Knitting -- still going

 And you thought I had hung up my knitting needles!

Not even close.

I've been replacing sweaters that wore out.

I also worked the third traditional pattern in Dale Garn catalog 267. You can't get the catalog free online any more. I've been to the Dale Garn site and tried searching several ways. What you can do at this point is look at my Fana post and find the Setesdal and Sirdal patterns that are still free on DROPS. For now, here are photos of the Sirdal genser and jakke from DG267.

That twisty motif is the Sirdal pattern, as the big X's are for the Setesdal such as the classic Mariusgenser. There was a sweater pattern as well as the jumper.

Notice the dapples. They are called lus, literally lice. If you think they look uneven, you're right. The catalog wants you to work this pattern in DK, sport, or worsted weights. It makes the lice show up better, and the Setesdal lice patterns on DROPS (for example 217-10 and 219-15 women's and men's jumpers) calls for DK. I worked in fingering weight to use up some extra yarn.

What's more, if you are working a button-front sweater, you are going to purl some rows. Make sure to loosen up the tension on those rows. Since you  are working in two colors, you will be using one color with a Continental hold in the left hand. I tend to tighten my grip because I'm normally right-handed, so I have a tighter tension on purl rows. It just happens. Lighten up on the purl rows even in worsted, and especially if you use fingering weight.

You're saying are the sleeves the same on both designs. No, they aren't. The jumper has plain blue sleeves so I didn't worry about getting those in the photo.

Norwegian colorways tend to be stark: Fana started out as strictly black and white; Setesdal and Sirdal traditionally are dark or navy blue and white. Things have loosened up nowadays, so use the colors you like best, as long as you can get good contrast between two colors. There's a Fana on Ravelry that looks muddy -- I don't know how else to put it -- because it uses so many colors. The beauty of Norwegian is the crispness of the contrast. If you really want something multi-color, do a Fair Isle, which has a Scandinavian origin and can use any of the small motifs you find in the Nordic sweaters on DROPS.

I am trying to find Lofoten patterns. I found one that looks a lot like bargello, I think it was at Dale Garn. The DROPS 181-9 and 185-3 (women's and men's versions) have a floral motif. Photos at the Lofoten Wool website show floral motifs even on men's jumpers.  If you know what a classic Lofoten jumper looks like, send me a link.