Tunisian crocheted oven mitt / Koukuttu patakinnas

My secret santa sent me Tunisian crochet hooks a couple of weeks ago, and this oven mitt is my first attempt at Tunisian crocheting. Quite much fun! I used the leftover Álafosslopi yarns from my cardigan, so the oven mitt is made of 100% wool. The texture is thick and solid: looks like the mitt will be able to take high temperatures.

Álafosslopi 1.7 skeins Tunisian crochet hook 5/5.5 Instructions in Finnish at Kangasaitta and magazine Taito 6/2011

Shopping bag / Ostoskassi / Bevásárlótáska

Another shopping bag - this one is a great favourite of mine + the doggies :D

Twisted sock

These socks look harder to make than they actually are. I really enjoyed knitting these ones. The way to make the heel was a novelty for me - it looks great!
Instructions in English at Knitty
Size 42
Yarn Ístex Léttlopi 90g
Needles 4

Shooting Star long socks

I rarely make long socks, but these ones caught my attention immediately. The pattern was quite easy to remember. Am eyeing the cardigan a bit...
Instructions in English at Drops Design 116-1

Size 39
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä black 150g, white 60g
Needles 3.5

Christmas presents - socks from Léttlopi

These socks have been ready for quite a while! Actually some of them (5 pairs) were knitted during our trip to Iceland. Towards the end of the trip I had to go back to Álafoss factory outlet to get more yarn :D
Yarn Álafoss Léttlopi 70-90g Sizes 39-42 Needles 4

Shopping bag/ Ostoskassi/ Bevásárlótáska

These shopping bags were made already in the summer and autumn, blogging about them had to wait until Santa's visit, though :)

Cadence socks

These socks were supposed to be a present for someone - but I never could part from them :D So I decided to, uncharacteristically, keep a pair of socks I knitted. I love these! The pattern is from Ravelry

Yarn: Novita Nalle Aloevera 150g Needles: 3.5 Size: 39

Dutchess socks / Herttuattaren sukat / Hercegnő zoknija

Another pair of pretty princessy socks for another niece. I improvised the design, using both cables and lace in the pattern

Yarn Novita 7 veljestä Needles 4 Size 33 (cast on 40)

Princess socks / Prinsessasukat / Királyleány zoknija

Now that Santa is almost on his way, I can start blogging about the Christmas presents :D These socks are made for my niece, who likes all things princessy.

Pattern from Drops - this 6-stitch pattern is easy to modify for pretty much any size. I cast on 36 stiches, made ribbed top, a square heel and a round toe. Yarn Novita 7 veljestä Needles 4 Size 29

Seafarer socks / Merenkulkija-sukat

I have been looking for a nice cable pattern for men's woolly socks for a long time: here it is. Easy to make and looks simple & elegant. Instructions in Finnish and cable charts at Ulla.

Male size 43 Yarn Novita 7 Veljestä 150g Knitting needles 4

Busting the yarn stash - funky socks

It is about time to use up the Novita 7 Veljestä stash that I have. Colourful & happy-patterned socks are perfect for this :) I am still far away from really busting the stash but this is a good start.

As I was knitting these socks, I used a couple of new techniques I have recently learned, namely Tunisian crochet and the French round heel. I used Tunisian crocheting in the heel flap and all the way through the heel reductions. The heel becomes quite rigid, but it should last even heavy use.
Yarn Novita 7 Veljestä Size 40 Knitting needles 4, Tunisian crochet needle 4

Another week, another Icelandic cardigan

I really love this pattern called Keđja ('chain'), designed by Védís Jónsdóttir. The original design in Ístex pattern book 28 (page 2) is for a tunic, but I decided to make a cardigan instead. I made the calculations myself as I was using a thinner yarn.

Am so happy with the ready cardigan! In my own opinion, this is one of the prettiest things I have ever knitted. It was a fast knit, took me from Friday to Wednesday :D

Yarn Novita 7 Veljestä red 570g and white 140g
Size 44-46
Needles 4

Good old felted slippers

My extended family has started to request these felted slippers pretty much every year for Christmas/birthday present. Happy to oblige!


Size 39
Yarn: Novita Huopanen (100% felted wool) 200 g, crochet needle 10
Instructions in Finnish at Novita
Colour wash in washing machine (shrinks 20%), stretch to fit foot

Icelandic cardigan: days 6-7

Done! Now only finishing and that's it :)

This was a very agile knitting project, meaning that the plans got modified with reality and accumulated knowledge. The pattern found its form as I knitted along, and in the end I decided against the hood. I decided to call the cadigan "gimsteinn", which means gemstone in Icelandic. I will write the pattern up and post it later, together with a picture of the fully finalised cardigan.

Icelandic cardigan: day 5

So I got to the yoke! Now this feels like real knitting - no more bling speed-knitting but paying attention to the yarn and the pattern. I calculated that I made 20% of the yoke pattern yesterday, 80% more to go. I hope the white yarn is enough for a hood, though. We'll see!

Icelandic cardigan: days 3-4

The bottom part of the body is now done: afterwards it always feels like finishing a marathon. The true Icelanders knit cardigans also in a round so as to avoid purling, especially in the pattern. I am, however, not really comfortable with sewing and cutting the knitted pullover in the front (in case I want to make changes later on) so I opted for purling.

The sleeves are coming a bit slower than usually since I am making them simultaneously with circular needles. I have to do it this way as it seems that this city does not have double-pointed sock needles of size 5.5! On Saturday I went to four handicraft shops with no luck, so I decided to do with circulars. Some ten more centimetres for the sleeves and I hope to get to the yoke pattern by tonight.



In general, knitting with Álafosslopi is fun because it feels so real. There are little pieces of hay, thorns and whatnot in the yarn: it is almost possible to imagine where the sheep had rambled.

Icelandic cardigan: days 1-2

I finally got the time and inspiration to start the Icelandic lopi cardigan for which I bought yarn in August at the Ístex factory outlet. The yarn is bulky Álafosslopi, and I have seven skeins of white (0051), one of burgundy (9210),  one of orchid (0159) and one of dark soft purple (0163).



The pattern will be something like Var by Védís Jónsdóttir from Istex Lopi book number 29. I will make some modifications, though. For instance, I already decided not to make a pattern on the body, only on the yoke, sleeves and hood.

This is where I got to after two days of work. Mind you, I spent the entire first morning on deciding on which pattern to make (i.e browsing Ravelry and Lopi pattern books) and on and doing the measurements and calculations. I used the free Icelandic knittingpatters.is programme to calculate the required number of stitches.

Dino baby booties

These dino booties were fun to knit - the doggie seems to like them too :D





Instructions at Ravelry

Yarn Novita 7 Veljestä lime green and orange, total 60 g
Size 0-3 months
Needles 3.5

Stay-on baby booties

Very easy baby booties: apparently these should stay on even on a hard-kicking child.



Instructions in English at Ravelry or here.
The booties were originally knitted flat, but I knitted them round to avoid the sewing of the back seam.

Yarn Novita Bambino 50 g (white); 60 g (pink)
Size 0-3 months (white); 3-6 months (pink)
Needles 3

Winnow socks

These Winnow socks were great fun to knit. Not too hard and not too easy. I really enjoyed making this pair! Otherwise I followed the instructions but I changed the toe to a round one - it looks better in my opinion :)



Size 39
Yarn Novita Nalle Aloevera 120g
Needles 3

Two hats

I am trying to clean up my yarn storage - these two hats emerged out of the two skeins of microfiber yarn I had bought a couple of years ago. To my life I cannot remember what I was originally supposed to make out of the yarn but I am quite satisfied what I ended up making with it :D

Rikke hat

Yarn: YarnArt Polo 100% microfiber 120g
Needles: 3.5 and 4

Jacques Cousteau hat

Yarn: YarnArt Polo 100% microfiber 80g
Needles: 3

Poncho

I was not satisfied with a pullover I had made earlier in 2009 - so I reused the yarn and knitted myself a poncho. It is quite useful on those autumn days when it is too cold to go with a thin jacket but it is not yet thick jacket time.



Yarn: Cheval Blanc Laponie (55% acryl, 45% wool) 900 g, sticks 7
Pattern is my own, instructions only in my head :)

Kalajoki-sukat / Kalajoki socks

First shared harvest from the Icelandic wool I bought during our trip :)



Female size 38
Yarn Ístex Álafoss Létt-Lopi 100% wool 80 g
Needles 4

Instructions in Finnish here and in English at Ravelry.

I modified the pattern a bit. First of all, I cast on 44 as the yarn was thicker. Then, instead of the edgy toe decreases I made a round toe. I also made the pattern come together at the toe, i.e. applied decreases also to the pattern.

Iceland - Háafell & Hvanneyri

Háafell goat farm near Borgarnes is a great place to visit. The friendly owner speaks good English, and the goats are extremely cute, soft and amicable. As a bonus, there are two dogs who just love visitors.










Ullarselið handicraft and yarn shop in Hvanneyri has some exciting products and yarn

Iceland - Ísafjörður

Ísafjörður, the capital of West Fjords, has promising yarn bombing culture


Heitt-Á-Prjónunum knitting café is an amazing place - you can feed two addictions at the same time, namely caffeine and yarn :D

Iceland - Reykjavik & Mossfellsbaer

As a true knitaholic, I had to include yarn-related places to visit on our trip to Iceland. Some of the woolly sights were accidental, though, such as these yarn-bombed trees in Reykjavík.






We visited the mecca of Lopi, aka Ístex factory outlet at Álafoss (Mossfellsbaer, right outside of Reykjavík) twice. First time to get some yarn, second time to re-stock. We did, after all, drive around Western Iceland for a week, which means that by the time we returned to the capital area, I had finished a large proportion of the yarn bought on the first visit :D





I am sure that the Bentley knitting machine is placed in the corner of the shop to keep the husbands happy with engineering miracles

Japanese Feather & Fan Shawl

Instructions from Izzyknits and Ravelry
(These ones are made with a different yarn + they are more stretched out than mine so the pattern is more visible)

Sticks 3.5
Yarn: Novita Luxus Alpaca 300g (colour 068)

Icelandic hat

Instructions at Novita

Needles: 4
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä, colours natural white, lime green, orange, fuchsia pink

Icelandic pullover: days 11-13

C'e l'ho fatto! And it's soooooo pretty :)