Whose is the knitting heritage?

Who has the right to use our traditional patterns? Is it the yarn industry, or is it our common heritage that we can all use?

One of our talented Norwegian designers had to settle with a large yarn company that demanded exclusive rights to over 100 years old knitting patterns. Me and some other indie designers are making patterns in solidarity with her, offering new patterns that are inspired by traditional Norwegian patterns.

My contribution is the hat Marjusmonster. It has now been translated to English, so feel free to dowload it from Ravelry. 

The hat is worked in Rauma Mitu, in red, white and blue. I needed a little more than one skein of the blue colour, so if you work the striped garter stitch brim in only red and white, you can perhaps do with only one skein of each color. You don’t need more than about 25-30 g of the red and white.

The pattern is not test knitted, so if you encounter anything strange, please tell me.

✿22✿ Ginger bread house - I mean, motor home ✿

This year's ginger bread house is an RV, 

or motor home, as we learnt it's called. 

Here you can see the house from last year, 

and here some earlier houses.

♥ 13 ♥ "Lussekatter" ♥

I had a day off yesterday, and was able to make these. 

Hope they will be good for lunch today :-)

Not a very original post - 

here's what I wrote last year.

But what is Christmas about, if not traditions?

♥ 22 ♥ The King's Ginger bread recipe

I don't know if the king makes ginger bread cookies,

but my mother's old ginger bread recipe is called

The King's Ginger Bread

My mother has written a warning -

"these are the good cookies,

but the house falls down if you put a chimney on top of it"

As you see, this house from 2003 has no chimney.

Later I became more adventourous,

this is the church from 2004.

Here's a castle from 2005,

inspired by Harry Potter.

Last year we made a wind mill.

Photo is taken before the wings broke.

So probably my mother had a point about the chimney note.

Remember today is your last chance to join the

Ginger Bread Give Away!!

Tomorrow I hope I can show you the 2011 Ginger bread house!

♥ 13 ♥ "Lussekatter"

Today we celebrate St. Lucia. It's more a Swedish tradition than a Norwegian one, but we happily adopt nice traditions, especially the "Lussekatter". I use a recipe I found many years ago. If you search the net, the recipe is offered on many places.

I'm not sure if this is real saffron, but it is yellow, at least.

A fellow Norwegian knitting blogger, originally from Sweden, posted about Lucia celebration this morning. I hope you had a nice day even if it's not the same as in Sweden, Wenche!

King Håkon gloves 1940

Votter med Håkon 7. , a photo by Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway) on Flickr.

I have a new contact on Flickr, Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway). They show lots of interesting, old photos. Today these gloves popped up on my screen. Aren't they amazing?

(For non-norwegian readers: "Alt for Norge" is the king's motto, meaning "All for Norway". The king was Håkon the 7th, hence the monogram, and April 9 was the day Norway was invaded in 1940.)

Via Flickr:
Beskivelse: Foto i konvolutt fra NTBs krigsarkiv, konvolutten merket med teksten: ”Overalt i Norge kan man finne V-tegn, H7-tegn eller Leve Kongen. De finnes på alle plasser, så det er ikke vanskelig å skjønne hvor nordmennenes hjerter er.”

Arkivreferanse: Riskarkivet, PA-1209_Ue110_002, NTBs krigsarkiv, Ue 110.

Constitution Day Paparazzi

Lillehammer May 17th 2011, a photo by Torirot on Flickr.

17th of May is celebrated every year in Norway, and if you have a "bunad", you wear it today. There are many beautiful bunads, and here are some of the ones I saw in town today.

Mystery cardigan

I just saw Annepålandet's blog this morning. She's showing a photo of an old cardigan that was bought as a present for her grandmother more than 60 years ago. She has no inherited it from her mother. And she wonders if anybody recognises the pattern.

The cardigan is very pretty, and I just thought I'd seen it before.
And I have. A cardigan with the same pattern is beeing used in children's TV in NRK (Norwegian Television).
I fell for the pattern and the colours, and I tried to photograph it on the telly, but got lousy photos, of course.
So I sent an e-mail to NRK, and had almost forgotten about it,
when the nice woman who is wearing this cardigan sent me these two photos.

She tells me the yellow cuff has been added later. And that the cardigan is part of NRK's costumes. But it looks like it must be exactly the same pattern as Anne's grandmother's cardigan. But I don't have an answer to Anne's question about the pattern. Maybe somebody can help? I especially like the stars.

If things go as smoothly as in the last mystery, we have the answer within ten minutes...

Have a nice Sunday, everyone!

Mystery mitten from Norway - not a mystery any longer!

My blogging friend Mary Lou has seen this mitten from Norway, and wonders if I know the pattern.
I remember having seen a pair of mittens like these, I just don't remember where.
Does anybody recognise the pattern?

Edited: No mystery - after 10 minutes I had the answer from Monstermønster: It's a pattern from the Museum's crafters at "Norsk Folkemuseum", you can see their mitten here. I've sent them an e-mail and asked if the pattern is available in English.

Constitution day

Nearly 200 years ago, the Norwegian constitution was signed on the 17th of May. The day is celebrated every year with children's parades. If you have a traditional costume, a so called bunad , you wear it on this day. Every district has its own bunad. Mine is from Gudbrandsdalen, where I live, but that is just a coincidence, really: My grandmother grew up in Oslo, but her family came from Vestfold. She didn't like the Vestfold bunad. And Oslo had no bunad of its own, the bunads beeing a rural tradition. She then chose to make herself a bunad from Gudbrandsdalen. And my parents chose to move here when I was little - and I was lucky to inherit this beautiful heirloom:

I would never have the pacience, or the skill, to embroider something like this. As I told you before, my grandmother was a very skilled crafter.