The Ritual Master I’ve already mentioned my fascination for the sustainable daily gestures that accompany life in Scandinavian countries. And one that I particularly enjoy is knitting. Northern countries are famous for their love of natural warm fibers, and their patterns are simply irresistible. From the rustic wool of Iceland, to the delicate snowflakes of Norwegian patterns, I’ve always been fascinated with multicolored knitting, and honestly a little intimidated by it. So my Scandinavian Advent Calendar has been the incentive to try and decipher a northern knitting chart.
This is an endeavour that absolutely needs a proper guide, and I chose a book (big shock) for my first time attempt. I’m usually a YouTube tutorial gal, but it turns out that for this type of project, there aren’t that many videos available. So we’re going old school, back to books.
I’m usually a self-taught creator, so following instructions and keeping count is not my strong suit. But even I have to admit that every once in a while it’s nice to challenge myself to something new.
I’ve grown up in a culture of knitters, every woman in my family knew how to make everything from socks and hats to sweaters and even pants. Seeing this all the time, it didn’t seem all that special, more like a functional activity. It wasn’t until later that I discovered the pleasure of knitting. And then, it came back in fashion. Nowadays you see people knitting in the subway, women and men alike, magazine articles talk about the trends of knitting, the spotlight is back on the needles and yarn. What I find particularly interesting are the medical conclusions : knitting has been proven to lower blood pressure, improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression, help in the management of chronic pain by means of distracting our attention. So it’s more than just a trend. Our grandmothers (and the Scandinavian grandmothers) knew that in doing something useful they were also practicing self-care.
For me, knitting equals listening to audio-books. And this time, I’m relaxing with Helen Russel’s memoir, The Year of Living Danishly. She is a British writer that moved to a small town in Denmark, along with her husband, and documented their first year of adapting to a Scandinavian culture in this funny and honest confession. I’ve loved listening to it, and I’m glad I also have the paper version so I can get back to parts of it and mostly to each month’s wisdom paragraph at the end. A Scandinavian themed non fiction I recommend !
As for my pattern, I’m still working on it, so there’s no great reveal in my video. If you keep up with me on Instagram you’ll probably see it in January.
Until tomorrow, happy knitting !
