ChristmasWoollenSocks

Just like GreySocks these ChristmasWoollenSocks are my own design and made of those yarns of which I don't have the labels. Size 40 and special warm gift made by love for auntie's DearV.

FirstSnow

 

Autumn is beautiful time of the year. Even though it means gloomy darkness, rain and chilly weather.

But despite our weather might be gloomy our life is not. That's why I hope as many as possible joined the silent wish with BellsForAleppo. I wish them to toll the bells until the situation is solved; very loud, annoying and everywhere -not just until October the 24th.

MyCatLife has slowly went to better direction: thanks to James Bowen and his books. I've read so many CatGuideBooks but none has helped me much. After reading about StreetCatBob I finally - after 9 long years- have started to get along with TheCat. The picture proves it! She really did that by volunteer. I was knitting and somehow She found Her way there.

Today we got FirstSnow. All day long the temperature was on "minus degrees" which means the dog was allowed to jump on bed when I was having a nap. She has been waiting that for many far too long months. But TheSofaSeason has started again and she is so so so  H A P P Y about it! I think it is one of her favorite duties to do. :)

Knots

 

Finally I was able to start to prepare the weaving.

What a tidy line of starting knots. When these were done after everything else, it started to get very exciting.

I needed to take a spare yarn with different shade and weave a bit. I tested if all the threads were tight enough, did the loom work like it supposed to and...

...Y E S yes yes I did it! The texture was right! No single mistake! W O W! After 18 years! Now I finally can get into the point: to weave a shawl...

At This Time

At this time of year I usually buy a Christmas magazine. Always before it was Finnish one, only once Swedish. But now I bought English one. I am so happy with it! It included free Christmas Crafting magazine (well, that was just average easy) and 4 coasters (WOW! I love them!).

Some pics of TheCat and Her loom adventures. She really tried to paw the warp but it is 25% of dog wool and when She understood Her paws stink *D O G* She got pretty hysteric cleaning session and since that She has not tried out to paw the warp.

TheCat chase the loom, TheDog chase TheCat but understood pretty fast it is better just to lay on HerOwnBed and dream about hunting the moose.

Where are we now?

MyLoom has finally got TheWarp. I've been woven 18 years ago for the last time; if we don't count my Silver Woven Bracelet. MyLoom has a bit different kind of instructions than the ones I have from the art college times. At the end I ended up following these instructions MyLoom had with it.

It is amazing that so many years have passed by and I still have a clue what to do with it all!

Step by step and by the help of YoungLady and Him we managed to transfer the warp to the warp beam.

All in the right order!

But the work was not done yet.

Each thread needs to be pulled through the heddle eye according to special order.

Here you need to double check everything; in extremely neurotic way!

Finally when every warp end is trough the heddle eye you find yourself doing the last check up.

MyLoom had many kind of hooks with it but He kindly cut these ones out of plastic CandyBoxCover. The ones I am familiar to work with.

Then I had to do the drawing-in through the reed by using my brand new recycled hooks.

Again you find yourself checking out that each thread is in the right order.

But checking it all out very neurotic is just good. Then you avoid to start it all from the begin again. It is better to notice the mistakes immediately.

Now we are here, at this point.

We?

Who we?

We.

I & Cat.

???

Wish me luck. I am not a cat person and now we need to cope with extremely interesting warp.

Well, so far we seem to have some kind of truce. The warp is untouched and She is allowed to do anything but not to touch ANY yarn, thread, wool or ANY mouse tail looking thing with the loom.

GreySocks

I knit my own design grey woollen socks. I don't know which yarn I used because these were unlabelled among the other yarn I inherit from my granny via my mother. But for sure they were wool for socks; that's for sure. For Him and HisXmas.

SomeSoap

 

I planned NOT to go to OuluExpo this year. But I happened to win a ticket at Pistelijät ry lottery. So, of course I needed to go then. I wasn't seeking anything special this year but some hand made soap, hand made chocolate and Swarovski crystals. I found only hand made soap from SOAP.

It is a local company that manufactures all its soaps in Oulu. I could not resist LavenderSoap which has been so rare around here until now.

They let me pick up a small sample as a thank you gift. YoungLady advised me to have Peppermint. I think I need to warm up sauna tonight to test them!

Wool in Fall

 

I've been winding up some yarn for knitting socks.

It is again that time of the year when warm socks are needed.

It is also getting interesting with MyLoom. Yesterday I got warp for my loom. It is made of OurOwnWool (25% of arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool).

AAW HorseShoeCable Socks (small)

 

I used my own yarn AAW to knit four pair of woollen socks. They all are my own design. The yarn consist of 50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon (100g = 238m).

These are not socks for a hard use but they keep your toes and feet very warm on those chilly winter days and nights when you want to snuggle under a blanket with hot chocolate and god book to stay warm and entertained.

I knit BigSocks size 45, BasketWeave Socks size 38, HorseShoeCable Socks size 40 and these smaller HorseShoeCable Socks size 32.

With these smaller HorseShoeCable Socks I knit the cable only at front side but all the way from up to toes. The cable pattern is also smaller at this size 32.

AAW BigSocks

Ooh and aaw!

The size 45 woollen socks.

My own design.

My own yarn.

3rd pair for the set of 4.

One more pair to go!

50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool

40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool

10% nylon

100g = 238m

1st pair

2nd pair

Decorative Embroidery

Mary Norden's Decorative Embroidery (Finnish: Kaunista kirjomalla) has pretty fine theory part to guide how to make some embroidery stitches. Unfortunately the designs are not very spectacular. The book has 40 designs which are mostly small and simple but there are over 144 pages. In this book Mary Norden has been perhaps a bit too informative considering the theme "Decorative Embroidery". You expect to get many decorative designs from a books titled like this with over 144 pages. Instead you get a small disappointment. This could be good for a beginner who has no basic skill on any kind of sewing but the other ones... save your money for something else.

AAW HorseShoeCable Socks

 

 Another pair finished for the set of 4. For the 1st ones I did BasketWeave decoration. These have HorseShoeCable decoration at size 40.

The decoration is at back...

...and at front.

My own design. 

My own wool AAW.

50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool
40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool
10% nylon

100g = 238m

XmasStitch (free chart)

 

Do you remember my own design HeartBunting? Today I share three little designs of it with you! They are perfect for small projects like XmasTree decoration and XmasCards. If you use PerforatedPaper or PlasticCanvas you can get 3D effect. It is October already and time to start your Xmas stitching!