Kvindetrøje fra Fyn - 1775 - Woman´s Pullover from Funen

I have been looking forward to showing you this gorgeous pullover by Åse Lund Jensen and telling you the story about it.
The pattern is from 1970 bought as a kit at Frilandsmuseet, an open air museum, by a Danish woman, who knit the pullover it as part of her Danish national costume. She emigrated in the 1950ies to Canada, bringing her 7-year-old daughter with her. This daughter is now a Canadian, and also a raveller and thanks to Ravelry, we have come across.
Knowing my interest in historic knitting, she offered me the Nattrøje pattern and I was really thrilled. The yarn brand ÅLJ is still available in a knitting store in my town, so I just followed the pattern exactly as written. It was an easy knit. I just had to hit the gauge, for me it was on needle size 2½ mm,
The original color was red, however this color is discontinued and I chose an anthracite gray.

The construction is based on a Nattrøje from 1775 from the Danish National Museum.
For more than 150 years this woolen pullover was a part of the clothes worn daily by Danish rural women.Over a linen shirt, under a waistcoat. Knit in wool by professionals they were an imitation of the nobles´silk shirts.
Fashion changed and gradually from 1850 it became a full dress, a national costume, worn Sundays and for celebrations.
Nowadays the costume is worn by people who is interested in maintaining old Danish folk dance.

The knit designer Åse Lund Jensen was trained as a dressmaker in Haute Couture ,which is obvious looking at this tailored piece.

Åse Lund Jensen died in 1977 only 57 years old. She had met Marianne Isager, a talented young knit designer in 1973 and left her all her works and Marianne continued her work of making knitting an art form.
Many of Marianne Isager´s designs are based on Åse Lund Jensens work. This model, 77, is built on the same 1775 model and can easily be added some of the Nattrøje patterns.(Only in Danish)

My pattern is personal. However, there are several options if you want to knit an old Danish Nattrøje.

 

Uuve Snidare: Fiskertrøjer og andre klassiske trøjer. Her book is available in Swedish, Danish, and German. Search the library.

 Vibeke Lind :Strik med nordisk tradition Danish and English, also library stuff.

Why these two books are not republished is a mystery to me.

And of course Beth Reinsel- Brown´s Nattrøje sweater from Interweave Press

"Bette Mand i Knibe" means Small Man in Trouble.

 If you have 1½ minutes to spare, look at this dance. For me it looks like knitting and weaving. Can you also see the purls?

Danish??

Why did men from Spain to Sweden start to shave their heads and wear someone else’s hair in the mid-seventeenth century? Why did women decide that it was necessary to wear masks and other full-face coverings in public towards the end of the century? What was the economic and social impact of the sudden [...]

I am really looking forward to following this project:

Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800
-and was very pleased when I found out that knitting is the Danish contribution to the research. While digging out for the Copenhagen Metro, archaeologists have come up with so many interesting knitting textiles.
And here is a  treat for you: Museumstekstiler.dk has copied a felt hat, you can even dye the yarn yourself.
Living in this small, old country it is always interesting to discuss what is actually a Danish Knitting Special. Not much. Perhaps nothing or maybe this :

The star lozenge pattern of some of the knitwear is typically Danish and has had a wide chronological spread. 
Originally the pullovers or only the sleeves were knitted with very thin needles, after that the knitting were dyed and felt. Perhaps it was done like that to make it look like a more expensive cloth. Like if you could not afford expensive pieces of lace trimmings, you could knit insertions.

I have worked a copy of a woman´s sweater from 1775. It is finished and it is gorgeous. I will try to make some fine photos and post about it later. It has a great story.
A fine project for the last days has been these arm warmers. From Sarah, Blue Garter.

Choosing the check and the stripes I wanted to give the mitts a Northern look. I was in an indicisive mood. I enjoy the way the fair isle pattern hugs the wrists. I definitely recommend this free pattern.

Pippi

Lately I have been reading a lot about how children and women were liberated from the Victorian corset. I was inspired by the pattern, Corsage, I knit while watching Edwardian Farm on YouTube. I loved the part when Ruth Goodman takes a bicycle ride. Freedom, she cryes.
It reminded me of the Liberty Bodices, invented 1908 in Leicestershire by Mr Fred Cox. He was inspired by Lewis Tomalin who came up with the concept for Jaeger after reading the work of Dr Gustav Jaeger, a professor of zoology and physiology, who pioneered the benefits of wool in clothing. Tomalin was the one who translated the doctor's work Health Culture (London, 1907) into English
I found some photos of home made Danish "Livstykker".

The reason why children had to wear those was to keep their stockings on. They were often buttoned at the back and it had buttons sewn on the vest and the stockings. An elastic garter was connected to each button and kept the stockings from concertina.

In Danish the word "Livstykke" also means a person who is an extraordinary lively and generous person. A character like this is Pippi Långstrump, created by Astrid Lindgren
Here is a description of Pippi`s appearance.

Her hair, the color of a carrot was braided in two tight braids that stuck straight out. Her nose was the shape of a very small potato and was dotted all over with freckles. It must be admitted that the mouth under this nose was a very wide one, with strong white teeth. Her dress was rather unusual. Pippi herself had made it. She had meant it to be blue but there wasn´t quite enough blue cloth, so Pippi had sewed little red pieces on it here and there. On her long thin legs she wore a pair of long stockings, one brown and the other black, and she had on a pair of black shoes that were exactly twice as long as her feet.

And this is what happens at her first day at school:  

Pippi then lies down on top of the teacher's desk, one leg flung into the air, casually displaying her garters, mismatched stockings, and over sized shoes for all to see.

The first book was published in 1946 and I have read that the character was based of Anne of Green Gables. That book was published in 1908.
Here is the finished bodice. I will wear it as a vest under a jacket.

frostproof

 I was trained as a teacher and one of my senior lecturers, a linguistic genius, used to point out that a language lesson should imply both accuracy work and fluency work. That goes for knitting, too.

Accuracy work this week has been finishing the chemise, I started just after Christmas using my gift from Sophia. I wanted a pattern worked top down so that I could knit peacefully, in a meditative state of mind without bothering if I was running out of yarn. Here is what is left, wound up on a flint stone from my beach.

The pattern is here and in English here. It is called Corsage, and is an adaption of a historic piece of vest, or undershirt almost every Danish man and woman over 70 years, wore when they were kids. The vest was invented in 1908 and was a replacement for the corset and considered to be healthier for the children.The Danish word for this is "Livstykke", The German word is Leibchen, the English word is liberty bodice and the American ditto is emancipation waist.
My vest is now lying flat and drying. I will post a photo later.

The buttons for the vest are vintage linen buttons. I found them at a thrift shop, a fantastic place for all vintage stuff for needlework. I promised the volunteers there, to show and tell and here is their address. . If you visit Aarhus, please pay them a visit.

 

Fluency work is the Saroyan Scarf, a great pattern from Feministy. I had in my stash 4 skeins of Easy from Sandness. I bought it to work a pair of warm beanies for my boys, adult sons, but they both told me that it was a girl´s colour?? Now I hope to squeeze a 130 cm scarf out of it for their (female)cousin. I guess it will call for a good blocking.