KAL

I did it! I finished all my KYH (the Finnish KAL where you cast on 26 items in June and finish them all by the end oh July) knits!

Here's what I knit:

Ok, I've cast on 26 things in June, all because I'm participating in the Finnish KAL I mentioned a few weeks ago, where you - starting from the 1st oh June - cast on something new every day until Midsummer, and you finish everything my the end of July. It's a challenge, but so much fun! Here's what I have ready (or almost done) by now (& since the last posting)

From up left clockwards: a shawl from the top of my head (it's the better version of my Tierheim bamboo shawl) with self-dyed yarn; the Twilight Gloaming (Rav link) shawl made with a Zauberball (I'll post more on these shawls later); seven mice that just need to be felted, filled and sewn close to finish these cat toys from Kitty Knits.

For the second time in a row, I'm participating in the Finnish knitalong "Kesäyön hullutus", which is a KAL for crazy Finnish people who want to start a new knitting project every day from the 1st of June to Midsummer, the 26th of June - and finish all 26 knits by the end of July. Pretty insane, huh!

At least until now I'm keeping up. I've started a few bigger things I know I'll be able to work on in the train (I'll be travelling a bit the next few weeks), and lots of small ones (I mean finished-in-one-hour small ones!) This post is about a small one and a bigger one.

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)

I'll post more about it once it's been blocked and my darling husband is back from his conference Drupaletics and available to take some photos of me modeling the gorgeous shawl! Sorry for the quality of these - I tried my best standing on the bed, but it just didn't seem to work better than this!

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.

The idea is that by packing the yarn and patterns beforehand you quite quickly forget what you packed and are happily surprised with what lovely yarn and a nice pattern you get to reveal from its bag monthly! Well, that's what happens me most of the time. These here are the two fun projects I've made this year.

I've knit some small things last month and I thought I'd show them to you, as they came out nicely, I think!

First we have the Grown-up bootees. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague, and it's a part of the Whimsical Little Knits 1 collection. I've knit them with vintage superwash wool held double on 5mm needles. This pair fits me, so the size is ca. European 39. They took approximately 100 grams of yarn. I'll be making more as Christmas presents!

Next I have two more pairs of preemie socks for the Sukkasato-KAL. Again 28 stitches around, made on 2,5mm dpns. The yarn is of unknown quality, but I did dye it myself (except for the toe of one sock, as I ran out of the self-dyed yarn). The KAL is finished now, my total: five pairs of preemie socks, and the grown-up bootees. Not bad!

Just two more pairs of little preemie socks for charity. I'm also counting them in the Sukkasato sock KAL.

The yarn is a nameless sock yarn I received from a friend a while back. The socks are made on 2,5mm dpns, and have 28 stitches around. The cuff is 1x1 rib and the foot is plain. As simple as it gets!

Sukkasato has started again, the Finnish 2-month sock KAL in which I also participated last year.

Like last year, I'll be making small socks for charity. Here's the first pair of preemie socks. Made on 4mm needles using 24 stitches around, the yarn is Hjerte Sock held double.

I have more pairs on the needles and will post them throughout the KAL. They are so sweet and quick!

I'm taking part in a crazy Finnish KAL called "Kesäyön hullutus", which translates to "summernight's folly"! The idea is to start a new project every day from the 1st June to the 20th of June, and finish all these projects by the end of July! I joined on the 6th, so I have a few less to do, but still... so therefore small projects are the best in this challenge!

I think preemie hats are the perfect small projects one can make. They're easy, quick and very useful (I'll be sending them to charity).

The Pencil cases for Sudan -KAL me and the Ravelry Darfur group have been moderating has now come to an end. We had a voting going for the most beautiful pencil case at Flickr , and I counted the votes some days ago. You can see the winners at Ravelry or at Flicr - so beautiful pencil cases!

HelpSudan seems happy with our efforts too. I've asked them if it's ok to keep sending cases, but haven't got an answer yet.

I'll be taking the pencil case pattern links off the side bar for now, and add them into a post under the category "Patterns". The side bar tends to get so long otherwise.

I hope you had a good time making pencil cases, and hopefully we'll get some more action going later on as well!