It’s a design that everyone recognizes, even when they don’t know what it’s called. It’s the lopapeysa jersey knit design.
Knitting with lopi yarn is a deeply ingrained part of Icelandic culture. Icelandic knitter tutorials and jumper knitting kits are as much a reflection of global consumer curiosity as they are a reflection of Icelanders’ pride in creating these tutorials. How to do Icelandic knitting is doubtless something that Icelanders skilled with wool speak to eloquently.
These beautiful and world-recognized sweaters which use lopi yarn are part of a multitude of jumper knitting kits ranging from Icelandic patterns to Scandinavian knitting patterns and Nordic knitting patterns.
With all that in mind, Icewear is now sharing a little about how professional designers work with lopi yarn when designing lopapeysa sweaters. Keep reading to learn how lopi knitting patterns work and how Icewear produces its most popular Icelandic sweaters.
Icewear about lopapeysa knit sweaters
Icewear’s outdoor apparel and wool products have so much of Iceland tradition knit right in, especially in designs like the lopapeysa sweater.
Lopapeysa sweaters are knitted in one piece. A circular needle is used so that the knitter can work from the bottom up, knitting straight up to the height of the armpits. The sleeves are then knit separately with the pattern across the collar that most people have come to love. And then, the sleeves and body of the sweater are knit together.
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“Let’s buy a knitting kit and start knitting a lopapeysa!”
Bottle up that enthusiasm for just a few more minutes while you learn how lopapeysa sweater production works.
Some people might be looking for various knitting patterns for lettilopi yarn and even Icelandic sweater knitting kits in specific. Knitters new to lopi yarn start small with a lopi scarf pattern, or perhaps an Icelandic mittens knitting pattern. These patterns all come from someplace, however, and understanding how the original design is created offers invaluable insight into how lopapeysa sweaters have to be made.
The actual knitting and production of lopapeysa jumpers is a complex process. Icewear designers start by drawing out their ideas, sometimes by free-hand and sometimes directly onto the computer. They explore what to knit, where to purl and cast off, and what colors each pattern should use. In fact, these are the essential choices that have to be visualized early on, because a wrong choice here could mean a lot of work going into a product that misses the mark.
Traditional though lopi patterns are, Icewear creates new designs all the time through their professional design process. Both the Icelandic wool and the lopi yarn act as an anchor into the tradition that has been expanded over time while Icewear craft new lopi knitting patterns to make even more beautiful products.
Icewear designers truly understand the lopapeysa and how to knit. They come in with the experience and the inspiration, and thousands of consumers ultimately acquire their beautiful and authentic Icelandic products each year.
Can I create my own Icelandic lopi pattern?
If you buy a book on Indian cuisine, can you make Indian food? Sure.
If you’re handed the mic at the karaoke bar to sing Bohemian Rhapsody, does that make you Freddie Mercury? No.
Can you create your own Icelandic lopi pattern? Maybe, but the cost-benefit in time doesn’t always add up. Most people who already knit will see immediately how complex the lopi pattern process is. This Icelandic wool sweater is crafted with a special form of knitting that builds the trunk of the sweater in a circle, meaning there is no difference between the front and the back.
And so, while some might be tempted to create their own lopi patterns and knit lopapeysa sweaters at home, Icewear’s experienced design department has been so successful in designing these patterns that the real question should be, “what kind of lopapeysa sweater do you really want?” Icewear’s has done the work for you, navigating through the requirements of old Icelandic patterns that can only carefully be adapted from embroidery designs. Today, they can incorporate other beautiful shapes like animals and snowflakes into still-traditional Icelandic designs. Icewear has seen generations of Icelanders knitting and carrying traditions forward through hundreds of years.
Icewear has a big selection of lopapeysa knitting patterns if you’re looking for an authentic Icelandic sweater. Take that enthusiasm you bottled up a moment ago, and let it loose with a deep dive into the Icewear product line, all available for you right here on the website.
