English

Sacred Space

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ 1 Comment

It’s been a long while since I’ve last updated my blog. I’ve been super busy with my life and as I don’t have computer at home, writing to the blog is really slow with cell phone.

Last year, when I resigned from the company, where I worked for nearly 8 years, my colleagues bought me a gift card to my favorite yarn store. It was big enough for me to use in something bigger. So I wanted to spend it to something special, not just random skeins of yarn or something like that.

While the expiration date was coming closer and closer and I was still undecided what to buy with it, I started seeing more and more photos of this beautiful CAL Helen Shrimpton had yet designed.

The Sacred Space is beautiful blanket, consisting of 9 parts and the CAL started in July 2019. There are great videos to help crocheting this, in case you find it difficult to crochet just with the written instructions. Though in this pattern, the written instructions are really clear and easy to follow!

Me in my wedding dress

So, I used my gift card to purchase 50 skeins of Drops Cotton Merino. I just love this yarn, so soft and nice to work with. I chose the colors according to my wedding dress, which was 50’s inspired flower dress. I chose greens with pinks, and base color is white, just as in my wedding dress!

I’ve started Mandala Madness couple of years ago, but it’s still unfinished as I found the pattern quite hard for my skills. I hadn’t crocheted that much from written pattern before, but this time, I found that really easy. I’ve only had to look small pieces from the videos so far, which I great, as it’s faster to crochet straight from the written pattern.

Part 1 was finished yesterday, and gotta say, I just love it!! Can’t wait to start part 2 today!


BritSpin

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been wanting to challenge myself in spinning for few months now. I was planning to have my own “spinning marathon” and try to spin as much as possible in one weekend.

But while I was still in my planning phase, I saw an advert about BritSpin. Just what I needed! Spinning marathon for 4 days, starting on 11th of October! I don’t have to spin “alone”!

Sooner than I imagined, I was a captain of a team, and recruiting Finnish spinners to my team. Luckily Finnish spinners were eager to join, and we had full team really quickly.

Yesterday I got fleece, which I’ve planned to spin on BritSpin. I ordered Border Leicester wool straight from breeder in UK. The delivery was very fast and I really love how the wool looks like! Can’t wait until October to spin it! Meanwhile, I’m dividing it to bundles for washing and combing.

 

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Tapio light ball

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ 3 Comments

At the Kalevala blanket meeting in Pori, we had discussion with Minna Virtanen, test crocheter of Tapio blanket square I designed, that she’d used the center of the square for Christmas decoration balls. I thought it was fantastic idea, and the idea of Tapio light ball came to my mind.

Tapio_fina.jpg

So, here’s the pattern for you!

Merry Christmas to you all!

nimmari

Tapio – light ball

Designer: Milla Elo

What you need

  • Cotton yarn, thicker the yarn, bigger the ball
  • Hook, that is half size smaller than you would normally choose for the yarn. The gauge should be tight to get the best result.
  • Glue (water soluable or other starching product)
  • Balloon, regular size, to get round lightball
  • Some scrap yarn, to hang the lightball to dry.

Stitches and abbreviations

  • ch – chain
  • sl st – slip stitch
  • dc – double crochet
  • dc5tog – 5 dcs together, see instructions below

Special stitches and techniques

  • Puff-stitch: This puff-stitch is made with 5 yarn overs (yo). Yo, insert the hook into the stitch, pull the yarn through and repeat 4 times. Then pull yarn through all the loops on the hook. Close the puff-stitch with a ch which doesn’t count as a st.
  • dc5tog: Yo, insert the hook into the stitch, pull the yarn through, yo, pull the yarn through 2 loops on the hook (=unfinished dc), make unfinished dcs into 4 more stitches. Finally, pull the yarn through all the loops on the hook. [All the dcs stand on their own stitches at the bottom, but are joined together at the top]
  • SS: Standing stitch technique. Tutorial video can be found  here!
  • Invisible join: Tutorial video can be found here!

Other tips

(…) Repeat instructions between brackets as many times as directed

*…* Repeat instructions between asterisks the amount of times specified. This is normally a repeat for a complete side and will consist of multiple instructions.

*…** Contains part of *…* repeats, starting from * and ending to **. The rest of the pattern marked with *…* are skipped.

[…] Between square brackets, written in purple in italic, there are tips and guides to help you through the pattern.

{…} After each row, there is a stitch count of each row or each side of square.

The pieces

Starting row: (Color 1) Ch 5 and close it to form a loop.

Round 1: Ch 3 [starting chain, count as dc], 9 dc, close the round with sl st into the 3rd ch of the starting chain.

{10 dc}

Round 2: ch 5 [starting chain, counts as dc + ch 2], *dc, ch 2*, repeat *…* 9 times in total around the circle and join with sl st to the 3rd ch of the starting chain.

{10 dc, 10 ch2-sp}

Round 3: (Color 2) sl st to the ch-space, ch 3 [starting chain, counts as dc] 2 dc, * skip dc, 3 dc in the ch2-space, ch 1*, repeat *…* 9 times in total around the circle, join with invisible join to the 3rd ch of the starting chain. Weave in the ends.

{30 dc, 10 ch}

Round 4: (Color 3) Work SS puff-stitch between the two 3-dc groups, *ch 4, puff-stitch between the 3-dc groups*, repeat *…* 9 times in total, ch 4. Join with invisible join to the first puff-stitch.  Cut off the yarn and weave in the ends.

{10 puff-stitches, 10 ch4-sp}

Round 5: (Color 4) Work dc5tog starting from any of the ch4-spaces, starting with a SSdc on 3rd ch, work the unfinished dcs of dc5tog as follows: 1 [2 on following rounds] unfinished dc in the chain before puff st, 1 on top of puff st [This can be done as FPdc to ensure the stitch won’t stretch too much when stretched over the balloon], 2 in the chains after puff st *ch 7, dc5tog *, repeat *…* 10 times in total around the circle, ch 7, join with sl st to the first dc5tog.

{10 dc5tog, 10 ch7-sp}

Round 6: (Color 2) ch 3 [starting chain, counts as dc. If you start with SS, do it on top of the dc5tog done on the last row], *7 dc into the ch-space, dc on top of dc5tog [This can be done as FPdc to ensure the stitch won’t stretch too much when stretched over the balloon]*, repeat *…* 10 times in total around the circle omitting the last dc on the last repeat, join with sl st to the 3rd ch of starting chain.

{80 dc}

Joining

Hold pieces wrong sides facing each other, when joining them together. Join the yarn to either one of the pieces with slip stitch to any of the dc’s on the previous round. Ch 2, sl st to the second piece to equivalent point, ch 2, skip 3 dc on first piece counting from the last sl st, sl st to 4th, ch 2, skip 3 dc on second piece counting from the last sl st. Continue round the pieces, changing the piece where you make the sl st.  See the chart.

Close the round with sl st to the first sl st of the round, cut off the yarn and weave in the ends.

Tapio, joining chart

Starching the light ball

Make glue – water solution mixing 50% of glue and 50% of water. Let the crochet piece soak the solution thoroughly in the mix. After this, squeeze of the excess solution but don’t try to dry the pieces too much. Put the balloon between the pieces from the biggest holes and blow the balloon to form a round ball. Close the balloon really tightly to avoid air running out of it. Join the scrap yarn to the balloon and let it hang until dry.

When the crochet pieces are totally dried, pop/empty to balloon and let the lightball dry a while more before taking it in to a use.

And now you light ball is finished!

Happy hooking!

Kalevala CAL – Tapio – in English

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

KALEVALA-CAL

TAPIO

Designer: Milla Elo

Tapio

 

My square

The inspiration for this square is Kalevala’s Tapio, the spirit of the forest. As I like to enjoy the forest, this brought to my mind the mushrooms of an Autumn forest and the hanging branches of a spruce.

About the CAL

This crochet square pattern is a part of a Finnish crochet project. We have designed a crochet blanket based on the Kalevala Mythology. It has been created as a tribute to Finland’s 100 years of independence. The general information and links to all the square patterns of the blanket can be found in the Kalevala CAL info post at the blog of Arteeni.

Translations in PDF

English
Svenska
Deutch
Nederlands
Español
Čeština
עברית (Hebrew)

Videos

Tutorial video part 1
Tutorial video part 2

Info

Yarn: Menita’s Lasse

Hook: 4 mm

Colors:

  1. Forest green 8947
  2. Olive green 9963
  3. Yellow 2317
  4. Orange 3309
  5. Dark grey 203

Other

This square is for beginners. I recommend blocking the square after crocheting.

Stitches and abbreviations

∙ ch                                                   chain
∙ sl st                                                slip stitch
∙ sc                                                    single crochet
∙ hdc                                               half double crochet
∙ dc                                                   double crochet
∙ tr                                                    triple crochet
∙ dc5tog                                          5 dcs together, see instructions below

Special stitches and techniques

  • Puff-stitch: This puff-stitch is made with 5 yarn overs (yo). Yo, insert the hook into the stitch, pull the yarn through and repeat 4 times. Then pull yarn through all the loops on the hook. Close the puff-stitch with a ch which doesn’t count as a st.
  • dc5tog: Yo, insert the hook into the stitch, pull the yarn through, yo, pull the yarn through 2 loops on the hook (=unfinished dc), make unfinished dcs into 4 more stitches. Finally, pull the yarn through all the loops on the hook. [All the dcs stand on their own stitches at the bottom, but are joined together at the top]
  • SS: Standing stitch technique. Tutorial video can be found  here!
  • Invisible join: Tutorial video can be found here!

Other tips

(…) Repeat instructions between brackets as many times as directed

*…* Repeat instructions between asterisks the amount of times specified. This is normally a repeat for a complete side and will consist of multiple instructions.

*…** Contains part of *…* repeats, starting from * and ending to **. The rest of the pattern marked with *…* are skipped.

 […] Between square brackets, written in purple in italic, there are tips and guides to help you through the pattern.

{…} After each row, there is a stitch count of each row or each side of square.

Copyright

I, Milla Elo, hold the rights of the design, photos and the pattern. You have no right to copy, edit, distribute or sell the whole patterns or parts of it. You can share the link to my blog, if you want to share the pattern. You can sell the product made by using this pattern, as long as you acknowledge me as a designer. Thank you!

 

 

TAPIO – the pattern

 

Starting row: (Color 1) Ch 5 and close it to form a loop.

Round 1: Ch 3 [starting chain, count as dc] 9 dc, close the round with sl st into the 3rd ch of the starting chain.

{10 dc}

Round 2: ch 5 [starting chain, counts as dc + ch 2], *dc, ch 2*, repeat *…* 9 times in total around the circle and join with sl st to the 3rd ch of the starting chain.

{10 dc, 10 ch2-sp}

Round 3: (Color 2) sl st to the ch-space, ch 3 [starting chain, counts as dc] 2 dc, * skip dc, 3 dc in the ch2-space*, repeat *…* 9 times in total around the circle, join with invisible join to the 3rd ch of the starting chain. Weave in the ends.

{30 dc}

Round 4: (Color 3) Work SS puff-stitch between the two 3-dc groups, *ch 4, puff-stitch between the 3-dc groups*, repeat *…* 9 times in total, ch 4. Join with invisible join to the first puff-stitch.  Cut off the yarn and weave in the ends.

{10 puff-stitches, 10 ch4-sp}

Round 5: (Color 4) Work dc5tog starting from any of the ch4-spaces, starting with a SS, *ch 7, dc5tog*, repeat *…* 10 times in total around the circle, ch 7, join with sl st to the first dc5tog. [Work the unfinished dcs of dc5tog as follows: 2 unfinished dc in the chains before puff st, 1 on top of puff st, 2 in the chains after puff st]

{10 dc5tog, 10 ch7-sp}

Round 6: (Color 2) ch 3 [starting chain, counts as dc. If you start with SS, do it on top of the dc5tog done on the last row], *7 dc into the ch-space, dc on top of dc5tog*, repeat *…* 10 times in total around the circle omitting the last dc on the last repeat, join with sl st to the 3rd ch of starting chain.

{80 dc}

Round 7: (Color 2) Ch 1, sc into the same stitch with closing sl st of round 6, sc in the next 2 sts, *2 hdc, 3 dc, tr, 2 tr in the next stitch, ch 3, 2 tr in the next stitch, tr, 3 dc, 2 hdc **, sc in the next 6 sts*, repeat *…* twice more and *…** once, sc in the next 3 sts, join with sl st to the first sc.

{6 sc, 4 hdc, 6 dc, 6 tr and ch3-sp per side}

Round 8: (Color 4) Ch1, sc into the same stitch as the closing sl st of round 7, sc in the next st, * ch 4, skip 3 stitches, sc, ch 4, skip 2 stitches, sc, ch 4, skip 2 stitches, sc into the corner ch-space, ch 4, sc into the same corner ch-space, ch 4, skip 2 stitches [remember to count the first hidden stitch in the corner], sc, ch 4, skip 2 stitches, sc, ch 4**,  skip 3 stitches,  4 sc [to the middle of the side]*, repeat *…* twice more and *…** once, skip 3 stitches, sc in the next 2 sts. Join with sl st to the 1st sc at the beginning of the round.

{10 sc, 24 ch, ch-space in the corner per side}

Round 9: (Color 3) ch1, sc into the same stitch as the closing sl st of round 8, *(ch 4, sc in the ch-space) [notice there will only be one sc in the corners!], repeat 8 times in total, 2 sc [in the middle of the side, first sc in the 2nd sc]*, repeat *…* 3 more times, omitting last sc. Join with sl st to the first sc of the round.

{8 ch4-spaces, 9 sc [including one in the corner] per side}

Round 10: (Color 1) Ch 3 [starting chain, counts as dc], (3 dc into the ch-space, dc in the sc), repeat 3 more times, ch 3, * dc into the same corner sc as the previous dc, (3 dc into the ch4-space, dc in the sc), repeat 7 more times, ch 3*, repeat *…* twice in total, (3 dc into the ch4-space, dc in the sc), repeat 2 more times, dc in the next 3 sts. Join with invisible join to the starting chain, cut off the yarn and weave in the ends.

{33 dc, ch3-sp in the corner per side}

Round 11: (Color 5) Start with SS dc in any of the dcs of previous round and make dc in every dc with (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in the corners. Join with invisible join to the 1st dc, cut off the yarn and weave in the ends.

{37 dc, ch3-sp in the corner per side}

And now the Tapio is ready! I hope you enjoyed making it!
Tip. You can share the photos of your own square in social media using the hashtag #KalevalaCAL!

Pdf-files

English
Svenska
Deutch
Nederlands
Español
Čeština
עברית (Hebrew)

Videos

Tutorial video part 1
Tutorial video part 2

Dotted Rays, Autumn version

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

So. As I’ve told in my previous post about the Stephen West pattern Dotted Rays, that I fell in love with the pattern immediately. So, after I finished the first one, I couldn’t help but thinking about starting a second one.

It took a while for me to choose the right yarn for my project. I was supposed to dye and spin some wool for the next Dotted Rays, but I didn’t have time to do it yet. So, since there’s the Merino Mania going on with Drops yarns, I went to my favorite yarn shop Liljan Lankakauppa to get some nice Merino yarn for the Kalevala CAL blanket and at the same time, I wanted to see if I can find something nice and soft for my next wrap.

20170920_125325

Pauliina, the shop owner, asked me if I’ve already seen the new yarn called Drops Nord and it felt so soft and nice, that I just had to get that yarn for the wrap. I chose more autumn colors than last time, and wanted to separate the color stripes with some color. Again I decided to go on with 3 colors and 4th would be the stripe between the bigger color section.

And I had to start knitting the wrap immediately after I got back home from the shop. The yarn is easy to knit and runs nicely from the skeins. Nothing to complain about it! Love the colors and even I hesitated about putting the light grey sections between the earthy colors at first, those stripes grew on me and I like the look of the wrap. Can’t wait to finish it, and start wearing it!

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Dotted Rays

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ 1 Comment

When I first saw Stephen West’s patterns in Ravelry, I was in love. I loved the colors used in his works and the photos were awesome. I came across this beautiful shawl, Dotted Rays, which looked really simple but had that little something to make it interesting.

20170525_104056

Since I haven’t knit much else than socks and couple of sweaters, I wanted to do something simple with simple stitches. I haven’t been that good in following instructions on knitting. so I decided to take this one a challenge, to make it by following the pattern and not soloing it by myself without actually reading what is said…

And it became really beautiful! It is huge, but I love it, since I can already imagine how nice it is to wrap it around myself during winter.

I used Finnish yarn called Tukuwool Fingering in three different colors. They are dyed on grey base yarn, which gives nice tone to the colors.

Dotted Rays 1

 

From failure to beauty

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

A year ago, I had already tried spinning with my old Finnish Kiikkalainen spinning wheel. As I’ve already told you, that didn’t work out…

After that, I’ve been learning to spin with spindles and my Ashford Joy2 spinning wheel and gotta say, finally I got the result I actually wanted! Still far from perfect but already pretty, usable yarn coming out of my wheel.

Last year I also got into dyeing. On October, I dyed first time with Jacquard acid dyes and first attempt wasn’t as successful as I hoped. The green didn’t turn out green, but yellow, and I didn’t like to roving at all. It was hanging on my craft shelf waiting for something.

IMG_20161023_162224

That something came this year: Stashdown 2017 Wheel Edition! I decided that it was time to use that roving in this project so it was the first one I spun with the wheel. And it actually turned out really nice! Colors blended nicely together and made a little fractal look when the colors didn’t match up while plying. But I’m really satisfied of the results.

Sinikeltainen

POF-ing

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

Lately I’ve fell in love with spinning technique called POF-ing (POF stands for ply on fly), meaning that once you finish spinning the fiber, you get already plied yarn out of spindle.

Yes, I’ve been doing this with spindle, don’t know if it’s even possible to do with the spinning wheel, but I use my turkish spindles for this technique.

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It feels quite slow, you don’t see that much progress, but actually I think it’s faster than first spinning the singles and then plying those. I learned to collect the single around the shaft of the spindle, and from the shaft as butterfly around my fingers, which makes it really easy to ply. Below, you can find links to videos that helped me, thanks to Spinning Sara for making those!

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Both of these projects are still unfinished, but I’m not in a hurry with those so I just enjoy the ride!

Tutorial videos:

Temporary cop on a Turkish Spindle

Making a butterfly for your singles

Exciting news!!!

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

Happy Kalevala Day from Finland!

So, behind the scenes, there’s been a lot of action! Last couple of months, many Finnish crocheters have been using their designing skills, myself included. We, meaning Sari Åström and I, have been preparing Finnish CAL called Kalevala CAL (with the help of all the designers), which will be published later this year.

The inspiration from Kalevala has given out many wonderful visual interpretations. Can’t wait to finally be able to publish all these to you all.

This CAL will be a blanket, consisting of 24 different pieces from different designers, plus joining and edging. It will be available in English too, so all of you can take part our journey to Finnish national epic!

We will be opening a Facebook group closer to publishing date, where you can find info and later patterns!

So prepare your hooks and stashes for Finnish crocheting adventure!

Official sneak peak is readable at Sari Åströms blog!

#kalevalacal

kalevala-cal-logo-eng

Yarn!!!

~ Milla Kuuskoski ~ Leave a comment

Since I bought my Ashford Joy 2 spinning wheel, I’ve already made several yarns with it. I just love the compact look of the wheel, the double pedals and the ease of spinning with well working modern wheel. It’s also lightweight, so it’s easy to grab along and take the spinning outside of the house.

IMG_20160802_201502
Ashford Joy 2

I happened to find the Joy 2 cheaply via Ravelry spinning group, with many bobbins and the carrybag, so I didn’t have to pay a fortune to get it.

First yarn which I actually finished, was spun from Tale & Tendrils Elbereth, 100% merino wool. Merino felt quite different from the finn lamb, which was my “testfiber” in my first spinning attempts. In a way, it felt stickier and harder to draw, but once I got hang of it, it actually was really nice to spin.

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Tale & Tendril: Elbereth, 100% merino

The result was still lumpy, uneven yarn, with too tight spin, so if you try to knit or crochet with it, the result is really stiff. But anyway, you had to start somewhere, right?

I’ve bought most of the wool I’ve spun from Nunoco‘s Etsy store. When I first came across to their store, thanks to fellow spinners in Finnish group, I fell in love with the beautiful colors of the fibers.

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Nunoco Marigold, 100% merino

So from first Nunoco fiber order, I was able to spin a bit better yarn already. I wanted to make gradient yarn, without knowing how to actually do that. So I just spun 2 singles with all the colors split in parts and then plied those together. Looks more like fractal spun, but I loved the yarn immediately, and it will be a cowl when I have time to knit from it!

Second one turned out even better, you could see that learning had payed off and the yarn was already thinner. I spun all colors after each other and tried new plying technique, Navajo-ply, to get the colors in their own segments.

img_20160909_181634
Nunoco Herb Garden, 100% merino

 

I have many projects going on at the same time, so while I spin with my Joy, I also spin with spindles. I actually was able to finish a yarn for my boyfriends daughters socks, which was made of cotton candy colored finnwool I dyed myself!

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“Cotton Candy”, 100% finnwool dyed with food coloring

Also, from this yarn, I’ve knit for the first time from yarn I spun myself, and boy I feel proud! It’s so soft to knit, I hope the little girl will love her socks when they are finished, since of course, I spun too little of the yarn, so I gotta spin some more before getting both of the socks done.

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Socks from “Cotton candy”