I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

My pulse quicken this afternoon when I pulled into my driveway and saw this little morsel peeking out of my mailbox:

And the origin of these beautiful stamps?

Tucked inside was the impetus for all the mitten-knitting last week, which I viewed as a training exercise to get me in shape for the 100 patterns in this amazing book:

The book, Sata Kansanomaista Kuviokudinmallia by Eeva Haavisto, is a reprint of a 1947 edition that has been out of print for years. If you’re interested in seeing some of the mittens that have been knit from the patterns in the book, click on this link to Ravelry. My favorite is #95, which has a butterfly pattern.

There’s also a Ravelry group whose members are knitting their way through the book. Count me in!

What did I do during my unexpected vacation? The first day or two, I watched a lot of TV. Really. Probably more TV than I usually watch in a year. The next few I still couldn’t drive but I felt well enough to move around a bit without throwing up. So, . . . . .

I crocheted (!) a string bag:

I finished knitting a shawl that I recently designed (pattern soon):

I swatched for another new shawl design:

I knit a felted bag, which still needs straps:

I started a sweater:

I started another sweater:

I read a book:

I read another book:

When I felt considerably better, I spun some amazing silk that Laurie sent me:

Oh, and Paula, I watched my tomatoes, get bigger:

After that, I was exhausted so I marked all my Bloglines feeds as “read.”

Ahhh, so many feeds . . . so little time.

I recently obtained a copy of Kathleen Taylor‘s new book, I Heart Felt, to review. The book was released for purchase today (2/19/2008) so you should be seeing it at your LYS shortly.

The book is a follow-up to Knit One, Felt Too, Kathleen’s book of easy-to-knit felted projects. The projects in this new book are a bit more advanced but there’s really no project that couldn’t be tackled successfully by an adventurous knitter of any skill level. That’s mostly because Kathleen’s instructions are incredibly clear and concise. She’s packed a lot of information and tips into the book and I really appreciate her unambiguous, straight-forward writing style. Even a new knitter shouldn’t have any trouble following her detailed instructions. And because felting is so forgiving, the projects would provide excellent practice for the more advanced techniques Kathleen uses in the designs like intarsia, stranded colorwork, and cables. In addition, there’s an excellent section on needle felting; Kathleen explains in detail how to add needle-felted embellishments to your finished projects.

Plus, the projects are just so dang cute.

I showed the book to a couple of friends and we all decided this bag was a must-knit:

There’s also a nice felted Christmas stocking and some whimsical projects for children including this cute set:

I also appreciate that Kathleen has used yarns that are widely available and reasonably priced. Most of the projects call for Cascade 220 or Knit Picks yarns. So the projects are very affordable to make. I enjoyed the book and think it’s a good resource for patterns, information, and inspiration.