Mon Étui: Nordic Winter Pullover

Nordic winter designs are unique. It is impressive how a snowflake could be drawn in so many different ways. I guess Scandinavian culture is quite connected with the structure and purity of a snowflake, since they exist in every story tale of theirs and in every decoration - modern and vintage.

When I was a child, I loved the fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderesen. I still do, but I feel them again with the heart of the young me, the child me. The world of Mr. Anderson had become a reality for the time I was reading the stories. Very sad and heart breaking at times, there were few, that helped me become a better sister, friend and grew into a crafty woman with settled but vivid imagination.

There are two fairy-tails that stand out for me the most - "The Wild Swans" and "The Little Match- Seller".

In the world of Andersen, it snows a lot - most of the stories take place in winter. I like the world of winter - it is so clean and pure white. There is something warm in the description of the winter coldness. I guess, the Nordic countries really love the season - images of snowflakes are present in everything - from the house decors, to the embroidered designs on their clothing and decorative cooking. For the music and dances they inherited from ancestors, elements of snow-flakes were carved even on their wooden musical instruments.

The Nordic patterns on pullovers have always amazed me - I love the created contrast and the details to the tiniest beam of a snowflake. I haven't dared to try knitting a pattern until recently, when I decided that maybe a little design of my own will make a successful start to my longly dreamt upon drawn on sweaters crystals of winter.

The first accumulated snow of this winter inspired me for these images. It was peaceful and beautiful to look out the window and crisp and cold to carry the camera :) but so worth it.

I used fine wool yarn and thin knitting needles, so it was a lot of knitting on this pullover.

I like wide elastics on the sleeves. Every time I knit the elastic bands, I try to suppress my eagerness to start on the design and to see how it would look like. Since this was my first attempt on a simple Nordic, I have designed the scalloped edge above the elastic so I can finally start having some taste of the contrast between the snow-white and the crimson. Here is a sharp look of the other sleeve:

Oh, glorious sleeves, they have less knits in a row and my work seemed to go so much faster :)

I will not go in details of how difficult I managed the plain part of the sweater up until next scalloped line and finally ... to see my design growing. Changing the yarn from white to red and white to red again, could be frustrating at times, especially with the wool I used, but when the pattern was half-way done, it looked like it is going to be a rewarding experience at the end.

I have designed the top part to look like a snow falling. It looks so elegant, that when I was hesitant on how to finish the neck line, it did not took too long before I knitted it as similarly as the rest of the top part of the pullover: