One of my best friends from high school is from Iceland. She used to go home to visit and come back with photos that looked as if they came from a stunning fashion magazine. The sweaters on her friends and family members were gorgeous! Many were made by hand, gifts from someone special. I’ll never forget the pictures of those sweaters.
As I was browsing Ravelry yesterday, I was excited to see that many other knitters seem to be inspired by the Icelandic tradition. I’m in love with this picture below, isn’t it beautiful? It might just inspire some of my designs for Fall/Winter ’14…a cardigan with similar patterning, maybe less contrast in color and a big draping hood on top?
This colorwork style, as some of you may already know, is known as stranded knitting. For this technique, you change two or more colors frequently throughout a row to create a pattern. The colors that are not worked are carried along the back until they are used again.
Norah made a great how-to video explaining this technique using our free pattern Vik.
And for some more helpful hints, I’ve demonstrated more work with stranded knitting.
I hope that this helps and encourages you to jump right in to your next colorwork project.
Happy Knitting!
Emily
Was there a pattern for the sweater in the lovely photo?
I love the sweater too! Stay tuned for what may come with this inspiration in mind… I don’t believe there is a pattern for this exact sweater though. I found the inspiration photo on Pinterest when I searched “icelandic sweaters”. Link is here: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=icelandic%20sweater