all things me

On Thursday, December 6, we spent our independence day in rain which washed away the little snow we still had left.

We also had our office Christmas party this week at a casino. We ate posh: raw fish (yuck!), duck (odd and quite fatty) with a side dish of mushrooms (bleurgh) in a salad. The dessert was depressingly small but at least it tasted alright (only ‘alright’, not delicious). There was a music show by an a cappella band called Fork which was amazing! They ended with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody — sent shivers down my spine. I was quite disappointed that neither of their albums has that song (and the little snippets I heard didn’t sound as well-sung as during the show).

Because Thursday was a day off I took also Friday off (“summer” vacation). I travelled to my grandparents and on Friday Grandma and I went shopping. I bought a calendar for my godson, I found a nice red shirt which Grandma bought me for Christmas, and I also found something for my penpal Katrina (not going to say what in case she reads this ). Today (i.e. Saturday even though the post’s timestamp is Sunday) we went to Iittala where there are several design shops and a factory shop. Grandma has bought me pieces of the Teema collection and now I got 6 white dinner plates. I also found a nice lasagne pan. I was looking for a black platter (or anything black, really, because they are discontinuing the colour) but there was none! I’ll have to check out the shops in Helsinki before it’s too late. Grandma hasn’t wanted to buy me black dishes because she thinks it’s too gloomy a colour. I hope they’ll take purple into their range some day…

I also bought quite a lot of chocolate for Xmas at Kultasuklaa (sorry, no English page there) and licorice-flavoured honey at Hunaja-aitta. I don’t know how I’m going to use the honey but there’s no hurry (expiration date in the fall of 2009). They said it goes with ice cream and even porridge (I’m thinking about pancakes, too…).

Grandpa wanted to buy me a brooch at a shop that sold Aarikka products (surprisingly, I couldn’t find the brooch I eventually chose in that site’s catalogue…). I got a red “safety pin” where there are a few wooden beads and a snow flake. Quite seasonal, but I think it goes nicely with my black winter attire.

(I know, lots of product/company names but they’re Finnish and some of them are small shops, so I’m not ashamed.)

A small leftover ball of yarn had been bugging me for a long time. Remember, I knit some socks almost two years ago. In addition to the ankle-high socks and almost-knee-high socks, I ended up making a proper knee-high socks. (They didn’t all come from the same ball of yarn.)

Knitting always leaves annoying leftovers. The socks left quite a large amount of yarn so I wanted to make something from it. I’m not very good at knitting and it hurts my hands so I decided I would crochet this time. And because I wanted the ‘something’ to be something I could do while watching tv, it couldn’t be very sophisticated. Hence, I started a scarf. I tried to look for a nice pattern but I couldn’t find any (link tips warmly welcomed!) so I had to improvise. It’s not pretty but it’s something to kill time with.

Last night, I ran out of yarn (as you can see; I used the last bits to make a couple of tassels)

Now to the donor part. Today I went looking for more yarn to finish my unfinished scarf (this is obviously a vicious cycle). I went to two big stores — nothing! There were all kinds of nice colours, and I almost bought one nice fluffy red ball of yarn (or two), but not the mixed purple/pink I need.

Just now (as I came from the sauna and put on the knee-high socks because they match my pyjamas) I realised I could sacrifice the almost-knee-high socks which I never wear anyway because they’re overstretched.

So, now I’m going to go watch Prison Break, cut open some knots, and take the socks apart. Let’s see how far I get with their help.

The scarf is 202 cm (approx. 6 ft 7 in) long now — I don’t know when to stop.

Crocheting has been such fun (much more fun than Sudoku or mobile phone games) that I ended up buying some yarn for a hat. I’ve had the same hat for probably over 10 years and I haven’t found a new one to replace it. All the hats I get or buy are too tight or itchy. Now I found the most wonderful yarn:

It feels so soft! Now I have to buy a bigger crocheting hook.

It’s soon December 24th when we get our Christmas presents (Santa travels around Finland first because he lives here). I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!

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1.5 hours
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I’m thinking of making a flower for decoration.

… a little later …

Here’s the finished hat (colour is more realistic in this one — maybe because the colour correction had the black as reference point):

The flower is attached with a safety pin so I can move it around.