Birkenwasser knits

Lehtokerttu top is a linen summer top with dropped stitches creating lace like horizontal lines. The top is knitted sideways in one piece. It has a loose, boxy shape.


Quince & co Sparrow organic linen yarn has a lovely glow. The top turned out just the way I wanted: the summer top that makes me wish that summer was already here!


Just in time for the #tttKAL and with a couple of days left for the #linenKAL2015 - I managed to finish my first KALs on time! The pattern is available for purchase on Ravelry and it is available in English and in Finnish.

First, there was Sparrow. Quince & co organic linen, shiny and lovely and turning into a design in my mind. After the Lehtokerttu design was on paper, it was time to get the yarns from Kerä, the LYS where I spotted the yarn. And then just cast on!



I had read about KALs, but never participated. Then I noticed that Quince & co was hosting a linen KAL - as I was knitting my Sparrow top! The KAL had started in April already, and the deadline was approaching on June 8th, but hey, deadlines are great, they give purpose to life, right?


So there I am, knitting along, when I notice another KAL: Tops, tanks and tees KAL by Very Shannon. Now can you participate in two KALs with the same knit? Maybe they'll disqualify me from both, but I thought that I'll go ahead and give it a try. And the best thing with this second KAL for my Lehtokerttu top: the deadline moved to June 3rd, so those needles better be moving!

Of course, this is the point when you get the front done, and notice that it's too small in every direction. So to make making the deadline a bit more challenging, I frogged the whole thing and started from the beginning. There's still almost a week to go, so no panic...



Then I read that Kerä is hosting a Lemon-KAL. This KAL has a specific pattern, Helga Isager's Lemon, which happens to be pretty awesome in that a) it's pretty and b) has some new things I haven't tried before (sideways stitches and front panel construction). The good thing is that the deadline is in July, so there's plenty of time for knitting here. So I'm going to take this as a learning experience and follow someone else's pattern for a change. Unless I need to modify it at some point...

During my short online presence in the knitting world I have already discovered quite a few things that I've never tried, but that seem to be pretty popular. As a note to self - try these:

1. Top down knitting. You know what, I honestly had never heard of knitting pullovers top down, and I'm still not quite sure why that would be better than knitting bottom up. Therefore, I'd better give it a try!

2. Along the same lines: socks knitted toe up. Actually, I don't think the flat toe looks so nice, but as this is something that I also haven't tried, I'm gonna do it just to see how it goes.

3. Shawls. This one I share with Of course she knits who is also new in the online knitting world. What's with the shawls? I never see anyone wear shawls, so do you just knit them for the fun of knitting? I'm definitely going to knit a couple of them. Maybe Quicksilver and then something lace. I keep seeing pictures of Quicksilver, and can't figure out how it was knitted. It just might have to be the first pattern that I buy.

4. Three needle bindoff. Picot edge. I was looking for a dictionary of English knitting vocabulary and found these Learn-to-knit instructions. It seems that there are some really basic(?) things that I've never tried. Also the ways of sewing things together look different from the way I was taught to do it. Then there are row (or whatever) markers. Those I'm not going to try before someone explains to me why they would be useful. Aren't they just extra work, moving them around?

5. Linen. The first four items on my list could be explained by the little engineer in me who wants to try new techniques and see how things are compiled in three dimensions, but this one can't be explained. I really want to knit something linen.