Ever since I started knitting I have been fascinated by the traditional Norwegian sweater patterns. I have earlier in my blogs mentioned this and how strongly I connect these to early spring and skiing at easter. I have hand knitted many of these patterns, including this popular "Marius" pattern and made several machine knitted sweaters and jacket as well. I have often used the free patterns from Sandnes garn. Some of these patterns for traditional Norwegian knitting even have patterns for Knittax knitting machines those who don´t can easily be adapted from hand knitting patterns (if you can read Norwegian). The only problem with those old patterns is that the sizes don´t match the sizes we use today. I tend to use my knitting calculator to get the right size while keeping an eye on the original pattern as a guide to how I want the sweater to look. Four years ago I made the "Valdres" jacket for my son and another one for his grandfather who happens to have his mountain lodge in Valdres in Norway.
Some years ago when I made a jacket as a gift I went for the "Marius" pattern. This pattern is inspired by the traditional Setesdal sweater, without the lice. The Setesdal design is the most recognizable Norwegian pattern and has been knitted for generations. The small v-shaped dots are known as the lice pattern, while the crosses were believed to protect from evil spirits. While the traditional sweaters used the natural colors of sheep wool - black, gray, brown and white - Marius sweater designs from around 1950 incorporated colors, with the most common being red, white and blue, the colors of the Norwegian flag - which also are the colors of the Icelandic flag. However, I decided to knit the jacket only in two colors and omit the red and used my own knitting calculator to make the pattern to fit the size that I wanted. There are a lot of models for this sweater I did not want the jacket to be to long so I chose as a guide the size table for a fairly short model with some moderation.
