DIY: Yellow Riddari by Védís Jónsdóttir

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I started this yellow Riddari in January…2021! I was on maternity leave and thought I had a month to finish it. Jokes on me because Kenji came 12 days early, just as I was going to join the arms and knit the yoke! After more than a year, it’s finally finished. This yellow Riddari is available for purchase in our Etsy shop.

It was just too bulky to knit while Kenji was on my lap! Thankfully he started tolerating naps in his crib so after several months, I was finally able to join the arms to the body in May 2021. However, it took me ages to get around to knitting the yoke because I wasn’t able to decide on colours! 

I’ve knit other sweaters from the Knitting with Icelandic Wool book. The Ár Trésins Pullover by Jóhanna Hjaltadóttir was for myself. However, the Kross Pullover and the Bláklukka Pullover, both by Védís Jónsdóttir, were for our Etsy shop. They’re both still available!

I knit the XXL size using 3.25 and 3.75 mm needles. Unfortunately this pattern is not size inclusive, as the XXL fits me with just a 45″ bust.

Body and sleeves are worked in the round from lower edge to underarms, then joined to work yoke in the round. Depending on how you like your sweaters to fit, it could fit as a small or medium loosely and comfortably. However, if you like your sweaters more fitted, it would act as a large.

Choosing colours for this Riddari was fun but time-consuming for me. I knew I wanted this rich, golden yellow to be the main colour. I had a sweater quantity of Briggs and Little Heritage, a Canadian yarn company, in my new favourite colour. However, as the yoke has so many colours, I had to be careful to make sure that adjacent colours had differing values to create good contrast. All in all, I think I succeeded!

Then, knitting the actual yoke seemed like a whole other project. Because of my colour choice, a couple of the rounds contained three colours. One round even had four colours! That round took me ages to knit, but I think it was well worth it. I think I took a long time to knit this yoke because I didn’t want to manage all this yarn with a baby underfoot! To manage that, I had to wait until he would reliably nap and sleep to work on this Riddari.

I added some short rows to the back of the sweater so it would sit more comfortably. Many of the Icelandic sweater patterns I’ve read do not contain this shaping, making the sweater reversible front and back. However, I find it more comfortable to add, and they’re pretty easy to insert. I added several rows of short row shaping after adding the arms but before knitting the yoke. The raises the back of the sweater so the front neckline dips down a bit.

In total, I used five colours. The main yellow, plus white, red, light blue, and dark blue. All the yarn apart from the white is from Briggs and Little. The white yarn, from Revolution Wool Company, was leftover from the Treelight Pullover. All the yarn is from local Canadian and milled here in Canada. The wool was woolen spun, meaning that the resulting sweater is light but very warm. All the colours were from my stash, and I would love to knit another Riddari with a different colour scheme.

The pattern is available from the book Knitting with Icelandic Wool. However, the colourwork chart for the yoke has an error in it. The colourwork repeat is only 8 stitches, not 9. To save yourself from heartache, read the comments on the Riddari Ravelry page! Furthermore, if you knit this from the pdf pattern, be aware that there is an error in the sleeve instructions. I don’t know why the author hasn’t issued errata for this pattern, because it’s so popular, but be wary!

If you would like a sweater for yourself or a loved one, check out our Etsy shop. We also take custom knitting and crochet orders! Please get in touch if you want something special custom-made.