Dishcloths, African Flowers and UFO finishes

After all my sock knitting I needed a fun little project to knit and decided to make some dishcloths to use up the bamboo cotton yarns I have bought many years ago.

With this one I tried i cord edging and bind off. It was not difficult but would look better with a simple pattern without a frame.

The red was a smallish rest ball and I didn't know how far it would go, so I started in a corner adding stitches in the middle, so my knitting would be a square from the beginning. The green was knitted in the same size just to make them a pair.

In the same box with the yarns were 23 African Flowers I had crocheted with the tiny rests when I knitted the first dishcloths. Now I figured out how to make half hexagons, and joined them all to this little blanket for my dolls.

Another UFO were these chenille pieces. They only needed the binding which I made with extra wide bias tape from my stash. They can be pot coasters or something like that.

Finally, the baby hats I knitted with the soft baby merino wool I swapped on the KIP day. They will be donated for newborn babies. Same patterns as before.

Our Flammentanz rose is soon in full bloom, there seem to be dozens of buds waiting to open. This is a rose we both had at home in our mother's garden, so it is nice to have one of our own now.

More Potter mug rugs and some knitting

After finishing the four mug rugs I still felt like doing more, and chose the Quill that writes the invitation letters to Hogwarts school

and the Mirror of Erised.

The whole set once more.

Next week is the Night of the Homeless, and beanies, mittens and socks are collected to be donated. I knitted this set in an average men's size and will take them today to the Flying Mitten, one of the places where donations are collected.

This Aviatrix  hat is one of my favourite patterns and the striped beanies in my last post are made with the leftover pink from this project. I just forgot to take this picture for that post.

This pair of socks is once again inspired by some odd little rests from other projects, and the usual thing happened: there was not enough yarn in one colour, so I bought some more ...

This morning the rain water in our little pond was frozen. Mr K. had already taken the pump in for the winter and emptied the pond, but leaves are falling and rain water gathers there. It will be cleaned again in the Spring.

The rowan tree in our garden has the most beautiful colours this year.

Knitted beanies and pompoms

I had some pink yarn left and some white, and this funny pattern had been on my mind for a long time, so I tried the pattern. It required a pompom on top, so I made one.

With still some yarns left, I made another baby beanie, with a pompom. That used up all the pink yarn.

A small ball of multi coloured yarn with the white made another beanie.

Two rest balls of bright red and some more white, and a peppermint beanie was born. I used the last meters of the red for the pompom.

Red and white are also the toadstools popping up all over our lawn.

Leaves are turning red and yellow, Autumn is definitely here. We have had mornings with just one plus degree. The garden furniture has been stored away. This week we had the first little fires in the fireplace, starting slowly to warm the big mass of bricks.

End of Summer

Two weeks and more have passed without a blog post, but it doesn't mean I have been idle (all that time). First I made some new bibs and used up some leftover bias tapes.

Then I knitted a bear cub beanie but it turned out to be newborn size and not grandchild size.

I finished the luxury yarn scarf I was struggling with last time. No big unraveling was needed

and I even figured out how to make the lace edge wider to use up all my yarn.

This is the same pattern I used for my beige scarf last year. this time I used bigger needles and the yarn was little heavier too, but both are from one 100 g skein.

In my enthusiasm for lace knitting I decided to use one of my daughter's leftover yarns. The curly skein on the left in front of the green yarn used to be a tightly crocheted wrist warmer. She didn't want me to crochet her a pair for it with the ball of unused yarn, so I washed the curly yarn and it straightened perfectly.

I knitted a cowl in the same lace pattern I used for the Kidsilk Mohair shawl this Summer.

The 3D effect disappeared totally when I damp stretched this one, and it grew in length too, but I just wrap it one more time around my neck or let it hang more.

It is time to replace the Summer flowers with Chrysanthemums. The cooler Autumn air feels SO refreshing after a too hot Summer.

New projects, old patterns

Young boys sometimes want to work like big men, and when they do, it helps to have the proper kind of clothing as well as the necessary tools. Many jobs require hanging pockets, both front and back, and that is what I have sewn for some special young men I know. The pencil pocket can take a carpenter's pencil, and the hanging pockets are big enough for a very small notebook. I used soft denim used for shirts, as the boys are still little. I used the pattern of a regular children's vest and figured out the pockets from Mr K.'s vest. The back seam can later be opened if the boys still want to wear their vests when they have grown a year or two.

After the big and warm blanket knitting I have moved to finer yarns and knitted another baby hat using up the two rest balls of soft blue yarn.

Then I had some yarn left from Miss Purple's socks and knitted her new wrist warmers for the new school year.

Now on the needles is a luxury yarn I got for my birthday months ago from a dear friend. Right now the lace pattern is being checked and rechecked before I start unraveling to find out why the row doesn't end like it should. I will show you the result when I have knitted to the end of that yarn.

Plus size quilt top

Finally I have finished a new quilt top! I even managed to make a little dent in my recycled shirt stash with it. I used all kinds of  light greys and creams, and red plaids and one plain red, as this quilt is for the Finnish Red Cross. 

Getting that step out of the way, I can now concentrate on a baby quilt using these fabrics I have cherished for many years. It will be a boy quilt, with worms and bugs but also with some hearts or flower petals.

We have been travelling abroad too, and for the long waiting hours at airports I had of course a book but also a knitting. I knitted the striped chemo caps during the trip and the plain ones at home.

Two new baby hats have been finished too. There is a little yarn left from a 50 g ball in all my baby hat yarns, so I think there will be a pink-blue-and-white striped hat on the needles sooner or later.

The little misses Purple and Yellow spent a fine holiday in Lapland before Easter with their family, and the girls learned to ski, make snow castles, roll in the snow to refresh during a sauna bath, and to have Winter fun like native Finnish children. For this, the socks and mittens I knitted for them were naturally useful, and so they wanted to thank me with this:

100 % Irish wool to knit something for my own use! I think I need to dare take a step into the unknown and learn to knit some Celtic cables in a scarf or something like that.

Weather report: This morning we had -4C, today is sunny but not warm, on Wednesday we had rain for most of the day. The snowdrops and tiny yellow crocuses are the only flowers up in the garden. By the roadside we can see bright yellow coltsfoot dots where the sun has been shining.

Spring colours in snow, and some nalbinding news

On Easter Monday we had a snowfall that lasted all day. Nothing fancy, just tiny flakes or larger ones, slowly or with a wind, but by the evening we had about 20 cm new, fresh snow covering the dirty old, melting snow. The next day was sunny and lovely, so I took my newest fingerless mittens and other knittings out for a photo shoot.

From the rest yarns of the mittens I knitted some baby hats for a charity.

Then I made a group photo of the yellowish chemo therapy caps. I used the last remnants together with a light grey yarn for a striped beanie.

My nalbinding has taken a leap since my last posting, with the simple chain of stitches. I tried the Finnish stitch, well, naturally, because I am Finnish. I was right thinking that it would be easy to learn after having practiced the Oslo stitch. I didn't care about the odd big loops left from the starting stitches, nor about the Oops! stitches where I missed a loop or picked one too many, nor the lumpy joints of yarn. I just tried to get a feeling to the movements of my hands. It was easier to make new stitches when there was something to hold onto, unlike the floppy tail of loose single stitches.

With this technique you don't work from a ball of yarn but thread a needle with a suitable length of yarn and when you have almost used it up, you felt the end of the new yarn to it. This little pouch is hardly good for anything, but it has given me tremendous courage to start a proper project. I like the texture, and there is stretch in both directions.

On the right you can see my new nalbinding needle. My dear Mr K. made it for me just this week! He is building a bamboo fly fishing rod and used bamboo to make this for me. It is glued together of two slivers so the smooth enamel surface is on both sides.

Here you can see the amount of snow we had on April 1st! Mr K. shoveled just a track for the car.