else is doing it:



Pattern: Hemlock ring lap blanket (Ravelry)
Source: Brooklyn Tweed
Materials: Novita 7 veljestä
Amount: 2 balls
Needles: 6.0 mm
Finished Dimensions: Forgot to measure

Started: July 2008
Finished: July 2008

I really loved knitting this. I got frustrated a few times, because I kept making the same mistake over and over again and I never figured out, where exactly I did it. All in all though, I finished this in 19 days, which is a pretty good accomplishment for me, seeing as this was my first actually completed lace project. I just couldn't put it down. Now that the weather's getting cold I hope my grandmother will be warmed by it.



The whole thing was fairly straightforward; learn the pattern once, repeat 8 times, knit 4 plain rows, learn the next pattern. I think I'm going to have to knit this again just because it was so much fun.

A brave new blog

So here I am starting my own crafts blog. I did swear I wouldn't, but I am. The biggest reason for this is that I'm starting to make Alice Starmore's St Brigid, which is my most complex knitting project to date. In a few months I need to start making myself a wedding dress as well and it occured to me that there's probably no place better to record the progress than a blog.

So here goes. Ready, set, go.