Category: Pattern

Itu

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I had a skein of some very beautiful green yarn, SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in colorway Basil. I wanted to make something squishy out of it, preferably using it up. I started a two-color brioche shawl from the tip, working an i-cord edge at the same time as the rest of the shawl.

Itu shawl spread open

Itu is part of the same series with Humus, Honka and Moreeni, and got the same branches on one edge. I ended up unraveling and re-knitting the branching edge several times until I was happy with the branches, or roots, as I see them.

  • Itu shawl worn around the neck, reverse side
  • Itu shawl worn around the neck

The shawl turned out even squishier than Humus and Honka, most likely thanks to the SweetGeorgia yarn that was squishy in itself. It was some rather plump yarn compared to many other fingering weight yarns. If I remember correctly, another colorway of that yarn wasn’t quite as plump, so my skein may have been an exception. Nevertheless, I wrote the pattern so that you wouldn’t run out of yarn even if your skein was the same as my Basil. On the other hand, you can continue longer if there’s enough yarn.

Itu shawl on the shoulders

The pale yarn in the model shawl is Lorna’s Laces Solemate. The colorway is Princess Donna and it’s a combination of pink, mint green, pale blue and the base color off-white. This yarn was rather skinny compared to most other fingering weights. The 30 % of viscose makes it dense. Actually, I first tried to knit socks with this yarn, but the fabric stretched so much when I kept trying the unfinished sock on (not even actual wear, but trying it on several times!) that I soon abandoned the idea of socks.

Moreeni

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I’ve just released my first ever hat pattern, Moreeni. It’s worked in two-color brioche and it has the same branching motifs as Humus and Honka shawls. The hat is designed for adults even though my 6-year-old son posed for the photos. The smallest size will probably fit most kids of his age.

  • Moreeni hat
  • Moreeni hat, inside out
  • Moreeni hat, top
  • Moreeni hat, flat

The first hat became a bit too tight for me so I knitted another one, this time making sure it wasn’t too small. This second hat was knitted with BC Garn Lucca that has sadly been discontinued several years ago. The hat is heavenly soft!

  • Brown and white Moreeni hat inside out
  • Brown and white Moreeni hat

I love Moreeni so much that knitted a third hat, using ColourMart merino.

Pink and gray Moreeni hat

Honka

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I’m proud to announce that Honka has now been released. It’s available through my Ravelry store here both in English and in Finnish.

Honka shawl shown on the right side

Honka is a triangular shawl worked in two-color brioche. The name Honka means pine tree in Finnish. I was inspired by the strong roots of the Scots pine. The center spine of the shawl mimics the major root of the tree.

Honka shawl shown on the reverse side

The story of Honka goes back to summer 2016 when I attended a two-color brioche class by Stephen West. It was part of the first ever Jyväskylä Summer Knit Festival. I was so excited it was difficult to sleep both the night before and the night after. Immediately after the class I begun to knit a triangular shawl, using the techniques I had just learned. I loved the shawl, but wanted to change a couple of things, so I needed to figure out how exactly to do it. I went back to school in the autumn 2016 so I didn’t have nearly any time until April. Then I finally had the chance to find the solutions and started the next shawl.

  • Wrapped in Honka shawl
  • Honka shawl on the shoulders

That second shawl became Humus. I still wanted to produce something more like the first shawl. In the meantime I knitted a trird shawl, Itu – I’ll get back to that one fairly soon. Finally, after over a year from my initial brioche bite, I cast on for Honka, an improved version of my first ever brioche shawl. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Valentino is Free

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When my son was a baby, I was given a knitted baby overall that my granny had made me back in 1982. It was perfect for my son that had just learned to move around. It kept him warm – it was a bit chilly at floor level – yet wasn’t too hot because it didn’t have sleeves.

I was inspired by this garment and started knitting my son another one, in lighter weight yarn. I wasn’t able to choose colors, so I ordered a Wollmeise surprise set of two skeins. I ended up with purple and blue, colors that suited my son’s skintone very well.

Since my husband was working a lot back then, I didn’t have much knitting not to mention designing time, and the overall was finished a bit before my son’s first birthday. The pattern, in turn, was finished two years after I had started! Later on I revised it and added a third size.

Baby wearing a purple. knitted overall

The baby in the photo is my daughter. When the purple Valentino got too small for her, I made another one, also in Wollmeise. There is a third one, too, waiting for her to grow a bit more.

Now I’m happy to announce that the pattern is available for free. There are instructions for making sleeves, as well. There is an image with measurements of the garment, making it possible to finish the garment even with another gauge. The sizes available are 70 cm = 6 to 8 months, 80 cm = 12 months and 90 cm = 24 months. (The centimeter sizes mean the actual height of the child.)

Testing: Humus Shawl in 2-color Brioche

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This is merely a sneak peek at my next shawl pattern, Humus. The shawl is worked from the top down, using basic stitches of two-color brioche. The twisty motifs of the shawl were inspired by the crisscrossing of small roots.

Humus shawl

The shawl is reversible:

Humus shawl, reverse side

The photos here show a medium size shawl. The medium size will be around 160 cm (63 in) wide and 56 cm (22 in) deep blocked. The large size will be around twice the area of the medium one, but it depends on whether it’s blocked or not. If it was treated the same way as the model shawl, it would be around 195 cm (77 in) wide and 81 cm (32 in) deep.

I’m hoping of releasing the pattern in September, to allow the testers to take their time,
especially with the larger size.

The discussion thread for the test is here.

Kesäyö

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As a kid I was often at weddings in the rural town where my dad grew up. Every time we left a wedding it was already night, but Finnish summer night is not dark at all, and while trying not to fall asleep on the back seat of the car, I watched the misty fields go by.

With the misty summer nights in mind, in Spring 2016 I designed Kesäyö shawl, the name meaning summer night in Finnish.

The shawl was designed for fingering weight yarn. I used Hedgehog Fibres Sock (400 m/437 yd per 100 g) in Moss (green) and Silence (white). You will need 600 m/656 yd (150 g) of color A, 400 m/437 yd (100 g) of color B. In the model shawl the green is color A and the off-white is color B.

Since more than 100 g of the green was needed, I have added instructions on how to knit the shawl in three colors: color A is for the narrow, green stripes, color B for the white sections and color C is used in the wavy sections. A full skein of each should be plenty for colors B and C, and half a skein is enough for color A.

More detailed info can be found on the pattern’s Ravelry page.