Saturday, November 5, 2011

A Plethora of Lopi

After my success with the Saga, I contacted Istex in Iceland to see if I could order Lopi directly from their factory store.

They sent me a price list by email.  The prices were so reasonable, I ran to my purse, grabbed my MasterCard, and sent them a whopping order.

Holy Schmoly.
That's a big, whopping box.  We're going to have to build an extension onto the house for my wool stash.  Eric's gonna love that thought!  Either that, or I had better get out the needles and start bashing away on a few sweaters.

Tessie's looking at Bob with admiration in her eyes.  Yes - her eyes.  Turns out I'm not so good with gender identification in cats.  With the kittens, it was easy, I knew Popina was a girl since she was a calico, and from there it was easy to tell the rest were males.  I just assumed Tesla was a boy.  But BobCat, even though he's a fixed male, is incredibly attentive to her.  They sleep together, and BobCat licks her head all the time, and I started having this nasty suspicion- she's got to be female - and it would be awful if we'd end up with another litter of kittens, so she was dispatched to the vets to be sterilized.  She's no longer my Little Dude, she's now my Little Dudette.  And Tesla became Tessie, and all's OK in my world knowing one more stray cat has found a home and is sterilized.  So Bob's taken her under his wing:

But getting back to my beloved Lopi.  It knits up so quickly, I went from this:

To this in just 10 days:


Rather than make a mental note, I'll throw this nugget out for future posterity.  I knit size 38 (which is a Lopi medium) of this sweater, designed by my hero Védis Jónsdóttir and named "Aftur" from Lopi's book 25, and it's big on me.  Good thing I had the fortitude of mind to add some waist shaping:

For the knitters who are Ravelry members, shaping instructions can be found on my project details.  My profile is MoutonNoir, and the project name is Aftur.

Next time, I'm making a size smaller.  Lopi grows with wearing, and stretches out quite a bit, so what appears to be too tight at first wearing will probably grow a size or so after a season.

This is a lovely sweater.  Perfect for this time of year, and further reinforces my belief that Lopi is a miracle product.

So, I've got a bit of knitting to do this fall and winter.  Pardon me while I get the needles out.

5 comments:

Robin said...

WOWZER! You made that in 10 days?!? That is amazing and so pretty.

Shepherd's Loft said...

TEN DAYS!?! and to think I've been working on a sweater for months now!

Shim Farm said...

Robin and Linda - yes, 10 days LOL! But Lopi practically knits itself...seriously, a sleeve can be done in a good evening. It sounds like I spend every spare moment knitting, but I don't! The beauty of these designs is they are seamless, there are just a few stitches to be grafted under the arms, so knitting is fast and gratifying. There's no seaming to deal with, which motivates me to no end. And working with a chart - totally my thing - because you can visually see your progress and what's left to do. Love it!

Anonymous said...

Being inspired by your post I contacted Istex and asked if they sell yarn directly. The answer was No, they're selling yarn via retailers only now.
:((( A bit disappointed.

Shim Farm said...

So sorry to hear about that policy change at Istex! I suppose distributors are getting the upper hand. Although I've never ordered from them, you might want to try nordicstore.net. Their prices are very competitive. Good luck with your Lopi hunt, and thanks for stopping by!

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