A finish

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was filled with food and treats :)
I got some nice presents, too. My mom gave me a subscription to Piecework. I've never read it as it's not available here, but I've wanted to for a long time now as it looks really interesting. Crafts and history, what could be better? :)

One of my gifts was this lovely ornament from Christine. Thank you so much! It's beautiful and hanging on our tree.



Here's another of the Christmas gifts I mentioned I was working on in December. It's Teresa Wentzler's Wedding Sampler. I started this before we got married and then stopped working on it for a while and this summer I decided to stitch it as a surprise for my husband. I've been working on it here and there when he hasn't been at home and quite intensively in November and December. I've left some things out and simplified the text part a bit (it does have our names but I seem to have blurred them quite thoroughly for this picture). There were two reasons for it: 1) I wouldn't have had enough time otherwise and, maybe more importantly, 2) my husband prefers simpler things.

Merry Christmas

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the jacket!



The house is cleaned and decorated, the (artificial) tree is up, treats have been baked, gifts wrapped and Christmas CDs are playing. This year's new find and favourite is Elvis's Christmas album.



And this year's favourite decorations (besides the tree, of course) are these Victorian Christmas cards.



It's time to quieten down and relax. Eat. Stitch. Knit. Read. Whatever one feels like doing.



I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it and if not a wonderful and quiet time during this darkest time of the year.

Breezy Cables

It's done! This is Breezy Cables from Interweave Knits Spring 2006 issue. I left the bobbles out but otherwise followed the instructions. I used Novita Isoveli yarn and needed (almost exactly) 750g of it. This has been the most complex and time-consuming knitting project I've ever done but it was still fun to knit and I really like it. First time I've done pockets, too! It has it's share of mistakes, but nothing I can't live with.

In the magazine they called this a jacket, but when I started knitting it, I was sure I could use it as a cardigan on cold winter days. Well, turns out that using a thick wool yarn to knit cables results in a really warm jacket. Even just wearing it for these photos made me hot! And I do usually wear sweaters and wool socks this time of the year. So a jacket it is.



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I completely forgot to take pictures of most of the super-secret Christmas things I've been doing, but I see Nicki has received hers and posted a picture on her blog.

Lovely things

Today I received a lovely surprise from Nicki. She was very generous and gave some of her charts away on her blog a while ago. I was lucky enough to get this beautiful Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such. She also send me some wonderful fabric! The Silkweaver's Cashel piece would be a good size for the Quaker Sampler. Thank you so much, Nicki! What a wonderful surprise!

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I recently got some new books. I liked these two so much that I wanted to show them to you. First one is a knitting book, Fitted Knits.



Out of the 25 projects, 10 were something I'd be happy to start right away. I can't, of course, so I've had to try to prioritize. These two are the top contenders at the moment and seem like something that would be great to wear in early spring.



This one seems like it would knit up fairly quickly, so it's a definite plus. I've been working on the cabled cardigan for soooo long, quick projects are sounding great at the moment!



But this one is just so beautiful... I'm torn, but luckily I don't have to make the decision yet :)


This is the other wonderful book, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. This is filled with simple (and not so simple) beautiful projects, arranged by the time it takes to do them. The birds shown on the cover are among my very favourites. Here's also a pic of the back cover, so you can see more of what's inside.

Christmas

It's that time of year again when blogging becomes very difficult, because nearly everything I do is meant to be a secret from someone. I am keeping myself busy by knitting and sewing and stitching and decorating and baking and relaxing. It was Finland's Independence Day on Thursday and DH was home from work on Friday as well, so I've also tried to have a bit of a holiday. We watched some movies and I've read books and magazines. We had friends over on Thursday and we played some board games with them. That's always fun.



Here's something I can show you, since these are just for me. I made these small patchworks starts after seeing a photo of similar ones in the latest Marie Claire Idées. The photos are awful, but the days are so lightless here now that I can't help it. Should have taken one by a window before I hung them up..

Almost a happy dance

I finished the stitching on Winter's Eve on Monday! I've still got some of the beading to do, though, so my happy dance isn't as grand as it could be :) Above you see a close-up of part 6 and below is what the bellpull in it's entirety. I think the white berries are my favourite bit!





I really enjoyed stitching on Taj as well during the past few weeks, but I didn't get that much done. This week I'm going to do some ornies and then finish Titania. I hope to do so before the end of the year, but if it doesn't happen, it's no big deal. On Mondays I'll be stitching on Evening in the Park (Mystery VIII) from now on.