Fishermen's Knits from the Coast of Norway: A History of a Life at Sea and Over 20 New Designs Inspired by Traditional Scandinavian Patterns

by Line Iversen, Margareth Sandik

Striking designs based on the traditional sweaters worn by Scandinavian fishermen reinvented for the modern knitter. Three hundred years ago, Norwegian fishermen went to sea no matter the wind or weather—and they needed warm, comfortable, durable sweaters to protect them from the cold while they worked. Now, photographs and documentation of surviving examples have been brought together to form the foundation for this timeless traditional patterning applied to modern styling and shaping, for a selection of sweaters, cardigans, hats, mittens, vests, and more, for men and women, rooted deeply in the rich tapestry of Norwegian history.

Genres: Knitting, Crafts, Nonfiction

172 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful patterns but the real gem here is the historical information. Fascinating.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If, like me, one of your special interests is textile and clothing history, you will find this book a quick but rich read. It's a trove of information about traditional fishing and farming culture along the Norway coast, and how the clothing technology was developed to make living and working in such cold, wet, perilous conditions possible. I learned so much from this book and it was clear the writers had done a ton of thorough research and cited their sources well for those who want to learn more.

If you're only looking at this book for the knitting patterns, I will downgrade the rating to 4 stars, because I found the patterns were at times overly vague or had incomplete instructions, and one pattern has a slightly incorrect colorwork chart while another was missing its chart entirely. I looked on the English version's publisher's website to see if any errata has been published but couldn't find any. It's possible that since this is a translated version, the original Norwegian publisher has errata on their page, but I haven't yet figured out how to track that down if so. As an experienced knitter, I was able to figure out how to work around those errors I could spot just from skimming the patterns, but I think a newer knitter might have to use a lot of trial and error to get their attempts to look like the pictured garments, which can be frustrating. I also think that the patterns, which are designed to be unisex, err a little on the side of being boxy and shapeless, which is probably historically accurate to some degree, but made me feel that I wasn't likely to make too many of these garments without some shaping alterations. So again, limited usefulness for a newer knitter who hasn't had to do that before.

That said, it's still a great book and worth a read. Just proceed slowly and carefully if you decide to try the patterns out.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the information on clothes and lives of Norwegian fishermen interesting. Very detailed descriptions of clothing used when open boats were used for fishing.

The pattern
S aren’t what most think of when Norwegian knitting is mentioned.

[Tam G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good basic motifs on updated patterns. Simple.