Pretty little beads

What do you do when faced with the tedious knitting and seaming of button bands? Why, of course you start a new project to take off the edge!

These were inspired by a pair of pulsewarmers in Håndplagg - an absolutely fabulous book I got as a birthday present from my parents. I had to change the bead pattern a little bit because the original was a color pattern and I only had randomly variegated beads. I'm fascinated by the outcome, these tiny beads are so pretty!

My flatmate and her friend saved a life this week. She was walking home with a friend at 04:30 (a.m.) the night before the last and they decided to take an alternate route to the usual. Suddenly they heard splashing and a call for help. Some guy had been walking on the ice on a sea canal close to where we live (Hakaniemi for those who know) but as it is spring already, the ice broke and the guy fell in. Somehow they managed to use a scarf to drag him out of the water, and soon after calling 112 (911) a bunch of ambulances and police cars came to the scene. The guy was already very cold and probably wouldn't have survived for much longer in the water. It really is an amazing coincidence that they happened to be walking there at this time of the night, especially because this is not the normal route you would walk from downtown to home. Hanna's friend called her yesterday to tell her that next week they're getting a life saving award! I think this is the most beautiful thing anyone I know has done.

Happy weekend to everyone!

Pouches

To get to work I take a metro to a shopping mall. Inside the mall there is a bus terminal from where the regional buses leave. Right opposite my bus stop there's a bookstore and as I am a big fan of books I'm never sad when I've just missed a bus. I go book-browsing.

On one such occasion I bumped into Last Minute Fabric Gifts by Cynthia Treen. I bought it immediately and ran for the bus. Since then, I've been obsessed by pouches and bags and I've managed to sew four and have already cut out fabric for the fifth.

Sewing used to be my main hobby in highschool and just after, but I have hardly touched the sewing machine for years. The last time I did was two years ago when I made an evening dress for a fancy PhD graduation party. Clothes were the main thing I made back in the days, but now I have discovered a whole new world of sewing - of course you can make accessories and stuff!

The pouches turned out to be much more handy than I thought. The big ones for example can actually fit a sock in progress. The small ones are excellent for keeping coins - usually I have coins spread all over in my handbag because I hardly use money at all. I spend money, but usually in the form of plastic.

The pouches were made from trousers that I had stopped using. I actually have a bag full of clothes that I had intended to give to UFF but now I am thinking of ways to reuse the fabrics. Is that bad?

The Arctic Diamonds Stole

I think I haven't told you that I have a flatmate now. Her name is Hanna Birna and she's here in Helsinki as an exchange student for the spring semester. She studies fine arts (visual arts?) and since her main medium happens to be photography I thought Hah! I'll get her to take photos of the shawls and sweaters I finish, since they look nicer with someone wearing them. Very handy indeed.

Well, yesterday evening I unpinned my new stole and I had an almost religious experience. It's so freaking beautiful I can't believe it! Of course I was so excited to show it to you that I needed pictures preferably a week ago. Except Hanna is in Stockholm on a school trip and I'm here all alone with my tripod. So, no artsy pictures this time, although I'm sure there will be at some point.

Specs:

Pattern: Arctic Diamonds Stole by Donna Druchunas, from Interweave Knits winter 2006.
Yarn: Kambgarn from Ístex (150 m/50 g, 5 skeins).
Needles: 3.5 mm (US 4).
Start-finish: 17 days.
Modifications: Did 4 pattern repeats instead of 5 (widthwise).

I started this stole when I realized that I didn't have an appropriate project for my flight to Helsinki. I had 5 skeins of kambgarn that I wanted to use for a stole, and when frantically flipping through pattern books and magazines to look for a project, I came across the pattern for the Arctic Diamonds Stole, which uses a similar yarn. Lovely!

Since it was initially a travel project, I had this feeling that I needed to finish it as fast as possible. During the past two weeks, I've spent a big part of my free time on it. I was anxious to finish, which happens to me rather often, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it. Quite the contrary. In fact, it's one of the very few patterns that I can imagine myself knitting more than once.

Through this project I have discovered that stoles are something I really like wearing, and from now on I shall knit many many more of them. I've never been much into scarves and I have a hard time figuring out how to wear triangular shawls. Stoles on the other hand are My Thing!

During pictures

The shawl is blocking as we speak! I'm excited.

I ran out of pins. Luckily I found a box of thumb tacks with ball heads, which saved me from some seriously scalloped edges. Phew!

Before pictures

Yesterday evening I cast off the shawl that has overtaken my life for the past two weeks.

Now excuse me while I go and block it.

I'm back!

I've been working so hard on finishing a shawl that I've used pretty much every spare moment to knit on it. I started it in the plane on my way to Helsinki (yep, I'm back there now!) mostly because it was the only appropriate travel project I could think of.

I enjoyed my time in Iceland very much, even though I didn't really do all that much. The time was partly spent on gauging how I feel about moving back to Reykjavík, and I found out that I'm quite ready. I have loved living in Helsinki, but after a while it gets tiresome to play the part of a foreigner. There is nothing quite like home, it's funny that the air smells different there, and the light is different from any place I've been. This often brings memories from the past, nice feelings associated with life in Reykjavík. Also, small things like walking past my old school and chit-chatting with the guy in the video rental store make me happy. So I'm ready, just bring it on!

Before leaving Iceland I worked a lot on the red sweater and managed to reach the shoulders! I left it there, so when I return to it in the summer I'll have an almost finished sweater. It'll be like I got it for free!

I also finished a pair of mitts, a gift for my mom's colleague. She came to visit me in Helsinki in the autumn, and for christmas she gave me a recently published knitting book written by her daughter in law. I wanted to give her a little something for being so nice to me.

These are the same mitts as the orange and pink ones I made a while ago. Since she has very petite hands, I used a thinner yarn to get a smaller size. I wear mine all the time, they're just so handy and comfortable. She tells me she likes them too, which is nice.

In the comments to the last post, Erica asked about the stitch pattern for these mittens. It's very easy, for a multiple of 10 stitches do:

Rnd 1: *k1, yo, k3, sl1, k2tog, psso, k3, yo, repeat from *.
Rnd 2: Knit.

I wanted to put the whole pattern here on the blog and actually, I might just do it some day. But first I have to finish the shawl.