The Icelandic Sweater Project

As a “yarnie”, it occurred to me that a great souvenir of the Iceland portion of our trip would be to make myself a traditional Icelandic lopapeysa…the iconic sweater worn by almost everyone there.  There will be lots of hours of sitting in a car, as Lars will likely do most of the driving…partly his own inclination, partly that he hears better out of his right ear, so it’s easier to talk if he’s driving.
Icelandic wool is kind of special.  The sheep herds have been isolated for centuries, and due to the harsh climate, they have developed two-layer coats—a dense, fluffy undercoat for warmth and a longer, coarser outercoat that sheds water.  When spun together into yarn, this makes for an extra-warm, almost waterproof fiber.
In an effort to bolster the country’s wool production, the lopapeysa was developed in the 1950s, and has since swept the nation.  So this isn’t a centuries-old tradition at all, but has become so prevalent that wool yarn and knitting supplies can often be found in supermarkets.
However.  I don’t knit, I crochet.  There aren’t any patterns to crochet a lopapeysa.  I found a sort of modernized version to crochet, but it wasn’t really what I had in mind.  After poking around on the web and writing to Álafoss, the main yarn shop in Reykjavik, I found a “Design your own Icelandic sweater” website (knittingpatterns.is).   You enter your measurements, what size stitches you make, choose yarn colors (who could resist the colors “Murky” and “Frostbite”?), and draw the designs for yoke and cuffs.  Poof!  A customized sweater pattern!  I also found a US source for the yarn, and ordered a couple of skeins to play with.  So, I think I have a workable design and instructions, plus the program figures out how much yarn you need of each color.
There have been some other technical issues to work out, but I won’t bore you with them.  Other yarnies, feel free to send me an email if you want the gory details.  Here’s the sweater I’ve got planned:

Now that you all know about it, I guess I’ll actually have to make it!