Limelight

Usually, designing starts with an inspiration - usually. But sometimes, a friend needs your help and you might have to design something very specific. That happened to me last autumn when I got a message from Laine team telling me their upcoming shawl book was in need of one more very specific type of a shawl and they would need the sample for the photoshoot in just couple of weeks. Luckily, I was able to help them out.

What: Limelight / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.75 mm

From: Black Elephant Merino Singles Fingering + Triskelion Branwen 4-ply, 91 + 70 g

What they were after was a crescent shaped shawl in SW merino in bright happy colours. I had no trouble finding a perfect yarn combo in my stash and once I paired them up it was as if they were meant for this particular shawl.

I named the shawl Limelight after the bright green colour of the silk merino that I paired up with a creamy speckle dyed merino. The crescent shaped shawl is a fun combination of garter stitch, delicate lace and stripes. The stripes are worked with short rows and are all a different length. You'll need two skeins of fingering weight yarn, one skein each colour.

The pattern is part of Laine publishing's book 52 Weeks of Shawls and now you can also get it as an individual download on Ravelry, my web shop, PayHip and Lovecrafts. Use the code LIME to get 15% discount until October 9th.

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.

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.

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.

Ohla

New Year calls for a new design! I hope this wintery wrap will bring the snow back.

What: Ohla / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 4.5 mm

From: Shibui Knits Staccato + Silk Cloud, 190 + 62 g

I fell in love with the lace insert of my Alho sweater that I published in December. So much so that I had to use it in a shawl design too. I think you can figure out where the name of the shawl comes from.

Last spring, I designed a luxurious silky cardigan, Sulo, and I had a lot of yarn left over from that one. Now, those yarns turned into this delicious, huge yet light shawl. The cardigan was a luxurious combo of fingering weight merino/silk held together with lace weight mohair/silk. Since it was such a superb combination I saw now reason to change the recipe. Expect for the part that the lace inserts are worked in just the lace weight yarn just like in Alho sweater. This gives the lace such a delicate, exquisite look. It reminds me of spider webs full of those little diamonds from the morning dew. 

I like trying out different shapes for shawsl. But do not be fooled, I would never leave it at just that. This shawl maybe rectangular but it sure isn't worked straight.

Ohla does start at the short end of the rectangular with casting on stitches but the ribbing is shaped with short rows and after that the main body of the shawl is worked on the bias. At the other end, there are short rows to straighten the ribbing just before bind off.

Even though these little tricks make this an interesting project, most of it is really simple stockinette stitch with a bit of lace. The are a few rows of lace worked on the WS but just few - and the majority of the shawl is just stockinette stitch and ribbing.

That's it! A soft, airy and delicate shawl. I haven't really been designing rectangular shawl before so this stunning shawl stick turned out really useful with the wrap. I've been drooling over this beautiful Mountain Sheep Shawl Stick by JUL designilta for year so I was super excited when they wanted to collaborate. I truly love the shawl stick and in addition to it, I got a little discount code to share with you. Use "JOH20" to get your own Mountain Sheep Shawl Stick with 15% discount.

Oh, and finally, as the shawl features the same lace as my Alho sweater you can get the shawl with 50% discount on Ravelry if you also purchase the sweater (or have already bought it).

Lumo

I usually knit while watching TV. So it's important to always have something mindless on the needles that doesn't take too much concentration. On the other hand, I'm bored easily. I need variation or a challenge. This time, I managed to design a shawl with the perfect balance of both, lots of mindless repetition yet enough variation to keep me interested. Don't worry about the challenge: I conquered those during the design process so that you don't have to.

What: Lumo / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Kettle Yarn Co. Baskerville 2.0, 100 g

I got a pleasent email in the spring from the British Kettle Yarn Co. They asked me if I'd be interested in designing a shawl for their yarn. I got a shipment of this gorgeous Baskerville 2.0 yarn which is a blend of Gotland and Blue Faced Leicester, both long fibres. The yarn has a stunning, natural lustre and shine to it and it's non-superwash which I like a lot.

Since the yarn itself was so beautiful, I wanted to design something rather simple for it. Also, I've yet to design a rectangular shawl and this was the time. I got two colors of the yarn (Dawn and Madder) and I decided right away that I'd use the main color for garter stitch and the contrast color for lace.

I know myself and I knew that I'd loose my mind working garter stitch straight for the entire length of the shawl. So I started sketching a shawl that would have these sections worked in different directions.

I needed the patience of a saint with my sample. I think I worked every single section at least twice to make it work. You see, when working in different directions, there are different row gauges to consider and constantly making sure the shawl is the same width everywhere. Garter stitch added to the challenge as it has a very different row gauge compared to stockinette stitch. With stockinette stitch, you can usually use the 2 sts per 3 rows to pick up stitches but that goes haywire with garter stitch. In the end, I got the knitting mathematics to settle down and I promise you won't have to worry about any of this. You get to just knit and relax.

Lumo is a rectangular shawl worked in two colors. The main color is always worked in garter stitch and the contrast color in lace. The fun part is that each section of the shawl is worked in a different direction so you sure won't get bored even though this is a fairly easy and simple design. The shawl has i-cord edges that are worked at the same time as the rest of the shawl so there are only yarn ends to weave in once you're finished with the shawl body. You can cut the yarns when changing sections but it's easy to carry them along inside the i-cord. That way you will only have few yarns ends to weave in at the end.

You can find the shawl on Ravelry and there's a 20% discount code KETTLE good through December 9th.

Northern night sky

I'm in the habit of always having something a bit insane on my needles. Something challenging that will take a long time to finish. This one took a year and a half from cast on to bind off.

What: Celestarium / Audry Nicklin

How: Circular needles 3.25 mm

From: West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite Lace, 116 g

I've been mesmerized by stars from an early age. You'd think I'd know a thing or two about them, but no: I can spot the Big Dipper but that's it. I've just always loved to stare at the night sky. When I was a small child, we lived in a two-storey house and our upstairs bathroom had this tiny little window. Every night when mom washed my teeth, I wanted to climb onto the water tank of the loo because from there I could just reach to look at the stars from the little window. I'm done climbing on the toilet but I still sometimes go out at night just to have a look at the night sky.

After that little story, it should come as no surprise that I gasped when I saw the Celestarium shawl on Twist Collection: it had the whole northern night sky on it! The pattern came out already in 2012 but some things take their time and this one waited for the perfect yarn and the perfect moment.

Few years ago, we were traveling on the isle of Skye and out b&b hostess told me that there was a little spinning shop just across the street! And what a lucky thing she would mention it because otherwise we would've never noticed. The shop was the cutest ever. They sold spinning fibres, handspun yarns and a few industrial yarns as well. The Exquisite Lace by West Yorkshire Spinners caught my eye right away. I knew I had finally found the perfect yarn for my Celestarium shawl. The color was the perfect ink, blueish black. And the combination of Falkland wool with silk wasn't too shabby either!

Once we got home, I took a closer look at the pattern. I knew many nerdy knitters had made their shawls with different sized beads for different sized stars. And thanks to them, the pattern page actually had a star map showing the different star sizes in color codes. So I ordered a bunch of beads. Unfortunately, some of them were way too small to use for knitting so in the end I ended up using just the plain old 8/0 and 6/0, and divided the stars into two different size classes.

If you've followed me for a while, you may know I like to not take it easy on my spare time. So when I saw this project on Ravelry featuring the Milkyway, I was sold! The star map linked on the project page doesn't work anymore but I think I used this one for help.

The Celestarium shawl pattern comes with charts pointing out beads at star locations. In addition, the pattern has a star map where the charts have been marked to help make sense of it all. I used all of these and spent half a day drawing lines between the beads to outline all the different constellations. I also wrote down the names so I could place them on the star map more easily. I marked the bigger stars so I'd remember to use the bigger beads for those. Finally, I outlined the Milkyway on all the charts.

Once I had sketched the outlines of the Milkyway I started randomly crossing out stitches inside the outlines about 4-6 stitches apart to mark down beads for the Milkyway. I used three different kind of beads: clear 8/0 beads with silver lining for the majority of stars, clear 6/0 beads for the bigger stars (I wish I had found silver lined big beads but no luck there), and clear 8/0 beads for the Milkyway.

The pattern uses beads, yarnovers and decreases to make these little holes next to the star beads For the Milkyway, I didn't make the holes so the constellations would stand out better. I think it worked out very nicely.

Since I really don't seem to be able to take it easy on my spare time, I did one more modification. The pattern gives instructions for a narrow garter stitch edging. I used a lace weight yarn instead of fingering weight and also smaller needles so I was scared the shawl wouldn't be big enough without  wider edging. Also, the star map was so delicate and beautiful it felt wrong to do just a rugged garter stitch edge. I used the edge pattern of the Evenstar shawl. The edge lace is 17-21 stitches wide, depending on the row and it's worked sideways, decreasing one shawl body stitch every two rows. Since the shawl ended up with over 800 stitches that meant over 1600 rows of edge lace. Did I mention the lace is worked on WS rows too? And did I mention, I used beads for the lace as well? 

This surely won't be everyone's cup of tea. But for me, it was a match made in heaven. I need to always have one project that requires insane amounts of concentration and patience. Something to pick up when I want to tease myself a bit. I know it doesn't sound like one, but this is a compliment. I truly enjoyed challenging myself with this shawl. There aren't that many techniques that feel difficult in knitting, so the challenge usually comes in the form of patience and concentration. Also, this shawl is one of the most beautiful things I've knitted.

Now, I need to come up with a new challenge to work on when I want to take a little break from designing.