PolarBears AAW

Look what I've done! It is Norwegian Linka Neumann design from her book Villmarksgensere 2. She is a very talented designer and her style touches my soul. After a long-long-long and even longer time I have knit something according to someone else than my own design. I just can't resist her style.

I have 3 books from Linka and have dreamed for a long time to have a change (=freetime) to knit some of her designs. It has taken almost 12 months to complete this; to be able to find the spare moment to knit just something only for myself. 

It has been a long-term plan to make this jumper. I have used AAW from our 1st collection for this design. It is a very special yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). In June 2023 I finally found some time every now and then to start to plant dye our AAW yarn.

It all is knit by Fair Isle style. Except the polar bears. The polar bears were at first knit by the basic color of AAW. After finishing the jumper I used duplicate stitching and Novita 7 veljestä yarn (blanco and nature white) to make the polar bears thicker and whiter. I could have used white yarn at first but because I wanted them to be thicker and get a bit variegated fur I first used the basic color and then duplicate stitching with another shade. At front I have 2 blanco white polar bears...

...and at back side they all 3 are nature white. I wanted to do it in this way because of the climate change and the fact that all the polar bears are not the same white shade. There are many shades in white, like in the life itself too. It is not always just black or white, but far too often we speak about the shades of grey. There are shades of white too.

This brand new jumper we can call FashionNOW design despite it is a brand new piece of cloth. I have produced 50% of the material by myself (the angora wool), 40% of the material (FinnSheep) is produced at a home hobby farm by someone I know. All the colors (except the white ones) I plant dyed at home using 90% the plants from my local area, collected by my self by respecting the nature and diversity. The white ones are left over materials from the projects years back. Instead of throwing the white ones away I saved them for the further use = this.

This jumper is my own gift for 50 yrs old me. And the brooch I am using with it is a birthday gift from my childhood friend with whom we turn to 50 yrs day after another.  It is Inarin Hopea design Solar Bear. On the jumper where it walks with me, it reminds about my Sámi culture, roots and ideology. Its shiny silver blink drives away the evil, dark and all the bad that might be hiding on the path I am walking.