more christmas cables

Here we go. I couldn't resist.
I had two skeins left over from my Christmas cables cardi and they turned into this matchy matchy hat. Fun and nice and warm. Now I think I have it all for perfect Christmas, it might be time to think others for a while!


Pattern: my own
Yarn: Hjertegarn Lima
Needles: 5 mm

christmas cables

Oh, it's December. Christmas is coming and it shows everywhere. Cheery Christmas carols, all the lights, all the waiting. Boys have been playing Santa and his little elf for some time now, and I've had the honour to be the reindeer occasionally.

We've not done much for Christmas, some gingerbread has been baked and that sort of things. But the best thing is my new cardigan. It's so perfect for this time of year - warm, layering and festive with honeycomb cables. And the color grey - I seriously have a thing for grey at the moment. A big thing.


Pattern: my own, and I think I will write up the pattern.
Yarn: Hjertegarn Lima
Needles: 5 mm

kerrera

Oh, it's December already. Finally I have something to show you, something new. New and oh so great! It's Kerrera-hoodie, by the talented designer Gudrun Johnston.

This was a test knit, but I was one really bad test knitter - we had a nasty flu in our family most of the test knitting period. I wasn't much help for Gudrun. I loved knitting it and the pattern is
really clear and well written.


Pattern: Kerrera by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: Gjestal Janne
Needles: 5 mm and 5,5 mm

The grey color is perfect but otherwise I'm not happy with my yarn choice - though I liked it after swatching. Even the gauge was spot-on in my swatch. But somehow I managed to get the row gauge wrong in actual knitting and the feeling was a lot different.

Finished hoodie is wonderful, it fits perfectly and it sure will be my winter favorite this year! (It still needs two more buttons to completely finished...)

the second

We have snow - well more water than snow, but you can still see some white spots here and there. Little O was astonished in the morning: Look mommy, there's crumbs in the air. This might be the perfect time to show you my second design - Modern Garden.

Quickly knitted with super bulky yarn, it's great for winter. Thick, but still flattering. Almost all shaping is done with the leaf motifs and I'm so happy it worked! The pattern is charted, but the carts are so basic that every knitter can knit this.


Happy knitting to all! I hope you enjoy my patterns.

slowly

Look, there's something new on the sidebar.

It has taken me one whole year to design, knit, write, edit and design a layout for my first pattern. Slowly the good things come, I hope. I loved every single phase in this process. The actual writing was unexpectedly hard for me - finding the right conventions, using the right words, making it clear and getting all the numbers right. But I loved it so much.

What's even better is seeing the finished test knitting pieces. From my pattern. My design. Oh, the feeling when I saw the first. It was hard to believe my eyes, the pullover was gorgeous! All the work really has been worth it.

Thank you dear test knitters for making this possible!

I hope you enjoy the pattern.

against wind

Winter is coming as we reach the end of October. Trees are bare, the breeze is crisp and the days are getting darker day by day. Daylight is a hidden treasure. And the colors fade. It's beautiful to sense this moment, when all the colors are almost diluted to brown and grey and black.


I've made some preparations for winter, against cold and wind and darkness. I've been thinking about new caps and matching cowl for both little men for a while now, but finally I got the perfect idea. Nothing too complicated, garter stitch because I love it and thick yarn. The color is kind of crazy cold (why on earth have I bought yarn in this color?), but I hope it gives winter the same freeze treatment as it gives to us! And keeps little A warm and happy.

Patterns: my own
Yarn: Pirtin Kehräämön Hahtuva - unspun
Needles: 6 mm


Oh, the best thing in the cap is how the garter stitch pulls the front panel slightly upward and makes the cap fit just perfectly!

white

How is it possible, this bright autumn light? When there's supposed to be yellow and red, I find white and blue and grey. How beautiful is that subtle balance between color and light.

Inspired by all that white light I thought of this simple bag, spent a day - that should have been spent studying - with my sewing machine and love the result.

socktober

There is something with me and socks. Me and knitted socks to be more precise. I love to wear hand-knitted woollen socks, but I've had some hard time knitting them. I've been most happy to receive socks regularly from my grandmothers for my entire life and I even had a phase in my teen-years when I always had woollen socks - no matter if it was the hottest day of the year.

But knitting is a whole different story. I've casted on too many socks to remember. And that pile is not the worst part: I've also given gifts that included only one sock and a promise for another. Those promises are still to be fulfilled... (I'm all red in the face admitting this and hoping that none of those people will ever read this post.)

Finished pairs there is to date only three. One pair was knitted to my husband: the first sock is neat and perfect. The other all wonky and strange. The second pair was for baby A, too tiny even for a newborn but otherwise a fine pair.


Now the third pair seams to turn my luck (and interest). Lovely gray and green, knitted from the cuff to toe and used this tutorial for the sort-row heel. What a happy, happy start for Soctober, I think.

Pattern: none
Yarn: Zitron Trekking Pro Natura
Needles: 2.5 mm

season's changing

We've had strangely warm and sunny autumn this year. Colors are changing slowly and the season's changing so gradually, that it's hard to notice. Maybe things are speeding up from now on, since in the morning for the first time this fall there was frost on the ground. Or there could be another explanation - this autumn I've been mostly inside and the time spent outdoors has been cut to a minimum.

We haven't had a real nature table ever, but I'm trying to build us one. We had a little adventure with with the boys in the woods (meaning here a small set of trees, not a real forest) and we found some treasures. Those treasures turned into colorful felted acorns. The felting itself was so much fun and perfect for the bigger and the smaller hands!

Our nature table needs some setting up and some more things, but slow is fine by me. Thank you Earth for your gifts. Thank you Nature for letting us see the season changing!

black

Here we still are. Going slowly, getting used to new things and liking most of it. Days and weeks pass by and the new rhythm is more and more comfortable. But I've missed this space. The unintended break grew way too long.

The dark grey - almost black - tiles of an old shed's roof in the first picture are like my new favorite cardigan. Keeping me sheltered, keeping me safe. Again I casted on for this wonderful pattern and loved it as much as in the first time around.


Pattern: Garter yoke cardigan by Melissa LaBarre
Yarn: Novita Luxus Cloud
Needles: 4,5 mm

last day of summer

It's here. The last day of august. What a beautiful month, what a beautiful summer we've had. I feel somehow bittersweet, happy and scared at the same time. Seeing the past, awaiting the future but most of the all, living in this beautiful time that we have right now.

Tomorrow starts a whole new era in our life. Boys start in daycare, I go back to study. It's exiting and a bit frightening at the same time. I think the whole concept of change is rather hard for me. But I have learned a lot about change with the little ones. And the time I've had with them the past years - staying at home and doing my real life's work - has been so good and beautiful (and hard and demanding) that it feels like a miracle.

That clearly isn't going to go away, it's only daycare. But the rhythm changes, it all changes. I'll just have to stay open for this new time.

more stripes

Nights are getting darker and darker, day by day. Where has the summer gone? September will be soon here and that's something I can not believe. I have been writing my patterns up, writing and writing and correcting and writing again. Not one at the time, but bits here and something there. Not a single one is finished, but some look quite promising - like perhaps-someone-will-be-able-to-understand-promising. It goes slowly.

In the middle of this sometimes frustrating work, I wanted to knit something easy and happy. Like stripes. I had beautiful skeins of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed in my stash and now I have happy little man wearing very nice little striped pullover. Stripes might be one of the happiest things I can imagine, so it worked like magic this time too.


I knitted this pullover seamless from bottom up, folded the hems for simple closure, knitted raglan decreases in the yoke and added garter stitch funnel neck (or turtleneck, I don't know). Oh, there is one down side. I messed the yoke. I had the idea of a looser and longer yoke, knitted shorter sleeves because of that plan but forgot all about it in the decreasing. So the sleeves are too short. But now I can pass this pullover to my youngest and have a good reason to knit another for my oldest! And I have a great idea for that one.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4 Ply
Needles: 3,5 mm