vendredi 3 novembre 2017

Afmaeli

This story of a lopi sweater starts like it often does, with my sister-in-law bringing me back some Lettlopi yarn from Iceland. How I wished I lived in a country that sells yarn in grocery stores!
I had 6 balls of the Golden Heather (main colour) and a few others (yellow, dark brown, grape). The combination was not up my alley, but I loved the main colour! So I just went through my stash of aran weight and made up a gradient from turquoise to plum to make the Afmaeli by Védís Jónsdóttir.
Can you believe this is a free anniversary pattern from Lopi? It is gorgeous! And quite popular too. Looking at the various projects is inspiring and convinced me to knit a second one. 
The borders and flower motifs were made using Briggs and Little in Fundy Fog. I really like that pale lavender heather... When I finished and blocked the sweater, I was worried about it being too long. But I found it is perfect as is! It covers nicely both as an outer layer as snuggled up inside the house.
I used Ysolda's Strokkur pattern for the shaping of the body of the sweater, hence placing the darts under the bust. It fits nicely, but in retrospect I'm not sure I need it. I'm trying the no shaping option for my second version, sticking to the original pattern, so we'll see what's best!