Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Return of the King

…and new yarn and a gadget!

The Nordic Knitting Symposium in Joensuu was a good one. The organization worked out beautifully. The lectures were very good and the food too good. The only complaint I have is that there was too much good food…! The company was the best there is! I was very happy to kknit with you all.

Coming home and settling down to my own life was a bit hard after all the excitement. All the new ideas and projects kept spinning in my head so for the first few days I really could not do much, I felt like starting this and that and trying out new yarns and soon realized that I could end up casting on for many, too many new projects, and that would not be good for the old ones. So instead of starting new projects I wrote down the new ideas, so they will not be forgotten over the coming months and decided to focus on the old ones to calm down a bit.

I received this new gadget as a gift. It is there in the background: a magnetic board to keep the pattern and to stay on the right row. (I know for sure it is from The Acorn Street Yarn Shop from Seattle.) This is just what I needed to get back to Henry. It is like when you buy a new kitchen utensil and fall in love with cooking again, or buy some new cleaning gear and trick yourself into cleaning. At the moment I’m quite determined to finish him before starting anything new but let’s see how this works out. I have had a few battles with having long enough floats and while doing this I have occasionally got the yarns mixed so that the main colour has ended up being the secondary, but I will not worry about this now… I guess this was not avoidable since this is the first this big fair-isle project. (When I finish the body part, I will block him to see how did I manage with the floats and if I did not do well enough, hmmm… I think about that later.)

I have never been a fan of garter stitch but I might have to consider that again. If you have not seen BrooklynTweed’s Adult Tomten Jacket, go and have a look and get inspired. It is perfect! And if you are looking for a new shawl, go and look at Anne’s Bee Shawl. Maybe you already are familiar with these two most inspiring knits this week, but if not, well, now you know.

This will start to feel like an advertising blog but bear me for a little while yet, because this is good news. If you would like to knit mittens in Finnish natural dyed wool you have to pay a visit to this blog. The mitten kits are beautiful and the yarn delicious and soft. And the blog is written in English and Finnish. The world up here is green and blue and full of light. The lake is nice and cool, good for swimming. But there is this one snake in this paradise… the mosquitoes! Their population is very high this summer thanks to the rainy weather we have been having. They are pestering the reindeer as well. They would really love to come to our yard and lie by the lake where there is little breeze that will sweep away the mosquitoes, but there is this one little curly tailed who has a problem with that and who will always chase them away.
PS. I'm in Ravelry now! I have not yet added much there but will try to keep it up when I'm casting on for new projects.

28 comments:

  1. It's nice to see you back, Lene. Yes, Zimmermania is growing here in the states. I am contemplating EZ's Roschach Jacket- the garter stitch makes such a lovely stable fabric. Look that one up before you cast on for the Tomten.
    -Lorilee

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  2. Welcome back, Lene! What a wonderful time you had at the symposium! So glad to see Charles again, just takes my breath away looking at him. I quite agree with you on the adult Tomten jacket, he (Brooklyn) knits incredible projects, I'm longing for a Tomten but I have for quite awhile now, his has just pushed me over the edge. Leena's yarns are beautiful, and what a pretty blog she has, thank you for the link! Helloooo Tina!

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  3. Nice to have you back. I've ordered a Bee Shawl kit. It looks like fun.

    And I just went to Ravelry to add you to my friends.

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  4. Welcome home! I was just wondering about Henry VIII the other day. I had a large scale knitting mishap and I hoped you had just put Henry aside for a while.

    As always, thank you for including photos of your countryside. The mitten kits are tempting!

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  5. How wonderful to have reindeer come to visit?! They're magnificent, a lot like Henry.

    The colours of Leena's yarns are wonderful. Very tempting!

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  6. Welcome home Lene! I have been waiting for all the news from the symposium - so much to see and be inspired by. I hope you will share all of your knitting news with us over the next few weeks. thanks for posting pictures of your beautiful countryside. I love to see the wildlife and of course Tina, too!

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  7. I have been admiring the tomtem jacket. Brooklyntweed did such a beautiful job and I think it is the first jacket/sweater i have really wanted to make. Maybe when our weather cools off I can think of a heavier project.

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  8. Welcome back, Lene. So glad you enjoyed the symposium! Henry will move along quickly - I have a gadget like that for marking my row on charts - so clever isn`t it.
    I am on a Zimmermannia KAL just now and knitting the Pi Shawl - lots of garter stitch in places, but I love garter stitch! Brooklyn Tweed is such a great knitter and he adapts patterns, which I like!

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  9. Anonymous18:53

    Welcome back! We have had plenty of sightings of deer at our cottage this summer. There are two does on our road, one with a single faun and the other with twins. One doe was standing on our front lawn one early morning, eating my flowerbed. I got several pictures of her, before the dog sent her on her way. Your reindeer are lovely and so is your dog!

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  10. Anonymous19:31

    I was so glad to see your posting today! If too much good food and too many ideas for new knitting projects are your biggest complaints, then I think the organizers can consider the symposium a big success! I haven't had any mosquito bites this year - we're low on rain but getting some today.

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  11. Anonymous20:06

    Glad to see you back and that you had a really great time! I too have fallen for Anne's Bee shawl. I ordered it yesterday in the honey colour and am now eagerly awaiting it. The price was right for the stash. Although, I've started Christmas knitting already so I don't know when I'll cast it on. Nothing wrong with projects in waiting, eh?! Henry is looking great. Keep up the good work.

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  12. Anonymous20:26

    Yea! Lene's back! Acorn is one of my local favorites! If you ever need anything from there or anywhere in Seattle/the US, just give a shout out. I'd be happy to have a "reason" to go to a yarn shop!

    Morgen
    1/4 Finn and raised with a sauna!

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  13. oops... sorry, I should've signed in to blogger. I didn't mean to post as anonymous...

    Morgen in Seattle

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  14. Anonymous20:48

    Welcome back, luv.

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  15. Welcome back! Sounds like you had a great trip and came back inspired. Can't wait to see Henry done!

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  16. Nice to hear from you again. I am sure I would need more than a magnetic board to cope with Henry but it sounds a useful piece of kit. I quite agree with you about the adult totem jacket. I think that I will print out Brooklyn Tweeds blog on his Totem & have a good read.

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  17. I've missed you, Lene! But I'm so glad to hear your knitting conference was such a success. :-)

    Now I will go look for you on Ravelry!...

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  18. It is so nice that you are back.
    And what lovely things came back with you from the symposium too!

    My goodness is Tina brave to chase away reindeer! Do they ever come to visit you when she is sleeping?

    Your Charles sweater is so very heavenly!

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  19. Nice to see you back, Lene. I was afraid that the break might have made you decide not to suffer this hassle of blogging any more...

    But all is well. And your love affair with Henry is rekindled. Onnea matkaan! Wish some of my UFOs would be so cooperative...

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  20. Anonymous13:20

    Glad you had such an inspiring time. Enjoy visits with your new friends.

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  21. Anonymous16:00

    Lene, I just discovered your site today. It's wonderful. You do lovely work! I'm really looking forward to reading more, and will be checking back regularly. I mentioned you on my own blog (here's the article) and hope you don't mind. :)

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  22. Anonymous19:33

    Beautiful photos - sweater, yarn, scenery, animals.

    The deer are magnificent. Every once in a while I see suburban scrub deer around.

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  23. All so very beautiful!

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  24. Beautiful Henry and Beautiful Reindeer! Here its mule deer or elk and our four-legged curly tail chases them off too. I loved your felted bags too!

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  25. Anonymous07:52

    It's great to be reading your postings again. :-)

    Thanks for Brooklynntweed's link. Instant love for his Tomten.

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  26. Anonymous13:54

    Sinun blogiasi on äänestetty Suosikkiblogi-äänestyksessä. äänestäjältä itseltään taisi unohtua ilmoittelu :-)

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  27. Anonymous16:58

    Greetings from Joensuu!
    I am trying to write in English, because I don`t know,are you Finn or not :)
    I have been very impressed about your sites and enthusiasm of colours and yarns and what you can do with them.
    It`s always delightful to see something like that.
    But the reason, whyI write to you is this :
    http://www.megweaves.blogspot.com/

    http://notawomanoffewwords.blogspot.com/

    Meg is very skillful weaver, doing many different works. You may be interested in her works and blogs.

    With best wishes Leena

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  28. I read her blog for the dyeing and never noticed the mitten kits before... beautiful!

    Glad the knitting symposium was fun. Welcome back.

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