Helsinki knitting

The main reason to visit Helsinki was for the yarn, not for the architecture and design. I did my research in advance and put together a little google map with all the most centrally located yarn shops (I learned my lesson from our unsuccessful search for one yarn shop in Brussels, and did a virtual stroll-by in street view).

Even so, Sypressi-Neule*, the first shop we tried to locate, was decidedly NOT where google earth (and other internet resources) said it was. I expect it must have moved - the street it was supposed to be on, Union street, leads up to the Lutheran cathedral, and the other shopping in the area seemed rather upscale - in fact, we later determined it had been replaced by a boutique jewelry shop.

Fortunately we did manage to find the next shop on my list, Menita, which turned out to be the best shop we visited, and was also conveniently located  near a church (the handsome St John's, which we popped into to warm up and listen in on a rehearsal of St John's Passion).

Menita has a wide selection of yarns, including some very affordable Finnish yarns. I was tempted by the Icelandic Léttlopi yarn in a range of scrumptious colours, but really, on a yarn holiday one is almost obliged to buy local yarns, so I selected some teetee Kamena and Pirkanmaan kotityö Ohut Pirkkalanka instead (isn't Finnish great?!)

Kamena in a lovely deep green shade

Ohut Pirkkalanka in an unusual mossy green

I bought piles of the stuff because the price was so good, but also because it comes in an awkward 3-ply weight - too light to knit garments single ply - so I'll have to double up the strands.

Next we visited Fiina Neule. By this time my yarn yearnings had slackened, and as I couldn't find anything uniquely Finnish in the shop, I actually left without buying anything! They have a very nice selection of European yarns though, and I was quite tempted by some Italian cashmere-wool blends, and by the Anny Blatt angora (mmmm, angora).

But we were not done, so onward and upward. Very far upward! The next shop was quite a slog away, past the Parliament, past the Finnish Museum of National History and Finlandia Hall, past the National Opera, even past the Olympic stadium! We should really have taken the tram, which seems to serve every corner of Helsinki. But then you risk missing out on the sights (and window shopping), so I generally prefer to explore on foot. After our very long walk we finally arrived at Kirstikki. My heart sank seeing the limited selection of yarn competing with sewing machines and notions - this is a multi-purpose craft shop. But we were well rewarded for our efforts, because I made what must certainly be my best yarn find to date.

Kipu Apu

Kipu Apu is a 70% hand-washed Finnish wool & 30% raw silk handspun. The store proprietor informed me that it has therapeutic properties, specifically helping to reduce pain in the part of the body where it is worn. The website says that the wool's springy and curly fibre stimulates the skin capillaries, bringing nutrients to the extremities and carrying away waste products, and the silk contains sericin which has a therapeutic effect on skin problems, alleviating pain, reducing perspiration and helping with insomnia. Who could resist that? My husband insisted I buy a skein to knit him a pair of socks for his foot pain.

My only real yarn disappointment was that I was unable to find any Riihivilla yarn. This is a small family-run business producing natural dyed Finnish yarn. They have a stall in the Kauppatori Market by the harbour, but only starting in the spring, and it was most definitely not spring when we went to Helsinki. Fortunately they do have an online shop, so I might just have to order one of the mitten kits.

Cloudberry mitten kit

* Should have done a more thorough job with my internet research. Someone has posted on Knitmap that Sypressi-neule has moved one block away to 4 Katriinankatu, in a group of shops called "Bockin Talo".

Helsinki, World Design Capital 2012

Having enjoyed Copenhagen so much a year ago, we decided to continue the Nordic knitting holiday theme by visiting Helsinki. We timed it well, because Helsinki is the 2012 world design capital. And in honour of that, we must start with a Helsinki architecture tour.

Outside the Helsinki Design Museum

I had expected Helsinki to look a bit like a mini version of St Petersburg, thanks to the German architect Carl Ludvig Engel, who rebuilt the city on Russian Neoclassical lines in the early 19th century.

Engel's masterpiece, Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral

But the real revelation, to me, was that Helsinki has one of the highest concentrations of Art Nouveau buildings in Northern Europe. The eclectic mix of wedding cake neoclassical with flamboyant Art Nouveau - with a dash of functionalist austere modern thrown in - creates a magically surreal architectural experience.

Selection of Helsinki Art Nouveau

We soaked up more design - in the Design Museum, naturally. Ignoring our Rough Guide's* complaint that it was 'outmoded' (the writer seemed to assume that design burst fully-formed, Athena-like, from a computer in the late-20th century) we found this museum well worth a visit. The downstairs covers the highlights of Finnish design, with the rest of the space set aside for temporary exhibits (DesignWorld and New Nordic fashion illustration were on when we were there). And most pleasantly, the whole place was infused with the scent of cinnamon buns, which we enjoyed in the cozy bright coffee shop accompanied by the inevitable cup of coffee (the Finns drink more coffee per capita than anyone else in the world), followed by a browse through the excellent museum shop.

We also found lots of design in the National Museum of Finland (which, again, the Rough Guide inexplicably found 'disappointing'**) covering the prehistoric era to the current period in exhibits of digestible size. I'm fascinated by prehistoric artifacts (which from a design perspective are doubly impressive, because before creating handmade objects the craftspeople first have to create handmade tools), and we happily wound our way through the displays, peering at stone tools, pottery sherds and mangled bits of bronze and iron. They had some fine Nordic boat-shaped stone axe heads, good examples of superior neolithic design.

Example of a boat-shaped stone axe head - sold at Christie's

Upstairs there were rooms full of peasant tools and folk crafts. Lots of cleverly carved items like these pieces:

Aren't you ready yet?

Pretzel chair

Finally, in the basement Treasure Trove we found a nice collection of international coins and medals. We were museum-ed out by the time we got down there, but I did check out the medals from the Helsinki Winter Olympics.

And finally, to pass from looking to buying, on one of our wanders we stumbled upon the second hand design paradise of Helsinki Secondhand and Fasaani Antik, where you can pick up Iittala glass, Arabia ceramics, and lots of other odds and ends at very reasonable prices.

I can't believe I didn't snag some of that glass!

I'll leave you with one last door - here are a couple of panels from the lovely National Museum entrance.

* I usually only buy Eyewitness guides - "The ultimate travel guides that show you what others only tell you" - mainly for the superior coverage of architecture, and yes, the pretty pictures. But inexplicably they don't have a guide for Helsinki or Finland! So we had to settle for Rough Guide, which I normally shun because of their condescending attitude, along the lines of: "You COULD go see the Eiffel Tower, but we can't imagine why you would want to". I was encouraged by their enthusiastic description of Finland in the introduction, but on further perusal we found it was full of useless information like descriptions of Finnish swearing habits (as if anyone buying the guide would even speak Finnish) and complaints about old-fashioned museums. Why do these guides assume all tourists are going on holiday to drink, party and hang out swearing with the locals, anyway? Personally, I'm going for the architecture and old-fashioned museums.

** The disappointment seemed to be linked to the fact that Finland does not have a long, glorious national history, having been dominated by the Swedes for centuries and then the Russias, only achieving independence in 1917. Obviously the writer did not appreciate all those stones, pottery sherds, twisted metal, peasant tools and folk objects that I found so intriguing. Rather, his favourite section was on the 20th century, where presumably he was finally able to see computer-generated design (we skipped that bit).

Killing Sweater

Knitters reading from the UK will know what this post is about. The Killing is a Danish crime drama that was a runaway hit in the UK, featuring Sara Lund, a feisty female detective, and her sidekick fair isle sweater. The sweater was a must-have fashion sensation last year, and I have finally finished knitting mine.

I picked up the wool and pattern (in Danish) on my knitting pilgrimage to Copenhagen last spring. This version is not exactly the same as the one worn by Sara Lund - it is knit in a lighter weight wool, so the snowflake pattern is more intricate. The instructions are pretty sketchy, no doubt because it was developed for Danish knitters who can be expected to have a good understanding of knitting principals. So the pattern is probably not advisable for inexperienced knitters - though I'm sure anyone could work it out with a bit of effort.

I used google to translate the pattern into English, and with a bit of help from knitting friends I managed to muddle my way through the instructions. The pattern in Danish is available online from Kvickly, a chain of Danish supermarkets. As knitters obviously are not their main customers (indicated by the fact that this is their only pattern available on Ravelry), I figured they probably have better things to do than publish an English version for all of us non Danish-speaking Killing fans. So I'm making my translation (and mods) available here on my blog:

• Killing sweater translation

And now, for the sweater! I used Istex Lett-Lopi, an Icelandic wool, which is incredibly warm, lightweight, water repellent and breathable, but not soft by any stretch of the imagination. Lucky for me I have highly insensitive skin - I can wear the scratchiest garment in the world, and not even notice within a few minutes of putting it on.

One of the main difficulties I had with the pattern was that it did not account for increases in the snowflake pattern. I didn't want to end up with big empty patches in the increase area between pattern repeats, so on the sides of the body I added an extra spot between snowflakes, and for the arms I charted out a partial snowflake to fill in the space. This was harder to do for the second snowflake row on the arm, because the sleeve was still increasing at that point.

Wonky snowflake on row 2, tidy snowflake on row 3

My solution was not perfect, but it did fill the space, and since the join is on the inside of the arm it is hardly noticeable when I wear the sweater.

Another minor problem I have with the sweater is the neckline. In order to have an uninterrupted snowflake band at the top, the designer could only incorporate two decrease rows in this section. The rest of the decreases have to be done in the rapidly narrowing space left below the neck, and I felt if I followed the pattern chart my sweater would have ended at my nose. So I decreased much more rapidly using double decreases every other row. I'm happy enough with how the neck worked out, but the snowflake row fits quite snugly around my shoulders, so when I move my arms the neck tends to ride up. I think it would fit better if I had included some short row shaping at the back, and I could probably get away with a higher and less sharply decreased neckline. I still have wool left over, so I can go back and fiddle with the neckline if I'm still unhappy with the fit after wearing it a few times.

The final problem with this sweater is - I finished it too late to wear in the UK this season! Fortunately we are heading off to Helsinki tomorrow, where it is still nice and cold and wintry - so I'll be able to give it a test run on my holiday.