Birkenwasser knits

"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.

The weather is getting colder and it's about time to start knitting for the winter. Helmipöllö (”Boreal owl”) beanie and scarf feature two different cables and a pompom. Knitting with bulky weight yarn makes this a quick set to knit. With forgiving bulky yarn, big needles and only two different large, fairly simple cables to knit, this hat looks harder than it is. Most rows are just simple knits with a few purls thrown in for interest, and only four rows of cable crosses in the whole hat. A great pattern to try your hand at cables. The pattern is both charted and abbreviated.

This pair of socks was cast on many many years ago. It was long before self-striping yarn, so the rainbow stripes are achieved by buying 6 balls of yarn in the colors of the rainbow. Naturally, the socks are knitted in the traditional way, from calves to toes using DPNs, a traditional 2x2 ribbing and basic enforced heel. Just the way my mother taught me 30 years ago. Following the traditional knitting choices, the yarn is also the most popular sock yarn available in Finland: Novita 7 veljestä. I don't remember why or for whom I started knitting these socks, but obviously lost interest and buried them deep in my sock yarn stash. As I'm not a big fan of sock knitting, they also stayed there for 10 years or even more. This fall the knitting for refugees charity project made me dig deep into my sock yarn stash and revealed one almost finished rainbow sock. So I decided to go ahead and finish this pair.


See-through rubber boots seem to have been the thing for Finnish sock knitters this summer. I didn't find transparent boots, but I found these ankle-length boots and thought that they would look good with colorful socks. Of course, this meant that I had to make the ribbing longer by adding some black ribbing below the colored stripes in order to show all the colors - meaning that I had to unravel most of the almost finished sock that I had found to begin with. But now I have the socks and boots for a colorful fall!

Things don't always go as planned - or as instructed. You miss an increase, tink back to where you were supposed to do it, and continue. You notice that the item is too big or too small and you have to unravel half of what you have knitted so far. Or you simply realize that it's not going to work out, the item is horrible and you will never wear it so better frog the whole thing.


For me unraveling is a way of working. I do make swatches and even try to do the math beforehand, but let's admit it: I'm too lazy to look at my own calculations and just keep knitting when I'm in the flow, hoping that it will be all good. Knowing that most likely it won't be. Even if I'm following a pattern, I usually keep myself too occupied with reading something, attending a seminar or whatever, so picking up the instructions is simply too much to ask for and there I knit, hoping that it will be all good.

Last weekend I noticed that I have four projects waiting for unraveling and attention to detail. One of them was a simple case of not reading the instructions (or, technically speaking, the instructions said "see below for right number of increases" and then the numbers were _above_ on the next column, so it wasn't really my fault, was it?), not paying attention to obviously wrong size (I mean, if you see that the sleeve is too small, then why knit another one the same size and continue with the yoke until you run out of yarn before admitting that you need to buy more yarn and make the sleeves wider?) and then two cases of prototyping.



Prototyping. That's the way I design my patterns. There's only so much you can calculate, but then you will also need to see how the cables look like with the neckline shaping and you can't really calculate that. Or how the neckline works with the edging. For me, ripping something and starting all over again isn't a failure, it's part of the process.


Then again, plenty of the rework is simply a result of not concentrating on one thing at a time.

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.

With the refugee crisis going on in Europe, many people start uttering extreme comments about immigrants, or even dressing up in bed sheets waving our precious Finnish flag in a context where I would prefer not to see it. So why not show the flag in a more positive context?


Refugee Hospitality Club organizes a sock knitting project to give knitters a way to help refugees. Obviously, knitting a pair of socks is not going to make a difference in the refugee crisis that we are having, but it is not meant to do that. What it is meant to do is to welcome one person to our country, showing that I personally knitted this pair of socks for you so your feet wouldn't be cold in our cold country. I liked the idea, so here's the result.


Again, a charity project is also an opportunity to learn a new technique. I don't really like to knit socks, so I've never tried to knit them toe-up. For a first try, the end result is not too bad, but I'm not perfectly happy with them either. For me, the heel doesn't look that good, so I might have to try another heel for the next pair. Another bonus with this project was to use up this yarn; leftovers from a weird project many years ago.


As I'm not really a sock knitter, I thought that I was immune to the Second Sock Syndrome. I mean, if you're knitting socks, then you just simply knit two of them and get done with it, right? Well, as I was digging through my sock yarn stash I came across evidence proving that it happens to the best of us:

For the pink fair isle pair it's a classic case of running out of yarn. That pair is getting frogged. Then for the others, I have no idea. The baby sock looks nice, so I think I'll just knit another one of those and pack the pair for the refugees. Then there's the rainbow sock, which actually looks nice, so I must have ran out yarn with that one as well (or maybe broke up with the intended recipient? I mean, it's been a decade since I was knitting that sock...). Now digging in my stash I found some black sock yarn, so I might just finish that pair for myself. And then there's the weird white sock. I have no idea. And no intention on doing anything but frog the horrible item.

Stephen West's Exploration station is a shawl that has been knitted by "everyone", at least that's what it seems like in the online knitting world. I have admired other knitters' creations, and wanted to knit the shawl for a long time. Only thing is, that I didn't know what I would do with such a big and colorful shawl, and I didn't really like the big holes in the design. But now: Stephen West is coming to Finland! Ysolda Teague is coming to Finland! Naturally, Stephen & Ysolda's Finland tour requires a KAL (#ysoldajastephensuomitourkal - the easiest hashtag ever!) and it is organized by two lovely LYS: Kerä and Titityy. Stephen and Ysolda will be giving knitting classes at these LYS and then there will be a big meet and greet party to welcome the stars to Finland. As I saw the KAL announcement I knew that Exploration station was what I wanted to knit, so I signed up for the KAL and decided to think about my issues with the pattern later.

Photo: Annette Serna

Luckily Titityy was visiting Helsinki area at that time so I was able to choose the colors live. Normally, I shop everything from groceries to clothing online, but matching four colors of yarn requires holding the yarn together and seeing how the colors look like next to each other (by the way, gotta love Quince & co web shop that has the functionality to do this online!).


So I have the pattern and I have the yarn so off we go. By the time I got to the third wedge I got desperate as the holes were even bigger than in the pictures on the pattern and I really didn't want them in my shawl. At about this time I remembered that I have no obligation to strictly follow a pattern, and ripped the whole thing. Second time around it was looking so much better, and by the time I got to the brioche section I was loving it!


Next challenge was up as I reached the sassy slips section. I just couldn't figure out how the rows were supposed to be knitted with respect to the previous rows. I drew about 5 charts of different possibilities of combining the rows, searched Ravelry for close ups and made a couple of swatches. I'm still not convinced that my slips are sassy in a correct way, but this is the best I could come up with.

Skipping the holes in the last section as well, the shawl was finished. I actually like the way it turned out, even with all the colors and the big size. I even wore it once already! Now I just need to decide whether I dare to wear it for the meet and greet party. Maybe the master himself doesn't appreciate my modifications...

Photo: Annette Serna

And that sweet Madelinetosh yarn! I am in love with the yarn! I think there are enough left overs for another shawl, so I was already thinking about different possibilities for using the rest of it - until Troll Princess announced that I have to knit something for her with the remaining yarn. I'd like to think that my daughter recognizes good quality yarn when she sees it, but I'm afraid that she simply recognizes pink when she sees it. Whatever the case, a dress design for her has been drawn already.

Photo: Annette Serna

So, who else is coming to the meet and greet party?