Deep breath

I cut the steeks on the deep V vest today. They didn't immediately unravel, which is a good sign, although I'll be happier once it's all finished and the facing edges secured down.

are the days getting longer?

Since I last blogged about the snow etc all that snow has melted, there's been a little bit since, but nothing really to talk about. It's made it seem pretty dark and grimy as the days have continued to shorten. We've reached the turning point now though. Hoorah.

I've been busy/pre-occupied over the last month with some changes to my work, which included a quick trip back to the UK. Apart from the work-related stuff I had a good time visiting Jo and Andrew, who were kind enough to put me up at short notice. They were very good hosts and made sure I had the opportunity to drink proper beer, do some shopping, post Christmas cards, buy some really interesting cheese and eat some very good food including a treacle sponge. I didn't get the opportunity to visit any yarn shops, but I did come home with some more felted tweed - Andrew has asked me to knit him a jumper as he's tired of not finding what he wants that fits in the shops - he's decided on the cobblestone pullover by Jared Flood and managed to get the yarn in time for me to bring it back with me.

I have one project that I want to get finished before I cast on Andrew's cobblestone. And that is the deep V Argyle Vest that I've been working on. Knitting this along with Quinn hasn't happened as she's had some real problems with gauge and sizing etc so she's giving her version a time out. I've finished the knitting of the body and am now preparing myself mentally for doing the crochet steeks and cutting the arms and neck openings. I'm feeling pretty positive about it, but I'm sure it'll be pretty nerve racking.

And finally in knitting news I started a sock at Helsinki airport last weekend on my way to UK. I risked taking knitting needles in my hand luggage and was very surprised, especially on the return leg out of Heathrow, to have no problems at all. I'm sure it's very hit or miss and am not sure I'd risk trying to take larger needles or a project that would be a real disaster to restart if the needles were confiscated - I guess that's where life lines come in.

So, anyway the sock is the arch-shaped sock by Jen Showalter, although I'm trying to do them in 3 x 2 rib as I've seen others on ravely do them. My numbers/gusset decreases haven't worked out quite right, but I'm keeping going to see what happens.

snow

I thought I should give a quick update - the predicted snow did come. I think we had about 15cm, although it's difficult to tell as the storm was quite windy as well (and thundery in some parts of Espoo). Some of the snow had fallen before David got home with the tarps, but he battled the snow, wind and dark to better cover the piles before the rest of it fell.

So that's a good start - our neighbour tells us it's too soft for skiing, but if we have a bit of rain and then some more snow it should be good. At least it looks more like what we expect Finland to look like this time of year, and it's so much brighter outside now which is much better.

wood

The changing seasons see us using our outside space in different ways. Where we'd previously had tomato plants is now being used to store fire wood.

This isn't our only wood pile - after 3 cubic meters was delivered yesterday we've now hopefully got enough wood to keep us going this winter.

We haven't had a lot of snow yet, but it's definitely colder than this time last year and there is snow forecast for later today (hopefully after David comes back from work with more tarps and we get the piles properly covered).

I have my fingers crossed for the Finnish winter experience we missed out on last year with it being too warm. Items at the top of my list include seeing the sea freeze over and the ice breakers in use. I'd also like to have a proper white Christmas - an occurrence which so far has been lacking from my life due to the southerly or temperate climates I've lived in, or from sheer climatic bad luck (in the case of our time in Norway).

Tampere handicraft fair

Yesterday I took a trip to Tampere - not that I saw Tampere, but went to visit a handicraft fair there. I went with Cecilie and a few from the knitting group (Midori, Satu and Niina) on the train. The fair was pretty big and absolutely packed. I made a few yarn purchases - although on the whole I was pretty restrained.

My first purchase was some merino lux from toika, it's a 50/50 merino and tencel mix, 4ply weight yarn and I bought enough to hopefully make a jumper at some stage. There isn't really enough light in Finland at the moment to show the colour properly - it's a bit more blue-grey than shows in this photo and has a lovely sheen.

The second I purchased was some sock yarn called Arwetta, according to the label it's 100% super merino wool AND 20% nylon, no doubt these will become socks at some point. I got it from the titityy stand.

And that's all I got... I said I was restrained!

back north

We had a great week in Barcelona last week - a very interesting city to wander around and explore. We took loads of photos, which David is currently weeding through and will no doubt be uploaded to flickr at some point.

Now we're back to Finland, which is pretty grey and dreary at the moment. The fire has been kicked into action, so we're nice and cozy despite the weather. Unfortunately the car's still giving us problems no doubt another trip to the car doctor will sort it out and make us poorer - still hopefully cheaper than buying a new one.

I did a little knitting while I was away, but not that much and we visited the three yarn stores I could find addresses for although I was good and didn't buy anything. Depending on how much work I find to do next week I'm going to make a concerted effort at getting some more of my City and Guilds course progressed.

Nightmare

Ever since I was young I've had intermittent nightmares. They've decreased in frequency since I've got older, but are still there and are usually pretty vivid. David has learnt to cope with them - usually he doesn't wake me when the shouting starts, but calms me and I go back to sleep. Sometimes I don't remember them, sometimes I have a vague recollection that something's happened and other times I remember them distinctly in the morning.


Last night was a nightmare night. I dreamt that someone was in the room and lay down on the bed on the opposite side of me to David. The confusion and shouting started and I got out of bed, I think to try to switch on the light to prove what I knew in my head was happening. Of course I couldn't find the light switch (I always expect it to be by the bedroom door, but it's been put next to the walk-in wardrobe door) and when David switched the light on (as it was obvious that saying soothing words wasn't going to get me to just go back to sleep) there of course wasn't anyone there. With the turning on of the light and the realisation that the extra person in the bed was a figment of my imagination I woke up properly and was completely confused about what was going on and the emotions I was feeling. My heart also started racing - in fact I don't think I've ever felt it race so fast or so hard.

These nightmare episodes are very strange and I wonder why I get them. Why do I "wake up" in the night shouting and David doesn't (he just gets woken up by me)? What makes my brain convince itself that something is happening that isn't?