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Showing posts from May, 2015

Astrid Socks.

  Named after my favorite childhood author, Astrid Lindgren (the author of Pippi Longstocking and many other beloved children's books), these socks were inspired by my desire to knit something traditionally Scandinavian, and at the same time both simple and yet modern. Something that would fit the yesterday feeling of her stories but at the same time be very contemporary even today. The first pair was such a surprisingly fast knit that I casted on for another pair almost straight away. I would have thought that socks knitted with fingering weight yarn, 2.5mm needles and some colorwork would have taken longer to finish but they were all done in just a couple of nights. It has been a while since the last time I knitted an afterthought heel and I had forgotten how effortless it is compared to the French heel that seems to be the most popular among sock patterns. Astrid nº 2 Pattern by me Yarns: Pirkanmaan kotityö Roosa Nauha sukkalanka #58 light gray

Brunch Favorites: Whipped Berry Porridge.

For years now me and Magnus have had a tradition of having Sunday brunches. They are like " our thing ". Very seldom we ask other people to join us, and it's more like something we love doing just the two of us, together. I guess the tradition (if you can call it that) started when Magnus still worked as a bartender while I had normal office hours. The different working schedules meant that our shared free time was rare and Sundays were the only days that we were both at home by default. Magnus usually worked on Saturday nights and came home around 3 am so we slept late on Sundays and ate a late brunch taking our time and enjoying each others' company. Now that we both have more normal (and adult) working hours we still enjoy making the brunch on Sundays. The brunches are nothing fancy, normally just fruit and berry smoothies, fresh bread, fried eggs and coffee, but we take joy in preparing it all together having no hurry or haste anywhere. It's the one

Me Made May '15: Days 19-23

May 19th: Office outfit. I love both of my Exeter cardigans, this is the first one I knitted. There's no hiding the baby bump anymore, so I'm not even trying to :) May 20th: Rainy day, so I wanted to wear something bright. The cute little Petites Boulles hat is just perfect to brighten up a gray day and I love my Van Gogh umbrella that I bought on my trip to Amsterdam: it almost makes me look forward to rainy weather! May 21st: These are my second pair of Astrid socks . I will show you more of them soon! May 22nd: Another new project straight off my needles. This is my lovely little Hyperballad cowl ! May 23rd: And today we went shopping for baby stuff and also stopped to for coffee and macarons, because my feet started to ache from all the walking, like I need an excuse ;) Here's my Bough cowl !

Me Made May '15: Days 12-18

May 12th: Wearing my Maeve shrug to lunch with my colleagues.  May 13th: I've been using both of my Drachenfels shawls a lot lately! I still can't decide which one I like the most, although I do love the Baby Alpaca Silk yarn I used for this second shawl more than the regular plain alpaca I knitted the first one with. I'm still amazed how the baby bump seems to get bigger by the day! May 14th: We enjoyed the sunny (but chilly) weather and took a long walk outside. Or actually it wasn't that long lengthwise: my feet have been a bit achy lately, thanks to the growing belly, but the walk took quite a long time anyway :) I was wearing my Aurora cowl . May 15th: Friday and I had a day off from work. I love wearing woollen socks around the house and these socks are lightweight enough to wear this time of the year. The cats, especially Milla, want to spend the whole day on the balcony like every summer, so the open balcony door causes chilly floors

On My Needles / Off My Needles.

As you can see, I moved the blog today. But since you are reading this it means you have successfully found your way to the new address! I think it's now shorter and easier to remember. I'm hoping to get the Bloglovin' and Ravelry links to work as soon as possible! Here's some update on what I've been knitting lately. I just finished a lovely baby cardigan pattern called Bonaventure. I think this might be my favorite baby knitting pattern yet. It's also the first one that I've knitted in "boyish" colors.  Bonaventure Pattern:  Bonaventure  by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne Yarns: Drops Alpaca #7120 light greyish green,  #100 off-white and #2915 orange Needles: 3.0mm Another finished knit off my needles are these fair-isle socks I finished last week. I'm really happy about them! Astrid Yarns: Drops Fable # 104 purple and #111 mustard, Drops Baby Merino #23 light beige Needles: 2.5mm and 3.0mm Right now I

Second Harper.

After investing a lot both money- and time-wise to the Harper pattern I felt it would have been an enormous waste only to use it once. I do love the design - I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place had I not - despite the shortcomings of the Brooklyn Tweed pattern. And I do love my Harper hat: I think my first Harper was such a success despite all the extra effort that went into knitting it. Knitted with DK weight yarn it makes a perfect springtime hat: it's lightweight and soft but still just warm enough. I've used it a lot ever since I got it off my needles. I started the second hat last Monday when I had a doctor's appointment and some tests taken (such as glucose tolerance test which alone took over 2 hours) due to the pregnancy. I knew it would mean a lot of sitting in the waiting room and I wanted something simple on my needles to pass the time. Something that I could just drop and put into my bag the second I heard my name called. The test

Me Made May '15: Days 6-11

May 6th: Frost in the morning, sunshine by noon, raining when I left work. The weather keeps changing and I'm trying to wear layers. My Dragonfields scarf is wonderful for days like these!  May 7th: I finished my second Harper so of course I had to wear it right away. The baby and the bump keep on growing, by now it's already week 27! May 8th: Luna wants to match my socks! I knitted these quite a while back using the Linesx3 pattern. May 9th: I spent a few hour seaming in the morning and my Aidez is finally ready! May 10th: The weather took a turn for the colder again. I was helping my mother with her garden and keeping warm with my Hutchin hat. May 11th: Monday and back to work! Hellebore is one of the few pullovers that still fit me...

My Modifications For The Second Exeter Cardigan.

With my first Exeter I tried to follow the instructions very closely but with the second one I took quite a many liberties and cut a few corners. Here are details of my modifications. Note: The modifications I made are for a cardigan with a size 41 1/2 " body and 37 1/2 " sleeves. I usually knit sleeves in a size smaller than the body because I have narrow shoulders and I often feel like the standard sizing of sleeves is way too big and wide for me. So keep the sizing in mind when reading my mods. They might not work for other sizes! 1. I knitted the whole cardigan using size 4.0mm needles. I didn't change for anything bigger after the ribbing. 2. Obviously I changed the charted pattern. Here's the chart for my modified pattern. Hope you can read my handwriting.  These might help you understand the chart a little better: 1/1 RT = Sl next st to cn and hold in back of work; k1 tbl, then k1 tbl from cn. 1/1 RPT = Sl next st to

Me Made May '15: Days 1-5

I can't believe it's already May again: it feels like I only just did this challenge the last time and now it's time for it again! So here we go, the first five days of the Me Made May challenge.  May 1st: going out to buy ice cream on the first day of May has been our tradition as long as I can remember. Here I am, eating salted liquorice ice cream and wearing my Quadrillion sweater and Harper hat . May 2nd: Here's my new Drachenfels scarf . I loved my first one so much that I decided to make another one.  May 3rd: Sunday sofa time. Watching TV and wearing my Ornette socks. May 4th: Back to work after a long weekend. In desperate need of caffeine, cue the large cup. The baby seems to be immune to coffee, thank God, otherwise I would surely have been a human punching bag for the day. And I'm so glad to be wearing my newest cardigan, the second Exeter , I'm already thoroughly smitten with it! May 5th: Today was a bit chilly so I