Plaited Christmas hearts from knitting patterns
The knitting women. Balls of yarn on the floor, English tea in the cup, Norwegian radio in the transistor, small talk across the table and the ongoing clatter of knitting needles. If someone asked me to draw a mental picture of the women of my childhood, knitting would stand out by itself. Fingers that deftly controlled yarn and knitting needles and produced the clothes we walked in - sweaters, caps, socks and mittens. Sometimes plain, white, black, gray or brown - sometimes in colorful and often quite complex patterns.
It goes without saying that in a country with so many sheep, there are also old traditions for working with wool. From the medieval woven cloths to today's knitted creations the Faroese wool has played a significant role. To cut the wool from the sheep, carding and spinning it for various purposes, has been a part of daily life since the Age of Settlement - and for all, rich or poor, the wool has been the main component of the coating.
One cannot say with certainty when the Faroese began to knit. An educated guess is that knitting with wool-thread started in 16th – 17th century. However, it is reasonably certain that knitting about the mid-1600s overtook weaving as a profession - and that knitwear was a significant export, especially knitted socks. In the late 1700s the Faroes exported 120,000 pair of knitted socks a year. In the nineteenth century exports of knitted sweaters also became a major issue and was almost as good a revenue as socks.
The tradition of knitting patterns is almost as old as the knitting. The traditional "Boatman's sweater" or "Faroe sweater", which was knitted with yarn from the rough and oily outer-wool, because of its hydrophobic properties, had simple patterns. Sweaters made by the finer inner wool could have more complex patterns, especially those which were knitted for children. Also the open jerseys for the national costume could have very fine patterns, both for the female as well as the male costume.
The old knitting patterns were preserved for posterity thanks mainly to the Faroese tailor Hans Marius Debes, who in the early thirties traveled around the islands and collected knitting patterns. His hard work resulted in the book Føroysk Bindingarmynstur (Faroese Knitting Patterns), which appeared in 1932 and was re-released in an edited and expanded form in 1949. The book is a classic and has sold more than 18,000 copies - quite an impressive storage in such a small country.
Throughout the 20th century knitting patterns became more complicated. In my childhood in the sixties, all children wore knitted sweaters with vibrant patterns. A school class from those days must have been a bit of a study in geometric patterns.
In the late sixties - early seventies, more colorful patterns started to appear. The outside world brought us the gaudy fowl knitwear and other exotic knitting patterns, but the traditional patterns never went out of fashion.
Today, knitting has got an extra dimension with young Faroese designers. With thorough knowledge of the tradition and the creative human flair for innovation, they have lifted knit art to an even higher level. Faroese knitwear is now exported all over the world, not just as every day clothing, but also as fashion items.
It is also one of the young and promising designers who have made this year's Faroese Christmas seals. Katrin Nørgaard Andreasen is a Faroese jewelry designer who lives and works in Randers, Denmark. She has created a number of designs for plaited Christmas Hearts, based on traditional Faroese knitting patterns. Despite the seemingly complicated patterns, the hearts can easily be plaited from the pictures and hung on the Christmas tree as symbols of ancient tradition, the heartwarming spirit of Christmas and the function of the Christmas seals: to raise funds for children and young people in need of love and care.
Anker Eli Petersen
