Moving On

The gift things are done.  It will go out today.  (I hope) The Blue sweater is done but for closings, and weaving in the ends.  And blocking too.  But that is one of todays tasks.  

Yesterday I needed to knit and had nothing particularly important on the go, so I took out some yarns and started to swatch.  I finally set on one yarn, Sirdars lovely Eco Wool DK.  It is a lightly spun single with as little processing done to it as possible.  The light spin makes the fabric have an entirely different feel to it than anything I have used before.  

It is soft and lofty and even now, there is no doubt that the sweater it makes is going to be warm and deeply cosy for cold winter days. 

Once again, in the search for a pattern, my thoughts went to the many ways to knit a sweater.  When I look back on this year, it will be remembered for a devotion to learning different ways of making a sweater.  This sweater is pure Icelandic.  

The pattern, Freyja by Ragga Eriksdottir was one I came across after my friend Frazzled Knitter traveled to Iceland. (Check out her post from May 28, half way down the page.  Look for the sweetest little lamb photo)  Frazzeled Knitter told me about the Knitting Iceland website and thus, I found the pattern.  Kits for Freyja can be purchased starting this fall but the pattern is available now from the Knitting Iceland store.  Keep this place bookmarked.

My yarn is finer then the Lopi asked for in the pattern, but I am knitting a larger size to compensate.  The directions are a wee bit spare, without being spare at all.  The pattern says when to do things based on inches not rows, making it easy to adjust for a yarn change.  

I'm also going to adjust the shaping of the body of the sweater.  I'm skipping it entirely.  My decreases will make the silhouette slowly get narrower as it grows in length to the underarm.   

An Icelandic sweater is traditionally knit from the bottom to the sleeves, then the sleeves and body are knit together to make the circular yoke. I'm feeling just a wee bit tense because I cannot try it on as I go but at some point I have to learn to trust my gauge and my tape measure.     

It feels a little like knitting blind.  Or at least with thick dark glasses on.  Just so long as my hands are free to knit, I'll be fine.