Knitting traditions in Dalecarlia

Sätergläntan

I am back after five very intense days studying local traditions in twined knitting in Dalecarlia. Karin Kahnlund was, as always, a very inspiring teacher and Sätergläntan always offers nice companions, good food and quiet surroundings.

We studied traditions from Rättvik, Floda, Gagnef, Mora and Leksand. As always I get so impressed when I get a chance to study knitted items from the 19th century. The skill of the spinners and knitters is simply amazing. The yarn the used is so thin, most of the mittens that we saw had a stitch count of 50-60 stitches per 10 cm (12½-15 stitches/inch). The patterns are beautiful and there seems to have been no restrictions to the time spent knitting a pair of mittens or socks. It is also amazing how different the traditions are even if they were developed next to each other. In Leksand there are beautiful white mittens with very few patterns and not many colours. In Rättvik there are bold patterns that sometimes has four to five colours in a row.

The different kind of patterns also represents different kind of technical solutions in twined knitting. This was most interesting since we saw different solutions on how to knit twined knitting with two or three colours depending on where the items were knitted and how the patterns were constructed. I know that there sometimes are quite intense discussions on what "the proper" way of knitting twined knitting with two or three colours is. After this week I have learnt that the answer most like likely will depend on where the pattern you knit originated from, that is if you are knitting "traditional" pieces. If you are knitting "modern" designs it will be a matter of what you judge as the best solution regarding the result you aim for.

Sampler: 2 patterns from Rättvik

The pattern at the top of the sampler is a pattern knitted with one strand of red and one strand of white yarn (both wool).
The bottom pattern is knitted with one strand of red yarn (wool) and a thin white thread (flax, a yarn most often used for fine lace-making).

Sampler: 3 patterns from Floda and Gagnef

This sampler was knitted in white and black, one strand of each. When finished is was dyed red. The three motives also represent different techniques in knitting twined knitting with two colours.

Sampler: 3 patterns from Floda and Gagnef, dyed red