Don’t worry, the sleeves will ride up with wear

February 16, 2019 stgeorgeknits9 Comments

I have another finished jumper. It’s another one that needs a bit of an explanation.

Unlike the Viking Knot jumper, this one didn’t take 11 years to knit but it wasn’t exactly a quick one either. In fact, I knitted it a few years ago but I really, really didn’t like it at all. The sleeves were too long – and I mean monkey-long – and I’m sure I had followed the pattern. Also, I ran out of yarn and couldn’t knit the collar high enough and it looked really stupid so short.

I had bought the yarn, Drops Vienna, in a sale. I figured mohair would be really warm. I don’t know if it’s the case, but I assume lots of air is trapped between all those long fibers making it warm. That’s the reason I bought the yarn. Of course it was discontinued by the time I finished the jumper the first time round and I couldn’t get anymore to knit a higher collar. With the monkey sleeves and the world’s stupidest short collar, the jumper ended up to the back of the wardrobe. I didn’t know what to do because I knew that mohair is notoriously difficult to frog.

A couple of years passed and in that time I grew a spine! The sleeves had to be tackled one way or another. And what did I know? It wasn’t that difficult to frog. It only stuck a bit on the edges of a row and with the help of a large tapestry needle, I managed to get all the tangles out. I shortened the sleeves and with the extra yarn, I could knit the collar higher. Now I’m happy with the jumper!

Question is, why do I always procrastinate? It took me one afternoon and a bit of another to fix the jumper. It took me a couple of years to pluck up the courage. Well, better late than never, I guess.

The pattern is also by Drops Design, 80-1. My collar is a little bit shorter than in the pattern, as are my sleeves. Maybe I have really, really tiny short arms. I’ve not noticed that before but it’s good to know.

Oh, and on a side note, remember the Arctic Wookiee (also known as a muppet or Cookie Monster)? I have a hat and a cowl with that same blue mitten yarn. Now this jumper. All I need now is blue socks and pants and I have an entire frozen Arctic Wookiee outfit! Awesome, right? Did you know, that the original Chewbacca outfit was handknitted with yak and mohair yarn? Yes, that’s a fact. I bet the designer is a bit annoyed now having not made the Wookiee blue.

Happy knitting!

Sodankylä mittens

February 13, 2019 stgeorgeknits7 Comments

I live in the municipal of Sodankylä (since 2006), which is located in Finnish Lapland. The municipal is large in area but small in terms of population. The two official languages of Sodankylä are Finnish and Northern Sami. It’s extreme northern location means short summers and long, cold winters. For a knitter, that’s kind of ideal.

The coat of arms of Sodankylä is really cool. I like the colours black, silver and red and the very graphic design. It’s said to symbolise the Lappish wilderness. The black means the long, dark polar nights and the red flames are from a type of open fire, where the fire burns in a crack between two large logs. Because of the star (which can be seen during the dark long nights in the winter), Sodankylä is called the star municipal of Lapland.

I wanted to turn this cool design into mittens.

I stylised the camp fire by knitting it without the squiggle.

On the palm side I knitted a dotted starry night pattern – I thought that would be appropriate.

I used Novita 7 Veljestä yarn, which is nice and fairly thick, so it makes warm mittens.

This last picture was taken in the middle of the day. Around the polar night time (in December), daytime is short and very blue. I like using my ski poles for photo props.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

Viking Knot Saga

February 10, 2019 stgeorgeknits9 Comments

I finished another jumper. This has been on the needles for some time. Let me explain.

A little while ago I decided that this jumper has to get finished now. It’s been in my knitting basket for some time. 4 or 5 years, I thought. I looked at the printed pattern and the date on it was 22nd September 2007. Yes, 2007, that’s not a typo. I started this jumper over 11 years ago. This takes procrastination to a whole new level! [rolls eyes]

I said I would explain, but I don’t really have an explanation. I must have just put this to one side to knit something else first and it somehow snowballed. There was nothing wrong with the pattern, nothing wrong with the yarn, all that was wrong was me. Apparently.

The pattern is Viking Knots and the yarn is Drops Alpaca. I made the long sleeve version. I love that yarn and the fabric it produces. It’s very soft and it feels really substantial and yet the whole jumper weighs only 310g. When I was finishing the knitting, I was convinced it would not fit me. The fabric was so thin and the edges curled up so much that I thought it would fit a doll at best. When it was blocked and finished, the size is perfect! Everything about this jumper is perfect, except the knitting time.

The colour I used is petrol (mix 7240) and it’s fantastic. I’m toying with the idea of knitting another Viking Knots. I’m drooling over the different colours of Alpaca: dark olive, dark purple, light maroon, rust, golden rod…how could I decide? What if I took another 11 years to finish it?

Happy knitting!

Hats · Knitting

Forever green

February 9, 2019 stgeorgeknitsLeave a comment

Yet another hat! I had to knit this hat because I found a small ball of this green yarn and simply had to get rid of it.

The yarn is Sirdar Country Style for Kids. I bought the whole packet (a kilo I guess) a long time ago. It was a good offer and I was a student at the time – say no more. Over the years I’ve been knitting and knitting and this never-ending yarn just – well, never ends. Until now.

I’ve knitted a cardigan, a bolero, mittens, fingerless gloves, a scarf and now a hat with this yarn. Maybe something else too. The yarn is 45% acrylic, 40% nylon and 15% wool. It’s clearly not a very warm yarn but it’s easy to care for. Just throw the knit in the washer and it comes out the same as you threw it in, only cleaner.

This hat was knit with double yarn, and top-down. I used 3½mm needles because I wanted the fabric to be dense. I suppose I could have knitted some interest into it but I simply wanted to see the end of this yarn, so speed was of the essence. I get a bit neurotic when I find yarn that I thought was already gone, or when I find a little bit of yarn that would just be enough for some small and quick knit. It burns a hole in my yarn stash until it’s gone. This hat was knit in one evening. Phew.

I once again proved that even if I have a big yarn stash and some yarn has been sitting there for years, even decades, eventually it all gets knitted.

Happy knitting!

Knitting · Mittens · Outdoors

Arctic Wookiee

February 2, 2019February 5, 2019 stgeorgeknits8 Comments

This is one seriously frozen Chewbacca!

It’s been so cold that even Chewbacca freezes. Or is it the abominable snowman? I prefer Chewbacca, being a sci-fi fan and all 🙂

We’ve had temperatures below -30C for over two weeks now. These temperatures are not unusual here but when they continue for weeks on end, it starts to get on my nerves. We had a mini heatwave for two days of only -10C but today we are back to -33C. We have just over 50cm of snow now. I’m not sure but I think this is little less what we normally have at this time of winter. So there’s something positive.

Last weekend, Sodankylä, which is the municipality where we live, broke the cold record in Finland this winter, -38.7C. It was also the coldest place in the whole of Europe, if you don’t count Russia.

It is, however, business as usual here. I’ve never, ever, heard of any school ever being closed because of snow or low temperature. Buses or trains might be little delayed if tons of snow comes all at once but other than that, people just keep adding more clothes and start to look more and more like Michelin Men.

The mittens above are not a recent knit. I knitted them about 10 years ago. I use them a lot. I realised that they were really warm while ploughing snow, when combined with another pair of mittens or gloves underneath. Fingers freeze really easily while ploughing snow because of the metal bar you hold on to. I also put the blue furry mittens in the rucksack when going on winter hikes. I like to put them on while on a break and my fingers are frozen from messing with the flask or after taking some pictures. I think it must be those fluffy hairs that make them warm, even though they are only 45% wool and the rest acrylic and polyamide.

I hope you are all keeping warm, wherever you are.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

A hoot

January 31, 2019 stgeorgeknits3 Comments

Hubby’s owl jumper is finished and I think it might be a new favourite.

This was a very quick knit – I surprised myself. The yarn is (surprise surprise) Novita’s 7 Veljestä and it was knitted with 4mm needles. The gauge is 18 stitches to 10 cm. The pattern is here but unfortunately only in Finnish. (I will update these links if the patterns are translated into English at any time.)

I don’t really have anything else to say. This was such a pain-free and quick knit without any drama or disasters. I basically sat down and started and soon it was finished. The size is very good, too. I’m going to knit an owl jumper for me, too, but it will be more colourful. Perhaps all the different images in a different colour. The pattern for the ladies’ version is a tunic but I might do a normal length jumper instead. But not yet.

Anyway, this owl was well received, and that’s the main thing!

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

The dress that never was

January 25, 2019 stgeorgeknits2 Comments

Yay, I finished a lacy jumper!

The pattern was actually for a dress but I made it a jumper instead. I’m not much of a dress wearer and thought that a jumper would get much more use. For once, the pattern is also available in English. The yarn is Novita’s Venla, which is a fingering weight yarn and it’s a blend of 75% wool and 25% polyamide.

Because I made this a jumper, I added some decreases and increases to the waist (which weren’t there for the dress). I just winged it. I made it quite long and it’s on the limit of being a tunic. It’s a top-down pattern and the lace yoke is very easy. The whole jumper knitted up very quickly, despite the thin yarn.

The front and back are the same. I wanted to mark the front somehow, and attached a wooden button to the hem. You can just see it on the bottom right. It says Handmade on it. I don’t know if people are usually bothered about which way they wear a jumper that’s the same both ways, but I always like to know that I wear it the same way every time. Hence the button. All in all, I’m quite pleased with this jumper. I had my doubts many times along the way, but it pulled through.

Happy knitting!

Toys · Upcycling

Thumbs up, boys

January 23, 2019 stgeorgeknits5 Comments

I love to repurpose stuff. I keep old clothing to make something out of them later. I cut t-shirts into t-shirt yarn and sew bags from old jeans. I make sock monsters from socks. My sister sometimes sends me a package full of old clothes and other stuff, and one time I found an old pair of kid’s gloves in there. Hmmm….I made a pair of bunnies.

The cuff was cut in half and sewn into legs. The two middle fingers (or rather the middle finger and the ring finger) were cut out and made into arms. The place where they were was sewn shut to make the top of the head. The thumb was cut out and shortened to be the tail. That was it. Then the bunny was stuffed and buttons were sewn for eyes and a cross for a nose/mouth.

Well, the bunnies were ok but a bit boring, to be honest. I left them for a while, until I suddenly thought that the bunnies need some winter gear. I knitted scarves and mittens for them and now they look a lot nicer.

Happy knitting!

Dublicated stitches · Jumper · Knitting · Stash busting

Heart on the hem

January 20, 2019 stgeorgeknits6 Comments

This was a Christmas present for my 5-year-old niece. Oh, how quick it is to knit a 5-year-old-sized jumper!

I used an Angry Bird jumper pattern but because I used yarn from my stash, I didn’t have enough red to knit an Angry Bird jumper. I just took the measurements and the numbers of stitches from the pattern. The yarn is probably as old as me, named Novita Cora. It was my grandmother’s, then it ended up as my mother’s, and now to me, and I knitted it for my sister’s daughter. Ha, how to involve generations with just one jumper! The little heart was done by duplicating stitches. I found two round red buttons in my stash with a heart image in the middle, which were perfect.

The jumper is a good fit. I hope they remember to wear this jumper now that the temperatures are close to -20C even in the south, where they live.

Happy knitting!

Knitting · Outdoors · Woolly pants

Mandatory use of woolly pants

January 17, 2019 stgeorgeknits7 Comments

Probably the best thing I’ve ever knitted for winter use are my woolly pants. They are so warm and I don’t know how I’ve managed to stay alive without them. When you live way above the Arctic Circle where temperatures can easily drop below -40C (-40F), clothing needs to be seriously practical and most of all warm.

What you need to do is this: First put on your long johns and socks. Then woolly pants. Then padded pants. Add woolly socks as needed. That’s warm.

I used a pattern (sorry in Finnish only) by Novita and also their yarn Nalle Taika. I love that colour. Shame that these pants are usually hidden from view.

Then of course my hubby needed woolly pants too.

Their pattern is also by Novita and yarn is Nalle. He is also very pleased with his woolly pants.

I like the woolly pants so much that I’ve already earmarked another pair which I’ll knit some time. These are for me and these for hubby. I have yarn ready for mine as well.

Talking of woolly pants, there was a children’s programme on TV when I was little. It was called “Mandatory use of woolly pants”. A little boy, Timo, has been ill with a chest cold and he’s been off school for a few days. When he’s well again and gets ready to go to school, his father says that it’s very cold outside and he must wear woolly pants because he’s just been ill. Timo thinks this is embarrassing because the other boys don’t wear woolly pants. The pants his father brought to him had even a heart-shaped patch on the bum. Timo tries to protest by saying that he does not breath with his bum, but it doesn’t help. He has to put the pants on.

At school that day they have a doctor’s check-up. Timo is terrified because he thinks that other boys might see his woolly pants if he needs to take his clothes off. He can’t concentrate on anything and just has terrible images in his mind all day. He came up with the idea that if the president would announces on TV a mandatory use of woolly pants, he’d be ok. Everyone then would have to wear woolly pants. With his mind’s eye he sees the news anchor announcing the mandatory use of woolly pants, ordered by the president. It would last till first of May, when the use of summer clothes would be allowed, weather permitting. And then the news anchor starts a woolly pants rock dance presenting woolly pants fashion. That’s classic!

This whole film used to be available online not too long ago, but all I could find now were little snippets. If you want to see the woolly pants rock, click here. This is Finland in 1977. Enjoy!

Happy knitting!