Pretty gloves

I am trying out this new program for my iBook that my good friend Markus told me about. It’s called Journler and from my first impression it is simply excellent. Apparently I can write my blog stuff in it and publish, all without ever visiting my actual blog, now that’s cool! Let’s see if it works, maybe it’ll make me write more frequently.

My life is finally back to normal, since returning to Helsinki. The day after I came from Iceland, I moved with an un-unpacked suitcase over to Frank’s place and stayed there for 10 days. His parents and sister were visiting and since his apartment is basically an open space, and my apartment has rooms and is bigger, we swapped. It was a fine swap, but it was good to get back home, as there’s nothing like home.

Then on the day I returned to my apartment it was invaded by houseguests of the feline kind, Pörrö and Hellä:



They are Markus’s and Tuija’s cats who needed a home until yesterday as the parents where out of town. We had a lot of fun together, but I wondered if I could ever have kids. All this responsibility you know, having to feed them at proper times and making them take their vitamins, something I don’t even do for myself. Also, it’s quite tiresome to be strict and say “EI!” (no) all the time, along with any one of “get off the table”, “don’t eat the plants”, “don’t jump on me unexpectedly with claws wide open”. That sort of stuff. Of course with kids it might be easier, at least they at some point understand spoken language. I make it sound bad, but really it wasn’t – they’re very sweet and loving most of the time and I enjoyed having them around.

Last week I finished the wedding gloves so now you can all go ahead and invite me to your weddings. They’re so fine and pretty, please winter, come soon.



All those teeny tiny stitches give me immense (or perverse) pleasure. I am getting obsessed with smaller and smaller needles and I fear it’s going to end badly. After knitting these on 1.5 mm needles (US 000) I knitted a bit on 2 mm ones (US 0) and thought the stitches looked so big and grotesque. That feeling does wear off after a while, fortunately.

Through the process of knitting such tiny stitches I discovered that I have favorite knitting needles. I found them in Weaving Works in Seattle and they’re made by Inox, but not the boring gray needles we get over here, no, they’re steel (I think), and they shine and sparkle. Which is nice, but the nicest part is that they don’t bend. Saying that I have a firm grip is probably an understatement



here you can see the 1.5 mm (US 000) Susan Bates needles (top, blue) with which the first wedding glove was knitted and below it are the steel ones on which the second glove was made. Lowest on the picture are the grey 2 mm Inox needles, slightly bent.

Red sox

In the post about my trip to the north I showed a picture of “leppar”, or insoles as I now know they’re called in English. Some of you were wondering about their usage, and luckily I did take a picture in a museum in Reykjavík which illustrates it rather well. Back in the days, people in Iceland (and maybe elsewhere, I don’t know) used to wear shoes that were made out of sheepskin. Inside those they would put the insoles to better insulate against the cold and rocky ground.

In Sheila McGregor’s Traditional Scandinavian Knitting there is a pattern for garter stitch insoles with a pretty motif knitted in. Since I’ve now mentioned this book there is one thing I just have to say. In the small section on knitting in Iceland there is a rather unfortunate mistake that every time I read the text makes me feel uncomfortable. Part of the traditional costume in Iceland is a cap that lookes like this

(This is my great grandmother’s, and it’s knitted as it usually was in the old days, now it’s often made of fabric.) This cap is called “skotthúfa”, but in Sheila’s book the name has been misspelled as “skothúffa” and she discusses whether the “skot” part could indicate a connection between Scotland and knitting in Iceland. It is true that Scotland is called “Skotland” and Scotsmen (is that the right word?) are “Skotar” in Icelandic. However, the name of the cap is, as I wrote above, “skotthúfa” and here the double-t is of crucial importance since “skott” means tail. The actual meaning of the cap’s name is thus “tail-cap” because it’s a cap with a tail as the picture clearly shows! :-)

Aaaaanyways. Since I’ve been back in Helsinki I have had a monogamous relationship with a sock. I have seen nothing but the sock for the entire past week and this resulted in me actually finishing a pair of socks in 6 days . I think that’s pretty good, but I have no idea what’s the average out there. As a note I do work full-time, so don’t judge me ;-)

The sock pattern was a standard one using 64 stitches, but the overall look came out of my head. The small colorwork pattern I saw on a mitten from my great grandma. The leg part is a bit on the short side, and since the colorwork part is highly inelastic it’s a tiny bit difficult to get them over the ankle. Nothing serious, but next time I might make them higher and wider and shape them a bit.

 

I tried out two different toe shapings. The ting is that I’m not a big fan of the standard wedge toe. There’s just something about that thick bar of stitches on either side that doesn’t sit right with me. On the right toe I therefore switched the k2tog and ssk decreases which makes only 2 central stitches as opposed to the 4 sts on the wedge toe. On the left toe I skipped the central stitches entirely by doing ssk at the end of a needle and k2tog at the beginning. I really like that, just having a “seam line”, but since it’s difficult to keep tension at the end and beginning of a needle, there is a small gap in the seam. Next time I’ll try again with one central stitch.

 

Are you still awake? :-)

The wedding

After I returned to Reykjavík from the north I began preparing for the wedding of Inga and Christian. I wanted to have gloves to go with the smoke ring, and I really wanted to have them done before the wedding. So I knitted, and knitted and knitted. I guess it was not a very bright idea to use 1.5 mm (US 000) needles to make them, because in the end I only finished one. I was optimistic all the time though, even as I was leaving Reykjavík (the wedding was held in the south coast) and I still had one finger left on the first glove, I was sure I’d finish in time for the wedding. I mean, I had all of friday evening and saturday morning – never mind that it took several days to make the first one.

The wedding took place in Fljótshlíð, which is in the south of Iceland about 110 km (68 miles) from Reykjavík. It is a truly beautiful place, right next to a glacier called Eyjafjallajökull. I got a ride with Bryndís and Jürgen, my friends who got married earlier this summer (and I knitted the sweaters for). This is what the sky looked like in Selfoss

When we approached our destination, the view was so pretty and I did my best to capture it out of the car window. The glacier was visible for a long distance, and one could also see Vestmannaeyjar (islands off the south coast) very clearly (I don’t have a picture though).

Never mind the jeep, the sky is beautiful! When we arrived we got the keys to the small summerhouse we had rented for the weekend, and got ready to party with the rest of our friends. We stayed up quite long, because we had to practice our entertainment thingy for the wedding party which included a lot of singing. Friends + cottage + beer + singing = a lot of fun! The moon was huge and orange colored and I tried my best to capture it on chip, with not too disappointing results

The next day the glacier was still there, and it was still beautiful. We hung around in the morning drinking excessive amounts of coffee and going between the cottages where friends were staying. Then it was time for the big ceremony which took place in a cute little country church

The ceremony was very touching and even I who never cry at weddings had glazed eyes most of the time. It was not allowed to take pictures inside the church (which was actually really nice, no flash going off every second), so I only have pictures of the cute couple after they became husband and wife

After the church there was a reception at the cottage where Inga’s parents were staying, and as you can see it was rather windy

In the evening there was a big party (inside) with dinner and entertainment and bonfire and singing and dancing like crazy until the wee hours. Everyone had such an excellent time and most importantly I think Inga and Christian really enjoyed themselves. Despite the rather depressing statistics regarding marriages, I now encourage all of my friends to get married – if only for the great occasion to party.

I’m sorry I don’t have very many landscape pictures. If you’d like to see more from Iceland, I have some from a trip Frank and I made last year right here.

In Hjaltadalur

The weekend before the last I took a bus up north to spend a long weekend at the farm with my brother and his family. All in all it was a great trip, very relaxing and there was a lot of knitting related activities which is always good. My sister in law, Bryndís, is also a great handcrafts enthusiast and inbetween other things we sat and knitted (Bryndís mostly crocheted) and discussed about its greatness. We also went on some outings, bought yarn in Sauðárkrókur and visited the Textile Museum in Blönduós – a great museum that I recommend to anyone interested in handcrafts.

Instead of words, I’ll finish with a few pictures from the trip. I didn’t take a lot of landscape pictures, but here are the two I did take which show the scenery around the farm.

While us women knit, my brother did the manly thing and painted the windows of the house,

and the little ones played with plastic strings.

At the textile museum there were a lot of mittens and “leppar” (things to put inside shoes).

At the farm I found a big trunk full of clothes that my great grandmother knitted for my father and his siblings. Among them were these beautiful two-colored mittens that I’ve charted and plan on knitting when I return to Helsinki.

 

What do I have to show for the trip? I knitted around and around ad nauseum on a smoke ring and managed to get it finished the day after I returned to Reykjavík – just in time for the wedding I was at this weekend (where the picture is taken).

The pattern is sort of my own although not really. It is rather obviously inspired by the Flared Lace Smoke Ring by Jackie E-S, and the lace pattern is taken from The Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns. I’m quite happy with it although there are things I’d do differently next time around (which probably won’t come around). You can for example see rather clearly on the picture that I cast off far too loosely. I’m thinking about doing a small crocheted border to make it look a bit neater.

Home… again

This afternoon I flew to Iceland, and after having mom’s great lasagne I feel this aaaaah feeling that I’m back home. Despite a slight hungover (we had an Icelandic lamb feast at my place yesterday) the trip was fine. My neighbor on the plane was a little bit too talkative (and ruined my chances of getting any knitting done, what’s up with these people?), but I just went to sleep to solve that problem.

I haven’t been feeling like talking lately, which is the reason for the blog silence, but next week I’ll surely have too much to say. I’m on vacation with nothing to do except knitting and, well, the thousand things I’ve written down I should do/buy/see while in Iceland.

Tomorrow morning I’m taking a bus to the north. We have this farm in a valley in north-Iceland (we’re not farmers though, it’s an inheritance from my grandparents) and my brother is there with his wife and cute kids. I’m staying there until monday, outside of the civilized internetisized world so I wish you all the greatest weekend! Yay! I’m going to The Nature! More exlamation points!!

ROFL

Just to warn you, there is no knitting content to follow. I just found this funny thing and I have got to write it down so that I’ll remember it forever and ever.

I’ve been reading through Cassie’s blog archives and I came upon a post where she was wondering why superwash wool squeaks. Well, of course I had go find out, so google and I had some intimate moments together. I think I’ve found the answer, it has to be related to a phenomenon called sqeaky hair. During my search for an answer (42, but what is the question?) I found a forum discussion about sqeaky shoes. So this guy had bought shoes and the soles got worn out and they started to squeak, something which really annoyed him. After some comments about whether he should return the shoes or have them fixed somehow, someone posts this:

I don’t think you need a cobbler. This is some sort of friction problem and requires a physicist. Can’t imagine, though, where you’re going to find one.

Hello? (I’m a physicist, and this amused me to no end, especially considering that the forum is located at www.physicsforums.com, more specifically here.) Where are all the freaking physicists when you really need them? Also to believe that, even though physicists do know about friction and why it causes sound waves, they can actually do something useful to get your shoes to stop squeaking… well, I won’t say anything more.

Later someone else obviously agreed with the guy and added:

I don’t know, they’re really hard to come by, especially around here. :rofl:

I think we physicists need a better PR person.

And yes, I’ve had a few glasses of wine, shoot me.

New hobby

I have been planning to go to my nearest yarn shop for a while but because I’ve been working quite late in the past two weeks, it’s always been closed by the time I get home. Yesterday I was at work as usual, when I realized that it was quarter to five and the shop closes at five thirty. It takes me at least half an hour to get there from work, so I didn’t think I’d make it and went to the shop web page to make sure that they’re open on Saturdays. (As a side note, the other yarn shop I go to is closed during the whole of July due to summer vacations – that is strangely a rather common thing here in Finland.) On the web page of the shop I find out that it’s closed on Saturdays during July, and as if that’s not enough, yesterday was the last day it’s open until the end of July. People gotta have their summer vacations. Usually this would not have been too big of a problem but I’ll be leaving to Iceland on the day that the shop reopens, and I need yarn for a wedding present for a wedding I’m attending while in Iceland. So off I ran to catch a bus, a metro and another bus, and I arrived at the shop, out of breath, five minutes before closing time. I was pretty pleased with myself, although my lungs were hurting like hell!

When I had found the yarn, I went to pay for it. I told the girl who’s working there (and knows me by now, hah!) about my running there and even acted being all out of breath. Then she replies that well, you know, it’s only going to be closed for two weeks and that goes by quite fast. Somehow I felt really silly, and I couldn’t even gather up energy to explain all the business about my going to Iceland etc. So now she just thinks I’m crazy.

I have acquired a new hobby. On Tuesday I bought myself a book on card (tablet) weaving (spjaldvefnaður) and after making some cards out of cardboard, I began doing the first assignment in the book. I’ve got to say that this is a seriously cool technique and I am extremely impressed that someone back in the days figured it out. See what I’ve made

Now I am a pretty impulsive and impatient person. I usually don’t learn things linearly, going from one level to the next. More often I just read a little bit to get a rough idea about how things work, and then I jump ahead and do whatever I’d like. This can cause disappointment, but I just can’t help it and frankly I don’t care too much. Mistakes make you learn. Regarding card weaving, I can’t patiently read the whole book page by page and go through all the exercises, because I have this idea of a strip I’d like to make and I can’t wait. Really I can’t. Anyways, if I’m that excited about something, even if I’d read the two chapters that come before the one that describes the technique I’ll need to make the design I want, I wouldn’t really pay attention so why bother? Now the only thing standing in my way is that I’ll need to make 24 more cards, and that’s a pain in the butt for someone who’d like everything to have happened yesterday.

Today I’ll be going to Hämeenlinna which is an hour train ride from Helsinki. My friend Halla (from Iceland) is participating in a modern dance performance that’s being shown there tonight. That should be fun.

Before y’all abandon me

I swear I have been knitting, although judging from the blog you wouldn’t think so. It’s just that this is the Big Summer of Gift Knitting, and gifts can’t be blogged about until they’ve been opened up.

This weekend I finished sewing in the zipper on my dad’s birthday present and it’s in the mail as we speak. I don’t know if it’s normal, but it took me over 4 hours to do (it’s 60 cm/24” long). Am I the slowest seamstress in the whole wide world?

What made it a little bit more difficult was that now the temperatures here have reached the intolerable upper 20’s (about 80 Fahrenheit) and my fingers were sweaty and slippery. Since we want to keep the heat inside for the main part of the year, apartments become like sauna’s during the summertime, just without a nice cool lake to jump into when it gets too hot. So I’ve been sitting and perspiring and it surely didn’t help that my dad’s present is made of bulky 100% wool (Álafoss lopi) :-)

Now that I’ve finished this project I can continue knitting my mom’s cardigan. I’m using a pattern from a Danish book I found in a bookstore in Reykjavík, Vintagestrik & fashion by Sus Gebhard. The pattern name is Cykeltrøje, or Bicycle sweater. Here’s a photo

There seems to be a curse on my mom’s sweater. As you might remember I’ve already knit her one which didn’t fit, and this one is wanting to get ripped over and over. First I knit half of the front but I didn’t slip the edge stitches so the edge looked really ugly. I decided to rip it and start over doing the whole body in one piece, because I don’t particularly like seams on knitted fabric, especially when it’s bulky like this one. This time I remembered to slip the edge stitches, although on one side they’re twisted on the first few rows. I still think the edge is ugly, the slipped stitches are too loose and open.

slipped edge stitches, slipped and twisted edge stitches

Normally I have no fear of ripping if there’s something I’m not perfectly happy about and for a short while I considered starting over again and twist the edge stitches but really, I’ve done almost a third of the body and it would be so sad to have to start all over again. Now I’m thinking that before I take a decision to rip, I’ll get a fat crochet needle and see if I can make a neat border to save me.

There are also some nice glove patterns in this book and one I’ll definitely knit soon but with some modifications. Inexplicably, all the gloves in the book are knitted flat, isn’t that the strangest thing? If there ever was a good reason to knit in the round, it’s with gloves.

I’m a bit obsessed by gloves at the moment. It all started when Kris posted a picture of the beautiful lace gloves she made, and I felt like my life could not be complete without a pair of pretty gloves. I found a nice pattern in Handknit Holidays and immediately cast on. I took it with me to Iceland, and that’s when all the trouble started. When I began knitting the fingers, it quickly became clear that although the glove fitted my hand nicely, the fingers were much too small. I did some tweaking and stitch adding to get them to fit but when I had finished the four and began with the thumb I naturally realized that doh, if the other fingers were to small, the thumb is going to be too small as well, and it’s not really possible to fix that easily. So I had to rip back to the cuff and rethink. In the end I decided to make a thumb gusset and so after a lot of knitting on a small thing, I finally had a well fitting glove.

Now it is eagerly awaiting its sibling the poor thing. But first, more gifts.

Muffcakes

I’m a nerd, you know. Sometimes I get this urge to learn about things which are pretty useless knowledge. Once for example, I spent a considerable amount of time on wikipedia learning about the difference between a moose and an elk, because I wondered why a moose is called that in English when in most N-European languages it’s called an elk. This week I have been wondering a lot about the difference between a muffin and a cupcake. I checked the dictionary where it said that a muffin is sweet bread whereas a cupcake is, well, a small cake. So, thought I, there must be yeast or something in muffins if they’re supposed to be bread. After a quick recipe search I concluded that no, there’s no real difference between the two. Wikipedia only tells that cupcakes evolved from muffins, but otherwise they’re just described as cup-shaped cakes which are handy in the sense that you don’t need to dirty your plates to eat them (oh so true). This leaves me highly unsatisfied. I need clearer answers people.

The second thing I obsessed about today was the difference between baking soda (matarsódi) and baking powder (lyftiduft) (wow, I notice a pattern – I seem to wonder a lot about the difference between similar things). Now that is surely a highly interesting matter and I spent quite some time reading about it online. Why did I not know that a dough (batter?) that contains baking soda has to be baked immediately or the soda won’t work? That seems like an important thing to know. Now I also know that the reason for mixing the dry ingredients first is to not activate the soda until just before baking. Really, this is fascinating stuff. I am dreaming of a cook book that explaines the processes involved in cooking and baking in a scientific way.

Now that I’ve bored you all to death I’ll finish by telling you that all this thinking about muffins of course led me to make some using a recipe I found online, modifying it slightly to my liking. They turned out pretty delicious with a little icing on top and I’ve already had three. I quite enjoy baking, but since I live alone and don’t eat much of sweet things I often end up throwing a lot away. Hmmm… maybe I can buy myself some popularity at work on monday.

Muffins or cupcakes?

I promise there’ll be knitting next.

I give up

It’s my dad’s birthday on Friday and naturally I’m knitting him a gift. I had this grand plan to finish it on Sunday to be able to mail it on Monday. Then life happened and I went to a party on Saturday only to spend the whole of Sunday recovering. There was a bright glimpse of hope yesterday when I realized that my friend Markus is flying to Iceland tomorrow and will be invited for dinner at my parents over the weekend. Then the freaking world cup in football happened, and I ended up in a bar watching a sad sad game (I was supporting Germany). Afterwards I came home with great hopes of finishing the thing, but I have been beaten. It’s three in the morning and I’m not close to finishing (plus there’s a zipper to sew in, *shudder*). I admit defeat, I’m going to bed. Man, what a loohooser.

Tonight I met Frank’s new girlfriend. Frank and I are really good friends, and him finding a girlfriend is no problem for me. I for some reason am not a particularly jealous type (at least not yet), I just hope that he finds the nicest girl possible. So meeting her was fine, except I was all the time hoping that it wasn’t uncomfortable for her because I’ve heard all these horror stories from my friends about when they met their boyfriends exes and how they wanted them to trip and fall down a deep canyon never to appear again. She seemed fine though, and she’s kinda cute. Good for her.

Hey, thanks alot for all your nice comments about my new haircut, I really appreciated them. I have now gotten used to it, and damn, I like it. In fact I think I’ll never have long hair ever again!