So, when I went to Iceland with my sister and my son in September/October 2024, I naturally planned a visit to the Alafoss Wool Store in Reidjevik. I had already chosen a sweater I wanted to knit for myself. Then my son wanted a sweater. Then my sister wanted a sweater. So I set a goal to knit my son’s sweater while travelling the Ring Road around Iceland. My son and sister did the driving – that’s usually the deal if you’re in a car with me going anywhere for me to have enough time to knit.
I almost never drive when I’m heading somewhere with someone else.
Before our trip, my son and I chose a nice pattern. It was short sleeved so would need to be adapted. It was also knit from the bottom up, as Icelandic sweaters are traditionally knit. BUT, because I wanted him to be able to try it on as I knit, I decided to work it from the top down.
When I searched for videos on how to do this, I didn’t find any no matter what I queried.
So here I was, in the back seat of the SUV knitting away at the collar of the sweater, thinking cockily “I got this”. Then came the colorwork chart. My brain just COULD NOT work out the increases if I worked the chart upside down. I worked a dozen rows, inserting the increases where I thought they went. It was absolutely not working. So I ripped out the colorwork I had done and started over and tried something different. Eventually, I figured it out and the sweater turned out great.
Here’s the Reel I made for Instagram with my progress.
Here’s the unblocked sweater in all its glory! I literally bound off at the airport. I woke in all my ends as the flight was taking off. Talk about last minute!
It’s at this time that it came to me: Why can’t I record a video tutorial for YouTube on how to modify a traditional Icelandic sweater pattern to be knit top down? So I did.
Here it is:
How to Knit an Icelandic Sweater Top Down
I hope you find this helpful if you ever decide to knit an Icelandic sweater and you want to make it from the top down.
M