Winner!

The winner of beret's giveaway is Swtlilchick who wrote:

"My best trip was traveling to Italy.The people were friendly,
vineyards are beautiful along with the country side.We saw the roman ruins which was amazing.The food is excellent.The Alps are so
breathtaking,there is alot to see
and do.We rode in a gondilier.
This place is a must see.Thanks for the giveaway"

Please send your address to anniki.leppik@gmail.com

I will write some more about the challenge later, at the moment I need to run out, but wanted to announce the winner first :)

Etsy fashion photos

I grabbed a treasury on Etsy.
Idea to make this hit me yesterday. I was visiting Yokoo's shop and her photos were breath-taking. I was searching for hours and found some other great shoots that are suitable for making treasury.
Here it is, with alternates:



hollystalder, BoudoirQueen, oyku, momshandmade, thimblescratch, Makool, poshpanache, Ojepizi, idea2lifestyle, SCHiZO, HealingHeart and Yokoo.
Alternates: bettieB, shezzy, PINKSTARswimwear and Venomiss.

Chocolate bar with vanilla ice cream

I'm not very innovative knitter. I'm engaged to my favorite yarns and I do not experiment with new things often.
Despite of that I still make some impulsive purchases, like this Ornaghi Filati Merino Kind wool I bought for the neck warmer on the photo. And I fell in love. So soft and so comfy to knit. 2 colors- chocolate brown and white look good together, great combination in my opinion.

When I first saw that kind of neck warmers- I think it was about 1.5 years ago- I thought they're a bit odd. I couldn't imagine people wearing neck warmers, because I've always been a big fan of long scarfs.
Now I have to admit I plan to knit one for myself too, for the winter. It is much more suitable an comfortable for wearing with coat.

Funny that every year before the winter I always wonder what kind of shawls, hats and gloves I would like to wear this year, I can't imagine going out without them, when there is -10 and more degrees.
But when I was a school kid, I always hide hats and shawls to the bag after leaving home, because I couldn't stand them. Maybe because it was always my mother's choice and we didn't have exactly same taste.... I admit I'm a bit picky....

Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY IS FINISHED NOW! NO MORE NEW COMMENTS WON'T BE CONSIDERED!
Please give me a bit time for announcing the winner.

Blog giveaways seem to be popular and I decided to do it also!

One of the readers will get this beret, knitted from 100% Shetland wool. Manufacturer is Angels & Elephants, color Holly Berry. Worth $27.

The contest is open until 5th August.

If you want to take part, then leave a comment to this post and write about your favorite travel destination.
Where have you spent your holidays? Why you liked the country? Why you recommend it to other too?
I'm planning my winter holidays at the moment and it can help me to decide where to do- I'm not sure if I prefer a skiing trip or sun and beach. Convince me :)

And please, leave your e-mail address under the post!

I will pick a winner after 5th August and contact her/him personally, but announce the winner in blog also.

See you later!

I've been knitting a bit...

So many people complemented the red top and I decided to knit another. Red is made more than a year ago (I suspect even more than 2 years ago, but I'm not sure) and I wanted to be sure I still remember how it goes.
And guess what... Blue looks even better! Now I have a mannequin for trying things on while knitting and it sure helps a lot. It's much much easier to understand how long the top should be, where to increase and decrease and so on.

Now I would like to write down the pattern for this top, but I'm a bit afraid that it's too much for me. I just finished my first pattern-writing (Holly Berry fingerless gloves, will make a new blog post about it), but the top is more complicated- if I create a pattern, I should do it for different sizes.

At the moment I'm stuck with custom orders and all plans have to wait. I'm knitting some shrugs.

Basque hat finally ready

I have knitted this DROPS Basque hat I showed in last post for 4 times now.

I used different yarn (Hjertegarn Merino Silk) and needles (3.25mm) and when I cast on 120 stitches as pattern said, it came enough big for putting two heads into it.
Second time I tried with 96 stitches and it was still a little bit big.
After that I knitted this red hat with 84 stitches and now it looks perfect.

Hjertegarn Merino Silk is my new favorite yarn. It is a mix of merino (60%), silk (20%) and bamboo (29%). Very soft and easy to knit.
I have wondered for a long time about yarn preferences. When I started knitting, I used mostly acrylic yarns, because they are cheaper. Now I knit more natural yarns and the quality is more important than the price. But I think it's normal, because if you don't have much experience and the knitted things end often in the garbage pin (it happened to me more than once), then it's easier to throw away or ravel when the yarn didn't cost that much.


And some words about Slovenian yarn shops also....
I visited only one in Ljubljana, right next to the Prešeren square. It was small and the assortment was not very impressive. They sold mostly acrylic yarns and the prices were almost double than in Estonia. So I bought nothing.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to search the other 3 shops in the city.

The break is over

Hello!

My 2 months blogging break is hopefully over and I will try to bring this site to life again :)

I will fly to Slovenia, Ljubljana next Tuesday and my yarn addiction wouldn't let me to visit the city without finding the yarn shops.

Thanks to Ravelry I find some tips how to reach the right places.

* Centromekur is in the center of Ljubljana, right next to the Preseren square (on the picture)

* Elna is at Gosposvetska street, next to hotel Lev.

* One shop should be at Rimska street, behind the Faculty of Arts

* and in the Citipark shopping center should be a yarnshop too.

I will try to visit some of those shops, but I'm not sure if I will have time for everyone.

But after the trip I will write what I found and what I can recommend.