Hohde

Feels like it was ages ago when I started designing a sweater for the Christmas edition of Taito magazine. And it is - I cast on a year ago in December! But this week, finally, the magazine is being delivered to subscribers and I get to share this design with you all.

What: Hohde / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.0 and 3.5 mm

From: Aara Koto, 366 g

It's always fun to write patterns for magazines, especially when they offer a theme or a mood board to give you inspiration. The theme for the Christmas magazine was 'together' and I immediately started thinking about sweater that would have a certain ease to it. Something that is really comfortable to wear that you don't have to think about. But also something stylish enough to worn on Christmas.

I had decided on a relaxed pullover and wanted to use Finnish yarn - preferably not only dyed here in Finland but also using Finnish wool for the yarn base. My wish was easily granted as I realised the Aara Yarn (sport weight, 100% Finnish wool) yarn had the exact colors as the magazine mood board. Also, I'm pretty sure you've seen how into stranded knitting I've been lately so it was a no brainer that this one would be a colorwork yoke sweater.

So there you have it: Hohde is a stylish pullover with a stunning colorwork yoke. The sweater is worked top down and it has long sleeves. The body of the sweater has a slight A-line shape, making it super comfortable to wear. There's a little piece of the yoke colorwork repeated just before the hem ribbing.

The yoke design is an abstract fan pattern but it reminds me of a fantastical peacock with gold dust in its tail feathers. The sweater uses three colors and there are couple rounds using all three at the bottom of the yoke but I promise you they're well worth the effort.

One of my favorite details in this design is the folded ribbing at the neckline. It gives such a neat finishing touch. The neckline, hem and cuffs are all worked in twisted ribbing.

I love to photograph knits in places where the background has the same color scheme as the knit but this time we really hit the jackpot with this tunnel. The graffiti not only mirrors all the colors in the sweater but also my jeans top - and even in the same order! It's almost as if someone had painted the concrete with my sweater in mind.

Hohde sweater is featured in the Christmas edition of TAITO magazine in Finnish but the pattern will be available as an individual download (and in English) in spring 2021.

Some of the photos are courtesy of the talented producer, Sonja, from TAITO magazine.

Kvartsi

Since the book project that started back in January and the MKAL which ate up my time in the summer, I've been busy all through August. I remember thinking to myself over the summer that I would gladly give up half a kingdom to get some time to just knit socks. Luckily, that day came eventually -  oh, how I enjoyed the simplicity of a pair of socks.

What: Kvartsi / Own pattern
How: Circular needle 2.25 mm
From: nurja merino sock, 46 g

Couple years ago, I made the most wonderful pair of socks. They had this amazing green shade and a beautiful pattern. But the most wonderful thing about them was the fact that they were ankle high which made them the perfect summer socks to wear with sneakers. I loved those socks. And then, I lost them! I can't even blame it on laundry elves as I lost both socks.

Then finally, I quit crying over spilled socks and realized that as a nifty knitter I could probably make myself a new pair - this time writing a pattern of my own. That's how Kvartsi socks came to be.

Kvartsi socks are worked cuff-down and they start off with a sweet picot edge. The instep has a beautiful but easily memorized lace on them. The socks have French heels and the heel flaps are both pretty and durable thanks to slipped stitches.

The pattern is written for ankle high socks but the leg can easily be worked taller.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry, PayHip ja Lovecrafts. And since I'm taking part in a Finnish virtual craft fair this weekend, you can get these socks and all my accessory patterns for 15% discount today using the code PIPOPERJANTAI.

Entanglement

In just couple of years my annual mystery knit-a-long has turned into a tradition. And now, it's time to reveal this year's shawl.

What: Entanglement / Own pattern
How: Circular needle 3.75 mm

From: nurja bfl, 278 g

For me, the main thing about designing an MKAL is to keep the knitters guessing. You will quickly loose the mystery in a mystery knit-a-long if you can easily guess that this designer always comes up with this kind of shawls. My first MKAL, Shake It Up was about fun ways to mix colors and last year, Hummingbird was all about directions to knit in. Since the first two MKALs had brioche and garter stitch in them it was high time to do something completely different.

I had this idea of an overtly romantic lace shawl already back in January but a little book project kept me busy all spring. In the end, I did manage to find the time to design this mystery shawl.

Entanglement shawl is worked in three colors and it consists of 13 sections worked in 7 different lace patterns. The sections are worked in different directions and at the beginning, it can be very difficult to see how it will look once finished. The different lace sections are separated by a little eyelet stripe.

The shawl starts off with something extra special as the first two lace sections are worked with two colors as intarsia. But fear not, I've made a tutorial video over on Instagram.

Once the main body of the shawl is finished, there are about a million stitches to pick up from the lower edge of the shawl to work a lace border with short rows. Finally, the romantic vibe of the shawl is topped off with a picot bind off. 

The shawl has an unusual shape this time. It's not a triangle shawl, nor a crescent. Or, it's kind of a crescent but angular. And the five bottom angles can have tassels added to them at the end - because, you know, tassels!

We found the perfect backdrop to photograph this romantic shawl. Mom's friend let us use her allotment garden and the scent of flowers was intoxicating.

I hope you had fun working on this romantic lace shawl. Next year's mystery will be something completely different, yet again.

Mine, finally

Last fall, I got my hands on a wonderful skein of Tukuwool Harmas. The Kainuugrey (a Finnish landrace) wool was rustic and soft at the same time. It had to turn into something extra special, and so it did: I combined the Kainuugrey yarn with some mohair/silk and designed a beautiful brioche hat that I named 'Yours, always'. It just so happened that the beanie fit my sister so well I had no other choice than to gift it to her.

What: Yours, always / Own pattern
How: Circular needle US 2 (2.75 mm)
From: Tukuwool Harmas + ITO Sensai, 25 + 21 g

It took a year but now I finally have one for my own use as well. The end of the summer took a crappy turn in my personal life and for the longest time I felt the need to buy myself happy at my LYS. I was feeling so low that none of the yarns were speaking to me and I was having a hard time finding some comfort yarn. Finally, I got to the shelf of those candy-like ITO mohair/silks. And suddenly it was clear what I wanted to make - the beanie that got away!

Yours, always hat is a combination of two completely different yarns: a woolly, Kainuugrey that is used as the main color of the brioche and forms the top knit stitches of the pattern, and delicate, lace weight mohair/silk that's used for the bottom purl stitches of the brioche pattern. It makes the inside of the hat like a soft, fluffy cloud.

Since the Kainuugrey yarn is sport weight and the mohair/silk lace weight, you need to use three strands of the latter. You could, of course, use three strands of the exact same mohair/silk but it's much more fun to create your own colors combining three different colors of mohair/silk.

I'm always fascinated by how the fluffy mohair/silk determines the color of the entire garment. Last year's hat had dark brown and grey mohair/silks that painted my sister's beanie kind of a brownish purple in my eyes. For my hat, I chose pale, colorless mohair/silks: white, beige and a pale mint green. Uncolors aren't for everyone but I for one adore how my chosen mohair/silks kinda seemed to render this beanie entirely colorless. I see many different shades in this beanie but no color - and I love it.  

The hat is mostly simple two-colored brioche but it's decorated with a beautiful leaf pattern made with just increases and decreases. I finished the hat in just couple days and it was just what the doctor ordered. Oh boy, how fun it was to work on an old pattern for once. Just for fun.

You can find the pattern in three different places: Ravelry, Lovecrafts and PayHip.

MKAL 2020

This year's MKAL shawl is called Entanglement. It's a mystery shawl so be prepared for anything. 

Choose your favorite fingering weight yarn in three colors, one skein each. I'd recommend choosing two colors that are somewhat close to each other and let the third one be a color pop with good contrast to the first two. Speckles, semisolids and solids will work well for this shawl.

Entanglement MKAL will kick off in August. The pattern is now available on Ravelry and yarn kits are coming to my web shop on Friday 10 a.m. (GMT+3, Helsinki time). If you buy a yarn kit you will get the pattern for free.⁠ The pattern comes in three languages: English, German and Finnish.
 

There are a total 13 clues which will be released every couple days, varying depending on how much knitting there is in each clue.⁠

Clue 1: August 7th⁠
Clue 2: August 10th⁠
Clue 3: August 12th⁠
Clue 4: August 14th⁠
Clue 5: August 15th⁠
Clue 6: August 16th⁠
Clue 7: August 18th⁠
Clue 8: August 20th⁠
Clue 9: August 23rd⁠
Clue 10: August 27th⁠
Clue 11: August 28th⁠
Clue 12: August 31st⁠
Clue 13: September 4th⁠

Will you be joining us this year? Any guesses on the shawl based on this year's logo?⁠

 

This year I teamed up with nurja for the yarns. I had so much fun coming up with three mood boards for them to dye three different kits of three colors each. You'll see the yarns on Friday but I can already tease you with the names of the three themes: Creamy Romance, Glow in the Dark and Summer Boogie. I'm excited to see which one you like most. If you've been following me for a while, it will be no surprise that Creamy Romance is the one I'm making my sample with.⁠

You can join the MKAL discussion threads on Ravelry and use the tags #entanglementmkal #wwokmkal on Instagram.

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.

Eazy

I have a tendency to go for the more challenging knitting projects. However, this time I challenged myself to design something mellow and easygoing. And here's the result.

What: Eazy / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 4.0 mm

From: John Arbon Textiles Viola DK, 390 g

Since I wanted to design a relaxed and easy cardigan I kept the silhouette simple. The cardigan starts off by casting on shoulder stitches for the back. There's no neckline shaping at the back or front. The shoulders are shaped with short rows. The back and fronts are worked separately to the underarms and then the rest of the body is worked in one piece. The cardigan comes with waist shaping.

Since the silhouette is so simple I had to add a little something to keep me interested. So the cardigan got this amazing brioche braid at the center of the back. The braid is worked in one-color brioche with simple increases and decreases. It looks intricate but is quite easy to work and the pattern comes with both a chart and written instructions.

The brioche continues at the front edges, the hem and the cuffs - though without the braid pattern. You can use any stretchy bind off but I really recommend trying out Italian bind off. It gives the most beautiful finishing touch to brioche. If you're not familiar with the technique I've made a little tutorial video on my Instagram highlights.

The pattern is now available on Ravelry and it comes with sizes XXS-XS-S [M1-M2-L1-L2] XL-2XL-3XL-5XL with finished bust circ. 39.25-72'' / 98-180 cm. Use the code BRAID to get 20% discount. The code is valid through April 22nd.

buy now

The yarn was new to me. I fell hard for it at Edinburgh Yarn Fest and promised to design something special for it. It's a DK weight soft merino yarn from the British spinning mill, John Arbon Textiles. And the best part are the gorgeous heathered colors. I especially love this warm yellow called English Mustard. John Arbon were kind enough to offer a discount code for the pattern launch so in case you would like to try out the Viola DK, you can use the code EAZYCARDILOVE in their webshop to get 10% discount. The yarn discount is valid through April.