Finished Object: Icelandic Jacket

Pattern: cobbled together from what I learned from Fugl and Elizabeth Zimmermann's fabulous teachings
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Country Classic in black for the body, with some Cascade Eco wool, Lopi, and handspun Alpaca/Coopworth wool in the yoke. The collar is lined in silvery cashmere.
Needles: Size 10 US Addi Turbo circular for magic loop knitting, plus a size 8 US needle for collar lining.
Gauge: 14 sts. and 20 rows = 4"
Size: 39" chest measurement for a 40" chest (Mr. HelloYarn likes stuff tight!)
Started: about a month ago
Finished: this morning

The Making:

This was a stash-buster and I used a variety of yarns in wool, alpaca, and cashmere in weights from sport to bulky, some doubled, like the Country Classic (worsted) in the body and some single-stranded, like the bulky lopi and handspun in the yoke. The resulting sweater is more like a jacket, which was the intention. We're freezing in Boston!

The pattern for the sweater was made following EZ's percentage system and her short rows at the bottom back and the back of the neck. Both worked beautifully and solved the back ride-up, which is a common problem with Mr. HelloYarn's sweaters, and the front neck strangling, which can be a problem with plain circular neck openings. I didn't do that shaping with Fugl (my Icelandic sweater) and it's not a problem with the fit for me, but this sweater was strangling Mark, so I ripped the collar and added the short row shaping, which solved the problem beautifully.

This yoke closely followed the yoke decreases in Fugl, which are very similar to EZ's yoke decreases, but splits the first decrease into two stages, followed by two other decreases near the collar. There are two decreases centered in each of the black/charcoal vertical shapes in the yoke, serving to both decrease as needed for the yoke and shape the motifs. Here's a look at the chart so you can see what I mean. The little inverted V shapes are K2TOGs and the black vertical lines are where stitches have been decreased away. This yoke gets you from where you join the arms to the body all the way to the collar.

This was knit in the round with a 2 stitch purl ditch knitted in the center front for zipper placement. I machine-sewed twice through each stitch (4 vertical sewing lines) and cut down the center, sewing the zipper in by hand and flipping the zipper facing back and tacking that down to the inside of the sweater. I think I'll go back and stitch a length of ribbon along the edge for strength and to contain any fuzzy ends, because they want to pop out. The machine sewing secured the quite slippery single ply Country Classic really well. I was slightly surprised and pleased.

The collar was knit in 1x1 ribbing, then the cashmere yarn was attached, a purl turning row knit, and a stockinette stitch lining done on needles 2 sizes smaller. The lining was folded under and live stitches tacked down to the inside of the collar.