Birkenwasser knits

This episode takes you to Punkaharju to a lovely knit retreat organised by Kässäkerho Pom Pom. You will see some of the most beautiful Finnish winter scenes, and get to see what happens when 25 knitters get together for a weekend.







Siri by Linnea Öhman: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/siri-4

Arctic Blizzard: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/arctic-blizzard

Knitlandia by Clara Parkes: https://amzn.to/2CnSuJt (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Vertices Unite by Stephen West: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vertices-unite

Tänään neulon podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWyIl4TupD0xXueXtAbIJAg

In this episode you can join our knitting circle on our journey to Turku to visit ILO Knitting Shop.



In this episode I'm working on

Flibbertigibbet socks by Lisa K. Ross: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flibbertigibbet

Sidetracked socks by Kirsten Hall: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sidetracked-socks



I'm wearing my favourite sweater: Alignment https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/alignment

In Episode 2 I tell about my trip to Jyväskylä Summer Knit Festival. Jonna Hietala interviews festival teachers on Laine cruise: Heli Rajavaara, Anna Johanna, Veera Välimäki, Julie Asselin, Nathan Taylor and Melanie Berg.







Mentioned in this episode:

Osculation Shawl

Kaiku Wrap

Lehtokerttu Top

Plan A socks

Tour-de-Sock

Kässäkerho Pom Pom changed the schedule of their annual SUPERweekend from autumn to spring and we enjoyed a lovely weekend in Kuopio on March 23-25. The weekend was filled with yarns, knitting, old and new friends, chatter and laughter - and learning new things.


The marketplace had some old favourites, as well as some new amazing yarns. Moar Yarn demonstrated hand spinning and had a lovely collection of hand spun yarn and spinning fibres on their stand.


ILO yarn made the trip all the way from Salo, and brought a lovely selection of these pastel beauties by Lystig Yarn, as well as gorgeous items from Primrose Yarn Co., Annie Yarns, etc.


KVG Woolworks had more of the awesome signature "Kuopio" colorway, only available in Kuopio, and this time also as fade kits. I had to get a sweater quantity of Kuopio, but with the fade kits I opted for this accidental colorway that I found especially pretty. I also picked up an accidental colorway of Kässäkerho Pom Pom Merino singles, as well as some Alpaca-Linen-Silk from Lanitium ex Machina, so it looks like I managed to get a ridiculously exaggerated haul back home with me. Nothing new here... (Except the yarns, they are new, something I didn't have in my stash, so I had to get them. Right? Right?!)


It was nice to see a couple of Liinu Shawls that I designed for the previous SUPERweekend. I also learned that more Liinu Shawls were in progress, and I can't wait to see them! This merino-silk one was on display and later worn by its talented knitter Maijusha (Ravelry name) at the evening party at Hygge Bro.


I had the opportunity to attend Liinu's sock blank workshop, finally! It was very exciting to have my first try at dyeing. My sock blank even turned out pretty much the way I wanted (see below) - until it was time to microwave it. For some reason, the dye bled afterwards, and I got some unplanned effect from that. I'm not sure if it was good or bad, as it actually dyed the whites from underneath (I only painted one side of the blank). So the end result is not what I planned (see the end result in the yarn haul pic above), but I'm definitely super anxious to get it on the needles and see how it is going to look like as socks!


Thank you, again, Liinu and the team for organising such a great event! And thank you all lovely Kuopio knitters for welcoming us visitors!

Jyväskylä KnitFestival organised its first Winter Festival on Feb 2-4, 2018. The first day of the festival wasn't easy: local traffic was on strike and there a blizzard in Jyväskylä. Not the best day for an open air market, with temperatures below -10 'C! Luckily, long distance trains were not on strike, and as I live within a walking distance from the train station I was able to make it to Jyväskylä on Friday. I arrived just in time for the Knit Night at Cafe Muisto, and had a lovely evening.


On Saturday morning, we were greeted with sunshine! It was a beautiful day, although colder than Friday. You have to admire the marketplace vendors who spent the day outside. I wasn't dressed for the weather, so after some quick shopping outside I headed to Titityy for some more shopping and to check out their new premises. There was plenty of room to sit and knit and chat with other knitters, and I was able to swatch with some new yarn to find out what size needles I should buy.


In the afternoon, I participated in Rachel Coopey's Inspired Socks class. We learned how to design a pair of socks with inspiration from stitch dictionaries. I brought a stitch pattern with me that I thought might be too difficult to turn into a sock design, but Rachel was very supportive and encouraged me to go ahead with it. After 3 hours of knitting, I noticed that I didn't like the pattern after all - it looked so different in sock form compared to the picture of a flat piece. But now I know what parts of the pattern I want to keep and what I'm going to change, so this just might become my first sock design!


On Saturday dinner, we had the opportunity to see (and try on) some of the samples in next Laine Magazine. There are some lovely designs among them!


Sunday morning started with a Knitting Brunch at a lovely teahouse, Teeleidi. After that it was time for me to head to the train station with my souvenirs. Two bags of yarn. I don't know how that happened... But this set of Tukuwool Sock was included in the ticket price, and there should be a pattern by Rachel Coopey coming to go with it!


It was such a nice weekend, again. Thank you for organising such a great event and thank you everyone who participated for making it such a great experience! Hope to see you all at the next event!

Obviously, one of the highlights of Oslo Strikkefestival was the marketplace and all the lovely yarn there. However, I had some extra days in Oslo, and of course that meant more yarn shopping! I had asked for some recommendations of lovely yarn shops, and I was advised to visit Værbitt and Pickles. I also heard that there are nice souvenirs at the Heimen Husfliden yarn shop at GlasMagasinet, so that got on my list also.



Pickles is located in Grünerløkka, at Markeveien 56. They have a lovely selection of yarns, mostly their own Pickles brand. I found it very difficult to resist these rows full of color, and ended up getting a colorwork cardigan quantity of their Pickles Merino Tweed. I should have taken the above picture before getting my yarns off the shelf, though!

Værbitt is a lovely little shop of children's books and hand-dyed yarn. It's located in Tøyen at Sørligata 46, which is within a walking distance from Pickles. The yarns were organised on the shelves by color instead of the normal brand/type categorisation. This really makes the shop look awesome! It might be slightly more difficult to plan colorwork if different colorways are found at opposite sides of the shop, but it's a small shop so it shouldn't be that difficult.


Heimen Husfliden is located at the bottom floor of GlasMagasinet at Stortorvet 9. It has the largest selection of yarns of these three shops. They have all the popular Norwegian brands: Rauma, Sandnes, Du Store Alpakka, etc. There was also a wall filled with rya yarns, and I did feel tempted to get a rya rug amount of them after my ryaknuter class, but somehow some voice of sanity in my head told me to practice with scrap yarns first. And maybe start with something smaller than a large wall hanging. Ryas were mentioned in the evening news just the other day, by the way: how they have become popular again and how people are learning to make them or hunt for old ones from flea markets. Maybe it's too late to make one now?


I had been wanting to knit a colorwork cardigan since the steeking class that I took earlier this year. With all the possible shades of Rauma Finullgarn, I was able to find the combination I wanted for the Cherry Bloom cardigan by Lene Tøsti. At the Strikkefestival I noticed so many Siri cardigans by Linnea Öhman, that I ended up buying yarn for that as well. I learned about a charity initiative going on in Norway at that time, #Oransjeskjerf ("Orange Scarf"), and as I saw a box of the orange yarns at Heimen Husfliden, I decided to buy these charity scarf yarns as well. And I got a skein of the lovely hand dyed mohair at Værbitt. And a gradient Kauni for no apparent reason (it's not even Norwegian, so it doesn't count as a souvenir). But then again, do you always need a reason to buy yarn? With these additions to my Strikkefestival purchases, I think I made good use of the piece of checked-in luggage that was included in my flight ticket!

Kässäkerho Pom Pom organized the second SUPERweekend in Kuopio on October 27-29, 2017. The weekend was filled with knitting, yarn shopping, workshops, and hanging out with old and new knitting friends.


This year, the festival moved to bigger premises, and with great location right next to the railway station and more room for the knitting lounge and shopping, I'd say it was a good change.

My contribution to the festival was the Liinu Shawl in Kässäkerho Pom Pom's Merino Singles, and it was lovely to hear all the nice feedback for the design. It was not the only design for the festival, though, as Susanna Winter had a collaboration with Petrichor Yarn and their Tears in Rain shawl was at Petrichor Yarn booth. I extended my trunk show to Lanitium ex Machina's table with the Tauride Shawl and to Lystig Yarn table with the Flying Jib Shawl.


Saturday evening was knit night at Hygge Bro, a nice new restaurant by the market square. There was a knitting bingo, but, unfortunately and despite our efforts, we were not among the first three to get a bingo. We had lots of fun that night anyway, and enjoyed our goodie bags that included some lovely yarn samples and new Kässäkerho Pom Pom postcards.


Having returned from Oslo Strikkefestival with a suitcase full of yarn I tried to keep my hands off the yarns this weekend. I had to get the special Kuopio colorway from KVG Woolworks, though, even if it is a mixture of wool, cotton, nylon and silk. I'm not sure what I would use a cotton mix yarn for, but the skein was so pretty that I might just enjoy it as it is. Another surprise purchase was this Merino Single Bling from Petrichor Yarns: the bling is not my thing, but this beautiful colorway reminds me of a winter night sky with the bling bling as stars. Two balls of Isager Alpaca 1 from Kässäkerho Pom Pom are needed for a new design.

Thank you for organising such a lovely event again, Liinu! Now that this event has been organised twice it's a tradition, and you can count me in next year also!

Oslo Strikkefestival was arranged for the third time on October 20-22, 2017. This was my first time at the festival, and I have to say that it was definitely worth the trip! I hadn't planned for attending the festival, but then I noticed that I have some SAS bonus points that are expiring soon and remembered the festival. At that point, most of the classes were sold out, but I did manage to find something interesting, so off to Oslo it was.


The festival started on Friday evening with Opening party at Deichmanske Hovedbibliotek. There were long tables full of knitters as I arrived, but I found a seat right in front of the stage. The program included stand up comedy in Norwegian, so I can't say whether it was good or not. I understood the part of choosing what kind of knitter you are when trying to choose what Facebook knitting groups to join, but then it got to politics and started to be too much for my language capability. I don't speak Norwegian, but I've studied Swedish for 6 years and that helps.


There was a photo booth for taking festive pictures, such as the one above. I was wearing my Steller Tunic and my Flying Jib Shawl, and especially the shawl got lot of attention - which was nice, obviously. Later in the evening there was a movie screening "Yarn" by Una Lorenzen, which was a documentary of four fiber artists and in a way continued the feminism theme. For example, knit graffiti artist Tinna Þorudottir Þorvaldsdottir explained how she wanted to bring handicrafts from the private to the public, and artist Olek described how difficult it is to be heard in the art world after explaining that your material is yarn and your technique is crochet.


On Saturday, the festival moved to Norsk Folkemuseum and it was the first day of the market place. There was an unbelievable amount of people at the marketplace, and it was difficult to move, let alone to buy anything. I managed to grab four gorgeous skeins from Tweedy Todd before it was time to find my class: "Ryaknutar och några stygn" by Magasin Duett. The class was about rya knots and various stitches, and it was nice to learn something completely new. In Finland, rya rugs are making a comeback, and I have been thinking that it would be nice to make one. I don't know when I would ever have the time for that, but at least I now know how to.


After my class, I headed to the museum cafe where the after party had already started. I met some old friends and made new ones, and it was a lovely evening.

My original plan was to do sightseeing on Sunday, but as my visit to the marketplace wasn't as successful as I had hoped for on Saturday, I decided to go back on Sunday. There was also supposed to be a guided tour of the museum in English on Sunday morning, and I was interested in the knitting exhibition. Unfortunately, it turned out that the info on the website wasn't correct and the tour was in Norwegian. After the guide had talked about the first exhibit for 10 minutes and all I understood was that it was a nightgown, I decided to head to the marketplace. This time it wasn't as crowded as the first day, and I was able to have a look at all the yarns. There was a group of refugee women showing their hand dyed yarn at Garnsurr booth. I loved the idea of making a social integration project of yarn, and I might have exaggerated a bit with their sock yarns (especially as I recently swore never to knit socks again...), but if I ever feel like knitting socks again I now have the yarn for it. At G-Uld booth there was a line up on Sunday as well, but not as bad as on Saturday and after waiting for half an hour I was able to get a cardigan quantity of lovely plant dyed alpaca.


After this shopping, I felt that I had met my goals at the market place and headed to the cafe for an afternoon of knitting and making new friends.

It was a lovely weekend at the festival. Thank you for arranging such a great festival, Tone and Katie!

Friday the 13th was Knitmare night in Helsinki. Knitmare Fest by ILO brought yarn shop Silmukka from Tampere and designer Susanne Sommer from Austria to Helsinki, in addition to ILO yarn shop from Salo. A nice group of knitters welcomed them to Helsinki by attending a lovely knit night, buying gorgeous yarn and knitting together.


My contribution for the party was the Flying Jib Shawl, here at ILO's table at the Knitmare fest. We had a promotion with ILO: buy the yarn for this shawl (2 skeins of fingering weight) and get a free download code for the pattern, and I'm happy to announce that the promotion will run until end of October! Please visit ILO in Salo, or check out their online shop. I also did a trunk show at the event, and it was so nice to hear all the positive feedback for my designs! Thank you, all!


Susanne Sommer was the star of the night, and she gave a brioche class for advanced brioche knitters. I love her pom pom headband and I wish I had taken a better picture of it. But trust me, it's awesome!




Stidilä was a nice venue for a party like this, although it was rather dark. I had to give up my dark green cabled dress at the point when I noticed a mistake in the cables 6 rows earlier and tried to fix it in the dark, but as you can see in the picture, many people were happily knitting. And I did have another WIP with me for emergencies like this, so I didn't have to sit without knitting.


Of course, I did more shopping than a mere sock yarn skein, and I was super happy to get these lovely stitch markers from Lankaputiikki Silmukka. Saved me the trip to Tampere, even if I'd love to visit the pretty yarn shop again.

Thank you, ILO, for organising such a great event! I hope this will become a tradition!

Vogue Knitting brought a group of knitters to visit Norway and Finland. After touring Bergen and Oslo, their next stop was Helsinki. Tiina Huhtaniemi, the entrepreneur behind Titityy and Tukuwool, organised a lovely event for the group of North American knitters to meet Finnish knitters and indie yarn dyers. Kellohalli at Teurastamo was a nice venue for the event, especially as it's walking distance from where I live! It was also nice that there was enough room to mingle, even if the event was sold out. Still, with 130 guests, the waiting time for pizza was rather long, but as you could wait at the table and not have to stand in line it didn't really matter.


There was a great opportunity to buy souvenirs from Finland, with Lanitium ex Machina, Handu and Titityy selling their yarns. Even if the Vogue knitting group had been to our LYS Snurre earlier that day, it seemed that many still wanted to buy more! And who wouldn't with such a great selection. I might have bought something, and so did the happy lady in the picture below.


The program was hosted by Jonna Hietala, editor in chief of Laine magazine. She interviewed Barbara, the tour guide of our visitors, as well as Carla Scott, editor in chief of Vogue Knitting. It was so interesting to hear more about their trip and their impressions of Finnish knit scene. I didn't know that all Finns knit the same way, where as North Americans all have their own style. Maybe the reason is that in Finland, knitting is taught at school, so everyone learns to do it the same way. I also had a nice chat with Carla who brought some Vogue Knitting magazines with her, and it was great to see the magazines, especially the printout of the latest issue that's not even out yet.


Jonna interviewed Veera Välimäki about her designer career and current work. She was working on a new sweater design, and as often happens, had to frog the whole thing during the evening as it didn't turn out the way she wanted. She also explained how the best feeling is when the design comes out exactly like you wanted it to be. I have to say that it sounds familiar, both the frogging and the joy when it works out!

Jonna also talked about the story behind Laine magazine, and how she started it with Sini who was also there. We all know how knitting brings together people of different ages and backgrounds, and in this case the psychologist-journalist combo turned into a great magazine!


The best part of the evening was meeting other knitters. Luckily, our North American guests were not afraid of small talk like some Finns might be, and we talked about knitting with so many lovely people from the US and Canada. It was also nice to see so many Instagram friends live. Knitting, old and new friends, yarn shopping - that's what perfect evenings are made of!

Jyväskylä Summer Knit Festival was the highlight of the summer again. Marketplace full of gorgeous yarn, class schedule with something for everyone, meeting old friends and making new - a perfect weekend! Actually, the festival started with classes, knit parade and knit night already on Thursday, but I started my festival on Friday afternoon with a couple of hours at the marketplace.

Walk Collection

I had planned my shopping, or let's say that I knew what I at least wanted so I started with those. First yarn on my list was Lystig Yarn, which might not be that obvious as we just hosted a knit night together and I would have had the opportunity to buy the yarn already then. It's just that I didn't. I had seen the gorgeous Mysterious Jade colorway on Instagram and when I saw it live at our Snadi Neulemiitti I told Leeni that I would buy it if it was still left after the event. Well, it wasn't and as I had been thinking about the yarn for so long it was the first skein I bought in Jyväskylä!

Qing Fibre

I also wanted to see Qing Fibre yarns as I had only seen them on Instagram before, and I got some lovely merino singles from her. It was also nice to say hi to the ladies at Walk Collection and admire the lovely booth, but I reminded myself of the yarn I bought in Edinburgh that's still in my stash.

My haul: Handu, Qing Fibre, Lystig yarn, Kässäkerho Pom Pom, Lanitium ex Machina

Another yarn on my list, thanks to Instagram, was Kässäkerho Pom Pom, and I really got every colorway I had been admiring... We also talked about the Super weekend in Kuopio that's coming in October, so stay tuned for a collab on that front!

Petrichor Yarns

Petrichor yarns was at the festival for the first time, and it was nice to see the lady behind Hippusia blog with her pretty yarns.

Lanitium ex Machina (with my Tauride shawl!)

Also on my list were Lanitium ex Machina and Handu. Both of them have an awesome selection of yarns, but this time my motivation was Tour-de-Sock - using sponsor yarn gives extra points and they give a discount for TdS participants.

Heidi and Liina knitting with a view to the lake and enjoying the evening sun.

After a very productive shopping spree around the marketplace I took my yarns back to the hotel and got ready for the evening party. And what a party it was! It was a lovely sunny evening and we took a little cruise on the lake before arriving at the party. Some people were knitting outside in the sun, and the house was full of knitters. Jonna Hietala interviewed the big stars: Isabelle Kraemer, Susanne Sommer, Joji Locatelli and Nancy Marchant.

Jonna Hietala interviewing Susanne Sommer, Joui Locatelli, Isabelle Kraemer and Nancy Marchant

On Saturday, my first stop was my own trunk show. It was so nice to see so many people who were interested in my designs. After my trunk show it was time to run to a brioche class with Nancy Marchant. I'll write another post about that later.

My trunk show

There were classes also on Sunday, but I headed back home. I was happy to see Hepsi on the way to the bus, so I had nice knitting company also on the way back home.

I was glad to read in the festival magazine that they are already planning for next year - I know I'm coming next year again!

Our first Snadi neulemiitti ("Little knit night" or something) on June 10 turned out not so little at all: it was a success and we had a house full of knitters! Liina of Kutimointia blog and I started thinking about organising something on World Wide Knit in Public Day only a couple of weeks before the KiP day. We started thinking of what our dream event would be like, and pretty soon we knew that it would be great to have some indie dyers in the event as well. Nea of Lanitium ex Machina agreed to join us, and so did Leeni of Lystig Yarn even if she thought that she wouldn't have time to dye enough for a pop up shop on such short notice. I brought my trunk show and my new tote bags with me, and Liina brought her blogging partner Senni. All set up for a lovely afternoon, hoping our message got out to fellow knitters in the Helsinki area.


We were so happy to see so many knitters come and join us! We had to bring more and more chairs to make room for everyone, which was great. Good thing that the venue had enough chairs! We were slightly worried that the address in the new Kalasatama neighbourhood might be difficult to find, and that was also what several people were saying when they finally did find it. However, as you can see from the picture - we had a nice group of people who found us.


There was a nice selection of Lanitium ex Machina yarns to choose from. As Lanitium is sponsoring Tour-de-Sock, there was also a discount for TdS participants. It's getting time to stack up on sock yarns and warm up for the competition!


Lystig yarn has had dye pots bubbling with new colors, and we were lucky to see some of the lovely new shades - before they disappeared from the table. I saw a green one with pink speckles that I really wanted, but after I turned my back it had disappeared.


There was also a basic brioche class for those who felt more comfortable learning a new technique together. The class also turned out to be a success - everyone got through their brks and brps and double increases and decreases and quadruple increases and decreases! As homework they will now repeat the class pattern for 1,5 meters - and I'll check the homework in our next event ;-)

Next event? Well, the feedback that we got - starting already before the event - was that this is something people have been missing. That's why we decided not to make it a KiP day event. Instead, we are planning for another one to kick off the knitting season in the fall. Would you like to join us for the next event? Please leave a comment with any feedback from the first event or your wishes for the next one!


In the meanwhile, I'm packing my trunk show and my new tote bags for Jyväskylä Summer Knit Festival, hope to see you there!

Thank you for making this event happen Liina, Nea, Leeni and everyone who showed up!