Getting to know Petter

There are so many reasons to love Petter, a superwash wool yarn from Norwegian brand Rauma. It’s smooth, warm and durable, and the DK (double knitting) weight is a classic garment weight so it’s easy to find patterns for it. Most people will find that it’s soft enough to wear next to skin and as it’s superwash treated it can be machine washed. That makes it a fantastic option for children’s garments as well as accessories that you’ll want to snuggle up in.

Petter’s colours range from neutrals and pale pastels, right through to stronger, deeper shades and brights. This gives wonderful (and many!) options for colourwork in a soft and cosy fabric. Petter’s crisp stitch definition and drape also make it ideal for cable and lace stitch patterns.

I'm delighted to have found this yarn, which I used for a two-colour stranded hat. The yarn is beautifully soft, even for my wool-sensitive husband and I love the colours. Superb value! Online review by Catherine

In some yarns the superwash process can result in a very slick texture, and a fabric that doesn’t hold its shape. One of the things we love the most about Petter is that it retains most of the character that makes wool so great! It blooms a little when washed but, in our experience, tends to retain the original dimensions without stretching out of shape.

Petter has become a surprise favourite yarn of mine. After years of seeking out non-superwash, minimally processed yarns, I gave Petter a try looking for something that my sensitive kid would happily wear and loved working with it. It’s soft and easy care but still feels like you’re knitting with something full of life. As a bonus the colours are beautifully saturated – a fun side effect of the superwash treatment can be particularly vibrant colours! Ysolda

The range of colours

Rauma have put together a range of classic shades for petter, making it easy to create beautiful colourwork combinations or find the perfect shade to go with everything in your wardrobe. The neutrals cover pure white, cream, warm pale caramels and shades of grey, right through to black. They pair up beautifully with the range of colours which include the pastels more traditionally associated with children’s clothes but also strong, bright colours and deep shades. There’s even a fabulous neon yellow!

Texture

Petter swatched in stockinette stitch with colour 328 using 4mm needles.

Petter swatched in garter stitch with colour 311 using 4mm needles.

Petter's smooth texture makes it a great choice for garments in both stocking stitch and garter stitch. Although a superwash wool, it retains all its lovely woolly characteristics when blocked. We love the stitch definition, and the resulting fabric is soft and warm.

A perfect yarn for blankets or children’s garments that will last wear after wear, and ideal for cosy sweaters too. We've used Petter to knit up the Hearthstone sweater, and for designs like Dogstar by Tincanknits.

Colourwork

If you’re looking for a soft, medium weight yarn for colourwork Petter is our first choice. We often recommend it to beginner colourwork knitters because the DK weight makes it easy to learn new skills with, and although it’s a superwash yarn, it’s not too slick and blocks well. Choosing colours can often be the most difficult part of getting started with a project, but our blog post on choosing colours for colourwork projects should help you navigate your choices and find the perfect combination. Read more in our blog post here.

The Petter colour range is full of complimentary shades, and as a fun experiment we were easily able to knit four different colourwork sweaters using different combinations of the same five shades. View the results in our blog post 'A Petter Palette.'

Ysolda used Petter for the Brunstane cowl which she designed specifically for beginner colourwork knitters, as part of our first Colourwork Club. Brunstane kits featuring Petter and a copy of the pattern are much loved by beginner colourwork knitters and you can order your own kit here. If you’d like to try it out on a small colourwork project the Crassula cowl, Broughton mitts or Hugni socks would be great choices.

Cables

Petter has a soft, bouncy hand, and knits up into lovely three dimensional cables with plenty of definition. Petter is woolly enough that your stitches should behave nicely on the needles and shouldn’t slip away if you prefer to make your cables without a cable needle. We loved knitting the Hearthstone sweater in Petter, with its subtle cables in the raglan shaping combined with smooth stockinette.

Petter swatched in colour 324 using 4mm needles.

Lace

The slight woolly halo Petter has, coupled with its bouncy drape mean that it can make wonderful lace projects. When blocked, yarn overs open up into well defined holes that show and hold the pattern clearly. For most it's soft enough to wear next to the skin, and can make heirloom blanket projects that will last and be loved for years. We swatched a sample of a traditional feather and fan pattern and found that Petter held its lace pattern well, even after being stretched and moved around - just what you need when knitting a lace blanket that's going to see a lot of use.

Petter swatched in colour 308 using 4.5mm needles.

Have you tried knitting with Petter? We'd love to hear about your experience and what you've made, and you can leave a review on the product page here too to help other knitters choose their yarn!

We hope you find this close look at one of our favourite yarns useful - we've swatched in a similar way with another workhorse yarn, Rauma Finull PT2 and you can read more about that in our blog post.