This summer I thought I'd show you some of my out-of-print knitting booklet collection. Many of the booklets are hard to find and some are selling for high prices. Today's booklet is called Dale Yarn Company Knit Your Own Norwegian Sweaters and is a Dover reprint of a 1966 Norwegian book. I've occasionally seen this book for high prices at used book places - don't pay too much as you can find it for less. I bought the booklet for under $9 including shipping. There are a few decent sweaters and a few that don't appeal to me along with some accessory patterns.
The main attraction of this book for me is the introductory chapter which includes drawings and instruction for Norwegian sweater construction.
This booklet refers to Norwegian 2-color knitting as "Fair Isle" knitting although I don't know if that term was in the original text. Here are some interesting quotes from the booklet.
"Special attention is drawn to the fact that Norwegian sweaters are made larger than most other sweaters in order to assure comfort and warmth. The usual practice is to allow at least an extra two inches in girth in order to enable the wearer to move freely when skiing and to allow an insulating air-current to circulate between the body and the knitwear. Norwegian sweaters and jackets are also longer than other garments in order to protect the lower back when one is exposed to the cold winter weather."
I've read this before - in fact, I've heard that traditional Norwegian mittens are several inches longer than your fingers on purpose. I'd always wondered why so many traditional Norwegian mitten patterns were so darn long.
"In Fair Isle knitting there are two methods of carrying the yarn across the wrong side of the work. Many knitters use "weaving in," a method by which the colored thread not being knitted is woven into every other stitch. Norwegian garments are traditionally knit by the method known as "stranding," in which the unused wool is carried loosely across the back of the work to give a beautiful even finish to the garment."
I thought this was interesting because it sounds like there was a practice of frequently "weaving in" stitches in colorwork even before the Philosopher's Wool folks came along with their popular method.
"Sleeves are knit in the same way on double-pointed sock needles, thus also avoiding any seams... Figure 5 shows the sleeve on four needles. In the United States, usually only three needles are used."
This must have been before shorter circular needles were available but I thought it was interesting that using five dpns (one to knit with, four holding stitches) was considered Norwegian whereas using four dpns (one to knit with, three holding stitches) was apparently thought of as an American tradition.
In my continued quest for more knitting inspiration I often go on Amazon to check out knitting books and I'm usually disappointed. It seems like there are a billion new books out there but only a rare few that offer knitting patterns that appeal to intermediate and advanced knitters. Add in the fact that I prefer colorwork and usually only knit accessories and I'm usually out of luck. When a book does come out that fits this description, I immediately grab it up. XRX/Knitter's Magazine has a book called Think Outside the Sox and I was quite happy looking at some of the designs from the book HERE . I promptly ordered it and am definitely going to make those Jungle Socks first.
