Birkenwasser knits

In this episode of Birkenwasser knits I talk about test knitting - both as a test knitter and as a designer. I show the Fluting Cowl designed by Whitney Hayward that I test knitted for Quince & co and a hat that I made with the same stitch pattern. Then I talk about my expectations and wishes when I arrange test knits.

Fluting cowl: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fluting

Fade it! Sideways test knit: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/birkenwasser-knits/3838921/

Cold weather front from Siberia has created chaos all around Europe. I understand that when you are not used to see snow, it can make life difficult. However, here in Finland, we have enjoyed perfect winter weather: sun has been shining for two weeks, there's snow on the ground and the temperatures have been between -5 and -15 degrees centigrade. People are skiing, skating, and walking on frozen sea! Of course, cold weather means that you need to dress appropriately.


My little Troll Princess lost the cowl that I made her last year, so I had to make a new one. I also wanted to knit the "deer with little antlers hat" by tiny owl knits, so I started with that. I was thinking that the left overs of the Evanlyn hat would be enough for a small hat, and they were. But not enough to make ears, so I had to change plans and knit a plain hat instead.


I had the same Eden Cottage Yarns Oakworth DK in pink, so we decided to add a pink pom pom and a pink cowl to go with the hat. I had looked at the previous KlompeLompe book, but didn't find anything I wanted to knit. From the second one, "Strikk till hele familien", I found this "Peikkonen" cowl with a lovely texture. Only modification I made was to change the ribbing to match that of the hat.






My model is super happy with her new hat and cowl. And we're off to the skating rink across the street!

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 met the lovely Anna of AnnaSaskia designs last October at Kässäkerho Pom Pom Superviikonloppu. She told me about her plans and it's been great to see her start with her web page and Etsy shop since then. After the festival I checked out her designer page on Ravelry, and noticed that she's the designer of the popular Tamarugo hat. And then I remembered the camouflage-colored yarn that I had bought with Young Warrior in mind, so all that was left was to modify the pattern into kid size.



Last autumn, I made fingerless mitts for Young Warrior so he could play Pokemon. Later on, he explained that there should be half of the fingers in the gloves for better fit. Of course, that's obvious, and so is the reason why I didn't make them in the first place: too much effort and too many ends to weave in. But if the kid makes the effort to explain what kind of knitwear he needs, I feel that I need to make the effort to knit that and as there was plenty of yarn left, that was the next project.



I wanted to make matching gloves to go with the new hat, so I took the stitch pattern from Tamarugo hat. To avoid swatching and counting, I searched for a kids' glove pattern for the yarn. I skipped the stitch pattern from the instructions and used two repeats of the same stitch as in the hat. As the stitch is formed by one row of mostly slipped stitches, I was worried that the gloves would turn out uneven as the palm side would have one extra row in every four rows. Therefore, I slipped every other stitch on the palm side when knitting the slip stitch row, and then slipped every other stitch on the following row. Looks pretty even now. Only thing that I would modify is to make the fingers different length to match the length of the kid's fingers - working until the first knuckle, for example. There will be an opportunity to try that, as the next order is in. Troll Princess just realised how unfair it is that she doesn't have fingerless gloves...

January 21, 2017 is going to be a day of women's rights. Starting from Women's March planned for Washington, D.C, the movement has spread around the world with sister marches arranged in various cities. We are going to have one in Helsinki, so I thought that it's time for me to join the PussyHat Project. The idea is to have everyone marching wear a pink pussy hat. The original PussyHat Project pattern has more than 6000 projects on Ravelry, so it seems that this project has gotten needles moving. You don't need to use that pattern, though - any pussy hat pattern is ok.


To support the Pussy Hat Project, I have made an adult version of my Catwoman returns hat. You can find the instructions below. It's basically the same hat as the original children's hat, only the earflaps have been replaced by a 2 x 2 ribbing and it's a bit bigger to fit an adult head. I wanted to keep the crown shaping and short-row ears, so I didn't use the original PussyHat Project pattern by Kat Coyle.

Materials and tools

150 m (165 yards) Aran weight wool (here: Novita 7 veljestä)
Needles: 3,5 and 4 mm DPNs (US 4 and 6)
2 stitch markers, tapestry needle

Gauge

21 sts and 29 rows = 10 cm (4") in stockinette stitch.

Instructions

Cast on 112 sts on smaller needles. Join in the round and place marker at beginning of round. Work in (k2, p2) ribbing for 6 cm (2 1/2 inches).

Switch to larger needles and continue in stockinette stitch until total length is 15 cm (6").
Following round: (k12, k2tog), repeat to end of round. (104 sts)
K 10 rounds.
Following round: (k11, k2tog), repeat to end of round. (96 sts)
Set up round for ears: k48, place marker, k48.

Start ear shaping with short rows. If you are not familiar with short rows using wrap & turn (w&t), check out this Knitty tutorial.

K15 sts after marker, w&t.
P30, w&t.
K to 10 sts after marker, w&t.
P20, w&t.
K to 7 sts after marker, w&t.
P14, w&t.
K to second marker, catching wraps as you come to them.
Repeat ear shaping for the other ear.
K to first marker, catching wraps as you come to them.
K one round, catching remaining wraps as you come to them.

Bind off sts, using three needle bind off: place first and fourth needle close to each other, k2tog (one from each needle), k2tog, lift previous st over this one. Continue to last st.

Weave in the ends. Block the hat and get ready to march for women's rights!

Knotions January 2017 issue is out, featuring 14 patterns for accessories. My Pastilles Hat is one of them.



Pastilles Hat features rows of candy, created with bubblewrap stitches. The technique creates an illusion of stranded work without the trouble of working with two yarns at a time. Dig into your stash and find those little bits of leftover yarn in your favorite candy colors! Folded brim keeps your ears warm without making the rest of the hat too thick.




Business Woman liked the hat so much, that she asked if she could keep it after the photo shoot. Not too long after that she left it on a long distance bus in Estonia, when returning from our trip to Saaremaa. When discussing this with my 5-year-old Troll Princess, I realised that the little girl is pretty aware of what this knitwear design thing is all about. After asking how did Business Woman loose the hat, her second question was: "Did you take pictures of it before she lost it?!". Well, I did, and I told Business Woman that it didn't matter that she lost it. But it did matter to her, and I quote: "It is the best hat ever! I really want it back!". So after doing her business in Tallinn she called the bus company and went back to the bus station to get her hat back.

I hope you will all enjoy this pattern and make best hats ever with it!

When I started writing patterns of my knitwear designs I promised myself that I would only write patterns for something that I've knitted for myself. I'm a selfish knitter after all, and I wouldn't want to waste time knitting something that I won't be able to wear. Well, 21 patterns later I've noticed that it doesn't really go that way... At least for me, that is. I used to knit my designs only for myself and I didn't care so much if they were perfect. Now that I've published my designs, I do want them to be perfect. The way I work, experimenting along the way, means that I typically knit a prototype, then write the pattern and knit the sample from my own instructions. This way I get to keep the prototype and still have the sample to show.


With my Circular Reference pattern I did it the other way around: I first knitted the sample (unraveling and re-knitting until perfect) and then noticed that I want one for myself, but in a bigger size. So I checked my stash and found one more skein of Onion Knit Tussah Silk, a purple skein that I bought to make a hat for myself. There were also just enough Madelinetosh Tosh DK leftovers from my Repeating Horizons pullover that I was able to knit the larger hat for myself.



What happened to the original gray Circular Reference samples then? Well, Young Warrior tried them on and said that he needs a hat and a cowl, so what could I say? I did negotiate with him enough to have the samples for my trunk show at Kässäkerho Pom Pom, but after that he took them and let's just say that they are not exactly in show condition anymore... Anyway, after he took them I had one jealous girl telling me that she also wants a hat and a cowl. I managed to negotiate that into just a cowl, as I reminded her that I knitted the Catwoman Returns hat for her last winter.



The cowl is a bit shorter than it's supposed to be, but I used all the yarn that was left from my hat and this is how far I got with it. Troll Princess is super happy with her cowl, though! Oh, and the shawl that I'm wearing, it's my modified Exploration station in Madelinetosh yarns as well, with some of the same Rose colorway.

It's CreaDienstag!

Circular reference hat and cowl are worked in spiraling two-color brioche. The pattern is enhanced by switching the main color and contrast color for each panel. Use high contrast in colors for a more visible pattern or less contrast for a subtle effect. This pattern will keep you interested while knitting and still produces a cool no-frills end result. Make the hat first, and you can adjust the size of the cowl according to how much yarn you have left. This unisex design works for both men and women. The pattern comes in sizes S and L. The stretchy brioche makes it adjustable for anything in between - or even for a child: my 7-year-old Young Warrior announced that he is taking the samples, because a silk-merino cowl is just what he needs as the weather is getting colder.

Betua Mittens and Hat are knitted with one main color and three gradient contrasting colors used in the background. The design features a birch leaf pattern in two-color brioche stitch, where the second color changes using all three gradient colors. The background for the brioche birch leaves is knitted in two-color garter stitch: every other round in main color and every other round in contrasting color.





This is one of those patterns that were inspired by the yarn. The lovely gradient set of Aarni by Riihivilla made me think of autumn leaves, and that became the brioche part: birch leaves, with autumn colors in the background. Betua is Gaulish for birch. You could also try a self-striping yarn in the background, or simply use two contrasting colors.

Catwoman returns is a hat for a child, for a head circumference of about 52-56 cm [20-22 in.], leaving room to wear a merino wool balaclava underneath. This is a quick knit: start by making two ear flaps, continue with a seed stitch edge, then work in stockinette stitch until desired length and add ears with short rows, finishing with a three needle bind off.


The frontside of the hat is slightly wider than the back for better fit. This will result in decreasing sts during three needle bind off. If this seems too complicated, you can make both sides the same width, casting on 40 sts between the ear flaps on both sides.


Pattern: Catwoman returns (below)
Yarn: Novita 7 veljestä (70 g) or similar aran weight wool yarn 140 m (150 y)
Materials: Size 4 mm (US 6) DPNs, 2 stitch markers
Stitches used: Seed stitch: RS *k1, p1*, repeat; WS *p1, k1*, repeat; seed stitch in the round: Round 1 *k1, p1*, repeat; Round 2 *p1, k1*, repeat; stockinette stitch in the round: knit all sts.
Gauge: 22 stitches and 31 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette stitch

Instructions

Cast on 5 sts, leaving a tale of about 20 cm (8").
Work in seed stitch. Increase 1 st at the beginning and end of every other row 5 times (15 sts).
Continue until you have a total of 22 rows.
Break yarn and leave sts on one needle. Make another ear flap similarly, but do not break yarn.

Cast on 36 sts to the side of the second ear flap using cable cast on. (Backside of the hat)
Attach first ear flap by knitting its 15 sts. Place marker by the middle st.
Cast on 44 sts and join in the round to second ear flap (front). Place marker by the middle st of the ear flap.
Work in seed stitch with these 110 sts for 10 rounds.


Continue in st st.
After 20 rounds decrease 6 sts evenly.
Continue in st st for 10 rounds. Decrease 6 sts evenly.
Continue for 8 rounds and decrease 6 sts evenly (92 sts).

(Try the hat on at this point to see if the length is ok, and add a couple of rows if necessary.)

Start ear shaping with short rows. If you are not familiar with short rows using wrap & turn (w&t), check out this Knitty tutorial.

K15 sts after marker, w&t.
P30, w&t.
K to 10 sts after marker, w&t.
P20, w&t.
K to 7 sts after marker, w&t.
P14, w&t.
K to second marker, and shape the other ear similarly.
K one round.

Beginning at the marker: K1 (the middle stitch), start three needle bind off (place needles with sts before and after the middle st close to each other, k2tog - one from each needle - and lift previous st over this one). Continue for 13 sts. You have more sts in the front than in the back (exact number varies depending on how you placed the decreases). Mark 14 sts on both sides of the other middle st. Continue binding off the remaining sts so that you decrease the extra sts of the frontside evenly: k3tog by knitting 2 sts from the frontside needle and 1 st from the backside needle. Bind off the remaining 14 sts and end with the middle st.

Weave in the ends. Cut yarn into 4 pieces, about 40 cm (16") in length. Using tapestry needle pull two yarns through the bottom corner of each ear flap, leaving 20 cm (8") on each side. Twist the yarns together to make strands for tying the hat in place. (Alternatively: knit i-cords or crochet a chain). Block the hat and enjoy those winter days!