my modified Riddari — islandic knit, with my spin on it ✨
🧶Hello my crafty pals,
Welcome to my first blog post for my webpages! 🥳
Yea! This year I am starting to create text content in a form of a blog alongside my videos. I am craving to share my passion to crafts and arts, different techniques and methods and to inspire YOU to start cReaTiNG beautiful things yourself 🩷✨
My goal is, so to say, to ignite your creative journey for this year as well.
We were on holiday again, but I didn’t get that slump afterwards as I had in the summer time. In the end that time, I did get back on track and made a video about it to my YouTube channel if you’re interested.
We were enjoying the snowy winter back at “home-home” and I even got my first creation piece for the year ready on the travel day back home! 😀 I do must admit, it was on the making since January, BUT with a huge break from February ‘24 to end of December ‘24.
So here it is: my modified Riddari - islandic knit, with my own spin on it 😊
I got the sweater finished in the train to the airport and needed to put it straight on for the travel! It’s cosy as a blanket 🥰
Some specs
I made my first Riddari in size M in the fall of 2023 and it fits perfect on me with my size 42. I got hooked and started the second one straight after. My previous experience on knitting was only limited with just some scarves, half a sock and a few beanies. The crafting runs in our family so I was lucky to get many tips and trics from my mom, who is a knitting genie! 🩷
But still I could say, as long as you are able to read instructions and to google, or search information from Youtube for example, this is doable with just a little knitting knowledge. But you must want to succeed 😊
Wool. Like the previous one I used Lettlopi islandic wool as the original instruction says. I must admit the feeling of the yarn is worth every cent I paid for it. The sweater is warm and not itchy at all, not even on bare skin.
So this one I wanted to make special✨ It is made in size L and with larger needles for looser knit, adjusted hem and balloon sleeves 🥰 I also was undecisive with the colour of the knit — which made me to go with mixed sleeves and yoke. I am really happy how it turned out. It is loose, and has more lightness with more “lacey feeling” to it thanks to the larger needles I used, but it is still warm and cosy as a blanket.
So how did I change the original work?
for LACEY-FEELING — I replaced the 3,5mm needles with 4,5-5mm for the rib and used 6mm for the main work instead of the 4,5mm of the instruction.
for BALLOON SLEEVE — I increased the sleeve to it’s maximum stitches straight after the rib, instead of increasing “every 10th row” as the normal sleeve is made. Length of the sleeve measures XXcm.
for LENGHT OF THE YOKE — I made in the back 3 short rows in order to have longer backside as I wanted to keep the front shorter. Original plan was to have the sweater shorter and make it a wool jacket but the shoulder part crowned the whole piece so beautifully together that I decided to keep it as a sweater, at least for now 😊
Front measures about XXcm to the neck rib and the back about XXcm.
My experience in a nutshell
So as this was already my second knit, I was feeling more superior with the knitting. The good thing about large pieces is, that you get to this kind of meditative state while knitting, as the rounds are so long. It is all about your mantra “two, three, one, three, two, one” as you change the colour of the wool.
Utilize tools
It is easy to get lost in the making. Use tool that make the experience more enjoyable. I used a row counter to keep on track where I am in the pattern. I had stitch markers, in other colour wool or in plastic in my work to mark the spots I needed to remember. I had one plastic marker in between the first and the last stitch all the time to remind me of possible actions or to more the calculator one forward.
Third tool I highly got to appreciate was the Norwegian Knitting Thimble or a Yarn Guide Ring. It's a small metal or plastic device worn on your index finger that has multiple holes or grooves to keep different colored yarns separated and properly tensioned while knitting.
