Knitting -- Mariusgenser 1

This post is about the famous Mariusgenser, which was invented by Unn Søiland for the Norwegian athletes for the 1952 Oslo games. The original pattern with yarn is sold by Sandnes Garn. The authorized English language version is available at SKD. I tried to buy it there but their app had problems with my credit card. You can go to the site, find the pattern, email the link to them and ask them to send you a Paypal invoice which you can pay by credit card. This pattern is not free on the Sandnes Garn site.

No worries. Fifteen minutes with Google Search found a project pamphlet that had a mockup. I compared it to photos of the official pattern and it's very close. This is the situation that turns fashion designers' hair gray. Anybody with some skill and perseverance can mock up their work from photos. (China buys single samples for their knockoffs.)

So I worked out a pattern for my use, which closely resembles the photos on Sandnes Garn and Ravelry but is not the authorized pattern. It took 50 hours to work, mostly because I had trouble figuring out where to start the pattern on the sleeves. The original does not include the Xs in the sleeves, so work more of the sleeve in blue before you start the pattern. A later variation of this pattern is a top-down raglan with a yoke that does include the Xs all the way around.

I used 2 skeins white, 1 skein red, and 10 skeins blue yarn. I picked a very dark blue, probably too dark.

The pattern is 59 rows high. The Marius is normally worked in DK/sport yarn, but I would have to work part of it below the armpits unless I used fingering yarn. Knowing I would have to work part of it below the armpits, I went the whole way to worsted weight for something really warm. I worked 100 rows below the armpits and 45 above.

The design is basically a Setesdal pattern (see last week's post on Dale's DG267 with traditional Norwegian patterns). You work Setesdal bottom up with no steeking; you work the sleeves bottom up and sew them to the top when you're done. You need to cast off for the armpit on the body, but work the sleeves in the round the whole way up with no armpit castoff.

For the sleeve, I cabled on a 52-stitch cuff, worked the rib, and increased to 90 stitches as I worked upwards. At the top of the sleeve, to get the red/blue crenelations to work out right, I had to increase by 2 stitches, which I did in the first round with blue. With a 100-stitch armhole, you can see that you would have to gather the armhole quite a bit to fit it to the sleeve. The extra two stitches in the sleeve minimize that gathering.

When you sew the sleeves on, it's easy to catch in part of the pattern. To avoid this, use blue at the ends of the body pattern and hook your seam into those stitches. For the sleeves, make sure your needle only catches in the binding-off stitches at the top. If you're not sure you can be that precise, do a fourth round of red at the top before binding off.

While we're at it, there's a photo of a scarf here.
https://images.app.goo.gl/xcsoUr9rWU5qTjVB6

This shows mittens with the red at the cuffs. I've seen photos that went the other way.
https://images.app.goo.gl/hEzibxX66adtdDWn9

And a hat.
https://images.app.goo.gl/YndpoqzaUf7JTntF6

And of course socks. Work them toe up. Once you have worked 5 rounds in the ankle, increase to 54 stitches so you can get one X on your shin and one on each side. Now work the pattern and when you get to the red at the top, work your K2/P2 cuff and bind off in rib. The length of the leg will therefore be 64 stitches and how high it gets on your leg will depend on whether you use worsted or fingering weight yarn.

Or else leave out the Xs the way you do on the sleeves. The Xs are 13 stitches high; by leaving them out, you can knit a normal 15-round ankle and have a normal 45 round leg.

And of course you can use worsted weight cotton if you are allergic to wool.

So there is my first real Norwegian sweater. There are lots of Setesdal and Setesdal "lice" patterns at DROPS but the Mariusgenser has a real pedigree. I'll be working another traditional Norwegian pattern in a couple of weeks and I'll post a photo when it's done.