As I mentioned earlier, I have two patterns in the new Defarge Does Shakespeare book that’s coming out soon (digital copy out tomorrow, March 27th, print version ships two weeks later). I’m the kind of person who likes clothes, accessories to match/co-ordinate, so I designed a scarf and a pair of mitts meant to be worn together.

Side note: Yes, this started as a kid. My grandma keeps telling me how at three years old, I’d tell her in English (not Finnish, I don’t know why) if outfits/jewellery matched or not. If they did, it’d be good, if not I’d apparently wrinkle my nose and suggest something else.

Anyway, back to the focus of this post: Mrs Lear mitts! I’m an indecisive person at times (those of you who know me in person, stop laughing, I can be! You just don’t see it often). But the beautiful thing about the pattern that I came up with is that it’s totally customisable to the yarn and needles. The red sample is done in DK (Fyberspates Scrumptious was so nice to work with) and the lavender is laceweight (Natural Dye Studio Angel 2-ply which is now sadly discontinued - the links are to my Ravelry project pages which are still lacking photos).

The focus of the mitts is the cuff, which has a picot edge and a cable & wrap pattern. The body of the mitt is plain stockinette and then it’s finished off a picot bind off.

Now, I was a dork and didn’t take good pictures of the finished items before I sent them off to be photographed for the book. Both sets were knit to fit me, and I’ve got fairly big hands. The samples look a bit loose (especially the laceweight ones) on the models, but when I wore them to check the fit, they were perfect. Snug, but not too tight. But as I said, the pattern is totally customisable so they can be knit in any size.

And because I like the whole matchy-matchy thing, I’ve cast on for another pair of the laceweight mitts in a yellow Malabrigo (I forgot the colourway name) to go with my lacy Malabrigo scarf that I knit last summer (again, need to take pictures of that too, I’ve really slipped this last year with updating everything). Who knows when I’ll actually finish them, because I’ve got a ton of other projects that are time sensitive, but I’d say it’s a good sign if I want want to knit a pattern more than once. I don’t always want to knit my own designs again, because sometimes they drive me a bit batty due to all of the work I put into them, but these? Totally want to knit them again. Interesting but easy, and that’s something that I need right now to keep me sane with all of the wedding planning.

Finally! So excited. The next Defarge book - Defarge Does Shakespeare - will be out this Friday, March 27th. I have two patterns in it, a scarf and a pair of fingerless mitts, both based on King Lear. But I want to give both patterns their own separate posts, so this is just a general “squee!” post.

There are lots of goodies to go along with the release of the book. Just sign up to the mailing list to get in on the freebies, raffles, etc. And if you pre-order the book, you also get a free pattern! I don’t know what that pattern is yet, but there was a peek of it on the mailing list.  *hint hint*

I don’t have my copy yet, but I’ve been browsing the patterns in the book on Ravelry. If you follow me on Twitter (@Luliriisi), then you’ll see which ones have caught my eye so far. It’s hard to pick favourites actually! So many neat socks, accessories, even a few sweaters. And they’re all Shakespeare themed, which makes my literature mind happy. I can’t wait to read the essays that come with the patterns. I like finding out what inspired each pattern. They’re like mini-stories. Knowing what the thought process behind the pattern makes it more interesting to me, otherwise it tends to be just a piece of knitting. Nice knitting, but it’s the stories that pull me in.

Less than a week to go! Yay!

I’ve made a decent dent into my wedding shawl knitting. I’ve got to the lace sections now and even though I have three pages of charts (because there are three different lace patterns) to follow if I need them, I seem to be just fine reading my knitting and working out what to knit that way. I’m loving the lace sections. Patterning on every row is just so much fun. Plus it makes the lace look really delicate.

I also really like the teeny tiny star shape that the circular cast on method created. It’s the small details like that make me really happy. I’m probably the only one who’ll notice it, but just knowing it’s there is enough. The same usually applies to mistakes too, though. If I know it’s there, it’ll drive me nuts, even if no one else notices it.

Practice dress #2 is fairly far along. Before I insert the sleeves and the zip, I think I need to figure out if I want to alter the neckline at all. Right now it’s a plain round neck fairly close to my throat and well… I’m not used to having anything that close to my neck. So I’m possibly going to change it to a scoop neck. And maybe add in bias binding to the neckline and the hem. But so far the fit seems good, so I think I’ll be sticking with these particular pattern pieces (I’ve taken the bodice from one dress pattern and the skirt of another) for my wedding dress. I’ve also got grand plans for details for the wedding dress to hide things like possibly slightly wonky seams, because let’s face it, I’m not a professional dressmaker. Now I just need to find the things I’m thinking of adding to it.

We have the venue and the registrar booked! And we’ve got an appointment for the notice of marriage for next week. Things are moving on nicely. And my stress levels have definitely lowered a lot ever since we booked the venue. That was my biggest worry. Now I can concentrate on the fun things! Like my dress and the decorations. And figuring out what music to play in the background while guests are arriving. I recently found a list of photos that would be great to have but might be forgotten since they’re not traditionally on lists. Most of them seemed reasonable, but two of them really weren’t applicable to my wedding: “Groom 5 hours before the wedding” and “Bride 5 hours before the wedding.” Uhm… yeah. That would be at 7am. I don’t think we’ll be wanting a photographer to be showing up that early.

The past few days I seem to have taken pictures of only my food. It all started off my lunch/snack on Saturday:

Then came dinner. Baked mac’n’cheese (from scratch) that made my niece ask for the recipe:

On Sunday, I went for a traditional roast in a pub with two of my friends since one of them had never had one. After that meal, we were all basically in a food coma for almost 24 hours. We were actually having a group chat on Facebook saying we were too full to move the few meters that were needed to get whatever it was that we wanted. Even though we ate around 2:30pm, I didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day. And I wasn’t hungry in the morning either, which was weird. I’m used to basically starving by the time I wake up. That full feeling also lasted pretty much all day Monday.

Which brings me to tonight’s dinner. Homemade meatballs with boiled potatoes and gravy. The meatballs actually held their shape! It’s the first time I managed to get them to do that, which I’m proud of. And as usual, I seem to have made enough for an army (thanks grandma, I’m fairly certain this tendency to cook too much comes from you), so I guess I’ll be freezing the rest of them once they’ve cooled down enough.

I also nipped to the fabric shop near me after work today and got 3m of a really pretty strawberry print on a black background to make another dress. Practice dress #2 will start taking shape later this week.

Since I last blogged, I seem to have acquired two things: a shiny ring and a new hobby in the form of dressmaking. And yes, these two things are related since I’ve decided to not only design and knit my wedding shawl, but to also make my wedding dress. Or at least half of it.

So, this is the plan: buy the “base” of the dress, alter it a bit if need be and then make another dress out of just lace to go over the base. I’ve already purchased the base and I’m pretty sure I’m going to try to convert it from a halter neck to a strapless version. A few weeks ago I went to Brussels and found the lace I wanted to use from Maison Dorée. They also had so many pretty trims that I’m sure I’ll be going back there the next time I visit my sister. Sidenote: Lace can be ridiculously expensive. In the shops in Soho it was over £100/m, while most of the lace in Brussels was over 50€/m.

But because my sewing skills aren’t as good as I’d like them to be, I’ve decided to make a practice dress or two. The last time I used my sewing machine was about two years ago when Lucy and I decided to make advent calendars. And before that? Who knows? Probably when another friend of mine asked to borrow it which has to be about eight years ago (we made costumes for a play she was in, I think). What can I say, knitting kind of took over my life and sewing’s always been something I wanted to do but didn’t have the inclination to actually practice. Until now.

The first practice dress is almost done now. Before I went to Brussels, I went on a day trip to Bath. There I found a pattern I wanted to try out (princess seams in the bodice, full skirt, zip up the back) and got some green gingham to go with it. The pattern does say it’s lined and gives all the instructions needed to do that, but I figured since I won’t actually be lining the lace dress, I’d better not try it with this one either since I need to see what it would look like without the lining.

I woke up at 6:30am today (on a Saturday, why???) and since O was asleep, I figured I’d make the most of having the living room all to myself. Before today, I’d already sewn up the bodice and the skirt pieces and pinned the skirt to the bodice. By the time O came into the living room a few hours later, it was actually looking like a dress. The skirt has been sewn to the bodice, the zipper has been put in, the hem has been turned, the neckline (a major pain the in the neck!) is done. The only thing left to do is add in the sleeves. I haven’t cut those out yet actually, because I still haven’t decided what kinds of sleeves I want to try out. Honestly, if I didn’t have to practice making the sleeves, I’d leave this as a sleeveless summer dress.

It still needs a few tweaks in the bodice, but I think it fits pretty well considering it’s the first actual piece of clothing I’ve made in 17 years (made a few items of clothing back in school when I was 13 years old). No, wait, second. I made an A-line skirt back in January (again, practising). But this is the first dress I’ve ever made. Yay!

Some days, I hate how unpredictable and always changing the weather is in London. Today is not one of those days. Both of these times of day (6:45am and approx 2pm) made me really happy.

On Saturday, I went out with Krisi, one of my oldest friends. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but we both love food. Last month, we went to have a traditional afternoon tea in a hotel in Kensington. This time, taking advantage of yet another 2-for-1 deal, we opted for a Spanish-style afternoon tea in northern-ish central London. Doesn’t it look just utterly delicious?

And since Saturday was also my name day (it’s a Finnish thing; not sure if other countries have it too?), I did what I do every year to celebrate: I bought myself some music. This time, I bought “Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge” by The Pierces. I discovered them when I started watching Pretty Little Liars. Their song Secret is the theme tune to the show. And after streaming it through Grooveshark for like three weeks on an almost endless loop while at work, I decided that I really should buy the album since I like it so much. All of the songs are quirky and most are really catchy. I’ve even woken up humming or singing the lyrics, because they’ve been stuck in my head. And I foresee myself buying more of their work as soon as I get bored with the current music playing on iPod. I highly recommend giving them a shot.

My latest knitting project: Timey Tantalate. The pattern is from the latest Knitty (Sweet Tantalate) and the yarn is Timey Wimey (EasyKnits). I bought the yarn last year at Woolfest solely because of its name. How could I resist? It’s just a bonus that it’s such a pretty blue that suits me. ;)

All of my other knitting projects are done. The Myrtle cardigan is done except for the buttons, which have been purchased, so I just need to attach them. The Gothic Spire socks are also finally done, just in time for me to put them away into the sock bin for summer.

Just spent a glorious two hours reading in the park. I only came in because the shadows crept up to my spot and it got a bit chilly without the sun. Still, it’s a beautiful day. It was so nice, that I even got up at 8am (on a Sunday) and went for a morning run. Something I haven’t done since we moved to London. And the last time I ran at all? Christmas, back up north. Sunshine makes me happy. I get this urge to soak up all I can, so I get restless if I just sit indoors when I could be sitting outside. Maybe it comes from growing up in Finland where the winters are so dark. The first hint of spring and I’m OUT. I even try to have my lunchbreaks outdoors as often as possible.

I think I’ve figured out why my online presence has been sporadic. The location of my laptop seems to be a major factor. And the fact that now that I actually have stuff to blog about, I’m too busy actually doing the interesting things to sit down. Go figure. But things that have happened and are coming up involve a lot of socialising with new people, going to the theatre, trying amazing new restaurants, reading lots of books and finally finishing some projects so that I can cast on something new. My Myrtle cardigan is on the final stretch. Just working on the neckline band and then attaching buttons. Then I can wear it! Well, block it, then wear it, but I’m so close to being done that I’m already thinking of what to work on next. I love this part of knitting. The planning stage is almost as fun as the actual knitting…

I would’ve thought that last minute gift knitting would be over in January. Nope. I was wrong. I just got invited to my cousin’s birthday party. Which’ll be in a week. Which means I have a week to knit her gift. Good thing it’s her first birthday, so I can whip up some mittens. Hoping to get these done by tomorrow night, but if not, I’ll just take them into work and knit during my lunch breaks. Good thing they’re easy. And tiny!

Needles: 2.75mm and 3.00mm dpns Yarn: Stitches ‘N Rows Happy Soles in Moody and a mystery pink