Our daughter has a green soul. She is an ecologist with a special interest in herbs. Small wonder that she has chosen a pullover made of all natural materials in a shade called sage, after the herb about which an old proverb says, ‘Eat sage in May and you’ll live for aye’. Well, there is enough in our garden to eat sage every day of the year.
The yarn combo for her pullover consists of one thread of animal fibres for softness and warmth (Isager Alpaca 2, 50% merino wool/50% alpaca), and one thread of plant fibres for strength (Isager Trio 1, 50% linen/30% cotton/20% lyocell). Together they make a lovely marled, open and drapey fabric.
The pattern by Danish designer Annette Danielsen is called Lillebaelt. The knit-and-purl motifs at the tops of front, back and sleeves were inspired by Lillebaeltsbroen, the bridge over the Little Belt strait in Denmark, between Jutland and Funen.
(The part of our daughter’s garden where we’ve taken the photographs is being transformed into a herb-and-fruit patch. In a couple of years the now bare fence will hopefully be hidden behind an apple tree, grapes, climbers and berry shrubs.)
I struggled with the sets of double decreases next to each other on the shoulders, getting a gaping ladder between them.
After trying out all kinds of other decreases first, I’ve finally decided to seam the shoulders on the inside with mattress stitch. A simple but adequate solution.
The shape of the shoulders looks strange but fits really well.
The pullover has nice side vents, and the back is a little longer than the front.
Apart from the shoulder issue, I think this is a great, well thought-out pattern. And a fairly quick knit, too. I knit it in a little over a month, only working on it in the evenings for an hour or two max, and a little more during weekends.
The Lillebaelt pattern is from Annette Danielsen’s book Fynsk Forår (Spring in Funen). It has beautiful photos of the places, art and architecture in the island of Funen that inspired the designs. I think it’s absolutely wonderful how Danielsen translates for instance a seascape by Johannes Larsen…
…into a pullover with a wave pattern she calls Fynsmalerne.
Annette Danielsen has written some 50 knitting books (in Danish) and quite a few of them have been translated into German. As far as I know they are not available in English, but that isn’t necessarily an insurmountable problem. As a knitter, you’ll probably recognize the knitting terms and otherwise they can always be looked up. Danielsen can be found here on Ravelry, but not nearly all of her designs. Her website can be found here. Lillebaelt wasn’t on Ravelry yet, but I’ve added it to the database and you can find it here.
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading, don’t forget to eat plenty of sage in May, and ‘til next time!
Ha, I never knew that Funen is the English name for Fyn! Thank you for teaching me this.
Sage is called salvia in Swedish and an older name is saliveja. It rhymes with akvileja (columbine) in the refrain of the probably most famous Swedish folk song Uti vår hage (In our meadow):
Kom liljor och akvileja, kom rosor och saliveja, kom ljuva krusmynta, kom hjärtans fröjd!
There is one theory that this is not only a list of pretty flowers, but a tip on which herbs to eat in order to avoid or terminate a pregnancy… I have no idea if this is true though.
Thank you for this wonderful bit of Swedish folklore. I’ll pass it on to my daughter – she’ll probably know how much truth there is in the sage advice.
Hi, daughter here 🙂
What an interesting song! And indeed, most of the mentioned plants have been described to help (to some degree) induce menstruation (also, for example, when not pregnant, but with an erratic cycle due to other circumstances). I think sage is one of the more potent ones, while rosa has almost no record of being used like that.
To be honest though, there would be some risks using those plants for preventing pregnancy…
Very interesting, how such information would be disguised in a song about the garden! I love knowing that!
Your daughter’s sweater turned out great. I love this pattern. I think it’s unique – something that hasn’t been done before.
Sage – that’s an herb that I know nothing about – I think the only recipe that I have that calls for sage is chicken marsala. What other suggestions do you have for using it?
Thank you, we’re both happy with the sweater. I like sage in Italian style dishes. One of my favourite dishes is a butter bean stew with sage, tomatoes and chicken. Do you know butter beans? They are these giant white ones. I only use sage sparingly, though, as it has a very strong taste.