F.O. Arch-shaped Harry Potter

Pattern: Arch-shaped Socks (Ravelry)
Materials: Zwerger Garn Opal Harry Potter in Harry and Ron
Amount: 1 skein
Needles: 2.0 mm

Started: 20.12.2009
Finished: 24.09.2010

This pattern is very delightful. It produces a sock that fits like a glove and provides support where support is needed.

The yarn is... I don't know what to say. I love the theory of self-striping yarns, but the practice has proven problematic. They can't really be used to any sort of satisfactory results on anything except stockinette and not being a big sock knitter I find it a little boring to knit the endless yards of stockinette in fingering size yarn. Which is weird, because I don't mind so much doing the same on aran size yarn. The yarn itself is nice, pretty much what one would expect from a sock yarn.

I've been wearing these a lot and they've held up quite well under the abuse.

FO: Granny socks

Pattern: Improvised/taken from the ball band
Materials: Novita 7 Veljestä
Amount: About 3 skeins
Needles: 4.0 mm (second batch) and 4.5 mm (first batch)

First batch (turquoise and brown)
Started: 5.3.2010
Finished: 5.4.2010

Second batch (pink and gray)
Started: 5.10.2010
Finished: 9.11.2010



When I was younger our grandmother used to make us thick woolen socks every year. They were made according to either the pattern in the ball bands or some inherited simplified pattern



They were always gray and gloomy. But they were warm and the penultimate in functionality. They lasted forever and warmed the feet while skating and skiing and all those wintry hobbies.



They grew small. So I needed a new pair and the hubby needed a new pair and I gave a pair to a friend who needed a pair as well. So I knit some.

FO: Shedir

Pattern: Shedir (Ravelry)
Materials: Novita Luxus Alpaca
Amount: 1 skein (roughly 178 yards)
Needles: 3.5 mm

Started: 24.11.2009
Finished: 30.3.2010



The pattern is fussy, there's a whole lot going on and especially in the beginning it's very easy to lose your place. On the other hand the end result is stunning, there are so many repeats that you learn the pattern by heart and did I mention the end result is a whole lot of beautiful? And impressive. Whenever I whip this out as an example of my knitting, non-knitters are completely in awe and think I'm a knitting god.

The yarn is gorgeous and soft and smooshy as much as such a thin yarn can be.

Looking back, I should've knit the ribbing on smaller needles. That's a given for all hats but I learned it only after I finished the ribbing and that had seemed like such a neverending slog through darkness that I just couldn't.



I don't think I'll ever knit this again, but knowing all that I know now I would still do it the first time. Like I said, the end result is beautiful.

FO: Vine Lace Cardi

Pattern: #77 Vine Lace Top Down Cardigan (Ravelry)
Materials: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky
Amount: 7.75 skeins (roughly 970 yards)
Needles: 9.0 mm

Started: 8.7.2009
Finished: 16.1.2010



Modifications: Left out the pockets from the bottom and instead continued the lace panels. Also continued the ribbing in the sleeves for longer than instructed.



This turned out a little too big for me. Damn my loose style. If I lose weight, I might well reknit this. Currently it is just small enough that I can wear it just fine. I really loved the pattern and the finished product is incredibly smooshy and comforting. The yarn - not surprisingly - sheds a whole lot while knitting, while wearing and while washing. The cardigan however is so warm that I might be able to just wear this outside even in the dead of winter, which is a wonderful thing.

FO: Panache

Pattern: Pretty Thing (Ravelry)
Materials: Novita Isoveli
Amount: 5.5 skeins (roughly 780 yards)
Needles: 6.0 mm

Started: 16.12.2009
Finished: 7.1.2010



Just before Christmas last year my lovely hubby, Tommi, notified me that we were invited to the 90th birthday party of his grandmother on the 8th of January. Still riding the high of the very pretty thing I told him I'd knit her a shawl for a present since those do always seem to go down well.

I did manage to finish on time, mostly because of the modifications mentioned below. As I remember it, the pattern was great and the whole thing seemed to build up very quickly. This project started for me a real appreciation of shawls and resulted in me having a few different shawls on the needles even right now.

Modifications: In the interest of finishing on time I finished on row 108 instead of 131. I also added yo, k1 instead of the crocheted edging.

FO: Very pretty thing

Pattern: Pretty Thing
Materials: Sandnes Garn Alpakka
Amount: Roughly 1.25 skeins (150 yards)
Needles: 3.0 mm
Finished Dimensions:

Started: 3.12.2009
Finished: 12.12.2009



I'm so way behind on my blogging. Last December (so nearly a year ago) I was going to a stitch 'n' bitch straight from work not having really planned it through ahead of time. Meaning I didn't have any knitting with me and just before leaving work started frantically perusing my Ravelry queue for something small and useful to knit and ended up with this. I think this might easily be the shortest amount of time I've ever taken to knit anything from start to finish.

The pattern is lovely, although it's loveliness sort of gets lost in the fuzziness of the alpaca. The pattern is also very logical and has a wonderful flow to it.

It's very likely I'll make another sometime in the future out of some other yarn.

F.O. Tattoo socks

Pattern: Improvised vanilla sock pattern
Materials: Colinette Jitterbug
Amount: Roughly 3/4 of a skein
Needles: 2.0 mm
Finished Dimensions: I've got a European size 39-40 foot, so somewhere along those lines.

Started: 30.10.2009
Finished: 13.11.2009



Some of you might not know that I have a tattoo. A huge one in fact. It starts from my left shoulder, goes all the way down my back and ends on my other shoulder. It's of a dragon and a phoenix playing catch. Around four or five years ago I get the feeling that I really should get a tattoo. I've been wanting one since I was a teenager, but due to lack of money it was always put off. At that time I had just started in a relatively high-paying job (I wasn't even out of the polytechnic), I was between relationships and was just starting to come in to my own as a person. So I decided that it was time for a tattoo. I decided I wanted a phoenix. And it should be around the size of my palm.

As I do with every major decision in my life I started gathering information. How do you care for a tattoo? What's the experience like? Who does good work around where I live etc. I looked at flash art on numerous sites and felt like there had to be more. As if by accident I found Petri Syrjälä, who I contacted with trepidation. He agreed to take me on as a client even though he was doing less and less of such small work. I took him some pictures of phoenix birds I thought were cool and he drew me a sketch and we booked the first session. At the beginning of the session we did a stamp of the bird and slapped it on to my shoulder. It was way too small and I decided it would need to be enlarged to be anywhere acceptable. And it just sort of got out of hand. After that first ten-hour session the bird was done. I was going back for the background anyway and I got this idea of a dragon chasing the bird.

Now, a bit over four years since that first session, the whole tattoo is almost completed. The problem is, the shop is right next to Priima, my most-used provider of yarny goodness. So the time before the last one when I was there, Pete was running late and I was running earlier than I'd planned. So I got some yarn and some new needles and went into the waiting room and started knitting. In time, Pete finished his business and I moved my stuff over to the tattoo side of the parlour and kept on knitting. We laughed about how I was completely and finally destroying all that was left of his street-cred by knitting while being tattooed.

All this is a way of saying I made this completely boring pair of socks that I loved so much I wore them continuously day and night for probably two or three months even after I had walked holes in them and am now thinking about repairing just because I loved them so much.

F.O. Spring Sun

Pattern: Girasole by Jared Flood (Ravelry)
Source: Ravelry Pattern store
Materials: Cascade Eco+
Amount: A little over 3 full skeins, approximately 1500 yards or 1400 metres
Needles: 5.0 mm circulars
Finished Dimensions: Didn't measure, but the size is quite big

Started: 10.04.2009
Finished: 22.10.2009



This thing was a love affair from start to finish. I can't even begin to find the words for how much I love this project. It's been in constant use even before it was completely finished. After finishing roughly half of the knitted on border I finished the rest while basking in the warm glory of this gorgeous project.



I have an affinity for lace knitted with thick yarn on large needles, so naturally, when BrooklynTweed blogged about it I had to have one. I pretty much bought the pattern on the spot, but I didn't find the right yarn right away. But when WEBS had a sale of Cascade Eco wool, a yarn I had been wanting to work with for quite a while, I knew it was destiny.

I cannot possibly praise the pattern enough, it was entertaining without being tedious, simple enough to keep being knitted even while watching some television. It looks incredible and very impressive when finished, but doesn't actually require you to tear out your hair to complete it.

And the yarn, the yarn is fabulous. Cascade Eco wools are my new comfort yarn. Something to knit when I'm feeling blue or not good about myself or the world. It's soft and durable, doesn't seem to pill and it's wool, gorgeous wool. I could wax poetic about wool all night.

F.O. Brown Baby Hoodie

Boy, it's been a while hasn't it? But I'm doing a whole whack of finished objects, so that should make up a little for the lost time.

Starting with the oldest undocumented one; Sandnes Mandarin Baby hoodie



Pattern: 0805-7 E by Lene Holme Samsøe (Ravelry)
Source: Moda 6/2008
Materials: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino
Amount: 6 balls, only a wee little bit left over from the last skein.
Needles: 2.0 mm circulars
Finished Dimensions: Didn't measure, but made the size 18-24 months

Started: 05.11.2008
Finished: 24.12.2008

This was knit for my brother-in-law's baby girl as a christmas gift. I have a thing about not liking to reserve certain colours to certain sex, but I wasn't entirely sure whether or not the parents would've been all right with my gifting a pale blue sweater to their daughter (pale blue because for some reason striking blondness runs rampant in my hubby's family, and I thought it would look great on her), so I opted for brown instead. Thankfully her mother went wild because everyone had been gifting their daughter with all pinks and the mother was frankly getting sick of it. :D

This was very fun knit and despite the fine gauge went very fast. Because of the size it was very portable and therefore mostly knit on busses or waiting for something (most likely more busses). It has apparently seen quite a lot of wear since. I finished it on the way to my hubby's childhood home so just in time for gifting.

Unbelievably the yarn has stood the test of time. I've had pretty bad experiences with loads of pilling on other Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarns, but a year later this one had virtually no pilling. Kudos for that.

F.O. Rinsessa hat

I decided I neede another hat for this winter and what do you know, Ulla webmag had just the thing for me.



Pattern: Rinsessa Pipo by Sirkku Isopahkala (Ravelry)
Source: Ulla web magazine - all in finnish unfortunately.
Materials: Rowan Felted Tweed
Amount: a little less than 1 ball
Needles: 2.5 mm dpn's
Finished Dimensions: Good for a 58cm head circumference.

Started: 09.12.2008
Finished: 18.12.2008



I work in software development as a programmer or a dev if you will. The project I'm in now is somewhat stressfull and therefore a lot of the guys smoke. After being there a while, I found myself with the urge to just step out and take a break for a while. I've never touched ciggies and didn't want a silly project to change that, so I started taking my knitting along when the guys went out for smokes.

I needed a hat that didn't need me to carry around cable needles but was still interesting enough to make me take a break from work. Enter the rinsessa.



I need to start blogging right after finishing, because this far out, I can't remember much. All I do remember is that this thing was a really quick knit. It seemed to be over before I really got started. It looks nice and has seen almost constant use since it was finished.

F.O. The Blue Beast

Four weeks before Christmas I decided that the hubby needs a cardi as a present. So like any sneaky bitch, I started showing him sweaters I liked and he either agreed or disagreed. We had a long discussion about two cardis that to me looked basically the same, but to him had a key difference in them. Then I showed him Brooklyntweed's Big Blue and he plain out asked me if I could make him that sweater. What's a girl to do about that but start swatching?



Pattern: Seamless Shirt Yoke sweater (Ravelry)
Source: Knitting Workshop by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Materials: Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed
Amount: 12 balls
Needles: 4.0 mm circulars and dpn's for the sleeves
Finished Dimensions: 46 inch chest

Started: 28.11.2008
Finished: 08.01.2009



I started out the project trying to convince myself that I have no problem with steeking and I could easily steek if I wanted to. I was lying. Frankly, I was scared about it, I'm not ashamed to tell you now. For now, I am a Knitter.

After the third time I frogged the yoke I simply thought "Screw it, I'm gonna have to sew the zipper in anyway, I'm steeking the rest." I did, and it was GOOD. I had a bit of a gauge problem in that the front was too big. Fortunately that was easily fixed when I was sewing the zipper.

The yarn was wonderful for steeking. Like it was made with that purpose in mind. Even while knitting it was pretty hard to frog, so it didn't require any special precautions for the steek. Even now, after a month of use, the cut edge looks exacly like it did after I cut it.



I grafted the armpits using a techinque described in Knitting Daily's blog just before Christmas to help all us desperate last minute gift knitters finish on time. I have to admit, it's the best finishing technique I've come across so far. I love it.

I'm mostly very happy with this sweater, I just don't like the way the neck opening turned out. After all the frogging I just didn't have the heart to frog it again.

Le roi est mort, vive le roi!

... or in English, the king is dead, long live the king! The endless blue beast that I've been knitting for what seems like an eternity (but is actually only six weeks) is finally finished. I've had to frog parts of it so many times that if every stitch counted, I would probably have two sweaters by now.

See here, here is the monster soaking in a nice bath of hand-temp water and Citrus Soak courtesy of Loopy Ewe's small customer gifts.



And after a nice bath I put it down to block on top of the dog's cage aka the Retreat. See there, in all its glory;



I still have to put the zipper in after which I will be giving the low-down on this thing, with proper pictures. Right now I'm just so happy I had to share it with someone. The future-husbeast is sick and therefore royally uninterested that I've completed my first adult-sized knit ever, the dog even less so. Actually no, she did think the wool was to be played with, which cannot be endured, so I think it might be a good idea not to try that episode again. Now to wait for the thing to dry.

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. :(

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.

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.