Designed for handspun yarn.

This pattern is designed to give you many options to do your own designing along the way – depending on how much you enjoy spinning a whole sweater’s worth of one yarn: you can mix and match your main colour, you can have cuffs in a different colour than your main colour, or you can have a solid main colour with just the yoke as a playground for colours and textures. The idea is that you can design the yoke of your sweater with what you might have in your stash.

The yoke for this pattern will not be knitted stranded as is the custom for an Icelandic lopapeysa. Instead, it uses simple purl rows, the mosaic technique, and weaving a carry along yarn from front to back of work. It will create interesting detail and texture. It also allows for different yarn weights to work with the main gauge yarn, without distorting your knitting.

Sizes

S (M, L, XL, XXL)

Pick a size with at least 6 inches (15 cm) positive ease for a relaxed fit.

Finished measurements

Body circumference: 39.25 (42.25, 45.25, 48.25, 51.25) inches / 100 (107.5, 115, 122.5, 130) cm

Upper arm sleeve circumference: 16.25 (16.25, 17.25, 17.5, 17.5) inches / 41.5 (41.5, 43.5, 44, 45) cm

Length of body from underarm: 15 (15.75, 15.75, 16.5, 17.25) inches / 38 (40, 40, 42, 44) cm

Sleeve length: 19 (19.75, 19.75, 20, 20.5) inches / 48 (50, 50, 51, 52) cm

Yarn

Main yarn (MY): Approximately 710 (770, 875, 930, 970) yards / 650 (700, 800, 850, 880) m worsted or aran weight yarn (a low twist single or lopi style yarn at approx. 175–208 yards / 160–190 m per 100 g; Icelandic lamb’s fleece, spun in the grease, locally sourced)

Approximately 90–130 yards / 80–120 m total, depending on design of yoke

• Pattern yarn A (A-yarn): for the yoke pattern (and cuffs/hem) you can use odds and ends of a similar weight yarn as MY and group it into your A-yarn pile (you can use finer yarn held double or even triple).
• Pattern yarn B (B-yarn): for some of the pattern rounds in the yoke you can have very bulky style yarn; it can be thick and thin, lock spun, art yarn, etc. Put it into your B-yarn group. For some of the rows in the yoke a small amount of approx. 4 yards suffices, like for the “stringing along” rounds.