Christmas knits, sort of.

My family is small and close. Four of us got together for Christmas this year at our summer residence: my mom, my aunt, my cousin and myself. We are one of those families where each year we say ‘No presents!’, but then end up giving some presents anyway. This Christmas, I gave presents of the knitted kind. 

In the run-up to Christmas, I finished my mom’s Skärgård sweater:

And because she’s seen it and tried it on several times, she also got a book.

After I cast off mom’s sweater, I cast on another one, this time for my cousin: the In Between Dreams sweater by Meiju K-P. She really liked my Southampton soft because of the lace detail on the sleeves and originally wanted the same one, but liked the newly published In Between Dreams, which has a lace yoke even better. I am using the same yarn that I did for mom’s sweater, namely Drops Baby Merino.

However, I haven’t managed to finish her sweater, since I only started it last week, so I gave her this one and told her that her sweater shrank in the wash:

As for my aunt, well, she seemed to like the lace socks I made as part of Niina Laitinen’s Christmas KAL, so I decided to give her another pair of socks :P

These are the Kvartsi socks by Anna Johanna, one of three ankle sock designs in her Picot Love series. This was my first time using the provisional cast-on and making a picot edge and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. The yarn I used was Regia Premium Merino Yak and I will definitely be using it again, because it feels warm, soft and luxe as all get-out. 

State of the Project(s): Skärgård Sweater and the Great British Baking Shawl.

Although I have been a bit busy with my side gig, I have made pretty decent progress on my mom's Skärgård sweater. I bound off the body yesterday (using the tubular bind off method) and cast on one of the sleeves: 

Since I'm at mom's for the weekend, I also had her try it on yesterday and it looks like it's a pretty good fit :-) 

Naturally, I also worked on clue 2 of the Lyrical Knits mystery shawl KAL. This clue was called the Technical Challenge and I think the shawl is looking great so far! Though I wouldn't exactly call this clue technical, since Mary was so nice to us and gave very clear directions and made the pattern really easy:

Anyway, I am excited to see where this is going and what the Showstopper is going to be! 

Because why not cast on two shawls in the same week?

Well! As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to join the Stark Baking Mad MKAL. I love knitting and I love baking and the Great British Bake Off (especially Mary Berry, whose autograph I have in one of her cookbooks - I travelled two hours from Liverpool to London to get it!), so this MKAL seemed like a match made in heaven! The first clue (appropriately titled Signature Bake) was published last week, and I am happy to say that I finished it in time for the next one, which is set to drop tomorrow. I think it looks really cute and I am enjoying my choice of colours, even if I do say so myself: 

The yarn is Everyday Sock Merino from Kettu Yarns and I am especially enjoying the green colourway called Finnish Forest. I think it's one of the prettiest things I have ever seen and really wish I had ordered more so I could use it to knit ALL the socks!

And because only making one shawl is clearly not enough, I also cast on another one last week. This one is called Lovely Megan and I am making it for my mom. I thought it would go very nicely with the sweater that I'm making for her and be a nice little surprise. The pattern is from Drops Design (I actually looked for it after I saw a picture of the shawl on their IG) and the yarn I am using is some Drops Sky from my stash that I was originally planning to use for the Rose Blush vest which, let's face it, I was never going to make or wear. It took me a few rows to get the hang of the dropped stitches, but the pattern is actually very simple and cute. I've made, eh, moderate progress so far: 

I have also made pretty good progress with mom's sweater and have made it all the way to the bottom ribbing of the body. Not long to go!

In other news, I am feeling very tempted by yet another project: the gingerbread socks KAL that Finnish yarn company Novita started on their website today. The socks were designed by Sisko Sälpäkivi and the colourways of Novita Nalle that she chose for them look so good and gingerbread-y together! But I don't have the right yarns in my stash and I kind of don't want to spend money on yarn just now, so I might catch up with the KAL in December after I've finished mom's sweater and the Stark Barking Mad MKAL.  They are publishing a new clue twice a week for four weeks, so I could still finish the socks by Christmas. 

A WIP that I made some progress on and a FO that I totally FOrgot about!

Well! After I frogged the previous yoke and started from scratch, I have actually made some progress on my mom's Skärgård sweater! I really like the rosy pink (her choice, by the way) and the simple but elegant colourwork yoke. I actually went home this weekend, so I asked her to try it on after I had separated for the sleeves, and the yoke length was just fine and everything fit nicely. Yay me!

Also, I also finished the Syyslaulu shawl a while ago, but somehow never got round to writing about it! I went to the island of Kihnu again with my doggie in early October and I got a decent amount of knitting done on the boat and on the bus, so I decided to take an artsy picture of the then as yet unfinished shawl in nature:

And here's the finished object: 

I thought I could wear it under my jacket, but it's a little too large for that. However, it is kind of perfect for wearing under my new grey coat. 

Here is a closer look at the lace portion: 

And just to give you an idea of how big it is, blocking it took most of my couch:  

Up next: finishing mom's sweater, also the first clue for the Stark Baking Mad MKAL will be published next week, and I also can't wait to get started on my Ekorre sweater! 

Last-ditch Socktober efforts.

Since the dyer behind the Woolmint brand announced a little Socktotber contest in her FB group, inviting everyone who had bought yarn from her to share photos of socks they had knit using her yarn, I decided it was time to finish my Kuiske socks and to knit another pair of very basic socks from her yarn. 

After I last posted about the Kuiske socks in September, I actually frogged them early in October and started again using smaller needles, because I figured they would turn out too big with 3.5 mm needles, being lace and all. I finally finished them last night and while I do think they are cute and I really like the summery vibe of them, a solid colour would probably have been a better choice. Ah well. They are still warm and soft. 

Here's what they look like: 

And a closer look at the pattern... ish: 

I also made a second pair of socks using Woolmint Opera, her sock yarn. My inspiration for them was a bit weird. You see, I watched a knitting podcast video by a knitwear designer a few weeks ago where she talked about being surprised that another designer was selling a pattern for some very basic socks - the kind of that kids learn to knit at school in her country and which to her is pretty much public domain, because there are so many free tutorials available for making them. So I decided to try out one said free tutorial and this is what I came up with: 

Anyway. Back to mom's sweater!

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.