Incandescent

I wanted the book to include one accessory pattern as well and so this beautiful little beanie hopped onto my needles.

What: Incandescent / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 2.75 and 3.0 mm

From: La Bien Aimée Merino Singles + Snail Yarn Merino Singles, 62 g and G-uld New Zealandsk Lammull + Spincycle Yarns Dyed in the Wool, 45 g

This hat is a match for the Everything's Coming Up Roses sweater from the book.

The hat features are folded brim worked in twisted ribbing and a stunning rose colourwork which you can work with a solid colour or play around with gradient-dyed yarn.

This beanie is a really special one to me as I made my first sample with SnailYarn gradient set that were leftovers from my Utu cardigan, published on the cover of Laine Magazine issue 2 back in 2017. I'm glad I held on to those yarn ends as they make this design shine.

I designed the beanie to be a match for the rose sweater from the book and quite apptly, there were enough left overs from the sweater to use for the main colour of the hat.

I fell in love with the beanie so much that I wanted to make another one - from scraps as well! For the second beanie, I used left over yarns form Woodland cardigan and Rosehip sweater.

I never throw away left over yarns and I'm so happy every time I manage to design something that can be worked with left overs.

All the info for Incandescent can be found below. Some of the photos were taken by Laine for the book and some we snapped ourselves.

Size

M

To fit a head circumference 22’’ / 55 cm.

Yarn

La Bien Aimée Merino Singles and SnailYarn Merino Singles (100% SW merino, single ply, 366 m / 100 g), or other fingering weight yarn. Shown in colors Loam (MC) and Viridian gradient set (CC).

1 skein of MC, 1 set of CC.

Yardage

MC: 200 yrds / 180 m,

CC: 110 yrds / 100 m.

Needles

US 2 (2.75 mm) and US 2½ (3.0 mm) - 16’’/40 cm long circular needles and dpns in the bigger size for the crown decreases. Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the right gauge.

Gauge

26 sts x 37 rnds = 4x4’’ / 10x10 cm in colorwork, worked in the round, on the bigger needles (after blocking).

Other

5 stitch markers, scrap yarn, crochet hook and a tapestry needle.

 

Sandy Shores

I love it that we have a proper winter here in Finland. And what would be more appropriate for that a warm and cosy beanie?

What: Sandy Shores / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.75 mm and 4.0 mm
From: Nature's Luxury Town & Country Cashmere, 75 g

I haven't designed a hat for a while but when I fell in love with these gorgeous Nature's Luxury cashmere fade kits I knew right away that I wanted to make a new beanie. I used the Sandy fade kit for my sample - hence the name for the hat.

Sandy Shores is a sweet hat that starts off with a neat tubular cast-on. It takes a couple setup rows but gives the neatest, round cast-on edge. The pattern comes with a photo tutorial for tubular cast-on so fear not.

The hat is adorned with intricate cables and fun bobbles. And of course, a pompom! My favorite thing is that the pompom is attached with a button so you can easily remove it if you need to wash the hat or aren't feeling pompom-y some day.

In my weekly Tea Time over on Instagram, there have been lots of questions on how to make such a perfect looking pompom. There's a simple trick for that. First, I use a pompom maker. It's easier to get a full pompom with that than using a cardboard cutout. But the perfect fluffiness is achieved with a cool trick: once the pompom is finished, hold it over a tea kettle because the hot steam will make the plies of the yarn open up, giving it the perfect fluff. 

I designed the beanie in collaboration for Nature's Luxury's stunning cashmere yarn and you can find kits over on their web shop. They're offering the pattern with the kit. You can also get Sandy Shores as an individual download on Ravelry, LoveCrafts and PayHip. Use the code SANDY to get 15% discount until the end of this week.

Yours, always

Most of the time I set out planning to design something. Other times, the yarn turns into a design even without trying. Almost as if the yarn itself already knows what it ought to be knitted into. 

What: Yours, always / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 2.75 mm

From: Tukuwool Harmas + ITO Sensai + Shibui Knits Silk Cloud, 21+14+8 g

In September, I went to a weekend knitting retreat organized by my LYS. All of us got lovelyt project bag with yarn in it - a skein of Tukuwool Harmas. Harmas is a special batch of Tukuwool spun of Kainuugrey that is a Finnish landrace. Kainuugrey makes for a soft and airy yarn in a gorgeous light grey shade.

I kept looking at the skein thinking that such a special yarn needs to be knitted into something extra special. It didn't take long for some silk mohair to start whispering in my ear that they wanted to play with the new Harmas yarn.

Once I matched the yarns, I didn't really have to think while knitting. The beanie kinda manifested on its own on my needles.

So I designed this super sweet hat in luxurious yarns. Tukuwool Harmas is soft but airy and rustic. It'makes for such a fun and gorgeous combo with silk mohair.

The yarns are so different and luxurious in different ways. Two-color brioche seemed just the perfect way to combine them. I used Tukuwool Harmas for the main color on top of the brioche.

For the contrast color, I combined three different silk mohairs that make the beanie the softest ever. Three strands of silk mohair were not only the right weight but also gave endless opportunities to play with colors. I used two browns and one silver grey silk mohair. They painted the beanie into the colors of November in Finland. For the next beanie, I'll use brighter colors!

You can find the beanie pattern on Ravelry. There's also a 20% introductory discount with the code NOVEMBER. The code is valid through November 27th.

One of the best things about the pattern is how little yarn you need to make the beanie. I think I'll go stash diving in my scrap yarn basket for another one!

Xenakis

I've been in the mood for colorwork lately. It's mostly manifested as just me buying yarn for colorwork projects.

What: Xenakis / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 4.0 mm

From: Retrosaria Vovó, 41 g

One of my most recent purchases was three skeins of Retrosaria Vovó, a gorgeous, rugged non-superwash wool. The label alone was enough to get me to buy the yarn as it features this amazing tattooed knitting grandma. I had a vision for a beanie and this time the vision made it all the way onto my needles.

Xenakis is a simple and fun beanie with colorwork playing with three colors. Though, there are only few rounds with all three colors to mess up your yarns. To balance those out, there's also lots of plain vanilla stockinette stitch with just one color.

The hat is topped off with a beautiful star pattern to hide the crown decreases.

As per usual, you can find the pattern in my Ravelry store and if you use the code VOVO, you can get 25% discount during this weekend.

The yarn was new to me but I really loved it. It's woolly and rugged without being harsh. Lately, I've been concentrating on non-superwash yarns - they feel so natural.

I chose the colors to suite me and designed the beanie for myself but Hubby stole it straight away. And darn, doesn't it look better on him - as if I designed for him. I didn't but he took it anyways. I guess I'll have to make myself another one.

Tyyne and Viljo

How is already two years since I published The Girl Who Said Baa e-book? I searched for a local sheepfarm for the photoshoot of the e-book and ended up at Hakamaa sheepfarm. The knits in the e-book were all designed for Tukuwool but the owner of the farm told me they also produce yarn from their own sheep and have been working for years to get an especially beautiful sheen in their wool. It took me a couple years but I finally designed something for Hakamaa yarns. And the best thing is, I've got a batch of the yarn if you're interested. But more on that at the end of the post.

What: Tyyne / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.5 and 4.0 mm

From: Hakamaan lammastila 2ply, 50 + 65 g

Tyyne was born out of my desire to play with different textures. I've had my eye on stamen stitch for quite a while already and really wanted to try it out. In case you're not familiar with it, stamen stitch plays with purls and slipped stitches. 

I combined stamen stitch with garter stitch for the brim of the hat. It's a fairly simple beanie design except that there are two tucks at the back of the head to get the hat sit just right on your head. No sagging at the front or crunching at the back - expect of course for the tucks.

Tyyne pattern comes with two sizes and you can just get away with 50 grams of sport weight yarn for the smaller size. If you're a fan of huge pompoms it might be cutting close. I tried the hat with and without a pompom. The bigger size took 65 g of Hakamaa 2ply and the smaller one 50 g (with a pompom I added after the photoshoot, cause you know, pompoms!)

And in case you haven't seen this tip on the internet before, the best way to finish a pompom is to dangle it over boiling water. The steam opens up the plies and fluffs up the pompom.

What: Viljo / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 4.5 mm

From: Hakamaan lammastila 3ply, 67 g

I wanted a cohisive set so the DK-weight 3ply turned into matching mittens. They play with stamen stitch and garter stitch just like the hat.

In the mittens, there's a fun little 2 stitch cable forming a zig zag pattern breaking up the two textures. The thumbs are garter stitch.

I like to own at least two pairs of mittens: a fingering weight pair for use all fall and spring along, and a thicker, DK weight pair for crisp winter days when the temperature sinks below 10 celsius degrees. You could also fit lightweight gloves inside these if you need the extra warmth.

The Hakamaa sheepfarm yarns have been spun at Pirtin kehräämö (a Finnish spin mill) into sport weight 2ply and DK weight 3ply yarns. As a friend of warm and woolly things, this kind of local yarn is a true luxury to me. I also have a small batch of the yarns to sell if you're interested in trying them. My webshop only works in Finnish at the moment but if you're keen on ordering the yarn, email me and I can write you an invoice. Both yarns cost 9 € per 50 g skein and if you buy two skeins with the matching pattern the whole kit is just 19.90 €.

Fairy lights

Don't you just love those little fairy lights people hang in their gardens? In the winter they make falling snow look like fairy dust.

What: Fairy lights hat / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.0 and 3.25 mm

From: Walcot Yarn Opus (3 colors), 48 g total

A year ago, at Edinburgh Yarn Fest I fell in love with Walcot Yarns Opus. It's one of the softest yarns ever, a luxurious combination of Falkland merino ja baby alpaca. I designed my Dre cardigan with it and was excited when they asked me to design an accessories set to be released for Edinburgh Yarn Fest this year.

I wanted to use their lovely color palette better so I went for stranded color work. I envisioned hanging fairy lights, painted with yarn - and so the fairy lights chart came to life.

The hat starts off with a neat long tail tubular cast on. After the ribbing there's few rows of three-color stranded knitting to work the fairy lights chart, and then most of the hat is fairy dust worked with two colors.

But the most beautiful part is at the top. Once the hat is tall enough, there's one more set of fairy lights - this time with just two colors, and the crown decreases are hidden among the color work. The decreases pull the the fairy lights together forming this beautiful flower.

What: Fairy lights mittens / Own pattern
How: Circular needles 3.0 mm
From: Walcot Yarns Opus (3 colors), 53 g total

The hat needed matching mittens so I had to design them too.

The mittens have folded cuffs with the fairy lights chart on top. As with the hat, most of the mittens are worked with the fairy dust pattern with two colors and ending with one more set of fairy lights forming the flowers on top.

The hat comes in three different sizes and the mittens are one-size. You can buy the patterns on Ravelry. The designs call for one skein of main color and mini-skeins of each of the contrast colors. I've used Light gray, Greenery and Golden rod. If you work the pattern in some other yarn you may need to adjust the needle size because Opus is a special yarn with its own kind of drape.