Birkenwasser knits

This month I have finished so many projects, that it made me feel uncomfortable already: what if I suddenly don't have the right project to knit when I need it? It's always good to be on the safe side and work on 10+ projects at any given time. So I've started some new things:


I had an idea about a shawl design long time ago already, but didn't like the way it turned out with the yarn that I used for the first version. Now that I found these lovely Malabrigo sock colors from Stockholm, I thought I'd give the idea another try. I can already say that it looks a lot better than my first try! The book is "Lasteni farina" (Story of my children) by Essi Kummu. It's a book about the early years of her prematurely born twins and how she was traumatized by everything that happened. Actually, the book is more about her trauma than about her children.


Easter is coming, so it's time to make some Easter decorations. I like the occasional crochet project, and making vegetables was so much fun that I wanted to continue with amigurumi and decided to make some Easter eggs this time. Getting rid of some old scrap yarn while at it! The book is "Viimeinen sana" (Last word) by Pärttyli Rinne, story of a school shooting. Pretty heavy stuff here to go with the pastel colored eggs, huh?


After knitting the Brassy bling bling hat I thought that I would frog the whole pullover I had made of the bling bling yarn earlier. It would be easier to use the yarn for other projects if it was unraveled and ready for use, right? Well, it's such a pain to unravel that yarn, that I gave up after half an hour or so. I was listening to a book while doing it, "Snabba cash" (Easy money) by Jens Lapidus. It's a crime story of Stockholm underground: drug dealers, trafficking in women, Yugoslav mafia. Definitely not my type of reading, but I do like to read these best sellers every now and then to know what people are talking about. Of course, the fact that it was a gift from an e-book service provider played a role in the choice of the book. I can see why it's been so popular, and I have to say that I have learned a lot of organized crime and money laundering by listening to it. Lapidus is a criminal defense lawyer, so I guess there's some truth to what his writing.


I'm still working on this dress for Troll princess. It hasn't been number one on my knitting queue, and I'm afraid the winter is going to be over before I finish it. I have to make it big enough so it will fit her next winter! In the kids' classics series we have started with "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. The kids are loving it: yesterday Troll princess asked for a second chapter of Oz even if there was a choice of Frozen princess stories on the table! (They both get to choose one book/chapter/story every night.)

What about last month's projects? Well, I finished the tunic I was working on, and didn't even have to unravel anymore. I read the short stories by Katja Kettu, and started listening to the other book. We loved Ruby's adventures in coding and I'm hoping that my friend liked the cardi that I knit for his baby boy. I read the book about Ukraine, but I'm not sure if I really understand more about the situation there, except that it's a mess. The yarn for a second tunic is still waiting for its turn, even if the tunic turned out great. I have to knit something else for a change.

Joining Ginny's Yarn along.

I had the opportunity to spend one day in Stockholm and I wanted to visit Litet nystan yarn shop after hearing so much good about it, for example, reading Senni's report last spring. It's located near Slussen in Södermalm, a nice walk from Viking Line terminal. Unfortunately, I didn't have that much time to spend in the shop, so all I did was stroll around to see what they have. There were many brands that I wasn't familiar with, so I might return some other time to pay more attention to those.


This time I knew that I wanted to try the shop's own name brand handpainted yarns. They didn't have the lovely cashmere blend that I had seen another friend knitting with, and I wasn't too amazed by the colors in the otherwise lovely merino lace yarn, so I ended up with the same sock yarn as Senni did, only in a different color. Shocking pink that is!



After admiring the lovely selection of brands and yarns I wasn't familiar with I reached the last ones: Malabrigo sock and Madelinetosh tosh merino light. It doesn't make that much sense to buy these from Stockholm when I could just walk to my LYS here in Helsinki for that. But seeing these colors made me return to the shelf and pick up the skeins, and as I looked at my watch I noticed that I must be heading back to the ship. So, there was no time to think which skeins to buy and I just rushed to the counter an bought all of them. I'll have to start knitting more shawls now!




Oh, there was one new yarn on my pile, or new for me, that is. Madelinetosh Pashmina, a merino-silk-cashmere blend. Don't you just love that colorway! And it's called Flashdance, how cool is that!

Tuulihaukka (”Windhover”) shawl is an asymmetric shawl with alternating garter stitch and eyelet stitch stripes. The shape is achieved with short rows. The pattern is for a small one skein shawl, but you can easily increase the size by adding more stripes. Instructions for this are given.