Birkenwasser knits

Every now and then you notice that the kids need socks, and if you can't trick anyone else into knitting them there's not much you can do - knit socks it is then. Luckily, the Indie Design Gift-A-Long was just around the corner when the need for socks appeared, so I looked at the selection of socks and saw this interesting design: Diagon Alley by Dana Gervais.




I was hoping that the smallest size would be about Young Warrior's size, but as you can see there is room for growth. The pattern is made of short row sections that are repeated in pairs, and you can knit a couple of rows more for extra length, but knitting less would have meant leaving out the second pair of short row sections from foot. I didn't want to do that, so I followed the instructions and the socks should fit next winter.


After the photo shoot, Young Warrior insisted on wearing the socks for the rest of the day. "They feel so nice!", so being slightly oversized doesn't seem to be a problem.

Look what I found! A little crab climbing from the sea. Looks like a happy little fellow!




Now I gotta catch the little guy before he jumps back to the sea!

My first finished project in the Indie Design Gift-A-Long is this Evanlyn Hat by Kaitlyn Yeager. The pattern was chosen by Business Woman, who will also receive this hat as a Christmas gift (if I can get it back after she wore it for the photo shoot). She wanted a tight fitting hat, and I made an initial choice of interesting tight-fitting hat patterns from the gigantic Indie GAL bundle and she then decided on this one.




This project was slowed down by an accident on the couch: someone sat on my knitting and broke my circular needle. (Apparently, no-one was hurt, as there was no yelling or crying.) My other 4 mm needle tips were busy in another project, so I was going to wait until having finished that. Then I realised that I could use DPNs to knit this hat, and it didn't take too long to finish after that.


I think the hat looks great, and so does Business Woman. That makes it a good first FO in the GAL, now to my other 5 GAL projects!

I knitted the original Liinu Shawl sample in gorgeous Kässäkerho Pom Pom Merino Singles in mint, peach, and apple blossom colorways. I love it and I love the colors (well, guess who chose the colors...), but I wanted to see what the shawl would look like in a darker combo.




These three skeins were found in my stash, and I hadn't planned on combining them. I'm really pleased with them together, though, and so were several people at the Kässäkerho Pom Pom Super weekend where I was knitting this project. Many people said that they liked the design, but the colors were too pastel and seeing the darker shades gave them confidence to knit one for themselves, using similar dark colors. I hope these pictures will give you some ideas for making your own version of Liinu Shawl!


It's RUMS day!

On my recent trip to Oslo Strikkefestival I noticed many people knitting simple garter stitch scarves. I commented about this to another visitor at the festival, and her first question was: "Were they orange?". She then explained to me about this huge charity knitting project in Norway. The project was organised by Kirkens Bymisjon, a charity organisation that helps people who are struggling with their daily life in various ways. The idea was that people will knit orange scarves, "oransje skjerf", and they will keep someone warm in the winter. There was also a special yarn for the project, also named #oransjeskjerf, that was sold in yarn shops and NOK 5 of each ball would go to Kirkens Bymisjon.


Once I saw the yarns at Heimen Husfliden, I decided to participate, and bought the four balls that the basic garter stitch scarf would take. Instructions were on the ball band, and they can also be found on Kirkens Bymisjon's website. I quickly read through the instructions, and learned that you can knit any pattern you want (and with any yarn, as long as it's orange). As a plain garter stitch scarf sounded a bit boring, I decided to use my own Helmipöllö Scarf pattern that I've used for charity projects before.


Helmipöllö Scarf has more stitches than the basic Oransjeskjerf pattern, so I could've used one more ball of yarn for some added length. I do believe this will be a warm scarf for someone, though, as there's enough to wrap around your neck. The yarn is a mix of wool (65%) and alpaca (35%), so it should be extra warm.

The Norwegian project had ended before I got started with my scarf, so I won't be sending this one to Norway. However, we have similar organisations here in Finland that I can donate my scarf to. I'm thinking of Sininauhasäätiö that gives socks and other warm hand knits to homeless people.

Disclaimer: I don't speak Norwegian, so I might have misunderstood some of the information on Kirkens Bymisjon website. Please correct me if you notice anything wrong!

Corvid was, for me, one of those designs that you know you want to knit from the first time you see it. Love at first sight. That perfect item missing from your wardrobe. I had to have it. And it only took me a year to knit one!


I'm also wearing my Flying Jib Shawl in the pictures.
It's RUMS day.

For me, the most exciting part of Indie Design Gift-A-Long is to see who are all the participating designers! In my previous post, I listed the other Finnish designers, and if you follow me on Instagram you have seen some of my IG friends who are participating as a designer for the first time. Today's GAL Instagram challenge theme is Makin' a list, so I'm going to share what I'm planning to knit.


Some of these I've had in my knitting queue for some time already, and I was only hoping to see the designers on the list so the patterns would be eligible for the GAL. Some of the patterns I only found after the GAL started.


Starting from top right and going clockwise, the first one is Karalee Harding's Crooked Lines cowl. This is something I'm going to knit for myself, in a lovely hand-dyed merino silk by Lanitium ex Machina. This is a special skein that has been waiting for the right pattern! Casting on already taught me something new: Moebius cast on.


Natalia Sha's Mountain Ash will give me the opportunity to add beads to something else than socks. I'm going to see if the pattern would work in three colors, starting with the burgundy, followed by the variegated one and ending with blue and blue beads.


Diagon Alley socks by Dana Gervais look like they would be fun to knit, and that is always a bonus if you have to knit socks. In this case, I noticed that Young Warrior needs socks, and as he needs them before Christmas I can't take the easy way and ask my sister to knit them for him as a present. So if it must be socks, it might as well be wild socks! Although, my color scheme is going to be moderate compared to Dana's pattern pictures.


You Wear It Well by Mary Annarella is something for me again, using my recent stash addition from Oslo Strikkefestival. I hope alpaca works as a material for this design. For such a major project, I have even wet blocked my swatch.

Then there's a little UnCrabby Crab by cheezombie on my list. I have been looking for a cute crab pattern so I could knit a crab for my brother-in-law who collects crab toys. Let's hope that he doesn't read my knitting blog so it will be a surprise!


Business Woman asked if I could knit a hat for her; something like the Circular Reference that she liked a lot, but which ended up on Young Warrior's head. "I'd like to have a hat that's made of your luxury yarns" she said. I hope Eden Cottage Yarns Oakworth DK is luxurious enough for her - my stash is not very comprehensive in the DK section. I would have loved to knit another Circular Reference hat, but as it was GAL time, I decided to knit someone else's design for a change. After a lot of searching we decided on the Evanlyn Hat by Kaitlyn Yeager. It had to fit tight, no slouchiness, and it had to look interesting to knit, and be a new designer for me. I think we finally found a good pattern to match all requirements.

The ultimate GAL challenge is "Taming the Opadoo", which means that you knit something from each of the 8 categories in the GAL. With these 6 projects I would get pretty far, and would only need to add a baby item and something for hands. I do feel tempted to give the Opadoo a try one day, but I think that my choice of patterns will be different then! I don't think that I'll have enough time to finish all these projects by the end of the year, but I'm not going to let it stop me.

Photo credits in the collage go to respective designers.

It's Indie Design Gift-A-Long time again! This year we have 311 participating designers from 31 countries. All participating designers have selected 10-20 of their patterns, which are offered at a 25% discount for the first week of the GAL (Nov 21-28) - a total of 5327 discounted patterns! You can check out my offers here. Use coupon code "giftalong2017".


The fun doesn't end at the sale, though! The GAL starts with the sale period, but the event itself lasts until Dec 31. There is a very lively forum on Ravelry with discussion about the knitting, of course, but there is much more going on: random prizes, designer trivia, etc. I received several inquiries after my recent Instagram giveaway as people wanted to purchase my "Do you speak my language?" tote bag, and I can hint that participating in the GAL would give you a chance to win one! And there is more: yarn, books, patterns, stitch markers, project bags, etc. All non-free patterns by all participating designers are eligible to win prizes; you have more than 18 000 patterns to choose from.


This year, there is something new in the GAL: an Instagram challenge! Check out these prompts and use them on your IG posts, or simply use #giftalong2017 and #GAL2017 for all GAL-related posts. You can connect with other GAL participants and designers, and see what everyone else's gift knitting looks like.


For me, the GAL is not so much about selling my own patterns, as it is about joining the fun and finding new designers whose patterns I'd like to knit. The only difficult thing is to limit my plans so that I can finish all my projects by the end of the GAL! I'll write another post about my own knitting plans, and you can expect that when the IG prompt says "Making a list". I'd love to hear what you are planning to make! If you like to shop local, you can look at the map of participating designers and see who lives near you - or maybe you'd like to see what kind of a collection someone from the other part of the world has? For my Finnish readers I can tell that there are 5 other participating designers from Finland: Annina Päivärinta (Artesanitarium), Pauliina Karru (Lina Knits), Anna Johanna (Neulisti), Susanna Winter (Talvi Knits), and Meiju K-P (Meiju Knits).

Please note that the GAL runs in US EST time zone, so all dates depend on your time zone. For example, in practice, the sale period in Finland is Nov 22-28.

Obviously, one of the highlights of Oslo Strikkefestival was the marketplace and all the lovely yarn there. However, I had some extra days in Oslo, and of course that meant more yarn shopping! I had asked for some recommendations of lovely yarn shops, and I was advised to visit Værbitt and Pickles. I also heard that there are nice souvenirs at the Heimen Husfliden yarn shop at GlasMagasinet, so that got on my list also.



Pickles is located in Grünerløkka, at Markeveien 56. They have a lovely selection of yarns, mostly their own Pickles brand. I found it very difficult to resist these rows full of color, and ended up getting a colorwork cardigan quantity of their Pickles Merino Tweed. I should have taken the above picture before getting my yarns off the shelf, though!

Værbitt is a lovely little shop of children's books and hand-dyed yarn. It's located in Tøyen at Sørligata 46, which is within a walking distance from Pickles. The yarns were organised on the shelves by color instead of the normal brand/type categorisation. This really makes the shop look awesome! It might be slightly more difficult to plan colorwork if different colorways are found at opposite sides of the shop, but it's a small shop so it shouldn't be that difficult.


Heimen Husfliden is located at the bottom floor of GlasMagasinet at Stortorvet 9. It has the largest selection of yarns of these three shops. They have all the popular Norwegian brands: Rauma, Sandnes, Du Store Alpakka, etc. There was also a wall filled with rya yarns, and I did feel tempted to get a rya rug amount of them after my ryaknuter class, but somehow some voice of sanity in my head told me to practice with scrap yarns first. And maybe start with something smaller than a large wall hanging. Ryas were mentioned in the evening news just the other day, by the way: how they have become popular again and how people are learning to make them or hunt for old ones from flea markets. Maybe it's too late to make one now?


I had been wanting to knit a colorwork cardigan since the steeking class that I took earlier this year. With all the possible shades of Rauma Finullgarn, I was able to find the combination I wanted for the Cherry Bloom cardigan by Lene Tøsti. At the Strikkefestival I noticed so many Siri cardigans by Linnea Öhman, that I ended up buying yarn for that as well. I learned about a charity initiative going on in Norway at that time, #Oransjeskjerf ("Orange Scarf"), and as I saw a box of the orange yarns at Heimen Husfliden, I decided to buy these charity scarf yarns as well. And I got a skein of the lovely hand dyed mohair at Værbitt. And a gradient Kauni for no apparent reason (it's not even Norwegian, so it doesn't count as a souvenir). But then again, do you always need a reason to buy yarn? With these additions to my Strikkefestival purchases, I think I made good use of the piece of checked-in luggage that was included in my flight ticket!

My Tiger Flower design was published by Quince & co recently, and you can see my sample shawl that was knitted in Quince & co Tern in the pattern pictures. This was not the first version of the shawl, however. I often work with "full size swatches", meaning that I knit a prototype first. Of course, I make smaller swatches and, usually, even write the instructions beforehand. Still, there are things that you only notice from a full-size sample, and then you have to either rip and re-knit, live with the flaws, or knit a new one. In this case, I knew that I wanted more stitches for the brioche pattern, but this first sample looked good enough as it is. As I agreed to knit the sample for the pattern in Quince & co's yarns, there was no need to rip and re-knit this one, so I simply kept this one as a prototype and knitted the sample with all the improvements that I wanted in the design.



Actually, I didn't get to keep this prototype after all. My mom happened to see it and made it very clear that she would like to have a shawl like that, and that solved the issue of finding a gift for Mother's Day. Not my mom in the pictures here, though.

Kässäkerho Pom Pom organized the second SUPERweekend in Kuopio on October 27-29, 2017. The weekend was filled with knitting, yarn shopping, workshops, and hanging out with old and new knitting friends.


This year, the festival moved to bigger premises, and with great location right next to the railway station and more room for the knitting lounge and shopping, I'd say it was a good change.

My contribution to the festival was the Liinu Shawl in Kässäkerho Pom Pom's Merino Singles, and it was lovely to hear all the nice feedback for the design. It was not the only design for the festival, though, as Susanna Winter had a collaboration with Petrichor Yarn and their Tears in Rain shawl was at Petrichor Yarn booth. I extended my trunk show to Lanitium ex Machina's table with the Tauride Shawl and to Lystig Yarn table with the Flying Jib Shawl.


Saturday evening was knit night at Hygge Bro, a nice new restaurant by the market square. There was a knitting bingo, but, unfortunately and despite our efforts, we were not among the first three to get a bingo. We had lots of fun that night anyway, and enjoyed our goodie bags that included some lovely yarn samples and new Kässäkerho Pom Pom postcards.


Having returned from Oslo Strikkefestival with a suitcase full of yarn I tried to keep my hands off the yarns this weekend. I had to get the special Kuopio colorway from KVG Woolworks, though, even if it is a mixture of wool, cotton, nylon and silk. I'm not sure what I would use a cotton mix yarn for, but the skein was so pretty that I might just enjoy it as it is. Another surprise purchase was this Merino Single Bling from Petrichor Yarns: the bling is not my thing, but this beautiful colorway reminds me of a winter night sky with the bling bling as stars. Two balls of Isager Alpaca 1 from Kässäkerho Pom Pom are needed for a new design.

Thank you for organising such a lovely event again, Liinu! Now that this event has been organised twice it's a tradition, and you can count me in next year also!

Liinu Shawl is made of three sections: first, a kite-shaped beginning with eyelet stripes. Second, you continue with half of the stitches and form an asymmetric triangle. Third, you pick up stitches along the side of the second part and join them with the remaining stitches of the first section and knit a lace panel. This shawl lets you play with colors and the interesting shape makes knitting fun!