Rain, sharks and new yarns

It’s raining again. And we have another lot of visitors. It looks like Crete Aquarium will become the hot spot and saving grace for rainy days! It seems to suit everyone from Grandma to teenage cousins. This weeks picture is from shark section, they are just mesmerizing creatures. I can not get my head around the fact, that their skin looks so soft, and even, whilst glimmering with all shades of brown and grey, and in reality it is as soft as sanding paper…

I managed to finish off the second shawl, made with Garnstudio’s Drops yarn and pattern. I’m not 100% happy with it though, I think I’ll need to make it slightly longer to suit my customer. I’m waiting for her judgement re this matter. I also had a look into Garnstudio’s new yarn, Baby Merino. I’m glad to see baby yarns are not just in different shades of pink and blue, they’ve actually added some deeper colours on shade map too, even including black! I’ll have a look if I can get my hands on some of the new yarn shortly.

I’ve also started making a new pair of slippers, this time with Novita Huopanen mix, which is their superb felting yarn. This yarn is mixture of black and white, and so far it looks good. I’m waiting impatiently to see how it works when felted. I’ll keep you updated.

I have just finished knitting a pair of socks with Novita Nalle Marjaretki yarn. You can check the yarn and colours out in http://www.novita.fi/ and my finished product as on picire in http://www.knitkitbox.etsy.com/. This yarn has same brilliant build in stripes as Novita sock yarn had already on previous season, but there is new added feature- yarn has been treated with Aloe Vera! The idea of wearing comfy warm socks, with healing effect is just lush! The added pleasure is that again yarn is not too thick, I just hate wearing items which would give me a claustrophobic heat stroke and sweat attack in a split second.
My son has just started his new school and thankfully he seems to enjoy it. I’ve simultaneously started my business studies, and have tried to divide my time between knitting, Etsy and studies. This has been surprisingly hard, after this somewhat lazy summer my body and mind has decided to defer to a state of coma! This has of course happened without my agreement and knowledge! I’ll now have to work hard to keep up, and avoid the afternoon stare, where I’m just staring a page of my school book, with only thing moving and growing is the dribble hanging from the corner of my mouth. But beware and shake with fear and awe, I’ll conquer the study books and Etsy one day! I’ll finish my blog for today with this brave note and start my new life by conquering the chocolate cake my hubby just brought in, fresh from bakery!

Thunderstorms and lace patterns

This week has been busy and full of rain and thunderstorms. They say there is normally not much rain in the summer months in Greece, but this week has proven it wrong, there's been 4 days of clouds, mist, coldness and rain. We've enjoyed it, but I can see the problem being there for tourists, when they've paid for week's sunshine filled holiday, and got only few days of glorious beach life.

I've finished one of my orders on this week, and I'm half way through the other shawl, lace pattern made with Kid Silk yarn and another GarnStudio pattern. I have more time to knit now, as everyone is hurdled indoors, away from rain, stucked in front of telly and boxes of chocolates and crisps.

We've also had a rare visitors from UK, our family is here for a week, which has meant they've whole heartedly entertained my son and dog, and I've whole heartedly abused this rare opportunity and turned into a statue like host, refusing to leave my corner of sofa for any other given reason than picking a new ball of yarn. To be honest I've also given in to few temptations, a chocolate ice cream was loudly calling me as well as did the few pizza slices. Not my fault by any means, I blame visiting family for it.

Riikka's week

This week has been busy, we've had some visitors, suffered in a small heat wave and also I've worked hard to promote our Etsy shop by joining in I love etsy.com, Ravelry etc and in the mean while I've also tried to hunt down pattern ideas for my banana- silk yarn I've had in my stock since 1969 (approx of course...but that's how it feels and I do not like to leave yarns unknitted (is that a word)). So far hunt has been desperate, and unfortunately not that successful. But I'll be strong and conquer this matter eventually. Please let me know if you have some ideas for patterns or etsy shops!

I have also started with my latest knitting order, lace styles shawl. The attached picture is from the project being half way through. I've followed pattern by Garn studios, and also used their yarns for this as that was what my customers wished as we had to match the colour of yarn to her new dress. I do have to admit, shawl is stunning, I'm nearly done with it so will keep you updated. This project has been slightly hot to deal with, yarn is a mix of Cotton Viscose and Alpaca, and with this heat wave it has been a pretty good exercise to knit it, I sure that on my diet terms this means I can take second helping of chocolate cake!

Jenny's week

I've been teaching (antenatal classes) in Exeter this week where I took the opportunity of going to FibreFest at Coldharbour Mill which was fab. I bought some gorgeous silk from KnitWitches (who are actually based about three miles from me) and am now wondering what to knit with it. Works in progress -- lace christening shawl, knitted bag, lace shawl, bamboo socks, jumper for husband .... ulp -- think I need to finish something before I start another!

New Slippers

Let me proudly present; this is the last order which I’ve just finished. 3 pairs of slippers were an order and extra 2 for our new Etsy shop-Knit Matters. All except one made from Novita Huopanen and Hahtuvainen, felting yarns which are such a pleasure to work with. The purple pair was painful though, customer wanted to have ladybird decorations, and after several attempts, even after working with Fimo; I only managed to create a red pizza or wonky black dotted skull with legs, which had my 6-year old son and his friends in hysterics. After this encouraging encounter I decided to keep ladybirds simple and decorative only... With the other ones I’ve tried different things with, Fimo buttons/bases etc.

Welcome to Knit Matters!

Due to family circumstances we had to relocate, and I’ve just landed in the island of Crete, which itself is not a bad option at all, but it also meant I had to leave my dear friends and knitting club behind. Knitting club was up and running only for a short period, as me and co-founder in club and Knit Matters Jenny, decided to act on behalf our dear hobby only about a year ago. Because I can not take part of our club’s weekly meetings, we decided to meet up this way instead, by updating our progress and this way keeping in touch. This would also allow me and Jenny to keep up with Knit Matters together, and brag about latest yarn purchases as well as knitting orders we’ve finished.

So let me introduce my part of Knit Matters; My name is Riikka, I’m 33 years old and I’m from Finland. I’ve been knitting since I was 11 (the basic’s in knitting and other crafts are taught to us in primary school), but I do have to admit after being forced to knit a pair of woolly gloves, where the end result was stunningly bright pink yarn (think 80’s) with tears and snot covering the finishing results and other glove being 3 times bigger than other, I swore not to knit ever again. This oath lasted until few years later my older sister waltzed in to our kitchen wearing a stunning hand knitted jumper, which of course I wanted to have! More importantly I wanted to learn to make one. So after quite many painful attempts and endless advice from both, my mother and sister, I finished off my first jumper and haven’t stopped since. I now-a-day knit whilst watching TV, sunbathing etc. I use all methods, crocheting, knitting, felting and due to my first experience with gloves made from synthetic fiber which created so much static electricity I could have saved lives and sell them to survival kits all over the world (did I already mention being part of girl scouts also) I use only natural fibers and good quality yarns. I’ m most well known from my slippers and cardigans, I love wearing them, hence my obsession with these items.

I met Jenny, the co-founder, in Wales few years back, and if I though my life was over taken by stacks of yarn and new patters, I was now overwhelmed with the endless supply of ideas, yarns and patterns she had! No need to mention we became good friends very fast. We set up our knitting club, took few orders here and there and also decided to set up Knit Matters as Ebay shop, selling Finnish Novita yarns and ready made items. My relocation changed the plans completely, so here we are with out new plans, brand new Etsy shop, blog etc.

The reason why we stock Novita yarns and why we love them is fairly simple. Yarns are excellent quality, and the yarns are also reasonably priced. I hate setting my eyes on a cardigan pattern and finding out that the yarn options will send me to the brink of bankruptcy and divorce (my dear husband has given in to the fact that house is covered with yarns, knitting needles, pattern books, all merrily covered in woolly fluff, but even he has set some limits to my bad habits). Novita yarns have been around for the last 80-years, which also mean yarns are made for usage, they are durable, most are machine washable (hooray!) and they last very well. Everything a mad knitter needs!