Kesäkontiaisen aurinkohattu. Summer mole sunhat.

Aurinkohattu italialaisesta pellavalangasta. Sunhat of Italian linen yarn.

Alpakkatäkki, alpaca quilt ♥

Löin aikanaan vedon – viime keväänä, itse asiassa – että saisin alpakkatäkkini valmiiksi ennen kuin miehen kandidaatintyö valmistuu. Hävisin.

Olisin hävinnyt joka tapauksessa, mutta syy siihen, että täkki valmistui vasta nyt, oli hellyydenkipeä kissa. Virkatessani viimeistä kiinteiden silmukoiden kerrosta jo kokoon ommellun täkin ympärille se tuli puskemaan, kehräämään ja leipomaan täkkiä ylipitkillä kynsillään. Riips-raaps, sanoivat tilkut. Masennuin niin, etten saattanut koskea koko täkkiin vuoteen.

Tässä se nyt on. Paikkasin kolme tilkkua ja virkkasin kiinteät silmukat loppuun. Se on lämmin. Se on yksi hienoimmista asioista, joita olen koskaan virkannut, ja varmasti isoin. Autuus.

Last spring I made a bet with my husband that I would finish my crochet alpaca quilt before he finishes his bachelor's thesis. I lost, and would have lost anyways – but the reason for the quilt getting finished only now was an attention-seeking cat. While I was crocheting the last row around the already sewn quilt, she came to purr and knead the quilt with her overgrown nails. Screech, said the quilt and my heart broke. I couldn't touch the quilt for a whole year. But here it is now. Darned, lovely and warm.

 

Yksittäinen neliö on niin yksinkertainen, ettei se varmaan tarvitse ohjeita, mutta tässä varmuuden vuoksi.

Aloita virkkaamalla 6 kjs, 1 ps näistä ensimmäiseen.
1. krs: 3 kjs, 18 p kjs-renkaaseen, 1 ps kerroksen aloittavan kjs-ketjun 3. kjs:aan.
2. krs: 3 kjs, 1 p samaan silmukkaan, 2 p jokaiseen edellisen kerroksen silmukkaan, 1 ps kerroksen aloittavan kjs-ketjun 3. kjs:aan.
3. krs:  3 kjs, *2 p, 2 p yhteen silmukkaan*, toista, 1 ps kerroksen aloittavan kjs-ketjun 3. kjs:aan.
4. krs: 2 kjs, 3 ks, *2 p, 2 pp, 3 kjs, 2 pp, 2 p, 8 ks*, toista 3 kertaa. 2 p, 2 pp, 3 kjs, 2 pp, 2 p, 3 ks, 1 ps aloittavan kjs-ketjun 2. kjs:aan.

Spider web bonnet

A spider web bonnet of linen yarn. It looked so much better on my colleague's that I gave it to her. (She doesn't like modeling.) I wasn't sure if the pattern would turn out nice when I started, but the longer the tube got, the nicer it looked. Again, the pattern is from Betty Barnden's The Crochet Stitch Bible.

Linen daisies

Too many thoughts today. Refuse to be organized. All the boxes and stuff I should pack are spread on the floor, equally unorganized. Sigh. A good thing about moving a lot, though, is that you have so little stuff that you know it can be packed in few hours.

 

But here's a crochet daisy bonnet of linen-rayon yarn. Pattern can be found in Betty Barnden's The Crochet Stitch Bible (which is certainly my personal bible). Behind it a derelict yard in Haapsalu, Estonia, and Baltic sea.

(I don't like working with plant fibres as much as with wool. They never work quite the way I'd like. Fibers are too long and independent, always going to the wrong side of the hook. But it's summer. Not a wool season. Instead it's a butterfly season. I saw a beautiful orange tip—and a picture of an orange tip trinket someone had made.)

A perfect day

Best days are the days you don't have to do anything. Okay, getting tyres changed. But that's done now and I have summer tyres and sunglasses and new windscreen wipers. Well, yeah, and a new car. And white lilies in the bathroom, gotten from a sweet American girl who was couchsurfing here. And another sweet, joyous couchsurfer sleeping on my floor, this time from Brazil; and melon muffins, although I used honeydew and toadskin melon instead of cantaloupe and damsons instead of apple sauce; and a happy tired cat and patches, endless, neverending patches. Soon, soon it'll be finished and I can finally do something else. And I feel like writing a memorial to my old car.

Sun, cat, crochet :)

Sun is shining today and Ludvig will get to go out. She doesn't look extremely eager, though. 126/135 patches ready!

Oh, March

It's a grey, dull day, clouds hanging miserably on rooftops. And after many days of surprising excessive energy, I have none. So don't imagine I'd be going outside for a second, expect slouching to the nearest grocery store to get candy. Instead, I'm spending my day pretty much like this:

The book is Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and a DVD of Agatha Christie's Marples is just outside the picture.

I've made a bet with my boyfriend. If he finishes his bachelor's thesis before I finish my alpaca quilt, I'll treat him a dinner in Dong Bei Hu (the best Chinese restaurant in Helsinki, and the only one which number I have on my cell phone). And, obviously, vice versa. He's written some five pages of minimum 15; I'm up to 89 of 135 patches, above to which I will have to crochet the uttermost round to each 135 and sew them together.

More bonnets

Now that I'm on the topic of bonnets. I can't remember where I got instructions for this one; I only remember I applied them quite freely. You knit two and purl two so that stripes formed move to right all the time. I was so happy when making the bobble that I didn't realize that if I use more than 100 grams of yarn, the bobble will weight more than 100 grams. But it's still nice, huh?

The red one I crocheted on a plane just a few days ago. I love it that I can take my crochet needle to a plane—and I've taken it dozens of times—but they get all cranky about French cheese, because it's too gel-like. At least the Swiss security did. Anyways, I was thinking of a Japanese summer hat I had years ago which was approximately of same model, and I think I was also hoping to look more adult. Apparently that's not possible, though.

I started from the top and used ordinary crochet as long as I was increasing, then changing to this woven stitch I found in Betty Barnden's The Crochet Stitch Bible. Basically it goes: one crochet, one chain stitch, so that you always crochet on the chain stitch on the row below. I love the texture. Yarn is untwisted sheep wool from Estonia.

Fifty-three to go

 

Seventy-one patches done. Fifty-three to go. Although I think I miscounted and need actually a total 128 - in that case, fifty-seven to go. Plus of course the outermost ring to each one. And the sewing.

I think I gotta do something else for a while. Something I can complete sooner. Something like this, perhaps, to use as a purse when flying.

Neverending patches

My eternal problem seems to be that I buy more yarn that I can possibly use. Sometimes I go on strike: no more yarn until at least some of the old is finished! And then I stare at my yarn collection (and believe me, it's huge) wondering what to make. For example, what to make of the odd collection of alpaca?

Inspired by this, I started my own crochet quilt. Unlike this beautiful tulip quilt, my patches won't be so flower-like: just rounds surrounded by either a hexagon or octagon. The color for the outermost ring isn't decided yet either, as I thought I'd finish all the yarn I already have before choosing the binding color.

I counted that I would need some 124 patches for a blanket - that is, if there's enough yarn. Still 83 to go.