Choosing Colors for an Icelandic Lopi Sweater

Traditional Icelandic pullovers, known as lopapeysur, are made with Lopi yarn from Icelandic sheep’s wool. These sweaters reflect the importance of Icelandic sheep and wool in the island nation. There is a veritable constellation of beautiful patterns, many of them designed by Védís Jónsdóttir, the head designer for Ístex.

A farmer-owned cooperative that processes the majority of Icelandic wool, Ístex offers its own array of natural and dyed colors to choose from. Knitters face an almost dizzying abundance of choice when selecting yarns for a sweater.

In the premier issue of Farm & Fiber Knits magazine, we asked Védís to reimagine one of her classic designs. She stunned us with her color selections for Tíglar Tveir, and was kind enough to share some of her color inspirations to help us become more comfortable choosing our own colorways.

While the original colorway is fashionable and joyful, her new colors are calm and peaceful. How she arrived at these new color combinations is almost as wonderful the colors themselves!

Védís Jónsdóttir designed the Tíglar Tveir pattern and is the head designer for Ístex. Photo courtesy Védís Jónsdóttir

Pre-Swatch with Yarn Wrapping

It can be time-consuming to knit swatch after swatch, only to discover that you don’t love your color combinations. Sketches with colored pencils are great for brainstorming, but the way light reflects off yarn is different from how it reflects off paper. What’s a time-strapped knitter to do?

For these quick samples, Védís made yarn wrappings of her new colorways. Yarn wrapping is a quick and handy technique employed by many weavers to predict striping patterns, but it can help knitters, too.

To make a yarn wrapping, simply wrap yarn around a piece of matboard or sturdy cardstock. You can either tape the ends to the back of the card or cut a small notch in the card to hold the yarn. The result is a quick color study that shows you how your yarn colors coordinate with each other and uses very little yarn.

You’ll still need to swatch to check gauge and finalize your color selections, but a yarn wrapping can help speed up the process!

Click on an image below to open it in full-screen mode.

Calm Between the Storms

Embrace the quiet calm of winter grays with this first colorway, knit in three natural tweedy tones. Védís writes,