would you look at that

I really wanted to bring some rare foreign yarn home with me from Helsinki, preferably Finnish. As it turned out, I had no luck finding Finnish yarn. They don't keep a lot of sheep over there and only spin a tiny bit of wool which is hard to find for sale. My friend who used to live in Turku told me about this little yarn shop near the Kaampi shopping mall in the center of Helsinki, Fiinaneule, a lovely little shop indeed and the shop owner was so helpful. She completely understood my yarn hunting mission and had even been in Iceland a few months earlier, going from yarn shop to yarn shop with the same in mind! 

Fiinaneule mostly had Rowan and some other rather common brands (all very nice) which I bought a few skeins of. But the best part was this exquisite Indian silk which they buy directly from a Finnish woman who lives in India and gets is by fair trade directly from local silk farmers. Oh, yes. I have never, ever, worked with such a quality fiber before. Never. Ever. It is simply wonderfully soft and the color is perfect. It's not quite as finely spun as silk so often is, more like DK weight, not quite fingering weight. I bought this one skein to make a toddler silk cap for Ósk now that she's outgrown all her baby silk caps. But I might have to buy some more, this stuff is seriously drug-like. Luckily I have tracked it down on Etsy as "Gorgeous silk yarn by Craftamma" so my addiction can be easily fed. 

I am using a pattern called Junie Cap which I found by using the advanced search in the Ravelry pattern database depending mostly on the fiber weight and quality. I am about halfway done and looking forward to trying the earflaps with the short rows, it might be a disaster since silk can be so unforgiving with such knitting maneuvers. If it turns out really bad I'll just make something up. 

Linking up with Frontier Dreams - are you crafting along as well?

the fluffiest of hats

You Old Softie! (Pink Angora Hat) 

Pattern: Fresco Simply Slouchy Hat by Susan Miller

Yarn: Phildar Pur Angora

Needles: 3.5 mm

And so, another week has come to an end. My weekend was pretty slow and quiet, or at least as far as that goes when sharing a life with two young children, and I'm ready to start a new week. Well, I sort of have to be ready, since I've got a ton of schoolwork waiting (I'm counting on the magical tomorrow, as always the ever-so-handy source of postponing...). We have had a lot of snow and wind these last few weeks and I really am ready for spring. Please, let there be spring soon!

I did finish this quick project for myself, a hat knit out of some wonderfully soft angora yarn that my sister bought for me as a present when she was travelling in France last year. I am very content with the pattern (it's free, too!) and can now give it my recommendations. 

I'll be back here on Tuesday with this weeks KCCO, which includes my first crochet project in months. Until then, I shall be petting my hat (so soooooft) and keeping up with school. 

sparrow

My favorite yarn shop, where I'm lucky enough to have my very own work space, recently gained the proud title of being Quince&co.'s flagship store in Iceland, thereby being the only store one can get a hold of this quality yarn on our small island. Yay! The first kind to arrive, currently the only q.&co. yarn available here, is this gorgeous 100% organic linen in colors that I'm just drooling over. This yarn has moved to the top of my wishlist and I've promised myself to knit something from it this summer, as soon as my mission to finish all of my WIPs is accomplished. It's going the be my price and you better believe my knitting needles are ticking like crazy these days so this sparrow yarn soon will be mine ;) Soon more of their yarn types will arrive, too, so I guess I'm in for a good year, yarn wise. 

I've been Ravelry-hunting for linen projects and the ones I like best so far are both by designer Bristol Ivy, made for Quince&co. The first one is this shawl, Lida, I think the shape and stitch pattern are just so cool and different from other shawls. The other one I'd like to make is this pretty Emmaline Tee, don't you think it's just lovely? Also, I like all of this collection, Sparrow Sans, designed for Quince&co. especially from the sparrow yarn. So many linen patterns... so little time.

Other than that I'm starting to work on my own pattern - very excited about that! Oddur's sweater is on the needles and I'm just about to start on the stranded yoke part. The FIFA World Cup began last night and I plan on watching as many matches as I possibly can - knitting meanwhile of course! Can't go wrong with soccer and knitting ;)