Still here, and new finishes too

It's been a long time, due to computer problems, but with the temperatures finally going down I just might get more active after the too hot July. I haven't been all lazy, so I can show you some projects I have finished. The newest creation is this big tote bag for groceries. It is lined with raincoat fabric so I can just wipe it clean if a yoghurt lid get perforated or some other accident happens. The floral panel is a rep weave table runner I bought years ago for this purpose at a sale for 1.50 €.

 

 

During the Tour de France watching in July I knitted this set of washcloths. The cool colour and the bamboo yarn made it feel relaxing.

 

 

Remember the Train Socks in knitted for the twins across the street before they were born (probably not!)? After I heard that the newcomers were both girls, I just couldn't send them socks in green and beige and brown and blue...these here on the left:

 

 

... but I knitted them new ones in white and yellow. As June was so very cold here, I also knitted them tiny woollen hats like the one I had given to a friend's grandchild a little earlier. These hats have a crocheted flower on the side.

 

 

The Kaffe Fasset stripe yarn socks will go to the charity project in Järvenpää. I think they will look quite nice on a bigger baby as the colours go well with the maternity package contents.

 

My newest project involves this, a baby corduroy tunic that somehow shrunk in my closet.

 

 

 

Old bags and flowers

Remember the boots with flowers last year?

The same group of people and local enterprises collected old handbags and other bags for this year's project, and the florist shop donated one plant for every special bouquet they sold over the year. Suddenly, there were a thousand plants and hundreds of bags waiting to decorate what they called the ugliest spot of the town, the wire net fence of a sand and grass parking lot in the heart of the town.

 

Let's have a closer look: 

Some hard to use bags are without flowers just filling gaps.

When I took the photos, the flowers had been here over their first weekend. I couldn't see any damage done to them.

 

I wouldn't use this idea in our own garden, but here it works.

The flowers will grow a little and bloom all Summer.

 

The sign tells the names of the shops which will take care of watering the flowers. Our favourite knitting café Lentävä Lapanen, The Flying Mitten, is among them. - Ooh, if you just love their yarn collection, you can look here, it's their new online shop.

 

One more bag used as a flowerpot:

 

Last year there was knitted (and crocheted) graffiti in the streets as well, and I felt a little rebellious and started a project alone.

 

 

I only had these two flowers, one for the rail and the other for a tree.

I can see them every time I come from the train to town.

 

This year the garden of Villa Cooper is showing knitted art as a part of the Summer exhibition. I knitted some little flags for a bunting and crocheted some granny triangles too, in grey and in a muted pink.

 

 

I promise to take some pictures the next time I go there!

 

A dear friend had a new granddaughter, just when I was trying out a fun baby hat pattern, Aviatrix by Justine Turner, so I had a perfect little welcome gift for her finished in no time.

 

Little yarn rests for the flowers, matching the button.

 

The eBook Winner is ...

... Tammy! Congratulations! I will share these flowers with you, and with all the nice people who made the blog book tour with ten stops and ten possibilities to win their own copy of Stephanie's new book Uncommonly Corduroy.

 

 

 

The flowers are from my sister. She came to get the pompom hats for her granddaughters and swapped my purples and yellows for the purple and yellow primroses.

 

 

You have heard my complaints of no real Winter this year, just the cold period in January. Last week (one of the last days of February) Mr K. noticed the first snowdrops in bloom in our garden, and I took the picture on March 1st, when we had a sunny moment:

 

Normally they make their way through snow in mid April, like this in 2012:

 

 

This makes the Spring about 6 weeks too early. It doesn't feel like Spring though, just feels like the Winter is having a hard time dying. We have had some snow a few times now, not enough to cover the grass on the lawn, puddles everywhere and dull skies. Luckily the amount of light is increasing rapidly and in about two weeks we all will have the full 12 hours of daylight. After the Spring Equinox we up here will keep getting more and more light and longer days until the Summer Solstice. That is a comforting thought.

New knitting finishes and a new way to make a pompom

I had some leftover yarns from knitting mittens and socks for two little girls, so I wanted to knit matching hats for them. I bought some pink yarn to make the purple hat prettier, and naturally little girls' hats will be lovelier if they have a pompom. I tested a new (to me anyway) way to make a big pompom. I have always cut two circles of cardboard and used a needle to wind the yarn through the centre hole and around the circle. For the newest pompom before this I used a plastic pompom maker that works just like the old cardboard version but is reusable and comes in three sizes. This time I needed a big pompom, and the new trick promised just that. First, you need an empty kitchen roll core cut in half or two toilet roll cores. No needle needed, just start winding your yarn around both rolls like this. It goes really fast!

 

When you think there is enough yarn for the pompom, cut your yarn. Take a longish piece of strong yarn and tie it between the roll cores around the pompom yarn. I made a slip knot.

Take your good big scissors and cut at opposite sides of the roll core pair through all layers of yarn.

 

Tighten the slip knot really tight and tie the ends of that yarn twice around the centre of the pompom and make a knot or two. Hold these long tails  and trim the pompom. Use the tails to fasten the pompom where you want it.

Here are the hats finished. The yellow hat has "my grandmother's mitten pattern", and for the purple hat I used a star pattern my mother once used for my hat. It was pink with white stars, and a wonderful white pompom that wasn't so heavy that it would pull your head back.

My mother was the little girls' great grandmother, and I hope these hats will bring the knitted love tradition of our family to the newest generation. My mother used to call her knitting "time bent to curves", referring to the form the yarn takes, but I'd like to add love to the time.

Tunisian Crochet and playing with yarn

It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy, but not with quilts this time. I have been learning a new skill! After the tunic class I started a Tunisian Crochet class, and my first project was a dishcloth in a simple stitch pattern. It is like crochet and knitting together, just like this tool is like a long knitting needle with a crochet hook instead of the point.

 

 

There is also another kind of a tool, like a normal crochet hook but with hooks at both ends. It is needed when you make  a closed circle like a hat or mittens. I made wrist warmers for myself:

 

 

This pattern is a honeycomb. The heavier, multi-coloured yarn just peeks through the honeycomb stitches. The class is great fun, too bad we only have one more evening to learn some new technique. Maybe there will be something along this line for the Spring term as well.

 

I have also knitted some socks and mittens to some little girls I know.

 

The mittens are made with my grandmother's pattern, and for the socks I tested two different types of heels from my 2-at-a-Time Socks book by Melissa Morgan-Oakes.

And because the weather has turned colder, I faced my fear of cables and knitted this hat to keep my poor head warm. The yarn and the pattern are from my favourite yarn shop Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten.

 

Like many fears, this one had kept me from doing something fun for no real reason. I have knitted cables many many years ago, and knitting this hat showed me that not all cables are nightmares. Just take a heavy yarn and a very simple cable pattern to begin with. Today I finished a loop scarf to go with the hat when the real winter comes. Now we are just having the darkest, gloomiest time of the year. I think I'll start another pair of socks and just sit on the sofa by the fire and TV (and Mr. K) and a mug of tea.

 

 

 

 

VTT 11 - Spring Hats

Dear Ladies, it is finally April, and Easter is this weekend. Have you made or bought a new spring hat already? Here is some inspiration from my fashion magazines.

The coat pattern is also available. Or what about this one:

 

The next one is in colour, probably an advertisement so no pattern is available:

  

I would love to have her blouse any day! Here is the last hat. The magazine if from Feberuary 1st 1907, and you will need time to find the materials and make the hat before you can wear it.

 
I hope you enjoyed the fashion show and will be inspired to wear nice hats for spring. For me the warmer weather means I can forget about wearing anything on my head, but now I still have to live with the fact that without a beret I will catch cold or at least feel very uncomfortable.

This was my post for Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by Suzanne at Coloradolady. Go there and see what all the nice people have found in their cupboards, attics or thrift shops for this week. Happy Easter everyone!