Like promised in my first post about this shawl, here are some better pictures of it, and some stats.

The sad sweater you read about a while back is sad no more - it's done and gorgeous!

Now this is a truly modular sweater. Part top-down, part bottom-up, part both: one sleeve is top-down, one bottom-up and still I had to rip and reknit both cuffs as they were too short (like the hem, too). I'm so proud of myself not giving up on this project; I didn't even want to at any point!

I made a Rinsessa hat for myself last winter, and am loving it still! So this winter I decided to knit myself a thick, wide scarf with the same rinsessa-mock-cable stitch. So I took the Rinsessa scarf pattern (in Finnish), modified it a bit for thicker yarn and started knitting.

I'm heading to my local animal shelter's Easter Bazar tomorrow morning, and have some knits ready for it.

I've made some bulky hats:
Pattern - Chunky Button Hat
Yarn - Filati Funky, a really bulky wool / acrylic mix. This happens to be the first yarn I ever knit in my "new knitter life" in 2006!
Needles - 10 mm dpns (!)
Modifications - I did change the crown of some of these hats, plus I attached no buttons, but made pom poms instead.

I'm so excited! My Ravelympics shawl is done! In case you're not familiar with the term, it's basically a knitalong where you do a challenging project during the Olympic games. Mine was the Tulppaani shawl (this pattern is originally in Finnish, but can be found in English at Villapallo's blog)

This is the second year when I'm knitting from my stash (not exclusively though!) with the Ravelry Stash knit down group, in particular the Personal Small Items "club". The idea is simply to (before the year) starts pack one small project per month -yarn from stash plus pattern- and work these projects month by month.

So, I'm feeling better so I can finelly get back to blogging! This is what I have to show you first - the Damson shawl.

First the stats:
Pattern: Damson by Ysolda Teague
Needles: 4mm circular
Yarn: 1 skein of Zitron undyed sock yarn, self-dyed with Kool aid - and ca. 20 grams of Zitron bamboo sock yarn, also self dyed. More about this later..!
Modifications: I did the lace bit in garter stitch instead of stockinette. It looks good!

So this thing... it's not quite as pretty as I hoped, and it's not very flattering on me, but hey, I knit it so I will show it here as well.

Pattern: Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Marengo by G-B (a local German brand, the yarn is wool and acrylic)
Needles: 7mm KnitPicks circular
Modifications: none

This is my 2009 tally für preemies. You might know that I support the German knit for preemies charity Frühchenstricken, who collect preemie knits and distribute them to the hospitals who request them. I usually send one packet a year, and this is the one for 2009 (they asked me to wait over Christmas to send it, so I only sent it last week).

I did it! I've knit Owls! Not that that makes me so special - it is currently the most knit sweater pattern on Ravelry , but if you read my blog, you will know that I'm not the big sweater knitter. So every sweater feels like an accomplishment, like having climbed a mountain. In this case, rather small mountain, as this sweater was really quick to knit! And I love it!