LunaKnit

Yesterday I wrote about the Brooklyn Tweed Lace KAL, but that wasn't the only Make-Along I took part during the summer. I briefly mentioned the Summer of Basics MAL in my previous post, and thought I could share a bit more about it today. Karen Templer from Fringe Association started a 3-month long Make-Along running from the beginning of June until end of August. The initiative was to knit 3 items for your wardrobe. They could be anything, and done with any technique as long as they fitted your own personal interpretation of "basic" (hence the name, Summer of Basics). I had great plans about learning to sew and making a shirt and pants (oh how ambitious!), to be paired with a knitted cardigan or a pullover. That never happened. Instead I ended up knitting all three items, of which one is the Selune scarf featured in the previous post. I didn't really have a clear plan what I was going to make when I started out, but I was quite happy to notice that...

  Arabella, pattern by Ann McCauley for BT Wool People 7. Yarn: Knitting for Olive's Merino, shade bottle green This is my fourth garment for the Lankakauppa Kerä's head-to-toe challenge. So far we've knitted hats, scarfs, mittens and now sweaters. Next up is a skirt or a dress. I was thinking about knitting either the Tavia skirt or the Ancasta dress that was in the first issue of the Laine magazine. I'm in love with this shade of green. I think it's just perfect! Also I really enjoyed knitting with the Danish brand of Knitting for Olive and will surely use more of their yarns in the future. I can't wait for warmer weathers to get to use my Arabella more.

In this picture I'm wearing my Stasis pullover inside out to show you there are no labels on it. I made it. 3 years ago. But I didn't make my t-shirt or my jeans nor do I have any idea who made them. Before I started knitting my own clothes I rarely stopped to think the question in the topic line. Who made my clothes? And where? And in what conditions? How much did they get paid for it? I knew about child labor, I knew about the appalling conditions of many textile fabrics in the third world countries, I knew about the possibly cancerous and poisonous dyes. But I didn't really stop and think about it. Not until I started to knit and see all the work it took to make a single piece of garment for myself. How much would I ask for a me-made sweater, if I really took in account all the time it took for me to knit it? Especially if I would need to get a decent salary to live on by making clothes? Not sure if anyone had the money to buy my me-made clothes... It makes me wonde...

Koto pullover , by Olga Buraya-Kefelian , published in Wool People 9. Yarn: Drops Merino Extrafine #2 black. Lately I've been trying to conciously choose classic everyday staples for my next knitting projects rather than just knit anything on a whim and not really what I need in my wardrobe. This pullover wasn't the most inspiring to knit but I love wearing it and I'm sure it's one I will reach for over and over again. The sleeves turned out too long for me after blocking. I hadn't realised that the shoulders would drop as low as they did, so I ended up with sleeves that are about 5 cm too long. The sleeves have cuffs that are folded double and joined by three needle joinery. I wanted to keep that detail, so I fixed the length by picking stitches from both the cuff and the arm, and then using kitchener stitch to join the two parts back again. This worked fine because the increases start higher up in the sleeve, so I didn't have to worry about the...

This is only the second KAL (knitalong) ever I'm participating in. As the hashtag in the topic line suggests, the purpose of this KAL is to knit garments for yourself so that by the end of the year you can cover yourself in handknits from head to toe. There are going to be 9 garments in total, and 11 months to get it all completed. Simple enough. The KAL is hosted by a Finnish yarn store called Lankakauppa Kerä . The first garment we knitted was a hat. I chose the Roku hat by olgajazzy and used some leftover Rowan Tweed from my stash. The colorway is called pendle . It's a simple ribbed hat that goes with everything and I've been using it a lot ever since it came off my needles. The second garment was a scarf or a cowl, and I knitted the Tenchi cowl, also by olgajazzy. I used Brooklyn Tweed shelter for this one. It was my first time knitting with Brooklyn Tweed yarns since they are really hard to come by here in Finland (at the moment we have only one yar...

If you are thinking about knitting only one pullover for the winter season, might I suggest this one? This pullover was in my queue for a bit over a year before I finally casted on for it. I also had the yarn in my stash waiting pretty much the same time. I don't know why it took me so long to actually start with this one, because it is perfect. I loved knitting it although I do love wearing it even more. I used Drops Merino Extrafine for this one and it is just perfectly squishy and smooth and I really enjoyed using it, so much actually that I immediately casted on another project with it, this time in black. At the moment I'm knitting the Koto pullover which is also designed by olgajazzy, as is the Flet pullover. PS. I wish I could try knitting with Woolfolk Får - the yarn that this pullover was originally designed for. I've only heard rave reviews for it... FLET Pattern: Flet by Olga Buraya-Kefelian Yarn: Drops Merino Extrafine #01 of...

Hi everyone! Remember these? The pattern for Astrid socks is finally out. (It only took me like 1.5 years...) You can find it in my Ravelry store by clicking HERE And because you guys have put up with me and my lazy blogging during this past year or so, I want to offer you a change to get a free sample of the pattern. Use the code astridfree at the Ravelry checkout and the pattern is yours, free of charge. Happy knitting! P.S. The code is valid until January 31st 2017 11:59pm Helsinki time.

I've been lucky to test knit this beautiful pullover for Erica Smith (ericacanknit on Ravelry). This is my second time test knitting for her and must say I wasn't disappointed. She has such a great designing style and eye for details, and her patterns are always well written and easy to follow. Apogee pullover is very lightweight without being flimsy. It is knitted in pieces from bottom up, so there's quite a lot of seaming to be done at the end of it all. The side seams actually are the most interesting part of this design as they diagonal as opposed to normal vertical seams. As hard as I tried, photographing them was pretty impossible - the one time the seams are actually supposed to show I manage pull off my best job seaming ever! Also the dark blue color I chose for this pullover makes the details less prominent. But look at the two photos below, I have highlighted the seam in the bottom photo so maybe that makes it easier to spot the detail I'm talking about. I co...

Theo needed a woolen jumpsuit to wear under his overalls while palying outside now that the weather is getting colder. I tried to look for one for him (either new or secondhand) but the ones I liked were way too expensive and the ones that were affordable were ugly. So what does a crazy knitter mum do? Right - I decided to knit him one. Since this was something he needed ASAP I dropped (almost) everything I had on my needles and for once concentrated on (almost) only one project until it was ready for use. I used the Wild Blueberry Suit pattern that is freely available on the Drops Design website. It is knitted flat until for the length of the buttonband, then joined in a round for the sleeves and legs. However, if I would knit this again, I would knit the whole thing in a round with a steek, and add the buttonbands later. First of all, it's so much more convinient to knit fair-isle in a round instead of back and forth, and secondly, it would have reduced the amou...

You know how sometimes a pattern comes along that just suprasses everything you already have in your queue and you just need to cast on it the first chance you get? Well, Siri was like that for me. Love at first sight. There's something about the design that is at the same time both simple and complicated, interesting and very everyday that really spoke to me. I happened to have enough yarn for it in my stash, so there was nothing really stopping me. For a design such as this yarn with good stitch definition is essential. Especially if you want to knit it in black. I used Drops Cotton Merino which I think was perfect for this cardigan. I've had the yarn in my stash for ages and can't even remember what I orginally bought it for. I've been wanting to knit a black cardi for a long time, but somehow never got around to it before now. The yoke of this cardigan has a complicated looking pattern of diamonds made out of rows of small 1x1 cables. The first few ro...

First of all, thank you all for your kind words regarding my last post. The past year has been really hard for us like I wrote, but things are starting to look brighter. I personally believe that tabus don't help anyone so I have strived to be honest and tell people around me how things are with us. Our life is far from perfect and I don't see the point of pretending like it is. You don't get any help or support if you don't ask for it, and saying everything is fine with a fake smile serves no one any good. So again, thank you for being so understanding. It's been ages since I last showed anything I've knitted, so maybe it's time to give you a glimpse of everything I have on my needles at the moment. You know me, never a monogamous knitter, so there's always a pile of WIPs waiting for me. I've been a bit restless lately, so I've been casting on for way too many things that I'm trying to juggle. At this moment I'm knitting two car...