Birkenwasser knits

Time for the monthly update: knitting and reading. This month I've had so many deadlines with my knitting projects and I've been working on this and that and felt like I haven't accomplished anything. Well, I have, and I'll be sharing those projects with you soon. But what's in the working at the moment, here are a couple of interesting projects:


Knitting this tunic is taking a bit longer than I thought. I had already started the third skein of yarn and posted a pic about it on Instagram, and only seeing the photo made me notice how totally different colors the skeins were. And I did check that they were all from the same dye lot! So I had to rip almost the whole thing and alternate between two skeins to avoid unwanted color blocks. But it's a lovely yarn to knit with, so I don't really mind going back and redoing it. The yarn is BC Garn Colori. I haven't read any of Katja Kettu's books yet, but I've been wanting to for quite some time already. "Yöperhonen" had hundreds of people on the library waiting list, but only about 50 for the CD, so I'm going to try listening a book for a change. Which of course means that I can knit something more complicated than while reading! "Piippuhylly" is a book I saw Business woman reading, and as she said that the short stories are located in St. Petersburg I didn't need more recommendations. I love reading about all these familiar places!


This month I haven't been knitting for my own kids. I've knitted a couple of Pikkutylli cardigans for my friends' babies. We've taken a break from children's classics as well, and jumped right into coding for kids: "Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding" by Linda Liukas. My kids think it's ok, and I'm loving it! A fairy tale that teaches kids how to instruct computers, it's simply awesome! Read it. Even if you don't have kids.


I still haven't gotten around to read the Putin books on my night stand, but as I saw Business woman reading a book about Ukraine by Anna-Lena Lauren ("Ukraina - Gränslandet") I had to move it to the top of my reading queue. I loved her book about the Caucasus states ("I bergen finns inga herrar") and the crazy Russians ("De är inte kloka de där ryssarna") so I'm expecting a great deal from this book. And the yarn, well, I love knitting the green tunic, so I went ahead and got yarn for another one.

From my January projects I finished McEwan's "Children Act", but the tweed cardigan is on hold. I'm almost done with Fidel Castro, but not with Starling pullover. Philosophers and summer top are waiting for the right moment. Silk top is almost finished, but I haven't even started Sarah Waters yet. We finished Pippi Långstrump with the kids, but I didn't finish the dress yet. Oh well, multitasking sometimes means that nothing is finished even if there is progress on several fronts.

Joining Ginny on yarn along.

One of the reason for designing Pikkutylli baby cardigan was to have something new to knit for my friends who were having babies. Well, they were not the last babies around us, so I'm glad to have a nice pattern to pick up as more friends are having babies. My original pattern was knitted using three colors. The idea was for twin girls to get matching cardigans: the other one white with marine blue stripes and pink edges, the other pink with blue stripes and white edges. Then I saw some nice Pikkutylli versions on Ravelry knitted with two colors, so as I was buying yarn for two more cardigans I decided to go with only two colors each this time.

Pikkutylli ("Little Ringed Plover") cardigan is designed for a newborn. Knitted from top down in one piece, it has no seams or buttons that would press against delicate skin. The cardigan is tied with thin crocheted cords that will not make a big lump in a baby's armpit. This is a fast knit, and the construction will keep your interest in it for the short while that it takes to knit this.


If you are not familiar with adding crocheted strands on a knitted item, I have made an instruction video for that part. The video shows how you can avoid weaving in the ends while crocheting the strands.


The background for this design is in my experience with babies. All babies like to be held on someone's shoulder, facing backwards. Another favorite position is to be on someone's arm, facing away from the person holding the baby (place the baby on your arm, facing down, your arm going between the baby's head and shoulder, and grab the top leg pulling it in a "frog" position and you are sure to have a happy baby - and a free hand to do chores while holding the baby). If you're not holding the baby, they are usually happiest lying on their stomach. What is common to all these positions is that there should be no buttons in the front of the garment the baby is wearing, and this is where the idea for this design comes from.

This project had a long lead time. A friend of mine gave birth to twin girls in May, and I made a plan to visit them in July. I even bought the yarns in May already. But then I wasn't sure what I wanted to knit for the baby girls. Slowly the design started evolving in my head, and I started by making the first swatch in June. This project involved plenty of prototyping, however, and all of a sudden I noticed that I have two days left and this is what the project looks like:


Well, nothing works like a little time pressure and I was able to finish the fourth prototype the day before leaving. This time I finally had the fit I had envisioned, so then it was just about writing notes and knitting the second cardigan for the rest of that day. I had to write the pattern as well before leaving, as I would be giving the samples to the little babies during the trip!

The yarn I chose was Novita puuvilla-bambu, a 50-50 cotton - bamboo mix. The yarn is soft and makes a lovely knit for a baby. However, you need to pay attention while knitting, as the plies come apart easily and you will notice having knitted only half of a stitch.

As winter is coming, I wanted to try the pattern with a wool yarn as well. It also seems, that there's a sudden baby boom around me, so there are plenty of recipients for these small newborn knits. This winter version was made with Drops Merino Extra Fine. This one, as well, was given to a tiny newborn before I got a chance to take a picture of the finished item.

"Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading" starts the Yarn along post in Ginny's Small things blog. Well, you got me with that sentence, because what could be better than knitting and reading? Both at the same time, if possible, please.


I was running around the house to find my currents WIPs - knitting and reading - and realized that I have a pretty similar approach to both. You need to have the right book for the moment and the right knit for the occasion. It turns out that I can't really play the yarn along according to rules, as I have no idea how to choose *one* book and knitting for posting one pick. So I'm just going to show what I'm working on in no particular order. Except for the first one, as it's a novel by the very talented Laura Lehtola, nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for a debut novel. I have only read half of it so far, but I can recommend it already! The knitting is going to be a cardigan for Business woman.


One of the reasons for having so many half-read books on my night stand is my fear of not having enough to read. That's why I always pick up a new book if I have to travel somewhere. Imagine the horror of being on a long haul flight and finishing your book before reaching your destination. What would you do for the rest of the flight then?! I started "NW" by Zadie Smith on my trip to Australia last year. It's not quite "On beauty", and it's in English, so I haven't gotten around to finish it. Now I know that some people prefer to read in the original language that the book was written in. For me, English is the language I use at work, so I want to relax and enjoy my novels translated into Finnish. The knitting is an experiment with my new Helmipöllö pattern: I wanted to see if using a thinner yarn and smaller needles would make a children's size for a charity project.


"Kohti" by Juha Itkonen is a victim of travel reading as well. I found the book on my parents' yacht and took it home with me to finish, but never did. The pullover-to-be is Robin by Helga Isager, knit with Isager Spinni.


"Signaali" by Pirkko Saisio is a book that was read at a knitting event at a library. I love these knitting evenings when you can relax and knit and someone reads short stories - or in this case the first chapter of a novel. I think that I might need someone to read the rest of the chapters to me, as the book has been waiting on my nightstand since April... The blanket is also a long-term project that stays on hold and then I knit a row or two if there's nothing else to knit. Usually there is.


While running around the house trying to locate my books I noticed that I can't find Katherine Pancol's "Muchachas" part two, which is not nice as it's not my book. I have signed up for a reading event about the trilogy and obviously there's no point in going if I haven't read the book. Good thing is that I haven't lost any knitting projects. Actually, I met a friend for lunch today, and she returned this cardigan project that I left at her house a couple of weeks ago. No hurry with that one, as the linen Sparrow is more of a summer knit anyway. The book by Kalle Kniivilä is called "Putin's people", it's about the silent majority in Russia: the people who support Putin. Why do they not want democracy? Really interesting read.


Another Putin book, this one Masha Gessen's "The Man Without a Face - The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin". Isager Spinni and Isager Alpaca1 are combined to make a Pine cardigan by Helga Isager.

Actually, the number of my WIPs is currently 11 and the book pile on my nightstand much higher than this, but as I enjoy knitting and reading so much more than taking pictures of them I'm going to leave it at this and go knit and read a bit.

Things don't always go as planned - or as instructed. You miss an increase, tink back to where you were supposed to do it, and continue. You notice that the item is too big or too small and you have to unravel half of what you have knitted so far. Or you simply realize that it's not going to work out, the item is horrible and you will never wear it so better frog the whole thing.


For me unraveling is a way of working. I do make swatches and even try to do the math beforehand, but let's admit it: I'm too lazy to look at my own calculations and just keep knitting when I'm in the flow, hoping that it will be all good. Knowing that most likely it won't be. Even if I'm following a pattern, I usually keep myself too occupied with reading something, attending a seminar or whatever, so picking up the instructions is simply too much to ask for and there I knit, hoping that it will be all good.

Last weekend I noticed that I have four projects waiting for unraveling and attention to detail. One of them was a simple case of not reading the instructions (or, technically speaking, the instructions said "see below for right number of increases" and then the numbers were _above_ on the next column, so it wasn't really my fault, was it?), not paying attention to obviously wrong size (I mean, if you see that the sleeve is too small, then why knit another one the same size and continue with the yoke until you run out of yarn before admitting that you need to buy more yarn and make the sleeves wider?) and then two cases of prototyping.



Prototyping. That's the way I design my patterns. There's only so much you can calculate, but then you will also need to see how the cables look like with the neckline shaping and you can't really calculate that. Or how the neckline works with the edging. For me, ripping something and starting all over again isn't a failure, it's part of the process.


Then again, plenty of the rework is simply a result of not concentrating on one thing at a time.