Peysa for me!

Peysa is Icelandic for a sweater/cardigan and I finished one even before I finished the big green thing. The pattern is the ever so popular Var from Lopi 29. I was inspired by my Stepmother to make a sweater out of Einband. Einband is a laceweight Icelandic wool and Var is normally knit out of léttlopi (worsted weight Icelandic wool). My stepmother makes very beautiful and stylish designs of sweaters/cardigans out of Einband. She sells them, but now they are handknit in China! My sweater (or a hoodie) came out very nicely. I've been using it a lot. It is lightweight but warm at the same time. I washed it with conditioner to make it softer and I can wear it against my skin (i.e., wear a t-shirt underneath). This picture above is taken at the Athens (OH) library with my friend Stephanie. She made a Freyja out of plötulopi (unspun Icleandic wool) I brought from Iceland for her. I actually started Var two years ago, March 1, 2010 according to Ravelry. I attempted makeing both the sleeves at the same time using 'magic loop'. I found out I didn't like making two things at the same time with the magic loop. Magic loop can be a very useful technique, but I think I'll stick to making one thing at a time using it from now one. I remember watching Lost at the same time as I was knitting the sweater, and it seems to have distracted me according to this blog post from June 2010. I made a mistake and had to restart the body, but it never materialized. I did the cast-on, and then the project languished until September last year (2011)! I finally finished the sweater at the end of January 2012.

The big green thing - finished.

In my last post I showed a photo of some big green thing all bunched up in my sewing machine.

Well, I finished it, washed it and wore it to my bi-annual advisory board meeting. I'm super happy in the pictures, not just because of the nice jacket, but also because my board meeting was over. It is the end point of a lot of hard work.









The jacket is knit with Álafoss Lopi (Bulky weight Icelandic wool) on size 10.5 needle. The actual knitting only took 3 weeks as I worked on nothing else. For a few weeks I couldn't do the actual finishing since I was working late and on the weekend, but I got a little break right before the meeting and was able to finish it just in time and wash it (in the washing machine on handwash). I've wanted to make this jacket for over 3 years. I got the yarn three years ago and I finally have it ;) I'm really happy with it.

The big green thing.

Look what is in my sewing machine. Yep, steek in progress. This is what I call an exciting Saturday night!!!