Birkenwasser knits

I loved the Broken seed stitch fingerless mitts by Maria Kostamovaara from the first moment I saw them, but I'm not a big fan of knitted mittens - let alone fingerless ones. The thing is that when my hands start freezing it's actually my fingers that start freezing first. Fingerless mitts are a crazy idea, as you take out the part that you need most in mittens or gloves. It would make more sense to just knit the fingers and leave out the hand part, but that would be weird. Therefore, I'm a leather gloves person and I've never knitted fingerless mitts before in my life. That's 30+ years of knitting, btw.


But then I started this blog, and started taking pictures outside when it's freezing cold. You can't really operate a camera with gloves on, so I started to see the point in knitting fingerless mitts. And as the idea grew (and it did take some time, I'm not the mitts-knitting type, after all) I always knew which pattern I wanted to use. So here's my first pair of fingerless mitts:



Even before I started knitting my mitts I realized that this pattern would look good with Young Warrior's new hat (this is what we bought for him from Minu väike maailm in Tallinn). I decided to make gloves for him, as I didn't want his fingers to freeze. The funny thing is, that when he saw me knitting the gloves he asked for fingerless ones. Well, you can't always have what you want so I insisted on knitting fingers.




I started with 3,5 mm needles as instructed by Rowan, even if Maria's pattern said 2,5 mm. I usually have to take a bigger size to get my gauge correct, so I thought 3,5 mm would be good. I even bought my first KnitPro cubics for the project. 3,5 mm wasn't working, though, so I went with 2,5 mm and got the gauge that was also suggested by Rowan. I started with the gloves, and after knitting them starting with 44 sts for my 6-year-old I knew that mitts starting with 46 sts would never fit my hand. So my mitts are modified for bigger size, 50 sts and adding some centimeters to length and some rows for the thumb. I also used the same color for all ribbing, but other than that I pretty much followed the pattern. Four balls of yarn would have been enough for a third pair, but I think I'm done with broken tweed stitch gloves for now.


Loving the result - both versions - but my fingers where freezing on our photo shoot day!

Participating in RUMS.

What's the latest fad in Finnish crochet world? It's protective tentacles ("Turvalonkero" in Finnish) without a doubt. What's all the fuzz about and why is everyone suddenly crocheting amigurumi octopuses?

These octopuses are crocheted for babies that were born prematurely. The reason is the tentacles, something safe that a little hand can hold on to. Babies have the need to grab something, and in an incubator there is always the danger that little hands grab a tube that's there to help them grow stronger. With a little octopus by their side, preemies can hold on to something safe. They find comfort in holding the tentacles and the important equipment stays safe.

Check out this video by Yle (Finnish Broadcasting Company). It's in Finnish, but you can see how the octopus toy works in the incubator for Nelli who weighs a mere 830 grams. It must have been after this video that everyone in Finland started crocheting little octopuses!



There was one hospital in Finland that called for crocheters to help them by making these protective tentacles, and it kind of escalated from there to a nation wide phenomenon. Annika Pakkanen gave birth to a child 3,5 months premature. With her little preemie at the hospital in an incubator, she learned about protective tentacles and made the first one for her own child. Unfortunately, her child did not make it, but died at the age of 2,5 months. To help in her sorrow, Annika has since then crocheted 118 octopuses more for the hospital. She shared her pattern through Yle so other people could crochet more protective tentacles for other hospitals in Finland and keep the memory of her child alive. And with her permission, I have translated the pattern so those of you who don't speak Finnish can make some for a hospital near you! However, please inquire at the hospital for any safety issues first. For example, in Finland hospitals require that the tentacles have been washed in 60'C before donating them. There is a Danish Octo Project that can be contacted for more information.

Protective tentacles

You need:

• Crochet hook size 2 and 3.5 mm
• Tapestry needle
• Black and white yarn for the eyes
• Fiber fill
• Colorful yarn for the octopus: cotton/bamboo or anything that you can wash in 60’C and that won’t emit dust (pictured: Novita Miami and Novita Puuvilla-Bambu)

Body

R1: With colorful yarn, 6SC in magic loop using 3.5 mm hook
R2: 2 SC in each st around (12 sts)
R3: *SC 1, 2 SC in next st* rep 6 times (18 sts)
R4: *SC 2, 2 SC in next st* rep 6 times (24 sts)
R5: SC around (24 sts)
R6: *SC 3, 2 SC in next st* rep 6 times (30 sts)
R7-9: SC around (30 sts)
R10: *SC 3, dec 1* rep 6 times (24 sts)
Break yarn.

Bottom and tentacles

Work rows 1-4 as in body, using 3.5 mm hook. Start working on the tentacles without braking yarn. Chain 40, skip 1st ch, sc in following 39 (to make tentacles curly, add 1-2 sc in every few chains). Tentacles should be max 22 cm in length for safety reasons. Sl st to next SC. Repeat for a total of 6 tentacles, more or less. Break yarn.

Eyes

Using black yarn and 2 mm hook, 6SC in magic loop, close loop with sl st, break yarn. With white yarn, 2SC in each sts around (12 sts). Break yarn and make another one (leave long strand on the second eye for sewing eyes in place).

Sew eyes on body, pull loose ends to WS. Stuff body with fiber fill. Attach bottom to body starting between the eyes and between middle tentacles. Weave in ends.

Alternatively, you can crochet the octopus in one piece:

Work body as above, but do not break yarn. Sew eyes on body and continue with tentacles as in bottom above. After 6th tentacle continue with SC for rest of the row.
R12: SC around (24 sts)
R13: *SC 2, dec 1* rep 6 times (18 sts)
R14: *SC 1, dec 1* rep 6 times (12 sts)
Stuff with fiber fill.
R15: dec 1 around (6 sts)
Break yarn. Weave in ends.

April is the time to start thinking about summer knits, yet still cold enough that you need wear gloves. Therefore, my April knitting includes both summer cotton and woolen gloves.


The cotton project that I'm working on is a summer tee in Drops Paris 100% cotton yarn. I'm not a huge fan of knitting with cotton, but I loved the fact that the yarn is 100% recycled cotton. I'm not sure if it's recycled denim, but at least the colors are the colors of jeans and I wanted to work with the gradient blues. Let's see if my striping works out in the way I imagined it. On the reading part, I'm on book number 4 in Knausgård's series.


I also have a spring shawl project going on: Rowan Fine Art wool/mohair/silk blend that's forming into a brioche shawl. I already knitted one Briochangle shawl, but when trying to write the pattern I noticed that I should have made notes and thought that it's easier to just make another one and write the pattern as I knit. A new pattern coming up, that is! And for the book, well, someone commented in one of my knitting and reading posts how my knitting matches my reading, and it's not a coincidence. Now the problem was, that I didn't have a book to go with these yarns, so I went to my bookshelf to find one. I have no idea how "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy has ended up there, but as it matches my knitting I think I'll go ahead and read it. There are worse ways to pick what you read, right?


In the children's reading front we started a Finnish classic: "Onnelin ja Annelin talo" by Marjatta Kurenniemi. It's a book from the 60's, and I remember it from my childhood. The kids like it, although there are unfamiliar concepts in it for them, such as the girls curtsying. Girls don't do that anymore, do they? Except for ballet, of course. Troll princess did remember that it's something they do at ballet and I had to explain that back in my childhood girls would curtsy when saying thank you or shaking hands. I'm knitting gloves for Young warrior using Rowan Fine Tweed. The yarn might be too fine for me, however, as it breaks when I pull it too tight...


And then I borrowed another classic from the library, this one for adults: "Punainen viiva" by Ilmari Kianto. This is a Finnish classic from 1909 and the reason for reading it now is that I saw a clown version of it in the theatre and started thinking that I might not have read the book. So here I am, finding it difficult to figure out if it's a comedy or a tragedy after the clowns made fun of it. I want to knit something with Tukuwool fingering, so I'm experimenting a bit with the yarn.

What comes to my knitting and reading projects from March, I've finished the books, but not the knittings. Essi Kummu's book about motherhood trauma was not as interesting as I thought that it would be, and apparently the shawl wasn't either as I haven't finished it yet! Actually, it just takes too much concentration to knit it, and I can't read while knitting it so it's progressing slowly. Pärttyli Rinne's book about school shooting was as horrible as one would expect. Easter eggs were not horrible at all, and I ended up making 4 big ones and 7 small ones. I finished the book by Jens Lapidus, but didn't spend all the time needed to frog my brassy bling bling pullover. If I ever think of more use for the yarn I'll have to start by frogging it.

The kids loved Wizard of Oz and we finished the first book. The only reason for starting with Onneli & Anneli was that I didn't have time to pick up the second book of Oz from the library. We have almost read the second book as well by now, but I think there's like 7 or something in the series so that should keep us busy. And poor little Troll princess still doesn't have her dress. It's been taking ages to finish, and then I ran out of yarn. I was going to buy more yarn, but then I started hesitating a bit as I thought that I already paid 75 euros for the yarns, and investing 25 more felt like a bit too much - it's a dress for a 4-year-old after all! Then I realized that I had made a mistake in knitting it all along and decided to frog the whole thing. Starting over some time later with an improved design that's going to work without buying more yarn.

Participating in Ginny's Yarn along.

Repeating Horizons pattern was published in January, and I showed woolen version of the pullover, knitted in Madelinetosh DK, in my post at that time. I've been wearing it all winter, but it's starting to look like spring even here in Helsinki and the woolen pullover is getting a bit too warm. So it's time to share a silky version of the pullover with you. This is actually the first prototype version of the pullover. I knitted it last summer and I love the feel of the silk yarn: Katia rustic silk.




Participating in RUMS again.

Tallinn has plenty to offer for knitters. Several small yarn shops and plenty of traditional hand knitted items for sale. We traveled to Tallinn to see Zemfira live, but while you are there, why not visit a couple of yarn shops also? On the first evening in Tallinn we were in Kalamaja neighborhood. We visited Telliskivi Loomelinnak hipster center in an old electrical engineering factory (with history going as far back as 1869 Baltic Railway factories) and found two lovely little shops: Rohelinevihmavari yarn shop and Minu väike maailm children's clothing shop. Roheline is a shop that sells ecological products and training. Their yarn selection is mostly Drops yarns, and they have KnitPro needles and tools. Next to Roheline is Minu väike maailm, a shop that sells kids' clothing. They have hand knitted alpaca and wool hats, mittens, socks, cardigans, etc. for little kids, as well as other clothes that have been designed and made in Estonia. Great place for souvenir shopping, that is! There's also a cool restaurant at Telliskivi Loomelinnak: F-hoone.



How to get there? Take tram 2 from the center (there's a tram stop in front of the harbor if you're arriving by boat from Finland): in one direction you come to Telliskivi, and in the opposite direction get off at Autobussijaam for Wool & Woollen (it's on the other side of Tartu mnt from Karnaluks, for those of you who are heading to the biggest yarn store in Tallinn). Buy a smarcard at any R-kiosk for 2 euros and a day ticket to public transportation for 3 euros. Alternatively you can take a cab that doesn't cost much, and both places are also within a walking distance if you are used to walking around.