New Mitten Collection for Winter 23/24

In spite of the warm weather I have been knitting. These are my new mittens for next Winter:

The brown and green pair on the left is closest to my grandmother's original pattern, but I wanted the thumbs to be warmer so I continued the pattern knitting all the way fro the thumb as well.

For a more modern look I started the two colored pattern from the wrist.

Then I did the same with grandmother's other pattern.

Finally I knitted a pair of Aino'S mittens in a slightly bigger size.

At the moment I have a pair of socks on my needle (yes, a pair, and yes, it's a long circular needle), but after that I think I'll look for a nice color combination for mittens again.

I hope this new setting and smaller photo size will make my blog more smart phone friendly.

 

Swans on Ice ...

... and some new socks on the floor. Grey socks for my bare-ankle daughter, a simplified version of my Aino'S sock pattern,

and some giant socks, large socks and smaller socks knitted just to use up rests of yarns.

We have gone on walks again when the weather has been nice. Pollen is nearly ready to spread from the grey alders.

The swans have returned. Yes, they are in my photo, the two white lumps on white ice, about in the center of the photo.

I took the photos on my phone, and the sun was so bright that I just couldn't see how to zoom on the swans. 

By this date we have identified 25 species of birds this year, and hope to see many newcomers once the migrating birds arrive. Common gulls and black-headed gulls have arrived, and lapwings, but the small insect eating garden birds are still on their way from the South.

New kids on the blog

Finally I got my sewing machine back and these new kids got their clothes on! Instead of the usual two days my machine had to stay away for more than two weeks because a spare part took so long to arrive.

I could not show this lot dressed in just undies or jumpers. I used many small yarn rests for their jumpers. The multi coloured yarn works fine in the small garments.

The girls' dresses have zippers in the back, the jumpers have buttons on the shoulder. It looks like Pertti here below on the right has grown fast! I was sure I knitted the sleeves long enough before starting to knit in the round with the front and the back. That's teenage boys for you.

I try to find more of that funny yarn for the boys' hair, it makes hair creating easy. I just crochet in the round and sew the wig in place. These dolls will be a part of the Villa Cooper Christmas display of Good Gifts for charity.

Another finally is here:

Our daughter Kaija was here yesterday and I managed to remember to ask her to pose for the Aino 2.0 fingerless mittens pattern. The Flying Mitten will publish my pattern as a spin-off of their original Aino'S mittens pattern based on the original mittens knitted and worn by Aino Sibelius. Fingerless mittens are useful for anyone who wants to use their smartphone in cold weather.

Wool Day at Villa Cooper

On Saturday we had a special Wool Day at Villa Cooper. In spite of the rainy weather it was a success, many interested people came to see our demonstrations of various techniques like spinning

or knitting or crocheting. I was there with my two socks at a time, or alternatively two mittens at a time.

The real attraction was a wool fashion show. Our own members were showing knitted and crocheted garments and accessories made by our members and available right there.

These are designed and knitted by machine by Riitta Liski. 

The silk scarf above and the little bag below are by other members.

There was  something flattering for every model, and perfectly matching accessories were all from our shelves.

Someone with an eye for detail can really create perfect outfits.

Here is one of the hand knitted sweaters combined with a machine knitted skirt and a hand dyed silk scarf.

I hope you enjoyed the samples of our show. Our Facebook has more pictures from the event.

We have had the first night frost, and the need for fingerless mittens is here to stay. I knitted one pair in dark grey for those who don't want colours

and then I developed the idea of Aino'S mittens and created Aino S 2.0 fingerless mittens for the modern girl who needs to fumble with her smart phone anywhere and in any weather:

Enjoy your new week!

Dozens of socks and some blocks

The new year has started with knitting projects so I thought I'll show you some progress on that front first. Remember the Blue and White Baby Socks project? Our area is doing very well, about 47% of the socks needed  have been delivered to the local hospital's maternity ward. This lot is among the socks they already received.

These I took to the Lentävä Lapanen, Flying Mitten, on Wednesday, and they had two baskets full again waiting to be collected.

For Christmas I experimented with coloured yarns and my sock variation of the Aino'S mittens. These were all gifts to friends near and far.

This funny pattern was in a magazine, and I just had to buy some of that rainbow yarn to make them exactly like in the magazine, for someone who loves rainbow colours.

The rest of the burgundy yarn was enough for a pair of socks for our grandson, and he will get a pair of mittens too.

Sock front finally dealt with, I can show the little progress I have made with the Splendid Sampler quilt blocks. I have 79 normal blocks now and 8 bonus ones finished.

We had a late breakfast today, and before that I caught the beautiful pink and blue shades in the sky opposite the almost rising sun.

Stitched, appliquéd and pieced blocks, washcloths, mittens and some new socks

 A week ago I made a short visit to England, but after that I have been busy trying to catch up with the Splendid Sampler blocks. They publish two new blocks every week so it is easy to fall behind. Basic pieced blocks are a nice way to make the to do -list shorter:

The stitched blocks are a welcome change to my TV knitting, I can stitch while watching something not too demanding, like the Tour de France was.

Schools begin in a few weeks, and the shops are full of colourful bags, notebooks and my special love, pencils and crayons. This block is paper-pieced, without the nerve-wracking tiny bits that have three times as much seam allowance as there is visible fabric on the right side.

I mean this kind of paper-piecing, it is not for me:

We have some strawberries growing in the flowerbed, so small that they almost look and taste like the wild ones.

I try to keep my fabric selection limited, so my squirrel's tree has autumn colours already.

I have made some of the bonus blocks so I can skip the regular blocks I don't fancy doing. Here is a happy one with summer feeling:

This summer and especially during the three week Tour de France I faithfully watch with Mr K. (even when I have never ridden a bicycle myself in my whole long life), I have finished quite many yarn projects. First I refreshed my memory by crocheting a washcloth in Bavarian crochet, and then I thought I will learn something new, the Moss stitch. Well, it turned out to be something I had done before, just didn't know the name.

Bedsocks in olive  green merino wool, red socks with cables, and a small pair of basic socks using up a rest of self striping yarn, added with stripes in an off-white yarn of the same brand.

Then I knitted some mittens for a change, pink ones in a child size and yet another pair of Aino'S mittens in Finnish sheep wool in white, like Aino Sibelius would have knitted them.

At some point I wanted to try another new to me stitch and knitted these potholder/dishcloths in Cream 'n Sugar. The colour reminds me of milk chocolate with raspberry filling.

There it is, a post as long as the title.

New Sock Pattern

You may remember the white mittens I knitted last year. Our local knitting café Lentävä Lapanen, in cooperation with the Ainola museum, created the pattern based on a pair of mittens knitted by Aino Sibelius, the spouse of the famous composer Jean Sibelius, to celebrate his 150th anniversary.

The pattern can be bought here in English or in Finnish. A kit with yarn and pattern in either language is abailable at the knitting café and at the Ainola museum shop. I have used my pair a lot, on very cold days I wear white fleece gloves inside.

This Winter I had a great idea. Why not knit a fancy pair of socks to go with the pretty mittens? Knit, knit, knit, said my needles and soon I had the prototype finished. It was a special birthday gift.

The next thing to do was to introduce my idea of Aino'S socks to The Flying Mitten, Lentävä Lapanen. They liked the idea, gave me a ball of the original 100% Finnish sheep wool by Pirtin Kehräämö, and asked me to knit a sample pair and to write down my pattern. The pattern can be downloaded here in Finnish for free.

I'm knitting yet another pair for my own  use now:

I changed the heel from the prototype, thinking that Aino Sibelius would have wanted her socks to be a little special all over. This is the heel I used when I wrote the pattern and knitted the socks for the Flying Mitten. The leg part is like the mitten cuff, and the top of the foot part is like the top of the mitten, so there is really not very much of my own design here apart from the heel, and the idea of making socks to match the mittens.