You know when I made that post about feeling at my most confident when I’m wearing black? Well, I should have mentioned that I also feel confident – extremely so – when I’m wearing a Lusekofte AKA a traditional Norwegian sweater. I also feel inspired, passionate and deeply connected to winter, the North and the land I’ll one day call home. My usual trepidation about wearing colours such as light blue and white vanishes when there’s a Lusekofte to hand.
While I’ve never really been enthusiastic about learning to make my own – I was never very good at knitting in school – thrifted Nordic knitted sweaters (including the Icelandic Lopapeysa) have been wardrobe essentials of mine for the past twelve or so years.
Every item in my wardrobe has a magick about it, but some items are more magickal than others, especially with regards to the way they make me feel when I put them on – my leather jacket, my battle vest and my Nordic sweaters are the items that immediately come to mind.
Simply looking at the Lusekofte I’m wearing for this post (I’m wearing it as I write this…) brings about feelings of connectivity, love and hope. I also find myself wondering about the person who hand knitted it. How old were they when they made it? How long did it take them? From where did they get the wool? Why did they decide to use blues and white? Who taught them how to knit? What time of year was it when they knitted it? I’ll never know. But I guess that’s all part of the magick.
Despite my passion for Nordic knits, my knowledge of the Lusekofte is a bit vague. (Though I do know that, in Norway, knitting used to be something the whole family would be involved with. The parents would take over from the children when it came to the complicated parts of patterns.) I’m trying to amend that now though, and I hope that the next time I write to you about Nordic sweaters, I’ll have a much broader insight.
P.S. If you’re interested, there’s a really excellent article here about Annemor Sundbø, a key figure in the Nordic knitting world.
What I Was Listening To While Writing This Post
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 
Great sweater but it was a bit of a jolt to see your face scratched out like that – like the intro to a Norwegian take on Se7en!
😀 Thank you! I had to Google Se7en! x
The sweater looks comfy and inspiring. It seems to me clearly something of the north. I don’t know if they’re made for genders or they’re unisex, and I suppose that doesn’t matter except for tradition. The fabric designs are comely, and the clasps are impressive.
I love the clasps so much! 😀 And it is extremely comfy to wear. A few of mine were made to be worn by a man, but I don’t mind, I wear them anyway! I see them as most definitely unisex.