LunaKnit

Talk about tigers... Pattern: Dangling Conversation by Mindy Ross Yarn: Knitlob's Lair Väinämöinen shade calico Needles: 5.0mm Crochet hook: 3.5mm Instead of normal bind-off edge I decided to continue the feeling of lace and used a crochet hook to "knit 3 st together" and making a chain in-between. I don't really crochet so I'm not familiar with the right terms, especially not in English, but if you want to know more I will try and explain myself better. Just ask.  The scarf was really easy and effortless to knit and I finished it in a couple of nights. Just the right amount of mindless meditation knitting with a little twist so you don't get totally bored. I still have mixed feelings about the yarn, though. It was an impulse purchase from my LYS and as with many multicoloured yarns the colours looked wonderful and delicious when the yarn was still in a hank-shaped skein. I often find it hard to find good patterns for this

Marrakech Mittens Yarns: Garnstudio DROPS Baby Merino Shades #02 off-white and #13 navy blue Needles: 2.5mm and 3.0mm

After finishing the Winter's Tale yesterday I started to look through my book case for the next book to read. I've been such a lazy reader for the past few years and at the same time I love wandering through book stores and always end up buying at least one book, so there's a lot to choose from in our home. All of the books listed below can be found in our book case. Here's my reading list for the next (hmm, I wonder how long it will take me to finish this pile...) indefinite period of time, in no specific order: Paolo Coelho - Alchemist (a re-read, already started yesterday) ( edit: finished 14.6.2014 ) Neil Gaiman - American Gods ( edit: finished 12.7.2014 ) Hugh Howey - Wool (edit: started 7.12.2014 - finished 11.4.2015 ) Orhan Pamuk - Istanbul - memories and the city  George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings Sara Gruen - Water for Elephants (edit: started 22.9.2014 - finished 9.10.2014 ) Haruki Murakami - 1Q84 (started 4.9.2015) John Dickie - Cosa Nos

  “ No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile. I didn't bring you up only to move across sure ground. I didn't teach you to think that everything must be within our control or understanding. Did I? For, if I did, I was wrong. If you won't take a chance, then the powers you refuse because you cannot explain them, will, as they say, make a monkey out of you .” - Mrs. Gamely to Virginia in Winter’s Tale I just finished reading  Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin.  I’m still not sure whether I liked this book or not. I’m not even sure if I understood it. I felt like there was a lot of symbolism and metaphors, some kind of deeper meanings, but what they were and what they meant eluded me. There were many times I thought

Toscakaka  (or  toscakakku  in Finnish) is a dear childhood memory of mine, but sadly after the invasion of American style baking with cookies, super-rich-brownies and over-the-top-cupcakes this traditional part of  fika  (which means to have a coffee break with a sweet treat) has been almost forgotten. I can’t even remember the last time I was served this cake. Toscakaka along with marble cake (which we called  tiikerikakku , translating to “tiger cake”) was probably the most common cake baked for guests when I was young and it was everyone’s favourite. Last week after getting nostalgic with the buttermilk cake I got a craving for toscakaka, and with a small caution decided to bake it again. I was a bit afraid that, as with many childhood favourites, maybe the cake would not be as good as my memory of the amazing taste of it, and would be disappointed. After calling for my mother for the recipe and making a mess in the kitchen, I found out that my worries were unnecessary:

Me Made May got a bit harder last week as the temperature soared to almost 30 degrees C. At least the mornings were a still a bit chilly so that I could wear a woollen jumper on my way to work. But no more hats or mittens for a while. Friday I wore my Stone cutter sweater. I had to work on Saturday so I took my Haruni scarf with me. On Sunday I wore an alpaca cardigan I knit a couple of years ago. I wore my Buttercream cowl on Monday. This was my Tuesday morning outfit, but by the time I got home from work, it was way too hot to wear it. Keiko sweater and Lin-lin shawl. Wednesday morning outfit, I made the cardigan couple of years ago, it's one of my favourites. By noon I had ditched it and wore only a t-shirt: another hot day.  Again, morning outfits, Thursday and Pine Bough Cowl. Friday nights going to the exhibition opening party at the museum. My Roman Holiday bolero. Saturday night chilling and cheering the Finnish ice-hockey

Dessine-moi un mouton Design: La Maison Rililie Yarns: DROPS Alpaca main colour #618 light beige contrasting colours #607 light brown, #2925 rust, #5565 light maroon, #3900 tomato and #7815 green/turquoise  This sweater needed some aggressive blocking, as it was only a wrinkled crop top when it left my needles. I was already a bit worried for a while. I changed the stripe section a bit and knit all the stripes equally long; that is 5 coloured rounds per stripe. I also continued the striping all the way down the body. I also had less colours than was instructed. The yoke was quite arduous to knit as I had to check every round what I'm doing and count my stitches to make sure I've done enough increases. But after that the body section was quite easy to knit and the sleeves came along really quickly. I'm pretty sure this sweater will be getting a lot of use this summer (it is quite thin, so it's definitely not a winter sweater) but I don&

Not being able to eat wheat or oats has left a big hole in my diet. I had never even thought of how grain based our eating habits are, until I had to start to manage without. Daily life is starting go fine after 1.5 years of getting used to and gaining confidence in kitchen, but parties are always a bit hard. I can see the stress and the confused " what am I going to serve her?! "-look in people's eyes when the reply to allergies is wheat, rye, barley and oats. I guess lactose intolerance and celiac disease are nowadays quite popular and you can buy low-lactose and gluten free products even from smaller grocery stores, but it's not quite that simple with me as gluten free does not necessarily mean wheat or oat free. One thing I haven't been able to buy is muesli or granola that doesn't contain any of the ingredients I listed above in my allergies. So I started to make my own. This is also a good way to reduce sugar (as store-bought granola