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!

Taming the octopus

Sounds strange? Not at all, once you'll let me explane.

What: Thunderstorm toque / Abbye Knits
How: Circular needles 3.5 ja 4.5 mm
From: KVG Woolworks Merino DK, 81 g

I'm taking part in the annual Indie design gift-along hosted on Ravelry. It includes a huge bunch of independent knit and crochet designers having a 25 % sale for a week and then everyone joining in for gift knitting.

The event has 8 different categories, each with their own KAL thread. And if you manage to complete a project in each of the eight categories, you've tamed the octopus. I haven't participated in Tour de Sock for a few years now and I miss the competition. So here I am, chasing an octopus.

The spirit of the Indie design gift-along is for the designers to promote each other instead of everyone promoting themselves. So I'm hoping to knit these 8 projects by 8 different designers.

My first project was a super cool hat that I've wanted to knit for a long time. It has a folded rib, showy cables with bobbles in between. But the show stopper is the star shaped crown. I modified the pattern to have a long tail tubular cast on. Just to make the cast on edge nice and round.

I finished the hat in almost one night and it turned out just perfect. The plan was to knit Christmas gifts but what am I to do if the hat fits me so well.

And the yarn. It is the softest thing ever! It's a treasured left over yarn from my stash. I've made a shawl in this yarn some years ago so I'll have to keep the beanie for myself. They make such a cute set!

What you knit is what you get

I got a modified pair of socks as I didn't pay too much atterntion to the pattern.

What: Wendel / General Hogbuffer

How: Circular needle 2.25 mm

From: Drops Fabel, 60 g

Yep. I started working on yet another pair for The Box which is getting quite full. This time I chose a free pattern by General Hogbuffer. I've been meaning to try the pattern for years already. The General writes his free patterns to fit his quite big feet so I left out one repeat to get a suitable stitch count.

The socks have a pretty lace pattern spiraling around them. The pattern repeat was quick to memorize and the socks were a breeze all the way to the heels.

And then I found out I would need that one repeat I left out if I wanted to follow the pattern for the insteps. So from there on, these are my own mod. I'm an experienced enough knitter to deal with this and keeping my stitch counts correct with the lace.

The pattern would have let the spiral go on for a bit and then it would've been mirrored for the rest of the socks. I didn't want to think how I could make it work with my stitch count so I continued the lace as it was. It worked nicely this way too.

The box is truly running out of space. I had to resort to a little violence to fit this pair in. And now there is only room for one more pair on top.

You see, Santa's little helper made a pair too! My sister knitted a pair of lovely colorwork socks. So maybe I don't have to worry about whether or not I have time to make one more pair.

Colorful stripes

Or not.

What: Basic socks / Own pattern
How: Circular needle 2.25 mm
From: Scrap yarns, 60 g

Few years ago I came up with a fun way to use scrap yarns. I made a pair of socks for a friend knitting stripes with two yarns that were almost the same color. You couldn't really see the stripes but they made the colors behave differently and I had such fun making them. It may well be that I'm the only knitter on earth who has fun making invisible stripes but I liked them so much that ever since then I've wanted to try it again.

I went through my scrap yarns and picked out all creamy neutrals and knitted a pair of stripy socks. I cast on 60 sts, worked 12 rounds of ribbing and then started working 3 round stripes. The heel is a French heel, the kind that has a round shape.

The colors didn't work exactly as I planned. They had a bit too much contrast and you can clearly see the stripes. And then there was this cute but unfortunate blue glitter yarn that turned out the be way more blue than I imagined. Look how loud it is! How rude.

You can't really blame the socks for having too much color but I really like them. I've been longing for a pair of light colored socks in my wardrobe and now I have them.

I am a bit bothered by the amount of contrast in these and I will probably have a do-over at some point. I still have a bunch of light mint scraps and deep green scraps so we'll see.

Hilla

I've grown old. Or at least grown up. I'm into hiking and broccoli. And now, even cloudberries even though for all my life I've been convinced that they are just too sour for my taste. Speaking of cloudberries, I designed a new sweater called Hilla. It means cloudberry in Finnish.

What: Hilla / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.5 mm and 2.5 mm

From: Uschitita Merino Single in colors Braveheart + Owl + Grounded + Moccacino, 96 + 75 + 69 + 84 g

Fading has long been a trend in the knitting realm. As usual, I'm joining the party late - but nevertheless, I'm joining in! I finally got around to designing and knitting my very own fade sweater. I have designed a gradient cargidan, Utu, but fading is a bit different. In a gradient, you're using different shades of the same color. In fading, you can use totally different colors as long as there are some speckles etc. to join the colors together.

I bought the yarns last spring at Edinburgh Yarn Fest. I had wanted to try Uschitita's yarns for a long time and now, I took my timing selecting the perfect quartet. Unexpectedly, I ended up with this yellowish color scheme.

Last winter, I designed a DK weight brioche sweater with these lovely little vables running down from the shoulders to the wrists. And ever since, I've been asked by a friend if I could some day design something else with the cute cables but leave out the scary brioche. I finally got around to it. This one's for you, Jenni!

The sweater starts off with narrow shoulder flaps with cables. Those are left on holders while stitches are picked up from their edges to work the back and front. Once the back and front meet at the underarm, the rest of the body is worked in the round.

Fear not! Even though the sweater looks like it's reverse stockinette stitch, the body is worked inside out - so endless rounds of knitting with no purl in sight. Though, the sleeve are worked on the right side with reverse stockinette stitch because of the cables.

The sweater itself is very simple and relaxing knit. The only exciting part happens right at the beginnig with the shoulder flaps but those are quick to make. The rest of the sweater might be even boring if it wasn't for the fading of colors. Waiting for the next fade keeps things interesting.

The pattern is designed for a fade of four colors and includes detailed instructions on how and when to work the fades. There are also calculations for how much you should have yarn left upon finishing the body so you won't run out of yarn for the sleeves etc. The keep the color changes as neat as possible, the first fade happens once the back and front have been joined to work in the round. Therefore the bigger sizes require more than one skein of color 1.

I'm eagerly awaiting for this weekend's craft fair at Tampere, Finland. It's a great opportunity to find your favorite color quartet for Hilla sweater. I'm also giving a 20% discount to the pattern until the end of the week if you use the code "cloudberry" in your Ravelry cart.

Yet again, more socks

Well, yes.

What: Blomst / Jessica Gore

How: Circular needles 2.25 mm

From: Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering, 78 g

Lately, I've been knitting only secret projects or something so big or elaborate that they're no good for social knitting.

So a week ago, as I was contemplating which project to take with me for a yarn shop trip, socks were the easy answer. This year, as I've been working on The Box, socks have been my go-to knitting when I don't know what to work on. In a way, it's been super easy. I've never had to make any decisions as The Box keeps screaming for more socks. There's always room for one more pair of green socks. Perhaps I'll need to start another box since it's been so handy all year long.

So once again, I cast on for a pair of green socks. This time, I chose the pattern Blomst from Laine Magazine issue 2. It seemed simple enough with little lace sections and some garter stitch in between. And simple and easy it truly was. A breeze. The lace was easy to memorize and after that I didn't have to stop to think even once.

The socks are worked toe up. I was a bit baffled about the fact that on the first page there we instructions for only one size, yet on the next page and in the chart, there were three sizes. I'm sure this has been corrected in the later editions of the magazine. My own was from the very first batch.

The yarn I chose for the socks was my very first try with Plucky Knitter yarns. It was a treasure I found at the yard sale table at my first knitting retreat and I've been safe guarding it for years. It was about time to actually knit it!

I liked the yarn a lot. The color is beautiful and the yarn is nice, round and plumpy - the kind that works really well in garter stitch.

The Box has now seven pairs. And you'll never guess what I just cast on the other night. Oh, you guessed, did you? Ok, fine: yet another pair of green socks. Hey, there's always room for one more pair.