Tag: Lettlopi

The Easy V Colorwork Sweater Knitting Project Review

Finished knitting the Easy V sweater and these are my thoughts on the knitting project.

Now that I have finished the body on the Easy V sweater, I tried it on. Length is good, but other than that, I am not super happy with this knitting project. The pattern is fine, but I don’t like the style on me. I’m not happy with my yarn choices either.

See a link to the pattern buying page below in the pink block.

Easy V body of sweater is finished so I tried it on for length, which is perfect.

I had trouble getting the neck size cast on right. I’d begun with a green yarn and larger needle. Restarted the sweater using white Lettlopi yarn in a smaller size. This size seemed better.

When it came to using the hand-spun variegated yarn, the colors didn’t really mesh that well, but I was fairly happy with the color work yoke. But, the yarn is quite bulky and makes the fabric thick – even though I went up a needle size to knit that area.

Sometimes after washing and blocking a sweater can look immensely better. I’ve knit so much that I do plan to finish.

Easy V sweater knitting

Maybe the neck will look better after washing and blocking. It is one of the elements of this top that is unique.

Easy V

Pattern directions are very good, and it’s not that I don’t recommend this sweater pattern, but be sure you like the style before choosing it. The colorwork is very easy to do. It is supposed to be similar on the sleeves, but I changed the pattern for the sleeves to one of my own. The colors needed to be divided up a bit for my liking, and I was running low on the variegated yarn.

Easy V sweater body with twisted ribbing at the bottom.

The Sleeves

I substituted my own colorwork pattern on the sleeves. This is not part of the pattern. I debated omitting colorwork on the sleeves, but in the end I changed it up instead. It was an opportunity to use up the yarn and incorporate the white which is on the neck.

I ran out of the blue yarn and substituted two strands of Jamieson and Smith fingering held together.

The ribbing is twisted rib, like the body ribbing. This is also my own doing and not part of the pattern. I like the looks of a twisted rib. To do it, simply knit through the back loop, and purl – around.

Sleeve colorwork
My own choice of colorwork patterning on the sleeve. This is not part of the pattern.
Blue at top is original worsted, blue at bottom near ribbing is tw strands of J&S held double.
Easy V sweater sleeve in colorwork
Sleeve and yoke comparison

At this point, finishing this sweater is a bit of a chore. I’m ready to move on. My yarn selections were bad (except for the brown Lettlopi), with that colored yarn being very bulky. I wish I had not followed the yoke colorwork and left some brown showing.

The more I knit, the more I realize which types of yarn to avoid, and which I like best. This sweater is really not my style, but I’m sure it will be cozy warm for when I need warmth — two days out of the year!

Check out the Easy V pattern page at Ravelry, and be sure to browse color combinations from other knitters.

Have you knit this sweater? What do you think? I’ll be trying mine on soon – in the air conditioned house.

Easy V finished and has been washed and is drying on the boards.

Sweater is dry and here are my photos after trying it on. I’m not too happy with the fit as the neckline is loose and makes the whole sweater sag. I used a size 3 needle to do the neckline, but it really should be tighter. I’m not happy with the outcome.

More knitting stories from the blog…

Camel Yarn Weekend Hat Project

A simple ribbed hat pattern with enough brim folds to keep ears warm. The Weekend Hat is a pattern by designer PetiteKnit.

First Attempt at Knitting Clotilde

I didn’t get far when I began the Clotilde Cardigan pattern, but it’s a good looking cardigan, and I’ll try knitting the pattern again.

How to Spit Splice Yarn and Make Knitting Simpler

When knitting with wool and changing colors or adding a new skein, use the spit splice join to make things simpler and have fewer ends to weave in.

Only recently have I begun to spit splice yarn. When I discovered how easy it is to do, I became hooked.

Wool is a great fiber to use for knitting. In my opinion, sweaters need to be made of wool. A sweater is made to be worn for warmth and wool is the perfect choice.

To the best of my knowledge, spit-splicing only works when knitting with wool. If the yarn is a wool combination, I am not sure. Wool is a sticky fiber and water (spit) will help hold the strands together. Also the brisk rubbing of the wet wool connects the fibers.

Lopi yarn with Lettlopi, Alafosslopi, and Plotulopi

Wool Yarn Only

This is exactly why wool garments need to be hand-washed. The combination of water and friction changes the fiber. It will totally ruin a wool garment if it goes into the washing machine and / or dryer. It is also why felting wool works, which shrinks an item on purpose.

Warm Up sweater knit in Lettlopi
Warm-Up Sweater pattern

I am knitting a pattern called the Warm-Up Sweater by Espace Tricot (see pattern link at bottom of page). It is a simple raglan, top-down knit. I chose it to use up some of my Lettlopi wool. For some reason I have a lot of brown yarn. Then, I decided to combine the browns to make wide stripes for a less boring knit. (Lettlopi colors used are Murky and Acorn Heather.)

Spit-splicing is perfect for this type of patterning of colors.

How to Do the Spit Splice Join – With Photos

To do the spit splice, I change the colors by cutting the end of the yarn I have been using, as normally would be done. In this case it’s the lighter brown.

Instead of adding that new, darker brown color to my needle, I will combine the two colors of yarn together to form one strand. This will gradually bring in the new color and leave no ends to weave in – which is the best part!

Lettlopi wool sweater knitting brown
Warm-up Sweater
brown wool Lettlopi yarn to spit-splice
Two brown wool yarns

With the Lettlopi yarn, I can easily separate each end into two strands. They pull apart and unravel nicely.

Lay the ends together to overlap a bit and twist together.

Spit on that entire entwined section of wool to make it nice and wet. (Someone somewhere said spit works better than water – and quicker too.)

Once the yarn is wet, rub the section briskly between the palms of your hand. I usually have to rub a few times to fill in any loose holes. Do a little tug to be sure the yarns have stuck and do not pull apart.

unravel the yarn ends
Unravel each strand
spit splice how to
Combine and twist together

Once the two strands are stuck together, I have a section of yarn that is made up of both colors. Part of that section is a bit thick, but the yarn is thick and thin on its own, so this works.

Here is my spliced bit of yarn. As I continue knitting, the yarn goes from light to dark and blends in nicely for my next section of darker brown.

spit-splice
Wet yarn and rub until they stick
spit-splice wool
Knit with new color strand

I’m doing the splicing close to the beginning of round marker but it is not exact. It won’t matter. My two yarns are close in color and they just blend nicely. Also, this pattern has the BOR at the back, right shoulder where it wouldn’t been seen anyway.

Why Spit Splicing Makes Knitting Simpler

In the end, the reason for doing the spit splice join is to save myself the hassle of having to weave in ends. In this striped sweater project I would have had two ends hanging at every row of color if I had added yarn the traditional way. That would be a lot of ends when the sweater is complete!

Joining the yarn and not leaving ends means I will only have the cast-on strand, underarm strands, and cast-off strands on body and sleeves to weave when I am done. That is a win in my book!

spit splice knitting no ends to weave in
Rows of color with no ends showing except the cast-on

Other Uses For the Spit Splice Joining of Yarn

Also use this joining method when changing to a new skein, or if the yarn breaks, or if you come across a knot, and so on. I recently knit a colorwork sweater with Plotulopi wool which would come apart very easily on the slightest tug. I used the spit splice join a lot on that one!

Get the Warm-Up Sweater pattern at Ravelry

YouTube Video on Spit Splicing

If you’d like to watch this process on a video, here is one by iKnits that is short and to the point: https://youtu.be/h5UwY8NDtP0

Knitting a Colorwork Sweater in Plotulopi

Knitting a pullover sweater with a made up colorwork design using Plotulopi and Lettlopi wool.

For a while now I’ve been a bit lost as to what to knit next. I began the thrummed mittens and lost interest (because I never wear mittens in Florida) and finished up my Meadow Moon sweater, and now… what?

Colorwork / Fair Isle is my love, and I have all these plates of Plotulopi so lets use them! I’m still trying to use up stash yarn, and combine the yarn with a good pattern.

Plotulopi Frost Grass green plates of yarn
Frost Grass plotulopi plates

I dug out the Lopi 40 book because I have some Lopi yarn to use up. After knitting the Farfuglar pullover, and Clacks mittens, I have light blue and a tiny bit of white. I had ordered some rust orange (Apricot) Lettlopi as well as a brown color.

After skimming through the Lopi 40 book, which has many lovely projects, I decided on a vest. It is shown on children, but has sizes for adults. I figure I can do colorwork around the bottom, to the underarms, as the pattern does, and then finish with solid plotulopi. (It is a bottom up vest.) But I want to choose my own charts and colors.

Yarn Being Used

Because I have a lot of Plotulopi in “Frost Grass” green, that is my main color. The main contrast color is Apricot Lettlopi with a bit of Acorn brown and Air Blue Lettlopi in the center of the flower motif.

The “frost grass” color is really lovely, and I think a perfect name for this green yarn.

The Plotulopi is unspun and breaks easily. I must unwind it before pulling to knit. It does spit splice together well, which I’ve done when it unexpectedly breaks. I was worried about doing the colorwork and having to carry this yarn, but so far, it’s been okay. I am very careful not to tug on it.

The Lettlopi does not have this problem. I’m unsure how easy colorwork knitting would be with only Plotulopi yarn. Seems like it would be difficult. Unknitting, or tinking, can be tricky.

Alice Starmore’s charts for knitting book

Finally, I settled on a pattern, which was taken from Alice Starmore’s “Charts for Color Knitting” book (This is an affiliate link to Amazon). I will knit the floral pattern for the length of the body and the top will be solid green.

The Knitting

I cast on for the body ribbing (knitting bottom up) with green, using a size 4US needle – 195 stitches. My ribbing choice is not typical 2×2 and needed to be divisible by 5. The ribbing is from my Gansey knitting book and is more of a 2×3 rib. It goes like this:

Row 1: K2, *[P2,K3] repeat * until last 3 stitches, P2, K1

Row 2: P1, K1 *[P2, K1, P1, K1] repeat * to last 3, P2, K1

This wasn’t a good idea for this yarn. A normal 1×1 or 2×2 would have been fine.

Staka vest in Plotulopi

Then, after switching to the main needle size 7US, I reduced the stitches from 195 to 192 and began the divider row of little squares in orange (Apricot). The floral pattern is in 32 stitch repeats, which also fits into 192 stitches – I should have gone up a needle size here because this area of the sweater pulls in a bit.

The flower center three rows are brown with orange, brown with blue, and brown with orange. Then I go back to using green as the MC.

Lopi wool used to knit the Staka vest
Vest becoming a sweater

After finishing all the colorwork, I am still at 192 stitches, for size large, and will continue following the pattern from the book.

The Vest Becomes a Sweater

Unfortunately I have swapped out my vest for a bottom up sweater. I cannot understand the vest knitting directions. But I do know how to knit a bottom up sweater. Farfuglar was knit with similar yarn and in a similar size, so I intend to follow those directions and include some colorwork along the way. This sweater will end up being a total experiment! The Farfuglar sweater does not include short rows for the back, and I will definitely be including short rows.

I know that colorwork can make for a tighter fabric so I’ll have to be careful there. I really would have loved to have a vest, but I need a pattern with better directions for my first try.

Now I have continued on with a new chart motif to make the body longer.

Vest becoming a sweater

Attaching the Body and Sleeves

I wanted to use more orange, but was running out with only one skein left. The sleeves became solid green after the cuff area colorwork.

Fair Isle colorwork sweater in Lopi yarn
Sleeves nearly done so the parts can be joined
Orange flowers sweater
Joined the body and sleeves and beginning the yoke.
Lopi sweater sleeve cuff and yoke pattern
Yoke section of Lopi wool sweater
Yoke patterning
Lopi sweater sleeve cuff and floral print
Lopi sweater knitting project

The neck is a simple k1tbl, p – around for about an inch. Then, I was finally able to try it on. The sweater is tight around the body due to all that colorwork. I have the underarm grafting to do and some ends to weave in. Once it’s washed and blocked, I will see how it fits.

Wearing the Sweater

Finally in January 2023 I got some photos of myself wearing the Lopi Sweater. It is very comfortable. The flower colorwork area is a smidge tighter than I would like. If only my belly would shrink a little. Anyone else wish this?

If you are wondering about the comfort of this wool against the skin, I find it to be fine. Yes, I suppose it is a bit scratchy but I don’t mind it at all. Wool is a bit too hot – okay, a lot too hot – for Florida, but occasionally we have some cooler days.

hand knit sweater
wool colorwork sweater
Lopi wool Fair Isle sweater
Icelandic wool

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Made-Up Mittens Pattern Knit in Two Types of Lopi Wool

This is a mitten pattern I made up by pulling from a couple of patterns I recently knit. Once you know the basics of mitten knitting, it’s quite easy to wing it with your own designs and colors.

Of course my made-up mittens don’t look great. In fact, they don’t match but they are for my son who lives in New England and asked for mittens. I will stress the importance of not throwing them in the washing machine or dryer, but who knows what will happen.

Mittens knit with Lettlopi and Plotulopi yarns
Lettlopi Rough Sea gray yarn
Lettlopi “Rough Sea” gray yarn
Plotulopi wool yarn plates

The Yarn

I used Lettlopi gray yarn called Rough Sea. It is very nice with specks of lighter gray here and there and can look a bit greenish at times. For the first time ever I also used Plotulopi yarn in wine red. It is pictured in the image above and comes as a “plate” of unspun fiber.

A warning about the Plotulopi, which is very inexpensive, is that it easy pulls apart. More than once while knitting I accidentally pulled on the red too hard and had to spit splice it back together. I knit with the yarn in my right hand to have more control over the pull.

Also the red color came out like mad when washing the mittens….! So the color runs.

Beginning the Mittens

To begin this mitten pair I began by casting on as called for in the Krokur mitten pattern (from the Lopi 40 book) as I was using the same exact type of wool. After the 1×1 ribbing I did a few rows of corrugated rib and then began a colorwork pattern. I took the pattern from one of my books and switched it up for each mitten. Because my colors of red and gray blend pretty well, I actually like that they each look different.

I knit the hand and thumb a bit longer for a man’s size hands and had my son here try them on. And the fit is good! They should definitely fit my younger son.

Red and gray mittens
Mittens being worn

Now they have been washed and are drying. I’ll wrap them up to put in the mail. It is Christmas Eve and I have not mailed a single package yet! How does it get away from us so quickly?

made up mitten pattern

More Mitten Knitting

Krokur ….. Clacks ….. Fiddlehead

Krokur mittens pattern
Krokur
Clacks mittens Lettlopi wool
Clacks
mittens
Fiddlehead Mittens