Knitting – Page 16 – New England's Narrow Road

Discovering The Goodness of Icelandic Lettlopi Wool

The last thing you may expect a Florida gal to do is order wool from Iceland to knit a sweater! But that is just what I did a couple of weeks ago. I have now fallen in love with this wonderful Lopi wool.

Lettlopi wool skeins in white and blue — White and Air Blue Lettlopi yarn from Iceland

While living here in the jungle heat, I dream of being in a normal climate where seasons change and people wear sweaters, hats and mittens. My cold weather wardrobe is being knit with the hope that one day I will live in New Hampshire again.

I’ve come to love beautiful wool and appreciate knowing where my yarn comes from. Unlike many knitters, I never get to sit in front of a winter fireplace, happily knitting something I know I will need to stay warm. My knitting is mostly done in air-conditioned rooms with ceiling fans running. Fall doesn’t mean anything really to Floridians. Days do get cooler, but compared to the heat of summer, that means little really. Winter means some cold, damp mornings – we even get ice in the birdbaths occasionally – but snow never falls and temps usually warm up by mid-day.

It’s a boring place unless we get out on the water.

Florida neighborhood oak trees flat street — Live Oaks make a “tunnel” effect over the road where I walk in the morning.

Instagram For Knitters

I became interested in the Lopi yarns after seeing photos posted by knitters on Instagram. If you knit, you should set up an Instagram account (this link goes to my Insta account) and follow other people who knit. I’ve discovered new knitting patterns and sales on yarn (and patterns) from the site as well. I don’t do much on Instagram myself, except share a photo now and then, but I love to see what designers and yarn sellers have to offer.

Buying My Lettlopi Yarn

This has been my year for knitting sweaters. I have three pullovers on my needles at the present time- Calliope (finished!), Meadow Moon and Farfuglar (finished and knit with Lettlopi!).

Someone shared a photo, on Instagram, of a new sweater design using Lettlopi wool, and it was beautiful. I looked into the yarn further and ended up ordering from the Icelandic Store. I’d chosen a sweater pattern by Jennifer Steingass which used this yarn. The pattern, called Treelight, ended up being a pain in the neck to get started because of gauge. I gave up on it and found one in my new book, which I had ordered along with the yarn. The book, Lopi 40, is full of beautiful patterns and I have begun knitting “Farfuglar” meaning “Migrating birds”. (I finished this sweater in November and love it.)

Lopi 40 book of knitting patterns — Lopi 40 Book

Farfulglar sweater in blue and white Lettlopi yarn — Lopi 40 Book

A lot of Lopi yarn colors are out of stock, but I wanted light blue and white which were both available. I bought ten skeins of Air Blue and five skeins of white. I had to pay shipping, but the yarn itself was so cheap, compared to US stores, that I believe I got a good deal. The shipping process took over a week, but I was in no hurry.

Plotulopi Yarn

Another wool yarn that gets good reviews is Plotulopi. It is described as “unspun plates of Icelandic wool”. It is equal to a worsted weight and comes in lengths of 328 yards. At the Icelandic store each plate is about $5.. .which is a deal compared to ordering from US stores!

So my yarn plates have arrived, along with more Lettlopi, even though color selection in the Lettlopi was slim. The Icelandic Store is on the ball, and this shipment arrived very fast.

I have begun knitting a pair of mittens using the Wine Red Plotulopi. This yarn is unspun and that means it will pull apart very easily. I wondered how it would work while knitting colorwork! I did okay, except when I had to tug on an end that was hanging, and the red yarn came apart! I used a crochet hook to catch the short end piece and wove it in. It means being careful when knitting with this yarn.

So this yarn is a little weird, but it’s cheap, and I love the colors! They make up for all the missing Lettlopi shades that are out of stock.

Plotulopi wool yarn plates — Plotulopi plates of yarn

plates of plotulopi wool yarn — Plotulopi plates of yarn

Alafosslopi is The Bulky Yarn

By looking through the book, I discovered the heavier weight Alafosslopi yarn. It is a bulky yarn and is used to knit some wonderful sweaters that would be very warm. I have a pattern chosen to use this new bulky yarn, but many of those colors are also out of stock at this time. Since I had limited colors to choose from, I settled for Ecru Heather and ordered a box full of yarn.

This time the yarn was delivered much quicker, but I had to pay more for shipping. There was no choice and this may have to do with the size of the shipment, but I got the order very fast. AND… they kindly included a chocolate candy bar with my order! I have begun knitting the Carbeth Cardigan using this pretty yarn.

Alafosslopi yarn in ecru heather color — A little candy surprise in with my Alafosslopi yarn delivery!

Buying Lopi Yarn Online

Some places have the yarn to order in the US but the cost is about $5 more each skein! I’ll need about 13 skeins for the sweater I want to make. Webs yarn offers big discounts for bulk orders but at the present time, colors are scarce. For this reason I ordered directly from Iceland. The skeins are cheaper, much cheaper, but there is shipping to pay. Still, for me, it was worth it.

The Icelandic Store has very quick shipping. I also have ordered from the Nordic Store but haven’t had the best luck. They had a big sale going on and I placed an order only to find out a few days later that many of the yarn colors I ordered were out of stock. I was a little ticked off that nothing that showed as available was really available. So my preference is to order from the Icelandic Store.

I hope that more yarn is being created and we’ll have more color selections soon. Until then, I have plenty of nice yarn to play with.

How to Read a Knitting Colorwork Chart

How to read colorwork charts for Fair Isle and mosaic knitting.

07/26/202608/26/2026

DIY Felted Wool Seating Pad Knitting Pattern

Knitting a simple wool chair pad to use up some heavy weight and worsted wool. This DIY pattern uses…

07/25/202608/26/2026

Five Cozy Scarf Knitting Projects For Fall

Five cozy scarf patterns to begin knitting this Fall. Keep for yourself or give to friends and family. The…

07/07/202608/26/2026

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Sorry, Giving Up on Knitting Brioche

I began writing this post in the hope of being able to easily explain how to knit brioche. It turns out that I simply can’t do it. This project was ripped out, but I do have some good notes, and videos, to reference for anyone trying to knit brioche in the round.

Where’s the Brioche Hate Club, I need to Join

After much difficulty with casting on, (I did learn some new cast-ons) I am on my way to successfully knitting brioche in the round – or so I thought. Well, honestly, I am making lots (and lots) of mistakes – ya, it looks horrible!, but that’s okay, I am practicing. But, at each BOR (beginning of round) the yarn color changes and I’m either going to knit or purl. This can be daunting for us beginners. And sometimes downright impossible.

After my many efforts to complete a nice cast on for brioche in the round, I gave up and simply used some sort of long tail cast on which is what I usually use. My cast on edge looks bad, but I needed to begin practice on brioche stitch.

My Practice Hat in Brioche Stitch – which I ripped out

I cast on 80 stitches using worsted wool and this was a good number. The Skipp hat pattern called for fingering yarn, so I tried to estimate with worsted, just to try out the pattern. Before I ripped out the hat, I tried it on and the fit was good. If I ever learn to knit brioche in the round correctly, 80 stitches are a good amount to cast on.

The light gray is unknown yarn and the red is Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter. I’m using up stash with only a small ball of red yarn left, then I switched to dark blue.

Brioche hat knitting two color — Brioche knitting

My Brioche Knitting Advice For Beginners

To practice brioche knitting, I’ve found that doing the following makes things easier

Use worsted weight yarn
Choose two very opposite colors and NOT variegated
If you can’t get a good cast on done, do whatever you can so you can just knit! Consider this practice.

Figuring Out Beginning of Round Knits and Purls

Brioche knitting is not really all that difficult, but at the beginning of each round I get very confused. This mainly happens when I don’t see the yarn stitches I’m supposed to see for the next round! I guess I have some kind of mental block because so many people CAN DO THIS! What’s wrong with me?

With only two yarn colors and two types of rows (knits and purls), this shouldn’t be all that difficult. But as a beginner, who makes lots of knitting mistakes, I dreaded that BOR stitch – because it screwed me up….!!!

So here’s how it goes for two yarn colors, and two row changes. This much I understand.

Know your yarn and what it means. My knit row yarn is my MC (main color) which for me is light gray. That makes red yarn my CC (contrast color) and it is my purl row yarn.

MC Gray yarn = Knit Row
CC Red yarn = Purl Row

But in brioche, knit and purl rows are not all that obvious unless you know what to look for. This information is for “brioche in the round” because flat brioche is probably different – I don’t know. (Oh yes, I tried that too and still couldn’t accomplish it! – see the free pattern links below for brioche scarves.)

BOR Stitches – The Knit Row

At the BOR, when I see a purl stitch as the first stitch to work (photo below), and it’s in my CC (red) yarn, it means I will be using the MC (gray) yarn for this row. That means it’s a KNIT row.

The knit row is worked as follows: *Gray yarn forward, slip that purl stitch (purl wise). Leave the yarn in front as I pick up the next TWO stitches (a gray and a red stitch – you can see them crossed in the image below) and bring the working yarn up and over the needle to knit those two stitches together. This creates a yarn over (YO) for the next round of knitting. *Do it again until I finishing knitting this round. It helps to repeat this in your head when you get going on the round…yarn front, slip, yarn over purl (2 – counted as one).

It’s not that difficult. It’s basically a slip and k2tog – but those two together are counted as one stitch. The yarn just needs to be in the correct position to create that yarn over with the knit.

brioche in the round, two color row stitch appearance — BOR, a slipped purl stitch begins this round, so I am **knitting** this row and using the MC yarn which is gray.

BOR Stitches – The Purl Row

My purl row begins incorrectly. This goes back to my difficulties in casting on. If I can’t make the right kind of cast on and join, I won’t have the correct stitch set up!

My photo below is in the middle of the round, but the beginning of the round would start with a knit stitch like this – at least I think it would. A gray knit stitch means I will slip it – using the other yarn color. Dark blue yarn has replaced my red so I am working with the CC color and purling this row.

Work the Purl Round / Row like this: *Yarn forward and slip the knit stitch. Yarn up and over the needle to purl the next two stitches together. *Continue around. Once the purl has been done, the yarn is in the front so just slip the next stitch. Yarn up and over and purl the next two. Pretty simple. Hahahahaha… do I sound insane?

Adding a New Yarn Color

Eventually I ran out of red yarn so I have added a dark blue. The yarn was added at the beginning of a round and it now takes the place of the red yarn. Blue is now my CC.

I’ve made a ton of mistakes on this practice hat, which may not ever end up being a hat (No, it won’t) because I have no idea how to decrease at the top while knitting brioche – Oh Lord, I’m far from being able to do that!

Brioche in the round, hat knitting practice — Dark blue yarn added

My Brioche Hat Photos, Before I Ripped it All Out

The actual stitches were fun to do, but every now and then I would make a mistake on the round. The Beginning of round stitches, and end of round stitches, did not line up and I would lose it (glass of wine anyone?). Also, it’s easy to not carry the yarn correctly – front or back – which will make unwanted lines of yarn where they shouldn’t be.

This is nearly impossible to fix. Jared Flood suggests adding life lines to brioche and it’s definitely some great advice. See the link to his video below where he shows you how to do that.

brioche knitting attempt hat in the round — This part is okay

brioche hat knitting other side — This part is okay

The cast-on’s in my photos above were done following Andrea Mowry’s “Two Color Tubular Cast-On” which is really nice and a great cast-on to master. A couple of rows are knit back and forth before the join and the video is a very good one. BUT… and this is another big BUT… like so many other videos, it stops after the cast on – how do I join? How do I continue to knit from this? There is no explanation. The video ends. So the cast on is as far as I went, and then ripped it out.

Patterns For Practicing Brioche

Some patterns listed here are free, and some are not. I did buy the Jared Flood hat which I couldn’t complete. Then I found some free patterns for knitting brioche flat (should be simple right?), which I also couldn’t complete. It’s so sad that I am incapable. If you can’t do brioche, join my club. I may try again in a couple of years, but at this point I am OVER IT.

I’ve spent nearly two weeks trying to figure this out. I have all these patterns and saved videos to reference for later. I’m not one to give up easily and in general I believe that if others can do it, I can. Not so with knitting brioche.

FREE – Purl Soho – Brioche Gradient Scarf (this is a flat knitting pattern)
FREE – Westknits – Bundled in Brioche scarf
Skipp – Jared Flood – the pattern I bought and began my journey (brioche nightmare)
Hester’s Hat
Harlow – Andrea Mowry

Brioche Knitting Tutorials at YouTube

Lots of people have made tutorials for YouTube showing us how to brioche knit. Here is a list of some of my favorites. No videos I came across shows me how to create a good join and knit from there.

Stephen West
Brooklyn Tweed – Jared Flood – Brioche in the round – This video is awesome for everything except casting on and joining in the round. Jared explains what to do at the end of the round – with that other color yarn which is just hanging there waiting to be used. He also shows how to add a life line – which is a great idea for knitting something where mistakes could easily be made and be difficult to fix.

Picking Up Stitches The Easy Way For Garter Tab Cast On

When I began knitting a few years ago, I had no idea what it meant to “pick up and knit” or how to “pick up stitches”. Then, I knit a crescent shaped shawl and had to do a garter tab cast on. I remember watching a video that really didn’t help me much. I made a mess of the garter tab after four tries I said enough!

The garter tab cast on made absolutely no sense to me. It is often used to begin a shawl that is knit outward from the center top. Eventually I figured out that using a crochet hook to pull that yarn and pick it up was way easier than using a knitting needle – as I’d seen in some videos. But I was looking at the whole thing the wrong way. Use two needles and knit the stitches!

Often it’s difficult to find good knitting videos and if you find some you like, stick with those creators. For instance, Very Pink Knits has some good videos, although they are usually long because she likes to talk. Purl Soho has a few good videos – they get right down to business – but they don’t cover some techniques I’ve searched for. Brooklyn Tweed and Andrea Mowry are other video makers I like to watch.

For the Garter Tab cast on, I found Andrea Mowry’s Garter Tab video to be very helpful. Even after all this time, I finally learned how to do garter tab easily! Use a spare needle to pick up the stitches, and then knit them. It couldn’t be easier.

Some shawls I have knit which required a garter tab cast on.

Moon Sisters – orange
Sun Kissed – variegated
Bays Edge – green
Spindrift -purple (my first ever shawl and I’m not sure this one required a garter tab)

Moon Sisters Shawl
Beginning knitting the Sun Kissed shawl pattern
Beginning the shawl
Beginning the Spindrift Shawl

Stephen West also does a garter tab video and shows off his fantastic shawls too (at the end). I’m not much of a shawl knitter but he made me want to start one. He’s also quite a character to watch.

In fact I would use this same procedure for picking up gusset stitches while knitting socks. This is truly the “pick up and knit” I’ve heard about.

Anyway, these are some links to help you get going with a shawl so you won’t dread that garter tab cast on.

More About Knitting Shawls

Knitting The Moon Sisters Shawl Pattern in Orange

by Pam 07/10/201908/26/2026

Casting On A New Shawl, Which One to Choose?

by Pam 01/24/201903/04/2019

Winter Knitting Bay’s Edge Shawl Pattern

by Pam 11/02/201808/26/2026

Grab That Hand-spun Yarn If You Can Find It

What is hand-spun yarn? I’ve wondered about this for a while now. But the answer seems to be simple. Yarn which is spun by hand, by a person and not a machine is labeled “hand spun”.

Learning about the different types, weights, plys, fibers, and dyes of yarn can be intimidating. I don’t have any family or friends around me who knit these days, so all my knowledge has been learned over time from viewing discussions online. When I came across gorgeous yarn of all different colors and textures, I fell in love.

Yarn can be hand-dyed and still not be hand-spun. Hand-dying is something many people do. They begin with un-eyed, natural fiber and then experiment with dying in their home or business. Lots of skeins may say proclaim to be hand-dyed. Hand-spun on the other hand is more difficult to find.

Spincycle yarn has a hand-dyed look, but technically it is not spun by hand. With various colors spun together in this unique way, knitting with these skeins will produce beautiful garments. Not all hand-spun yarn looks like this. It can be a single color (single ply), the natural color of the animal, or spun with beads, glitter, and whatever to create art yarn. Hand-spinning means the one doing the spinning can do what she / he wants!

Where to Buy Hand-Spun Yarn

Hand-spun yarn is difficult to find to buy. Even at Spincycle, who creates look-alike hand spun on machines, many colors seem to constantly be out of stock. And hand-spun yarn is not cheap!

Spincycle mill spun yarn — Two skeins of yarn from Spincycle yarns

Spincycle yarn for sale — Two skeins of yarn from Spincycle yarns

A good place to search for hand-spun yarn is Instagram. I find many useful yarn / knitting related things there. Wound Up Fiber Arts advertises her yarn and if I see something I like, I buy it immediately because it goes fast. Mostly I only see roving for sale on her sight. The pink and yellow yarn below came from her store.

Another store I found through Instagram is Blush and Bloom Fiber Co. She spins her yarn on a spinning wheel, and it is very beautiful, but you will pay big bucks for it – around $70.00 per skein!

What Do People Knit With Hand-spun

Colorful handspun can be used in colorwork knitting to be the contrast color. My hats pictured below were knit with handspun which creates a gradient look when combined with a solid main color. Often designers will knit sweater patterns with handspun as the yoke contrast color. This looks especially nice, if you can find the right hand-spun color. The pullover sweater patterns Newleaf and Hinterland feature Spincycle yarn.

Because it’s often “superwash” this yarn is good for knitting socks, although I’m not sure I’d do that with this expensive yarn! Usually I’ve seen it as fingering, sport, or DK weight, but Spincycle has some in worsted. It’s usually sold out.

More Hand-spun Yarn I’ve Bought

I used hand-spun along with a solid white for the Fair Isle hats shown here (Turkish Patterned Cap).

Handspun swatches — How handspun yarn knits up

two skeins of hand-spun yarn — How handspun yarn knits up

Buying Hand-spun Yarn at Etsy

Some Etsy shops carry hand-spun yarn. Some yarn looks better than others. I’m a bit leery of buying hand-spun when I have no idea how the yarn was actually created. Etsy sellers are usually very small business owners who sell out of their house and are not widely known. Don’t get me wrong, I love Etsy, and I’ve had great customer service over the years. It’s just that I wouldn’t know an experienced spinner from a beginner. Some sellers will explain in detail how they made the yarn, and that’s good. Also read reviews from previous buyers.

I made the blue hat above with hand-spun yarn from Clarion Call Fiber Arts at Etsy.

How is True Hand-Spun Yarn Created?

Here is how I understand it: First, find the wool and / or other natural fiber needed to create the yarn. If you bought fleece or sheered your own animals, it has to be washed, carded, and be prepared for spinning. Then, a drop spindle or spinning wheel is used to spin it. Somewhere along the line it may also be dyed. And if more than one fiber will be spun together, you get it all ready and then turn it into plyed yarn. Here is a link to The Joy of Handspinning site which explains the ins and outs of hand-spinning. I think you will be impressed.

In a nutshell… hand-spinning is a lot of work! And the tools needed are not cheap. I imagine that most people who do it keep the yarn to use themselves, or sell locally. How much would you charge after all that time and effort to create one skein of this unique yarn?