Lemon KAL

9:58 PM

I had seen a couple of finished Lemon projects earlier and thought that the pattern looked interesting. Then the lovely yarn shop Kerä announced that they were hosting a KAL for this pattern, so I thought I'd give it a try. And I'm glad that I did, as the result is absolutely beautiful!




Pattern: Lemon by Helga Isager
Yarn: Isager Spinni, 190 g
Needles: 3 and 3,5 mm


The front panel meant learning to do vikkel braid. Luckily Jonna from Kerä provided a good instruction video, as my first try from reading the instructions failed. It's not difficult to do, but it's time consuming. Switching between vikkel braid and stockinette stitch meant that I would read the newspaper for 20 minutes while doing stockinette, and then take a 10 minute break and make the vikkel braid. A bit annoying. This knit is not for reading! At least not the panel part.


After finishing the front and back panels you make little folds on the sides and knit the sleeves and sides sideways. I made a slight mistake with the folds and only noticed it when I was almost done with the whole top, so I decided to leave it as it is. Unfortunately, this means that the folds that really took a lot of time and energy are not as visible as they should be. Sigh. There's a lot of picking up stitches, which is ok when you do it for the first time, but when you pick the same stitches for the second time, that's when it gets difficult.


My favorite part is the neckline finishing with triple vikkel braid. I think I'm going to be borrowing that for one of my own designs!



Unfortunately, I noticed that my first worry of this design not working for my body type was correct. I didn't buy any extra yarn, so I couldn't modify the pattern, but ended up knitting something that I can't wear. And after trying to unravel my vikkel braid swatch, I noticed that you can't unravel this either. This might be due to the yarn, which has a pretty rough texture. I think I like the yarn, but I'm not sure if I would knit another summer tee with it.

This was a nice learning experience, though: doing vikkel braids, panel construction, three needle bind off, trying a new yarn, so I'm glad that I participated. I also enjoyed very much seeing everyone else's progress on Instagram. I should have just payed more attention to their pics and see when they differed from what I was doing...

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7 kommenttia

  1. Love this deep chocolate color! And you are right - even if the result is not 100% satisfying for you, you still got to learn so many techniques! I haven't even heard of some of them, I am going to research them!

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    1. Thank you! It's an interesting pattern, so I would definitely recommend knitting it. It's also nice to knit from a pattern for a change - no need for prototyping :)

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  2. Looks great! I'm only at the back panel, and I'm really worried already about the picking up of stitches part, but well, let's see how it goes.

    What are you doing with that gorgeous top, by the way? Does it need a loving home?

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    1. Thanks! Hope you're having fun with your stitches ;)

      I made a deal with a friend that she would model for me and get to keep the top as a reward, but I didn't manage to finish the top while she was in Finland...

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  3. I have been looking for this pattern everywhere! Any info you could share as to how to locate it would be so helpful. Gorgeous work!

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    Replies
    1. It's from a book that was originally written in Swedish, called Finstickat, that was translated into Finnish last year. So if you are in Finland you can get it (Neuleiden neljä vuodenaikaa) from a local library or a bookstore. I believe the pattern has been published in English as well, but unfortunately I have no idea how to find that version.

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  4. I have been looking for this pattern everywhere! Any info you could share as to how to locate it would be so helpful. Gorgeous work!

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