Knits from the Northern Seas

Storms, fogs, strong tides, and natural hazards have always been a danger to navigation in the North Sea. One of the most deadly hazards was Inchcape Rock -- a large sandstone reef 11 miles off the cost of Angus, Scotland. The Rock lies just below the surface of the sea much of the time; only part of it is visible for a short time during low tides. Townspeople erected a bell on the rock to warn mariners of impending danger, but it fell victim to the sea after about a year. It was replaced with Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1810 and has the distinction of being the world's oldest, continuously operating lighthouse. In this pullover, waves of water and light form labyrinths on a background of sea and sky colors.

The Midnight Sun is a phenomenon caused by the earth's tilted rotational axis that makes the sun visible all 24 hours of the day during parts of the summer in northern portions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. For many people, ancient rituals mark the arrival, duration, and departure of the Midnight Sun. The design for this festive pullover is built from chevrons and circular figures marking the passage of the day and night suns.

Viking ships under full sail, with their colorful sails, flags, and elaborate painted carvings, were poetically referred to as "flowers of the sea." The Viking Age, from about 800 to 1100 CE, was the age of the sleek, speedy long ships capable of long sea voyages. The long ship, a seminal advance in shipbuilding technology, cast the Vikings as the dominant force in medieval warfare, politics, and trade throughout Europe and the Near East. The design for this V-neck is a tessellated pattern of stars and flowers, both popular motifs in Scandinavian knitting.

Swans are frequent and beloved subjects in painting, poetry, prose, opera and ballet. In Scandinavia, Finland, and northern Russia, folklore and mythology contain numerous tales about the magical and redemptive powers of swans, and their care of humans, especially children. Yet there are few, if any, swan motifs used in knitting. In one folk tale, the northern lights are the sun reflecting off swans' wings as they escape the polar ice. In yet another myth, three Norse goddesses have transformed themselves into swans representing past, present, and future. Past has her head down (what's done is done); future, with raised head, looks confidently ahead; while present embraces both past and future with outstretched wings. For this jacket design, representations of the three Norse swans are arranged in panels, a favorite Nordic design technique. The borders and collar use another swan motif to frame the garment.

In legend and in landscape, trees have been objects of veneration since the dawn of humankind. According to myth, the Greek god Adonis was born of a tree, thereby giving to humanity the strength of wood, the aspiring soul of sky, seeking branches and roots deep within Mother Earth. To Celts and Vikings, trees provided ships and shelter, warmth and weapons, food and medicines. The Celts used an alphabet in which each symbol represented a particular tree, bird, or herb; and throughout the Celtic world, a calendar was adopted with months represented by trees with seasonal characteristics. The design for this pullover is built from branch and tree motifs arranged in an argyle-like pattern on a background of light and shadow.

In the mid-9th century, seafaring Vikings turned their attention to uninhabited islands to the west; first to the Faroe Islands, then Iceland, and later Greenland. Hearty settlers came from all over the Viking world and brought with them new ideas about everything from house building, to land use, to law. They evolved a unique culture now identified as Norse. According to Norse and Icelandic sagas, in 1000 CE Leif Eriksson sailed from Greenland for lands still further west. He came to the shores of a verdant place he called Vinland. Nearly 1000 years later, in 1960, archeologists unearthed Viking artifacts and Icelandic-style house foundations at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland -- a Viking settlement in North America 500 years before Columbus. The design for this V-neck vest was developed from an inlay on a silver and bronze handle of a Viking sword.