Europe Finds

Okay, so it's been about a month that I've been home so it's past time for me to unveil the yarn finds I had while in Europe this summer. Thanks to Allison for reminding me!
At first I wasn't really expecting to buy yarn on the trip, but as soon as I got my first taste of some really unique stuff that I can't find here, I was hooked! This first bunch is from a store in Helsinki, Finland. It was actually a kind of housewares store on the main promenade and at one point I turned around and realized that they also sold yarn. I think I actually gasped out loud....needless to say that Matt was a little afraid of me at that moment.
The yarn that this store sells is mainly used for weaving and not hand-knitting so a lot of it was very itchy. But then Matt found a sample of some hand-knitted and felted slippers made out of this orange stuff below. It's a very fluffy wool that hasn't been tightly spun, it's more like a very thin continuous strand of roving.

Now I just have to figure out a pattern for these suckers.

Next to that big orange ball, there is a pile of spools that I found in the same store. That is cotton ribbon and I'm so excited to see how it knits up! I really love the colors that I chose, though they literally had a rainbow of colors and I would have liked to buy one of each. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet, but it's machine washable so I think it will be really versatile for whatever I choose.

Another note about this store, they sold the yarn by weight. I am very unnacustomed to buying yarn by weight, but I thought it was really fun that the saleswoman weighed each ball as if it were fruit. This whole lot cost me about $28 US.

THere are actually a few yarn stores in downtown Helsinki and after finding the first one I was very curious about the others. I only went to one more and it was very much like an American yarn store but without any handpainted yarns. They had all of the same brands we have here, so I didn't buy anything.

Then, on our last day of the trip we were in Stockholm and I came across a store in what is called "Old Town" which is actually quite touristy. I was looking for another yarn store that I'd seen advertised, but I came across "This Side Up" first. Here I found the linen yarn shown below. It's Swedish linen by Yllet and it is so gorgeous.

I decided to make a set of placemats with it (I bought three skeins, 200 meters each) using the log cabin technique from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I love that book! And I really like the way that the placemat is coming out so far although it's taking quite a long time on size #3 needles. I'll have the set forever though, so I'm willing to put in the time.
Also at THis Side Up, I bought this skein of hand-dyed laceweight Swedish wool. I'm not really a lace kind of girl, but I couldn't resist and I figured that if I'm going to try to commit myself to a lace project it might as well be with some special yarn.

There isn't a ton of it, so it will be a little project anyways.

So there you have it! My vacation yarn purchases are all out in the open now. I'm still considering emailing the people in Stockholm to try and get my hands on some more linen, but I'm going to wait and see how my stash of it works out for my current projects.

Happy Cat

My Pointy Kitty arrived at her new home yesterday afternoon. I think she'll be much appreciated there!

The Forgotten

For some reason I've forgotten to post pictures of these two big projects that I finished recently. I guess that I've been knitting so much I've forgotten how fun it is to show off my hard work! I loved both of these projects, though I have to say that the Clapotis gets a bit redundant after a while. If I make another one in the future I think I'll make it narrower and a bit shorter because as you can see below mine is kind of huge.

Clapotis

Yarn: I'll have to get back to you, I completely forget the main yarn! I strung it with Kidsilk haze too.

Baby Eliana's Sweater

THis sweater is for my friend Delphine's little girl. We picked out the colors together and I designed the colorwork.
Pattern: Ann Norling loose pattern "Kid's Raglan Sweater"
Yarn: Cashoft DK
Notes: This yarn is so soft and nice to work with, and it's machine washable! Great for baby clothes but I would use the Aran weight for adult projects because this was about 5 stitches-1".

More to come, I've been knitting like a fiend!

Meow

This is just a silly little sewing project that I did last week. I got the pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls site when I was trolling around the internet, and I think it turned out so cute! There is just something so satisfying about a quick sewing project, I'm definitely enjoying my new sewing machine. This little guy is almost too cute to give away...
I start school today. This semester I've actually got only Architecture classes, which is kind of fun. I've also really got to start getting my application together so that I can get into CCA for the Spring semester. I'm just so nervous to call people for letters of recommendation, but I know that I've got to just go ahead and get over it. I think I just freak myself out sometimes. Oh well.

Back to the Real World

Okay, so it's been a little while since my last post but I know that all of you die-hard readers are still out there...right? I'm sure that all three of you have been waiting at the edge of your seats for me to return to the blog and update you on my exciting life.
We just got back from our big Europe cruise on August 1st. We went to London, Dover, Oslo, Helsinki, Copenhagen, ST. Petersberg, Tallinn (Estonia) and Stockholm via a fancy cruise ship where we could eat as much sushi and ice-cream as we wanted. Life is hard, I know. Anyways, it was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed seeing a bit of Europe for the first time. I especially liked Copenhagen, Tallinn, and London and I think that those places are worth another visit in the future.
You can bet that I was secretly scouting yarn stores in every port that we visited. Poor Matt had no idea what he was getting into when every stop turned into a knitting/crafty mission! I found some really interesting yarns that I've never seen before of which I will post pictures in a few days. I also bought some cool handicrafts from Tallinn because there are some really great stores there and the prices are surprisingly reasonable.
They make alot of felt and felt things, so I had to buy these silly slippers for around the house.

Then I tried to re-create them using an old sweater that I'd felted

And here are some baby slippers from a great online pattern, made with the same slippers and some leftover leather from my sister.