Monday dress

I don't often write about my sewing projects but this project was so lovely I just have to share it with you.

What: Monday dress / Kässäkerho Pom Pom
How: Serger and sewing machine
From: Kässäkerho Pom Pom's linen fabrics

The lovely Finnish LYS, Kässäkerho Pom Pom, has nicely started to offer sewing stuff in addition to yarn. They have beautiful linen fabrics and Merchant & Mills patterns. And at the craft fair last November, they released the very first own pattern, the Monday dress. I ran to their booth as soon as the doors opened so I wouldn't miss it.

In addition to the pattern, I bought light blue linen with their own print, Iltapäivä. I pondered for a while should I take this or the pink one. I had seen their own version on Instagram which had a color block at the  hem and I had just the perfect match at home - a silver colored linen.

The dress was super easy to sew. The pattern had exactly two pieces - front and back. And there were only a few seams to sew. The neckline and sleeves were first sewn with a serger and then stitched into place.

I wanted to copy the color block hem so that was one extra seam to sew. I wanted to modify the dress to have pockets as well. I could've just inserted pockets at the side seams but the color block hem was screaming hidden pockets.

I wondered for a while if it could really be this simple and easy and thought this way might lead into some puckering but it turned out so neat! I cut the pattern at the hem and cut the hem from the other fabric. For the front, I added pockets to both the top and the hem (15 x 19 cm). Next time I'll make them a bit bigger and a bit closer to the sides.

All I did to make the pockets was to seam the front top and hem together following the pocket shapes. A bit of ironing made them look neat and finished - and they really are well hidden unless you're like me and hold your hands in them all the time. I shortened the hem a bit and also made the fold bigger than in the instructions to get a good length for myself.

I just love the dress. It's loose and comfy, yet it drapes beautifully and looks flattering on my body. And the best part was how easy it was to make.

Aarni

Aarni means old-growth forest in Finnish - and it's also the name of my new pattern. Knitting at its best can give you clarity and peace of mind so let this sweater lead you through old-growth forests and help you find yourself a quiet spot.

What: Aarni / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.25 and 3.75 mm

From: lanitium ex machina Suomenlammas (Finnsheep), 402 g

As a knitter, I'm always on a look out for new yarns. Last fall, at a knitting retreat I found one! A Finnish indie dyer, lanitium ex machina, had a new yarn base with her. It was glorious Finnsheep lamb's wool. Could there be anything better? And the colors were beautiful. We made a deal and I got to take four skeins with me to design a sweater. So here it is!

The yarn was so lovely and woolly that I wanted to design something pretty simple for it. The kind of sweater you can put on every morning without a thought. I started thinking about a raglan sleeved sweater with some stitch pattern in the front.

Aarni is worked top down seamlessly. First, you'll work the neckband ribbing with few short rows to give the neckline a little depth. After that, it's raglan increases and cables in the front.

I wanted to add a bit of interest for the sleeves so they have a sparse eyelet pattern in them. It's just enough to keep things interesting but happens only every few rows to not mess with your flow. The back is plain stockinette stitch.

The sleeves are 3/4 length and the cuffs and hem have a litttle ribbing. The sweater is meant to be oversized so I recommend choosing a size with about 8''/20 cm positive ease at the bust.

You can find the pattern in my Ravelry store and until Monday morning you can get 20 % off with the code LAMB.

Color work practise

Last summer at the Jyväskylä summer knit festival, I saw for the first time gorgeous silver yarn guide rings by goldsmith Sanni Lehtinen. As a silver ring was a bigger purchase I wanted to think it over for a while but once I got back to her booth she had already sold them all and was packing up her things. On the next winter knit fest I was determined not miss out on the rings so I left work early to get there on time and got myself a silver yarn guide.

What: Mīlēt / Ysolda Teague

How: Circular needle 2.5 mm + yarn guide

From: Tukuwool Fingering, 55 g

Of course I had to try out my new gadget right away! Last spring at EYF, I bought Ysolda's mitten beautiful mitten pattern and it was the perfect opportunity to try out the ring. I stash dove for some Tukuwool scraps and cast on.

The stranded color work seemed smoother and faster than usual with the help of the yarn guide ring as I didn't have to constantly stop to tighten my yarns. I got as far as the thumb but I didn't have extra yarn with me to leave the thumb stitches on hold and so the mitten was left to hibernate - as was the whole project since I had already got to try out my new gadget. You know, been there, seen that, off to something new.

I get easily bored with knitting patterns which is why I almost never make the same design twice. Mittens and socks have the downside that you kinda have to make two of them. And I'm constantly looking to learn and make something new.

In June, I finally decided to fix the situation and finished the first mitten - only to start working on the second one in October. But hey, I did finish them in the end!

These are color work mitts worked in three colors. They have a folded cuff to keep your wrists warm and majority of the mitts is easy dot pattern worked in just two colors. The best part of the mitts is definitely the gorgeous star or snowflake shape at the tip of the mitts and thumbs.

Once again it happened that once I finished the mitts they started to look like they belonged to someone else - my bff. So I gave them to her for Christmas.

After the mittens, I also tried the yarn guide ring on couple other things: sport weight and lace weight yarns. I can honestly tell you that no one should punish themselves by working lace weight stranded color work. Also, this ring was best suited for fingering weight yarns and smooth sport weight yarns. Woollier, coarser sport weights might get a bit stuck and interfere with you knitting flow.

The Opadoo

In case you were wondering, I did finish all eight tentacles.

What: Lady in pink / Christelle Nihoul

How: Circular needle 2.0 mm

From: Hélène Magnusson Love Story Einband + Drops Lace, 8 + 24 g

This project didn't go as planned.

But let's start at the beginning. When I decided to challenge myself by taking part in the Opadoo challenge of Indie Design Gift-A-long I wanted to make it as easy as possible. I chose the projects for all eight categories based on difficulty and yardage. I wanted to finish the challenge fast.

So I bumbed into this fingerless mitts design that had a very low yardage. Plus the pictures on the pattern page were super sweet so I was sold. If you check out the pattern on Ravelry you'll see that I've tried to copycat those pics here. Although, the non-light of December tried to kill the mood.

So yes. The pattern has a very low yardage but I didn't stop to think that knitting lace weight mitts might not be the fastest or easiest project possible. Perhaps I'll keep it in mind next time.

Besides working with small needles and thin yarn hurting my hands the project had other problems. The way the colors change in the design looks gorgeous but it means working stranded color works with two lace weight yarns and long floats behind lace. With my chosen yarns it turned out a bit messy. It did tidy up a bit in blocking but not completely.

The next hurdle was the thumb gusset. This was my first time trying out an Indian thumb gusset that's said to fit the hands especially well. And it really does. The problem was that for the life of me I couldn't get the gusset to look right by following the pattern. Designing myself, I've come to see that most problems people have with knitting patterns is the lack of trust in the pattern. Most issues work themselves out if you just follow the pattern exactly as it is written. I tried that here so many times but finally gave up and did my own thing.

So the project wasn't a success. I have to say the biggest problem was the yarn combo I chose. The suggested yarn is single ply merino lace but I ended up using Drops Lace and Icelandic lace yarn. Both were way too thin and loose for this pattern which would look a lot better with a more plumpy yarn. Originally, I cast on with single ply finnsheep yarn but couldn't get the gauge. That's too bad because I think with that yarn I would've liked the end result much more.

Oh well, I gifted these to my dad's wife and she seemed to really love them.