OOW Mittens No1

I designed and knit mittens for myself. I used loose end yarn from my own design WaterGrassVest project. These mittens match well with the vest. I am knitting woollen gloves to wear under these mittens. It is going to be something extra warm for my hands for the next winter. I used our own OOW yarn. (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) (100g = 220m) This is not fast fashion. It is slow craft and FashionNOW.

Shepherd'sCrochetHat

Do you remember my AAW Mittens No10? I designed and made a hat for them! I used our own AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). I plant dyed the yarns with coffee and tea. It is ethic and sustain produced wool and dye. Also, it is a slow craft and FashionNOW. It is very warm and He loves it!

KnittedGloves AAW No2

I designed and knit a pair of knitted gloves for Him. I used natural indigo dyed our own snag grey AAW yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool,10% nylon) (100g = 238m). They are very warm because of the angora and chiengora (dog wool) fibers. Very sustainable and FasionNOW.

AAW Mittens No10

I have fell in love with this new method Shepherd's crochet I learnt only in this year in January. Just few weeks ago. In January I made similar looking pair of mittens but in green shades. Actually they differ from each other. I designed the difference in increasing the stitches. Both are slim fit designs to be able to use these mitten under bigger ones to create more warmth when needed. Or, when it's warmer they are perfect to be used on their own.

I used our own AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). I plant dyed the yarns with coffee and tea. It is ethic and sustain produced wool and dye. It is a slow craft. And they are FashionNOW. 

AAW Mittens No9

Just 2 weeks ago I learned this new craft technique: Shepherd's crochet. I introduced it to my students at my working place at Tornio community college. Last week a student started to make mittens by using this method, but she had few wonders and open questions in the project. 

That's why I started to work with the Shepherd's crochet mittens to find out the issue she wondered and see what is the point. We can't know all, none can, not even a professional teacher. By the way, teacher's job is not to know everything, it is to help your students to know what they need and want to know. And that's why I have the promise for my students; if they want to learn something I can't, we learn together. 

At 1st I planned to start the same instruction like my student, but then I realized I had similar mittens for about 25 years ago. I received them as a gift from a friend. Shepherd's crochet is not so stretching sideways. Your thumb needs that in wither action from the mittens & gloves. That's why I designed another type of Shepherd's mittens you see around here.

I used plant dyed (different shades of reed) AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). I used the last remaining left over yarns I have from my projects WaterGrassVest OOW, NB Hat No2 and PolarBears AAW. It really is slow craft and FashionNOW. They are very warm, thick and durable mittens. That's why I like Shepherd's crochet, and have already started another project with this design of my own; because He wants a pair too. 

And yes, I figured out the answer for my student's wonder & question. 💕

Learning new is good for your mental heath! And brains! Two weeks ago I had just tried out this method and now I have my own designed mittens! WOW! 

AAW Mittens No8

 

I designed and knit also this pair of AAW mittens. I used plant dyed (coffee) AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). 

AAW Mittens No7

I designed and knit this pair of AAW mittens. I used plant dyed (saskatoon and coffee) AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool and 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). 

KnittedGloves AAW No1

I designed and knit for myself these beautiful and warm gloves. I used AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). I plant dyed it by saskatoon berries (juneberries/serviceberries). For the decoration I knitted seed stitches.

WaterGrassVest OOW

Here it finally is. The result of our 1st ever KnitWithMe project. My own design, knit with you! And I had some pretty winter days with a bit of light to be able to make some pics for you. I call it WaterGrassVest because the shades and the structure reminds me about the grass growing under the water.

The texture is thick because of the knitting method and the structure it creates. That makes it to be a super warm, but not too much if indoors in a chilly building. It is made of our own plant dyed yarns OOW and AAW. OOW (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) (100g = 220m) and AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m), they both include so much love and the attitude of FashionNOW. 

True slow craft. Really designed for the functional purposes. I wore the vest this week at the work and am more than satisfied with it. I really am going to make another vest for myself but with a different design of my own. Would you like to knit it with me in the future?

KnitWithMe No 1 E

After the neck & collar we knit the arm holes.

Pick up stitches on 4-5 knitting needles. I have 4 x 16 + 12. All together 76 stitches on both sides. Then knit 2, purl 2. Repeat at 5-7 rounds and cast off.

After knitting the arm holes you need to turn the vest inside out and weave the loose yarn ends there.

The arm hole ribs should be a bit tighter than the holes because then it prevents it to get loose and fit better under your winter jacket slim fit arms.

KnitWithMe No 1 D

 

Now we've knit all the way up to the shoulder lines. You need to pick up the stitches on the knitting needles to make it all a bit easier and  and more clear. At least if your yarn is fluffy like mine.

You need to make the kitchener stitch to connect together the front and back shoulder lines. It is not so difficult. Just remember always follow the rule: the needle goes first from the front side through the stitch and then from the back side. Always, front and back. 

Always. No matter are you "up or down". Front and back.

Finally it all seems like knit together. Here you get 3 rows with the color 1 because you end up with it on both front and back sides.

And there is your neck line.

Pick up stitches on 4 knitting needles. I have 21 at front, 25 at back and on both sides 13. All together 72 stitches. Then knit 2, purl 2. Repeat at least 5 rounds. Depending on it what kind of collar you would like to have. Tiny, turtle of full double polo. It is up to your personal needs. I made 15 rounds. 

See you again by the armpits!

KnitWithMe No1 C

Now you have knit with me all the way up from the armpits to the neck line. Still you need to be satisfied with the fake light weird shades of my OOW (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) (100g = 220m) and AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m) yarns. The real plant dyed shades of the yarns you can see on this post.

You can see the back side of the vest is higher than the front side. My back side is one repeat higher than the front side. In my case I have total 180 stitches. It depends on your stitches how many you now had at front and at back. At the end you need to have exactly the same number of stitches on the shoulder line because later you stitch them together.

(The repeat means in this case one stripe figure stitched by the colors 2-4 plus the color 1 there in the between of each stripe. The repeat ends with the color 1.)

The shoulder line final number of stitches is 20 (or few more if your vest is bigger than mine) on the both sides. You need to decrease all the extra stitches by the neckline. At front I decreased at 1st 10 stitches on the both sides of the central stitch + the central stitch. It makes total 21 stitches. And then 4 more (on both sides) by the neckline during the next repeat. Knit one more repeat with these 20 stitches. Leave the stitches "on rest".

Notice: Make the first central decreases by the color 1 at back side's back side (= purl). This means you end up to knit at first the right side back shoulder (but it really doesn't matter). Then you knit the left side back shoulder.

Make sure your back side is one repeat higher than the front side. Because you have less rounds left to make the decrease to 20 stitches on both shoulders you need to make it faster. Which means more on the central line. You make the decrease during one repeat and then your're done with the back side.

Calculate how many stitches you have. At front you need to decrease so many stitches that you end up on both shoulders with 20 (the number you have left at the end at the front side shoulder) + 2. 

After decreasing the needed number of stitches at back's central point you need to decrease 2 more by the neck neck line.

Notice: Make the first central decreases by the color 1 at back side. This means you end up to knit at first the right side back shoulder. Then you knit the left side back shoulder. Leave the stitches "on rest".

Now you have got rid of your knitting needles, haven't you. 😊

For the next well meet to connect the shoulder lines!

KnitWithMe No1 A

I started a knitting project and had an idea that you could knit it with me. I designed a woollen vest which I am going to wear at work. My craft classroom, where I mostly teach, is big and high. It is a former gym hall! (Perfect place for crafting even bigger projects.) It is a community college building made of the stone right after the WW2 wars in Lapland, Finland. The 3rd winter me working there is about to begin. I do like wear turtle neck polo shirts and a woollen jumper over it. But teaching craft includes a lot of walking around the class room, kneeling down, lifting up etc. Sometimes a woollen jumper is too much but just a polo shirt too little. A poncho or a shawl is difficult but works if I do only office job. That's how I discovered I will make few woollen vests for myself. This is the 1st one. 

For the project I use our own yarns OOW (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) (100g = 220m) and AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). They are not available for sale but for your own project you can choose the yarns that are approximately 100g = 220-240m. If you want to make it FashionNOW but have no wool of your own, you can try to buy some local or organic wool. For this project you can use also all your loose end yarns. Anyway, if possible, use 100% natural fibres to avoid supporting oil industry and micro plastic. Also, wool is warmer than other fibers so it helps you to adjust your heating a degree or few lower. That reduces the need of the energy you need for the heating.

You need 60-80 cm long no 3 circular knitting needles (or no 2,5 if you knit loose, no 3,5-4 if you knit tight). I used 80 cm circular knitting needles on the begin but then swap to 60 cm. It's up to you, how you like it.

For the ribbing I use the OOW which I've plant dyed by lupin. 

For the stripes I use AAW which I've plant dyed by reed in 3 different shades.

This instruction is for the size M. If you need bigger, make more. If smaller, reduce. S=172, M=180, L=188 etc. There's 8 stitch gap between each size. No matter what you do, how many stitches you cast on, as long as the final number of the stitches is divisible by 4.

Cast on 180 stitches on your circular knitting needles. You close it up when you start the 1st round. Place the slip marker on the begin of the round.

Rounds 1-14: 2 knit - 2 purl (color 1)

Round 15: knit all (color 1)

Round 16-17: knit 3 - slip 1 (color 2)

Round 18: knit all (color 1)

Round 19-20: knit 3 - slip 1 (color 3)

Round 21: knit all (color 1)

Round 22-23: knit 3 - slip 1 (color 4)

Round 24: knit all (color 1)

Repeat the rounds 16-24 until the vest is long enough and you end up to your armpits. We will continue from there later. 😉

See the notes below.

Place the slip markers on both sides. Make sure it gets even right in the middle front. Meaning that I have 180 stitches. Half of it is 90. The middle front is between the stitches 45-46. In my size the pattern of the 4 stitches figure doesn't fit right in the middle.That's why I marked again the sides so that the back side of the vest gets a bit smaller so I can match the pattern repeat right in the middle front. If it is even one stitch skewed it will be noticed because it comes right under your face at the end. So make sure you match the middle front center there where you want. The front part of the vest can be a bit bigger than the back side. It really is up to one or few stitches so it doesn't matter much.

This is how it starts to look like. The slipped stitches will form out vertical rows. It is like Fair Isle knitting but much easier and faster.

I'll meet you by the armpits! See you!

NB Hat No2

I designed and made this needle binding winter hat. No, there is no design for it. Typical for needle binding is that they are made "on you". It means you bind a bit, try it on, keep going on until finished. I used our own AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon (100g = 238m). I plant dyed the yarns by weld (reseda), onion, lupin and reed. I used Finnish stitch (2+3 F2). I crocheted the flowers and leaves for the decoration.

It is FashionNOW slow craft and I plan to wear with wollen jumpers. This hat matches with the shade of my pale eyes. 😍

Wedge Heel No2

I designed and knit another wedge heel knitted woollen sock. For the leg of the sock I used plant dyed AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon)  (100g = 238m). The shades are from Surprise Webcap (Cortinarius semisanguineus), tea and fire weed. For the foot part I used dark brown Nako yarn (75 % wool, 25 % polyamide) (100g = 200m).

This differs from Wedge Heel No1 because this one has similar style heel knitting and stitches compared to Dutch Heel No1 (trad.). That's why this heel is stronger than the Wedge Heel No1. It also stays on better and perhaps creates a small healing compression on aching angles. But it is not -in my opinion- pretty at all in any way. It would look better if the rib stitch (knit 2 - purl 2) would reach all the way to the toes.

Wedge Heel No1

I designed and knit wedge heel knitted woollen socks. For the leg of the sock I used plant dyed AAW yarn (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon)  (100g = 238m). The shades are from Surprise Webcap (Cortinarius semisanguineus) and tea. For the foot part I used dark brown Nako yarn (75 % wool, 25 % polyamide) (100g = 200m). I have never before used Nako yarn so I really have no idea will it be good or not.

This was the 1st time for me to knit this wedge heel. It is not suitable for boots and active use. But I see it very useful for the ones who stay mainly at home in a quiet life or bed at nursery home with swelled up angles and feet.

AranHeadband No2

I made another my own design Aran Chain Cable twisted headband. I used AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) yarn in plant dyed cochineal shade.

Next weekend I will have a free local workshop at my work about this Aran Chain Cable knitting. At Tornio, Finland there will be historical street festival every year. Past years it has been held at the end of August. It is called Peräpohjolan markkinat. It is worth of visiting.

I think at this point making the twisted knot for the head band looks better. So, if making this, try to match the knot by the small cable turns.

AAW Headband No1

I knit twisted cross head band. The design is world wide known and easy to make. I used double AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon). One in the natural Pale Fog Blue shade and the other in plant dyed by coffee. I put two threads together to get yarn that's thick enough and create a tweed like impression. It is also double layered which means I knit it in a loop like a sock leg. 

It is a hot summer going on but soon we will turn to August and then we will be knocking the autumn's door and it will be Yuletide sooner than we realize. This is easy and low cost gift to someone very special. You can finish these in few hours. Even a beginner can knit head bands!

Reds

Here we go! More pictures about summer 2025 plant dyes. These our own wool OOW yarns (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) are dyed by Surprise Webcap (Cortinarius semisanguineus). You can see three of them also here. 

These 4 have been plant dyed by Madder. Also for these I used OOW yarn (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool). You can see one more red OOW yarn dyed by madder here with blue yarn.

Here is one more OOW yarn dyed by madder. It looks brighter and it really is. It all depends also about it on which shade you plant dye.

Here you can see all 5 together. On the left side is OOW yarn with the original natural white shade. The other 4 are natural light grey-beige on their original shade. The difference is not big but visible and it is enough to make the difference on the result.

And here is our own yarn AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m) dyed by madder. On the left side is the 1 st bath, in the middle is the 3rd bath and on the right side the 4th bath. (Yes, you are right, I missed the 2nd. It comes later. 😅) When you compare all the pics in this blog post you can notice the madder doesn't get attach to our AAW yarn as well as on to OOW yarn. It must be because of the angora wool and slight 10% add of nylon because roughly to say it is half lighter than the matching baths with OOW yarn. But is does't matter. It is good to know and these are cute too and will be used later...

WOW! What is this???!!! It is my own souvenir from Dublin, Ireland for me & myself! I learnt with my students that it is very difficult to find wool yarn that is manufactured in Ireland from Irish sheep! This is it! It is Ériu. Take a look! I bought some blue in my favorite shade. I bought also some white for my plant dyes. The upper one is the 2nd bath you missed in the previous pic 😃and the lower one is the 2nd bath of Surprise Webcap (Cortinarius semisanguineus). We'll see what these all will turn out!

Blues

I have fell in love with logwood. I have dyed with the logwood our lighter pale fog blue AAW (50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m). I made 3 pics for you to show you how difficult and depending on many things it is to photograph the shades. This 1st pic shows too light shades, especially the left side yarn. The lightest shade is too light in this pic.

In this picture the left side yarn is too gloomy. I could say too dark, but it looks also gloomy compared to it what it is. The right side yarn is from the 1st bath and the rests one after another from left over baths.

This is better than the 2nd pic, but still it is not the right. The right shades are something between this and the 1st picture with the left side shade. The three other shades look more true in the 2nd pic. But it is difficult. And depends on also your screen resolutions etc. That's why it is easier to choose a pic you just like. 😂

I dyed also AAW snag grey shade with logwood. For these I used the left over dye bath. Again the shades in these pictures are not actual and true but close to it. I used leftover logwood dye bath to plant dye 800 g of snag grey AAW yarn to get blue-grey shade.

I didn't plan to do so but as a curious person and 1st time logwood user I wanted to see for how long the left over bath is usable in rationale way. The number is: 7 times! And if you use grey wool for the last baths you still get quite strong shades.

I used logwood also for the left side OOW yarn (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) in this picture. I made these for my mother-in-law. The red shade is dyed by the madder (Rubia tinctoria). More about the madder dyes later.