Birkenwasser knits

I have now knitted Lemon, Snowdrop, Robin, Starling and Pine from this book, so I think it's time to knit something else for a change. Now the question is what? Can you recommend a pattern that would a) look good and b) give an opportunity to learn something new: a new construction, technique, or something?


Participating in RUMS.

Heute ist wieder RUMS Tag.

You always need a project that you can work on while reading something and Helga Isager's Robin is a very good option for that: endless stockinette in lace weight yarn provides plenty of reading opportunities. Starting with the decorated panels is interesting, then you need some patience to pick up more than 300 sts on each side of the panels, but once you get that done it's stockinette with only a couple of decreases along the way. The result is lovely and Isager Spinni is a great yarn to work with.




Mit diesem Posting kann ich das erste Mal bei RUMS (Rund ums Weib am Donnerstag) mitmachen!

"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.

I couldn't help but come back to the lovely pink Snowdrop dress in Helga Isager's Neuleiden neljä vuodenaikaa book. It's such a pretty dress and looks so good in the pale pink that it's knitted from. The only thing is that I'm not really a lace person and pink is not really my color. As my little Troll princess put it "well, mom, you don't look like a girl". So I decided to start with pullovers that were more my style, until I realized that I don't have to strictly follow the pattern - I can modify it to fit my style. The result is perfect, a dark gray no frills dress for a girl who doesn't look like a girl!

Helga Isager must be one of the most talented knitwear designers. After participating in the LemonKAL I knew that I wanted to knit more of her designs. LemonKAL was organized by Jonna Hietala who had translated Isager's book Finstickat into Finnish (Neuleiden neljä vuodenaikaa), so the next logical step would be to get the book and see what's in there. I thought that I would only take a look at the book and the designs so I signed up on the library queue for the book. I was thinking that I would save some money by borrowing the book instead of buying it. Fail. Epic fail. Take my word on this: you will not save money if you get your hands on this book!


After a couple of months of waiting I finally got the book and couldn't let it down on the first evening. Of course, I had to get online to see what where the yarn options. Unfortunately, my favorite LYS was almost out of stock for most of the colors that I wanted to get. Now the smart thing to do would have been to buy yarn for the first item that I wanted to knit and then get more once the first one is finished. Would have been. Then again you can also search for an online yarn store that has all the colors you want and order it all on the first night of getting your hands on the book. I'm so glad that my exchange student year in Germany wasn't in vain, as I was able to purchase the yarn from a German web shop! Then it was just about refreshing the DHL delivery status daily, waiting for my package to arrive in Finland... And it's finally here!

The book features four seasons of knitwear in beautiful pictures. I think I will end up buying the book as well after all, as it's such a gem to flip through and think about future knitting projects.



I noticed that I have currently 12 WIPs on the needles, so I will be finishing those before casting on any of these babies. NOT! I'm pretty sure that the first one will be on the needles tonight. But with a stash enhancement this expensive I decided to do what the more experienced stashers do: pack the rest of the yarns in sealed plastic bags. Just in case.

I had seen a couple of finished Lemon projects earlier and thought that the pattern looked interesting. Then the lovely yarn shop Kerä announced that they were hosting a KAL for this pattern, so I thought I'd give it a try. And I'm glad that I did, as the result is absolutely beautiful!






The front panel meant learning to do vikkel braid. Luckily Jonna from Kerä provided a good instruction video, as my first try from reading the instructions failed. It's not difficult to do, but it's time consuming. Switching between vikkel braid and stockinette stitch meant that I would read the newspaper for 20 minutes while doing stockinette, and then take a 10 minute break and make the vikkel braid. A bit annoying. This knit is not for reading! At least not the panel part.


After finishing the front and back panels you make little folds on the sides and knit the sleeves and sides sideways. I made a slight mistake with the folds and only noticed it when I was almost done with the whole top, so I decided to leave it as it is. Unfortunately, this means that the folds that really took a lot of time and energy are not as visible as they should be. Sigh. There's a lot of picking up stitches, which is ok when you do it for the first time, but when you pick the same stitches for the second time, that's when it gets difficult.


My favorite part is the neckline finishing with triple vikkel braid. I think I'm going to be borrowing that for one of my own designs!



Unfortunately, I noticed that my first worry of this design not working for my body type was correct. I didn't buy any extra yarn, so I couldn't modify the pattern, but ended up knitting something that I can't wear. And after trying to unravel my vikkel braid swatch, I noticed that you can't unravel this either. This might be due to the yarn, which has a pretty rough texture. I think I like the yarn, but I'm not sure if I would knit another summer tee with it.

This was a nice learning experience, though: doing vikkel braids, panel construction, three needle bind off, trying a new yarn, so I'm glad that I participated. I also enjoyed very much seeing everyone else's progress on Instagram. I should have just payed more attention to their pics and see when they differed from what I was doing...