söndag 13 juli 2014

Never judge a book by its cover

This is an old book that came in a mixed lot at an auction in Dalarna. On the label it says "Inkomster och Utgifter för P A Arosenius", which means "Income and Expenses for P A Arosenius". So it should be all about economics ....
But inside this book there is a treasure of another kind. These texts are all about colours, stitches, colour combinations, patterns etc. Not easy to read or understand but it is clear that this is a private pattern book with instructions and patterns for knitting and weaving.
The book is old and torn but I feel privileged to handle it. Paper was not common at the time and the original owner of this book has crammed every space on the pages with patterns and information. Sometimes only half of the pattern is charted, probably to save space (you just have to mirror it to get the entire chart for the figure). Some of the pages have patterns charted so close to each other that it can be difficult to separate them.
The current owner of this book, Anna-Karin Jobs Arnberg, brought this to class so that we could look in it. A very generous thing to do considering the uniqueness of the book. In the book there are many charts for patterns called "ladders", that are used in the pattern combinations on knitted sleeves from Dala-Floda.

It is quite a special experience to see a chart in the book knitted on a sleeve on a jacket lying next to it.

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