Shawls and more shawls. And posh yarn!

I finished the Syyslaulu shawl today! As if one shawl was not enough, I also signed up for a mystery shawl KAL inspired by The Great British Bake Off!

The pattern calls for a main colour and two contrasting colours of fingering weight yarn. I wanted something a bit different, so decided to order some Kettu Yarns. Although the yarn is called Everyday Sock Merino (75% superwash merino, 25% nylon), it's still one of the most boujee yarns in my stash, being hand dyed and all. The colourways I chose are Heather, No Cream No Sugar and Finnish Forest: 

In other news, I decided with a heavy heart to frog my mom's Skärgård sweater, because the colourwork yoke turned out too short. While Drops Baby Merino is actually pretty stretchy, the colourwork part, which obviously combines two yarns, is somewhat more rigid and it wouldn't look too good when blocked too hard, so I swapped my 3.5 mm needles for 4.0 mm ones and started over. I really want to finish the sweater before the Stark Baking Mad MKAL begins in November, but I have work and also stuff to do for my side gig, so I'm not 100% sure if can swing it. 

So much for stash busting...

I just can't help myself! 

I was knitting the Syyslaulu shawl yesterday and while I am kind of living for the colour gradient and the stripes, I decided that this is not what I want for the Ekorre sweater. I decided that I want a light grey background and a contrasting brown for the pattern. They would also need to be rather fine yarns and preferably 100% wool. So I searched some webshops and found Rauma Røros Lamullgarn, which is sold by the publishing house where I bought the red yarns for the Suolaulu sweater and is 100% lamb's wool, 250 per 50 grams. I bought five skeins of a lovely light sheep grey for the main colour and one skein of chestnut brown and one skein of squirrel brown. Once the yarn gets here, I will see which one I like more. 

Stash busting knits

I've been watching a lot of Finnish knitting podcast videos on YouTube lately and found a few projects which not only look cool, but also have the added benefit of me being able to use yarns that I already own. 

The first project, which I already cast on tbh, is the Syyslaulu shawl by Heidi Alander. I had been trying to find a use for my Aade Lõng Artistic yarns and thinking of turning one of them into a shawl, but I hadn't found a pattern that I liked until I saw Iina from Neulenojatuoli mention it as one of  her WIPs. It is a really simple pattern: mainly garter stitch with a lace edge, and the size can be easily adjusted. I have already made pretty good progress and I think it will be a worthy replacement for my emo scarf. I am also loving the colour gradient of the yarn!

The second project is the Ekorre sweater by Anna Johanna. I saw the word Ekorre mentioned in one of Anna Johanna's IG stories - perhaps in a photo from a subscriber that she had shared - and was instantly intrigued, because ekorre means 'squirrel' in Swedish and I am a huge fan of squirrels. Needless to say, I found the pattern with the acorns and the squirrels and the oak leaves super cute and I am all about top-down seamless sweaters these days, so I think I will get to work on it as soon as I finish the Skärgård sweater for my mom. My plan is to use the Artistic yarn in the colourway Sheep as the main colour and then use the one and half skeins of rust-coloured Drops Nord which were left over from my Southampton soft for the pattern. The gradient of the Sheep colourway does go pretty deep, but the it is still pretty muted and I think the fall orange of the Nord yarn creates a good contrast without either of the colours being overly loud. 

The third project is the Suolaulu mittens by Jenna Kostet, which use a motif from her Suolaulu sweater. My plan is to make these and give them as a present to a lady from work. The pattern calls for fine fingering weight + lace weight yarn held together and I think I have the perfect combo: the red yarn from Rauma Finull which I ordered when I was picking out the perfect shade of red for the Suolaulu sweater - this one is more of a true red than a cranberry red, but that's ok - and the one, used raspberry red skein of Drops Kid-Silk which I couldn't send back when I stupidly ordered the wrong thickness yarn to make the Fleuriste cardi. As for the contrasting colour, I'm not too keen to buy a new skein of lace weight yarn to add to a light fingering weight yarn (or to faff about with four balls of yarn tbh), so I thought of using a natural white skein of Drops Karisma which is sport weight and which I have laying around in my drawer. 

State of the Project: Southampton Soft, part III - the finale!

Yaay, she's done! I have to say, I am really starting to warm up to top-down knitting. I very much enjoyed not having to sew anything and I could also very easily make the sweater a few cm longer than what was suggested in the pattern (though in all fairness, the pattern does say '25-35 cm or desired length'). Since my doggie hasn't yet learned to take photos, but the lace pattern doesn't really show up very well when the sleeve is laid flat, I decided to wear the sweater to work today and got a colleague to snap a photo of the sleeves. I think she did an excellent job:

I really like the lace - so simple but elegant. Also, how are we feeling about the tubular cast off on the cuffs?

The only bit I question is my choice of the button for the back of the neck: 

I feel like I should have found something nicer and not quite so simple. Anyway, I might change it later.

But yeah, I am pretty chuffed and will definitely be wearing this one loads even if it is the tiniest bit itchy.  True to form, I already have a new sweater on my needles and several projects planned, all with yarn from my stash! But more on that in another post. 

 

Another week, another cast on.

I finished my Southampton soft last night and cast on the Skärgård sweater that I am making for my mom. I have made the first increases and I am working on the colourwork yoke:

The knitting is probably going to take a while, because the needles are fairly small (3.5 mm) and my mom is slightly bigger than me. I think it's really pretty and I am really enjoying the feel of the Baby Merino yarn - so soft and snuggly, but not fluffy like Nord. 

In other news: I will post pictures of the finished Southampton soft as soon as it's dry, because I think I need to put it on in order for the lace panel on the sleeve to show up.