I'm closing this shop!

Hi to all my dear readers

There are some changes due here!
I've spent a good part of this year in a small village in Southern Italy with no internet connection at home and all my internet activity has gone down to all-time low levels. I must say though that it has been a very liberating experience! Eventhough now I have a highspeed web connection I no longer want to spend hours a day sitting in front of a blinking screen.
So I've made changes: I've deleted nearly 125 blogs from my blogroll and left only the ones written by my actual acquaintances and friends, or people whose work is a daily inspiration; I've unsubscribed myself from nearly all mailinglists and frequent only a few forums; I've even de-friended many contacts with whom I've never had actual interaction either in real or virtual life. I've deleted my presence from several co-written blogs and am planning to retire from social networks.
It all serves one purpose - to limit my leisurly internet access to not more than half an hour a day.
You see, I'm moving to Abu Dhabi. I'm starting a university course. I will have to reattend driving school (to get an United Arab Emirates driving licence), once it is done I'll have to drive my family around. I want to write a book. I also want to knit again! And do more sports. And most of all, I want to have plenty of time with my children. They are growing up too fast for my taste.
So I need to cut back .
This is not a good-bye! I'm just relocating this blog and consolidating with the Estonian one. I've realised that having two blgs takes double the time, having one blog in two languages just takes a third more time.

From now on you'll find me here, so please relink me in your blogrolls and bookmark the other blog! Thank you so much and hopefully now that I actually am doing handicrafts again, I'll have something to post about.

New Life

She has arrived:

Aemilia Lea 24/04/2009

Freeform course

Last week I participated in a small course of freeform crochet and knitting given by Prudence Mapstone here in Singapore.
We actually met two days earlier at a local knit out, where she showed us some of her marvelous creations as well as gave a demo of freeform crochet. In 20 minutes she came up with this and I was hooked:



So hooked that that night I stayed up very very late and kept trying to crochet very misshapen bullions.
I asked a lot of questions about Prudence's knitty-crochety life that evening ;) so that two days later at Betsy's place I was very eager to know the little tricks of freeforming. Prudence is such a marvelous teacher that the three hours just flew by and I continued crocheting my piece also at home.
We had a truly enlightening evening and hopefully I'll be able to meet Prudence somewhere else as well - after all, the world is tiny.



Anyways, after some ripping (yes, yes, I know this ought not be part of freeforming, but a wrong color choice and huge ruffles kinda didn't work for me at all) and some more experimenting I decided to finish my red explorations with this:



I'm currently working on another scrumble in blues and having great time doing it. Actually this is the downfall of the promise I made not to buy more yarn! And an invitation to avid knitters I know - if you have some yards leftover yarn then one way to liberate yourself of their existence is offer them to me :P (I do realize that what I just proposed is very outrageously naive, but it doesn't hurt to try).

When a great book is published

Then it must be bought. If the book has great instructions for the technique it describes and most beautiful designs then it is no wonder that nevertheless of the 2 kilos of lace yarn one has waiting at home, a new skein has to be purchased and new project cast on.

I bought Nancy Bush's "Knitted Lace of Estonia" as soon as I saw it on the shelf in book store and cast on for this beauty:

(At this moment I'm at the second row of Lilies and cannot understand where a mistake is hiding, because the chart is faulty - I haven't been able to find an errata on the web so I laid aside the piece for awhile and finish something else I started )

This lacy beauty is knit with Harmony needles, which means I do not risk taking them on board. And since I would go nuts on a 12-hour flight and since Silvia gave me 3 amazingly soft skeins of new yarn from Grignasco I cast on on bamboo needles for Lily of the Valley Scarf from the same book:



There are lots of nupps in this scarf but I must say that I've gotten them right in my hand and it doesn't take any effort to do them. The scarf is 137 cm long.



Pattern: Lily of the Valley Scarf by Nancy Bush
Needles: 3,5 mm
Yarn: Grignasco Mousse (50% soya, 40% new wool, 10% silk; 185 mt for 50 gr)

I used just a tiny bit more that 2 skeins.

My first...

I just registered myself to the first handicraft course in my life, mainly to use up these...

to widen my view on crafts, to create interest for myself in crocheting and figure out whether freeform crocheting-knitting could be part of my future hobby-life.
In the beginning of February, there is going to be Prudence Mapstone's workshop in Singapore, of which I got information accidentally on Ravelry. Life is full of strange coincedences and with this I refer to my last post and first comment on that post.
On 5th of Febryuary I'm crocheting!!

Year 2008

Year 2008 has been
1) very tense in personal life
2) rewarding in accomplished things
3) given us a clear picture that for now we are doing the right things
4) been full of new starts (which won't have an ending for awhile)
5) has opened my eyes for career choice
6) has been very slow knitting year

I just cannot believe how few items I've finished and how little I've started: I just counted 9 FOs and 9 projects started and either not yet finished or already frogged. A little archive search tells me, in year 2007 the number of FOs was 28.



I resolute to reduce my stash in year 2009 by knitting the items I have purchased yarn for and greatly reducing the number of single skeins that I've collected in the hopes of coming a Prudence Mapstone in crocheting (which will never happen because I do not like that craft particularly).

For all my friends I wish the best of year 2009, I hope your dreams will come true and mishaps stay far from your lives.

Long time, no posts

Wow, I can't believe it, it's been four months! And sadly to say I haven't knit much or done much anything else. We finished our vacation and were back in Singapore in the middle of August. I managed to get to one knit out and had great time at Lois' wedding (Congratulations, girl!), but apart from that I haven't done much, but sleeping and trying to eat: you see, it's not easy making babies. I think it's the most difficult craft of all, especially when the consequences are a constant nausea and terrible sleepiness. Luckily I got out of a week ago or so and hopefully won't have any more problems until end of April, when another lifetime of troubles (and joys, of course) will join our small family.

On the more knitty note, I have started something and surprise-surprise finished something.

First of all I started Cobweb Lace Stole from Interweave Knits Spring 2008. After seeing the incredible one Lois made out of Jaggerspun Zephyr 2/18 I instantly was intrigued by the double-sided pattern. Unfortunately my 7 year old monkey jumped on the needles and Harmonies obviously don't tolerate 25+ kilos. So I had to order new ones and got them at the end of October. So I'm knitting that again.



Regarding mentioned FO.
That October end knit out that delivered me two amazing books (E. Zimmerman "The Opinionated Knitter" and P. A. Gibson-Roberts "Knitting in the Old Way") and my Harmony needles, also had a surprise from Susan. She is such a lovely friend and I guess I have her to thank for bringing back my knitting mojo. I think it was exactly a small project and not too difficult to get my fingers itching again. So as soon as I got home that evening I cast on these beauties for my little princess:



It took me a few days to figure out how exactly I wanted to knit them, and in the end I decided to go with toe-up socks to be able to use all the yarn.



Figuring out the increases for the upper leg were extremely easy and though I didn't have a specific idea, they turned out very nice.



I'm not a big fan of short row heels so I decided to go with Wendy Knits' Sportweight Toe-Up Gusset Heel Sock pattern. It works very well on my daughter's foot, but I wouldn't be so sure on mine.

Info
Pattern: my own
Needles: 2mm 5 dpns
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet (90% superwash merino, 10% nylon), color 13
Link to Ravelry