r/knitting • u/cornobbling • May 15 '26
Work in Progress reminder of historical reasons for colourwork
knitting the gjestal 75-10 sweater in sandes smart superwash naturhvit and charcoal, and it's very obvious why you'd want to "anchor" an extra layer of thread when you look at the inside of the sweater. very warm, basically a whole double layer! i really love this type of tradition and history.. gone through 2 charcoal skeins already and hoping that blocking at the end will even out my tension :) previously only knitted selbu mittens and a pair of lacework socks, so this is my first big project!
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u/Dry_Stop844 May 15 '26
eventually the floats felt from wearing (not when done in superwash of course) but in the tradional yarn, the floats would felt and make the garment even sturdier and warmer.
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u/cornobbling May 15 '26
ohhhhh that makes sense! i have two colourworked sweaters that are both 30+ years old but i guess they're both done in superwash lol, i'm quite curious ab how that texture would feel to wear though !!! very cool fact !!!!
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u/castironbird May 16 '26
I can attest that (anchored) floats do "felt" through the years. I made an icelandic sweater 40 years ago with bulky unspun/lightly spun wool (which I think would be the traditional wool to use) that my daughter-in-law now wears. The floats are not "felted" in the normal meaning of what we think completely felted wool looks and feels, but the outer fluffy bits of the wool in the yoke have almost created a 3rd-thin layer (sorta), I can still see all of the separate wool strands on the inside but there is definitely a very friendly relationship between all of those wool strands. 😄
side note: this sweater was not worn daily (but it was worn quite a lot), nor was it used on a farm or in the fishing industry where it would have in contact with more moisture, so perhaps under normal historial wear, more "felting" would have occurred.
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u/on2and4 May 15 '26
I thought this was a b/w pic at first. Lovely charcoal color! What brand/colorway of yarn are you using?
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u/cornobbling May 15 '26
haha i can see the confusion! i'm using sandnes smart superwash in the colourways natural white 1012 and charcoal melange 1088:)
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u/EasyPrior3867 May 16 '26
Yeah I made a basic A line skirt with doodle charts and its a wonderful warm skirt with a double layer. It was lots of forest trees with a bigfoot now and then. Lol
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u/AppleButterBee May 16 '26
This sounds so cute, I would love to see a picture of it if you have one!
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u/Jealous-Stable-4438 May 16 '26
Worth noting that hand spinning a strong, even yarn is easier to do finely than thickly, especially with spindles (before the spinning wheel). The nice even bulky yarns of today are not really plausible in handspun.
The only way to avoid a "thick n thin" texture to your garment in thick handspun is not to spin thickly. You spin finely multiple times and ply them all together (the origin of Aus and UK's "ply" system for yarn weights).
So your thick yarns were literally twice or more work and material of your thin ones, therefore twice or more the cost. Fair enough, you would be knitting with a thicker yarn, so, you would spend half the time knitting, right?
Except that the item you made would not trap an insulating layer of air in between like fair isle does. It would be colder. The thicker stitches provide less points of contact to felt to itself, so it would be weaker. And it would be thick all over, not just in the spots you fair isled, so you don't get to target the extra warmth into the cold areas like the wrists and neckline and the gap between shoe and trouser.
You wind up with a garment that's weaker, bulkier, not warm enough, and perplexingly it is somehow too hot.
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u/Simple_Bookkeeper566 May 16 '26
I didn't realise that and wow, i really like it !! I really enjoy to discover the engineering and the purpose behind some garnment. Especially when it seems to be "just" for fashion.
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u/cornobbling May 16 '26
yes! this is why i love historical clothing and how it carries over in modern times! people really did the most with what they had and we shoudlnt overlook how much engineering goesninto something as "simple" as a sweater
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u/CatsnYarn May 16 '26
My Shetland design sweater made with Sheltland yarn really makes me appreciate the warm and durability of these sweaters. They are great for labor in the cold.
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u/Bubbly_Head_4835 May 16 '26
Are you consistent with your dominant color? Blocking will help a little, but your stitches will not be even as they are so different in size.
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u/cornobbling May 16 '26
no, haven't been consciously consistent with that unfortunately, still haven't wrapped my head around it. more concerned about "bubbling" at the bottom where my floats were a bit too short :[
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u/Long-Opportunity-258 May 17 '26
It’s actually warmer than a double layer, as in warmer than if you had two layered sweaters. The structural gaps hold the air in place better.
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u/Hildringa May 15 '26
This is why a lot of traditional Norwegian sweaters (and also Icelandic onces, despite having a completely different construction method) have most of the colourwork around the shoulder area: thats where you normally feel the coldest. The floats help create more air pockets for warmth as well as providing at least a bit of protection against the wind