Knitters have amazing powers

Neil Gamon wrote a dark children's story called Coraline about a little girl who discovers an alternate version of her life through a secret passage. The story is being made into a 3D stop animation movie, which I am really looking forward to seeing. Here is a trailer to watch if you are interested:



The group creating this movie at Laika impressively crafted everything by hand. They are also creating a buzz around the movie by sending out mystery boxes to bloggers they admire. I found out about because Amy at knitty.com received a Coraline mystery box (number 8 our of 50 handmade personalized boxes). You can see the contents here.

However, I am writing this blog to point you to a short video about the creation of tiny knitted sweaters used in this movie. Go here and type in the code: sweaterxxs

amazing.

It's been a while

Hello Internet Friends. It has been a while. I have been very busy with work and traveling. I have to say that this time in Finland has been very productive for me. I like my boss, and I think his work style is very good for me. He checks in a lot, which keeps me moving forward in my projects.

Anyway, I traveled to the Netherlands two weeks ago for the annual meeting of 'Dutch People for Antagonizing Americans Named Brooke' meeting. I was a fruitful meeting. Oh, I also saw my mom and my stepdad while I was there. We had a great time biking around, eating yummy food, visiting castles, watching the 7 up series, working puzzles, listening to podcasts, and shopping! I would normally post photos of the castle now, but they are on my laptop and I am at work. :( I will try to do that tonight.

The Saturday after returning from the Netherlands, I took a trip out to an old farmhouse with the Oulu knitting group. Man, that was a fun trip. The farmhouse is now a store:



It is a store with walls and walls of yarn!! yay!!




I bought some shiny silver yarn to make mittens and a hat for myself. It was a great outing. I got to see the country-side. We had coffee and sandwiches while we chatted. I met some really nice people. I have to say that knitters rock!








After our outing, I biked home and stopped every few hundred feet to look and take pictures of the trees. Fall is a beautiful time.







After all that fun, I had to put my nose to the grindstone at work. I'm frantically filling out job applications and fellowships in hopes of getting one. I've been watching the economy collapse with a mixture of fear and awe. I've also been wondering how I am going to carry all my yarn back to the states.

While I was in the Netherlands, my mother bought beautiful wool yarn for me to make a sweater that I like. It is a birthday gift. I've started the sweater (I will post pictures later), and I'm falling in love with it already. But, it is a thick sweater. I'm going to have to dump my books and other clothes to bring this sweater home. But, it will be worth it.

Speaking of birthdays, tomorrow I turn 34! huzah! Patrick and I will probably go out to eat and enjoy the Irish Festival going on downtown. It should be fun.

Well, this blog was a lot longer than I had intended. But, it has been a while.

The United Nations of Knitting.

Thank God for the interweb -- the evil creature that sucks away my life and gives me a life all at the same time. As I mentioned before, I am a member of Ravelry, which is an awesome community of knitters and crocheters. I did a people search for Oulu, Finland and up popped 2 pages of people. yay!

I picked an avatar I liked (Marika) and e-mailed her asking for locations of good yarn shops with my fingers crossed. She was so friendly and immediately took me under her wing. I am so grateful. I had no idea how I was going to find shops or fellow knitters since I am too shy to approach people in English.

Well, the knitting group here seems large and lively. We had an impromptu gathering yesterday at Sanna's house. I am kicking myself for not taking a photo, but I did forget. We sat in the garden with a beautiful spread of cake, cookies, tea, and coffee. A total of 9 of us ( and two wee ones ) sat in a sunny garden and knitted away. I am in between projects right now, so I didn't really have anything to work on. I fiddled with my yarn a bit while I chatted and admired everyone's skills.

I have to say that I think I will be learning a lot from these ladies. They have mad skills and make BEAUTIFUL socks and mittens and cowls and sweaters. I was, honestly, pretty embarrassed about my knitting level in comparison. I tend to make silly toys and big goofy scarves. But, I look at it as an opportunity to learn from some experienced knitters. And the best part of it all was that I really felt like I clicked with them. They were very chatty and made a big effort to include me into the conversations. I am looking forward to the next meeting.

The Hallow-Holy Crap!

I finished the Hallowig. If you recall, it is supposed to look like this:


Mine was too small and pretty hideous. I never bother to check my gauge, so I usually knit objects smaller and much tighter than necessary.

You probably shouldn't look directly at it, but here it is if you are curious. I forced Patrick to model it for me. Enjoy at your own risk:



P.S. The string is hanging there b/c I didn't have the strength in me to weave in the ends. Why bother, hunh? lol.

The Family Circus

I've been procrastinating all day. The sky is clear and blue. The temperature is perfect, but I am sitting inside wishing I were out there. :( So, instead of working, I have been looking for knitting patterns. I've finally picked up the knitting needles again. woo hoo! I'm falling in love with knitting all over again.

I'm almost done knitting the Hallowig I started a looong time ago. It looks like this: And the pattern can be found on the Knitty website

I will post a photo once I am done. It looks like I knitted it a little too small. Maybe I will send it to my sister and force her to put it on my nephew for a laugh. That's mean, but we have to have some photos to torture him with when he's a stinky teenager.

Anyway, I am so close to being done that I am already looking for my next pattern. I am a member of an awesome knitting website called Ravelry. I have found so many patterns for adorable toys, hats, mittens, scarves, etc. You name it. They've got it.

I am interested in making a Jayne hat from the TV show Firefly:


However, I have been particularly interested in knitting the geekier patterns such as

crocheting the Lorentz manifold from a paper from Bristol University website. I think this might be a cool gift for my stepdad.

Another idea is to take a word or phase and convert it to binary code. Binary code can be translated into a knitting pattern by using purl for 0 and knit for 1. This way, you can knit a secret message into your scarf. I like that idea.

Or I could just these socks from Knitty

You wouldn't believe the cute patterns they have on Ravelry. hmm. Maybe you would believe it. Do you even care about knitting? lol. Sorry if you don't. I am just so excited to have the time to knit again. I didn't list nearly all the patterns I'd like to make. Others include the Bender Bending Rodriguez doll, sushi, a mushroom, a wonder woman sweater (way out of my league), and Shaun the Sheep from Wallace and Grommit.

So, why is this blog titled 'The Family Circus'? Because during my search for patterns, I ran across this Funny Cartoon poking fun at the family circus: It's funny to me b/c everyday as I lock the house, I step back inside to check that the coffee maker is off. I know it is off. When I turn it off I say to myself 'see, you turned it off. So, no need to check when you leave'. However, standing at the door, I am no longer certain I didn't say that yesterday. woo hoo...dontcha just LOVE developing OCD tendencies?! I don't! :D

Ok, back to work...

The hate scarf

I finally finished Patrick's skull scarf. Patrick would hear my plans for new baby blankets, "touch and feel" books, and quilts. He would look at me and ask "You will start those after finishing my scarf right?"

I would look at him with disbelief in my eyes and think, "seriously? You are going to pressure me to finish your stupid scarf? It's only been a couple of years since I started. geeezlouise."

So, I'd pick it up with exaggerated, loud sighing, and I would start working. It has since been dubbed the hate scarf. I call it that with love b/c I really like the result. It is a cute little scarf, and Patrick seems to like it too.