@brittarnhild
We have family living in Iceland, and therefore are lucky enough to visit regularly. Last Easter we went there to celebrate the confirmation of my nephew. Our grandson Leander was onløy 3 1/2 months old then, had his first passport, and came with us (together with his mother). I love the traditional Icelandic knitting, and during our stay bough yarn for a sweather for Leander. A few months later it was finished. When our daughter saw it I instinctly knew that she would fancy an Icelandic sweather hersel, and when I and my husband went over to Reykjavik again in November last year, I bought more yarn, lettlópi from The Handknitting Association of Iceland.
The last few weeks I have been working secretly on Ingrid´s sweather.
I use the same colours as in Leander´s sweather, but another pattern.
The size of the needles and the tickness of the yarn makes an Icelandic sweather quite easy to knit. At the same time the yarn is a bit hard and the garment becomes quite heavy in the end. Yes, my shoulders feel it now, but I am almost at the end. Tomorrow I will be ready to reveal the secret to Ingrid :-)
The history of Icelandic knitting is fascinating. I found the page The Icelandic Knitter, and read:
Knitting is intrinsically related to the life of the Icelandic people. Having been populated in the late 9th century by political refugees and fugitives from Norway, Iceland didn’t come into contact with knitting through its Nordic neighbors though, but through English, German or Dutch merchants. This didn’t happen until the 16thcentury but when it did, knitting quickly spread throughout the country.
And here is another interesting page.
An aunt visited Iceland several times, for the geology. She came home with yarn from there and made a sweater so quickly. I remember how soft it felt, and lovely earthy colours.
Posted by: Fran | 03/11/2017 at 10:02 PM
Yes Fran, the colours are lovely, but the yarn is not very soft. Hopefully it gets softer when used. I still love it though.
Posted by: BrittArnhild | 03/11/2017 at 11:15 PM
Love this Icelandic sweater - beautiful colours and pattern. Maybe one day I will try to knit one. The histor of Icelandic knitting was indeed very interesting. Jackie
Posted by: Jackie | 03/14/2017 at 01:02 AM
Thank you Jackie.
I completed the sweather last night, while watching Poirot :-)
It was actually a quite fast and easy knit, you really should try it.
Posted by: BrittArnhild | 03/14/2017 at 06:53 AM
What a gorgeous sweater!! I can only dream of knitting something like this. My aunt taught me to knit when I was 12-13 but I've never gotten very good at it. Time to get out my needles and start practicing!
Posted by: Georgeanne | 03/14/2017 at 11:55 PM
Good luck Geargeanne. Let us know how it goes :-)
Posted by: BrittArnhild | 03/15/2017 at 07:51 AM