Plötulopi!

Longtime readers may remember that when the Hendons destashed 7 plates of Plötulopi at Knitters’ Day Out a couple years ago, I swept them into my bag. I had no specific plan, but I was plötu-curious and wanted to try knitting with it.

What exactly is Plötulopi? It’s unspun “plates” of wool from the Icelandic sheep. It is very delicate in this unspun state and can be easily pulled apart. There is no twist in this “yarn.” As a spinner, I think of this is unspun singles rather than yarn. But you CAN knit with it, and knitting adds enough twist to create a cohesive fabric that that is also incredibly warm (because the heat gets trapped in all those air pockets). For more about this unique yarn, see Helene Magnusson’s post Knitting Tips: Working with Unspun Plötulopi.

I got wind of a knitalong for the Aito shawl on instagram (#aitoshawlkal). It calls for 6 different colors of Plötulopi and I had them, so I read more closely and then decided to jump in. This shawl looks very lightweight and warm. I have in mind that I’ll throw it around my shoulders while reading in bed.

The weather here could not be more perfect for this type of shawl. It has been chilly and blustery and often rainy. Here’s the very beginning of my shawl. I decided to work lightest color to darkest (the pattern goes the other way round).

One very interesting design feature of this pattern is that you don’t change colors abruptly. Instead, you ease each new color in by introducing small bits of it (2-5 stitches) on top of the first color. Because Plötulopi is unspun, it lends itself particularly well to spit splicing. Can you see how unspun it is here?

To introduce the next color, I just tear off a bit of it and splice it right on:

I think the effect is very subtle between these first two colors, as the light grey and light blue are quite close. All the transition happens in the lace section. If you look very closely here, you might be able to see some bits of light blue:

I think this lace pattern looks best from farther away, too. It’s a curious knit! The rows with splicing really slow me down, and of course this isn’t a portable project. Here is where I am right now, just a few rows away from changing over to blue as the main color and splicing in some bits of grey to ease the transition:

I’ve decided to use only 4 colors. I’ll skip the grey that is third from the top in the tower photo above. It’s value is darker than the lightest blue, but I think it will look better if I just move through the blues after the initial very light grey. I’m also not using the dark charcoal grey at the bottom of the stack.

This project is a bit of an adventure. So far it still has my attention.