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.

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.

Shaken, not stirred

I've had the hardest time keeping this under the wraps! I had a vision of a shawl in the summer but since I thought of making it into a mystery knit-along, I had to wait. Next, I waited for the two Finnish indie dyers, lanitium ex machina and iKKe to put their yarn kits up for grabs. And then, I had to wait for the MKAL to start in September. So much waiting! I tried to keep my cool and let everyone else have fun with the MKAL but then I couldn't stop myself and I just had to cast on for another shawl. And then, more waiting: I still had to wait until today to get to show you these pictures of my beautiful shawl - except that now there are already two shawls to show you.

What: Shake it up / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.75 (grellow shawl) and 3.5 mm (blue-beige shawl)

From: Fru Valborg Merino Swirl, 280 g (grellow) and Koukuttamo Hehku Singles + Madelinetosh Merino Light + Uschitita Merino Singles, 58 + 93 + 95 g (blue-beige)

The mystery shawl consisted of a total 13 clues that had variations of garter stitch, stripes, lace, brioche and at the end, one row garter stitch stripes.

The idea is to take three colors and play with them to see how beautifully they can blend together. Shake it up starts off with color 1 and soon, you'll begin striping with color 2 until you will switch it to be the main color.

Color 3 is worked in unnoticed. There's first brioche with colors 1 and 2, color 2 being on top. At the halfway point of the brioche you will switch the background color to color 3. There's some striping with colors 2 and 3 until at the very end you'll be using colors 3 and 1 together. There's something exciting happening all the time - yet the shawl looks quite harmonious.

The shawl has an arrow shape. You start at one sharp corner and work increases at the edges and decreases in the middle. At the end, the wedge at the center is filled up working decreases at one edge of the shawl while continuing the increases at the other edge and the decreases in the middle.

You might think the shawl is finished once the wedge is filled up. But there's one more section to work: you'll pick up stitches from the bottom edges of the shawl and work garter stitch edging using color 2 and shaping it with short rows. If you still have enough color 2 left, you can work an i-cord bind off around the shawl. It really ties the colors together.

One of my favorite things about Shake it up is that you can use the rest of the yarns to make tassels. This way you won't have any left overs.

I had so much fun organizing the mystery knit-along. So much that you can be sure, I'll do another one next year!

If you happen to be in Finland next weekend, please do come and join us for Shake it up meet up at the yarn shop Lentävä lapanen in Järvenpää.