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").

About the hobby

First I was knitting from magazines I bought, well from Stitch 'n Bitch too. Then I started to google patterns and found Ravelry. That's the webpage you can find a link from the right panel. Ravelry is simply said awesome. It's easy way to make a list of projects you have done, yarns you have in your stash, books and magazines you have and therefore what patterns there are in them.

Best part of it is the users. You can ask them if you encounter a problem, do swaps and generally vent out or share joyful news from your life, when the group happens to be that awesome, that is. First I found Terry Pratchett group and I started to spend more time in there than in facebook. They are really fantastic people.

Then I stumbled across a Harry Potter group, HP Knitting & Crocheting House Cup. It's so awesome, that I can't describe it. It's simply brilliant idea. The idea is that you apply for Hogwarts to be a student, there is Sorting Ceremony with Sorting Hat and all and all four houses, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor (each house have their own group too). In case you miss the sorting, you can join to be a NQFY, Not Quite a First Year. Every term is three months long and there's 3 terms a year. There are classes just like in HP, Care of the Magical Creatures, Defence Against Dark Arts etc. Each month they post assignments for the classes and you figure out what would be most suitable thing for you to do in knitting, crocheting, dyeing or spinning.

You get points for 6 turned in assignments (you can do 8, but only yardage counts then), play Quidditch and there's usually some kind of Challenges going on. Points go to your house and of course in the end of the term the house with most points wins the Cup. Every month teachers choose their favorites from all turned in assignments for Prize Nomination and then everyone can vote for their favorite projects.

I am Slytherin and I love those people into bits and pieces. :) You wouldn't think that Slytherin was awesome? You are wrong. They are.

I have played 1 term as a NQFY and this is my first year, 3rd month as a Slytherin. I got nominated this month! It's so exciting. There's so many players that it doesn't happen often. Here's what I knitted, it was for Charms, subject was a musical piece I really like. I chose Bilbo's Last Song composed by Howard Shore.

I really like that I can, beside knitting, use other things I like for this hobby and group. Story telling and photographing. :D That photo is taken by my friend, Heksa, I'm the model. Pattern is from French Girl Knits book, the name of the pattern is Nadine, it's designed by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (I love that book <3) aaand yarn used was Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK.

I'll see how the voting goes, but it doesn't matter if I "win" a prize, it's great fun to play!

In the beginning

Long time ago when in one of those Finnish schools they taught us crafts I was convinced that I'm not good at them, in knitting specially. Then in 2009 I got interested in making teddy bears, as I also collect them. Then in the fall Novita published yarns I simply couldn't resist and bought couple of skeins to crochet a scarf for one of the teddy bears I was currently making.

It was bad. :D I had no idea how I was supposed to crochet and I quite didn't grasp the idea how to do it and the scarf ended up being very uneven. But since you couldn't see it when it was around teddy bear's neck, I let it be. However, those pretty yarns got me hooked and I bought the book Stitch 'n Bitch. It had so clear instructions that I soon was knitting a hat and mittens.

Today I've finished 50 projects, from a potholder to a shawlette, cables, beads, lace and colourwork. I even crocheted one cell phone cozy just couple of weeks ago. And I want to do more, I want to learn more. I'm planning to try out yarn dyeing in the summer, when nature offers many options.

I've learned that the belief that I can't was created by one busy teacher and 20 girls all learning how to do crafts. It's quite refreshing and encouraging. Who knows what else I can, but don't believe in myself?