Finnish and Finished

If only I weren't in such a rush I'd write a lengthy comment on Finland's maternity package that every new mom receives, in addition to a maternity grant. A-L linked to it, and after I forwarded the link far and wide everyone wants to move to Finland. If I were to write such comment I'd probably mention that, as a German who cares about education, I've been in awe of the Finnish education system since 2000, when the results of the PISA study showed that Germany lagged behind Finland, Europe's #1, by a huge margin, and that my high regard for Finnish schools has led to an interest in Scandinavian social welfare in general. By no means am I an expert, but there's something the Scandinavians are doing right where the rest of us fails.

Let's transition from Finnish to finished, as in, "finished objects" (very clever, ha ha, I know). Two of those I have for you today. First, Debbie Bliss's Carryboo, made of the eleven skeins of Cashmerino (knitted double-stranded, using #8 needles) that my mom sent:

It fits nicely into the stroller, size- and color-wise. The bunting opens up five inches or so on each side, and where the pattern calls for pretty ribbons to keep the front up, I think I'll use snaps instead. Although I have the most awesome sewing machine ever (graduation present from my MIL, who is a talented seamstress) I haven't had any time yet to learn even the basics of sewing, and therefore I won't be able to line the Carryboo, as requested per pattern. My other mods: I knitted in the round until the sides open, and I used seed stitch on both sides, not just one (the pattern calls for just one opening on the right side and instructs to knit seed stitch on that side only). Carryboo is currently soaking in warm soapy water, and hopefully the front will stay down once it has dried--I don't like how the seed stitch edge on the top flaps around.

Since I finished the bunting yesterday morning I needed a quick evening project and went for a simple beanie hat (pattern by Just Jussi, mods by LundenKnits: see my project page for details and proper credit).

Nothing special, really. I used some of the Madelinetosh Tosh DK that I had left over from the Baby Surprise Jacket I made over the summer.

On to the next project, which involves photo organization, not knitting. Every time I play with my photos, either in iPhoto or on Flickr, I mess up and some photos on the blog and/or Ravelrey disappear mysteriously. Bear with me if you encounter those nasty "photo currently unavailable" messages... and do share your awesome tips on how to avoid them!