Riddari

I finished Riddari, the Icelandic pullover sweater, this evening. It is in the English version of Knitting With Icelandic Wool. 'Riddari' means 'knight' in English.

Last night I had to reknit the neck 3 times before I was happy with it. First, I had to figure out which bindoff was stretchy enough yet also looked good. Then I realized decreasing from 112 sts to 80 was too far so I ripped back to the first round of black after the last round of grey and black and decreased evenly to 88 sts.

The rolled collar was really easy to do. It was 5 rounds of stocking stitch with a loose bindoff. The loose bindoff was achieved by using a 6mm needle.

It knit up quite quickly once I got back at it.

I ignored the names of the sizes and went by the actual dimensions. Skip is normally a 'medium' but his favourite sweaters that go over long-sleeved shirts have a 44" chest so I swatched, determined the stitches per inch, multiplied by 44 and determined which size used that many stitches for the body. In this case, it was the XL size. I also knit the sleeves first to check that the gauge was right before committing to hundreds of stitches for the body.

I still have a bunch of ends to weave in.  The yoke rounds start at the left shoulder blade and the jogs really aren't apparent.

I didn't add any rows on the back to bring it up a bit higher than the front. A little coaxing when I block it should do the trick.

A few years back I made these labels using printable fusible web and satin ribbon. I sewed one in so Skip will know the back from the front.

I'm very pleased with it and know it will look smashing with black, or grey trousers, or jeans. Skip suggested I knit one for myself so we'll have matching sweaters. I just may do that as I'm hoping to go on a Baltic cruise next year. If I do one for myself, I would definitely 'cardigan-ize' it.

For now, I have enough yarn left over to knit a matching hat. I will definitely line it with light fleece or t-shirt material as this yarn is really scratchy. My sources tell me that using hair conditioner in the water when I wet block it will soften it up a bit.