Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Remember the 80's?

I have tried to tell her that winter is not all fun and play from my point of view... There is this... and there is lots of this... and this...But She enjoys the new snow and thanks to her own thick winter jacket she is in no need for knit sweaters!And her house is fine just the way it is, full of nice and clean hay. She stays most of the nights in her own house but this it out of her own free will, she can come inside and go outside as she pleases and believe me, she truly comes and goes as she pleases, spoiled as she is. In the mornings when she comes in to keep me company with my first cup of coffee she brings in the nice lovely scent of hay.So you are probably wondering where is the blue shawl? It is still ... there.

I know some of you are too young but: Do you remember the 80's? Did you wear those tent size cardigans and sweaters with shoulders so broad you wonder today how you were able to enter the room? Did you knit those huge cardigans where you would use two of three times the amount of yarn you are using today for a cardigan or a sweater? Those days there were no one skein wonders. That era has made a permanent mark on my soul, when buying yarn I find it very hard to believe that 400 grams is enough for any kind of sweater... And then I'm left with this fear of running out of yarn even though I always buy more than is advised by the pattern.

Here, live through it again! Enjoy the color!
This must have been knit around 1982. I saw a beautiful navy blue cardigan in an exhibition and tried to memorize it, came home and drew a sketch of it as much as I could remember and turned the beautiful navy cardigan into this...

And now you wonder why she has kept it? I didn't. My Mom did. Really only a mother would save something like this...

Let another 20 years or so go by and I ask myself why in the world did I spend precious hours knitting The Blue C (which is my own interpretation of the wrap arounds that are in fashion today).

The thumbs on the girls' mittens are what we would call the straight thumbs, there are no added stitches, you knit few stitches with a separate yarn and later on pull the yarn out to pick up the stitches. How would you call that in English?

I have been asked couple of times why I don't write in Finnish. Or both Finnish and English.

The answer to the first question is that I kept writing my weekly notes to Susanna. No, I did not attack her out of the blue, we share some knitting history...Then sort of felt that maybe she doesn't appreciate me filling her inbox ... and then she suggested that I should blog and explained to me, the uneducated blockhead that I was at the time, what a blog is. So I sort of started to write to her... And English being the language we use in our communication it was the natural choice. I do love my own language but writing the posts both in Finnish and English would take too many hours of the day.

Since there is the firewood ...
and the snow...

9 comments:

  1. Good Morning!
    Oh How I loved the 80's! for me It was the best time to be a teenager and young adult.
    I just love your yellow sweater! Did you wear shoulder pads with all your sweaters too! I sure did, we had so much fun with those crazy styles back then! Now I am going to have to dig out my favorite sweater from that era. Mine was a paisley cardigan with thick shoulder pads! Your little Finnish Puppy is really cute! Look at that nice thick fur!

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  2. Anonymous14:02

    Ihana! Minulle juuri passeli malliltaan. Tälläinen klassinen on aivan makuuni. Muutenkin ihailen kovasti kättesi töitä. Ja se, että pystyt käyttämään kauniita lankoja pohjoisesta sijainnistasi huolimatta.

    Paula Pohjanmaalta

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  3. I agree! Kirjoitan suomeksi ja englanniksi, ja se todella vie liian paljon aikaa!
    Kuvasi ovat ihania, ja niin ovat neuleesikin, vaikkei tuo keltainen olekaan juuri minun mieleeni...

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  4. I'm very grateful that you write in English! Your pictures are worth a thousand words, of course, but it's nicer to let you choose the words for yourself. :-)

    I do remember the 80s, and the crimes of fashion perpetrated during that decade. I was in school then, so I mostly remember schoolgirl fashion. Girls at my school would wear several pairs of socks at a time, in layers, to match their (enormous) blouse or sweater. And they would tuck the cuffs of their jeans into the socks. I guess everybody had to buy bigger shoes to accommodate all those layers of socks?

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  5. I'm glad you are writing in english so I can read it! I remember those huge sweaters from the 80's that came all the down past your fanny! Your puppy is darling. My dog is a mixed breed but we think she may be part Finnish Spitz. She looks a lot like your dog. She certainly does not mind the cold and loves to play in the snow.

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  6. Anonymous18:36

    Your blog feels like a gift to me and I am grateful that I am able to read it. Thank you for abandoning your own language to accommodate some of the rest of us.

    I've started a notebook for Finnish words - lukunuttu and sisu are both in there. Now to remember them...

    That is one big sweater; must have taken forever to knit.

    Tina looks happy!

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  7. Suomenpystykorva on maailman söpöin koira. Ihana pikinokka. Ja alkuperäisrotuisena todellinen pese ja pidä -koira. Ei varmaan suostuisi pystis puettavaksi.

    Olen lukenut blogiasi jo kauan. Olisi kiva saada se blogilistallekin (www.blogilista.fi)

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  8. Anonymous19:49

    You asked "The thumbs on the girls' mittens are what we would call the straight thumbs, there are no added stitches, you knit few stitches with a separate yarn and later on pull the yarn out to pick up the stitches. How would you call that in English?"
    I have seen that technique called the peasant thumb. And I think it's also what Elizabeth Zimmermann refers to as "the thumb trick." It's one of my favorite bits of knitting magic -- unfortunately, it does not fit my hand at all.

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  9. Anonymous17:45

    Your Finnish Spitz looks like mine! Wonderful dogs whenever they are at home...mine likes to explore the nearby forests for hours and hours after succesfully freeing herself from her leash. Any wolves where you live?

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