Modern Icelandic Sweater

If this...I'll call it spring...weather continues I just may get to wear my new wool sweater after all. I cast on this bad boy on Superbowl Sunday, and worked on it pretty regularly until 'the event.' It was sidelined for a few weeks, and then took a few more to finish.

I've never done corrugated ribbing before, so that was fun to do. It doesn't crimp up like a regular rib stitch will, but it still nice and stretchy.

The ribbing was a nice intro to the color work section. It's not difficult to carry floats for two stitches, so this was a nice, gentle ease-you-into-it sort of thing. Then it was miles and miles of gray stockinette.

I ended up switching up the yoke section a bit. See those gray diamonds? They're supposed to be light green. I had a mild panic attack at the thought of knitting with three colors in a single row, so I figured I'd stick to two colors and then go back and duplicate stitch over the gray. THEN I decided that further along the floats weren't crazy long so I'd knit with three colors (even though floats weren't my concern but three stinkin' colors). It took me a really. long. time to do that section. THEN I had to go back and duplicate stitch the bottom of the diamonds all around the sweater because I apparently decided to make this in the least efficient way possible.

It actually wasn't a terrible task. The inside doesn't look as fun in that section as it should, though.

After I did the first section of duplicate stitching, I decided I liked it as is and didn't fill in the other squares. I kept going back and forth, forth and back, trying to picture it with and without. So I went without. The great part about that is that if I decide I want that section filled in I can simply go back and stitch it in. But this way I like that the snowflakes (though traditionally that motif is an eight-pointed rose) are more obvious as snowflakes.

The neckband is a simple ribbing that's stitched for twice as many rounds as the finished band will be. You then go back and loosely tack it down on the inside for a nice, finished look.

I was nervous about this as it would be so me to make a sweater that fits, and then sew the neckline too tight or, better yet, closed. But after every few stitches I gave it a tug to keep the tension just right, and it worked. I will do this on every neckband where I can as the finish is so nice and neat.

I took 473 pictures (it felt like it, anyway) of me in this sweater, and got maybe two that aren't insanely blurry (I'm especially pleased with the shot of just the ceiling). HOW do people take good selfies, time and time again? If I'm in a pic where I look HUMAN I'm happy. So, just so you can see the fit, here you go--

I'm not sure if I wish I had made the next size up or not. It fits super perfect, but my preference is usually for a slightly looser fit.

Oh, almost forgot to mention, the pattern is Modern Icelandic by Lars Rains. It's in the winter 2017/18 issue of Vogue Knitting. You can see more information here on Ravelry. I was originally going to do this in the same colors, as I gasped when I saw the photo, but decided to switch it up. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted in Spruce, Tranquil, and Lake Ice Heather. It's been soaked in wool wash  and wet blocked.

This was maybe not the best choice for my first stranded sweater as far as difficulty goes, but I'm happy with it. My floats are good, the tension is even, and it fits. So now I can go tuck it in a drawer for months. Yaaaay.