Coming Up for Air

Hello, Blog. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Did you miss me? I see the Lair is quite dusty *cough*. Time for some spring cleaning then!

So I'm back. I honestly have no idea what happened. I knitted a cardigan, then cast on for a new one and what do you know, it's suddenly next year - next decade in fact! -, and nearly six months since I blogged. I needed the break, though, to figure out what to do with the Lair. It has also been a time of adjustment - we moved to a new country only a few months ago (I know it's my home country but after 5 years it felt like moving to a new country), and there have been times I wanted to pack everything and go home. It has not been the easiest of winters, although I have enjoyed the company of my friends and family, and it has been desperately beautiful outside, but it's also been a very dark and cold winter. Moving from a busy metropolis to a village of six (6!) houses has not been entirely easy.



On top of this all, I have been on the road a lot, teaching my sweater method to Finnish knitters. And it has been fun, meeting new people and knitting with them - but it has also drained me of energy. And I am applying to a university next summer, which means I have to read, read, read, and perhaps then read some more.

I have not been entirely idle and hibernating though! So let's clear out the dust and take a look at some of the items finished in the Lair over the past 6 months or so!

First up, the bathrobe. Clearly, not my greatest hour, despite the smug grin!


The yarn is a fuzzy acrylic blend, rather horrible to work with but knits up really fast. And it's warm, which was what I wanted. But it does look a bit like a bathrobe, and it wasn't really me - the color and the design looked awkward on me. I gave this cardi to Mum, she likes it and that's what's important.

The next big project was my Double Lattice Sweater. Like the green cardi, it is knitted with the top-down seamless set-in sleeve method, and I absolutely love the way it turned out.



The yarn was rather unforgiving, 100% mercerized cotton, which does not stretch, so the minicables were truly painful to work.



The result is a shining fabric which looks nothing like cotton fabrics - but wears well and is machine washable. Which is great, since normally, white and I do not mix very well.



And it fits just the way I wanted! I could lose a few pounds and it would be even better still, but I am very happy with it as it is. It has been worn a lot already, and it's surprisingly warm considering it's cotton.





And no seams!




I have also been spinning! The Lair has seen some changes in the wheel family - Butch is gone to a new and loving home, since here, he was badly neglected and lonely (and I think Sylvie verbally abused him on a regular basis). The Pocket Wheel is going through some repairs, and has not been actively in use for months. Sylvie is the same, although she has competition now: I have a new wheel. Sophie, a Kromski Sonata, is a true workhorse, not the prettiest wheel there is but a great companion. I'll show pics of her later, but for now, something we played with together.

First, a handspun Baktus, spun from the beautiful Allspunup Falkland fiber to a thick fingering weight single and knitted in a couple of nights to a warm and comfy little shawl.


The colors are truly breathtaking. I love the subtle tones and the variation of dark colors.


I love wearing handspun socks, and these are no exception. There is an element of rag rug-esque striping in the yarn, but I like the vivid colors. The fiber is 100% SW BFL I dyed and spun ages ago.


One last thing I want to show you: my Emerald Sweater. I was lucky enough to get some KnitPicks Gloss Kenai yarn for a sweater*, and used 10 skeins of this truly beautiful teal colored yarn for this design.


It is a simple design, twisted stitches on a reverse stockinette background, but in the cuffs and the hem there is a lace pattern I adapted from a Japanese stitch pattern book.



This was really a lot of fun to knit, despite the gazillion stitches on my #1 needles. The best bit: no seams!



Mr HairyFeet was kind enough to photograph it with me, and I wore it with my Winter Skirt. I really love the combination of these two handknits together.



Happily there is still a lot of time to wear both of them, the spring is only beginning here. As is clearly visible in this picture with the Mount Doom of Snow behind me!



And last but not least, the pattern for the Winter Skirt is finally available through ravelry! That's all for now, next time - Casbah!

*Yarn sponsored by KnitPicks.

Gray Is the New Black

I finished my cardi, the epic project of this fall!



I know, the color choice is radical. But I wanted a gray cardigan, to go so well with all the handknit shawls and scarves.





It's warm, and comfortable, and it fits. There are one or two issues with it, mainly the size of the hood, but I'll take it as a learning experience. There is, in fact, no need to knit a hood so big an entire football team could fit in there. And play.





Otherwise, I can't think of anything negative about it. The broken rib band around the front edges and the hood nearly did me in - 530 stitches of worsted weight yarn on a 32" needle will take your soul, your will to live, your will to knit (gasp) and nearly, but not entirely, your love for gray yarn.



I do love the color. I don't know why, but gray is, and will always be, a favorite. (Ask me again next week, and it'll be green. Or blue. Or yellow!)



The coat was finished just in time. Last week, we had fall. This week, we got winter. Brr!

Amazing Travels and Beauty in the Morning (Marathon Post)

(Still no knitting. Forgot to block. And photograph.)

Last week, on Thursday to be exact, I turned 30. It didn't feel any different from any other day, except that a friend bought a beautiful wheel and I taught her to spin. To celebrate, I went on a road trip and drove nearly 900 miles, to see friends and knit. A group of 40 knitters met for a weekend of knitting and spinning and yarn and fiber and books and tea and wine and such.


I also taught a class on the sweater method. We had fun.


I had fun, and I think the class did too. The picture above of one of our amazing organizers, Samma, was just too hilarious to miss. It was all very cordial, I was nice to everyone.

I swear I was.

In my class, the knitters were fun, smart, amazing artists. I was honored to meet them all. (I loved the Shetland shawl, it looked so warm.)


It all required a lot of concentration.


Their beautiful hands knitted very very fast. And they were all such a joy to watch.


I am so happy I got to meet my fellow knitters. It was a weekend of sheer joy, I hope there'll be another knitting retreat very soon. (I also may have bought another spinning wheel. More of that later.)

On my travels I also got to meet some animals I had not seen before. Lizards, and some snakes.


They were very scary and wild, all 12 inches of them.


These Columbian rainbowboas were truly most amazing animals: beautiful, strong, primitive, and an absolute joy to watch.


The green iguana did not approve of my photographing him.


But the little ADD lizard did not mind, at all. She was awfully cute!


Now that I have shocked you with lizards and snakes, let's look at some yarn. These came home with me. Green mystery lace yarn and blue Drops Alpaca adopted from fellow knitters.


Burgundy Drops Alpaca. What can I say, I love the yarn. And the color!


And then I went crazy. First, just a little.


And the I went completely bonkers.

Yes, I am aware it's yellow. But what a yellow it is! Mustard yellow, in all of the richness of the fall yellow that is only there this time of year! I had to have it. All of it.

Speaking of fall, it's here.














Enjoy your fall days!

The Little House by the River

We're back! It only took me 6 weeks to get back to blogging :D So here's a brief recap on what has been going on.

We got here on August 9th and the first few weeks went past really fast, taking care of official business and all. Mr HairyFeet went back to work on Aug 17th and as our cars, the Amazing German Wonders, were still on a boat somewhere in the Atlantic, he needed a car for commuting. And so he graduated from a V-dub driver to a Mercedes driver.

So we have a 20-year old Mercedes now :D It drives surprisingly well, there are no issues with it, and it gets around 50mpg (around 5l/100km), so it's a perfect car for him to drive to work (70 miles one way).

In August, we also moved to a little house by the river. There is literally a tiny creek in our backyard!

The house was Mr HairyFeet's grandparents' place, and since they're no longer with us, it has been a summer house. It's fully redecorated and modernized inside and out, and with 3 bedrooms and around 1400 sq. ft (140m2), it's decently big for us. I love the fact that it has a huge fireplace and a sauna!

There are also 2 small sheds and a bigger barn/animal house complex, which haven't been in farming use for decades.

They're there for storage only (and especially the animal house is in a rather shabby condition). And in these storage rooms we have found treasures.


Treasures, I tell you. This is a Varpaloom "Kothe", it is at least 30 years old 24" wide, 8 harness table loom. The loom needed to new thinner heddle rods and new heddles, new reeds (none were found), but otherwise it is in perfect condition. I found several shuttles and a bobbin rack, too, and will get the new reeds shortly, so I can set it up. It even has a stand! It is exactly what I spent nights and days googling last spring, and I wanted to buy one, but luckily I didn't. The only downside is that it doesn't fold, but I can't really complain about that. We also discovered two antique skein winders (wooden ones) and a metal one with a clever mechanism, bobbin lace pillows and bobbins and instructions, and tons of needles and yarn. Mr HairyFeet's grandma was an avid craftswoman, and since no one else in the family needs these tools, I guess I need to learn new crafts ;D

But before I can settle down at the loom and start weaving madly, the yard has to be prepped for the winter.

This is only maybe 1/4 of the yard. It truly is huge, there is a small garden and apple trees and lawn all over. We have sunflowers...

And we have flowers all over the yard...




Rowans are full of berries.


And the flowers are full of bumble bees (which are surprisingly cute too).


But most importantly, we have amazing sunsets. (These are all straight from the camera, I merely cropped and resized them.)










More pics in Flickr.

That's all for now! I have been knitting a little so next time, we'll get proper knitting pictures. Til then, have a wonderful week!