Lopi

Mom and I went to Iceland intending to purchase lots of fabulous Lopi yarn for Icelandic yoke sweaters. We thought Lopi meant Reynolds Lopi that came wrapped in a paper label. In the States I've seen Lopi which is a bulky yarn and Lite or Lett Lopi which is a worsted yarn and thought that was the end of it. In Iceland, Lopi is a name brand as well as a blanket term for any unspun Icelandic wool.

Icelandic wool is unique because the fiber grows in 2 different lengths, each with different characteristics, which are blended together to create a durable yarn. Many more weights can be purchased in Iceland starting with plotulopi which is unspun and looks more like pencil roving for spinning. It is sold by weight in a plate shape. When knitted in a single strand, it works up in a worsted gauge and is surprisingly light for its loft/bulk. It can be knitted as two or more strands to work up as a bulky gauge.

This is the most economical and authentic fiber for Icelandic sweaters. We were a bit afraid to knit with this because we were just sure it would pull apart as we worked with it. It is more durable that it looks though. We'd learned about this fiber before the trip and knew that it was used, but we didn't realize that it was major fiber used in the ready-made hand knits. We'd look at sweaters in the different shops and try to guess the weight of the yarn in terms of paper-label-wrapped brand Lopi and we guessed wrong every time. Almost all the hand knit items we liked at the Hand Knitter's Association were knit from either one or two strands of this plotulopi unspun wool. Even at Pingborg, we saw sweaters with the colorwork of the yokes knit with their hand spun and hand dyed yarns. We'd asked what the rest of it was knit from and were told they used "their own lopi" which they processed on site. I purchased enough plotulopi to knit 2 Freyja sweaters.

Lett Lopi (worsted) and Alafoss Lopi (bulky) were available everywhere and is used by Icelanders for home knitting or personal projects, but most of the coop knitters use the plotulopi for their coop knitting. Every shop on Laugavegur that sold sweaters had a basket of a few balls of Lett Lopi or Alafoss Lopi for about $3.90 each and never enough of any one color for a sizable project. At Storkurinn it was about $2.60 and at about $2.70 at the Handknitter's Association.


They had Bulky Lopi which is pictured on the far wall of this picture and was more of a super bulky weight which can be confusing because of the name. I have not been able to find this in the states.

Another weight that is not widely available in the States was the lace Einband which was about $2.80 per ball. It was suggested that we could strand this along with the plotulopi for the Freyja sweaters if we were nervous about the plotulopi being fragile. This is also the yarn that Gudrun worked with for her natural dyes. I bought a pattern booklet for this yarn for about $2.80 and it is full of gorgeous feather and fan lace. This last linked website also stocks this yarn.