It was a good year.

Crafting wise anyway. Otherwise quite crappy really. But I did many awesome projects and designed three on my own. And dyed first time. Now I'm having a break for couple of days because twisting in x-ray last time seemed to tear some ligaments again, hurts. Anything hurts. Can't hold a mitten without pain. Anyway, that's for complaining and on with showing the last project from last year:

Angels have the Police Box! Own design! ^_^

Fabulous New Year 2012 to whomever crosses this blog.

Long time no see.

Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey thing. I haven't been here for eons, somehow I'm good at neglecting my blogs. While I was gone I developed huge fangirlism over Doctor Who, had dislocated elbow for 2.5 months (for real!), learned to crochet, got myself nålebinding needle and dyed some yarn.

While I was gone I designed couple of things, this birdy:

He is moving to US in Friday, when I get money to send stuff. I'm particularly proud of this sweater I designed last mont, my very first big self-designed project!

I based the design on old traditional Finnish jackets and Swedish cardigans. Colorwork figures are Icelandic staves, Dreamstaves on sleeves and "Fear Inducer" (in enemies) on collar.

Right now I'm working on "Angels have the Blue Box" mittens, about to start decreases on mainbody on first mitten. Scary. :D

Oh yeah, and the dyed skein!

Just basic Finnish wool and reactive dyes. I named the colorway "Täysverinen ämmä" aka Fullblooded hag, hence the picture in the photo.

That's about it. Can't promise more frequent updates, but I'll try.

I love me some swaps

After I joined Ravelry and all those lovely groups I've gotten into swapping, or trading. I've gotten rid of some yarns I thought were pretty when buying, but noticed that I hated after I knitted them. In the past I was lousy at selling things and didn't get anywhere with trading, so I just gave things away to charities. With yarns I didn't know if there was anyone who would like them, so I just kept my growing pile of uglies.

I'm posting about this today, because I just received a package from mebersillver from Minnesota. She didn't have to send it, but she did anyway:

Lovely wool/alpaca mix from her local farm! <3


I've also traded a book with maigret from Canada to these babies:

Localish Peter Rabbit yarn (angora) and quiviut (!), which I was carrying around in my bag for a week just to hug it time to time.


Second swap occured with curiouskate from Germany, when she spotted my these uglies:

 I traded them for some sockyarn, which I currently need most for mittens and socks.

 Yes, I'm very happy with my new swapped yarns.

Spring Cleaning

I sorted out my stash today, threw out some leftovers and removed yarns I'm going to give to my crafts group, put some of the yarns to more "permanent" box, yarns I'm not likely to use soon. Here's pics from before, middle and after:

Other than that, I've knitted about 35% of the shawl, despite it being boring, mittens are coming slower. First mitten is halfway of the thumb.

Lazy April

Now that the HP Cup is on spring break, I've been rather lazy in many ways. I started to knit this Revontuli shawl but then I realized, that as much as it is simple, it is boring to knit. I need something to watch while doing it. Lots of something. :D

When I realized that, I started to knit colourwork mittens from a Finnish book, which has 100 traditional patterns, it was published in 1947. (Sata Kansanomaista Kuviokudinmallia) It is very popular book even outside Finland and they are going to reprint it this year again, my fingers are itching... 30€ is quite salty price for my budget. Here's where I am so far with the mittens:

They are from Hamina, southern city on the shore.

Done and done

Okay, had busy week here with knitting for Harry Potter House Cup. Finished before mentioned fish hat aand a cowl from Wollmeise. <3 Now I'm thinking about making a shawl, but will see, next month is a "spring break".

Projects this month

Assignment for Potions this month is

Option 1: Craft an item for a strong woman in your life.

This was easy in a way, that I knew exactly for whom I would knit, what was a bit more difficult. But because first year unity theme was fingerless gloves, I looked through Ravelry for some. And I found these.

There is one woman who has helped me a great deal and is more important to me than many other people. She is gentle but strict, womanly and still somehow... rocks. She wears long black leatherjacket and has a tattoo in her ankle. She likes colour blue.

When I bought some Nalle (by Novita) yarns, I was going to make a hat from them, but then the colour "jeans" was exactly what she would like. Three days of frantic knitting and here's the result:

Now I'm knitting this fish hat for Muggle Studies and it will be my March Head of the House Challenge project too (it's "For the Love of Pisces").