Quick, I got to knit something!

It doesn't matter how much I'm trying to have a break with knitting and focus on my heatlh, when I find a bargain I can't just walk past it. And when I've got the yarn, I have to see what I could make out of it. This was a quick knitting project among all the walking and exercise. Yarn cost me 3 dollars all together for this cute little piece. Want instructions on how to do it? Well just knit two squares and stitch them together, simple as that! I also added the heart to make it a bit girly. Loving it.

Cousins out for a walk. They are so cute together when they get along.

Glitter and the huge bump

Oh my mind. So I finished this scarf last night and as I was waiting for my husband to finish work, I thought to take some photos of it. Well it's almost impossible to get any good pictures at midnight.

But good pictures or not, this scarf ended up costing me nothing but $2, can you believe that! I wouldn't normally buy this yarn, but when it was in such a huge sale, I couldn't leave it there. Easy peasy triangle scarf was made in no time and with no instructions. Now I've got some glitter and glamour in my winter.

 

When I realised that these pictures weren't going to work out, I also realised that there is NO pictures of my massive bump yet. Yay for self-timers in cameras. Camera on the table and getting my pose face on. Or maybe I should say, my pose belly on.

 I had lots of fun by myself in the middle of the night, and now the nesessary bump pictures are taken. I still have 2 months to go and I am already quite massive. I got very big with Emma too, so I knew what to expect, I suppose. Check out the maxi loose clothing too. Haha, I'm getting so uncomfortable that I don't really care anymore what I wear. But these pictures lifted my spirits and got me excited again. Can't wait to meet you little bubby.

It runs within us, craftiness I mean.

I am so inspired by the amount of handmade things people in Finland do. So much sewing, knitting, crochet. So much recycling and redoing. It was a big hit of reality brick for me when we moved here over a year ago. No-one was making anything, no handmade shops around. Now of course there are people here who do make things with their own little hands, but compared to Finland, it is very minimal.

So when I met with a group of Finns last May I realised that it runs within us. We are people who like to make things ourselves, need to make things ourselves. Oh so we organized a knitting group. Once a month. Chatting and knitting. Could there be anything better than that.

To prove a point I'll tell you a story. One of the girlswho came to the knitting club had bad memories of knitting and crochet from her school years. Yet after a while, he bought a crochet hook and some yarn. I gave her some what very minimal instructions and she was on fire.

She has since finished her first scarf and is now onto bigger adventures with her hook. How good does that scarf look!!! You can read her blog here. So you see, it is in our blood!

Sport fans

I'm sure every country has that one sport that everyone gets excited about. I know that in Finland it's ice hockey and we're living exciting times as the world championship games are on. Yes I'm very much excited and following what's happening there even though I'm on the other side of the world.

For Australia that sport would have to be footy, aka Australian football. Yes I do like that game too though not as much as ice hockey. Everyone has their team that they support and merchandise to go with it. So as Emma's grandad turned a year older again, I thought you can't go wrong with some handmade fan stuff.

Yes all that mambo jumbo stuff about sports and ice hockey and footy was there just so I could show you these socks that I made for Emma's grandad. Haha, very poor effort, I know.

The team that Emma's grandad supports is Collingwood (as all Aussies would know after seeing those socks) and yes they look rather big, but I did test them on hubby's foot and they were just perfect. Hopefully he'll like them.

Funny thing about Aussies and knitting that I heard; they can't knit with 5 short knitting needles (what you use to knit socks or mittens), or it feels overly challenging to them. Now all you Aussies you can correct this because I don't know if that's true. Though one lady did ask me if it were easier to do these with the round needle thingis. Oh boy I said and rolled my eyes.

Diaper "awesome" covers

Oh this has been the most fun project I have done lately. There is this gorgeous lady in the next town from us who takes amazing baby and toddler and kid photos. Just all her photos are amazing. Well she ordered some diaper covers from me. Apparently it's so much cuter to see these things around the baby's bum than a nappy.

And what made it so much fun, you ask? Well they are so tiny (though they look massive in the photos) and soft and adorable. Plus I got to try them on for my super cute niece to see that the size was right and she just looked so precious. Yeah I should have taken the camera with me then so that I would actually have a baby wearing them here. Oh well.

Elephant march - elefanttimarssi

We've been a bit sick and I felt like knitting. I've also been singing this childrens song about elephants; hence the elephants marching around the socks. They are a bit big for her, but then again it's not winter here yet. She's got time to grow.

I've also been growing, in patience. When you're sick you cry, when you're teething at the same time you're crying even louder and when you add a few tantrums... Well lets just say your mum is growing, in patience. I think we make a pretty good team though. Sure we have our moments, but we also giggle a lot over silly things, make a horrible mess and then work together to clean it all up.

Simple is beautiful

I found this vest on Ravelry and decided to make it.

It was easy and quick to make, just the sort of thing I can knit with my patience. It will be flying to Finland for one special little girl to warm her on cold winter days. She is going to need it much more than this little miss here in the land of hotness. Oh and I had to put star buttons, to add little extra cuteness.

Hope you're all having a great Monday!

Chevron scarf with instructions!

My inner knitting cycle is totally wacked out. When it started getting cooler here in last May I found myself thinking Christmas presents and knitting ideas, because that's what I've always done when the temperatures start decresing. Now it's getting warmer but I feel like knitting again, because I've started to see Christmas pictures around. 

This is what I made, and I can't give it to anyone here for Christmas because it's too hot and it would be pure madness. So most likely someone back home will get this soft package.

Oh I am so excited. Isn't it awesome. It's my first time I've written knitting instructions so be nice, but do ask if there's something you don't understand. 

What I really wanted to make was blanket with this patern, but I wasn't sure how it would work out, so I thought I'd knit something smaller first, hence the scarf. There's a lot of people who've crochet chevron blankets but I wanted to try knitting the patern. I've written the instructions in English and Finnish so take your pick and go for it. It's easy!

Chevron scarf

Materials:

I used 8 ply, Needles quality knitting yarn, 100% acrylic. You could definitely use something with wool in it, I just used what I could get in this little town and that’s not much.

Amount:

1 ball (100g) of grey and 1 ball (100g) of white

Gauge:

25 stitches = 10cm

Needles:

4mm/ 6 (US)

Dimensions:

10,5cm x 2,25m 

4" x 89"

Instructions:

Cast on 27 stitches with grey. Repeat rows 1 and 2. Change colours after every 4 rows.

Row 1: k1, sl1, k1, psso (slip1, knit1, pass the slipped stitch over), k3, M1, k1, M1, k5, sl2, k1, psso, k5, M1, k1, M1, k3, k2tog, k1

Row 2: Knit normally, knit stitches through the back loop where you have added stitches to avoid holes.

 

Chevron kaulaliina

Lanka:

Käytin 8ply Needles, Quality Knitting Yarn, 100% acrylic lankaa, mutta yhtä hyvin voisi käyttää villaista lankaa, esim. seitsemää veljestä.

Langan menekki:

100g harmaata ja 100g valkoista.

Neuletiheys:

25 s ainaoikein-neuletta = 10cm

Puikot:

4 tai käsialan mukaan

Koko:

10,5cm x 2,25m

Ohje:  

Luo harmaalla 27 silmukkaa. Toista 1. ja 2. kerrosta. Vaihda väriä aina neljän kerroksen jälkeen.

1krs: neulo 1 s, nosta 1 s neulomatta, neulo 1 s ja vedä nostettu s neulotun yli. Neulo 3 s, lisää 1 s tekemällä langankierto puikolle, neulo 1 s, lisää 1 s tekemällä langankierto puikolle. Neulo 5 s. Nosta 2 s neulomatta, neulo 1 s ja vedä nostetut s:t neulotun yli. Neulo 5 s. Lisää 1 s tekemällä langankierto puikolle, neulo 1 s ja lisää 1 s langankierrolla. Neulo 3 s ja neulo 2 s oikein yhteen, neulo 1 s.

2krs: neulo kaikki oikein. Neulo langankierrot silmukan takareunasta, jotta lisäysten kohdalle ei synny reikää.

It's cold

Yeah I keep hearing all the time how warm it is in Finland. And here, in the land of sun, it's freezing. I think most of the people I know think that Australia is warm and sunny all year round. Well it's not. And especially when the houses are very poorly insulated, you really feel the cold.

I've got my ugg boots to keep me warm, but little missy didn't have anything, but socks so she definitely needed something to keep her little feet warm.

This time I didn't even want to try to take a picture of her having these on, considering how it turned out last time. The instructions for these booties can be found here (it's a ravelry link so you need to sign in to see the pattern). It was really easy and I like the way they turned out. Now I wanna make more.

Also since it's officially Autumn here I had to make apple pie, because that's what you do in Autumn. (My head is all confused at the moment because after Autumn comes Winter and that's when Christmas is, so I'm already thinking what I could do for Christmas. It's very quite weird.)

This apple pie is SO good. Those in Finland or if you understand Finnish, this is the recipe. And for the others I'll translate the recipe and change the measurements into cups:

Ingredients:

200g margarine or butter (I used butter)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 1/4 cup of flour
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp vanillin sugar
2-3 apples
sugar and cinnamon

1. Melt the butter and mix the sugar in.

2. Add the flour (not baking powder yet). The dough should be a bit moist. Take about 1/4 cup of dough aside at this stage (you'll put it over the pie at the end).

3. Add the egg, the milk, the baking powder and the vanillin sugar in the dough and mix well.

4. You can use either an oven tray or a pie dis. Oil it or use baking paper. Pour the dough in (the dough should be a bit runny).

5. Peel and slice the apples and put them in the dish.

6. Sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon to the top. Sprinkle also the dough you took aside earlier.

7. Bake in 200 degrees for about 30 minutes.

8. Enjoy, it's super yummy!


I've made it twice and it's gotten only good reviews, so have a go and let me know what you thought!

Väriä syksyyn - colour to the autumn

Syksy pimenee pimenemistään ja minä yritän pysyä pirteänä ja iloisena kaiken kiireen keskellä. Nämä värit ovat vähän liian räikeät silti minulle, mutta onneksi ne tulevatkin lahjaksi yhdelle värikkäimmistä ystävistäni. Kuvassa värit ovat hieman liian laimeat... Tuo vihreä varsinkin on ihan väärä, se on nimittäin aivan kirkkaan vihreä! Päätin tehdä nämä perinteiset palasukat, koska halusin tehdä nopean yhden illan projektin, eli nopeaksi työksi suosittelen. Helmineuloksella neulottu muuten. Meidän syksy löytyy täältä.

Autumn is getting darker and darker and I'm trying to stay cheerful and happy among all the rush. These colours are a bit too bright for me but luckily they are for one of my most colourful friend. The colours aren't as bright in the picture as they are in real, especially the green is totally different in the picture. It's actually really bright! I decided to do these traditional square socks because I wanted to do an one evening project. Our autumn is found here.

Paketti Austraaliaan

Näillä kesähelteillä ei oikein tee mieli olla sisällä, joten ulkona kun on helpompi neuloa ja virkata niin täytyy sitä harrastaa vähän enemmän. Mieheni pikkusisko sai pienen tytön tuossa huhtikuun lopussa ja siitä asti olen kovasti pohtinut, mitä hänelle tekisin. Stokkalta ostin jo aikoja sitten tuon Benettonin paidan, mutta täkki syntyi nyt vasta jämä langoista.

Pienokaisemme serkkutyttö Mia saa siis aika paljon pinkkiä postissa. Täytyy ehkä seuraavaksi miettiä, josko jokin muukin väri olisi hyvä seuraavaan pakettiin. Tossut olen heille jo lähettänyt aikaisemmin, tosin silloin vielä valkoiset.. Nyt siis pohdin lähetänkö tossuja ollenkaan. Äidille pitäisi vielä käydä ostamassa jotain omaan hemmotteluun ja sitten paketti saa lähteä seilaamaan kohti Austraaliaa.

Ihania hellepäiviä kaikille!

Nättirättejä

Tänä vuonna päätin tehdä äidilleni ja mummilleni näitä tiskirättejä, joita olen nähnyt jo vähän joka puolella. Ensimmäisen tein Novitan ohjetta mukaillen, virkaten, toinen valmistui neuloen. Virkattuun rättiin tein pitsireunat, mutta neulotusta ne jäivät pois. Kenties sitä voisi vielä kokeilla. Lankana käytin Novitan bambu-lankaa. Itselleni tein vielä pienen liinan, jotta voin kokeilla sen toimivuutta myös itse. Kakkuakin äidit saivat, tänä vuonna jätski sellaista, mutta siitä unohtui ottaa kuva. Liitän sellaisen tänne, kun seuraavan kerran teen uudestaan.

Oikein mahtavaa äitienpäivää kaikille äideille!