A Norwegian Jumper for Papa

I don't knit for other people very often. I only knit for people if I am absolutely sure that they are "knitworthy", I can find a project that I will enjoy knitting and that I know for sure they will wear it. My mom is very knitworthy, for instance, but then she is a crocheter and knitter herself. My dad had been hinting that he would like a hand knit sweater for a while but because it was hard for me to knit when my CD symptoms reached their peak, I didn't feel like I could handle knitting a grown man's jumper. But when I went home for Christmas my dad asked for a colorwork jumper for his birthday (which is at the end of January). By that time my symptoms had improved significantly so knitting wasn't really an issue for me anymore. I showed him a couple of patterns that fit his description and he chose this Drops pattern called "Nordic Midnight" (which is basically their knock off version of the traditional Norwegian Mariusgenser) and he wanted it in the same colors.



Since my dad does a lot of manual labour (he is a caretaker at a school and also does a lot of gardening and woodwork in his free time) I wanted to use a more "workhorse" type of yarn, so I went with Dorps Lima. I just finished knitting an Arboreal for myself in the same yarn so I already knew it can easily be chucked into the washing machine (an important requirement I think, for a single man in his 60s). And as a bonus I could cast it on straight away since I already knew my gauge. I'm not a huge fan of white-white in yarn but unfortunately the off-white and light beige colors were out of stock so I had to go white instead. (We'll have to wait and see if it will actually stay white, hah.)

This was only the second time I used a Drops pattern and I have to say that I am not a fan of how their patterns are written. Drops likes to do a lot of *Do this then this* AT THE SAME TIME *do this then this* which can get a little confusing. But I appreciate the fact that they are free and are available in over 10 languages, so complaining about the way they are written does seem a bit unfair. For an experienced knitter like me it's not really that much of an issue but I wouldn't recommend them to a beginner.



The only part I had a slight issue with was the sleeves. You knit the sleeves in the round, until just a row or 3 into the colorwork. Then you don't decrease any stitches for the sleeve head. Instead, you simply switch to knitting flat and cast on 1 stitch at each end for the seaming. The vertical opening that you get is then sewn to the armhole decreases of the body. But because I didn't realize this the opening in my sleeve heads ended up being way too long for the armholes and I couldn't set the sleeves in properly. Rather than ripping out all of the colorwork I simply seamed up the opening as much as I needed to to get it to fit in the armholes.

Other than the slight sleeve issue this was a lovely straightforward "brainless" knit. It was exactly the kind of project that I needed at the time, since 80% of the jumper is just simple stockinette, round and round, but then you get that little bit of fun, simple colorwork at the end.



One thing I really want to take a moment to talk about is two-handed stranded colorwork knitting. When I first learned to knit stranded, I immediately taught myself to knit two-handed. It seemed like such a great skill to have and not to mention, a lot quicker than having to constantly drop the yarn and pick up the other color. My tension has always been a little wonky, but I just assumed that it was going to get better over time. After knitting my Arboreal though, I really wasn't very happy with the way my colorwork looked and I finally had to conclude that the tension between my left and my right hand was just too different, no matter how much I tried to get them to be even. So when I knitted this jumper, I knitted everything with just my right hand... and my stranded colorwork has never looked so even! It's rather silly because I feel like I had to overcome a sense of pride to actually make this step. It somehow feels that "all the pro's do it with two hands, so that's the way to go", which of course is rather silly. Seeing Eli (Skeindeer knits) and Arne and Carlos talk about this in their podcasts did help to ease my slight sense of failure. So knitting colorwork with one hand is now the way to go for me. It might be a little slower, but my knitting just looks so much better that it is worth it for me. I am learning to tension both yarns over my index finger at the same time to make it a little faster but I'm not great at that yet. And in the end, it's not a competition, now is it?




My dad hasn't seen the jumper yet because sending it over was a little pricey so I'm taking it with me when I go home later this summer.. But I have no doubt that he'll love it!

Pattern: 0-809 Nordic Midnight by Drops Design
Yarn: Drops Lima in Navy blue (9016), White (1101), Light brown (5310)