trousers

We seem to have been pretty busy lately - with Finnish class, Finnish homework, our weekly trip to the cinema, a beer festival, various amounts of work and just general living.

I've been plugging away on my boyfriend socks that I talked about in my last post and am just about to turn the heel on the second sock, and then I'm on the homeward stretch. David tried the first sock on and it looked pretty good (it's all relative as it is just a sock after all!). I don't think Cecilie's quite ready to start learning socks yet, so I should get the 2nd sock finished while she's still scarf-ing.

I've also been knitting my jacob cardigan - I'm knitting the cabling that's on either side of the front - it's pretty slow going and I don't seem to be able to learn the pattern so am having to follow along with each stitch. I'm also a little concerned that it's going to be too small - but I'll keep going for at least one side and then see what I think.

I've also been sewing. I've made a pair of trousers....

They're made using the now discontinued vogue 2865 pattern. They're simple, lined trousers with darts at the front and back, no separate waistband and a side zip. I altered them at the waistline and also made them a little shorter (they still look pretty long, but I like my trousers longer rather than shorter). I'm pleased with how they look, I think they're quite flattering and my changes to the waist have worked. I have enough fabric to maybe make a jacket as well. Not that I really need a suit at the moment. I have no idea what the fabric is composed of, it's pretty light and has a bit of stretch - I bought it from a little shop in Bristol.

And finally, we bought a compost heap.... now the weather's improving I'm looking forward to doing some digging and no doubt making some garden waste to go along with the kitchen waste that David produces, and also hopefully growing some veg for David to use in the kitchen.

Boyfriend socks

There's a project I'm working on at the moment that I haven't blogged about yet. Well, actually there's a couple, but they'll come later probably as they're mostly wedding-related. I'm knitting David another pair of socks. I'm following the boyfriend socks pattern by slippedstitch.

They're worked toe up with a short row heel and are so far working out fine. I've only done about 5cm of the leg after turning the heel, which is why they look so out of proportion. I'm enjoying the cables, they're an easy repetitive cable that doesn't take too much concentration.

The wool I'm using is Regia silk, which is a blend of merino, silk and nylon. It's lovely and soft and has a really nice sheen to it. I'm hoping that with having the silk in it these socks won't be too hot for boy feet and might even get warn inside shoes rather than for just lounging around in when it's cold.

I mentioned in one of my last posts that I've been trying to teach myself how to knit continental so that I can help Cecilie learn to knit. We had a visit to the yarn shop and a lesson on Saturday morning. She could already cast on and knit, but now she can purl as well. I think she's doing really well - I remember some of the first times when I was learning to knit and how I would start out with 20 stitches and by the end of the 2nd or 3rd row I'd have 23 stitches and have now idea where they came from, and then after another few rows I'd have 18 stitches and have no idea where they went. I don't think it was my counting, although I was quite little. Anyway, she doesn't seem to be having this problem and her tension looked as if it was getting more even at least in her knit rows.

She's knitting scarves at the moment - but is wanting to knit socks. I'm hoping to get at least the 1st of the boyfriend socks finished before she's ready for a sock knitting lesson as I think it will be useful if I cast on a similarly constructed sock at the same time as she does.

potting on

I had a potting on session yesterday, so now the seed tray has expanded into lots and lots of little pots. I expect there'll be some casualties as the tomatoes, especially, are very leggy from not getting quite enough light when they first germinated. I planted the tomatoes deep to try to make up for their legginess and encourage some roots to form along their stems.

Monsieur le Sammy has been given four tumbling tom plants to look after.

I'm still a bit nervous about putting anything out in the cold frame yet, but there are some spinach, chard and cabbage plants that will move outside when the time's right.

It was fun potting everything on yesterday. I love growing plants, especially vegetables, from seeds. I like thinking about how the plants are going to develop and wondering how much veg we'll get this year and what we will make. I've also been wondering about where to plant the little fruit bushes and the rhubarb plant we have - the soil's definitely not warm enough for digging yet, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about these things.

On the knitting front, the cable and rib cardigan I'm making using the Jacob wool is coming on well, the back is finished, so I've started on the front cabling. So far so good. The ribbed part is all twisted rib, and the wool I'm using is really letting the texture stand out. I can't wait to see how the cables look.

I've also been having a go at knitting "Continental" rather than "English" - a friend, Cecilie, has decided to expand upon the little bit of knitting she was taught when she was younger, of course she was taught continental and I think it would be useful if I could knit the same way, in case she needs help. Although from what she's been saying she's been getting on pretty well on her own with the help of the Internet. I've also read that being able to knit both ways is useful for speeding up stranded, colourwork knitting, so it'll be a useful skill to learn. So far I can knit and purl continental although it's slow and uneven and very awkward feeling - I'm sure with some practice I can get better.

Easter hare

We saw this lovely fella in the garden yesterday evening. We believe he's a European Hare. I'd noticed footprints through the snow on a few occassions recently that definitely weren't cat or bird and looked too big to be rabbit, so I think it must have been him. We stood in the kitchen watching him, while he sniffed the air and twitched his ears towards someone walking by about 100m away, all the while we stood in the kitchen undected about 5m away.

With the hare's mythological link to Easter/Eostre I thought it was very fitting that we saw him the day after Easter, I wonder if he was going home after spending the weekend hiding eggs?

musings

It's been a good easter weekend - nice and relaxed. We had a few people over for drinks and food on Sunday. David did most of the cooking, apart from some moroccan flat bread using a recipe from Jamie Oliver's return of the naked chef and some hot cross buns from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

I've not made hot cross buns before and am not a huge fan of Nigella's - I was reading a blog the other day that then linked to another blog that talked about Nigella that made me giggle as I'm pleased to hear there are other people out there that have a similar perception of her. I haven't watched her programmes much, wouldn't go out of my way to watch her, but if I do come across her I probably wouldn't switch over, but would watch amused, as the second blogger I linked to above appears to be, by her - not quite believing that she's real. Anyway, the hot cross buns came out well. I'd like to try to make some crumpets next.

I also think I've been watching too much TV lately - we seem to be watching American Idol... anyway, I've come to the conclusion that there's a certain similarity between Paula Abdul and Sandra Bullock I'm not quite sure what it is, but there's definitely something.

Edit... I posted this but there was a third thing I wanted to mention and in my usual libran way forgot. We were talking about the David and Goliath t-shirt slogans last night.... well, I kind of was, everyone else was thinking I had completely lost it - we'd had a bit of wine and I started talking about the slogans, I think in relation to certain boys turning into toads rather than Princes. Anyway, I looked it up on good 'ol Wikipedia afterwards and thought I'd link to my ramblings. I don't think I'd realised there was quite so much controvesy over the slogans - but thought their range was quirky and fun.

Hanko

Last weekend we spent some time west of Helsinki in and around Hanko . We were very off season, but it was nice to go and relax and explore a little. We saw a castle, interesting street signs, lakes, sea, snow, sauna and our little hut and lots of other interesting things. The area's meant to be really bustling in the summer so maybe we'll go back and see what it's like?

The strangest thing we encountered was a peperoni pizza, which also had pineapple and tuna on it - a very strange combination, the yummy chips we had with it made up for the weird topping. We're meeting up with some friends for pizza and beer this evening, so lets hope there's some more traditional toppings going.

We also stopped at Fiskars on the way home on Monday, unfortunately everything was shut, but it looked really interesting - lots of history and crafty boutiques, so we'll definitely be taking a visit there soon.

In other news - I proudly present my finished spring socks. Yes, I know they're bright! They were fun to knit with the alternating colours. I shortened the foot of the first sock as I mentioned I was going to do and as you can see they fit pretty well. The photo of the tulips below is the inspiration for my colour combination.

Rabbiting on about spring again....

I know I keep rabbiting on about it nearly being spring, and is it nearly spring, and it's not cold enough to be winter blah blah blah. I'm not quite sure where this has all come from. It definitely hasn't been a severe winter, so it's not as if I'm needing it to warm up so that I can dig myself out of a 10m high snow drift, and it hasn't seemed a particularly dark winter - the joys of living a long way north but actually managing to move south and also closer to civilisation so there's more light pollution. I don't usually count down the days to the start of any other season, who knows what's happening in my brain?

So, anyway to continue the where is spring rabbit:

I spotted some snowdrops coming up in the garden yesterday. I don't think there's a lot of bulbs planted in our garden, but these were nice to see. My seedlings I planted the other week are doing OK. There's been lots of germination, some are a little lanky so we'll see how they go. The peas I planted are doing very well and I've potted them up with some support. Everything's still inside though.

I've also nearly finished my spring socks.... nearly? but there's two socks there. Yes, but if you notice the bottom one is longer in the foot than the first one. After I cast on for sock number two I tried on sock number one and decided it was too big, but as I'd already occupied my needles with sock number two there was nothing I could do about it till sock number two was finished. So, now sock number two's done I'll rip back sock number one so they're the same length and re-do the toe. When ripping back a few rows I tend to use this technique rather than just ripping and hoping that I can pick up all the right stitches again at the right place.