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KNITTING IN ICELAND (PART 1)
By: Carolyn Hanson
Carolyn Hanson is a local knitting and crochet designer, teacher and fiber artist. She can be contacted at
cchanson3@gmail.com
.
If you’re hearing a lot about Iceland late-
ly, I can tell you why. It’s tranquil, friend-
ly and has a sparse beauty only found in
nature. Add to that volcanoes, waterfalls,
geysers, the Blue Lagoon, the Black Sand
Beach, the northern lights (April &
October), midnight sun (June), and…the
sheep outnumber inhabitants by almost
2:1, so yarn is plentiful. In October, we
traveled 5.5 hours to this volcanic island
located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where
the North American Plate meets the
European Plate (plate tectonics), and
loved everything about it.
This is the home of Lopi yarn, a product of Icelandic sheep whose direct descendants
where brought here by the Vikings in the 9th century. These sheep are now unique to
Iceland due to their purity through isolation from other breeds. The fleece is made of
2 layers: Tog is the course long hairs which repel water, and Pel, the soft fluffy shorter
hairs providing insulation. Some yarns separate the 2 types, however, the popular Lopi
yarn is a mixture of both. Lopi means unspun wool. It seems like fleece and is all too
easy to pull apart and just as easy to twist back together. Lopi is the yarn used for the
famous Icelandic sweaters sporting decorative yokes using 2-5 colors of natural fleece.
The yarn is course so it needs something soft near the skin. It is however, quite warm
and just what is needed to temper Iceland’s strong prevailing winds. Icelandic sheep
have many natural colors from black to grey to brown and white and combinations in
between.
Icelandic sweaters are called Lopapeysas and are knitted seamlessly in the round.
Knitting in the round means that all rows are knit, no purling, so no seams. It’s also
easier to follow a Fair Isle design chart with
color changes when reading in only one
direction. For a sweater knit from the bot-
tom up, one knits the front and back of the
sweater in the round to the height of the
armholes. Then each sleeve is constructed
from the wrist to the armhole again in the
round. Then the fun begins. You join the
sleeves to the body by knitting across the
chest, around the outer arm, around the
back and again around the second arm,
leaving armhole stitches on a stitch holder to weave together later. That is the only
seam. With all the stitches on the needle, the sweater is ready for the Fair Isle designs
for the yoke. Designs can be intricate or simple in 2-5 colors. By adding ‘decreases’ into
the design through the shoulders, the sweater hugs the body quite comfortably.
There are many shops in the capital city of Reykjavik that sell yarn. If they sell sweaters,
the yarn is also available. The sweaters can be pricey, starting around $250 for an adult
size machine made sweater. You can even have one custom
made and knit by hand! Lopi also had a lite version called
Ptolopi (no idea how to pronounce) which comes in a flat
cake the size of 2 stacked Frisbees. For about $27US, I
bought enough of the Lopi lite to make a cardigan. (6 skeins
at 328 yds each). I chose this yarn rather than the bulky Lopi
for a cardigan. I doubled the yarn and knit on a size 10 nee-
dle. Found many free patterns on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com)
and Lopi (www.istex.is/english/free-patterns/).
In Part 2, I’ll share my sweater tips and tricks. In the mean-
time, if you get to Iceland, and I hope you do, make your yarn
purchase and stay tuned. And, the Blue Lagoon is a must!
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