Monday 28 February 2011

Colour therapy

Pattern: Novita magazine, spring 2011
Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä Raita (822)
Needles: 3,5 dpns

I love the colours in this yarn! And the knee-high socks make me very happy - colour therapy at its best :)



There are cables in the back as well.Very annoying to knit since I had to count the rows all the way, AND keep decreasing the stitches at the same time - very challenging for me. But totally worth it, I love the end result :)

Monday 14 February 2011

My new hat

 Pattern:  Kaitaliina's pattern (in Finnish)
Yarn: Gedifra Diandra (colour:02605)
Needles:6 and 8

I am stuck with this pattern, sorry for the repetition! This time I made an improved version with slightly bigger needles and it worked! Now I have a hat that is not too tight. I knit the cables with size 8 needles. I still have enough yarn for another hat - or perhaps I should knit a scarf or wrist warmers or something else? Remains to be seen...



Edit. Wow. Completely forgot that today is Valentine's Day. I guess you cannot call me exactly a hopeless romantic :)

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Sewing leather

I saw these very simple linen bags with leather handles somewhere in blogosphere but I just cannot find the place anymore! So if you have stumbled upon the same blog I did, please let me know so that I can cite the source. Anyway, I think the idea is simple yet stylish and I just had to try.

I bought some leather from a factory outlet of Isku in Lahti. I bought quite a few strips of leather and it cost me only 40 cents! So cheap and after this bag I still have enough of it to make at least two more bags - or something else. I would have wanted to use tan-coloured leather but this ivory that I found worked just as well with linen.

The fact is that I have never even tried sewing leather so this was a learning experience also. After careful Googling I came to the conclusion that even though most people recommended using a leather needle, some suggested that a heavy duty needle meant for sewing jeans might also work. I had one of those, so I decided to at least try with that first. I also bought some durable polyester sewing thread for my sewing machine, since cotton thread is not strong enough to be used when sewing leather. Some sites tell you that you should also buy leather presser foot for the sewing machine but I didn't and it seems that I managed quite well without one. I had to adjust the bobbin tension in my sewing machine quite a lot but otherwise I had no problems sewing the leather handles to the bag.


 I loved the selvege of the linen I bought, so that pretty much dictated the size of the bag - I wanted it to show nicely at the top. One more picture (pretend that you cannot see my arm and fingers at the top).



Monday 7 February 2011

Another pompom hat

 Pattern:  Kaitaliina's pattern (in Finnish)
Yarn: 7 veljestä (colour 553)
Needles: 4

In case you were wondering where I have been, the answer is that I have just been too busy with work to make anything. Well, actually I have made something but I have had no time to take pictures and blog about them. Besides, the weather has been amazing: not too cold and not too wet either, lots of snow and sun, so we have been out a lot. Yep, sun has returned, yay! Evidence is in the picture :)

The hat looks like it's neon pink but in reality it is a lovely shade of fuchsia. Loved the colour but unfortunately the colour does not love my pale complexion. Luckily this hat is not for me! This time I followed the pattern faithfully and the end result is much better than the first one I made.

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