Lauha

Exciting things happening in the world of yarn: A Finnish yarn shop started making a new yarn, a single ply fingering weight finnsheep yarn - handdyed as well. Of course, I had to get a sweater quantity right away. Now, my only regret is that I only got one sweater quantity to start with since I fell head over heels in love with the yarn. I also designed a sweater pattern for it.

What: Lauha / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Suoma Single, 215 + 10 g

I've heard a few times from my fellow knitters that I have really romantic style when it comes to knits. This time I'm owning up to that style. I knew right away that I wanted to design a delicate, gentle sweater with contrast color lace trimmings. The name of the design also means something gentle. Lauha is a Finnish word for the gentle warmer weather in the spring that makes the snow melt.

Lauha is classic Henley sweater, the kind with buttons in front. The sleeves are a combination of saddle shoulders and raglan sleeves. The sweater is worked top down and it all starts with making two shoulder flaps from which to pick up stitches for the body that is worked in one piece.

Lauha is first worked flat because of the front opening but once the button bands are done, the rest of the body is worked in the round. The sleeves are extra long on purpose and the cuffs and the hem have a few rows of garter stitch and a picot bind off.

Once the main color sweater is finished, you will pick up sts from the wrong side of the hem and cuffs and work a few rows of easy and pretty lace in a contrast color.

Lauha is designed for the new Suoma Single by Kässäkerho Pom Pom which they kindly sponsored for this design work. Their web shop is in Finnish but if you'd like to try the yarn, just send them email and they'll help you out in English. I have to tell you the yarn is awesome. I've tried finnsheep yarns before but never single ply. It's woolly yet so soft. And, I'm in love with these powdery handdyed colors.

The fingering weight Suoma is also light as air. My finished sweater doesn't weight even 250 grams! If you make your Lauha sweater in some other yarn, you might need more yarn as this one is a special case being so light. For me, this yarn instantly jumped to my top5 favorite yarns and I'll be needing plenty more sweaters in it. Their yarn stock is limited at the moment but right now, this Friday, they're having a web shop update with more Suoma Single in it.

As for the sweater pattern, you can find it on Ravelry. It has my usual nine sizes, XXS-XS-S [M1-M2-L1] L2-XL-XXL, and the pattern is available in both English and Finnish. I recommend you choose a size with 2'' / 5 cm positive ease at the bust.

During this weekend, you can get a 25 % discount by using the the code SUOMA in your Ravelry shopping cart.