The First Purse

So, I promised you some crafts as well. Recently I've been daydreaming about sewing and making small, cute things which I could give as presents. On Sunday a small scale web shopping frenzy struck me, and I ordered a bunch of stull that will come very handy indeed for this purpose. Yesterday I received the first package with purse frames and immediately had to rush to the fabric store to get interfacing (Bügeleinlage/tukikangas. You learn new words everyday when you're crafting in a foreign country.)

I got so far as cutting the purse pieces and ironing on the interfacing yesterday, and today (despite I had work to do) I couldn't wait any longer: so out with the sewing machine, and one-two-three-SEW!

And lo and behold, only about half an hour later:

It is soooo pretty! Isn't it? And how easy was that! I dreaded the part of glueing the frame on but it was a total piece of cake as well. The instructions for this lovely purse can be found here in English or here in Finnish. I orderer the purse frames from Dawanda shop Bügel-Kram, but I'm sure you can find them close to where you live as well. 

I am totally hooked onto making these now, so stay tuned for more lovelies. I have just the fabric for it as well... I'll show you later on :) //

Kauhea ompeluvimma on iskenyt, ja pussukoiden tekoa on pitänyt kokeilla jo pitkään. Vihdoin sain tilattua näitä kukkarokehyksiä (vai mikä lie niiden nimi on) ja KATSOKAA MITEN HIENO SIITÄ TULI! Ei vitsi että olen onnessani. Ja niin helppoa! *kevättanssi* Nyt kaikki heti kokeilemaan, linkki ohjeisiin löytyy yläpuolelta jostain.

With love, Lilje

The Berlin (Photography) Bloggers

Hey you! The spring is finally here, or so it seems. Every other day it's warm and nice, and every other day you wear the same clothes as the day before and almost freeze to death. I'm teetering on the verge of a spring cold, but trying to avoid it by drinking tea, using my neti-pot and eating a ridiculous amount of vitamins. And of course crafting. But more of that in the next post.

Right now, let's go back to last weekend. On Friday, a bunch of photography-minded Berlin bloggers got together in Friedenau (really far away from where I live...) to share a glass of wine and discuss blogging and taking pictures. There were about a dozen of us there, and I'm sad I didn't have time to talk to each of you (needed to leave early for a gig). The list of participants can be seen here. The highlight of the evening for me was to finally meet the lovely Julie of Julie's Schöne Welt. She was every bit as great as I thought she would be, and we immediately made a second date for the beginning of May. Yay!

Thanks again for the great opportunity to meet you guys, and I'll definitely make sure that I can stay longer in the next meet-up.

//
Viime perjantaina valouvausinnostuneet bloggaajat kokoontuivat länsiberliiniläiseen Friedenauhun. Hauskaa oli vaikkakin riemu loppui omalta kohdaltani lyhyeen kun piti lähteä kaverin keikalle. Ens kerralla sitten enemmän!

With love, Lilje

The Three Dropped Stitch Wristwarmers

So guys, Easter is over. I know I promised you pictures, but what can you do: when the night is dark, the wine a-flow and four people are crammed in a kitchen barely designed to fit one, sometimes there aren't any pics to show for it. I am deeply sorry.

To apologise, I decided to share with you another wristwarmer project of mine. The pattern is Amy Gunderson's Deconstructed Mitts taken from Knitscene accessories 2012. As you look at the picture below, you might wonder, if I have forgotten how many hands a normal human being usually has. The answer is no, I intended to do the normal two mitts/wristwarmers, but as I am her Wonkiness, things went a bit awry...

The mitts used dropped stitches and stitches knit and purled through back loop as emphasis on either side of the dropped stitch. I knew how to knit through back loop. So, how hard could it be to purl through back loop? No need to check for instructions, right? 

 

So, this is what happens when you don't know what you're doing: check the difference between the upper and the lower mitt.

This is not how you do it

This is how you do it

And apparently the fucked-up through back loop purls also affect how the dropped stitch unravels. Who knew! Well, now I do. And I've learned my lesson: if you don't know how to do something, check out the instructions. Don't wing it.

But these little ones were quite fun to knit, and even though I did stuff differently than in the instructions, they still turned out quite nice. They'll be a prezzie for a friend of mine, so hope she likes them :)

Don't know what to do with the third one, though. Any suggestions? //

Pääsiäiseltä ei jäänyt kuvatallenteita, sori. Yritin korvata tekemällä kahden ranteenlämmittimen sijaan kolme. Aina kannatta katsoa ohjeita, opin taas, yritettyäni värkätä taka"loopin" kautta eli kääntäen neulottuja nurjia silmukoita. Ei se menny ihan niin kun olin kuvitellu, kuten kuvista nähdä saattaa. Jos on vinkkejä, mitä ton kolmannen epäonnisen kanssa vois suorittaa niin otetaan vastaan.

With Love,
Lilje

Pattern: Deconstructed Mitts

Yarn: Malaysian weirdo

Needles: 5 mm dp and 4 mm dp for the rib

Mood: All good stuff comes in threes

The Easter Mobile

I can't believe it's already Easter! Well, technically not, but when I listen closely, I can already hear the Easter Bunny loading chocolate eggs into her basket (there is a distinct sound to that! Just imagine.) We are totally ready for her to hop along and bring the joy to us all (or wait, was that Santa? anyway...). All the deco is now done, all we need to do is finalize the menu, go grocery shopping (already bought the lamb today!), wait for the guests and then cook and enjoy :)

Pinterest: familyfun.go.com

But the apartment looks lovely already. The final touch was the Easter mobile that I got done yesterday. Long in the planning, I am so happy that it turned out exactly like I had envisioned. I saw an image more like the one I made in a blog somewhere, but didn't bookmark it (silly me), so now it's lost. Here are a couple of pics from Pinterest though, that have inspired me. This is actually my first Pinterest-inspired post: we talked about it with fellow blogger Julie from Julie's schöne welt and decided we'd do something Pinterestey together. So here is the first post from me for that theme :)

                 

Pinterest: whatsupcharlie.over-blog.com

Pinterest: digischool.nl

So what I did was buy some felt and wooden pearls and grab a branch from the forest while visiting the horsey and paint it white. And this is what happened after:

 My very first and own Easter mobile! And super easy and fast to make. The little colourful felt dots in the collage lower left corner were my solution to keeping the beads in place: just twist the thread and make a knot, stab one of the dots with the needle and pull it onto the knot. Voilá: pearl stopper! Plus they look cute.

So, with this post I wish you all Happy Easter! May the days be merry and bright, and may all your Easter-ses be non-white (or white, if you're into skiing). I'll post of our food extravaganza later on (after we've digested it all). Bye until then :) //

Tässä ihkaensimmäinen pääsiäismobile! Tuli just sellanen kun olin suunnitellut, jee! Näillä kuvilla toivottelen kaikille iloista ja munaisaa pääsiäistä :)

Love, Lilje

The Calendar

Still snow! The winter really isn't going anywhere this year. The past few days have been brilliantly sunny but freezing cold. So, there is a real need for something colourful to bring the spring that much closer. Which brings me to the previous post!

Tan-tan-taaaaa.... here it is, the answer to the picture puzzle. Let me introduce you to my happy thought/event calendar! It took time to cut the cards and write the dates but now it is done. And I love it! The idea of keeping the calendar with you for many years and reading what you've done on the same days in previous years just seems very cool. I saw a calendar like this in a blog somewhere, but for the life of me I can't seem to find it anymore :(. But thank you still, blog owner with no name, for the brilliant idea. //

Talvitalvikylmääbrrrrr. Mikä kevät? Onpahan sentään aurinkoista ja kaunista. Värejä kuitenkin tarvitaan, tässä niitä kokonaiset 365. Joka päivälle omansa, mukavien ajatuksien ja tapahtumien kirjaamista varten. Oli muuten hommaa leikata noita lappuja! :D


With love, Lilje

The Puzzle

Winter is really relentless this year: we just keep getting more and more snow! So, the only solution is to make spring indoors. Flowers and bright colours keep me from going crazy with all the bleakness and the cold. But it will be spring soon, I can sense it! Until then, a picture puzzle for you:

What will this colourful bunch of cards basking in the spring sun (from last week, now it's gone again) be? Any guesses? Stay tuned to find out! //

Talvi pitää edelleen otteessaan, joten kevättunnelmaa on luotava sisätiloissa. Kuva-arvoitus: mikä mahtaa tulla tästä läjästä paperia? 

With love, Lilje

The Almost Matching Socks

These socks were a work in progress before we left for our trip, and I finished them off when we returned. In these (unlike these), the Drops yarn's colour pattern surprisignly decided to actually almost match in both socks. Shock horror!

I originally knit these for myself, but as I already got the wonky ones, I decided to brighten my boyfriend's day with them.

Nice and colourful they are, maybe not the springiest of colours but hey, there's still snow here... Anyway, I wish you all a happy and warm start to the week. Hope you don't need woolly socks, wherever you are :) //

Värikkäiden sukkien langan väri mätsäsi (melkein). Aika yllättävä veto. Iloista viikonalkua ja vähempilumisia toivotuksia...

With love, Lilje

The Cotton Cowl

Due to all the icky illness-related things, this post is way overdue. The cowl of doom, as I fondly call it, was finished already in Thailand. It turned out... well, what should I say. It is a cowl, yes. It can be worn around one's neck. It even magically stretches enough so that you can wrap it awound your neck twice (as it is knit so loosely). It doesn't really look anything like it was supposed to. Do I like it? Weeeeelll... Maybe as a festival cowl.

But hey people, seriously, cowls? I don't really see their point. They're just a woolly/cottony thing you wrap around your neck, that hangs there loosely like an oversized necklace. The only ones that are really useful are the really long ones, that wrap around many times and keep you warm. But the normal ones? They either leave the neck or the throat bare. And what's the use in that? Maybe you can enlighten me? :) (Or maybe, just maybe, if this one had turned out like it should with the other end way tighter and smaller, there would be no reason for this rant.) //

Noniin, valmis on. Ei siitä kovin kaunis tullut, mutta kyllähän tuota nyt kaulassaan roikuttaa. En vaan ehkä tajua tällasten tuubihuivien pointtia: ne vaan roikkuu siinä ja jättää joko kaulan tai kurkun paljaaksi. Mikä järki? Paitsi tietty jos ne on semmoisia pitkiä joita voi kieputtaa useammin kaulan ympärille. Ne tajuan. Muita en. Valaiskaa fiksummat jos olen väärässä. Tietty jos tästä olisi tullut mallinsa kaltainen eli toinen pää paljon pienempi ja tiukempi, ehkä ei olis syytä tuubienvastaisrintamalle...

Pattern: State street cowl

Yarn: Novita Hanko

Needles: 9 and 10, circular

Mood: Well, it's done...

With love, Lilje

The Easter Countdown

We're home! Oooh it's so good to be back. After the nastiness of dengue fever the last weeks in Thailand were less than optimal, and I was completely ready when the plane took off and we left the land of smiles and sun behind. Yes, we will be back, but for now I'm enthusiastically planning DIY projects and waiting for Easter in Berlin, where there are no nasty dengue mozzies.

Which brings us to this post. Easter! What better reason to dig out the deco and go shopping for a bit more. As I missed Christmas, the decoration freak in me is rubbing its furry paws together with glee. I think I might get a bit carried away this year... *smirk*

So, what have we done here? The bowl with the bunnies is filled with some very German Easter grass (it's HARD trying to find the actual living grass you grow yourself from seeds. The Germans looove their paper grass...), small decorative egg shells and felt balls. And ribbons! I am totally in love with them: it makes the whole world of difference when you just add a little bit of ribbon here and there. Or what do you think?

Tweet says the bird

Then there are the two candle holders, one with egg shells again and the other with small glass eggs from a lovely Finnish home decoration store Pentik. Both eggs are lying on a comfy bed of dried moss. I also wrapped two ex-dessert glasses with ribbon to make them more Eastery. Easy peasy.

Eggsies and ribbonsies, my precioussss...

Now I'll withdraw into my lair filled with all things flully and bunny-shaped. Stay tuned for more Easter related madness! //

Kotona! Ehkä mahtavinta ikinä. Denguekuumeen kourissa ja siitä toipuessa ei viimeiset viikot Thaikkulassa kovin hauskoja olleet. Nyt onkin sitten sitäkin ihanampaa puuhailla kotohommia, laitella pääsiäistä ja näperrellä projekteja. Eikös ole söpöjä nämä pääsiäisjutskat? Nauhoilla saa niin paljon kevätfiilistä aikaan :)

With love, Lilje

The Most Unyielding Yarn Ever

After the owl mittens were done, I was excited to start a new project. It involved bigger needles and bulky yarn. Yay for speedy knitting, I thought. Hmmh, not so. Have you ever tried knitting with cotton yarn? I thougt when I was making the small entrelac patch that the yarn was absolutely fine. But when casting on for the state street cowl I noticed that the yarn had a mind of its own. It. Just. Wouldn't. Budge. I mean, no give at all. Zero. Zilch. When knitting with small needles, I don't think that's a problem, but when knitting with such thick ones (9 and 10 mm) with a thin cable in between you really have your work cut out for you. As the yarn is so rigid, you have to constantly pull stitches on the left needle and push them off the right one, and I don't mean gently. After the first night of knitting my thumb was really sore from pulling the stitches from the  cable onto the thick needle. Pheew! The finished knit surface seems ok, though, so I think the cowl will be wearable even though it will be an effort to finish.

The other problem were the yarn overs that were marked in the pattern. As you can't really knit tight with a yarn like this (or at least I can't), the holes the yarn overs left were HUGE. So, after doing a few, I decided to knit the rest of them from the back loop and close the holes that way. Maybe the big holes would have looked nice in the end, but now they just look like mistakes... Oh well, it's not like I'm planning of selling this masterpiece to anyone, so as a festival cowl I think it will serve its purpose just fine.

Stay tuned for the whole story after I finish the damn thing ;) //

En tiedä onko kaikkien puuvillalankojen kanssa näin, mutta tämä yksilö ainakaan ei anna periksi IHAN YHTÄÄN. Paksuilla puikoilla neulottaessa on kyllä melko työlästä kiskoa silmukoita kaapelilta takaisin puikolle neulottaviksi. Lisäksi jäljestä tulee melko löysää, kun silmukoita ei oikein tiukempaan voi neuloa että ne edes jotenkin saa takaisin puikoille riivittyä. Mutta hei, eihän tää myyntiin oo menossa ja oppia ikä kaikki ja semmoista. Tikutellaan siis menemään ja toivotaan parasta :) Kyllä tästä hyvä festarikauluri tulee...

With love, Lilje

The Horned Owl Mittens

*drumroll here please* Ta-daaah! They are done! D-O-N-E done! Pheew. And look how fine they turned out, too! Ok, yes, yes, they are lumpy as hell, but I've heard that steam ironing can do them a world of good, so I will try to de-lumpify them the minute we get home. Which is happening pretty soon, actually: it feels totally weird to think we only have a month to go. I'm wavering between having second thoughts about changing the flights to an earlier date and the sheer joy and glee of returning home and being able to see friends, bake, and steam iron all the knittings that have been done during the trip.

But I digress; back to the mittens. The pattern was the lovely Horatio and Oren by Barbara Gregory and my official first attempt to do colour knitting. And I must say, I really quite like it. Yes, it is a pain to try and get everything to go smoothly and no, I still don't understand how people manage to get a silky smooth knit surface (even before blocking or steam ironing the piece), what with all the yarns that are twisted around each other at the back, but probably this, as everything, has to do with practice, practice, practice.

And need I say that there was AGAIN a problem with the gauge/tension? Oh my God, that thing is driving me absolutely stark raving mad! I just DO NOT understand how that works. Here's how it went (wrong) this time: the yarn weight was supposed to be 113 m / 50 g ball and the yarn I bought was 120 m / 50 g, so I figured (wrong) that instead of using the 3 mm and 3,25 mm needles that are called for in the pattern, I would get away with using a 3,5 mm, as the yarn was a bit thinner. Thinner yarn, thicker needles, right? Well, turns out that the 7 m difference is not big enough to justify the 3,5 mm needles, and silly me didn't get the 3 mm ones (the shop didn't carry half sizes so the 3,25 was a no-go anyway). I don't remember actually how the gauge knitting went, but I do recall that I got a larger gauge number with the 4 mm needles than with the 3,5 mm ones (!). This defies all logic, I know, but what can I say? Things in wonkyland tend to be, well, a bit wonky.

There was also the matter of the thumb gusset. After figuring out I needed to start it straight away I still didn't get where the one stitch in between the first row of gusset increases came from. I scoured the internet for info and asked my mother-in-law-to-be for advice, and finally found out that indeed, the first half of the motif only has 23 stitches instead of the 24 I had counted. Urpo laskit väärin, as we say in Finland. A lesson learned, once again!

But with luck the mittens turned out ok. They are a bit small for me, but as they are going to a friend, it's ok. I remember she has small hands. If not, I imagine her daughter who was born a few months ago will eventually grow into them... I'm also not quite sure if I like the fact that the thumb gusset starts immediately after the cuff, so I might add a couple of rounds of garter stitch in between when I'm making my own pair of owls. Yes, there is more to come, just you wait :)

There have been lots of other versions of these adorable mittens around the blogging world, and I can easily see why. The mittens are fun and relatively easy to knit even for a colour knitting beginner and the result is so sweet that you immediately want to cast on another pair :)

Have you made you own Horatio and Orens? I'd love to see your pics! //

Nää on nyt valmiit! Säätöä oli taas varsinkin tuon peukalokiilan kanssa, mutta valmista tuli silti melko sukkelaan. Eihän nämä nyt Vuoden Neuloja -palkintoa saa, mutta ehkä höyrytys tekee ihmeitä? Kiva näitä oli ainakin tehdä. Nämä menee kaverille, pitää valikoida omaan versioon sitten vähän eriväriset langat, pinkki ei oo ihan mun juttu. Oottekos te tehnyt omia Horatio and Oreneitanne? Kuvia kehiin! :)

Pattern: Horatio and Oren

Yarn: Linie 110, colours Timona and Burgundy

Needles: 3,5 dp

Mood: *boogie*

With love, Lilje

The Colour Knitting Disaster

Hey, I have an idea! Why not jump straight in the deep end and learn colour knitting with a somewhat challenging owl mitten project? And how about not finding out exactly what a thumb gusset means before starting to follow the chart, surely that's a good idea too?

Try #1

So yeah, this is how far I got. It's not a completely horrible mess, but it is lumpy as hell, what with all the too tight floats at the backside. So I am secretly pleased that I totally ignored the instructions of starting to add stitches for the thumb gusset straight away... This way I had an excuse (or a reason even) to rip away and start again. 

I also spent half the night scouring YouTube and all kinds of knitting related sites to try and find out what I could do to stop the ugly puckering. No instant help was found, other than remembering to stretch out the stitches on the needles all the time (or trying to learn how to have one yarn on the right hand, English style, so that the tensions of the two yarns would be more even. After half an hour of trying to get at least some kind of tension going with my right hand and failing miserably, I gave up). I also found this video of a new type of way to hold the yarns in your left hand but couldn't for the life of me understand how she twists the yarn over in the beginning. 2 am might have had something do with the lack of brain function, so maybe I'll try again today.

Meanwhile, if anyone has good tips to share on how to achieve a perfectly smooth and lovely surface when colour knitting, please please please let me know! The owls and I would be ever grateful! //

Kannattaa aloittaa kirjoneulonnan opettelu vähän hankalanpuoleisesta mallista ja jättää tsekkaamatta miten mallin mukainen peukku tehdään. Purkuhommiksi meni... mutta onni onnettomuudessa sentään: ärsytti tuo jäljen epätasaisuus muutenkin. On muuten vaikeeta yrittää saada niitä lankajuoksuja olemaan tarpeeks löysät ettei menis ihan kuprulle tuo neulos! Jos on jollain hyviä vinkkejä tähän niin otetaan ilolla vastaan...

With love, Lilje

The Malaysian Yarn Hunt

Pheew, I'm finally back on Koh Phangan! The holiday wasn't very restful as first my boyfriend got the nasty bug and then I had some stomach-problems of my own, but at least I got some shopping done in Kuala Lumpur. I also froze my ass off watching Hobbit in an ice box cold cinema, but that's another story... The idea was to buy yarn for Horatio and Oren owl mittens and dropped stitch mitts from Knitscene accessories plus needles to do the State street cowl. Of course I didn't find exactly what I was looking for as the yarn weights were different (and the colours were pretty blah as well, to be frank), but let's see what I come up with with the ones I found. Have to try and get the tension/gauge right this time!

The Maycraft shop that I mentioned in this post turned out not to be the heaven I was expecting, but a tiny little place deep in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur (pretty much like the one I visited last time). So the trip wasn't really worth the price and effort of the taxi ride, as there is a perfecly ok little crafts shop just next to the hotel we were staying at (and which I still had to go to, as the Maycraft shop didn't have thick enough needles that I needed for the cowl). But now there is yarn and needles. The only thing missing is a ruler, so that I could measure the gauge swatch correctly. The only ruler I have is printed behind a yarn wrap, that is currenlty sitting in storage here on Koh Phangan (oh the joys of moving house). I will hopefully get it tomorrow, as we managed to get such a shitty motorbike for today that we're sure it'll explode if we try to make the trip to the other side of the island.... Or then I'll just go and buy a ruler from the town. It costs like nothing, I'm just making excuses. Can I play the jetlag card if the time difference between KL and here is only one hour? Maybe this is just dehydration from all the a/c we've had. Pheew! What I need is a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, I promise I'll start making the gauge swatches! I'll keep you posted.

With love, Lilje

The Meme

Sorry English speakers, this meme is in Finnish so I'm also answering the questions in Finnish. //

Hahaa, eka postaus suomeksi! On ollut vähän hankalaa yrittää päättää, millä kielellä tätä blogia oikeen naputtelisi... kavereita kun on monen kielisiä, asun Saksassa, joten pitäs jotenkin ehkä englanniksi kirjoittaa. Lisäksi on tosi kivakin kirjottaa enkuksi, siinä tulee jotenkin ajateltua asioita eri kantilta eikä vaan mulautettua kaikkea ruudulle ajatuksenvirtana. Olenkin nyt pähkäiltyäni päättänyt, että ehkä pitänee kirjoittaa molemmilla kielillä :)

Harakanlauluja-blogissa oltiin vastattu hauskankuuloiseen meemiin, ja koska Minna ei ketään erityisesti jatkohaastanut, päätin ottaa ohjat omiin käsiin. Oon lapsesta asti tykännyt kaiken maailman ystäväkirjoista ja slämäreistä ja mitä niitä nyt oli, missä piti vastailla kaikenmoisiin outoihin kysymyksiin. Tässä siis oma rivini. Haastaa voisin vaikka Hupsistarallaan Norsiksen, "eilenteinin", Herkun ja koukun tytöt, Leipovan Lunnin, Neulovan Nartun, Peruspöperölän Virpin ja Muita ihania -Tiinan. Ei nyt hullukaan yhtätoista jaksa haastaa! Ja siis toim. huom, haastetta ei ole pakko ottaa vastaan jos ei halua. Menen myös siitä mistä aita on matalin, eli samoilla kysymyksillä kuin Harakanlaulujaisissa:

1. Miksi aloitit bloggaamisen?

Blogeja on ollut jo useampia tähän mennessä, mutta jotenkin ne ei vaan ole ottaneet tuulta alleen. Päätin nyt vielä ottaa yhden uusintaerän, jossa olisi koko elämä samassa paketissa: leipomukset, neulomukset ja muut kuulumiset (jossain määrin). Olisi niin kiva saada tästä arkisto omista tekemisistä, kun ei sitä kuitenkaan viikon päästä enää muista yhtään mistään mitään.

2. Horoskooppimerkkisi?

Vaaka, eli puntaroi järjen lähtöön saakka kaikkia mahdollisia vaihtoehtoja. Mitään ei voi koskaan päättää äkkiä. Jos pitää valita, valitsen yleensä molemmat.

3. Minkälainen mielentila sinulla on juuri nyt?

Koti-ikäväinen. Reissu on ollut opettavainen ja talven pakeneminen loistoidea, mutta nyt alkaa jo riittää. Tahtoo kotiin, omaan keittiöön ja omaan sänkyyn, omien kavereiden luokse.

4. Onnellisin muistosi?

Apua, ei tämmösiä voi tietää! Laitetaan vaikka äkkiseltään nyt se, kun tuli päivä jolloin elämä Berliinissä alkoi rullata ja huomasi, että tykkää siitä kaupungista niinkuin karhu puolukoista (eli siis paljon). Oli voittajafiilis.

5. Lempikukkasi?

Muistan ehkä neljän kukan nimet niin laitanpa ne: orkidea, ruusu, lilja, tulppaani. Kaikki kukat on ihania, en vaan oo millään lailla kukkatietäjä niin nimet ei pysy päässä.

6. Haaveidesi aamupala?

Kaikenmoisten mahaongelmien ja niistä johtuvien pakkonirsoilujen vuoksi vastaan, että hyvä valikoima ihania, vehnättömiä leipiä, paljon eri juustoja, tahnoja ja hilloja niiden kanssa. Iso vati tuoreita hedelmiä. Edelleenkin vehnättömiä mutta kuitenkin syntisen hyviä keksejä ja kakkuja. Tiramisua. Suklaamoussea. Smoothiebaari. Ja muut juomassa kahvia niin voin haistella sen tuoksua. Mmmm!

7. Oletko puutarhaihminen ja miksi?

Haluaisin kovasti olla, mutta mies vetää tässä pidemmän korren. On ihana suunnitella kasvattavansa kaikenlaista ja niinhän sitä tehdäänkin, mutta sitten kun hommat alkaa mennä ns. mehtään eli lehdet kellastua, kukat kuihtua ja mitä näitä ongelmia nyt onkaan, niin aika tassut tervassa siinä on. Eli avuton, siis. Haaveilen silti puutarhapläntistä jonne voisi istuttaa kaikenlaista, unohtaa merkata rivit ja kitkeä sitten versot rikkaruohoina. Niin siinä kuitenkin kävis.

8. Mitä olisit harrastanut lapsena, jos nyt voisit päättää?

Ainoana lapsena olin aika herkullisessa asemassa, kun sain kokeilla vaikka mitä. Olin kuvataidekerhossa, soitin pianoa, kokeilin telinevoimistelua ja jalkapalloa, pelasin jonkin aikaa pesäpalloa. Ratsastus kuitenkin on se, joka jäi mukaan. Jos voisin nyt päättä, niin olisin halunnut partioon. Sinne mua ei ikinä kuskattu enkä tajunnut itse pyytää. Se ois varmaan ollu hauskaa, ja siitä ois ollu hyötyä. Saattaisin nyt osata esim. sytyttää nuotion (mitä en todellakaan osaa).

 

9. Rakkain esineesi?

Lapsuudenaikaiset pehmolelut: possu nimeltä Töpseli ja lumileopardi (eli leijona, sama asiahan se, eh?) Leo leijona. Kuvaa ette nyt saa, kun raukat ovat aika kaukana, odottelemassa emännän paluuta. Töpselillä on mahassa pussi, jossa se kuljettaa poikasiaan. Näistä on kuitenkin varmaan puolet kadonnut, kun yliopistoaikoina kavereideni lempileikki oli Töpselin porsaiden piilotus erinäisiin paikkoihin... kaikki eivät koskaan löytäneet takaisin :(

 

10. Oletko aamu- vai iltaihminen?

Jaa-a. Aamuisin en pääse ylös, mutta jos pakotan itseni esim. tallireissun takia, on ihan mahtavaa, miten pitkälle päivästä riittää. Iltaihminen haluaisn olla myös, mutta silloin alkaa nukuttaa. Olen siis öö päiväihminen? :)

11. Mikä on parasta jokaisessa vuodenajassa?

Kesä: Lämpö (toivottavasti) ja sateenjälkeiset tuoksut. Puistopiknikit. Se, ettei tartte miettiä, mitä pitää laittaa päälle kun lähtee ulos, vaan voi vaan T-paidassa hilpaista.
Syksy: Kuulaat ja kirkkaat päivät. Ruska. Sohvannurkkaan käpertyminen. Punaviinin kulutuksen kasvu.
Talvi: Joulu. Laskettelu- ja mökkireissut. En ole muuten talvi-ihminen, kylmyys ja pimeys on hanurista. Siksi olenkin nyt tropiikissa...
Kevät: Ensimmäiset kukat. Silmut puissa. Eka minirusketus. Vappu ja Baumblütenfest, jossa tarjoillaan kotitekoisia hedelmä- ja marjaviinejä (hyviä, ei kiljua).

Tässäpä nämä. Kiitti ja kuitti!

With love, Lilje

The Cotton Yarn

As the socks of doom (well, they weren't that bad) are now done, it's time to start thinking of a new project. The only yarn that I have left is the Novita Hanko cotton yarn, that I have almost three skeins of.

Yesterday I browsed Ravelry like mad, trying to figure out what to make. I really wanted to make some kind of a small bolero/shrug to take with me on the psy trance festivals next summer but I quickly noticed that the bolero would turn out gnome sized with only (almost) three skeins of this bulky stuff. So, change of plan.

Socks? Naah, I just did a pair. Scarf? Naah, too boring. A cowl? Hey, there's an idea! There were a couple of candidates, but this one crossed the finish line first. So, Kuala Lumpur and your lovely yarn shop, get ready, because my shopping list just grew with a couple of needles!

Have you made any cool projects with cotton yarn? :)

With love, Lilje