Rauma-neuleita, “Lace” jumpers

A long time since I posted – trying to get the act together again…

I fell in love with this jumper pattern the minute I saw it! The design was inspired by Finnish bobbin lace from Rauma, the lace capital of our country. The idea for the jumper came from lace maker Tarmo Thorström, of whom I have written before. His vision was supported and funded by the Rauma town, and designed into a pattern together with expert knitter Katrina Salo. A couple of years later the free pattern is available in several languages and is being knitted all over the world 🙂

I bought this lace doily in Rauma to support the local lace making. It certainly isn’t a very profitable job but the industrious lace makers are doing a great job at keeping the tradition alive!

The yarn is a Cascade 220 soft Peruvian wool, which was a real pleasure to knit. I got the right gauge with 5mm needles, changing to 4,5 for the colourwork yoke. For the first five rows of the colourwork pattern I used the ladder technique to deal with the long strands.

I have made three jumpers in a month and planning a fourth one for myself. These two in the basket were given to my daughter and her husband for a wedding gift. The third one I knitted for a friend with thinner yarn, a Sandnes Garn Alpakka, using 3,75mm needles for the stocking stitch, slightly smaller needles for the yoke and in a bigger size to compensate for the smaller gauge.

The free pattern has been translated into English, German, Spanish and Russian. The jumper also has it’s own Ravelry page.

I got the jumper back for a repair job (and some photos). The sleeves on my daughter’s jumper were shortened after they had stretched during the first week. As a result they are now slightly wider than in the pattern, which I personally prefer. Ready to knit the next one 🙂