Birkenwasser knits

Easter provided a good excuse to pick up my crochet hook again. After the success with my amigurumi fruits and vegetables I wanted to make some Easter decorations with left over yarns. I also wanted to make something for my sister, as we were going to visit her during Easter. I found a lovely pattern for a decorated Easter egg, and then I found this self-striping yarn in my stash and tried that with a simple egg pattern. I like them both, and so does Troll Princess, who actually threw a fit when she discovered that these amigurumi were not made for her and she explicitly told me that I wasn't allowed to give the little eggs to my sister. I might have to make a couple more of these.

I came across some cute amigurumi crochet on Instagram and thought that it would be nice to crochet something similar, but I don't have time for something like that. I'm a serious knitter, after all. A couple of days later I realized that crocheted food would make a great Christmas present for Troll princess. At the moment, she is using pearls and slugs as food in her kitchen and getting rid of those small items scattered around her room would make everyone happy.

 There are so many amigurumi patterns on Ravelry that it was difficult to know what to start with. I narrowed the selection by choosing to go with fruit and veggies only. I want my kids to make healthy choices!


I've been adding one veggie at a time to the collection. These are fun projects, as it takes about an hour to make one so you can take a break from other projects and quickly finish something. I've been posting pics of the finished items on Instagram along the way, and Troll princess has seen many of the pics. The response has been exactly what I was hoping for: "Woolly mushroom! Mom, show me that pic of the woolly mushroom! Could you make one like that for me, please?".

This has been a very rewarding project for me as well. As I was pregnant with Young warrior almost 7 years ago, I took some old towels and used them to sew diapers for the baby. Two babies later I now cut the diaper fillings into small pieces and used them as filling for the toys. Not only did I get rid of some leftover yarns, but I also managed to re-recycle these old towels!

Another bonus: I learned crochet vocabulary in English, so I was able to translate my Korppi place mat pattern in English.


Thank you for sharing these patterns:

Look at this crap I made!
- Tomato, mushroom, bell pepper


Lion Brand yarns
- Eggplant, apple


Nyanpon's knit and crochet
- Leek, beet

Kristi Tullus
- Carrot

Sheep Dog's Fleece
- Cabbage

Johanna Karlsson
- Banana

PlanetJune
- Pear

Novita yarns is hosting a charity knitting contest to support Women's line, a service that helps women suffering from abuse, threats or fear. As a former volunteer for Women's line, I knew that this was a contest I have to participate in. The rules are simple: design and knit a scarf/shawl/cowl with Novita yarns. All submitted items will be sold at a crafts fair and the revenues donated to Women's line.




Definitely a new technique for me was the i-cord finishing of the sides. I was afraid that it would take forever, but it wasn't too slow after all. Even if I had to do a couple of retakes as I was too hasty and ended up making it too tight.

All in all this project was a success for me: learning a couple of new techniques, getting to knit a shawl, doing a bit of stash busting (only a bit of orange and brown left!). Now all I can do is hope that someone likes the shawl enough to pay for it!

I was actually so happy with this project, that I have another (two...) on the needles. And 8 more days to knit!

I seem to be knitting for my Young warrior twice a year: a beanie for the winter and a vest for dressing up. The previous vest was with cables and you can find the Kivitasku vest pattern on Ravelry. This time I wanted to knit a background for this "T" badge I had bought a couple of years ago already.



As I was sewing the badge on the finished vest, I remembered an earlier project with badges. This was for a bit younger version of the Young warrior. This vest has the same story behind it: I found these cute little badges and wanted to knit something that I could sew them on.




As this smaller size vest is no longer in use, I've put it on sale on a Finnish auction site. There's another little vest as well, this one of Rowan Bamboo soft yarn. These are both about size 68/74.

I was planning on writing a pattern for the vest, but as it's a really simple thing I guess you can easily make your own pattern and just add the badges that you'd like. You could also take the Kivitasku pattern and just leave out the cables from the front and knit in stockinette stitch instead.