Warmth is what I expected to have in July, but if you can't rely on the weather, you have to fix it yourself. I participated in a challenge where you have one month to finish something according to a theme. The theme of the month was WARMTH. You can find more information about the challenge in the blog Silmukan ytimessä kept by the bloggers Pipon ytimessä and Silmukan saalistus.
This shawl is really everything about warmth. It's knitted with warm 100 % wool yarn, the colours are all of warm shades and the shawl itself is big, soft and warm thanks to the garter stitch.
Pattern: Tailwind by Clara Falk (you can find her blog here)
Yarn: teetee Kamena & Ohut Pirkkalanka
Needles: 3,5 mm
In Ravelry
I especially like the slightly asymmetrical design of the shawl. Reminds me a little bit of the wonderful shawls by Veera Välimäki. This was also a perfect yarn-eater project. All of these yarns are leftovers from a fabric I was weaving in school last spring (yeah, a year ago!), but I'll tell you more about that later in the blog once I've finally made something out of it ;)
The pictures are taken on the small island Kuusiluoto just outside Arabia here in Helsinki. And look who came for a visit while we were taking photos! Just gotta love sheep! They're so friendly and always ready to be petted <3
When I finished my craft studies at the university last spring, my friends gave me gift cards to two different yarnshops in Helsinki: one to Menita and one to Snurre.
I have to say that this was a brilliant present for me. I've promised
myself that I'll try not to buy more yarn before I've used at least
half of what I aldready have. But once you have a gift card with an
expiration date, you just have to use it, right? Oh, that's just too
bad...
People have been talking a lot about the yarns by Louhittaren Luola (Knitlob's Lair) so I wanted to try a skein too. After fiddling around with a lot of different skeins I ended up buying Väinämöinen in colour Vilja.
Pattern: Good Day Sunshine (free pattern)
Yarn: Louhittaren Luola: Väinämöinen
Needles: 4 mm
More pictures in Ravelry
At first it seemed like the yarn was just a little bit too thick for this pattern, but I think it turned out just perfect anyway. I wanted a soft but warm shawl for the autumn, and that's exactly what this is. The yarn was soft and really easy to knit. I wish the colour had had just a little bit less orange in it, but I guess it's ok after all. The different shades of yellow and orange gives the shawl a lively and interesting look.
This wasn't exactly the easiest shawl I've knitted. Especially the textured top part required some thinking but it didn't take me too long to get the hang of it. The lace edge was easy and wonderful to knit.
The shawl eventually ended up just two rows short since I ran out of yarn, but I don't think it messed up the pattern at all. The rays of sunshine just ended up a little bit shorter than in the original version. Hope they'll still inspire the real sun to shine throughout the summer!
