Slow making

Over the past years, this blog has been focusing on showcasing my new designs. But every once in a while, a designer needs a holiday. And what else would I do on my spare time but knit with someone else's patterns? So I made a sweater. But to talk about this sweater, we need to go back in time about three years. You see, this is no ordinary sweater but my very first handspun sweater.

What: 2-ply, 1580 m / 370 g, sport weight

How: My trusty Majacraft Rose

From: Pirtin Kehräämö Finnish wool

Some of you might remember how back in December 2018, I visited Pirtin kehräämö mill for a tour. I marveled the journey from wool to yarn on those big mechanig spinning machines. And then, I saw something gorgeous: a 2 kg bale of the most beautiful pale light grey wool. It was a mix of Finnish wool, meaning it's probably a mix of Finnsheep and Kainuu grey. And at that moment, I decided it was about high time I would finally spin myself a sweater quantity!

Fast forward 2.5 years and I was done with the spinning part. It did take a fair amount of time. When it comes to spinning, I tend to have long breaks in between and then do a lot of spinning over a single weekend. I was a bit nervous how far my patience would go with spinning a basically colorless fiber for an entire sweater quantity. Slowly but surely I did it! For me, the most natural weight to spin is fingering weight. So I had to make a conscious effort to spin a bit heavier plies and also keep the twist loose enough to get a soft sweater. I'm so happy I managed both goals.

What: Journey / Alicia Scheider

How: Circular needles 3.25 and 3.5 mm

From: Own handspun on my Majacraft Rose, 370 g

So I finally finished the yarns this spring and in the beginning of May, I casted on for a sweater. I had already decided this would be holiday knitting so I spent hours rummaging through Ravelry for the perfect pattern. I ended up with two options and asked Hubby to decide for me. To my surprise, I realized both options were worked bottom up but oh well. Let's just go with the flow. 

I prefer working lace over cables any day but I really wanted to use this yarn for a cabled sweater. I was already dreaming of cold dark nights at the summer cabin, wrapping myself in my brand new sweater.

The design of this sweater is just gorgeous. It's worked bottom up and both the front and back are adorned with identical cables. The difference only comes when shaping the neckline. The hem has a little slit and the edge stitches were worked with a neat i-cord.

The sleeves have cables as well, and these wonderful, long cuffs that go all the way to your fingertips. That's just how I like my sleeves. You can always fold over the cuffs if you need the get them out of the way but I love that you can wear them long to keep your fingers warm.

I started the sweater in early May with the intention that there was no hurry to finish. This would be holiday knitting, something to work on when I don't have anything more pressing on my needles. Needless to say, I got carried away with the joy of knitting and couldn't stop. So in the end, I finished the sweater in July.

I already bound off my stitches once and even wove in the ends. I spent a while thinking about the neckline. The pattern instructed to work the neckline ribbing with two threads and a small needle but I kinda wanted to have either a folded ribbing or a tall cowl neck. In the end, the yarn decided for me as it ran out.

As I was playing yarn chicken, I decided to work the ribbing as far as the yarn would stretch and then bind off sewing the stitches into place, making a folded ribbing. I almost made it, needing just a meter of scrap yarn for the last few stitches to bind off. 

As said, I already wove in all the yarn ends before trying the sweater on - only to realize my neckline wasn't working. I usually make all my sweaters top-down which makes it easy to work a folded neckline ribbing, starting with a provisional cast-on and making the fold super neat. Working bottom up, you have to bind off the folded ribbing sewing the stitches in place and for this sweater, it wasn't looking good. First of all, the neckline ended up being too loose and my bind-off was looking a bit wonky and bumpy.

So I gave up and admitted I would have to spin one more skein as the tall cowl neck would be a better solution. It didn't take too much time to spin another 200 meters but it really made a huge difference with the sweater. I got myself a nice, tall cowl neck which looks absolutely beautiful on this pullover.

Knitters are typically cast in two categories: there are process knitters that love the process of knitting and then there are project knitters that are looking forward to the finished garment. I'm more of a project knitter myself. Don't get me wrong, I always need to have a wip on my needles and I love the process of knitting but after a couple of rounds, my thoughts are already on the finished sweater. This slow make taught me a lot about patience. The project took almost three years altogether and forced me to embrace the slowness of it all. And I did. And would you just look at the gorgeous sweater I got in the end!

Heinä

Feels very appropriate to kick off July with a new cowl pattern named after the month. I Finnish, July is called Hay Month and heinä means hay in Finnish.

What: Heinä / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.0 mm

From: nurja linen mix, 100 g

One of the best things about working as a knitwear designer is when I get to do collaborations with others. Early this year, two Finnish podcasters from Villapesuohjelma asked me and my friends from nurja yarn shop to take part in their year-long knitting challenge for July. We agreed that a new yarn base and a design for said yarn would be in order and got to work. And that's how this July-inspired cowl begun.

I'm known for the fact that I love to work with warm wool no matter the weather but every once in a while I fall in love with summery yarns as well - which is what happened with nurja's new linen mix yarn base. It's a mix of alpaca, linen and silk, and these light-weight fibers make for a lovely shine and drape - perfect for a summer cowl. My friends from nurja offered me two kits to play with and I surprised both myself and them by forgoing my usual uncolors and choosing this bright neon peach for my sample cowl!

Heinä is a cowl with fun funnel shape. It's wider at the bottom and narrows as it gets to the top. It's a lovely combination of simple stripes and three lace patterns, changing the color for each.

I used up exactly 50 grams of each color so I could easily use the leftovers for another one. Wouldn't it be fun to reverse the colors for a second cowl?

You can find the pattern on Ravelry, PayHip and Lovecrafts. Also, nurja is offering kits with both the yarn and the pattern. And if you're fluent in Finnish, check out the new episode of Villapesuohjelma for mine and nurja's interview and all the details of their July challenge.

Höyhen

If my inspiration at the moment is flying somewhere in the cable skies of next winter, last autumn I was still all about stranded knitting. When designing for a magazine, the path from an idea to the printed magazine is a long one so this sweater that was just published in the Finnish craft magazine, Taito, was on my needles last autumn.

What: Höyhen / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Kettu Yarns Highland Wool + Silk Mohair, 88 + 50 g

It's always fun to do designs for magazines as they usually offer a nice mood board for inspiration. The theme for this issue of Taito was birds. I was very much in the stranded knitting zone and immediately came up with this idea of a round yoke covered in feathers. (Höyhen means feather in Finnish.)

The pullover is worked with wool but it's a cropped design with these teeny tiny cuffs for sleeves so it's a surprisingly light-weight sweater - perfect layering piece over a summer dress. 

In addition to the feather pattern on the yoke, the sweater has corrugated ribbing on the neckline, cuffs and hem, and a simple lice pattern on the body. This design uses short rows to shape the back of the neck and bust dart so it's easiest to duplicate stitch the lice pattern over those rows. Of course, you could always work the body in just the main color - which is what some of my test knitters did.

One especially fun aspect of this design were the yarns I chose. I used a lovely fingering weight Kettu Yarns Highland wool for the main color but then had a lace weight mohair silk for the contrast. That one, I held double to keep the same gauge. The contrast color mohair silk gives the design a beautiful fluffy surface.

At the moment, the pattern is available in the Finnish craft magazine, Taito. Once the rights revert back to me in autumn, I'll offer the pattern also in English over on Ravelry, PayHip and Lovecrafts. The last three photos are courtesy of Taito magazine.

Matta

At the end of last year, when we agreed on a collaboration with Tukuwool, I knew right away what I wanted to design first. I had this image in my mind of a beautiful lace cardigan in their Kainuugrey wool, Tukuwool Harmas.

What: Matta / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Tukuwool Harmas, 255 g

Harmas is spun from a Finnish landrace, Kainuugrey, which is softer than the more common Finnsheep. Even though the yarn is very soft, it still has this rustic feel to it and I thought it would be fun to juxtaposition that with a delicate lace.

Matta has an all-over lace pattern and a round yoke. The yoke increases are cleverly hidden among the lace. 

The neckband, cuffs and hem are worked in twisted ribbing. The back of the neck is shaped with short rows during the neckband. This way you don't have to worry about short rows messing up the lace pattern.

The cardigan gets its neat finished look from the lovely roundness of tubular cast-on and Italian bind-off. They require a bit of work but are well worth the effort.

Matta is a very romantic design. Not only for the lace but also because of the shape of the cardigan. I for one love a cropped cardi or a pullover that has positive ease elsewhere but a close-fitting hem that sits on the natural waist.

The sleeves are super simple as all sleeve decreases are worked only just before the cuffs. This way you don't have to worry about the decreases messing up the lace pattern.

Mystery awaits

For the past three years, August has been the time for my mystery shawl knit-a-long and this year is no different. This year's shawl is called Kajo which in Finnish means the first rays of sun peeking in the horizon. ⁠

Kajo is a playful shawl but I can’t really tell you more at this point as it is a mystery. The pattern comes with helpful guides on how much yarn you should have left after certain points and schematics to show the direction each section is worked in.

The clues will be released as follows:

1st clue, August 6th
2nd clue, August 7th
3rd clue, August 8th
4th clue, August 9th
5th clue, August 11th
6th clue, August 13th
7th clue, August 15th
8th clue, August 18th
9th clue, August 21st
10th clue, August 25th
11th clue, August 29th
12th clue, September 3rd

Now, if the MKAL kicks off in August then why am I talking about it already in May? A big part of the fun of a shawl MKAL for me is to set up a collaboration with a talented dyer to offer you beautiful yarn kits dyed especially for the shawl. The kits have been popular and we usually run out of a certain kit quickly but it's always so difficult to try and guess which one is going the be your favorite each time. So this year, we're doing things a bit differently: we are going to set up pre-orders so we will be able to offer more of the popular kits. There will still be an upper limit to how many kits can be dyed but this will help us to adjust things a bit and offer more of the most popular kits. 

The pre-orders for the Kajo MKAL yarn kits will go live in my web shop on Thursday May 13th at 8 pm Helsinki time (GMT+3). And before that, on Thursday at 4 pm Helsinki time, I'll do an IG live with this year's dyer where we will chat about the dyeing process and show you the yarn kits. I'm so excited for it all! I hope you'll join us for the live.

Anyone ordering a kit will receive the MKAL pattern for free. The kits will be shipped in early July and the first clue for the shawl will be released on August 6th. A little tip for everyone living outside of Finland: the shipping costs to most countries are the same up to 3 kg so if you haven't ordered Strands of Joy or 52 Weeks of Shawls yet, this would be a great time to do so. We've also finally got the shipping costs a bit lower when shipping abroad.

Of course, you can join the MKAL with stash yarn as well. This year, you will need three skeins of fingering weight yarn. Colors 1 and 2 should be a fade from light to dark and color 3 a pop color with good contrast to the first two. As many people are unable to use Ravelry, this year the MKAL pattern is also available on PayHip. I was very happy to find a way to send out update message to customers over there too so you should be receiving an email about each clue as they're updated no matter where you buy the pattern from.

You can find Kajo on Ravelry and PayHip.

Intertwined

Most of the time, I crave for challenges in my knitting and when it comes to yarn, untreated woolly wool is my favorite. But sometimes, you long for something simple and good old merino. That's what happened with this pullover.

What: Intertwined (Rav link) / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.5 and 3.75 mm

From: WalkCollection Merino Sport, 315 g

Intertwined sweater got its name from the cables winding down from shoulders to cuffs. They get their fun texture from garter stitch.

The sweater is relaxed and boxy. It's got long sleeves and no waist shaping. 

The cables get to truly shine as the sweater is worn with the purl side out. But fear not! All in-the-round parts are worked on the WS with just endless knitted stitches so no need to worry about purling.

The sweater starts with working two shoulder straps that you then pick up stitches from to work the back and front separately until you reach the undearm. From then on, the work is joined in the round.

My favorite thing about the design is how even though the body and sleeves are worked in different directions (as usual), the cables run seamlessly down from shoulders to sleeves.

As always, you can find the pattern on all my platforms: Ravelry, PayHip, and Lovecrafts. And I'm happy to tell you that it's time for my Spring Sale! Right now on Rav and PayHip, you can get Intertwined and ALL my self-published patterns for 25% discount with the code SPRING2021. The code is valid for the next two weeks, all the way to Sunday May 9th.

Lohtu

Today, I've finally got to publish this little cardigan pattern I know many have been waiting ever since autumn.

What: Lohtu / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.0 and 3.75 mm

From: Kässäkerho Pom Pom Suoma Single, 330 g

Quite often, especially on social media, knitting is presented as a happy-go-lucky hobby where everything is always relaxing and wonderful. But wool has another side to it: it can soak in your sorrows and carry them for you, making the burden just a little lighter for you. You can knit memories into your projects and they will forever hold the tears shed while knitting them (and happy memories too, of course).

Not all knit designs have been inspired by rainbows and unicorns. This cardigan was born out of the necessity to have a soft woolly armour between myself and life. I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of having the crappiest day and walking into a yarn shop with the idea of buying some comfort yarn. Last summer, we visited Kässäkerho Pom Pom in Kuopio and I was in dire need of comfort yarn. I knew that only airy and fluffy Finnsheep would do the trick so I walked out with a handful of Suoma Single that I knitted into this Lohtu cardigan. The name lohtu means comfort or solace in Finnish.

Lohtu is a wonderful warm but airy and light cardigan. It has a round yoke and most of the cardigan is two-color brioche. Only the neckband, button bands and cuffs are garter stitch.

The shaping of this cardigan is so simple: the short row shaping for the back of the neck is done during the garter stitch neckband and all other shaping is done during the yoke with really simple brioche increases.

The sleeves are long and wide. All sleeve shaping is done with gathering the sleeves just before the garter stitch cuffs. The body is straight with no shaping. The body is bound off using Italian bind-off. If you're unfamiliar with the technique, I have a tutorial video on my profile highlights on IG.

Lohtu is a special cardigan since if you weave in your ends carefully, this is actually reversible. You could wear it either way if you sew buttons on both sides. And as it's two-color brioche, the wrong side and right side are different colors!

I've been waiting a long time to publish this pattern because the pandemic has messed with base yarn production around the world and we've been waiting for Kässäkerho Pom Pom to get more Suoma Single. But today, I've finally released the pattern for Lohtu and Pom Pom is having a Suoma Single update in their webshop! Use the code COMFORT to get Lohtu pattern with 15% discount until April 18th. The code works on both Ravelry and PayHip. You can find the pattern on Lovecrafts too.