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!

At the spin mill

Recently, there have been some news stories in the Finnish media about Finnish wool not being appreciated. Tukuwool also made their own press release about this. And I'm glad they did as in my knitting circles, Finnish wool is very much loved.

This week, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Pirtin kehräämö, the spin mill spinning Tukuwool. It was my first time at an industrial spin mill and I thought you might like to see some pics as well.

The tour started off with washing the wool. The bigger quantities are sent to England for washing but small batches are washed at the mill. After rolling in the washing machine, the wool is lifted onto a grate to dry.

The dry wool is fed into a huge machine used for mixing wool and other fibres. It makes the wool all fluffy and blows it into a wool cupboard. I got to take a peek inside and I wish they would've left me stay there to take a nap! I also got see for the very first time how nylon looks as a separate fiber. Int the picture below there's black and white nylon.

From the cupboard, the wool is taken to a drum carder which makes it into fluffy batts, separates it into thin strands and adds just a little bit of twist.

Then it's off to the spinning machine which adds more twist and stretches the fibers depending n how thin yarn they're aiming for. The spin mill was founded in 1948 and it still has one working drum carder and spinning machine from that year. Back then technology was built to last.

Below, there are pictures of worsted wool yarn in the making. There are two different types of wool and yarn: dense and smooth worsted wool where all the fibers have been combed to run in the same direction, and airier, fluffier - and yes, a bit pricklier - woollen wool where the fibers run in all sorts of directions. The spin mill had a separate spinning machine for woollen spun yarn and it was so thin you couldn't really see it with your bare eyes when the machine was running.

Next, the plies go through a plying machine to make 2-ply yarn, like Tukuwool Fingering. Lucky me, I got to feel single ply Tukuwool waiting for its turn in the plying machine.

Last but not least, an industrial skeining machine and washing the yarns.

The spin mill also has a lovely shop. I was gifted some worsted wool to try with my own spinning wheel. I also got a few skeins of their thin worsted yarn because I promised to design a shawl pattern for it in the spring. Thank you so much for the wool and the yarn, and especially for the tour at the mill.

My favorite souvenier off all was a 2 kg lamb I bought!

To be precise, I bought almost 2 kg of woollen carded wool because I've been dreaming for years of  spinning a sweater quantity. Running out of wool shouldn't stop me now!