Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY IS FINISHED NOW! NO MORE NEW COMMENTS WON'T BE CONSIDERED!
Please give me a bit time for announcing the winner.

Blog giveaways seem to be popular and I decided to do it also!

One of the readers will get this beret, knitted from 100% Shetland wool. Manufacturer is Angels & Elephants, color Holly Berry. Worth $27.

The contest is open until 5th August.

If you want to take part, then leave a comment to this post and write about your favorite travel destination.
Where have you spent your holidays? Why you liked the country? Why you recommend it to other too?
I'm planning my winter holidays at the moment and it can help me to decide where to do- I'm not sure if I prefer a skiing trip or sun and beach. Convince me :)

And please, leave your e-mail address under the post!

I will pick a winner after 5th August and contact her/him personally, but announce the winner in blog also.

See you later!

I've been knitting a bit...

So many people complemented the red top and I decided to knit another. Red is made more than a year ago (I suspect even more than 2 years ago, but I'm not sure) and I wanted to be sure I still remember how it goes.
And guess what... Blue looks even better! Now I have a mannequin for trying things on while knitting and it sure helps a lot. It's much much easier to understand how long the top should be, where to increase and decrease and so on.

Now I would like to write down the pattern for this top, but I'm a bit afraid that it's too much for me. I just finished my first pattern-writing (Holly Berry fingerless gloves, will make a new blog post about it), but the top is more complicated- if I create a pattern, I should do it for different sizes.

At the moment I'm stuck with custom orders and all plans have to wait. I'm knitting some shrugs.

I made it myself, really!

I know this is a craft blog, but there is something else I made too....
I have a vacation at the moment, 2 more weeks. I don't feel like traveling at the moment (although we planned to go to Turkey), so time to do something useful after one week laze.



Time for renovating the living room! We had a little accident here with electricity and the entire electricity system has to be replaced. So it's smart to do some renewing before it, because later it is harder, when new wires are placed.
I stated with the wallpaper, next will be the ceiling and last the floor.



One wall is already covered with the wallpaper you see on the photo, other 3 will be light brown or light beige, not sure yet.

This is my first time to do something like this, so I don't expect anything fancy. But it sure looks better than before.

Theo Dapore

Theo Dapore is super-talented artist from United States. I fell in love immediately when I fist saw his paintings.

This painting on the photo is absolutely stunning! It would be a perfect gift to a friend of mine. The birthday is next year, but when I saw it, I knew he has to get it.
Now I start collecting the money and pray that no-one wouldn't buy it before (oh please don't do it!).
I also contacted the artist, maybe we can think something out and he can save it for me... And if it's not possible, then maybe I can get a custom order with same colors.

So please, buy all my knittings and I can buy a painting, lol :)))

Spending the money

I'm so into Ebay shopping.

When I opened my Etsy shop again, I needed mannequin for the photos. I would like to have the original dressmakers mannequin, but those are a little too expensive for me at the moment, so I found an alternate.
The display mannequin came from UK and arrived about a week after winning the auction sale. The red top on it is not new, I knitted it more than a year ago.
The seller's shop is here.



Yarn is a compulsory purchase every time I log into this site. It is hand dyed Shetland sock wool and I love the colors. Also from UK, arrived very fast. Haven't dried knitting it yet.
The seller is Angels & Elephants.

Basque hat finally ready

I have knitted this DROPS Basque hat I showed in last post for 4 times now.

I used different yarn (Hjertegarn Merino Silk) and needles (3.25mm) and when I cast on 120 stitches as pattern said, it came enough big for putting two heads into it.
Second time I tried with 96 stitches and it was still a little bit big.
After that I knitted this red hat with 84 stitches and now it looks perfect.

Hjertegarn Merino Silk is my new favorite yarn. It is a mix of merino (60%), silk (20%) and bamboo (29%). Very soft and easy to knit.
I have wondered for a long time about yarn preferences. When I started knitting, I used mostly acrylic yarns, because they are cheaper. Now I knit more natural yarns and the quality is more important than the price. But I think it's normal, because if you don't have much experience and the knitted things end often in the garbage pin (it happened to me more than once), then it's easier to throw away or ravel when the yarn didn't cost that much.


And some words about Slovenian yarn shops also....
I visited only one in Ljubljana, right next to the Prešeren square. It was small and the assortment was not very impressive. They sold mostly acrylic yarns and the prices were almost double than in Estonia. So I bought nothing.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to search the other 3 shops in the city.

DROPS fall/winter 2008-2009

I have been waiting it for soooooo long time!
DROPS fall/winter collection 2008/09 is finally up!

And I love it! Beautiful designs as always and lots of them are suitable for the beginners too. I do not consider myself as a beginner, but it is fantastic, because if someone is taking her first steps in the knitting world and can make something really sweet and good looking, then it definitely increase the motivation.

I won't enumerate the things I would like to knit from DROPS collection, because I like almost everything.

But I'm sure that the very first thing I will knit is this beret on the picture. How lovely a hat can be???? Not more than this one, I think...

Joana Vasconcelos

Joana Vasconcelos is artist from Paris who crochets both possible and impossible things.

She has made amazing sculptures- people, animals and others.

My favorite from this year is her Piano Dentelle, which you can see in her web gallery (year 2008).




At the moment she is taking part in a group exhibition "L'argent" in Paris, Le Plateau.
From July 24th you can see her solo exhibition in Palma de Mallorca.

The break is over

Hello!

My 2 months blogging break is hopefully over and I will try to bring this site to life again :)

I will fly to Slovenia, Ljubljana next Tuesday and my yarn addiction wouldn't let me to visit the city without finding the yarn shops.

Thanks to Ravelry I find some tips how to reach the right places.

* Centromekur is in the center of Ljubljana, right next to the Preseren square (on the picture)

* Elna is at Gosposvetska street, next to hotel Lev.

* One shop should be at Rimska street, behind the Faculty of Arts

* and in the Citipark shopping center should be a yarnshop too.

I will try to visit some of those shops, but I'm not sure if I will have time for everyone.

But after the trip I will write what I found and what I can recommend.

Good evening (it's 21.30 pm here and some minutes more)!

You have seen Victoria's Secret and Sonia Rykiel on my blog, but today I would like to prove that I can knit too. At least a little :))))

I finished another children's summer dress and those who have read my Estonian blog, know that it looks almost like the first with pink and green colors.
Well, the result is ok, but I'm not completely satisfied.
The top part could be a little bit shorter and green part longer, but maybe I'm just a stickler? Anyway, I will correct the mistakes. I already started third dress and I won't let it go before I can sleep calmly at night again.

I also plan to write down the pattern someday.
I used 3.5 mm bamboo and circular needles and Steinbach Wolle Capri yarn, about 150 grams.
Capri is great for knitting, but too rough for crocheting.
It took 3 days to finish the dress and I can guarantee that it isn't last one. I'm bull-headed and I won't stop before everything is perfect.