May 18, 2003
Discovering Norwegian Lace
Back in April of 2001, I ordered two knitted lace books from a wonderful Norwegian source, Pinnsvin Design. These books are by Ragnhild Falch Ervik, and she has published five books on lace knitting. The first two volumes are available as a double book, Kunststrikk Dobbeltbok. The third volume is out of print, but slated to be re-published in a double volume with #4. #5 is entitled Kunststrikk med nye mønstre. There could easily be other volumes, but these are the ones I know about.
I found these books very intriguing, but all the knitting instructions are written out, not charted, and that initially felt like a huge hurdle to me. But when I knit “Not Just Plain Jane's” Renaissance Shawl (see my webpage), I realized that I really didn't mind knitting from written instructions. From that realization it wasn't a huge leap to see that I could as easily follow a line that read “11.omg: 8r, I, 3r, I” as “Round 11: K8, YO, K3, YO” (These are equivalent instructions in Norwegian and English).
The books provide basic translations: r = knit, I = yarn forward (or yarn over), g = K2tog, a = Sl 1, k1, psso (or SSK), and I think a person familiar with knitting doilies could knit most of the circular patterns with only minimal further translations.
But I wanted to knit some of the oval doilies, and those are a bit more complex. I posted to the Knitted-Lace list about this, and got a number of helpful suggestions, including offers from two Norwegian lace knitters to help with translations. I was thrilled, and many emails went skating back and forth to Mona in Norway and Kari in Australia. With their generous help I was able to put together an initial page on Norwegian Lace Translations.
Armed with these terms, my books, Margaret Heathman's excellent Knitting Languages, and plenty of note paper, I set out to figure out individual patterns. I had a good laugh at my work surface once I got going, so I include a photo:
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I requested some additional translations for specific patterns from Mona, and decided that my first doily would be “Magnhilds løper” from the fifth volume from Ragnhild Falch Ervik. More on that in the next entry.
Dear Shelda,
Just visited your new site. I liked it very much. I am new to lace knitting so any help I can get is of great value to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one that hesitates to buy any books in a foreign language because it's next to impossible to get translations. There are books and web sites with language translations but none of them know anything about special words used in knitting, lace making, etc. But when people like you take the time and effort to provide us with interpretations like you have for Norwegian, then we are more likely to purchase books in that language. Thank You very much.
Patsy
Posted by: Patsy A. Goodman at May 18, 2003 03:40 PM