NORDIC KNITS
CHRISTMAS JUMPERS NEEDN’T INVOLVE NOVELTY REINDEERS… NOT WHEN YOU CAN COSY INTO THE INTRICATE PATTERNS AND CHUNKY YARNS OF WOOLLIES FROM SCANDINAVIA
Knitted jumpers come into their own at Christmas. Whether you pull one on over your pyjamas and slouch down to breakfast, or step out briskly on a frosty walk, snug and smug in your knit, they are ideal clobber when the temperature drops. In recent years, the rise of the ironic Christmas jumper (as sported by Mark Darcy in
Bridget Jones’s Diary and countless festive TV presenters) has turned our heads, but there is a more tasteful alternative: the Scandi sweater.
Its distinctive pattern and shape came into the public’s consciousness when Sarah Lund ran around in one in Danish crime drama The Killing. Hers is the classic sweater: knitted on the Faroe Islands by home knitters and sold by Gudrun and Gudrun ( gudrungudrun.com) for £290, it is based on a traditional Faroese fisherman’s sweater. Her black and white jumper features the most common Scandi knitting pattern, the
selburose, which originated in Norway. This rose pattern in the shape of an octagram, is a common motif on mittens as well as traditional
lusefkofte (sweaters), and originates in folk art.
In the UK, we have our own version of the Nordic knit: the Fair Isle jumper (see The Simple Things issue 28), which is hand-knitted on the remote Scottish island. Production of these is labour intensive and skilful, which accounts for their high price, but there are high-street versions of both Fair Isle and Scandi jumpers out there, as well as mittens and scarves. Alternatively, dig out your knitting needles and settle down, preferably by a log fire, and make your own.
If a whole jumper seems ambitious, try something smaller: the arrow cuffs over the page would be a good place to start.