Plantago Major

Plantago Major
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

It's been a while since my last posting. I have been wondering whether or not blogging, at least in this form, is a good option for me anymore. I've always loved picture galleries and to be frank, even if I love to talk about myself, perhaps it's even more natural to me to let pictures tell the stories. But I will have to think about it, in any case my Flickr stream is updated more often and with more pictures, and I also added the little sidebar thumbnail thingy for that reason.

And then here we have a drawing of one of my favourite plants:)

Pop up card, part 2

Pop up card
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

I had to make another one::) This one is perhaps even more simple than the last, especially I just cut out a scrapbook sheet as a decoration. But this is so fun!

The cutouts are from a Sassafras paper and the background is metallic acrylics, watercolours and shimmering inks accented with a couple of acrylic diamonds. It's not as shiny as it sounds like, adding watercolour to the shimmering and metallic elements makes a very interesting transparent matter layer and underneath you can see the shimmer. Pretty toned down and elegant, actually. (Especially considering my love for glitter and rainbows:) )

Pop up

Pop up
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

So, when you have a bunch of submission deadlines coming up, lots of ideas in your head just begging you to actually knit them for once, school dead-deadlines behind and a bunch of other little things going on in your life... what to do?

Get on a midnight learning a new skill-spree, of course. So I present you my first pop-up spread. I can't believe I actually did it! It's nothing too sophisticated but when I was a child the greatest magic was to get to read pop up books. There's something adorable about them.

So I started learning. I could figure out the basics myself but sometimes it's just as good to read what someone else has already written instead of figuring out everything from scratch, so I read through these tutorials. Picked up a few things here and there and then started trying things out.

I spent a while folding papers strips differently and then opening and closing the booklet to see if they were working, it was pretty much a trial and error. When I was folding my final strip of paper, something clicked and I think next time things will be much smoother. And I can focus on getting a nicer looking result as well:)

Ok, I just wanted to share this:) I rarely learn new techniques even though I eventually enjoy them and adapt them to my own uses. I should do this learning thing more often.

And if anyone is interested about the materials, cardstock is Canson Mi-Teintes in different shades of green and I rubberstamped moths and dragonflies on them. Plus some metallic acrylics, shimmering inks and glitter glue, as usual:)

Valaskala

Valaskala
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

Yay, I have something to update finally! I have been feeling like I'm losing my touch all this spring, but every now and then I've managed to make something that I am happy with:) There should be some invention though, to allow me to knit and make these at the same time.

This is in a booklet where the theme was just splatters.. So I did a basic watercolour wash on the brown cardboard in the backround and added random drops of shimmering ink. Plus a whale, I had to learn to draw whales while working on a swap so all these whales are popping up everywhere:)

Strrrripes

Strrrripes
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

aka my new hoodie:) I finally figured out the best way to use up some of the ugly brown Rowan wool cotton I got on ebay thinking of was another colour. Pairing with dark purple did the trick. I spent ages looking for a good purple and finally settled for Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed because of the Tweed flecks. Of course, as I walked out the store after buying them, I realised Colinette's Velvet Damson colourway might have been even more perfect.

But I'm happy with what I have. The tweedy yarn is absolutely wonderful to knit and to look at, I could just keep starting at the knitted fabric. And Wool-Cotton is a great yarn, I can't fathom why it doesn't seem to be more popular. I also decided this hoodie was a good project to learn how to knit a top-down seamless sweater.

And on I went. I used a set of directions found here on Ravelry. I skipped making a mini sweater and went straight into the latter explanation. It was all good and I couldn't be happier with how things turned out. I also have my own list of little tweaks I can do next time, but I think everyone needs to try it themselves and found out which things work for them and which don't.

The only thing I don't like about this project is that I am knitting back and forth because I want the hoodie to have a zipper in the front and I thought steeking was more effort than purling through every other row. Let me tell you, steeking is a walk in the park compared with all the purling when the rows are loong. (Not that I have a problem with purling, it just takes a fraction of a second longer than to knit and also a little extra hand motions. I'm lazy like that. )

At the moment I have knitted the main part and next I'll moce onto the sleeves. The great thing is that the upper part of the sleeves is already done along the body, so they shouldn't take as much time as they normally take. After sleeves it's just a matter of attaching a zipper and knitting a hood. Which I have never done before either, so it'll be interesting:)

Skew

Skew
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

I have been silent for a while, but I've been furiously knitting! I searched for a perfect yarn for Skew for a while, thinking that it needed to be something cheerful and bright. I couldn't think of anything until I remembered my neon coloured hanspun! It was just perfect for this!

The yarn was about sport weight, so there were some issues. I measured my swatch and calculated the stitches and happily started knitting, only to realise that the stretch when knitting in bias is so different, that my sock didn't fit me at all. So I adjusted stitch counts and went on. That time I actually finished the sock and then realised I couldn't get it on past my feel! Frogging time again. That time I made sure I got it right.

Repeat for the second sock, only this time I already knew the right stitch counts but still somehow managed to mangle the heel so that the sock just wouldn't fit. After a frog and reknit, they are finally here! It's a good thing they are pretty, because I was getting a tiny bit frustrated:)

Some pattern notes:
- Toe: I didn't do the toe as instructed and instead of did a flatter and wider toe and then adjusted the rest of the increases accordingly. The pointier toe looked so weird on my feet.
- Gusset and heel. Make sure these fit, make sure you can get the sock on and off and don't take the stitch count fool you.

syli

syli
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

"syli" / "embrace"
Lyra Aquabrush pens.

cat

cat
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

A card. One layers of watercolours, and another layer of pens because watercolours alone just weren't enough.

Kaupunki

Kaupunki
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

A page in a "city" themed booklet. I love buses so much, especially this one.

Feet

Feet
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

Thanks for the long easter weekend, I finally got to doing something. I am still going on with my phase of doing really weird (for me) things. Like feet.

The background was a random ad, which is pretty much covered up here with acrylics and pens. I know this idea has been done over and over again, but not by me, haha:)

My socks!!!

My socks!!!
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

My socks are finished and I'm so happy! I love the colours so much and knitting these was so lovely. I have always said that I don't really love the Wollmeise base yarn, but somehow with these socks I didn't mind. And of course the knitted fabric becomes absolutely gorgeous.

I had these on my feet the moment I cast of the last stitch:)

Chains of Love socks

My stripey socks
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

These are the socks I started with J&B! I love them to bits, I wanted to make them stripe in these thick, spiralling stripes and it worked, yay! As you might guess, the pattern is called Chains of Love and it's a great pattern. I did convert it to a toe-up because that way I had better control on the pooling in the foot.

As for making it stripe, at first I had 68 stitches at 9stitches per inch. Then I realised the stripes weren't moving enough so I reduced to 66 and that seemed to maintain a similar thickness but still kept them spiralling nicer. I actually tried a bunch of numbers here and there, from 62 to 68 but you could easily see when the colours were stacking rightly and when not. As a general hint, the thin stripes happen when you have a smaller number of stitches and you can thicken them by adding a couple of stitches.

(Of course, to make things confusing, if you go over a certain amount of stitches, the spiralling will actually change direction and then the opposite is going to be true. But that's unlikely to happen in socks, apart from perhaps kneehighs)

WIth all this variation in the number of stitches, I added some 1x1 ribbing to the sole. It keeps the fit snug even if the size might change a little bit with these experiments.

Rainbow socks

Rainbow socks
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

Another pair of stripy socks. I started knitting these in December and almost finished them in a week. And then - 4 months of procrastination happened. But I'm glad I finally finished them:)

As for my photography skills, well, someone might have spotted that I was taking a closeup of the seam that the stripes make, but that just wouldn'¨t me my style would it.

But on the topic of Noro socks, I have made and used a pair of socks made with both yarns, Kureyon and SIlk Garden sock. I am a little surprised to admit that I prefer Kureyon sock. I adored knitting with SGS but as it turns out, after about two months of wear the socks had holes on their heels.

KS, however, has held up beautifully and I have worn those socks for about six months and they've been my favourite pair so that's a lot of use. There was some initial pilling, but after taking those out, the socks look great. It was actually a surprise for myself as well, because somehow the yarn itself doesn't seem that tough. Or then I just had a really good batch:)

After finishing these I decided to reward myself with some Wollmeise. I'm making Chains of Love socks with Johannisbeere und Brennessel, a colour combination that I don't like that much, expect apparently in Wollmeise. It was one of the colours that finally made me gave in to the craze. But I'll get back to them later.

I hope when you think of me years down the line

I hope when you think of me years down the line
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

A lyrics page with Mountain Goats:) The song is actually kind of bitter rambling by someone who is breaking up and this is a little too harmonic for that, but somehow it seemed still fitting.I used my new Lyra Aquabrush pens for the background, they're great!

It's funny how this is very much like the stuff I made some 5-6 years ago. I've been trying to force myself to make blander and tidier and more organised images ever since and yet if I give it a slightest chance, the 5-year-old who wants to play with colours always comes back in me :)

It's the 80's

beads!
Originally uploaded by taikasatama

I finally got to blocking my 80's-inspired scarf:) It's black, it's lacey, it has glittering beads, it's the 80's! I love it, even if it isn't the most sophisticated thing in the world:)

Knit with Filatura di Crosa Superios, a blend of silk and cashmere and Tilli Tomas Beaded Lace, this was a bit of a splurge, but on the other hand both these yarns are pretty affordable in their own categories. Combined, I had about 450 metres of yarn and that was plenty to make a decent-sized scarf, I even have little bit of leftovers.

I used a feather and fan type of stitch pattern, found in Haapsalu Sall. As the Superior had twice the yardage, I knit from the peak up, increasing 2 stitches every round to make a flattened triangle shape and knitting 4 rows of Superior, 2 rows of Beaded Lace.

The two yarns have a different texture, Superior is thin and has a nice halo while Beaded Lace is silk, shiny and smooth and a little thicker. When I wear this around my neck, you cannot really see the difference, especially since the fluffiness of Superior covers it up a bit, but when I took pictures against light, you can see the different texture. (Yeah, more pics on Flickr/Ravelry, as usual:) ) One of the reasons I used the feather&fan-kind of stitch pattern is that it makes undulating stripes and those accentuate the different textures, too.

And as a last pattern note, there is no use to try to make the beads turn up only on the right side of the pattern. Had I wanted that, I'd probably added beads separately . This way they have more of a randomly scattered appearance.

Happy Sunday everyone, my goal for today is to finish a pair of knee high stripey Noro socks and finally block and start seaming my Wren:)