Expressing art through designing has been in Vedis Jonsdottir's life since, she was a girl knitting and caring for the sheep on her family farm in Iceland. After high school she went to the Danish Design school in Copenhagen for a degree in fashion design.
Today she free-lance works for Istex designing blankets and an occasionally garment designs and color. Istex is an Icelandic yarn company that specializes in Lopi yarn. Lopi yarn can only be obtained from the Icelandic breed of sheep. This breed produces a dual coat. The outer hairs are called tog and the lighter softer inner part of the coat is called thel.
Vedis achieves new lopi yarn colors through blending various dyed fibers together. By adding a percentage of several different colors she is able to achieve the color she has in mind. Using small hand cards she experiments until she reaches the exact depth and intensity of a specific color for Istex yarns.
Her design work has revitalized the classic lopi sweater. That is a bottom up, in the round, yoke design that may have repeat patterns on the sleeve cuff and hem. Traditionally the undyed wool was knit in its natural colors of grey, white and brown. Even though she enjoys working with traditional lopi designs, she is drawn to updating them. Vedis's work is influenced by nature, life events, even movies. These show up in her designs as color, pattern and construction as well as fit.
When knitting "tradtional" lopi sweater patterns she has designed, Vedis knits from the bottom up. She is so in tune with the knit "stitch" that by knitting from the bottom up she says that the stitch smiles. As opposed to top down when she feels the knit stitch saddens the look of the yolk pattern. Her designs in the book "Knitting with Icelandic Wool" are contemporary lopi sweaters for children and adults, stylish dresses and even a lopi sweater for your favorite K-9.
She is always expressing herself through designing. If not designing knitwear for work, Vedis is expressing herself with 3D knit sculptures. At Vogueknitting Live she had a gallery exhibition of some of her pieces. One in particular was an installation "Knitted Peace". It was two jousting type swords that looked like they were knitting needles used to knit this large loose swatch. Live stitches were still on the hanging swords. There also were two different large 3D heads, knit in wire. These are only several of the interesting works there were to view.
Vedis Jonsdottir was interesting to talk with and I enjoyed hearing the process of her design work at Vk Live NYC. I will be reviewing "Knitting with Icelandic Wool" later in the week. In the meantime, enjoy these lopi sweaters designed by Vedis for the entire family.
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