Silken threads

Goodbye

2008-04-16T16:34:00.002+03:00

I've decided to stop blogging for now. It feels I have nothing to write about lately and I just end up feeling bad and worrying about not writing. I'm still stitching and knitting and sewing and enjoying it very much, but it seems my pace has slowed down or my project have gotten more time consuming. I might take up blogging again sometime in the future, but for now I'll just enjoy reading yours (and I hope I'll be more active in commenting)!

Thank you to all those who have visited my blog!

How do you like your eggs?

2008-03-10T14:13:00.012+02:00

With intricate patterns (slightly wobbly though)?

With simplistic dots?

Or do you prefer flowers?

Or perhaps something a bit retro?

Yep, my grand aunt organized another Ukranian eggs -day! You can read more about the method and the previous day here.

I'm back

2008-03-05T14:28:00.003+02:00

Rome was wonderful! It's crowded, it's noisy, it's a bit dirty, yes. But it's beautiful and the sights are amazing! I loved the Colosseum and the Forum, I loved the beautiful churches and the fountains that were, really, everywhere, the food was good and the wine was great, and so was the shopping :) I did even find one craft store that had both knitting and stitching stuff, but I didn't buy anything as the prices and the products were similar to what we have here. The weather wasn't great or that warm either, but it was better and warmer than here, so it was good :)

I bought one magazine called Casamia from a newstand. It's similar to Marie Claire Idées. It's a mix between a decorating magazine and a craft magazine. Eventhough I don't speak a word of Italian, I'm sure it'll give me lots of inspiration :)

Arrivederci

2008-02-23T20:16:00.002+02:00

Roma Scooter

I'm leaving for a much needed holiday soon. Will be back in a week :)

Blogs that make my day

2008-02-20T16:46:00.002+02:00

Christine named my blog as a blog that makes her day. Thank you, Christine! :) Now it's my turn to name 10 blogs that make my day. I naturally like all the blogs I read, but here are ten of them. I can't remember who's already been nominated, but does it matter? :)
I read all sorts of blogs, but these are all craft blogs.

Mtrl Girl's Material World
Plush
Poshyarns
Lennun tekeleet
Sharon's Cross Stitch Obsession
Cozy Egg
The Needle's Promise
Contemplating my needle and thread
They came from the LNS
Yarnstorm

Woohooo!!

2008-02-19T21:05:00.002+02:00

Finally, finally, finally! Titania is done. Ready. As in no more stitching or beading!! And she's pretty! And I'm way too excited to take a decent photo or wait for daylight. I want to show her off now :)

I started her ages ago. I've lost my notes on exactly when, but it says in my stash list that I got the chart in 2003... I know I didn't start immediately, though.

And below she's with Adia. I plan to frame them and hang them as a pair on our bedroom wall. I hope it happens soon :) Adia was, I think, my first "big" finish and she's been waiting patiently for Titania for 5 or 6 years (best not to think about it!).

Christine tagged me for a meme. I'll do that tomorrow!

Confessions

2008-02-05T12:14:00.001+02:00

I don't like my stitching at the moment. There. I said it. For one thing, there's not much actual stitching to do. Just beading, beading, beading.
Titania is stitched and I'm in the process of putting on the beads. And there's a lot of them. I've finished the stitching on Winter's Eve, ages ago, and am in the process of putting beads on it. And there's a lot of them there, too.

Then there's my Monday SAL, the above MVIII (Evening in the Park). And there's some beading left to do on the previous parts and the part I'm currently stitching is boring. Yes, I mean it, boring. I didn't want to say it, but I can't hide it anymore. The whole part uses just two colors. First I make the blue arrow-like things and then fill in the darker color. It looks great! But it bores me to tears. The above picture doesn't reflect the current state of the project. I've done a bit more, but still have one whole corner to do.

There is also Taj and while there would be lots of stitching to do here, there is also a bit of beading on part 1 left. And in any case, I don't feel comfortable starting a new piece or working on yet another one, when these are so close to being done...

So I haven't done much stitching. I have been knitting quite a bit, but it doesn't look like anything yet, so there's no picture.

Mittens

2008-01-20T18:52:00.000+02:00

I haven't yet shown you my first finish for this year. I got these mittens done almost two weeks ago now. I got the yarn from eBay last September and was going to knit long gloves from it. I didn't find any pattern that I would have been happy with, and having never knit gloves I wasn't brave enough to just wing it, so I made mittens instead. I used the flap-top mittens pattern from Handknit Holidays as my guide, but I didn't so the flap.
Since I'd purchased enough yarn for long gloves, but ended up doing normal mittens, I still have about 100g of the yarn left. Gotta find something to knit it into as I really like the yarn!

As for the picture... Well, DH bought a digital systems camera a while ago and we both like to go out and practice using it whenever we can (the rainy and super-cloudy weather we've had for, um, two months now doesn't give us that many opportunities). It rained a lot yesterday, so today we drove up to the rapids near us and they were gorgeous! After watching the rapids and DH photographing them for a while, I just stuck out my hands and told him to take a picture of them :)

Knitting review

2008-01-12T18:13:00.000+02:00

In 2007 I knitted the following items:

Moonlight cardigan
Legwarmers
Grace sweater
A Bamboo cardigan
Ballet camisole
A scarf
Breezy cables

The last one is the one I am most proud of as it is the most difficult thing I've knit. Thanks to the warm winter, I've already had a chance to wear it a few times.

It's hard to pick a favourite, though, I use them all quite often. Well, not the leg warmers that much and also the bamboo cardigan hasn't seen the light of day that often as it was sans buttons for most of the summer. I had expected to use the Ballet camisole a lot in summer, but I've actually worn it more often now during autumn and winter. It's great with a long-sleeved T-shirt or with a white dress shirt and a small silk scarf for when I need to look more put together. The Grace sweater and the Moonlight cardi are so warm and I wear them almost constantly (I'm wearing Moonlight right now).

As with last year's cross stitch accomplishments, it's not a lot in numbers, but I'm happy with them all and I think that's enough for me :)

Cross stitch review

2008-01-06T19:00:00.001+02:00

Here's the latest, and last, ornament I finished. It's from the 2007 ornament issue. This was done a few days after Christmas, still in 2007. This brings the total of orneis I made last year to four. And none of those got finished into actual ornaments. How sad is that?

Otherwise I had a decent stitching year. I finished:
Strawberry Garden
A small pillow
Sampler Mystery II
A card
An autumn needleroll
Winter's Eve (kind of)
Wedding Sampler

Plus a small exchange piece and a small Halloween ornament.

I worked on some of my WIPs and continued to neglect others. But I won't count those now :)

The New Year

2008-01-02T17:25:00.000+02:00

"I couldn't think of a better way to start the new year than with flowers," said a friend as she handed me this beautiful bouquet. I agree. And am lucky to have a very special start to the new year with lots of flowers in my home at the moment.

In addition to the bouquet and the poinsettias (white and red ones) which are still looking beautiful, this hyacint opened up on the last day of 2007 (and another one is just about to).
One of my orchids has started to bloom as well and it makes me very happy.

I'll be posting about my knitting and stitching plans for 2008 soon and I'm also soon going to show you some ornaments I've finished.

Happy New Year everyone!

A finish

2007-12-30T21:29:00.000+02:00

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

2007-12-23T19:26:00.000+02:00

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

2007-12-22T14:59:00.001+02:00

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

2007-12-13T20:11:00.000+02:00

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

2007-12-09T18:28:00.000+02:00

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

2007-12-05T21:43:00.000+02:00

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.

Winter's Eve

2007-11-27T18:41:00.000+02:00

Almost there! I think I can get it done next Monday. How about you, Nicki? Or did you alrady finish yours?

A finish and a WIP

2007-11-24T12:49:00.000+02:00

I finally got this autumn needleroll done last Friday. I still need to sew it up into a needleroll, though. The pattern is by San-Man Originals, a freebie I found years ago, so I don't know if it's still available or not. I used the Six Strand Sweets threads it called for. But I did skip some of the backstitching.

There's a SAL going on at the Chatelaine BB and I'm participating by stitching on my long neglected Taj Mahal Mandala. This is truly one of my favourite designs by Martina. I often find my self just staring at it instead of stitching :)

I'm currently working on parts 4,5 and 6 simultaneously. Here's the area I'm working on now.

The mysterious knitted roll

2007-11-22T17:15:00.000+02:00

The mysterious knitted roll is nothing exciting, just a plain scarf. But I like it :)And I still can't believe how quickly I did it! A bit on Saturday evening and a lot on Sunday and that was it. I had about 150g of the yarn and used 7mm needles. The yarn is Finnish and from this firm. The colors are a bit off in the photos because it was so dark. The actual color of the scarf is a very light grey. As I understood it this yarn has not been colored, so it's the natural color of the wool.

Craft fair

2007-11-20T16:29:00.000+02:00

This past weekend I went to Tampere to visit a friend and a craft fair. It was so much fun! As always. We've been going there for years now.

No photographs from the actual fair, but it was packed full of people. And there's always so much to see and do. Glean new ideas, get to know new crafts, admire the products of the artisans selling their stuff there (and buy some), browse new books and, of course, shop for craft supplies. This year my loot wasn't that sizeable, but I'm very happy with it :)

I got this French cross stitch mag from my favourite Finnish online cross stitch store. I was hoping to meet the owner, Lennu, who is a fellow blogger, but unfortunately she was having her lunch at the time I was in that area. I did meet her mom, though :)

I also got a bit of felting fleece. I saw these cute heart-shaped ornaments there and thought I'd give them a try. I've only felted once before and that was years and years ago in junior high.

I also got this. Or rather, the big skein of Finnish wool from which I knit this during Saturday evening and Sunday. I still need to steam it before I can show it to you properly.

WInter's Eve progress

2007-11-13T14:58:00.000+02:00

Sorry, I seem to have disappeared! First there was the unfortunate incident at the school in Jokela. It didn't touch me personally, but I did spend a couple of evenings just watching the news and reading about it online and talking about it. Then my mother came for a visit. And this weekend I was on a cruise to Stockholm with my friends. We had such a great time! We don't see each other that often since we live in different cities, so it was great to get to spend some time together.

Here's where I got to on Winter's Eve on Monday last week:

And here's where I am now:

I've also started doing the beading and worked on part 1 on both Mondays.

Winter's Eve

2007-11-03T10:51:00.000+02:00

I finished part 5 of Winter's Eve on Monday! Shall we start we part 6 next Monday, Nicki?

Here's what I did

2007-10-30T20:11:00.000+02:00

I'll start with an action shot :) Me in our kitchen cutting pine twigs.

Here are the results. I made pine twig balls and hung them on our balcony. I poked the twigs into the green thing you see hanging in the first picture (it's a thing you use to make floral arrangements with, in Finnish we call it "oasis brick"). The thing you see hanging on the wall (below) was inspired by this post.

I had extra twigs left over, so I covered a small table we have on our balcony with them and put pots of moss on it. This was inspired by someone's blog, but I can't remember whose. If you know, let me know too so I can give credit to the right place.

I also tied up a bunch of the reeds and other twigs, some with tiny cones, to make up an autumnal bouquet. I'm so happy to have gotten our balcony decorated for the autumn and winter with no money at all!

The final thing I did, was to put the pine cones into a jar.

City dwellers in the forest

2007-10-29T17:09:00.000+02:00

This Saturday DH and I drove to the west coast of Finland to help his parents clear their little plot of wilderness. They are thinking of building a summer cottage there.

The day was grey and dark, but luckily it didn't really rain. I walked and enjoyed the scenery. And admired the contrast between the rough stones and freshly cut trunks and branches and these willowy and soft reeds. I was told someone had recently seen a seal in the bay. I didn't see it but I did hear and see a big splash. I like to think it was the seal.

While I was going about enjoying the fresh air and the nature around me and taking lots of pictures, DH was busy actually doing something. He said he really enjoyed hacking away with the clearing saw.

Well, I did do something else besides just loitering around. I filled our trunk with pine twigs and all sorts of branches and reeds and pine cones. I'll show you tomorrow what I did with all of them.

And the chart goes to...

2007-10-26T13:44:00.000+03:00

Two people let me know that they would like to have Beneath the Sunlit Sky. I so wish I could send it to both of you, but I only have one chart :( I wrote the names down and tossed the pieces of paper around for a while and the name I picked up was Lee. I've sent you an email and as soon as I get your address, I'll be mailing it to you!

Collections

2007-10-25T12:45:00.000+03:00

Early this summer I found myself telling a friend how I always admired people's collections. Even if I didn't particularly like the thing they were collecting, just the idea of having a collection somehow appealed to me. And I was complaining that I didn't really have any. Sure, I have a quite sizeable collection of cross stitch charts (and decorating magazines) but I don't really see them as a collection. They weren't bought because they were charts, they were bought because I liked them and wanted to do them someday.

But a few weeks ago, it hit me. I DO have a collection! Small, but growing. I collect vintage and antique magazines. Preferable craft or women's magazines.

Here is my collection in it's entirety. Some are Finnish, some are British. The newest ones are from 1953 and most are from the 30's.

This and it's friend are my treasures. They are from 1897.

I also really like this Finnish women's magazine, Kotiliesi. I've got issues from the 20's and 30's and my favourites are those from the 20's. They are full of interesting and fascinating things to read. A real insight into what life was like. And a good reminder of how things never really change. There are articles in here reminiscing about the good old days, how Christmases used to be so much better and how there used to be much more snow during winters. And about how to find the time to do everything you want to and need to do.

Blackbird Designs

2007-10-22T16:56:00.000+03:00

Sharon responded to my post about my unsuccessful chart purchase and she was so super kind that she sent me the chart I was looking for, Blackbird Designs Awake the Dawning Day. I received it today. Thank you so much Sharon!

I think it'll look great with Strawberry Garden which I already have up on the wall!

Sharon didn't want the chart I mistakenly got and since I was so touched and inspired by her kindness and generosity, I thought I'd give the chart to someone who wants it. So, if you want to have the chart for Beneath the Sunlit Sky by Blackbird Designs, leave a comment saying so. If there's more than one, I'll put the names in a hat and do a draw :) I'll do this on Friday around noon, my time. If you've never commented, it doesn't matter. If I don't know your email, or it isn't on your profile or blog, leave that too so I can contact you.

Update

2007-10-18T20:32:00.000+03:00

I wasn't able to participate on the Winter's Eve SAL this Monday. I have had problems with my right shoulder for two months now. Initally the doctor I saw just ordered rest and painkillers (tablets and gel) and icepacks. Well, it helped but the pain didn't go away completely. After x-rays and ultrasound, he tought it best to give me a cortisone injection. And he did that on Monday. By evening, the anesthetic had worn off and the whole of my right arm was really really sore (from the shot). I couldn't do anything. Moving it was so painful I almost cried, but at the same time, I couldn't help laughing. I felt so silly not being able to turn the pages of a magazine or dry my face in a towel -everyday things really that don't even require strenght! Now I'm feeling MUCH better and I'm fairly optimistic that by the end of the week, the shoulder will finally feel normal.

Before that, though, I had a sudden urge to stitch something small for fall / Halloween. So, I stitched up the small ornament you see here on the left. I sewed it up today along with the needleroll (which I stitched last October). The ornament was a freebie on the Homespun Elegance website some years back and the Spooky Time is by Lavender Wings (also a free pattern). I just reread the post where I had just finished it and where I mention that "I think I'll sew it up into an ornament tomorrow." Well, that didn't quite happen! Lol, the best of intention...

And here's where I got to in my autumn needleroll last week.

And finally, here's a picture of my knitting project. The back is finished and the left front is started. This is taking a bit longer than I expected, but I'm enjoying it very much! The pattern is called Breezy Cables and it's from Interweave Knits Spring 2006.

Kitchen

2007-10-15T17:19:00.000+03:00

Thanks for all the comments on the new look!

You've seen the bedroom and the hallway and today I want to show you my kitchen. Having lived with white walls for years and years in our previous apartments (rental, so we couldn't paint or wallpaper), we decided to paint the kitchen with color. During those white walls years, I'd read and reread a huge pile of decorating magazines and daydreamed about what colors to use when I'd finally have a chance to use paint. I'd settled on a green kitchen, so we went and searched for the perfect color. This wasn't the exact shade I had in mind, but I love it and I'm so happy with it!

Here is the view from the door.

And moving in a clock-wise direction, here is the kitchen from the next corner. The stove and oven are behind me.

Here's a view from the window-side of the room. Through the doorway, you can see across the hall and into the living room.

Here you can see the cabinets. They and the tiles are a lovely soft grey color (were here when we bought the apartment) and I think they go really well with the green on the walls. Other colors in the kitchen are white and pale wood.

I took an extra photo of this shelf-cabinet thing, because it's my favourite thing in the kitchen. It was made by my father's grandfather. My parents moved and redecorated a few years ago and suddenly didn't have a place for this. I volunteered to take it and my dad was happy to keep it in the family :) It holds many things that are dear to me: my small collection of Moomintroll mugs (I don't like the newer ones, so that's why it's so small), things picked up on our travels or gifted to us, along with a few photographs. To mention a few things, on the table top you see one of my first cross stitch pieces (Teresa Wenzler's Tempest) and a cookie jar my grand aunt made for me.

So, that's my kitchen. Compared to a lot of other kitchens, it's small, but it's the largest one I've had yet and at the moment, it's working for us just fine :)

New look

2007-10-13T20:31:00.000+03:00

I decided it was finally time to change the look of my blog. It's been the same since I started it, almost two years ago! I also updated my blogroll and my other links to include links to all the SALs etc. that I'm taking part in.

Progress on Titania

2007-10-11T08:47:00.000+03:00

Last week I made some progress on Titania. I also particiapted on my Monday SAL with Nicki. I did a whole bunch more of the eyelets on part 5, but it doesn't look much different than last week, so I didn't take a picture. This week I'll work on the autumn needleroll.

Candles

2007-10-04T20:15:00.001+03:00

I have always loved candles and every autumn and winter I go through lots of them in our home. But this autumn, I'm really utterly in love with them :) Here are pictures from our living room yesterday evening.

This chandelier was a gift from my mom. We were shopping together for Christmas presents and I saw this one (it was on sale, too) and she said she'd buy it for me instead of getting us some flowers (she was coming to our house for dinner afterwards). I happily accepted. It wasn't hung in our previous appartment since we didn't have a proper place for it, but now it's in our living room and I love it! We went to Ikea last night to buy candles and came home with 150 of them :) !

These two lanterns were also a gift. A friend gave them to me when we moved here. They are on our balcony and you can see them through the living room window.

These two are on top of the cabinet that holds our TV. It's nice to light the candles when watching TV. They provide such a nice light and make the glare of the TV less hard on your eyes.

Candles really give out a lot of light. Something I didn't really realize until I started using the chandelier. DH's comment to this was: "Did you think they burned candles just for ambience 200 years ago?" :)

Things

2007-10-03T22:05:00.000+03:00

Here's a picture of my progress on Monday's SAL with Nicki. Nicki is working on Mystery VIII at the moment and once I'm done with part 5 we'll do part 6 together and then continue our SAL with us both working on Mystery VIII. So I thought I'd show you what mine looks like at the moment:

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Last week while on a walk, I collected some pretty leaves from the ground. I put them between the pages of a heavy book to dry them out. On Monday I took them out and made them into a small garland and hung it on our living room door.

Tiny flowers

2007-09-28T19:51:00.000+03:00

I finally made a cloth for the palm's pot yesterday. I took some unbleached cotton and sewed the edges on a sewing machine. Then I chose a small embroidery pattern from one of my vintage craft magazines and then I embroidered them on the corners of the cloth. I used silk threads from my stash. I also added a green running stitch. It's nothing glamorous, but it's not plain either :)

Quick stitching update

2007-09-26T19:17:00.000+03:00

I'm on to part 5 in the Winter's Eve SAL with Nicki.

I've also been stitching a bit on the autumn needleroll.

Crochet

2007-09-24T22:13:00.000+03:00

So I started the crochet thing on Saturday and on Sunday evening I was done. Well, almost. I really enjoyed crocheting again! It's been a while since I've done that. And now I think I'm going to have to find some time to do some more :)

My plan was to do four small squares and join them into one big doily to put under the pot of our new palm tree. I was thrilled to have it nearly finished and went to show it to DH. He said it was far too pretty to be put on the floor under a pot were we won't see it at all (only the very ends of the corners would be showing).

After a while I kinda agreed with him and instead of joining the squares together I decided to use them as individual smaller doilies. I put them under the flower pots on our desk. The miniature rose and the two African violets we've had there forever.

They are a perfect size for this job. And I've been meaning to crochet doilies for this purpose for a long time now anyway. Now I've just got to come up with a new plan for the palm. I'm thinking something involving embroidery... I hope I find the time this week to make it into a reality :)

What I've been doing lately

2007-09-22T18:15:00.000+03:00

I've baked. I made granola (again) and this lingonberry pie.

I've read. Currently I'm reading this great book by Daniel Pool. I really enjoy books from the Victorian era (and earlier), and this will help me to understand them even better. It tells about the habits and customs people had then as well as the etiquette and things to do with everyday life like money and measurements. On the background on the floor you can see my cabled cardigan. It's progressing quite nicely.

I've also taken my little pumpkins out. I bought them last year and managed to dry them so they are still good for displaying.

Today, DH and I went shopping for plants and came home with a mini rose (is that what these small potted roses are called?) for the study.

And a cyclamen for the living room. These are my favourite plants to buy in the fall. The colors of the flowers are so bright and beautiful! According to my house plant book, you should be able to grow them year round indoors, but I've never managed that. I think the most I've gotten out of them is about three months before they have died. And that was in a different house. We'll see how long this one lasts.

On the right you can see the third thing we brought home. A rather large palm (my dictionary gives two English names for it: areca palm and golden yellow palm). I love, love, love it! I've wanted one for a long time now. The pot is on the floor and naturally it needs a cloth underneath it. Since I have some crochet yarn and a hook, I figured I might as well make it myself, rather than spend time and money looking for one from the stores (or eBay) :) I've already started it.

Weekly stitching update

2007-09-18T21:19:00.001+03:00

Time for an update, I think. Last week I stitched on Titania and this is how she looks now. Getting close but not quite there yet.

Yesterday I stitched on Winter's Eve, as I usually do on Mondays. I think next week I'm going to get to start part 5. I'll have to do the beading at some point though and there are a lot of beads in this one!

Apologies for the bad pictures, the lighting was far from ideal when I took these but I just didn't want to wait until tomorrow.

New Stash

2007-09-17T19:01:00.000+03:00

The first sign of Christmas arrived today!

Every year I order this magazine and every year I'm just as excited to receive it. I though the issue this year was really good. Just by flipping through it, while having my afternoon tea, I saw many ornaments I want to stitch! I'm sure a closer perusal will show me many more. I was also a bit embarrased to realize that despite my best intentions, so far, I haven't gotten many ornaments done this year... Well, I still have time, right?

I also got this chart, Words to Live By by With My Needle.

And this, which isn't exactly what it was supposed to be. I meant to order Awake the Dawning Day (same designer), but this is what I got. I immediately went to see the order comfirmation I'd gotten when placing the order several weeks ago (I pre-ordered the mag) and sure enough, there it was too. I don't get how after carefully thinking about my purchase, I still manage to click on the wrong chart! And then let the order confirmation just sit in my inbox without even glancing at it! Oh, it would have been soooo easy to just read through it and correct the mistake before my order was sent to me. I'm quite angry with myself. The shop will let me return it, but I have to pay the postage for sending it back and for the new chart (naturally since it was my mistake) plus a restocking fee.

Don't get me wrong, this is a very pretty chart as well, but I want to stick with my new stitching philosphy of only getting charts I'm absolutely positive I want to stitch and have a place in mind for the finished project. Does anyone have the Awake the Dawning Day they don't need (or won't need after stitching it)? Would you want to do a swap? If not, I'm not sure if I should return it or sell it and by the other chart later on.

New knitting projects

2007-09-12T16:41:00.000+03:00

Finally back to feeling normal! While I've been away, I have done the occasional stitch (I did take part in the Monday SAL with Nicki), but got so little done, it wasn't worth photographing. And I've been knitting a bit too. Here's the beginning of a cabled cardigan.

And here's what I will do after I have it done. Long gloves. Yes, I did cast on already, but it was only to test the yarn. I'm honestly not going to work on it until the cardigan is done! :) The yarn was a find from eBay. It's 100% cashmere! (So, you see, I just had to try it!)

***

I'll try to catch up with everyone's blogs in the next couple of days :)

I'm here!

2007-09-04T20:46:00.000+03:00

Just a quick post to let you know I'm still here! Another week has gone by without a post. We've had overnight guests twice during the past week. And I have been slightly ill and still am. I have really enjoyed these past few weeks (apart from being ill), but I have to admit, I'm starting to feel a bit tired and miss my crafting time. I also want to get back to posting more frequently and having the time to keep up with everyone else's blogs.

Stitching update

2007-08-29T17:13:00.001+03:00

I've been quite busy lately. Visiting people, having visitors, meeting new people, all sorts of events, our wedding anniversary and just loads and loads of fun stuff. It's nice to be busy with nice things for a change! Although I haven't had much time for blogging, I have managed to stitch and knit a bit. And here's what I stitched last week.

First, the autumn needleroll. It's not much, but it's a start!

And then the SAL with Nicki.

In the kitchen

2007-08-23T19:34:00.001+03:00

Yesterday we had quite a thunderstorm here. The sky went completely dark, it was like night. And the lightnings were constantly flashing down from the sky. The rain continued for hours after the storm calmed down. It was pretty scary, but also beautiful! And I thought it was just the perfect weather to be puttering around in the kitchen.

I made a small jar of mustard, a batch of granola (this is really good, I make it all the time!) and several trays full of korvapuusti. They are a traditional Finnish treat, a bun with cinnamon and sugar.

And I had these lovely little "suns" to cheer me up and light the kitchen. The color really is so bright they seem to emit light!

Stitching update

2007-08-22T19:46:00.000+03:00

This is how my Titania looks after stitching on her last week. And below you see my progress on Winter's Eve. Still on part 4, but I've already gotten some of the speciality stitches done.

Here you can see where I was last week. This week, I'm starting an autumn needleroll that's part of a series (I've already got spring and summer done). It'll also be my autumn piece for the new seasonal SAL I've joined :)

Ballet camisole

2007-08-20T21:06:00.000+03:00

I finished the yellow top on Saturday (and wore it on Sunday).

The pattern is from MagKnits. I didn't do the gathering at the neckline. I tried to, several times, but I couldn't get it to look nice. I used Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere and really liked the yarn (I used about 5 and a half balls). It's a bit softer than 100% cotton and it's also surprisingly warm. I think I'll wear it in fall and winter too with a shirt underneath.

Fall knitting

2007-08-18T22:02:00.000+03:00

This week I got the newest Rowan magazine in the mail. And I love it! I'm so glad I ordered it, because it has so many patterns I want to make.

It also got me thinking about my fall knitting. I went through all the mags and books I have and chose the ones I most want to make, keeping in mind also the current fashions. And I compiled a list. From the new Rowan mag this dress got on it:

And also this thing, called Helsinki Hat Scarf. How can I resist a pattern like that? :) In addition to the great name, it looks very interesting, pretty and warm. The name already tells you it's a mix between a hat and a scarf, but I'd also add a vest in there too! Hope I have the time to make it!

Among the patterns that I wish to get to one day is this absolutely gorgeous long coat:

One of the collections was called "Highlander" (the dress and coat are from it), and the photographs were so beautiful! I really have to get to Scotland some day.

Stitching

2007-08-14T17:59:00.000+03:00

Here is where I was with Winter's Eve. And here's where I am now:

Usually when I stitch I have the TV on, but yesterday I just in the quiet living room and it was actually really nice. It gives you a lot of time to think. And sometimes that is just what I need.

So, moving on in my new rotation. Here's Titania:

Starting from today, I'll be working on her until next Monday.

Rotation thoughts

2007-08-12T20:15:00.000+03:00

I love flowers and I love taking pictures of them :) DH's parents came for a visit yesterday, so I bought these to decorate the table.

Today I have been thinking about my stitching. It really bothers me that I have lots of supplies and patterns and even WIPs, and I do stitch, but yet we have bare walls in our apartment. And those seasonal series with only one part finished aren't making me happy either.

So, today I decided to do something about it. I took out all of my charts and WIPs and went through them putting them into piles according to which room they are meant to be in. Then I put them in the order of how badly I want to do them. Those that I did not wish to stitch that badly or didn't know where I would put them once done went into a pile of their own and I will have to go through it later to see which ones I'm ready to sell/give away. I'll also have to go through my wish list with the same scrutinizing eye :) Having that done and knowing what I had and what I would do, already made me feel much better.

When I started stitching, I had large rotation (up to 10 WIPs), but now, especially with my knitting, it just feels too much. So, I decided to have a two-week rotation with three pieces. On Mondays I'll continue to do the SAL with Nicki and then for the rest of the week I will stitch on something else. On Monday it's the SAL again and then the rest of that week will be a third project. I'll start with Titania and an autumn needleroll. If I feel like I've made good progress or deem it otherwise necessary, I can occasionally do smaller items outside my list (like Christmas ornies!).

Let's see how I'll manage :)

Home improvements

2007-08-08T19:58:00.000+03:00

I think seeing all those beautiful things on our trip made as want to have beautiful things around us at home too. I don't know, but for the past week we have really been doing a lot of stuff here.

It all started when DH finally put up the board for this valance. We've had it for six months I think! And I finally sewed the valance (I've had the fabric for it since I did the curtains. It's the same fabric as I put on the bottom of them.

The I decided to finish the window treatments for the living room window as well instead of just picturing it there in my mind. I went fabric shopping and after browsing my decorating magazines, came up with this. After taking this picture I added tassels to the very ends. I know the picture is really bad, but I hope you get an idea of what it looks like. The sun was shining really brightly today as you can see from both of these pictures! Which was lovely, of course, but not very good for photographing curtains..

Now I'm lenghtening the curtains we've had up in our living room for about a year. Why haven't I done this before? That's a really good question.

DH has been doing things too! We got the small table on the left in Germany from a small antiques/repair shop somewhere (we were just driving through some villages and I saw the sign). It has beautiful legs and was in excellent condition, except for the top, which was in two pieces and had burn marks and the varnish peeling off. So DH sanded it and glued it together and put on fresh varnish. The other table is from my childhood home. It didn't suit my parents decor anymore when they last moved and they gave it to us. The top was again in bad shape, with ring marks (from flowerpots, I guess) and the varnish was strangely a lot lighter than the rest of the table, so he sanded and varnished it too.

Despite being busy with the apartment, we've still had time to enjoy the beautiful summer weather we've been having lately. Here's small posy I gathered from a nearby meadow today.

More about the trip

2007-08-03T22:58:00.000+03:00

Okay, I think I’ve now caught up on every blog on my Favourites folder. If I haven’t left a comment, I apologise, but there was a lot to read! Everyone’s been really busy and productive this past month!

During our trip, I didn’t get to do much crafting. I didn’t take any stitching with me (I know, gasp!, but I can’t stitch in a moving car without getting carsick). I did take two knitting projects with me anticipating to get a lot of knitting done during all that driving from one place to another, but surprisingly I was too engrossed in the landscapes to dig my needles out. I only got a small start on this top (most of what you see here has been done during the few days we’ve been home):

But I did not forget my dear hobbies! I knew there was a Zweigart factory oulet somewhere in Germany and before we left I emailed them for directions and opening times (it’s near Stuttgart in a town called Sindelfingen). And then, one morning we were there! And it was wonderful! One wall was lined up with all the possible colors of linen and Lugana… Truly a lovely sight to see (why didn’t I take a picture??) and just anything and everything that Zweigart does. What I found the most interesting though, were the discount baskets (and there were lots of those too) and as you can see from the picture, I took a bundle of them home :)

I was surprised to see that they also sold knitting yarn there and I picked up there 100% alpaca balls for a bargain price of 1.50€ each (why oh why didn’t I buy more?). I also got some dinner napkins (I think they are cotton or cotton-linen) for 1€/each, which I thought was a good price.

It was a wonderful experience visiting that store, and my dear husband didn’t once complain that I was taking too long (or buying too much!). :)

I didn’t see any (other) cross stitch stores on our trip, but I did see quite a lot of yarn stores. The sad thing is, I only saw them when they were closed. But the good thing (?) is that most of what I saw through the windows were yarns that I can get here as well. It made me quite happy to realize that even if we are the worst country in the world when it comes to stitching supplies (I might be exaggerating here a bit, but not much), we have it pretty good in terms of knitting supplies (except American yarn, which is virtually non-existent here).

Home again

2007-07-31T11:26:00.000+03:00

We got back home late on Sunday evening. We had an amazing trip. We spent most of our time in Germany, with a four day visit to Austria to see our friends there (actually one of those days was mostly spent in the Czech Republic) and a four day visit to France.

My favourite things, although they are hard to pick, were:

...going to the world's largest medieval knight tournament in Kaltenberg (Germany). There was a huge market there and a fantastic two-hour show with very gifted riders.

...visiting the Moët & Chandon champagne house in Épernay (France).

...and I really enjoyed our visits to old palaces (I could have gone to lots more): Charlottenburg (in Berlin), Neuschwanstein (in Füssen, Germany), Fontainebleau and one in Krumlov in the Czech Republic (I can't remember the name of it right now). The picture above is from Fontainebleau. Sadly, you weren't allowed to photograph inside any of the castles, palaces or forts in Germany.

And in general, I just loved walking in the old city centers of various towns and looking at the beautiful houses and knowing that some pretty well known people had possibly walked in the same exact spot and seen the same things (we visited, for example the hometowns of Bach and Luther). The picture is from Quedlingburg and the buildings date back to the Middle Ages.

We also visited several WWII and Cold War sites, including a concentration camp (Sachsenhausen near Berlin), which were interesting and, I think, well worth a visit, eventhough they made me feel very sad.

The weather wasn't really co-operating with us. For more than a week it was cold, windy and rainy, which was okay for driving in our non-air-conditioned car, but not so great for sight-seeing (especially if you forget to pack a jacket) and then the temperature decided to jump up by a whopping 20C and it was suddenly unbearably hot (around 35C) for a week.

Have a wonderful July

2007-07-03T13:53:00.000+03:00

We're getting ready to leave. Just wanted to come over here quickly and wish you all a wonderful July! I'll be back by the end of it.

A summer cardigan

2007-07-02T13:32:00.000+03:00

I finished this striped cardigan yesterday evening. I didn't have any buttons that were suitable and a quick stop at the nearest shop that sells buttons also resulted in nothing. So I closed it with pins for the photos. I'll be packing it and a needle and thread in my suitcase and hope I find something suitable :) I mean, I'll be going to the craft shops (fabric, yarn, cross stitch supplies...) anyway, so might as well buy something I actually need instead of just enhancing my stash. Though, I suspect I'll be doing that also.

The pattern for the cardi is from the latest issue of Novita (a Finnish yarn company that also publishes a magazine) and I used the yarn specified on the pattern (Novita Bambu) which is a lovely bamboo-cotton mix (the yarn is held double for this pattern, so it's not really that thick). It's soft, it has a nice sheen and it's not as heavy as pure cotton would be. I had to make some adjustements to the number stitches to get the right gauge, but it went surprisingly well. All in all, I'm very statisfied with it.

Oh, and to those who might be making this. I made the smallest size and had 3 extra balls of yarn (1 of the main color and two of the other).

The Picnic Quilt

2007-06-29T19:46:00.000+03:00

I finished my picnic quilt this week. I found the backing fabric at a really great price! And I think it looks yummy enough to eat :) As DH said, it'll be a shame to put that on the ground. But I intend to anyway. I made this quilt to be used.

I've always quilted my quilts, but this time I decided to try something else. I used a needle to pull through some thick cotton yarn at intervals and then tied the ends at the back side(several knots and a bow).

This may or may not get in the car with us when we head to France and Germany next week. We've planned on having picnic lunches on the days we drive, but this thing really is quite huge (2 meters per side and quite a thick batting) so we might leave it home to have more room for other things.

Winter's Eve

2007-06-26T22:35:00.000+03:00

Here's the latest pic.
A great big thank you to Nicki for helping me out with the Kreinik!

New skirt

2007-06-20T20:56:00.000+03:00

I made this skirt today. The fabric is a wonderful soft linen I bought in Shanghai last summer. The pattern is from a Finnish craft/sewing magazine (Suuri Käsityölehti 5/2007). I made it a bit shorter as the original one was to about mid-calf. This one is just below my knees, the photo makes it look longer and it also makes my legs look really short (oh and please please please ignore my scrunched socks!). It was fun to make, except for the hem which I always find so difficult to do. The crinkle things are on the back as well (the pattern had a total of seven per side, but as I shortened it, I decided to leave two of them out).

***

Today I realized that it was already Wednesday, which means that Monday was the day before yesterday and I hadn't noticed it, which in turn means that I missed and forgot about the SAL. I'm so sorry Nicki! I'll try my best to be extra industrious next week.

Crochet rug

2007-06-16T08:44:00.000+03:00

I finished this yesterday for our balcony. I really like the texture of it (the first pic is trying to show it), and the coloring. It was quite easy to do, although quite tiring for the hands. I used a 10mm hook. Even so, I think I'll buy a sheet or something from a thrift store and do another one later on.
Here's another pic, with my foot to show the size.

Latest pic of Winter's Eve

2007-06-12T20:26:00.000+03:00

Ran out of the braid..

The blue pillow

2007-06-11T21:46:00.000+03:00

Christine asked to see a better picture of this pillow (on the bed in the previous post). It's the first part of Pamela Kellogg's Winter Into Spring Mystery. It's a few years old, and I don't know if the pattern is available anymore. It has three more parts, and naturally, I've been meaning to do them ever since I finished this one. One day, one day...

Here's one corner in more detail.

This is where I sleep

2007-06-08T15:20:00.000+03:00

I realized, that although I love looking at pictures of other people's homes, I've hardly shown any pictures of mine. You've only properly seen the hallway. The rest of the house has been coming together gradually and it's almost done, so I thought I'd show you some pictures of our bedroom.

The bed is probably the spot that has the highest concentration of things I've made in our home. I've done the bedspread (I hand quilted it; I was crazy!), the nap quilt, some cross-stitched pillows and Bertil. You can also see the stars hanging from the headboard. I'm thinking of taking them down, though, because they seem a bit wintery to me. Oh, and on the nightstand on the right side (my side) you can see a bit of the lovely wedding sampler DH and I got from Christine!
I've also done the crochet doilies that are on the nightstands (and slightly visible in some of the pics).

This photo shows that I do have some framed cross stitching on the walls, too! It's the Bride by Lavender and Lace.

This pic is taken from the window and towards the door, through which you can see the hallway and the blue wall of our study. Oh, and my small teddy bear collection (from around the world). And you might also notice that the chair by the door has some of the wool socks I've done and a cardigan as well (I think it's also time to pack those wool socks away!). The pink knitted shawl is a gift from a friend.

And these are some of my favourite things in our bedroom. Some old lace, my wedding bouquet, the wooden horse and two victorian antique prints.

What I still want to do is get a new carpet/rug to replace the beige one with the stripes. And I want to put more stitching on the walls :)

A bunch of flowers

2007-06-06T18:13:00.000+03:00

I can't believe a whole week has gone by since I last blogged! It's been a busy week, though. DH's American friend works on a cruise ship and the ship happened to dock here in Helsinki last week and we got to spend the day with him and his girlfriend. And we got a tour of the huge boat!
My brother graduated last Friday and my mom threw a party for him. And on Saturday we had my cousin's high school graduation party. So it's been fun :)

Today I got a lovely bunch of flowers!

Marc Saastad of Silver Lining had a sale and I ordered some. I'm not really supposed to spend money on (any) craft supplies at the moment, I want to use what I've got, but these were such a bargain I couldn't resist :)
From the top left: Audrey, Paphiopedilum, Queen of Roses, Laura, Summertime Blues and Ingrid

And here's the latest picture of Winter's Eve. It'll be at least one more week with just the gold braid.

Winter's Eve

2007-05-30T21:42:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-28T21:06:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-27T19:06:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-23T18:43:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-21T14:39:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-16T23:26:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-10T21:03:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-08T22:01:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-04T18:23:00.000+03:00

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

2007-05-03T17:59:00.000+03:00

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.

I need your help

2007-04-27T18:49:00.000+03:00

Recently my mom gave me these beautiful lace trims (except for the largest one, which was a thrift store find). Most of them were handmade by my father's mother, the rest are vintage machine made ones. They are of different lengths and widths. I brought them home, gave them a bleach bath, hung them to dry and ironed out all the wrinkles.

The thrift store runner is in use at the moment, but as for the rest of them... I have a couple of ideas, but I'd like to hear how you would use them or what kind of ideas do you have for me, if lace isn't your thing. If possible, I'd like to not cut the handmade ones.

New pic of Winter's Eve

2007-04-24T20:46:00.000+03:00

As promised, here's the latest pic of my Winter's Eve, the SAL I'm doing with Nicki on Mondays. I got all the little eyelets done on the border and worked a bit more on the green leaves.

Winter's Eve progress

2007-04-21T11:18:00.000+03:00

Just a quick post to show you where I am on WInter's Eve. Working on part 3 at the moment. I'll get back to it on Monday, the actual SAL date, although Nicki might not be able to make it.

Coasters

2007-04-19T20:38:00.000+03:00

In my last post, I was hoping for rain and now we have it! DH thinks I'm nuts for wanting it to rain, but at least Christine seems to share my view :) Besides being good for nature, and washing that horrible dust off, it's now almost 9 pm and there's a good chance it'll still be raining when I go to bed. I love listening to the sound of rain. We live on the highest floor so can hear the rain on the roof.

Today I went rummaging in my fabric stash, took out my sewing machine and made these. They are coasters for my friend who has her birthday on Saturday. I followed these instructions. They were easy to make, until I got to the part where I had to flip them over, but I managed that too. I think my problem was that I used fabric that was too thick.

Spring

2007-04-16T16:09:00.000+03:00

The snow melted over a month ago. It's been warm, then cooler again, and now it's really warm (for spring that is), close to 20C. It hasn't rained a drop in all that time, so nature is still pretty much sleeping, but the sun has lured out some signs of life and spring.

These flowers are blooming in great quantities all over the forest. The ground is still pretty much covered in leaves from last fall and these are like little jewels scattered on the brown and grey ground.

And some trees are unfurling their leaves! I hope it will rain soon. I think the landscape will turn green in no time after that.

And here's a WIP pic of the ripple blanket. It's 44 inches (111 cm) wide and at the moment 10 inches (25 cm) long.

New fabric and WIP

2007-04-12T19:59:00.000+03:00

The fabir is new, the WIP is not :)
I finally got the fabric that I ordered with the Silkweaver's GC Christine gave me for my birthday. It's Lugana and the color is Smoky Blue. A really beautiful blue color. Here it is with the Waterlilies and Kreiniks that are used in Mirabilia's My Lady's Garden. Aren't the Waterlilies yummy?

And here's a WIP pic of Grace. The back is done and the front halfway. I had thought I'd had more done by now.. But I'm still loving it :) The colors look a bit dull in this pic, it's quite vibrant in real life.

Been busy

2007-04-10T20:58:00.000+03:00

I've been busy in a good way and in a bad way. And I've been tired and lazy. I've been a bad blogger and a bad crafter :) Or rather, when I've been knitting or stitching or doing something else with my hands, I've been working on my bigger projects and there's nothing new to show you. A week ago on Monday I did stitch on Winter's Eve, but so little I didn't think it worth a photo. This past Monday I was madly knitting away, as it dawned on me on Sunday that my cousin's baby girl is going to be one-year-old tomorrow and I just had to get her a present in the mail today. I knit her a small hat. And as it happens, forgot to take a picture of it.

So all I've got to show for you are these smaller than small Easter chicks I did recently (the directions adapted from Martha Stewart). This week, I think, I'm going to be showing you WIP photos of the various things I've got going. Maybe that'll be an insentive to do something :) I'm probably going to do a bit of sewing as well. I've got the material for another apron and I think I'd like to do a skirt too.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-05T14:36:00.000+03:00

Easter eggs

2007-04-01T21:11:00.000+03:00

I had a wonderful Saturday at my great aunt's house with my mom, cousin and aunts. We decorated Easter eggs using a Ukrainian method. In it you cover the egg in melted beeswax in different patterns and then dip it in a color mixture. This can be repeated many times thus creating complex (or just simple, like mine) patterns on the eggs. Finally, the wax is melted from the egg. Unless you want to use the gold dust, which is dapped on to the wax to create an embossing.

You can read more about the process and see beautiful eggs here (or just google "Ukrainian eggs"). On that site the directions have you using a special "pen", but mine are mostly done with pin heads and small cut feathers. Anyway, the basic method is the same. You dip your instrument in the melted beeswax and put it on the egg in places where you want the color that is currently on the egg to show. Then you dip it in another dye and repeat.

Rag rug

2007-03-29T18:22:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, at my knit club meeting, we learned about how to use crochet to make items you can use (like baskets, rugs, bags) from rags (selfmade or bought). I used one of our old curtains and started to make a rag rug out of it. The cutting takes up a LOT of time, so I didn't get it all done before the class, but I had enough to start with. And now I'm in the process of cutting up the rest of the curtain and purchasing a hook that's big enough.

I know I've got about a gazillion projects going on at the moment and that I don't seem to be making any progress in any of them. But I do enjoy them all :) This weekend I'm going over to my great-aunt's house. She's going to teach me and the rest of my female relatives an Easter craft. I don't know exactly what, but it involves empty egg shells. I've been baking a lot this week in order to have lots of egg shells to take with me :)

Part 2 is done

2007-03-27T21:53:00.000+03:00

I did it! I got part two done and I think it is quite pretty. Next week I get to start part 3 :) Nicki has switched to stitching Mystery VIII for now and will do part 6 of this one together with me once I get that far and then we'll both continue with Mystery VIII.

New projects

2007-03-22T18:29:00.000+02:00

I've been working on some new projects lately (besides stitching my WIPs).

First, there's this. My ripple blanket. Inspired by the two lovely blankets made by Jane of Yarnstorm and by Alicia's humongous bedspread. It's wonderful and so simple. I'm using the odd balls from my stash and some I've bought specifically for this project. Most of what I had was different shades of blue and green and I wanted to add a bit of pink and yellow too.

The second project is this. A sweater from one of the Rowan magazines. I'm using Kid Classic in Sandstone and I love both the feel and look of the yarn as well as the color (although it may be more appropriate for autumn than spring). This'll be my last "warm" knit for now. After this I'm doing some spring and summer projects. Or that's the plan, anyway.

SAL update

2007-03-20T22:18:00.000+02:00

Here's my progress on my SAL with Nicki.
Looks a lot like it did last week, doesn't it? But I have been stitching. If you look at it closely, you can see that I've done the half-stitch "shadows" on the doves. The thread blends with my fabric really well, so it isn't very visible, in the picture at least. But in real life it does give a nice subtle effect and that's why I kept going. This close-up will perhaps show it a bit better.

Next Monday I hope to finish part 2, but we'll see how it goes.

Signs of spring

2007-03-19T17:43:00.000+02:00

The weather outside is, well, spring-like. But not the nice kind. Yesterday we got lots and lots of slush. And since it is above zero, it's melting and pooling and being annoying.. Not something that tempts you to go outside.

But there are signs of spring, different kind of signs. It is time to repot indoor plants. Give them a dose of fresh, new soil and nutrients. To cut away the dried bits and give a good trim to those overgrown. And to see them soon sprout out new leaves and maybe even a bloom or two to celebrate the coming of warm and sunny days.

And that's what I've been doing today. I got most of it done, but a few plants need new pots still.

Just a quick post

2007-03-14T14:36:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post to show you what I got done this Monday on my Winter's Eve SAL with Nicki. Part 2 is progressing. I got both the doves done.

Sunday

2007-03-11T16:37:00.000+02:00

What a beautiful day this has been!

I've done a bit of sewing. And I do mean just a bit. Quite a long time ago I bought a long-sleeved silk dress from a thrift shop. The dress wasn't exactly my style. The top part didn't fit me well and the pattern... well, I just couldn't see myself in it from head to toe and fingertip! So I bought it with the full intention of doing something with it. After all, it was silk and it was cheap. Today was finally the day that I did do something to it. And that was to chop the top part of, sew the new raw edge in place and, voilá, I had myself a new skirt! I can see myself wearing it in summer with a simple white or black or yellow top and black flip flops.

And I went out for a long walk in my pink rubber boots. The weather was glorious! Birds were singing all around, the sun felt warm and you could hear (and see) the snow melting. So I enjoyed it all with deep breaths, open eyes and with a camera :)

No more skiing! Not that I did any while it was possible. I don't even own skiis.

Just look at that sky!

Back home I did a bit of baking. I went with my trusted old friend, the jelly roll. These are just so easy and quick to make. This time I filled it with strawberry puree. I omitted the whipped cream, as I didn't have any cream to whip, but instead served it with ice-cream.

What have you been doing today?

The finished hallway

2007-03-10T14:49:00.000+02:00

Remeber this? Well, let me present to you the new and improved hallway:

This is officially the first room to be completely ready! We've of course been working on all the rooms during this time. But we're very picky :) (and not exactly made of money), so all the other rooms are still lacking something. But this one is done, done, done!

This is what you see when you walk in. The first door leads to our study and the latter to the kitchen. And straight ahead is the bathroom.

The hallway is L-shaped and this is the part that has our closet (to the left) and leads to our bedroom. The handles on the doors are from Vietnam. We bought them as souveniers :) They were bought for a chest of drawers that we no longer have. We kept the ones that were on the doors originally, so that when we move we can switch them back and take these with us :)

This was the "secret" project that I hinted at a while back. I got the stencil from The Stencil Library. It was easy to use, but the reason it took me so long to do it is that I'm not exactly the tallest person and while we did have a stool for me to use, it still meant I had to be reaching up to be able to paint and it was a torture on my neck and shoulders. So I could only do a bit at a time. If you're taller than me or have a proper ladder, I'm sure you could do this in no time. I actually had set myself a deadline with this, so that I wouldn't give up. We invited guests over and they were due to come here with DH at about 5.30 pm yesterday. I was putting the last strokes on the stencil at five to five. But I made it and was respectably dressed and chopping up salad greens when they arrived :)

Here's one last shot of the hallway, just because I'm so darn proud to be finished with it, this time from our bedroom door.

SAL update

2007-03-06T22:22:00.000+02:00

Another Monday has gone by and I had yet again the pleasure of stitching on Winter's Eve (with Nicki). I decided not to put in the beads yet and, so, have now finished Part 1 and began part 2 (that's the white blob). An angel charm is supposed to go in the middle of that green medallion. I don't have one, so have to figure something out later...

Legwarmers

2007-03-03T15:55:00.000+02:00

I finally finished them yesterday! I made up the pattern. First a bit a K2P2 rib, then ribbon holes and then just plain stockinette stitch, 20 stitches per needle. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (I love this yarn!) and I used 3.5mm bamboo double point needles. I used exactly 3 skeins of yarn. I still need to buy ribbon to go through the ribbon holes, but these can be used without it as well. It's just for decoration :)

I wear a lot of skirts and these will be great to wear around the house during the colder days of winter.

Guess which colors I like :)

2007-03-01T20:10:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I wore these. A pink striped dress shirt and a muted green knit skirt (My mom had it custom made when she first started working. And it's still in immaculate condition!).

Yesterday I was at my knit club meeting and we learned about thrumming and how to use your yarn scraps to make fringe yarn. I had taken some of my left-over balls of yarn with me and here's my try-out:

I almost burst out laughing when all of sudden while knitting, I noticed the yarns I had taken with me completely matched my outfit!

Winter's Eve Day 4

2007-02-27T21:00:00.000+02:00

Here's the latest picture of my Winter's Eve, the weekly SAL with Nicki. I'm still on part 1 and this week I started working on the specialty stitches. I've got quite a bunch of the white berries still to do and I think I might also bead as I go, so there's still some work to do before I can move on to part 2.

A little and a lot

2007-02-26T16:57:00.000+02:00

All my current projects seem to take a long time to show any progress, so I thought I'd share with you today some little things I've done lately but not yet shown.

Well, this first thing isn't something I've done, but I thought some of you might want to see a better picture of the beautiful humbug Nicki gave me.

For Valentine's Day I finished this and made it into a card for my DH. The design is from the very first issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine and is designed by Marie-Chantal Lord.

I also did these small stuffed hearts for Valentine's Day. I made them the weekend before and placed them in the bowl and then put the bowl back into the cupboard and promptly forgot it there. I only noticed them a few days after Valentine's Day... We've been enjoying them for a while now, but I just put them away for next year (or actually, these would make nice Anniversary decorations as well!).

Now I'm working on Mystery X, knitting the leg warmers (almost done) and the lace scarf and today I will stitch on Winter's Eve. I had to skip the Christmas Ornament SAL this past weekend as I wasn't home for most of it. Oh, and I've also started a little decoration project in the hallway. Here's a little peak:

Another surprise

2007-02-23T16:01:00.000+02:00

Just yesterday I wrote about the wonderful gift I got from Christine and today I got another lovely surprise in the mail! Nicki sent me humbug that she had made (look how beautiful it is!) and two lovely magazines. An Australian knitting magazine and a decorating magazine from New Zealand! Thank you so much, Nicki!

Winter's Eve, Day 3

2007-02-22T20:14:00.000+02:00

Thanks for all the comments on Sampler II!

Here's a photo of my progress on Winter's Eve. The SAL (with Nicki) was on Monday, but I've only now managed to get a picture of it.

I received a wonderful surprise gift on my birthday from Christine (who is having her birthday this Friday!). She gave me a gift certificate to Silkweaver's. I've been trying to choose what project I'll start next and at the moment I think it is My Lady's Garden from Mirabilia. There are so many wonderful fabrics available that choosings is going to be very difficult. Needless to say, I've already spent some time playing around on the Fabric Viewer :)

Tadaa!

2007-02-20T20:19:00.000+02:00

First I want to thank you all for the birthday wishes! I did have a fantastic day! We started watching North and South in the evening and finished it on Sunday. I had seen it before on TV, but it was even better than I remembered, so I would definitely recommend it :)
***

If I knew how to add a fanfare here, I would, because...

... I have finished Sampler Mystery II! I put the last stitch on it on Sunday evening.

The design, of course, is by Martina Weber. I used the recommended threads (Dinky Dies and Thread Gatherer) but went with the cotton option instead of silk. I've left out some back stitching and some beads here and there. I also had a crystal heart in my kit, but don't even know where it is supposed to go. I'm sure the information is there somewhere in the instructions, but I will leave it now nevertheless.

A Year Older Today

2007-02-17T16:45:00.000+02:00

Happy Birthday to me!! :)

I'm having a nice, quiet day (no parties) with lots of cake and other treats to eat (DH brought home a large plastic bag full of things, but I'm not allowed to peak). The jelly roll "cake" that I made again contains raspberries (I like them too, Christine!) :)

I got some great DVDs as a present from DH and I think I'll start watching them this evening.

Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T20:38:00.000+02:00

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday! Here in Finland it has traditionally been celebrated as a Friendship Day, but lately (and increasingly) it is also celebrated in the true sense of Valentine's Day, as the day of celebrating love. I, never a one to miss a reason to celebrate, chose to do both :) I made and send cards to my friends and then cooked a feast for my dear husband. I thought this was a great opportunity to practice photographing food, so I'll share it with you in pictures :)

Ravioli to soup to start with...

A turkey roll for the main course...

...with tomata and mozzarella salad...

And raspberry pavlovas for dessert...

These were really really good, by the way (recipe in the February Martha Stewart Living)!

SAL 2

2007-02-13T20:58:00.000+02:00

Here's the after SAL picture:

I feel like I got nothing done... Oh, well. There's always next week :)

Last week, after the SAL I didn't put Sampler II back on, but instead chose to do Mystery X (as I know have some of the threads). Here's my progress on both part 1 and part 2:

Now, it's definitely back to Sampler II and I hope I'll have a finish to show you by the end of the week!