Back home..

...and you won't see me on those long-haul flights for a long while. It's such a drag to sit 10 hours in your allotted tiny space, trying to pretend that you have some privacy and ignore the guy next to you (granted, he was very polite and kept his arm to his side of the arm rest - could have been much worse, for sure), and not to think all those germs flying around the air. Yuck.

But I did get to go to 2 new cities I've never visited before (Tokyo & Taipei), did get to taste some amazing food, and did get to feel some great hospitality from a bunch of really nice people. So it was worth the boring, nauseating, muscle-tightening, nose-drying air travel. I guess.

Here's a photo to awake your appetite.

Moshi moshi!

And quick greetings from Tokyo. Here's some characteristic photos by a first-timer (who did manage to work out how the fully automated toilet works, good for me!).

Now that's some weaving'! It's supposed to be one of god's shoes..

Flying Circus

Today I'm off for a biz trip to far off places - I'll leave you with this image of 'Little Birds' a.k.a Fairisle fest. Body and one sleeve finished, it's starting to look like a real cardigan already...


See you again end of next week, take care!

Lady August

In the meanwhile, when Little Birds is on it's way, I want to show you something I made earlier this summer. It's 'February Lady Sweater' by Pamela Wynne (a.k.a Flint Knits), and it's the most gorgeously fitting knit I've ever managed to cast-off my needles. Also just about the easiest structure - it's top-down, no-seam wonder! I just love it! I made it with a combination of two cotton yarns, the other was chocolate brown Rowan 'Cotton Glace' and other was thinner cotton yarn by Novita. These two put together made a quite thick cotton combination, so the jacket is not so slumpy as cotton knits sometimes are. The sleeves are exactly the right length for a lady who likes her sleeves 3/4 length, and I even managed to find just the correct buttons for this project. I hope these photos give out at least some of the greatness of this design:

The sleeve #1 is coming along nicely - I've decided to have this cardigan with 'bracelet-length' sleeves (if that's what it's called - as opposed to 3/4 length, you see). Like this:


So leave it just a couple of centimetres above the wrist, to accentuate the delicate wrist bone. Luckily I thought early enough of the matching of pattern - since this will be knit round with both body and sleeves from armpits onwards, the pattern would have to match at the place where the body and sleeves meet, of course.. Again, brilliant mathematical genius at work :)

This is what I started and finished during the weekend:


..and I still don't know what to think of it. I got really high hopes when starting (due to her previous masterpiece, "What I loved"), and partially those hopes were fulfilled - the book was touching and complex. But. Almost just too many things, plots and people, happening all the time - it got almost too much to handle, and somehow some of those stories felt like glued-on, artificial coloring, if you get my drift. There's an uncanny similarity between Siri Hustvedt in this book, and her husband's (Paul Auster) work (which has over the years lost most of it's novelty due to too much repetition, book after book - too much of a good thing, and all that...). Strange things, coincidences, happening to people, the basic storyline of 'a lonely guy comes against some secret/sinister/strange happening/person/phenomena and then gets deeper and deeper into whatever it is'. I don't know.. - at least she got me thinking, and managed to write many sentences which really touched me on a personal level. That's always worth something, yes indeed.

Fair isle fest

As promised, here she comes, fair isle cardigan á la "Little Birds" - length of body almost finished. I like these colors, very calming - and hey, grey is this Autumn's hit color, so there you go!

(The fair isle pattern is from "Vintage Knits" by Sarah Dallas, your standard OXO pattern.)

By the by, the latest Rowan Magazine (#44) is surprisingly good looking. I mean, usually there are couple of interesting patterns in their collections, and the rest are those rowany English-country-side-hobbit-couture creations, which don't necessarily appeal to all. But this time, well done! Lovely old-timey patterns which could make any girl feel like Katharine Hepburn - and who wouldn't want to be like her!

Coconut grove

First, there was this.

Then there was this.

And there there was this.


And you guessed right: then there were none!

This must be the simplest coconut cookie recipe in the world: 100g dried coconut, 1dl sugar, 1 egg. Mix all, bake in 180 degrees until golden.

* * *

As my camera is taking a short holiday in another country now, I'll post pictures of progress in my version of 'Little Birds' tomorrow. Believe me, it's progressing and it's looking pretty.

Oh woolly woolies!

Well, the weekend was spending mainly in horizontal position, due to a nasty flu. But some reading and knitting was accomplished, and in the knitting front namely the rib pattern of the 'Little Birds' (by Ysolda Teague, Twist). It looks kinda wobbly, but hopefully will look better once finished and bathed and blocked:







This will be very much adapted, since I will not use the birdy-pattern at all, but a more traditional fair isle pattern. Here are the colors (this is Pirkka yarn):

And, after careful scientific calculations (as usual, hah!), I'm now going to start working on the colors.. so, more to come later!

Vests galore!

So, here it is, finally - finished "Back To School Vest"(by Stephanie Japel, 'Fitted Knits'). It turned out just fine, despite the many froggings.


I especially like the 'waffle' texture of the upper part






(The color is actually black, not this dark grey..)

While on the subject, I thought I'd air all the vests I've made previously - so there they come, first a group photo (say cheese!!):

And then individual pics - this first one the "Josephine Top" by Deborah Newton (IK, Summer '07), made with Sivilla yarn (wool/silk, so it's a bit warmer version than the original with cotton yarn). I like the 'empire silhouette', created by the silk ribbon just below the bust.

This next sample is the "Ivy League Vest" by the Goddess of Beautiful Patterns, Her Royal Highness, Eunny Jang (IK, Winter '07). I made this with alpaca yarn, and it's really warm and soft to wear. The steeking was a bit challenging for the first-timer, but proved to be really a must when doing fair isle patterns.

This little number is "Lace Vest" by Sarah Dallas (Rowan, 'Scottish Inspirations'). It's made with Pirkka yarn, pure wool, of dark charcoal grey (although my camera doesn't seem to think so).

And last but not least is my own design from way back when.. This actually has some sentimental value, as this vest was the first Real Knit I managed to make - after I had found out that there's way much more to knitting than the Finnish (let's face it: boring!) magazines and patterns. This is the first actually fitted and fitting garment that I made - maybe not so obvious from this photo, but still... :)

And now for something completely different....

What is it?!

I wonder what's wrong with me? The 'Back to School Vest' has now been frogged twice; first the bottom part (the ribbing was too narrow for my waist) and yesterday I had to frog the upper part, as well (that was too wide for my chest). But watching Gary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in "Indiscreet" did sort of make it all allright, I didn't mind that much spending 2 hours knitting for nothing..
And those Autumn mittens as well, I decided to frog them and start with a smaller stitch count - thus leaving out part of the pattern, but what the heck... as long as it's fits, yeah?

Now, what could be the reason for these sudden size problems? Could it be that ancient enemy of the inspired knitter who's ready to plunge into a new project head first, and who just picks up the needles and gets goin', regardless of the instructive sentence in all knitting patterns which tells you to ....

Check your gauge, girl!

The newcomer..

Oo, what an interesting new thing, this Twist Collective! Go check it out - I've already purchased the pattern for a lovely fair-isle spin-off, called "Little Birds" by Ysolda Teague.

There was not thunder, nor hailstorm - I was a bit disappointed, actually. But today we have much colder weather and some rain, so maybe that compensates..

+24 celcius

..and what better way to celebrate this warmth than start off with a new pair of mittens.

I don't know what's going to happen with these ('Green Autumn' by Jared Flood from the Fall '08 issue of Vogue Knitting) - I first started with 3mm dpns (as indicated in the pattern), then started again with 2.5mm dpns, and now am working with 2mm dpns. And still my wrist and the mitten wrist are worlds apart size-wise. But since I don't own any smaller dpns, I will go on with this, and maybe give them a bit rougher bath in the end, to reduce the size. Or then give these as a present to someone with a bigger wrist circumference. A big-handed person.

There were some warnings about very heavy thunder storms coming this way in the news today - hailstorms that could really put a bump on your head, should you happen to find yourself outside without any cover (I guess an umbrella would be pretty useless..). A couple of years back, there was just such a hailstorm in July, and what came down from the skies were really the size of a small-handed person's fist. Those could really damage e.g. cars, which leads us conveniently to the next topic - have you ever listened to Car Talk? For a person such as myself, with no driver's licence, and obviously no car (and with small hands), I can honestly say that that's the most fun I've ever had listening to radio. People can call in and ask about any car-related issues, be it actual mechanical/technical things, or more human-interest, and the two brothers running the show give their answers, which usually do have factual basis, but always manage to make the listener laugh out loud. Give it a go - you can listen to the latest show free-of-charge via their web site. I think the show airs in the States on Saturdays, so this a good way to spend 1 hour of your Sunday.