Shiny Things

Here's a tip on how to keep the motivation for knitting going: get your hands on some darn pretty stitch markers! Like these gorgeous ones from Liisuuka. Obviously I gravitated towards the pink ones! I couldn't decide between the hot pink or the cotton candy pink markers, so I did what any insane knitter would do. I got both sets. Then I spotted the beautiful turquoise set (sorry, my photo does not do the colour any justice...I just can't seem to get my camera to like blues) and bonus, they were on sale! You just know I added those bad boys to my shopping cart!! I had to quickly checkout before I went too crazy and added the whole shop to my cart.

I very impatiently waited for my new stitch markers to arrive. I'm one of those people who buys something online and then expects it to arrive at my doorstep the very next day. Admit it, you're like that too. Sadly, when my package arrived in Victoria my postal worker didn't put it in my mailbox. I'm all frowny face about that. Instead my lovely stitch markers went directly to the post office. Luckily for me I've developed quite the relationship with all the ladies at my local post office, and so when one of them had spotted me at the grocery store across the street from said PO she kindly informed me that I had a package waiting for me. She and the rest of the crew were wondering when I was going to pick it up since they hadn't seen me in a few days. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad one.

Here's a geeky factoid about me: I absolutely love foreign stamps and packaging. If it weren't for the fact that I already have a few hobbies that take up a lot of my time and space (and my obsessive attention), I would totally have a stamp collection. The hoarder pack-rat sentimentalist in me didn't have the heart to recycle the envelope that my stitch markers came in so it currently sits on my dresser, propped up against a picture frame, serving as a gentle reminder that maybe one day I'll be able to return to Finland. Geeky factoid #2: I have a major soft spot for all things Finnish. Seriously. The pulla, the riisipiirakka, the architecture, the designs, the language (my favourite saying - "haluaisin poikaystävä". Not that I was looking, I just liked how it sounded), the paying the washing machine to do my laundry via mobile phone, paying for my orange Fanta at the vending machine via mobile phone, doing anything via mobile phone. Really, if it's Finnish, I'll probably love it. Ok, maybe not so much salmiakki. That's a Finnish thing I don't really care for.

Since I was Liisa's first customer I also scored a sweet little present: a handmade crochet reflector! She even made it in pink for me! How incredibly awesome is that?? Kiitos paljon Liisa!! ♥

I know a lot of you are thinking "WTF is a reflector? Do I need one? Is this a new knitting tool?". Ok, I'll admit that I'm kinda cheating here. The only reason why I even know what a reflector is and what it is for is because of my time in Finland. In my first week in Helsinki, my fellow Canadian and good friend Kat, and I had ventured out of Pasila (we were still quite jetlagged) and had stopped by an S-Market for some groceries. While at the checkout we were scoping out the section of impulse buys and had spotted a box of random gadgets that looked like they belonged on a bike. Not knowing what they were for but knew it was too cute to pass up, we each bought a little doohickey solely because it was Finnish. I'm sure our cashier judged us thoroughly by our purchases: a package of coffee, a box of tea, apples, toilet paper, a household cleaner of sorts, a scrub brush, various packages of noodles, a can of what we thought was tomato sauce (it wasn't), several Geisha bars (ok, that was just me. I think I gained at least 5 pounds just from constantly shoving Geisha bars into my face. We won't talk about the flatmate that worked at a cafe that let her take home day old pastries...let's just say we had an endless supply of pulla, cinnamon buns, and danishes...my mouth is watering at the memories), and that random thingy. We took our cool looking thing to school the next day and asked our "Finnish Mommy", Mauri, what it was. He laughed at us (he was always laughing at us...but in a good way, I think) and told us that it was a reflector for our bag. Since Finland gets dark really early in the winters it was best to practice safety in making sure we could be seen at night.

The reflectors that we had bought were Moomin themed. Mine in particular was a character called Little My, a mischevious little thing that lives with the Moomins. My Polish flatmate used to tell me that I reminded her of Little My all the time. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, but she would always tell me it's because I was always "so tiny" and hyper, and would always have a smile on my face that made me look like I was up to no good.

My Moomin reflector is still on my backpack, my new reflector is on my knitting bag, and I have cast on a new project just so that I could use one of my new lovely stitch marker set. But I'm thinking I should cast on another project just so that I can break open another set...this could be the Starteritis talking.