Onni

The blog has been a bit silent during this strange spring. It's not because I'm not knitting and designing - quite the contrary. I've been working all spring on a color work book that Laine will publish later this year and I can't show off those knits until the book comes out. But in the midst of all that, I did find time to design this shawl.

What: Onni / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.75 mm

From: Tukuwool Hakamaa Fingering, 155 g

Tukuwool produces these wonderful special batches from local wool. When they offered this lighter than air, single-ply yarn from Kainuugrey-Rygia sheep that I've got to pet at Hakamaa farm, I of course had to knit something with it.

I cast on for this shawl before Christmas but unsurprisingly a dozen book-related color work projects have eaten up all my knitting time. I finally found a little slot in my schedule to finish the shawl and oh, what a pleasure it was to work simple garter stitch and lace for a while. Change is always so refreshing.

I named the shawl Onni, a Finnish word for happiness or luck. Happiness to me is letting the stithces slide on my needles, having a moment of peace, not having to think of anything for a moment.

Onni is an asymmetric, arrow-shaped shawl. It starts from one sharp corner, working increases on the sides and decreases in the middle. What makes this design so fun is the fact that half of the shawl is worked in squishy garter stitch and the other half is a combination of stockinette stitch, purl ridges and simple feather and fan lace.

The shawl gets its neat look from an i-cord edge all around the shawl. Don't worry, the i-cord is worked at the same time with the shawl body so no need to pick up millions of stitches in the end just to bind them off straight away. You can use the rest of the yarn to make tassels for the corners. I know, I wanted to - because tassels!

You can find Onni on Ravelry. Use the code HAPPY to get 20% discount until Sunday June 7th.

And that's not all, folks! My LYS, TitiTyy is taking part in a Finnish virtual craft fair and because of it they're offering a free Onni print to anyone purchasing Tukuwool Hakamaa Fingering to make the shawl. The offer is valid until June 7th when the virtual craft fair ends.

We're also hosting a KAL with Tukuwool over on Instagram. You can take part by tagging your shawl photos with #onnikal. The KAL ends on August 31st and, of course, we'll be giving out prizes.