Lögberg-Heimskringla - 22.06.2001, Blaðsíða 3
Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 22. júní 2001 • 3
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David Jón
Fuller
WlNNIPEG, MB
WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL,
my mother made me an
Icelandic sweater. It was
black, with white highlights in the pat-
tem. I liked it mainly because it was
black, and though initially dismayed at
its looseness, it was so comfortable that
I continued wearing it well into the
summer. To me, it was just another out-
growth of being “Icelandic”—-having
access to handmade clothing was as
unremarkable as eating rúllapylsa. My
friends were considerably more
impressed; one of them actually stole
the sweater from me one day, to my
great irritation, and fled from one end of
the school to the other in order to wear
it longer. Later, others started petition-
ing my mother, through me, for a
sweater. I just took it in stride and wait-
ed for her to knit me another. This lazi-
ness on my part lasted years.
Fast-forward to Iceland, where I
was living some years later. I lived in a
dorm with other foreigners who were
trying to embrace the Icelandic culture
and language. An ad-hoc knitting club
sprung up, composed of a Norwegian, a
German, an Italian, and two Canadians.
One of them was me. We leamed to knit
from Guri, the Norwegian, who seemed
able to knit so fast that we joked she
could knit sweaters right off the sheep.
The rest of us were considerably slow-
er, but we eventually (with help) tumed
out sweaters. We all had our reasons.
For me, it was something new to leam,
and with Promethean zeal I determined
this was knowledge I ought to have.
Oddly enough, I was the only male in
Members ofthe Nýi Garður knitting club, left to right: David Fuller, Inske de Buhr,
Kristin Good, Laura Sandri, and Guri Langlo. Photo: Stefán Haraldsson
the group.
This brings me to my point: men
should know how to knit. The women
reading this article may not be as hard
to convince, since there is no social
stigma attached to the idea of women
knitting. I think whatever hesitation a
man (or boy) may have to take up the
circular needles and go can be eliminat-
ed by consideration of the following
reasons for knitting Icelandic sweaters.
1. It’s cheap
Prices of wool have gone up, but
even at $8 a ball, an adult sweater will
only cost you $80. “Only,” you say?
Well, if you wanted to buy one yourself,
it would cost you at least twice that,
probably more. Sure, you could bug
your amma to knit one for you, but what
have you done for her lately? And con-
sidering the time it may take to knit the
sweater, it’s relatively cheap as a pas-
time. If it takes you, say, twenty hours
(pretty fast, in my opinion), it’s only
costing you $4 an hour. Going for cof-
fee costs more! Stay at home and knit.
2. They’re warm
Wherever you are, whether it’s a
damp spring, a cool summer night, a
brisk fall day, or as one of your layers in
the winter, you won’t be cold with a
lopapeysa on. They are, I have found,
ideal for cycling in the spring and fall—
air flows through them for cooling, but
they keep you comfortably warm even
when you perspire. (Best to use an older
one that can take a bit of dust, mud,
rain, etc.) They’re also good at keeping
you warm in damp climates, whether
you’re in Seattle, Halifax, or Reykjavík.
3. It’s addictive
Once you start knitting, it’s difficult
to stop until the sweater is done. It’s a
good way to break other bad habits,
such as drinking, smoking, clicking the
ends of retractable pens, etc.
4. It’s portable
Knitting is something that can be
done almost anywhere: on the bus, in
frónt of the TV, at the beach, in church
depending on your minister, you name
it. I actually figured out how to do it
while reading; I had to, as I had exams
to study for and yet couldn’t give up on
the knitting (see No. 3. above).
5. Durability
Icelandic sweaters last a long time,
if you take care of them. I still have the
first sweater my mother made for me,
eleven years later.
6. Instant figure
For many, this is an important fac-
tor. Icelandic sweaters make you look
huge in all the right places, a combina-
tion of the bulk of the wool and the typ-
ical pattems. Men’s sweaters accentuate
the shoulders and chest, and women’s
sweaters the bust and hips, depending
on the tightness of the bottom part.
Think about this. Try one on and look in
the mirror.
And finally, for those guys who
have stuck with me this far, but still
need an extra nudge ...
7. Two words: chick magnet
I’m not kidding. If you are seen
knitting, or can say about your sweater,
“Actually, I made it myself,” you have
a conversation-starter worth far more
than how much weight you can lift or
the RAM in your new computer. You
laugh? Borrow your amma’s knitting
for a day and see what the ladies'say.
That’s it in a nutshell. If you’ve
never tried it, go for it; what have you
got to lose? If you have, keep it up!
Knitting’s not just for womenfolk any
more.
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