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Books We Love
Norway’s Knitted Heritage: The History, Surprises, and Legacy of Traditional Nordic Sweater Patterns by Annemor Sundbø
A Book Review by Tonia Lyons
Norway’s Knitted Heritage: The History, Surprises, and Legacy of Traditional Nordic Sweater Patterns by Annemor Sundbø is a beautiful, large hardcover book filled with the rich history of Norwegian culture. While the book focuses on knitting history, it also encompasses a variety of topics, including religion, politics, and myths, and how those subjects impact the world of knitting.
The author, Annemor Sundbø, was in charge of the final shoddy factory in Norway from 1983 to 2006–where worn out wool garments and other woolen materials were recycled. When she began her work at the factory, she quickly discovered the vast treasure trove of knitted history that had been relegated to the rag pile. Instead of recycling these pieces of history, she saved them and started to draw inspiration from the beautiful handiwork that so many nameless knitters had crafted. The inspiration from those garments is evident in this book, which includes historical information but goes beyond that to an exploration of connected stories that cover a variety of topics, but all find their way back to the world of knitting.
With thirty-one chapters, Norway’s Knitted Heritage is a dense read. In the first chapter, we are introduced to the author’s story, but we’re then transported even further back in time to the very beginnings of the history of the knitted sweater as well as the classic Norwegian garments—the Setesdal, Fana, and Selbu regional designs. The second chapter focuses on Norwegian knitting history while later chapters explore the history of the sweater traced through other geographical locations and how trade and commerce affected traditional sweater design. Along the way, Sundbø discusses politics, patriotism, romanticism, and folk costumes, as well as knitting machines and mechanization.
I was especially interested in the chapters that focused on knitting history (and there are many!). Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the knitted sweater, exploring the linguistic definitions of the word as well as knitted garments, like nightshirts, that predate the sweaters we know and love today. Chapter 11 details the renewed interest in classic sweaters during the early 20th century, and one interesting section details a Norwegian lawsuit about the issue of designers’ copyright in 1956. Chapters throughout the book, like Chapter 11, show how various parts of knitting history intersect with other areas of life, like politics, law, and even religion.
The second half of the book is devoted to more mystical symbolism, including stories with both religious and mythological roots. Sundbø’s storytelling draws the reader in as she explains how those spiritual aspects of human life influenced the knitting world. Along with the historical information, I found the sections about symbolism especially interesting, with the exploration of various knitted motifs like trees, stars, snowflakes, crosses, and roses that are so often found in modern colorwork designs. It’s lovely to think that motifs that we use in our sweaters today are part of a rich historical past.
The thirty-one chapters cover so much rich history, but the final hundred pages are a treasure for knitters seeking historical inspiration. The first few pages are filled with small full-color photographs of many examples of both hand- and machine-knit sweaters in a wide range of beautiful colorwork patterns that Sundbø rescued from the rag pile. Without her work, these timeless treasures would have been destroyed, and a part of knitting culture would have been lost. Following the photographs is a detailed guide for designing and knitting a basic drop-shoulder sweater, with graphs and charts walking a determined knitter through each step of the process. The next section, “Inspiration from the Sweater Archive,” is a unique stitch dictionary. Each classic Norwegian stitch pattern includes photographs of garments that use that particular pattern, along with accompanying colorwork charts. Following this is another section of black-and-white charts featuring various human figures, reindeer, birds, other animals, and many classic colorwork motifs for even more knitting inspiration. And, for those who are inclined to research the topics found within this book, Sundbø includes seven pages of source material.
Sundbø’s Norway’s Knitted Heritage is a beautiful hardcover reference book that’s filled with an enormous amount of detail and rich history. It’s a large 400-page, 8.25” x 10.25” book, with 899 images (both full-color photographs and black-and-white images).
This book is packed full of information on Norwegian knitting history, with plenty of beautiful sweaters. But along with that, there are many chapters on other topics that intersect knitting history, including mythology, religion, politics, and economics. It’s really a textbook on those topics and is recommended for those who are interested in knitting history and how broader aspects of life have influenced the craft.
Annemor Sundbø is known as “Norway’s Sweater Detective,” and between 1983 and 2006, she was responsible for the only remaining shoddy factory in Norway. She is a textile designer and teacher and has been featured in a variety of publications.
Reference
Sundbø, Annemor. Norway’s Knitted Heritage: The History, Surprises, and Legacy of Traditional Nordic Sweater Patterns. Schiffer Craft, 2023.
Knitting Lace: A Workshop with Patterns and Projects by Susanna E. Lewis
A Book Review by Mary E. Jacobs
Stitch dictionaries are more than mere reference books to the serious knitter; they can be just as fulfilling as reading a good novel, both sparking the imagination and captivating attention. There was a time when stitch patterns were not published or written down, due to illiteracy and the scarcity and expense of paper. Rather, samplers, or long scarf-like knitted strips containing a compendium of worked stitch patterns, were knitted and handed down through generations as a living library of stitch pattern knowledge. Knitting Lace takes a deep look at a sampler stitch dictionary through the lens of a single 19th-century knitted lace sampler. Susanna Lewis had been a volunteer in the Department of Costumes and Textiles at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, and her “job was to figure out how all the patterns were made.” Working with photos of the front and back of the sampler panes, a magnifying glass, charting paper, and needle and yarn, Lewis not only deciphered all 91 stitch patterns but uncovered essential knowledge about the principals of lace knitting and its structure.
The centerpiece of Knitting Lace is Brooklyn Museum’s accession number 74:12.1, a 15-foot long sampler containing 91 distinct stitch patterns which are worked in natural colored 3-ply cotton “thread.” The sampler is roughly 45 to 50 stitches wide, resulting in an average width of 3.5 inches and a gauge of 13 to 14 stitches per inch. Unfinished, the sampler pattern 91 holds live stitches on 1.25mm (US0000) steel wire knitting needles. Lewis states that the sampler itself was not the typical museum knitted sampler as it was the longest she had ever seen; and it was not perfect but rather contained stains, broken threads, some errors, skewed edges, some guttering, and some sections where the patterning just stopped. Although the exact date and place of origin are unknown, based on the type of patterns in the sampler, Lewis estimates that the sampler was likely made in Southern Germany or Austria, sometime in the early- to mid-nineteenth century, likely belonging to an average family who handed down the sampler from one generation to the next.
Knitting Lace is a two-part analysis. Part I contains the actual sampler patterns, and Part II is a lace-knitting workshop that provides a deep dive into lace knitting principals and lace structure, utilizing the sampler patterns as a launching point.
Part I dissects each of the 91 sampler patterns. Each pattern receives its own one-page spread with a black-and-white photograph of the sampler section being analyzed, a chart, and line-by-line written directions. Lewis charts the entire sampler section width and designates the repeat in the lower right-hand corner of the section. Seeing the black-and-white photo next to the chart helps to draw connections between increase and decrease placement that is discussed later in the book.
Part II Chapter 1 begins by describing, labeling, and circling portions of the sampler to illustrate basic knitted lace elements, such as lines of decreases, lines of eyelet increases, areas of “plain” stockinette that is either vertical or biased, reverse stockinette areas, garter stitch areas, columns of purl stitches, and all-over patterning vs panels, to name a few. This allows the reader to begin to draw a connection between stitch patterns and what that means visually.
Part II Chapter 2 is a deep exploration of the sampler patterns. Beginning with an in-depth look at balancing of eyelets and decreases, this section explores how these elements play off each other depending upon where they are spaced and if they are grouped. Those going through the Master Hand Knitter Program experience some of this exploration in lace swatches, but Lewis takes a more in-depth look by placing a grid of 24 knit variations of chevrons and their charts next to each other with a detailed analysis on how placement of decreases affects the visual result. After this, there is analysis of fabric bias caused by placement of yarn overs and decreases, again charts and photos of the charts in knitting are examined. In this same manner, diagonals, wedges, vertical columns, all-over patterns, faggoting, eyelet spots, and diamonds are explored. Even an experienced lace knitter will appreciate Lewis’ logical framework and exploration, likely acquiring many insights into interpreting how yarn over and decrease placement will play out in the ultimate knitted fabric.
Part II Chapter 3 discusses charting lace, specifically, charting from “scratch,” aka designing a lace pattern and knitting it. A step-by-step example is presented, allowing the reader to walk through the design process and reasoning behind charting patterns with parallel selvedges. Charting shapes, such as peaks for an edging, or medallions with nonparallel selvedges, is explored. There is discussion regarding charting from written directions. All the work to this point has led the reader to the penultimate skill that Lewis had to fine tune for her analysis (and that knitted sample users of old did practically, just by using a sampler), essentially interpreting a knitted piece and in this case, charting from a knitted piece.
Part II Chapter 4 presents four patterns utilizing some of the 91 stitch patterns from the sampler. These patterns are meant to serve as a working example of how to incorporate all the skills discussed to this point and leading the reader to the ultimate goal of the sampler: to be used in actual knitted garments. The patterns are somewhat wordy, but they are charted, with some of the charts being a complete charting of the garment. The patterns have instructions for machine knitting built into them. The book closes with glossaries, one for hand knitters and one for machine knitters, as well as a general technique section.
If there is one potential pitfall in this otherwise stellar and engrossing deep dive into the Brooklyn Museum sampler, it is formatting, specifically, the very large margins, very small font size, and very small space between type lines. The formatting was the first thing that jumped out at me and something I had to actively work to try to ignore. The book is absolutely packed, and even with the small font and small between-line spacing, it clocks in at 209 pages. The body of work itself is so impressive, I personally would have preferred to see this in a larger format.
Overall, I loved this book. If you like lace and historical pieces, you’ll probably love this. If you want greater skill at understanding lace, translating knitted lace into charts, and composing a cohesive knitted lace composition, this book will likely advance your skills. Knitting Lace is an exploration that completely embodies the mission statement of TKGA of supporting “serious knitters in their efforts to perpetuate traditional techniques and keep the artisan aspects and high quality standards of the craft alive.” It is a worthy addition to every serious knitter’s collection.
Reference
Lewis, Susanna E. Knitting Lace: A Workshop with Patterns and Projects. Schoolhouse Press, 2009.
Essential Color Card Deck by Joen Wolfrom
A Review by Leslie Reid
The Essential Color Card Deck is the latest offering by Joen Wolfrom, a quilting color guru, to help knitters evaluate and select colors in systematic ways—think paint chips.
The story starts with Wolfrom’s 2000 book, Color Play, which walks through 24 color “families,” each containing a pure hue and a sequence of its tints. For each family, the pure hue and 26 to 36 tints, shades, and tones are displayed—around 770 colors in all—and illustrations show how colors in the family can be combined with those from other families according to the classic analogous, complementary, triadic, and split-complementary color schemes.
However, the Essential Color Card Deck allows colors to be mixed and matched at will because each has its own card—imagine a box of 200 crayons waiting to be rearranged however you want. The front of each 2.5 x 4” card displays the color, and diagrams on the back show how it fits into the classic color schemes. Each color is also identified by its unique RGB, CMYK, and hex codes. Accompanying the deck is an 11 x 14” page that displays all included colors and explains the numbering system and color schemes.
The cards represent only about a quarter of the colors included in her earlier offerings; a full deck of 770 cards would be cumbersome to actually use. The compromise was to select two tints and two shades to accompany each pure hue, along with two relatively light tones—seven cards per color family. The under-representation of tones is partially offset by the inclusion of another three sets of eight cards that illustrate a full range of tints for a yellowish brown, a reddish brown, and a bluish brown, along with eight gray-scale cards.
With only seven cards representing each family, the deck may not be capable of meeting all users’ needs. Some knitters, for example, prefer moodier-toned colors, and you won’t find many of those here. The strategy used to select the range of tints and shades also results in color sets that can be awkward. Inclusion of two shades and two tints for each hue means that sets for inherently dark hues, like violet, include three similar dark-value cards, four fairly light-value cards, and no mid-value card.
It is notoriously difficult to print colors accurately for items to be sold at an affordable price, so I photographed a selection of cards along with a calibrated photographic white-balance tool and used Photoshop to compare actual and stated RGB values. The only notable deviations I found were in the darkest shades of the yellow-to-orange and gray-scale cards, where colors were darker than expected. A card’s color also appears on its back, and front and back colors differed noticeably on those particular cards. The bottom line: double-check the colors if you need to use color codes, and be aware that color renditions are not expected to be absolutely accurate.
This card deck has become a much-used part of my tool kit and has led me to some intriguing color combinations that I otherwise would not have found. However, the deck does present a hazard that I feel obligated to disclose: playing with colors is dangerously addictive. But you already knew that.
References
Wolfrom, Joen. Color Play. C&T Publishing, 2000.
Wolfrom, Joen. Essential Color Card Deck. C&T Publishing, 2023.
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