Winter's Eve

Here's the latest picture of Winter's Eve after the Monday SAL with Nicki. I have to say, I do not like stitching with the Kreinik braid, but it does look beautiful! More next week :)

New knitting project

Here's the new knitting project I mentioned yesterday. The pattern is from a Finnish knitting magazine (Novita). It'll be another cardigan, this time with 3/4 sleeves. And the yarn is a bamboo-cotton mix. Wonderfully soft!

And this is my sorry excuse of an ornament for the Ornament SAL. It seems that frogs have come in a flock to my home... But this time I tried to be clever and fight them! I started with the square, and it turned out too small. I count 28 stitches on the pattern and do 24. Logical, huh? And only notice it after I've done the trees and am wondering how I'm supposed to squeeze the word "Christmas" on top of it. The Elizabeth's Designs pattern had a fancy border around as well. I tried to modify it to suit my smaller square, but just kept continually counting wrong, so I gave up. So what I'm left with is this teeny tiny thing. :) (I'm trying to smile about it, but it still bugs me and I'm terrified I'll make another mistake on Winter's Eve tonight...)

Summer day

The weather was wonderful today, so DH and I decided to go out and enjoy it. We drove to a road that has a lot of historic houses (Tuusulan Rantatie) and had a look around there and ate lunch in an outdoor cafe. And then we drove to a small nature reserve we hadn't been to before (Lemmenlaakso). And it was wonderful! The sun was shining, it was warm and the area has lots of birds. I had our camera with me and took some pictures.






Now I'll go and stitch a bit on something. And I've also got a new knitting project :)

Random facts

Christine tagged me for the following meme.

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

And here are my random facts:
1. I like expensive handbags. Love them! Only have a few though... at the moment ;)
2. I love being at home. It's my favourite place in the whole wide world.
3. I like housework, except for vacuuming. Everytime I have to do it I become very angry. It's pretty ridiculous really.
4. I will only buy Nokia cell phones. And honestly believe they are the best :) I guess it's my way of being patriotic :)
5. I cannot go to sleep without seeing that the kitchen is clean (dishes in the diswasher and everything in its place, etc.) and without fluffing up the sofa cushion. I like a neat home even if I'm not seeing it.
6. The movie I've watched the most is Outbreak. It's a good movie, but nothing spectacular and it wouldn't reach my list of favourite movies, but for some reason I've seen this one over ten times!
7. At first I didn't want to read the Lord of the Rings at all (this was sometime before the movies), but my then-boyfriend-now-DH insisted and started reading it out loud to me. I got hooked and devoured most of the book in a very short time. Towards the end, I was so in love with the characters and the story that I didn't want it to end. So I savoured the last 150 pages or so and it took me almost a month to read them :)
8. I have played the violin when I was younger (and also the piano for a short time). My favourite instrument to listen to, however, is the flute.


Whew! These were difficult to come up with!
This has been going around for a while now, so Iäm sure most of you have already done this. If you haven't though, consider yourself tagged!

Grace

Here it is, finally!
I sewed the final seem on Saturday evening. It's simple and comfortable and very warm! Something I will for sure appreciate in October. At the moment it's almost +20C and sunny :)

The pattern is from Rowan magazzine #30. I did size S and ran out of yarn (hence the lack of edging on the neck) just a couple of rows short of finishing the second sleeve. You can't tell from the finished sweater, thankfully. So, I would definitely recommend that you get an extra ball if you're doing this!

Sorry for the short post. I got lumbago on Sunday and although I'm already feeling alot better, I can't sit for very long. Because of this I don't think I'll be able to participate in the SAL today... My apologies to Nicki.

Nothing

Since I last posted I've made another set of the coaster for another friend (also as a birthday present), but forgot to take a picture before I sent them off.

My wrist has been hurting a lot, so haven't done much knitting or crochet. Just a row here and there on Grace, and I did manage to finish of the last half of the second sleeve. Now I just need to put it all together.

On Monday I was happily stitching away on Winter's Eve. I finished part 3 (the gold backstitch) and moved onto part 4. Happily, that is until I noticed I'd made a mistake and not seen it... The mistake is indicated by the red arrow. I made four stitches when I should have done five. And as a result of making that mistake and not catching it sooner, I have to undo all those stitches inside the red line. It might not seem like a lot, but it did take me quite a while to do them (I find Kreinik braid very slow to stitch with). I didn't want to deal with it then so had to put it away. I took this picture yesterday, and I'm ashamed to say, I still haven't done anything to it. Maybe tomorrow. Definitely before next Monday.

New curtains

This post could have been titled "I Heart eBay", because I do. And I'm not talking about the great great bargains on knitting yarn I've occasionally had the luck of finding. Or the great clothes I've won or even the absolutely darling vintage mags I've found. This time I'm talking about these curtains I got recently.


I made this pelmet for our kitchen window this week. And I'm in love with it :)


And last month I got and sewed these for our study. The hems were pressed and all, so I just had to do the sewing. The fabric is by Laura Ashley and I got the two curtains and postage from the UK for the price of about one meter had I gone into the store to buy them. Plus this is an older pattern and it probably isn't on sale anymore.



They were just a tad too short, so I added a piece of cream fabric at the end. They are like made for our study :)


***
I want to thank every one for the nice comments you've left! It's nice to know I'm not alone in hating and avoiding parallel parking (not that I thought I was, because really, who wouldn't!). Also a big thank you to all who've left me ideas on how to use the pieces of lace!

ABC

I didn't have the best of days today (but nothing too bad happened). Just lots of little annoying things including, but not limited to, being in a constant rush, looking for a parking space for over 15 minutes and finally having to parallel park the car between two cars and right next to a concrete wall (and in the 8+ years I've been driving, I've done parallel parking exactly once...) and then being late, standing in line to apply for a new passport, going throught with the whole thing only to find out the passport photos I got, oh, about a year ago didn't have the correct proportions and having to go get new ones and then had to stand in line again to submit them, all the time being absolutely famished. But then I got home and had a little package waiting for me and in it was this:


I took part in the ABC exchange on the Stitching Blogger's BB and this is what
Nancy stitched for me. I think it is absolutely beautiful! I love the colors (and Nancy, I don't mind at all that it doesn't have the full alphabet :) )!

But there was more!


I also got a card, some alphabet stickers, some DMC (again, lovely colors!) and a very cute small chart! Thank you so so much, Nancy!

Since I know that Paula has received what I stitched for her, I think I'll share it with you, eventhough she hasn't posted a pic of it on her blog yet (I hope you don't mind, Paula?).


This is a very slightly modified version of a Barrick Samplers freebie called Five Birds.

Finally, I'll show you my progress on Winter's Eve (as before Nicki and I were stitching yesterday):

Part 3 just needs a bit of gold backstitching on the border and then it's on to part 4!

Rick-rack

It's been a while since I've sewed, but today I took out my sewing machine and made this. It was supposed to be my Tie one on piece for the March/April theme of rick-rack, but alas, time went by faster than I imagined, and I am now too late. I've had the materials for over a month, but for some reason, never got around to doing it until today.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I just love making these aprons. Normally, I always use a pattern to sew clothes, but for these aprons, I make my own. And they are a great way to experiment, learn and try out new things. This one, for example, was my first time using rick-rack.

Some stitching

First of here's my progress on Monday's SAL with Nicki. May Day (Tuesday) is a national holiday here in Finland and as we Finns like to celebrate everything also (and especially) on the eve of all holidays, I didn't have a lot of time to devote to stitching, but I did get a few stitchen in on the leaves.


I also took part in another SAL, the Christmas Ornament SAL. It's adapted from a Dames of the Needle pattern from the JCS 2003 ornament issue.