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Tasha Could Make That

Tasha Could Make That

Vintage knitting, sewing, and a lifetime of craftiness

Princess Harald stranded pullover

March 21, 2017 by Tasha 24 Comments

Today I’m happy to share with you a pullover that I finished… I have no idea when. January? Maybe. Long enough ago to get to enjoy wearing it this winter, I can tell you that that much. So I realized I’d better show it to you quickly since the first day of spring has officially passed (woo hoo!).

(Shown here with my Western-inspired Ginger jeans)

I started it way back in October. In fact, it was vacation knitting. Mel and I went up to northern Wisconsin mid-October and this was my project. I got nearly the entire body finished and a sleeve started in the five or so days we were there. That should tell you something about the lovely level of relaxation that was involved! Also, many hours as a passenger in the car. 🙂

I designed the sweater to roughly emulate the look of an iconic Norwegian sweater that little Prince Harald of Norway wore in 1940 when the royal family fled the Nazis. How very poignant of a sweater to knit this fall and winter. I’ll leave it at that.

If you’d like to knit the children’s version, there’s two patterns on Ravelry by different designers: one in English (“King’s Sweater”), one in Norwegian (“Prins Haralds genser”). If you speak Norwegian (I don’t) or run it through Google Translate, you can read designer Nina Granlund Sæther’s blog post about her pattern and the inspiration, with some photos of the original sweater. I used the same yarn as the King’s Sweater pattern, Rauma Strikkegarn, a delightful wooly DK-weight Norwegian yarn that I fell in love with while working on this project.

Speaking of Ravelry, here’s my project page with some more notes and progress snapshots. My version of the sweater takes the same general idea at the prince’s sweater, and gives it a little twist. The end result is a long-line women’s cardigan with waist shaping and a matching belt. I’m calling it my Princess Harald pullover. 😉

In fact, the waist shaping is one of my favorite parts of this sweater, it looks so nice! Waist shaping in colorwork takes a bit of thought to get it to look nice. The way I worked it was I used a center stitch that I kept in red, and then I worked paired increases and decreases in the next stitch on either side of the red ‘seam’ stitch.

For reference, the very best way I’ve found to work paired increases in colorwork is to work a YO in the color indicated on your chart (wrapping in opposite directions on either side of the stitch to get the new stitches mirrored), then on the next row twist that stitch by knitting into the opposite side so you don’t make a hole (so if you did a front to back YO, knit into the back leg of the stitch). A much more in depth look at that technique is in this old blog post by Eunny Jang.

Here’s what that looked like in progress, very tidy and aesthetically pleasing (well to me, anyway):

I wanted to do a dropped shoulder for this pattern, a very traditional Scandinavian sleeve. In theory this means you can knit the sleeve down from the armhole and there’s no shaping except under the arm (no sleeve cap), but I could tell that the direction of the Vs in the block next to the squares (the one that looks like the 5 on a die) would really bother me if they faced upside down, so I knit the sleeves flat and set them in.

The thing about drop shoulders is they’re usually meant for pretty boxy bodies. There are a few knitting patterns out there that feature fitted bodies and dropped shoulders like Ebba so I thought I’d give it a try, but when I first tried it on, I felt it was pretty uncomfortable under the armpits. But a nice, aggressive wet blocking helped that.

Here’s a weird photo just to show the shaping on the sleeve, done in the same way as the waist shaping:

I’m very pleased with the fit overall, especially the sleeves, because gah, stranded sleeves that are too tight are the worst. (Trust me, I’ve done it, I know.)

I knit the body in the round and used steeks for the armholes and neckline, a bridge of stitches which you cut later to open up the holes so you don’t have to knit those sections flat. Here’s a photo right before I opened up the neck steeks in the car on the way home, looking down at the top of the (already seamed) shoulders. I admit, even knowing how to setup and do this technique, there’s still an element of trust when you look at something like this all scrunched up looking crazy!

The other interesting elements are the neckline and belt. I knit the neckline in 1×1 ribbing twice as long as I wanted, and folded it in and seamed it shut, to make a nice squishy band. I wanted kind of a funnel neck in a nod to late 50s and early 60s ski sweaters, and I like the result a lot.

And then there’s the belt. I really hate knitting ribbing but decided the best looking result would be ribbing, so I sucked it up. It’s just 1×1 ribbing the length I wanted, slipping the first stitch of each row for a nice clean edge, and finished off with a vintage buckle from my stash.

I think you can probably tell I’m pretty happy with this sweater, huh? It really was a joy to knit. A very repetitive but easy stranded allover pattern, in yarn I loved working with. And it came out exactly how I was envisioning in my head. Can’t beat it when that happens with a project!

But I admit—I’m also super happy that I get to put this away until next winter now! 😉

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Filed Under: Knitting, Vintage Wardrobe Tagged With: steeks, stranded knitting, sweaters

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cindy says

    March 21, 2017 at 2:43 pm

    I bow to your amazing knitting skills! I still think that you have a team of elves cranking out these projects or 36 hours in a day.

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:30 am

      Ha ha! I know someone who I always used to say that about, that she must have had 36 hours in a day. I assure you I am a mere mortal however. I did finish this a good while ago too! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Reggi Victoria says

    March 21, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    Absolutely gorgeous! You’re so talented!!

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:28 am

      Thank you! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Amanda says

    March 21, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    GORGEOUS! And inspiring me to pull out my knitting again. I’ve been on a years-long hiatus, having little free time and having to choose between leisure activities. I’m in vacation planning mode for a quiet retreat in October, and your vacation pictures are just what I’m looking for! (Though I’ll be on the central California coast.)

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:28 am

      Thanks! Your retreat sounds like the perfect time for a good, enjoyable project. Dust off those needles! 😀

      Reply
  4. Jeannie says

    March 21, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    Beautiful pullover!!!

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:27 am

      Thank you!

      Reply
  5. Black Tulip says

    March 21, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    Gorgeous! I know nothing about knitting, but I’m super-impressed by the way you shaped the waist and kept the pattern looking so good.

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:27 am

      Thanks so much!

      Reply
  6. Kate says

    March 21, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    You cut the steeks in a moving car? Now that’s extreme knitting. I’m scared enough of steeks when I’m sitting on the couch.

    I love this pullover so much, and it looks amazing with your red hair!

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:27 am

      Ha ha! Well they were small steeks. And thank you!

      Reply
  7. raquel from JC says

    March 22, 2017 at 6:26 am

    It looks machine knitted! The tension is perfect and the decrease line is amazing! I only knit socks, sweaters and pullovers are too much for me.

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:26 am

      Thanks! Socks are a great thing to knit. I always like them when I’m feeling really stressed out because of the tiny tiny stitches. 🙂

      Reply
  8. Nina says

    March 22, 2017 at 6:55 am

    So many questions and comments.
    1. Love funnel neck.
    2. Fantastic tension. So even.
    3. How do you do a jogless in the round pattern? Are you hiding the jog in the side ” seam”? I have not found satisfactory technique for this.

    Reply
    • Tasha says

      March 22, 2017 at 8:25 am

      Thank you! It’s not technically jogless but the red seam stitch effectively hides any jog, really! If you examine both sides, you can’t tell which one was the beginning of row and which wasn’t.

      But honestly jogs in stranded knitting do not bother me in the slightest… I don’t think you tend to ever really see them in traditional knitting cultures and that’s good enough for me. 😉

      Reply
      • Nina says

        March 22, 2017 at 5:39 pm

        This is an interesting perspective. I have to go back and finish my EZ yoke sweater. Just in time for spring, ha ha.

        I’ve been leaving it aside because I was not happy with my attempts at jogless knitting (from some YouTube videos). Not to mention needing to do some calculations to make the yoke pattern work with my gauge. I was beginning to think I’d be better off leaving the jogs, and you have persuaded me!

        Reply
  9. Donnalee says

    March 22, 2017 at 11:31 am

    That looks great–and like it involved tons of expert work done well–and it is touching that it is a poignant tribute as well. Don’t worry–the good folks and good knitters and good sweaters will prevail!

    Reply
  10. Marie Roche says

    March 22, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    Absolutely stunning sweater. Your design is very inspiring!

    Reply
  11. Carla says

    March 22, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    Tasha, you’re killing me with how gorgeous this knit turned out! I’m still so nervous about steeks. I know I’m going to get over my fear eventually.
    And I just showed this to my grandma, she thought you bought it; ‘it’s so intricate! She knit it herself?! Beautiful job!’

    Reply
  12. Cherie says

    March 22, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    Your sweater is gorgeous! Love your hairdo also, lovely waves!

    Reply
  13. Natasha says

    April 3, 2017 at 10:28 am

    This looks amazing!

    Reply
  14. Kate-Em says

    April 7, 2017 at 2:33 pm

    Just amazing! That is one lovely jumper.

    Reply
  15. Lita says

    January 3, 2018 at 2:42 pm

    This is absolutely amazing 🙂 I don’t know how to knit, but I want to learn, so I could make something like this!

    Reply

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