It'll only get lighter

Yesterday was the shortest day.

In Helsinki the sun came up at 09:25, and went back down again at 15:10. I make that 5 3/4 hours of official day light. Not too bad compared to Trondheim, where yesterday the sun came up at 09:59 and went back down at 14:28 (just short of 4 1/2 hours). We've really noticed the extra 1 1/4 hours - it hasn't seemed anywhere near as oppressively dark as it did last year. I think this time last year in Trondheim it was cloudy a lot of the time, which didn't help, whereas here in Helsinki we've had some clear, cold, crisp sunny days (like yesterday).

I still think back to when I moved from Knoxville, Tennessee back to the UK (in 2003) - I think Knoxville this time of year has about 9 1/2 hours of day light, and Bristol has about 7 3/4 hours, I remember really noticing the difference over the winter, and thinking that Bristol was really dark - looking back, I didn't know anything. I can't imagine living north of the arctic circle and not getting any light whatsoever.

I've altered the Koolhaas hat so that it covers my ears - it was quite stressful ripping back the crown shaping - before I ripped anything I thread a smaller circular needle through what I thought was a row and unravelled back to it - I had managed to thread through a row (they're difficult to spot through the cables) and so it all went OK. So, here's a definitely finished Koolhaas hat:

finished Koolhaas (edit - not quite...)

A finished project to show.. This is the red hat I've been knitting from the Interweaves Knit Holiday Gifts 2007 magazine. I like the pattern and geometric-ness of the design and its shaping etc... it's pretty snug, and I'm not sure it's really warm enough for the Finnish winter weather, but it's cute and it matches my red coat.

(Edit - I wore it to the shops and decided that it's too short - so I've just ripped back to the beginning of the crown shaping and am going to make it a bit longer.... )

I really like the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran that I used, it's ever so soft and squishy. There's a couple of different thicknesses of wool in the Cashmerino range, so I'm wondering what else I could use it for?

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I've been pondering what I should knit next - there's so many different knitting techniques that I've heard about and would like to try... I'd like to do some more cables, and I'd like to try my hand at some colour work, maybe some mosaic stitch, and there's always the lure of stripes. Decisions decisions (not an easy thing to make for a libra!).

A case of the reds

I seem to be going through a red phase at the moment - not sure why - although red is my favourite colour, so it's bound to happen at some point.

I'm making progress with the red cardigan - I'm knitting it in a slightly different order than the pattern calls for - I'm knitting up from the cabled belt first as I think I may want to make it a little longer, but I only have a finite amount of wool. Lots of stocking stitch at the moment, but I'm managing to keep it pretty even and neat. I've also cast on a Koolhaas hat, again in red - a dark, overcast Finnish day has made the hat look much pinker than it really is.
This is taking more concentration than the cardigan, but I'm doing OK so far. And the Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran that I'm using feels lovely and soft - I'm hoping there won't be any itchy forehead syndrome once it's done.

The latest baby booties went in the post yesterday along with our wedding invitations - so no going back now! I've got a plan for some socks for Mum-to-be-Rach, so once I finish the Koolhaas hat I'll get on with them. And I've also got a small project called wedding dress to make progress with and a date of February 5th to have it finished by so that my parents can take it back to the UK with them when they come to visit us. Now if I can just figure out how to measure the length of my legs by myself...

purses and hats

We woke up this morning to Helsinki having been covered by a dusting of snow overnight - it's very pretty and makes me wonder whether we'll finally have a white Christmas - we thought we'd get one last year in Trondheim, but they had some freak mild weather and it never happened. So, fingers crossed I haven't just jinxed it for this year.

I've followed through on my thoughts about knitting a change purse. As you can see - a few rows of ribbing and then just plain old stocking stitch. As I'd thought, I knit it in the round and then did a three needle cast off along the bottom.
I've also put a zipped lining into it:

The wool's fritidsgarn by sandnesgarn. It's nice and chunky - I wanted to make a fairly firm fabric so used 3.5mm needles (more than anything because I seem to have a gap in my needles for knitting in the round (both dpns and circulars) from 3.5mm to 7mm and didn't feel like going out and getting more at that point). I'm pleased with how it's turned out. I've made it so that it's big enough to put a bank card in it - for those times when you want to just take out a bit of cash, but then a bank card just in case...

I've got another ball of this same wool in the greens colourway, so am going to knit another one, but this time with more texture - maybe some cables? I have a change purse at the moment that I made (sewed rather than knit) and can never find it as it feels the same as the inside of my bag, so I think some texture should help.

I ended up going into Helsinki yesterday in order to swap over our modem so that we could get the broadband TV service to finally work. While I was in town I decided to check out a wool shop that had a stand at the Arts and Crafts Fair that we went to last Friday and also had good reviews on knitmap . So, I wandered around and found Käsityötalo Priima. A nice little shop with some interesting and well known wools. I also found out that they have a knitting group twice a week - so I'll probably try to go.

So, I bought two balls of Debbie Bliss' casmerino aran in order to knit the Koolhaas hat that's in the interweave knits holiday gifts 2007 magazine.

What else? I photographed all the wool I have and uploaded it into ravelry - I seem to have an awful lot of pretty random parts of balls, or just odd balls of wool. so I need to have a think about what I can use it for.

I've also made a start on my wedding dress - but no photos...!