2 Comments Aubergine Goodness

I am tireless when it comes to knitting, it seems. Just recently I finished this ridiculously lengthy project, and guess what? I started another one the very same evening! Crazy me, I know. But I suppose I simply got too used to making something with my hands in the evenings while watching TV with family. Kind of like a newly acquired habit.

So, there goes that. Anyway, you may or may not know that one of the biggest public holidays celebrated here in Russia is approaching rapidly – the 8th of March or International Women's day. This day girls and women of all ages are being shown their appreciation in the shape of flowers, gifts and other possible goodies by their families and friends.

It is also the first holiday of spring, and generally the weather would already have started getting nicer, warmer and greener. So everybody is getting kind of hyped around that time, the happy kind, naturally. Ah, the sweet anticipation! 

Since the weather is fairly unpredictable here during mid-season, despite the spring bloom, and simply knowing that my mother loves her warmers, I chose to make her one of those cuddly rectangular shawlettes/wraps to wear at home.

This lovely "lace capelet" pattern by Tanis Gray was featured in Vogue Knitting SS2010 issue. I set my eyes on this one about a year ago, when I was doing my random pattern browsing on the Internet, and instantly knew I would LOVE to make one of those (damn these manipulative bastards with their sleek and elegant professional photographs!) And now was the perfect occasion.

I took my mum yarn shopping some time back when I was still on my cardi project, to have the yarn all good and ready by the time I was done. She picked some soft 100% wool in a lovely saturated aubergine'y colour (nearly identical to Rowan's Kid Classic in colour 835 Royal). We got a total of four 100g skeins 250m each, and I ended up using up almost precisely three skeins. 

It was a relatively fast knit, I was done with it in about a week working evenings. Patterns are very simple and are well explained, making them practically foolproof. And knitting with 5mm needles was such a treat, too!

The middle lace part and the border are knit separately and and then joined together before blocking. Gathering the two pieces was a bit tricky, mostly because of counting stitches you have to raise, and I hate doing that. I then blocked the finished capelet by gently steam ironing it, going twice on the middle section since the lace motif was stubborn and bubbly. 

A slight confusion was that despite following the guidelines precisely, the finished piece was noticeably larger than stated measures especially in width. Although in my case it turned out even better to have it that way – moar knitted cuddliness! On top of that, made from pure wool the capelet is very warm yet soft. Needless to say, my mother loved it! 

So, here goes the gift I made for my mum. I gave it to her already, because she kind of saw the whole process of making it anyway. I know it is a couple of weeks early, but I was starting it in advance in case it'd take me a while to make. So will need to buy a box of chocolates on the actual day, I suppose :)

I hope you guys like it, too! Let me know what you think in the comments ;)

E.V.

0 Comments The Crown Jewel

Hello again! It's Christmas time! And although in Russia we do not celebrate catholic Christmas, it has become a lovely and heart-warming habit of mine after living in the UK. 

Don't you just love it when everything lights up in bright colours all around, when Christmas markets come to town where they serve you piping hot street foods, caramel apples and mulled wine? Mmmmm... I sure do!

And I do love the hassle of picking-buying/making-wrapping-and-delivering gifts to their respective recipients. I am an enthusiast gift-giver, so it is possibly my most favourite part of the whole annual Christmas fever. 

This year I bought rather than made most of the presents and postcards (ironically enough, I enjoyed being able to send out a few this year since I am away). But when nearly all of them were already wrapped and ready to go under a Christmas tree, I found this delightful crochet pattern which I simply HAD to make.

The tutorial is in Dutch (mind that I don't speak a word of it), but the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, and it is quite easy to pick up the required number of stitches from the text. 

I made the crowns a bit more festive-looking by heavily 'bejewelling' them with sparkly seed beads and sequins I got stashed from another project I never got to finish. I put them both on brooch pins I got from John Lewis' crafts department, which have neat little holes in them for easier sewing.

I got so excited while making them that I completely missed out on the opportunity to take a few snaps of the actual process, and this is literally the only picture I have of them before they were added to the other presents. But that shouldn't be much of a problem, because you can see the final result fairly well.

One of these would look adorable on a blazer lapel, a chunky-knit cardigan, a comfy turtle-neck, and even on a winter hat if you truly aim for some royal feel one of these days! 

E.V.

P.S. Will definitely make one for myself! <3

0 Comments The Wedding Gift | Imported Post

I resurrected my deleted blog for the sole purpose of exporting this post about a crochet throw I made as a wedding gift for my friend this summer. Luckily, it hasn't been 90 days since I deleted it, so all the lovely pictures of the throw from various angles are safe and sound. Plus, it did save me some time on re-writing the entire post. Although I did some minor editing to the original text, like cutting the now out-of-context intro and tweaking some sentences to sound better:

"Here's to the oh-so-expected celebration of my classmate's wedding which I attended back in August and the gift I brought.

Considering that this was the first wedding I ever attended, the decision of what to give as a gift was not an easy one for me. Starting from the beginning I didn't want to give money (although it is a fairly common option) as I thought I could come up with something a little more personal. Traditionally (I suppose not only in Russia), the wedding gift should be something to better the just established household of the newlyweds. For instance, in Soviet times a set of good quality bed linens would be a great option. Now that things like that are not as hard to come by, one needs to be a bit more creative.

One of the older Burda Style magazines had a nice crocheted throw in it, and I thought to myself "how hard can it be?" Crocheting should take less time than knitting something this size, and I'm a fast knitter anyway... Well, long story short, "to add a little creativity into the gift" turned out to be "spending a month making it every single day with no exception". 

The throw is a mosaic made out of 8x6 square motifs sewn together, and finished off with a crocheted frill all around as below. Less than halfway through, I decided to 'cheat' a little by reducing the number of squares and making the throw 7x5 squares instead. Good thing that due to the thicker yarn each motif was already slightly bigger, so the end result turned out to be of roughly the same measurements as initially planned. 

Good thing I cheated, because I was literally finishing, blocking and wrapping it only few hours before I had to catch my train to Riga. 

The finished throw turned out quite large and cozy, and frankly, I would make one of my own if I wasn't so sick of it towards the end. The colour, I felt, was ideal for this piece, and thus it was well worth waiting for a week for just enough yarn in this colour to be delivered to the store. 

It was very good to know that my friend was actually looking for something of the kind for their new place, so the gift definitely served its purpose very well."

I do hope you like it! Making it had its ups and downs, but overall I'd say I enjoyed the process. What I enjoyed even more though, is the fact that the friend who got it still to this time drops an occasional compliment saying how she likes it and how well it fits their place. Conclusion - the goal of giving something memorable was achieved!

E.V.