Last SP package - and what a package it is! (EN only)

I just got this in the mail. (Sorry for the poor picture, it's raining and the day is very, very grey, and I had some trouble getting a little bit light for photographing.)

What a marvelous package! I got four (4!!) balls/skeins of yarn: one ball of Trekking XXL, two balls of Schulana Tweed-Lux (85% wool, 10% silk and 5% cashmere!) and one skein of Punta Del Este Mericash (80% merino, 20% cashmere!) - and I love them all! Trekking is one of my favorite yarns, and I adore the color! The Tweed-Lux was a new yarn for me, but it feels nice and I may even have a project for it. The cashmere blend is so soft, and I will save this yarn for Christmas and knit a pair of gloves just for me, when all this Holiday fuzz is over :)

I also got a cute little bowl (I'm sorry I don't know a better term for it), handmade with a yarn ball painting (?) inside. Very cute! Also, my pal gave me the cutest handmade cards and a notebook! It's perfect, it's small enough to go in my purse, and it is the same kind famous artists and writers such as Picasso and Hemingway used to write down their ideas before they became famous masterpieces. My knits will never be famous or masterpieces, but I love the idea and possibility ;)

Thank you so much Jen! I have had so much fun with this exchange and I really got the best pal ever!

Adventures in Strange and Distant Lands (and some car references)

Usually, I don't wander off in the Land of Knitting. I stay in my natural habitat which is filled with #0 needles and thin woollen yarns. Well, this really:

I have felt comfortable in the miniature scale. I know how to get around the small needles and to be able to work with thin yarns. To me, these projects were almost like hot hatchbacks: buy one, drive it around for a million miles, and it still shows no signs of being finished. And you have a lot of fun on the way.

Mie yleensä pysyttelen näissä miniprojekteissa. Niiden kanssa saa rauhassa tuhertaa kiljoona tuntia, ilman sanottavaa edistystä, ja mie olen jo tottunut siihen, että kädet tuntuu jättiläisen käpäliltä puikkoihin verrattuna. Niinpä ihmetys oli suuri, kun tarrasin 8 millin tikkuihin lapasprojektin jälkeen.

Lately, I have found myself amongst the strangest things. I no longer feel like a giant, I feel small now. I also discovered something odd called acrylic, which I never played with before.

Judging by the little pieces of scrap yarn to act as stitch markers, this is highly uncharted territory for me. I dug out all my pretty markers, only to realize I didn't have stitch markers to fit the #11 needles. This I realized only after I found out I don't have #11 needles, and I ended up buying the worst plastic needles ever.

Kuten pienistä jämälankapätkistä voi päätellä, mie en todellakaan harrasta näitä isojen puikkojen otteluita. Tajusin ensin, ettei varastossa edes ole 8 millin tikkuja tälle langalle, ja vasta sen jälkeen, ettei minulla ole ohjeen mukaisia silmukkamerkkejä niin suurille puikoille. Jouduin ostamaan hirveät muoviset puikot, ja silppusin langanpätkiä silmukkamerkeiksi. Mie aloin tämän kanssa taistelemaan vain siksi, että tarvitsin nopeasti jotain lämmintä Karvakintun työpaikan joulupippaloihin. Ne on laivalla, ja siellä on kylmä, joten nyt on ainakin jotain lämpöistä hartioille, etten vallan jäädy.

Truth be told, I wouldn't have gone into this at all, had it not been for DH and his announcement of a company Christmas party. It is held on a boat, and it will be cold there, so I needed something warm and fast. So now I have something, if I cannot figure out anything else.

To me, projects such as these are like big SUV's. You pay arm and leg for one, drive it around for a few hours, only to discover they feel lumpy and horrid, and after a while they're finished and you're left with that feeling, "if only I had gone for that little Golf". In roughly 3 hours, I have already used 2 balls for this Cloud Bolero Wrap thingy, I absolutely hate the yarn and the needles (although the color is pretty), my hands ache after using the needles, and I still am not sure of the outcome (but this is merely because I am not used to seeing stitches a mile long). This first adventure in the Land of Giant Knitting hasn't exactly been a pleasure. Besides, I've always been a GTI kind of girl myself.

After putting the whole Cloud Bolero episode behind me, I have been glad as there are new prospects of adventures looming before me. They came in the form of three books, all the way from Germany.

If you are a fan of Austrian Socks (in Favorite Socks) or Eunny's Bayerische Socks - and I am, you will fall in love with these. After seeing these, both aforementioned projects seem rather simple and dull. These three books are full of exciting cables and projects. I know I will try something, obsess about it, realize it will take me a lot longer than expected, abandon the whole thing in my closet, dig it out in about 15 years, fall in love with it again and finally finish it only to realize it's way too small for me then. But for now, I just look at the pictures and imagine what's before me.

Sain uusia kirjoja: pieniä kippuriaisia palmikoita Favorite Socksin Austrian Socksien ja Eunnyn Bayerische Socksien tapaan, mutta niitä on kolmen kirjan verran! Ja ne on hurjan kauniita joka ainoa. Näitä on ilo ihan killistellä, mutta kohta täytyy saada puikoille jotain pientä ja vaikeata. (Tässä yhteydessä emme mainitse lainkaan puoli vuotta seisonutta Cablenet-sukkaprojektia, jossa ei muuta olekaan kun näitä pieniä palmikoita.)

En ole juuri neulonut, olen hiplaillut uusia ihania lankoja. Trekking-lauma Saksanmaalta, turkoosi mohairyllätys omilta LYS-reissuilta ja Freedom Spiritiä matkailleelta ystävältä. Samaiselta ystävältä myös pieni kivinen rasia, jossa asuvat kauneimmat silmukkamerkit.

Besides the mitten project (and it's going to the Pond) and the blur of seafoam, I haven't really knitted anything. However, I have been admiring my new yarns.





The Trekkings came from Germany with the books, the turquoise mohair surprise (and another #11 project!) I bought myself, and the Freedom Spirit was a gift from a friend. She also gave me the little trinket box, which now holds my stitch markers. (Well, some of them.) The little "box" is made of some stone, she reckoned it could be alabaster. It is very pretty, but very brittle, too, and I love it.

Next time, I promise I will show something finished. And not just mittens!

Rocks!

(Tässä on enimmäkseen kuvia, en kehdannut alkaa kääntään. Siispä vain englanniksi tällä kertaa.)

So, we're back, have been for a couple of days and I went through the 600 pics we took to get you the best shots. We went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, then north to Monument Valley, took UT-12 to Escalante, UT, and finally to Bryce Canyon in Utah. We drove some 2500 miles in 4 days, had a lot of fun and took a lot of pictures - mainly of rocks :) Click the pictures to enlarge.

The caverns were an eerie place. Absolutely gorgeous place, I loved the caverns! The caverns are some 750 feet below the surface, and naturally completely dark, but a Broadway professional lighting artist created the lighting in the caverns to show the best in the caverns.









(These formations are known as draperies. The other formations or speleothems are stalagmites, stalactites, popcorns and soda straws.)













We drove north to the border of Arizona and Utah and then to Monument Valley.










Some of the formations have names, such as The Mittens. I think this is the west mitten, I am not completely sure.




We continued north to the Moki Dugway, which took us through the little village of Mexican Hat. The village has got its name after a rock formation nearby.


The Moki Dugway was in poor condition but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.




This valley is known as the Valley of Gods.


In Glen Canyon, I had the chance to play a little with my camera. This is the bridge crossing the Dirty Devil River (near Hite), and I took the first picture without zooming on a regular lense.


The second picture was taken using the same lense but with zooming. (I am not a pro so I have no idea of the settings of the camera. :D)


Last summer, we bought a zoom lens for our camera, and I used that to take this picture. Now you can see the bridge in detail.


Driving through Glen Canyon, we saw another rock formation, named Jacob's Chair.


We spent the night on the mountains, in Escalante, and saw the prettiest sunrise:


Finally, on the last morning, we arrived in Bryce Canyon, which is famous for the hoodoos formed by erosion by wind and water.


There are several famous hoodoos, such as Thor's Hammer (in the left).






We hiked a short trail into the canyon and it was very pretty down there, too.




On our trip we saw a fair amount of wildlife. In Bryce, we saw a chipmunk, a crow and deer, and they didn't seem to be afraid of people at all. Neither were the numerous cows and some sheep and horses we saw grazing free on the mountains.

[Insert snappy header here]

This low-pressure system of knitting hasn't passed - I'm still knitting accessories.

Neulematalapaineen ansiosta täällä jumitaan vieläkin pikkuprojekteissa.


But maybe things will change soon:

Mutta ehkä muutos on tulollansa:


At least I got a pair of very cute helpers (and a very bad photographer):

Ainakin apulaiset on oikein somia (ja valokuvaaja täytynee irtisanoa):


And some yarn, too! (I didn't buy this myself, yay me. I did buy two balls of yarn yesterday, though. Forgot to photograph, but I will finish them soon, so pics then.)

Ja lankaakin! (En ostanut tätä itse, hyvä mie! Mie ostin kyllä pari nöttöstä eilen, mutta niille oli Akuutti Tarve ja Projekti, joten kuvia sitten valamiina.)


We're leaving tomorrow for yet another roadtrip. This time, we'll probably go through New Mexico to Colorado, Utah and Nevada, so this should be fun! I am packing frantically, trying to conquer the Mount Doom of laundry before we go, and take care of a billion things so everything is ready tomorrow morning. Sorry about the short posting then, I'll be back with pictures after Thanksgiving!

Huomenissa startataan Viivi kohti itää. Tie vienee New Mexicon kautta Coloradoon, Utahiin ja Nevadaan, joten täällä valloitetaan pyykin Mount Doom, pakataan villisti, ja hoidetaan satakiljoonaa asiaa pois alta jotta huomenissa päästään matkaan. Siksi lyhyt postaus, palajamme kuvien kera joskus kiitospäivän jälkeen!

Blech!

I'm still stuck knitting small things. I finished a few projects but I can't say I'd be thrilled to finish them, as they only took a few hours to knit.

Mie tuherran pienien asioiden kanssa. Ei näitten takia voi vielä suurempaa kansanjuhlaa järjestää, mutta pitivät ainakin kädet kiireisinä.

First, a towel for us. I used about 1,5 balls of Sugar'n'Cream and #3 needles for the most basic and brainless basketweave stitch towel, but I quite like the outcome. It measures roughly 17,5" x 13" and I will knit a pair for it, eventually.

Ensimmäinen juttu oli puuvillainen käsipyyhe meitin vessaan. Noin 33 cm x 43 cm pyyhkeeseen meni reilu 100g lankaa, ohje taas kulmakarvojen tuoltapuolen ja onnistuminen sitä luokkaa, että saanee parin aikanaan.

Secondly, a scarf with the simplest feather and fan pattern for Mum. I used 1,5 balls of Lion Brand Wool-ease and #8 needles. It's ok, I hope my Mum will like it.

Kaikkienhan on joskus neulottava feather and fan -huivi jossain muodossaan? Tässä minun versioni: seiskaveikkapaksuista akryylisekoa viitosen tikuilla äitille. Huivi on noin 130 cm pitkä ja parisenkymmentä senttiä leveä, sen kokoinen että saa kiepautettua kaulan ympäri ja takin kauluksesta piiloon.




I began the Flower Basket Shawl, but chose a completely wrong yarn for the project. The color is horrid, it works in stranded knitting but is absolutely disgusting on its own. I frogged this.

Flower Basket Shawl alkoi mukavasti, mutta ennen ensimmäisen kerän loppumista tajusin, että väri (kissanoksennusta sammalikossa) ei todellakaan ole kaunis. Lanka kirjoneuleeseen sekaan, ja sama malli jollain muulla langalla joskus myöhemmin puikoille. Tämä versio sammakkolammelle.


I did finish my brother's Flame Cap, and I think he'll like it too. The pattern for my caps is now available.

Veikan liekkipipa valmistui, ja olin aika tyytyväinen tähän. Toivottavasti kelpaa veikalle. Pipaohje löytyy tuolta sivupalkista, samassa ohjeessa on tämä ja aiempien postausten helppopipat.


And last but not least, I knitted two pairs of mittens this weekend. These are for small kids so I finished them quickly.

Ja neuloin parit tumput alamittaisillekin. Nopeasti tulivat valmiiksi.

The grey pair looks ordinary, but it isn't. I knitted one mitten top-down, and the other from the cuff up. And they're identical! This was probably the most gratifying project this week, and I plan to use this idea (and the pattern) in the (very near) future.

Harmaa pari näyttää tavalliselta, mutta toinen tumppu on itse asiassa neulottu ylhäältä alas ja toinen ranteesta ylöspäin. Kummiskin ovat identtiset. Mie tätä ideaa aion pyörittää vastakin, katsotaan mitä tuleman pitää.