Getting there.....

Things seem to be fitting into place in preparation for our move at the end of next month: rental house has been secured, ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki is being booked, medicals have been carried out, dentist has given us the thumbs up - although I'm having two of my wisdom teeth out :-( , removal people have carried out a survey of how much stuff we have (lots), customs and insurance forms filled in. I think we're just left with being given a date that the movers will come and get our stuff (w/c 22nd October), and then physically setting off on our adventure east once David has finished up work here. Very exciting, I can't wait to be there now - not that I'm wishing my life away, or haven't enjoyed my time in Norway, but there's only so long you can think about something happening before it's nice to have it happen and be able to get on with your life.

I have been doing some knitting - I thought I'd get more done this week (as well as some sewing) as work is slow at the moment, but I haven't really felt like it since my 1st wisdom tooth came out, and I doubt I'll feel much like it next week when the 2nd one comes out - yuck.

So, here's the slow progress:

I restarted the sock for my Mum, I got almost finished with the 1st one, but wasn't happy with it, so unravelled it and started again. I had been doing a toe-up sock using a pattern from sensational knitted socks, but I wasn't happy with its sizing (my Mum has normal sized feet, bigger than mine, but smaller than David's - and the sock I was ending up with fit David easily), I also didn't like the heel - there were gaps where it started back up the leg, and I'd spotted a minor mistake I'd made with the pattern quite a way back. So, I started again, this time from the top down, I am still using the pattern from sensational knitted socks.

I've also been working on the first sleeve of the konfekt 18703:



On a couple of my previous posts I received a couple of anonymous comments, which I'm presuming are from someone in Helsinki, with a hint about a wool shop to check out (Menita's) and also a mention of a Marimekko sale (as if my appetite needed whetting!) - it's nice to receive these comments. I'm hoping that there is some sort of craft/sewing/knitting community going on in Helsinki that I can get involved with, I've read that there's a knitting group that meets in the centre somewhere, and I'm sure there must be more going on. (maybe the anonymous commenter can tell me I've added a contact email address to the side bar).

Norwegian wedding

We had another weekend away - this time to a friends wedding. It was great fun, at a place called Finse, which is in the mountains between Oslo and Bergen. Everyone travelled up by train on the Friday, we arrived in the dark, but by the time we were up the next day it was like this:
We had a walk in the morning and then the festivities began.... what a party, I must say the Norwegians really know how to have fun. It was a great set of people, some we knew already, a lot we didn't but knew better by the end of the wedding. This is the bride - she's wearing a traditional Norwegian bridal crown - it's a little on the large size for her, but what a fantastic thing to have.

This is David and I the day after, travelling back to Trondheim, we were just about alive by this point. We didn't go back the same way we came, but played at being hungover tourists. We took the Flåm Railway and then the fast boat to Bergen, which took 5 hours and went through some really picturesque scenery.

Movement on the ikke ferdig list

Finally a finished project - and not just any finished project, but a long running project - ferdig. Hoorah.

After years of making my own clothes, a few years ago I decided I wanted to teach myself how to make my own patterns.... this has been an interesting process, but has slowed down my sewing and my inspiration to sew considerably. Anyway, with the help of this and this and inspired by this from the YSL Rive Gauche Spring/Summer 2004 Paris collection I have finally come up with this....
I'm quite pleased with the result - I went through two versions before I got to this one, both of which were OK, but didn't fit as well - but this one is a pretty good fit and gives quite a good silhouette to my figure. (My dream of being 6' tall, having the legs to match and a super trim waist has never manifested itself!)

I'm hoping to increase the amount of sewing I do when we move to Helsinki - for a number of reasons: I found more fabric shops than wool shops - some of the fabric shops (although I didn't actually go in any) looked very interesting, lots of suiting and good quality fabrics; and the second reason is that I intend to make a wedding dress for myself.

Konfekt progress

I've finally made enough progress on the konfekt 18703 that Felicity Anne is able to model the progress:

I'm pleased with how it's fitting "her" so far. The bottom turns over a bit, but I'm hoping that will sort itself out with a bit of blocking. I've still got quite a way to go - finish the front, both sleeves and a neck edging, but the finished top is definitely getting closer - I just have to keep focused rather than starting anything else quite yet. I really like the colour (9071) - muted and green - and the "wool" (Svale by Dalegarn) has a really nice sheen to it and is a mix of cotton, viscose and silk.

Busy busy

We were in Helsinki last week on a "look-see find ourselves a house" type trip. This was my first visit to Helsinki and I was quite impressed, quite a majestic city in parts, with some interesting 1920's and 1930s architecture and lots of design type things going on. There were parts that looked a bit "eastern block" - I kind of expected to see a queue for bread in places, but they were the minority. The majority seemed to be bustling and cosmopolitain - I think we'll be fine living there. We mostly wandered around different parts of the city and didn't really do that much tourist-type stuff, except for a boat ride.

We found some interesting shops and markets: an open market from where the boat left, with fruit, veg, mushrooms, fish and tourist tatt; a couple of covered markets; loads of interesting looking and well stocked ethnic shops.

There were also loads of pubs selling a pretty wide variety of, mostly European, beers (Finnish, Belgium, Real Ale [Hoorah!] etc). I found one wool shop, which looked pretty good, and there were lots of fabric shops - so I think I'll be able to get my crafting fix and keep my ikke ferdig list well stocked!

We also found a house - it's about half way between the centre and David's work. Three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, small garden and (of course, being Finland) a sauna.