Stash as old as time

There's yarn, and then there's Yarn. There are yarns you have to cast on asap. There are yarns that are so precious you can't cast on until you find the perfect project. There are yarns that are forgotten at the bottom of the stash and loose their magic over the years. There are yarns I loved years ago but don't any more. And then there are yarns that never found the right project but are too nice to let go. This is a story of that kind of yarn.

What: Ursa / Jacqueline Cieslak

How: Circular needle 6.0 mm

From: Rowan Silky Tweed, 195 g

Years ago, back when I was still in highschool, I didn't even know that there were actual yarn stores. I was an enthusiastic knitter but got my yarn from the market while we were shopping for food, and I had now idea there were other yarns available. Not that there's something wrong with market yarn but I was unaware of anything else. Back then, there were no smart phones with all the knowledge of the world at your finger tips in a matter of seconds. I didn't think to google yarn shops as I didn't know they existed. And I had no idea you could order yarn online.

I don't remember how I found out about this little shop in Helsinki but Menita opened my mind, not to mention my wallet. During one of my shopping trips there, I bought a sweater quantity of soft and tweedy Rowan Silky Tweed - a yarn that's now discontinued.

I let my treasures marinate in the stash for a couple years until I read an interview of a knitting artesan. The piece showcased the artist herself but also some of her knitted pieces of art. One of them caught my attention and I had to make one for me. And I had to come up with the pattern too because it was just an interview.

So I cast on for chunky, woolly corset! Yes, I'm afraid you read right. I dreamed of a chunky corset with big cables and several layers of peplum hem. I had just found English knitting patterns courtesy of Kim Hargreaves and had just learned to shape peplums with short rows so I was eager to use my newly found skills. I bet you're not very surprised to find out the corset was a bust. Luckily! What in the world would I have done with a woolly corset?

After several failed attempts, I lost my cool and threw the needles in the corner. I was so bummed over the time I had waisted and the fact that I couldn't realize my cool idea that I didn't want to even touch the yarn. Hubby was chivalrous and offered to unravel and re-cake the yarn. And ever since then, the yarn has been sitting in the stash. And did I mention this was over a decade ago? 

Then one night last week, it happened that I had only one wip on my needles. Working the lace edge of a huge circular shawl takes so much concentration that I can only muster a little piece at a time. So I was in need of a simpler knit. I remembered I had been eyeing the Ursa sweater over on Instagram. I did a bit of digging only to find that I had already placed the pattern on my Ravelry queue and even paired it with stash yarn! I bet you can guess which yarn.

I almost can't believe that the decade-old, once unraveled yarn actually found its way back onto my needles. And not only that but it turned into a really nice sweater that will get lots of use. I hadn't held onto the yarn for nothing. The yarn was a bit too thin for this pattern but a few extra increases took care of that easily.

Ursa is a really simple sweater. It's worked top-down and it has v-neck and raglan sleeves. The interesting part is that the raglan seams are worked in half-brioche. That means working brioche only on the knit stitches and working the purls normally. The sweater also features half-brioche stripes at the center of the front and back. At the hem those stripes slowly grow into these triangles that will meet at the sides. I liked the triangles a lot so I made them on the cuffs as well. Not that anyone would notice but I will know they're there and they're pretty. on erittäin yksinkertainen pusero. Se neulotaan ylhäältä alas ja siinä on v-pääntie ja raglanhihat.

I haven't worn such a short cropped sweater since the days when I bought the yarn. I guess I could give into the fashion cycles this much.

Easy knitting, eh?

Few years ago I knitted the best sweater ever. Except that it had a ton of little things I felt could be tweeked to make it even better. It wasn't perfect but it was the best sweater in the world.

What: 3 in 1 / alfa knits

How: Circular needles 3.5 and 4.0 mm

From: Tukuwool scraps and Pirtin kehräämö Kampalanka, 319 g

Every once in a while my brain needs to take a holiday and work on someone else's pattern. You know, knit without thinking. Except that if you know me, you know that's never really the case.

So I needed little mindless knitting and after staring at my Tukuwool leftovers for a moment I developed a craving for another 3 in 1 - this time in Finnish wool. It would be so great: the pattern calls for five colors and my scrap yarn basket was full of Tukuwool Fingering, some Kässäkerho Pom Pom Suoma Single and other Finnish yarns. I've made the sweater before so I knew how much I would need each color. So I grabbed the kitchen scale and sat down on our living room floor to figure out the yarns. I tried out all possible combos but in the end I ended up choosing five colors of Tukuwool Fingering. For the first hem, I chose Ruura and Rae, for the middle sweater I went for Selja, and for the main sweater I chose Auri and Uupo.

If you're not familiar with the pattern you should know the measurements are a bit off. The first time I made this I started working on size M - even though my measuments are closer to L. And both me and Hubby could fit in that sweater. So, I unraveled that and worked the sweater in size XS! In the end it fitted me nicely except that the sleeves could've been a bit looser. So this time around I cast on for size S. Though, I didn't stop to consider that Tukuwool is a more airy and fluffy than my yarns last time and now the sweater is a bit too loose. The sleeves are still a bit thight.

The sweater is worked bottom-up. First, you make the stripy hem. That's shaped with short rows which can be a bit of a pain with striping as you constantly have to remember to carry along the other color to have it in the right spot. Then, you cast on for the middle sweater. That one has a stockinette stitch hem that's meant to roll and the first two sweaters are worked together before continuing with the solid color middle sweater. Finally, you'll cast on for a third sweater, join it with the middle sweater and again, shape with short rows while working stripes.

In the original pattern, both the middle and main sweater have a stockinette stitch edging but I modified the main sweater to begin with few rows of garter stitch to make it different from the first two. I also modified the stripes to be 4-2 stripes instead of 2-2 - again to differentiate it from the first sweater. This made working short rows even more irritating but modifying things to be harder seems to be my thing.

Once I finished the short rows I wanted to throw the sweater in the bin. Never ever before have I had any trouble combining any Tukuwool colors together but for some reason this time the greenish yellow Uupo made the sweater look dirty. I cooled off for a couple of weeks and then ripped out Uupo and replaced it with this lovely orange Repo. Much better!

Once I got past the short row shaping (again) the sweater was coming along really fast. A bit too fast even. At this point I started to notice that my gauge was off since the sweater was looking way too tall. I didn't want to rip it back but I did have to modify the sleeve caps to make them fit with my gauge. More mods in the horizon. So much for that mindless knitting.

The sleeves I worked as instructed - until it was time to join them with the body.

If you take a look at my first 3 in 1 you'll notice that the neckline looks a bit different. In the pattern, there's just few purl rows before changing from one color to the next. It bothered me last time that the sweaters really look like layering pieces at the hem but not as much at the top - and it would be easy to modify. Of course that meant a lot more bind off - pick up and knit. But it was totally worth the trouble. It looks awesome and truly like three different sweaters.

The last challenge was the main color Auri. As my gauge was off I run out of it. First I replaced it with another Finnish yarn which happened to be exactly the same color (they're both spun at the same mill too!). But I lost at yarn chicken with that one as well. Finally, I had to work the last few rows with Auri in Tukuwool Sock. It's thicker yarn but you don't really notice as it was just last few rows. And I'm super happy I got to use up old scrap yarns.

It turned out not be easy, relaxed and mindless knitting. Not even close. Though, I should have known as that's what always happens when I decide to go for easy knitting. But I really, really love the sweater. It was well worth all the trouble and it looks so good.

Gnoming like there's no tomorrow

I usually knit clothes. You know, knits with a clear purpose that get lots of use. I've crocheted a couple toys but generally, I don't knit toys or decorative items. But it seems that when I do, I go for it whole-heartedly.

What: Here we gnome again / Sarah Schira

How: Circular needles 3.5 and 3.75 mm

From: Scrap yarns, 118 g

A year ago, I participated in the Indie Design Gift-A-long for the first time and everyone was crazy about these gnomes. I didn't really care for them myself. Who needs a knitted gnome?

But you know how it goes. You look at something long enough and it starts to make sense. Actually, this new even prettier gnome design had me waiting for Christmas eagerly as this time I intended to hop on the gnome train.

I started out with a traditional red gnome. I found a lovely rustic alpaca blend in red and oatmeal color in my leftover yarn stash. For such a small knit there was an awful lot of knitting to be done. It starts off with the cap and once that's finished, you pick up stitches below the brim to work the body. Finally, you knit a beard in the contrast color and i-cords for the hands. These are both sewn into place.

The gnome isn't very big but both the cap and body have cables all over them which meant I had to stare at the work and the charts constantly. That's what made it feel like a handful.

However, the project was every bit worth of the trouble. The finished gnome is so cute I can't even. It didn't look like anything before the beard but once that is sewn on the gnome wakes up instantly. I had a hard time letting go of the first gnome but I did end up gifting it to my dad.

The second gnome felt a lot easier and the third one flew off the needles in two days and felt like a breeze already. I still have plenty of scrap yarns so I think there might be a lot more gnomes next Christmas.

The gnomes were filled with polyester. It was also suggested to use some pellets to help the gnome from falling. For the first gnome, I didn't have the energy go searching for polyester pellets at a hobby store so that one is a bit too light and tends to fall. For the other two, I realized I could use something we already have at home and filled an old sock with rice. That seemed to work very well.

In my childhood, one of the most magical moments every Christmas was the getting out all the Christmas decorations. My mom's great uncle had made her some wooden elves each with their own personalities and activites. Some were holding notes for Christmas carols, others were skiing etc. And my grandma had an even bigger collection of those elves. It was such great fun going through the elves and seeing what each of them was doing. I wanted to relive my childhood and needed to come up with some different activities for our gnomes as well.

I had seen more than one cute knitting gnome in the Gift-A-long group on Ravelry so that was a no brainer. It would have been easy to knit a little scarf beginning with my 2.0 mm needles and then just slip the stitches onto toothpicks. But I'm not in the habit of letting myself easy so I actually knitted this little garter stitch piece with the toothpicks and I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. The toothpicks stuck to the yarn and were a pain in many other ways as well. But hey, my gnome has an authentic knit in his hands!

I had to come up with something else for the second gnome. Our local newspaper had just the right size columns so I made him his own newspaper with a report from the police. He looks like a detective or a spy himself, don't you think?

Iron gate beanie

The test knitters for Wrought iron sweater had the excellent idea of a beanie with the same lace pattern. I couldn't resist, so I wrote a beanie pattern to accompany the sweater.

What: Iron gate / Oma ohje
How: Circular needle 3.0 mm
From: WalkCollection Cozy Merino + Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles, 75 + 10 g

I had left overs of the contrast color from the sweater, plenty enough to design a hat. Main color I had to get from my LYS. I found this lovely, kind of a lead shaded green merino single.

The idea was to use the same lace as in the sweater. I felt that the hat would hold wind at all, so in order to stay warm in my new beanie, I made it double layered. No more cold ears! I also like how well the lace stands out against the main color.

The knitting starts at the crown of the lining. A few increases and then lots of plain stockinette stitch. The brim is twisted ribbing and the hats are fastened at the top of the ribbing so that they stay in place.

The contrast color lace in this one is knitted as intarsia in the round. But don't worry, the pattern includes a photo tutorial. If you don't dare to commit yourself to an entire sweater, this beanie is a quick project for trying this interesting technique.

While designin the beanie, I was a bit nervous on how nicely I could make the decreases on the lace, but they turned out really pretty and made this knitwear designer happyhappy.

You'll need an almost entire skein of the main color but only about 10 grams of contrast color. I still have some left from the sweater and the hat. Any ideas on where to use the rest?

The hat has been on my head every day since I finished it. The lining makes it really warm and the merino single yarn is super soft on the head. The lace goes well on a sweater and on a hat. The play with knit and purl stitches gives a bit of a 3D effect.

The pattern has been test knitted and is available on Ravelry. You can get the pattern at half price if you purchase or have purchased the Wrought iron sweater as well. Add them both to your Ravelry cart and the discount should show up automatically. Or, if you have already bought the sweater, just add the beanie to your cart and you should see the discount. The offer expires at the end of Saturday February 25th.

Three in one

Somehow I feel I say this quite often, but yeat again, I knitted my new favorite sweater - or in a way, three sweaters.

What: 3 in 1 / Atelier Alfa

How: Circular needles 3.5 and 4.0 mm

From: DyeForWool Merino Silk Fingering + Madelinetosh Merino Light + Handmaiden Fine Yarn Casbah, 177 + 60 + 33 g

I've dreamt of knitting this one for years. It has been waiting for the perfect color and yarn combination. Finally, I quit stalling because I needed something simpel to knit at the movies.

I went through my stash for colors that would go together and weighted the scrap skeins carefully. You can use some scrap yarns for this pattern but not the smallest ones. I used 97 and 82 grams of green merino silk blend for the topmost sweater, 50 grams of TML for the one color sweater and 10 grams of green TML and 33 grams of creamy Casbah for the striped sweater underneath. I ran out of Casbah with just five more rows to go on the neck band. Luckily a friend had some of the same color and was kind enough to donate a few meters.

I'm a pretty daft knitter from time to time. I started the topmost sweater with yarns I found in my stash but they didn't work well with the other yarns and I had to do some tinking. I searched for new yarns online and ended up ordering almost identical colors to those I had already tried. And yet, the tiny differences in the color tones had a big impact and these yarns worked perfectly.

Now, let's talk about the pattern. It's knit bottom up (yes, can you believe it?!) and the different hems are shaped with short rows. The body is knit to armholes and left waiting while you knit the sleeves to armholes as well. Finally, The body and sleeves are joined and the rest is knit in one piece. The three different hems and sleeves give the illusion of three different sweaters on top of each others.

I didn't like the direction of knitting nor the endless yarn ends, carrying the yarns at striped short rows  and the sizing of the pattern. I usually end up making size L in most sweater and cardigan patterns. This time I started in size M but it was enormous, it could fit two of me! In the end, I made this in size XS. And I'm not the only one thinking the sizing if off. The XS fits me well except for the sleeves, those became too tight.

 

I also wish the neck band was made similarly as the hem. Now there were just few rows of purled stitches before a color change and it doesn't work as well as in the hem. If I were to knit this again, I would knit few rows of st st and bind off the stitches before changing colors. Yes, that would mean even more yarn ends to weave in but I feel it would look nicer.

Enough of complaining. Except for the stuff mentioned above, the best thing about this sweater is everything. The illusion of three sweaters, the chance to destroy some scrap yarns, the endless color combination possibilities, the extra long sleeves. Just everything. I love wearing it. Did I remember to mention it's my new favorite sweater? I think I must make more of these.

Because I liked the asymmetry in the hem, I modified the sleeves to be asymmetric too. In the pattern they are identical but I made the first section of the other sleeve shorter. The end result is subtle but makes the sweater seem even more relaxed.

You guys should all go and knit this sweater. It's the best!