Lohtu

Today, I've finally got to publish this little cardigan pattern I know many have been waiting ever since autumn.

What: Lohtu / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.0 and 3.75 mm

From: Kässäkerho Pom Pom Suoma Single, 330 g

Quite often, especially on social media, knitting is presented as a happy-go-lucky hobby where everything is always relaxing and wonderful. But wool has another side to it: it can soak in your sorrows and carry them for you, making the burden just a little lighter for you. You can knit memories into your projects and they will forever hold the tears shed while knitting them (and happy memories too, of course).

Not all knit designs have been inspired by rainbows and unicorns. This cardigan was born out of the necessity to have a soft woolly armour between myself and life. I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of having the crappiest day and walking into a yarn shop with the idea of buying some comfort yarn. Last summer, we visited Kässäkerho Pom Pom in Kuopio and I was in dire need of comfort yarn. I knew that only airy and fluffy Finnsheep would do the trick so I walked out with a handful of Suoma Single that I knitted into this Lohtu cardigan. The name lohtu means comfort or solace in Finnish.

Lohtu is a wonderful warm but airy and light cardigan. It has a round yoke and most of the cardigan is two-color brioche. Only the neckband, button bands and cuffs are garter stitch.

The shaping of this cardigan is so simple: the short row shaping for the back of the neck is done during the garter stitch neckband and all other shaping is done during the yoke with really simple brioche increases.

The sleeves are long and wide. All sleeve shaping is done with gathering the sleeves just before the garter stitch cuffs. The body is straight with no shaping. The body is bound off using Italian bind-off. If you're unfamiliar with the technique, I have a tutorial video on my profile highlights on IG.

Lohtu is a special cardigan since if you weave in your ends carefully, this is actually reversible. You could wear it either way if you sew buttons on both sides. And as it's two-color brioche, the wrong side and right side are different colors!

I've been waiting a long time to publish this pattern because the pandemic has messed with base yarn production around the world and we've been waiting for Kässäkerho Pom Pom to get more Suoma Single. But today, I've finally released the pattern for Lohtu and Pom Pom is having a Suoma Single update in their webshop! Use the code COMFORT to get Lohtu pattern with 15% discount until April 18th. The code works on both Ravelry and PayHip. You can find the pattern on Lovecrafts too.