DogWoolVest

After 3 years it is here: dogwool (chiengora) vest for Him. Made of our own arctic dogs' wool. All in natural shades. I didn't card the fibers. I wanted to use it all just in the way how it pops out to reach a lively surface for the vest.

If you don't card it, it causes the uneven structure. It is difficult to spin but the result is lively. Also, because it is uneven you can notice unbalance of the twist in the yarn to go this and that way in the knitwear. And no, I didn't plan any single stripe. It all is like it came out from the fur bag when I spun. I designed it, I spun it, I knit it but Nuka and Pii gave the fibers for it. It is slow craft and FashionNOW. A very sustainable garment!

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.

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.

SalmonChiengora

I designed and knit these traditional style mittens. First I collected the dog wool (chiengora), then I spun with Liinu the 100 % arctic dog wool yarn (Aran). After that I went into the woods to pick up mushrooms to plant dye the yarn. Only after that I was able to start the knitting. 

I designed also a special style scarf and knit also it. After finishing also the scarf I needed to wait a day with a bit of snow and light to be able to make these photos for you to show it. It really has been what we call the slow craft!

They make a great matching pair. And for sure they are extremely warm. They also include the wool from our dear dogs and the attitude of FashionNOW. Really local and eco-friendly clothing.

The shades are beautiful Salmon and Pale-Salmon. Plant dye is fun because at the end all the yarns and individual plants act in a different way!

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 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!

SingleCable Headband No1

I designed and made this Aran Single Cable headband from the real true begin to the final end. It is a real FashionNOW product. Inspired by my Dublin journeys with very fashionable stripes in Aran knitiwear.

My friend used to have an arctic mix bred dog. She used to collect its loose hair for us to be used in our project where we collect arctic dog and Finn Sheep wool to get our own wool yarn OOW.

It has been a long term project because I have hand spun the last remaining wool of her dog whose last wool she gave me. She has no idea I have been making hand spun yarn for her made of 100% of her dear dog friend's wool. At the end, after finishing the spinning, I have plant dyed the yarn by mushrooms.

Then I figured out what on earth to do with it. I wanted to make something she can wear/use but something that will last. That's how I ended up making her SingleCable Headband No1. It is really thick because I made it double layered. It will warm her head and heart. She will receive this very soon as a birthday gift. 💝

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!

WoolCakes

Here they are. 500g of hand spun arctic dog wool chinegora.

Variable quality, variable yarn. That makes it to look lively and unique which twists are different here and there but all balanced.

Most of it is white or light grey.

There is also darker grey.

There is also other natural shades. That all makes it actually a tweed yarn. I can't wait to start knitting the project. Unfortunately, I have many others going on, so this needs to wait...

SlowCraftWool

After our angora rabbits passed away 2018 we had one last delivery of wool to the mill and received for about 10 kg AAW. On that time Liinu moved in 4 years ago. Since that I still have -like always- collected our arctic dog wool. I started to spin it 2 years ago in May 2023. Now I have spun ~500g of 100% chiengora from our own dogs' wool. I do have spun everything else too but this has been my main and long term project. 

How much I have used the time to spin this yarn? I never counted. But, a skillful spinner spins 40-6o meters of yarn in an hour. This is not an easy yarn to spin so I have used much more time to get ~50 meters than an hour. I have not calculated yet but there might be approx. 200m in 100g. Normal wool of 500g would then have appeared in ~20 hours. This is not a normal long fiber wool. 😅

Today I finally reached the point where we slowly start to see all the shades of the wool. I have washed those 4 skeins now. I used only ~50 liters of water to wash 500g of wool. It is a small amount of water to wash the wool. I did it in home industrial hand-washing way so it was possible. This really is FashionNOW and eco-friendly wool.

I hung these 4 skeins to dry outside so for that I don't need electricity. Just the wind and a bit sunshine. It is +8 Celsius degrees outside at the moment. That is enough to get it dry. But, because the drying up takes time and the birds are building their nests I need to hang up also some scarecrows to prevent them to pick up any wool from these beautiful hand spun chiengora skeins!

What I am going to make of it? A vest for Him. A very warm vest.

The problem to solve was what to use because I don't want to scare the birds away from nesting in my arctic garden. I need the birds for my biological and ecological toxic free gardening. That's why I chose 2 wind chimes you can see in the previous picture and one crystal hanger. The birds are used to the sounds of my wind chimes but still don't go close to them. This crystal hanger has been hanging in my veranda so they have seen its reflected light outside. I just moved it 4 meters and placed it outside. 

I need to pay attention and see if they scare them enough but not too much. At this time of the year the birds appear to pick up the dog wool everywhere. We also leave it outside on purpose for them to use.

NB Mittens No1

I made traditional style needlebinding mittens with a traditional style round start. I used Finnish stitch (2+2 F2). I used our old ethic produced dog wool OOW yarn (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool). 

This are for Him and custom made for His hands. I really enjoyed making them and practicing this new skill I've learnt in the past 12 months.

These mittens go with the needlebinding hat I finished a month ago. In these pics the mittens and hat look rather gray than brown. The real actual shade is something between.

Like the hat, these mittens are made with FashionNOW ideology. Also the mittens include an ancient method needlebinding. They are made of locally produced ethic wool. Manufacturing the mittens has not needed electricity.

NB Hat No1

A year ago I started to learn needlebinding which I have wanted to learn for a long time. He made me 3 moose bone binding needles. Past 12 months -every now and then- I've been practicing this ancient skill. Practicing has included also planned pauses. In my learning process these pauses have had the deeper meaning: to forget. And to be able to start again, to be able to jump back in when you have no idea what is going on. 

Today I have something to show you. It is a traditional style round start hat made with Finnish stitch (2+2 F2). I used our old ethic produced dog wool OOW (25% arctic dog wool and 75% Finnsheep wool) collection. This hat I started and finished last week when I was at a conference.

It is a brand new woolen hat. Despite it includes an ancient method needlebinding, it is made with FashionNOW ideology. It is made of locally produced ethic wool. Manufacturing the hat itself has not needed electricity or other energy except my needle and hands. 

Chiengora

This is 100% hand spun chiengora (dogwool). It is made of our own dog wool from our own dogs Nuka and Pii. It is going to be something extremely warm for a hunter. It is a slow process because I do it on my free time. I do have 2 more skeins resting. They need to rest for a couple of weeks before I twine them to balls. I won't dye any of this yarn. It will stay in its natural shades from white via beige to black.

Chiengora

It is early April and furry time of the year. Last Friday the morning temperature was -20 C (in some villages around -25 C). Yesterday morning -10 C and this morning only -6 C. My garden is still 100 % covered by the snow. The statistic fact is that average the snow stays on the ground for 6 months around here. It arrived (permanent) 10.10.2023 and seems is not melting away yet. 

Spinning dog wool (chiengora) is a warm thing to do. Spinning is for sure slow craft and can be very much up to mindfulness after you have learnt the technique. I love to spin with Liinu. This month I again have one spinning course and Liinu will come with me.

SpringSpinning

What a wonderful wool my dogs Nuka and Pii have given me again. Nukas hair is a bit shorter here and there, but still long enough for spinning with attention.

It is going to be warm and beautiful hand spun dog wool yarn. I am working with Liinu to spin the wool. 

By the way, earlier in May, at work we had open doors day with expo and pop up arts and crafts. Liinu was there with me and we had a lots of fun. 

AAW LegWarmers No3

I designed and knit another pair of AAW legwarmers. No2 you can find here. See, the pattern is quite similar but the leg warmers are longer. I used our own ethic produced arctic angora wool AAW snag grey shade (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool, 10% nylon) (100g = 238m).

AAW SimpleGloves No2

I designed and knit another pair of simple gloves. They differ from SimpleGoves No1 because these don't have single cable decoration. This pair is for a man.

This pair is for a female. You can see the difference from the shape of the glove. For both I used our AAW yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool and 10% nylon).

 

AAW SimpleGloves No1

The 1st ever gloves designed and knit by me of our AAW yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool and 10% nylon). They have single cable decoration by the wrist area. These are made for Him and He loves them. Who would not? 
 

AAW SingleCable Socks No3

I designed and knit this pair of AWW woollen sock for myself. I need thin but warm sock for my horse riding hobby in arctic weather. For these socks I used only our AAW snag grey yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool and 10% nylon). I have already used them and they are really really warm.

I started them already in October but after my injury it has taken for weeks to finish the last sock. At first I could knit only few rounds, then max ten per day. But, now they are finally here on my blog! Yeppee! Craft making is such a good rehabilitation also for shoulder injuries. Just make sure your knitting needles and yarn are light enough. Make sure to make just a little bit and go on with small steps. It also keeps your mind out of depression because of the injury and pain.

AAW Collar No1

I designed and knit a warm collar by using our own AAW snag grey yarn (40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool, 40% FinnSheep wool, 10% arctic dog wool and 10% nylon). I used HorseshoeCables to decorate the front side.

The flap of the back side has as many stitches as the front side flap but I wanted it to stand wider and protect shoulder area better. That's why I used only the basic stitch knit when knitting. Every stitch is just knit with that on each row so it forms out this structure instead of plain and doesn't get rolled up from the edges. I also crocheted the flap edges to prevent it to get rolled up.