Inspiration from old patterns

I love some of the old patterns from Ístex/Álafoss, and specially the fact that they have scanned in many of the old pattern books. When looking through these patterns once again, I found myself drawn to these sweaters.

I would love to knit the gray sweater, but in Álafoss Lopi (Bulky Lopi) it is way to scratchy and thick for my taste. Maybe Drops Eskimo could be a substitute, but it is so much more expensive than the Icelandic wool.  The cardigans I would maybe wear as an jacket/outerwear in the Álafoss Lopi so I might go for one of these for me.

I love the cardigan in the muted colors, topleft (not such a good picture, but this pattern has been republished and in English in the book, knitting with Icelandic wool (can highly recommend that book).  The bottom two cardigans I like a lot, I´m however leaning to the bottom right one in those colors (white and brown).

The one on the bottom left, is almost the same pattern that I´m making for my dad, the newer version of the pattern only has the yoki section and another type of yarn (létt-lopi).

This pattern can be found in english as a free pattern, I have already used it in this purple sweater

Here is a link to all the free patterns that have been translated to english.

I hope you enjoyed this blast from the Icelandic knitting past. I was trying to find the pattern I made when I was 13/14, my first Lopapeysa, but I´m not sure which pattern it is and the sweater is long gone and I never used it.

*pictures are from www.istex.is