Two-Color Norwegian Gloves

Looking to create a gift for someone special? Check out Nancy Bush’s article and companion project on the Two-Color Knitting of Norway. Current PieceWork magazine subscribers can log in and visit the library link below to access the pattern.

Two-Color Knitting of Norway

The earliest knitting discovered in Norway is a fragment found in Bergen during excavation for a building. Probably buried sometime between 1476 and 1525, it is of wool yarn in stockinette stitch and seems to have been fulled. Because traders and travelers have always visited Bergen, the fragment may have originated in any of several countries in Europe where knitting was known, including Spain, France, and Germany.

Account books do not mention knitting in Norway until 1566, when an inventory made in Bergen County refers to a pair of worn knitted stockings, possibly made on the Faroe Islands. They were confiscated from a man in jail in Bergen.