Helmer: So you knit?
Mrs. Linde: Of course.
Helmer: Do you know, you ought to embroider?
Mrs. Linde: Really? Why?
Helmer: Yes, it’s far more becoming. Let me show you. You hold the embroidery thus in your left hand, and use the needle with the right – like this – with a long, easy sweep. Do you see?
Mrs. Linde: Yes, perhaps –
Helmer: But in the case of knitting – that can never be anything but ungraceful; look here; the arms close together, the knitting needles going up and down – it sort of has a Chinese effect.
This dialogue is taken from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House from 1879 and shows very clearly how knitting was not well thought of in finer circles. Although you can find beautiful thin knitted lace from this time period, knitting was first of all seen as a technique for the working class. The technique was used to make garments such as hosiery, socks, sweaters, hats and mittens.
Knitting is known of in Norway from around 1500. Lisbet Pedersdatter is the first knitter we hear about. She was accused of witchcraft and put in jail in Stavanger in 1634. According to the court records, Lisbet had earned a living by knitting stockings for another woman.
In the 1600s there were many working class girls who were trained in practical skills in addition to learning to read in the Catechism. But it was not until the 1700s that the technique really became popular.
From the mid 1800s until the 1970s pretty much every woman in Norway was a knitter. Many have struggled with tight stitches and greasy fingers, but because knitting was a necessity to clothe the family, most women gained great expertise in the subject.
Until the mid 1850s, they pretty much only knitted in one colour. Pattern was primarily created using k and p interchangeably. From Selbu, we know that Marit Gulsetbua, later Emstad, knitted in two colours in the summer of 1857. Then she made a pair of patterned mittens while she was in the mountains with the sheep. She used two different yarns in the work and the subject was a rose. It is said that the mittens were given to Jo Kjøsnes who liked them very much. When Marit and her sisters showed up to church with two-coloured mittens the winter after, they attracted a lot of attention.
The technique of using two different threads was adopted elsewhere in the country about the same time, perhaps even earlier in Rogaland and Hordaland. From the Faroe Islands, the technique is know all the way back to the 1700s. The technique presented the opportunity to make warmer and thicker garments, but also the possibility of decorative patterns. The mittens, socks, hats, and jerseys that were plain before all became decorated in assorted patterns. Different parts of the country had special characteristics. We know the difference between a fana jumper and a setesdal sweater, and most know the term selbu-pattern. Selbu-knit is still used as a term for black and white patterned knitting abroad.