Bits of knitting and an old project finished

Some people have cold hands, and some other people can knit, and so I knitted hand warmers for those

two who have such cold hands. Little Miss Purple has grown and she is now Miss Black for the time being.

My old project was this doormat, with layers of worn flannel shirts, wool jumper washed in hot water, and some dark T-shirts under the top layer, a rest bit of quilt backing flannel.

I cut between the stitched lines with my normal scissors, added the binding

and washed the new mat in the machine and dried it in the tumbler.

Soft, thick and lovely. It became a bathroom mat.

Naturally I needed to knit in the evenings, and I decided to use up my yarn rests. I almost had enough for this set, but bought more of the light grey that goes with everything. 

We have lots of snow, so I think more sock knitting is on my list.

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.

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.

-19C, new snow, no wind,

and the sun is up from nine to four. Nearly a month has passed without a new blog post, the days are almost an hour and a half longer than at Christmas and we have had new soft snow on several days. This morning was cold, -19C when the sun was rising and the temperature is at the lowest. Now it is a pleasant -12C, no wind.

I took these photos of my new year's knittings before the recent snowfall. These socks are all for chemo patients, knitted in soft yarns with jojoba and aloe.

This pair is from rest balls of normal sock yarn.

So are these mittens.

But the fancy pair of fingerless mittens is alpaca yarn, soft as butter and a treat for the knitter as well.

Windy days took dry twigs and branches down from the trees.

I hope you all have had a good start of the new year!

It is getting colder

On Tuesday morning we had a very strange sun in the cloudy sky. It looked more like the moon through a thin layer of clouds.

But it was an orange sun, and the cloud was sand from Sahara and soot and ash from the forest fires in Spain and Portugal.

I have finished the projects I had on my needles for the Wool Day. This is a pair of fingerless mittens in 50% wool, 50% alpaca. Warm and lovely and soft and not itchy at all.

This gathered more people, I was working on the heels and the visitors couldn't believe how easily they were knitted on the one long circular needle. This is sock yarn, 80 % wool and 20% polyamide.

Today our grandson had an outing for men only, all three generations together made a fire in the backyard and they grilled sausages on sticks together. It is getting colder, just a few degrees above freezing point during the day. Everyone had red cheeks and a cold nose when they came in for afternoon tea.

The last yellow leaves are falling, this was like a lace curtain.