Chirp Chirp!

I started working on this little pouch several months ago. I had given up on it and started working on it again many times to the point where the little bag was starting to get on my nerves. I don't know what it was, I just didn't seem to get it right. "The legs on the bird are too long, the beak is too pointy, the branches are too crooked." Sigh. So I abandoned it in the closet for two months until I had forgotten it even existed.

After the little creation had been hybernating in my Craft Closet (honestly, there doesn't seem to be a closet in this house that wouldn't fit that description) I discovered it again and looking at it with fresh eyes I actually could not understand why I had abandoned it to begin with! It was super cute and only needed a bit of work to be finished. Few more stitches here and there, added a zipper and the lining and listed it on Etsy wednesday evening. 12 hours later it was already sold!

Lesson learnt: The pieces that annoy you the most may be best left to hybernate for a while, even a long while, as in this case re-discovering it after months gave me fresh perspective and working on the item became fun again. I don't think it would've resulted this nice if I would've just pushed through the frustration, creativity flourishes in peace and calm and suffocates under pressure and stress.

Sakura Slippers

Konichiwa!

The cherry blossom (sakura) is Japan's unofficial national flower. It is also my official favorite flower. 

It's a delicate flower that blooms only for a very short time. For the Japanese sakura symbolises the transience of life, in other words: life is short, shit happens, not much you can do about that so stop whining.

Life may be short, but as long as you can find beauty in life it's a life worth living. If you're lucky, your daddy ordered a custom pair of pretty slippers for you, so you'll never need to look any further, beauty can literalily be found right under your nose (I mean not right under your nose, unless you're a midget your feet probably are a bit further down..). 

These slippers were made of Novita Huopanen unspun yarn and following the same good old slipper pattern I always use (found in Finnish here and in English as translated by yours truly here).

Domo arigato, Mr Roboto. (Dunno why but I simply had to end the blog post with that. Had to!)

Sunglass case

This little pouch was completely improvised so unfortunately I can't offer a pattern for it. It's perfect for keeping sunglasses unscratched (heaven knows my sunglasses surely would've needed one of these long time ago and are now beyond help).

I used scrap yarn for this little piece, about 50g of Novita Huopanen and used the same principle as in making the Magnolia hand bag, minus the decreases and the handles, in smaller scale naturally. For the embroidery I used DMC six strand embroidery cotton and various different stitches.

Purple coin purse

Oh, gorgeous Finnish summer! It's hot as hell, let me assure you, but can't complain. After another snowy cold winter we truely deserve a summer like this. And I for one am embracing it whole-heartedly. And what better way to enjoy the sunny season than escaping to a primitive, yet lovely little cabin by a clear blue lake. No neighbours, no electricity, no running water. Just gorgeous scenery, a Moomin-beach mattress, BBQ and of course, a sauna by the lake. Truely heavenly! Between attempting to catch melanoma floating half conscious on the beach mattress on the quiet soothing waves and toasting marshmallows on the camp fire at sun set it is best to take a break once in a while in the shade, sit down and do a little needlework while sipping some wine. Perfection! Result: a little scrap yarn knitted felted coin purse embroidered with little fishbones stitch leaves/feathers. Pretty, eh? 

Dragonflies it is

After struggling with these babies forever, they are finally finished. I was aiming for a size 41 and ended up with 39-40. And the dragonflies aren't as refined as I would've wanted, kinda just gave up on them. Summa summarum, I'm not over the moon. But here they are..

Dragonflies??

Oh bugger.. The thing is, after the Magnolia bag I've felt ever so proud of myself and had all the faith in my abilities as a knitter. Now I've come down from that high and boy, how the mighty have fallen.. I was expecting perfection from myself when starting another slipper project. The slippers are quite satisfactory in every other aspect but I'm having major difficulties in decorating them. I've tried embroidered vines, bead flowers, everything. I've started to decorate them a million times only to realize my designs never work and have had to unravel them all. Tonight I thought I'd try make a dragonfly out of seed beads. I'm so frustrated I don't want to undo the decorations AGAIN, but I'm not satisfied with how it turned out this time either.

Now I don't know am I just expecting too much from myself or is there actually something wrong with the design, I just don't know what exactly it is that's preventing me from getting satisfaction from the FO (learned a new craft term recently, apparently it means finished object). So any feed back on the dragonfly is greatly appreciated, be as critical as you please, just tell me what the heck am I doing wrong???

Felted little things..

 I've got heaps of feltable scrap yarn, left overs from dozens of slippers I've made. One evening I decided to use it all up and made little knitted felted purses. The plan is to add cute embroidery to them all.

Here's a little sneak peek of what's coming up this summer on Knit 'n Pearl..

Embroidered felt slippers

Finland
Population: 5,374,781
Number of people super excited at the moment: 5,374,781
Number of people super excited about winning Ice Hockey World Championships: 5,374,780
Number of people super excited about my new felted slippers: 1

I'm in a slight minority here. While the rest of the Finns celebrate victory over our hockey-enemesis, the Swedes, I'm rejoycing after finishing another pair of felted slippers. These ones are without question the prettiest I've ever made! When I even think of my slippers I find myself smiling like a split wiener, they've brought me joy far greater than is reasonable to expect from foot wear.

The pattern is the same old from Novita's Anne-Maija Immonen (see my translation in English or the original in Finnish) but what makes these ones so special is the embroidery. I normally start loosing interest in knitting around spring, knit-wise I hibernate practically the whole summer. But mixing things up by adding a bit of embroidery to the plain old knitting makes it all exciting again.

The embroidery is made with DMC Pearl Cotton (doubled) using 3 shades of purple on the flower and mixing 2 different shades of green on the vine and leaves. The motif is completely improvised. I'm not much of a stitcher and my needle work isn't very refined or exact. But the great thing with working with thick felt is that you don't have much of a chance to redo the stitches (at least without fear of making a mess), forcing one to just let go and have fun with it, come what may. The key to success here is being fearless in one's spontaneity, the work is easily ruined by over thinking or -planning, as it may lead into overly cautious (=boring) results.

To top the whole thing off I sowed seed beads at the center of the flower in 3 shades of purple and green 2mm bugle beads on the vine and leaves. Perfection, if I may say so myself.

Felted slippers - once again

Circling the shops few weeks back I found my bf eyeing up some felted slippers at the market. "Halt!", shrieked I. If my man wants a pair of felted slippers he sure as heck ain't gonna have to pay for them! As it happens, I've practically mastered in the science of makin these things. Having knit approximately 40 slippers I consider myself well justified to stop my man from buying a pair.

These are SO easy to make, they practically make themselves! (And I'm using the word "practically" in practically every sentence!) In fact they are so quick to knit, I made 18 pairs for Christmas few years ago, all in just two weeks. The pattern is, I'm afraid, again one by Novita and is, I'm afraid, once again in Finnish only.

But as a Christmas present for you dear readers, I will now attempt to translate this simple instruction:

Yarn: Novita Huopanen ( 100 g = 157 m, 100% wool)

Gauge: 11 st = 10cm

Skeins: 2

Needle: 8-10mm

Sizes: 37-39 (40-43)

Instruction:
Knit double yarn. Cast on 12(14). Knit stockinette and add 2 stitches at the both ends of the needle every second row for 10(12) times =32(38) st. Then divide stitches to 4 double pointed needles. Knit 13(16)cm circular and start decreasing stitches:  Knit 2 together at the end of needles I and III and SKP (=slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over) at the beginning of needles II and IV. Repeat the decreases every second row until you have 4(5)st remaining on each needle. After that repeat the decreases on every row. Weave in ends.

Finishing: 
Sow a plastic bag (see through, not coloured) on the inside of the slipper with few loose stitches of cotton yarn (so you wont end up without a hole on the slipper to stick your foot into). Toss the slippers in the washer along with an old towel etc you don't mind getting hairs all over. Set washer for 40 degrees. Once the program is over shape the slippers on your feet or by hand. You can alter the size of the slippers at this point simply by shaping.

For a girlier touch, add a rose or two as per instruction

Check out same slippers with cute embroidery here