Felted Flower Hotpads

I suspect that many bloggers are enjoying posting photos of projects made in secret before xmas, and this is my day to reveal to you my xmas knitting.

Back in September (geez, that seems like such a long time ago!), I spotted a felted flower hotpad at a friend's place and thought that I could make one of those myself! So I found a pattern online for a flower hand towel and went to work. My experience with felting is quite limited, but luckily I didn't have to worry too much about felting the fabric to a specific size.

I liked the first one so much that I just kept on making more of them! My tally is five so far, three of which are shown here.


Here below you can see the before and after shot - it's amazing how much it felted! To get an even shape and surface, I stretched the freshly-felted fabric (say that five times fast) , then ironed it with a tea-towel over it.



Pattern: Flower Power Hand Towel (Ravelry link)
Designer: Rebecca Mercier (Ravelry link)
Source: Whimsical Knitting Designs
Link: Direct link to free pattern here
Needles: 6mm bamboo circular and double-pointed needles
Yard details:

• Ella Rae Classic
• 100% wool
  
• 100gr = 200m
• each hotpad weighs approximatley 65 grams after felting

I gave the blue hotpad to my mother-in-law and the green ones to my own mother and soon-to-be-official sister-in-law. Then I made another one for a friend and a fifth one for me!

Chevalier Mittens

Finally! I have something to show you! Much fiddling and editing the colour of the final pictures was required, but in the end I'm almost satisfied with the colours in the pictures...my crummy artificial lights will never live up to the sun's output, unfortunately.



Pattern: Chevalier Mittens (Ravelry link)
Designer: Mari Muinonen (aka Tikru) (Ravelry link)
Source: Made by Myself
Needles: 3.75mm bamboo double-pointed needles
Yarn Details:

• Garnstudio Drops Karisma Superwash
• 100% new wool
• 50gr = 105m
• colour #11
• about 90 grams used

Everything worked out really well on this project. I did my research on Ravelry before selecting the yarn, as the original pattern calls for a thinner yarn held double. Some other people had used the Karisma with success, and I like Garnstudio yarns, so mum and my brother were generous enough to order some for me for xmas. Thanks, mum! Thanks, T&F!

The size is absolutely perfect; what a fluke! I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I have quite long fingers and oftentimes gloves and mittens are too short for me, but these mittens are exactly the right length for me, even though I didn't work any extra repeats as charted in the pattern.

The first mitten went off without a hitch, but I wasn't quite so lucky with the second...I surprised myself with how cool-headed I remained whilst ripping out about thirty rows of work due to a P2 instead of K2 in the cabled section. I have almost no experience with cabling and so perhaps a more experienced cabler would have been able to do some tricky fixing without having to rip, but it was 'out with the needles' for me.

The Karisma grew a teeny bit after washing, but not much. It also softened a little , which I'm happy about because, as you can imagine, as a superwash new wool it's on the scratchy side.

Thanks go to my good friend W, a talented artist who painted the 'prop' captured. It was obviously inspired by Australian Aboriginal art, and after going to see the movie 'Australia' yesterday, I really want to visit home! I haven't been there for almost two years, mainly due to money restraints, and it looks like I'll have to hold on for about another year before I get to breathe that eucalyptus air and see the wide brown land.

Some good news is now that xmas is over, I can share with you some presents I made. Look for those in a few days!

Only five days to go!

So, I'm still suffering from the no-sunlight thing, but there should be a few rays returning our way really soon. Finally! But you know what I just noticed on my side bar - there are only five days left until my yarn diet officially ends!!!

Those of you who know me personally know that it hasn't been the strictest diet in the history of the world, but at least it curbed my indulgence greatly. Plus, 95% of the yarn that I bought during that time was on special, and of course you all know that special sales don't count in the grand yarn diet.

Now it looks like I'll soon be able to purchase freely...but the husband is starting to sweat and is trying to convince me that I indeed have enough yarn already.

Hooey. What does he know??

No sunlight and no knitting makes Steffi a grumpy girl

It feels like I've hardly produced ANYTHING for the past month - in terms of knitted or crocheted goods. Well, I definitely have been knitting, but those blue and white socks were my worst nightmare for a couple of weeks. I probably ended up making about three and half socks because of sizing issues and problems with the heel. But I finished them in time for the Finnish national day last week, which was the original goal.

The main problem, in general, that I have at the moment is that THERE IS NO SUNLIGHT UP HERE ANYMORE. Slight overstatement but basically true. Today the sun 'rose' at 1043 and set at 1335, making a grand total of 2 hours and 52 minutes of 'sunlight'. When the sun actually manages to drag itself above the horizon, it's so weak and pitiful that it may as well just stay down there in the southern hemisphere. Oh man, it's so frustrating because it's just impossible to take a good photo of anything at the moment. Of course I could use indoor lights but I'm never satisfied with the way the colours turn out.

So, I have no lovely colourful pictures to show you and I'd rather wait until I get some happy snaps before posting again. Actually, I do have some nice photos of a few projects that I made a while ago, but...you guessed it - they're xmas presents. Secret squirrel!

Enjoy your sunshine, folks, and pass me another bottle of cod-liver oil, wouldya??