Oh boy, this one was a queue-hopper! This pattern was released for Tolt Yarn and Wool‘s annual Icelandic Wool Month, and the second I saw it, I knew it would be next on my needles! I was busy finishing up my Bronwyn sweater during the month of March, so I was too late too join in on the Icelandic Wool Month fun, but I still appreciated the inspiration.

The pattern is Skógafjall (Ravelry page here) by Dianna Walla, a designer I’ve long admired (you can read her thoughts about the design here). It’s written for Ístex Léttlopi, which I’ve used before for a sweater and a handful of hats (the Moon Sprites pattern, also by Dianna, is a great one for gift giving, although Léttlopi may be a bit scratchy for non-wool-enthusiasts). I love the tree motif, and it was perfect timing because I’d just been thinking that I’d love to have a green sweater.

I used the colorway from the sample, pine heather, for the body, and I also used oatmeal heather (leftover from my first Léttlopi sweater) and hazel heather for the yoke.

Léttlopi has many advantages, chief among them being its relatively low cost and its speed- aran weight knits up so quickly, especially in a seamless, stockinette sweater! I knit this in a month, mostly during weekend evenings. I can never seem to get recommended gauge in the yarn (4.5 stitches/inch, in this case), though, so I cast on for the size 35.5″, which gave me 37.5″-ish at my gauge for about 3″ of ease. This worked out as anticipated, yay!

One of the nicest things about this pattern is the short rows for shaping. I’m not too familiar with them, so I linked to a few tutorials that I found helpful on my Ravelry project page. The effect of the short rows is to raise the back neckline, which prevents the sweater from riding up at the neck, something that I’ve noticed a bit with my previous lopipeysa. This sweater fits nicely and while it’s not too fitted, I’m not swamped in it and it doesn’t seem quite as unisex as my horse sweater.

The only thing I’m not super happy with is my color scheme for the yoke. I’d intended to swap the background and accent colors for the yoke, but there wasn’t enough contrast between the green and the brown. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, which is probably why it’s a good idea to swatch your colorwork before starting out. But even if I had, I probably would have cheaped out and just used the yarn I already had instead of ordering different colors, so I guess I would have had the same results!

But overall, I’m happy with the sweater and I’ll definitely wear it lots this winter. It’s super drafty in my house, so I appreciate thick layers in the colder months!

Alright, friends, what are you knitting these days?