The Marius sweather

The most popular sweather in Norway for the last 60 years, has been the “Marius-genser”. Made in the national colours red, white and blue, and among others worn by King Harald when he was a crown prince and Gro Harlem Brundtland when she was our Prime Minister, it is my opinion that this sweather has become a national icon. Women all over the country have been knitting this sweather with it’s name after the war hero and slalom skier Marius Eriksen. The Marius sweather is the most sold and knitted handknit pattern in the world. Today it is nearly as popular as it was when I was in highschool: I remember one day counting that 22 out of 28 pupils were wearing the same sweather.

Here you can see my son with his fathers old sweather.

The pattern in the Marius sweather is taken from the much older sweather made in Setesdal in the south of Norway. The main border with the x-pattern is called “kross og kringle”. You can read more about the sweather here >>

Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison, known as Arne and Carlos, switched the “kross og kringle” pattern with spaceinvaders. You can see the sweather on the front page of their new book, this years bestseller in Norway: “Julekuler” from Cappelen Damm.

I’ve also been playing with this icon.  There are a number of data programs to aid the construction of more complicated designs. I prefer the Cross-Stitch-Professional-Platium. Here you can see my spaceinvaders:

My 20 year old son liked this one very much, so I desidet to make a Pacman too:

You can put in almost anything. If you want to be a little more up to date, you can for instance use the  Coco Chanel-logo:

Moods of Norway have been very popular around the world, especially here in Norway. And their symbol and logo; the pink tractor, can be seen on colourful spectacular suits as well as on ordinary clothes.

Moods of Norway. Photo: Ole Musken.

I’ve been playing with the tractor as well:

Inspired by the horny moose I’ve shown you before, I also had to make a pattern from the Norwegian woods:

Fuck the diet

I walk for about one hour every day, and I eat healthy food – fish, meat and vegetables. Not too much sugar. BUT: I turned 50 this summer, and like a lot of  women my age, I have some kilos too much. It’s not easy to avoid it. A glass of vine, delicious cheese or a piece of cake turns immediately into fat.

A lot of us try too hard to loose weight. We choose diets we can’t live with. It is impossible to live the rest of our lives just eating grapefruit or cucumber.

To my fellow sisters: Fuck the diet. The only thing that helps is eating smaller portions.

Get it online

European embroidery has roots far back into the Stone Age. Through history, girls from all layers of society were thaught the art of sewing and embroidery. Rich or poor, the majority of women took active part in the making of clothes and other household textiles. With simple tools and spare lighting, the women produced the most elaborate pieces, where every shard of thread, every scrap of material was used to its maximum potential.

Embroideries with uplifting and educational messages became popular in the beginning of the 20th century. Today we see a revival of the handicraft, though with the characteristic twist that happens to any revival. Instead of the uplifting and the educational there is now the rude and aggressive, not to forget the fun. Like it or not, texts like “Prick” and “Fuck You” are what have made woman once more search for needles, threads and fabric in old drawers and chests.

Do you want to read more about it? Or get a good laugh?  A lot of humor can be found in the contrast between the traditional cross stitch and unexpected words and messages. One year ago my book about naughty embroideries was published in Norway. You can now get “Dirty Embroideries. Naughty Cross Stitch” oline all over the world.

It was originally written in both Norwegian and English language. Now we have separated the text and made to different books. We have also made som adjustments so it will be easier to read on a computer or a iPad.

The book is available at www.zinio.com, a place you can find a lot of digital editions of magazines and books. You will find my book here >>

We love them all

Inspired by the message “Whether they are asymmetrical O0, or augmented ($)($), young (•) (•) or old \./ \./, BIG (☀) (☀), or small oo, ♥ let’s join together to save them all ♥”

or in Norwegian

Love is in the air

In Europe moose  are found in large numbers throughout Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland and the Baltic States. Here in Norway there were som 120 000 moose, or “elg” as we call it, in 2007. It is not unusual to meet them when you are out driving. Sometimes it is nice, but it can also be very scary.

Norwegian road sign

The moose have been here for ages. Lots of them can be seen as rock carvings at the prehistoric site near the town of Alta in northern Norway. More than 5 000 carvings have been found, and you can see most of them in an open-air museum. The site was placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1985.

Rock carvings in Alta. Photo: Jurek Durczak

A wide array of animals are depicted on carved scenes; reindeer are clearly predominant. Other animals that appear frequently are moose, various bird species and different kinds of fish. Pregnant animals are often depicted with a young one visible inside of its mother.

Pictures of moose in the sun set used to be very popular some 30 – 40 years ago.  Women in Norway have also included the moose in their knitting works. Annemor Sundbø have shown us different patterns in her book “Everyday Knitting: Treasures from a Rag Pile”, but not anything like the one I found on the Internet some days ago. I have tryed to copy it, and have made a pattern so you can knit it too. Good luck!

Quite dirty – a little bit naughty

A lot of humor can be found in the contrast between the traditional cross stitch and unexpected words and messages. In Norway these embroideries have been very popular.

When I discovered subversive cross stitch, I was hooked. I just had to try. I like dirty jokes and dirty humor, and fell immediately in love. My own family, who have witnessed my new passion, think I have possibly developed a peculiar variety of the Tourette syndrome. Personally, I label this an advanced form of graffiti, an expression with a longer history than we care to think about. In Bergen Harbor “May the glorious cunt be served by the dick!” was written on a wall sometimes in the 13th century.

To scribe naughty messages on public walls is not my thing. Embellishing my home with little works of shocks and humor is more in line with my artistic temperament. And rather than choosing the obscene, I prefer the twist and the turns, the double meaning.

I have also designed a number of small motifs where full-bosomed women interact with potent men.

It is my firm belief that for the younger generation to take up the age-old traditions of needlework, they need to identify with form and artistic expression. I hope dirty embroidery and naughty knitting can offer such new forms and challenges, and encourage many a young boy or girl to pick up needle and yarn. My hope is also extended to fellow sisters and brothers within the crafts world. Huge pleasure can be found in combining old traditions with new expressions.

If you want to share YOUR humorous works with the rest of us, please join “Dirty Embroideries – Naughty Knitting” at www.facebook.com or send me a message. Maybe I will post it here.