Hello all,

So, my best friend’s sister is knitting me a beautiful sweater (in-progress sleeve pictured in first and second image). My first authentic handmade Norwegian sweater. ☺️

I asked her to knit it in the Tønsberg pattern but to add her own twist because she’s such a delightfully weird person that I want it to be her canvas.

Pattern: https://www.raumagarn.no/produkt/oppskrifter/r588-tonsberg-genser-lue-og-vanter (also the third image)

It’s an older pattern, it seems, and that seems to have led to an unexpected issue:

She is a very skilled knitter – and off to help their elderly grandma finish a knitting project – but she was shocked and confused by how enormous the pattern turned out even with my very slim measurements. You can see the mass of blue, which I remarked must be for troll arms. (The fourth image)

My best friend’s twin even had to help her unravel 15H of work – pictured modeling her 2022 comfy sporty Christmas sweater from her mom (one of the world’s best gift givers) and the Darn Tough Vermont Oslo Ski Boot socks I got her – when they all met up for Christmas in the fifth image. There’s usually a lot of knitting at those meetups too, so authentic Norwegian grandmas and aunts with many sweaters under their belts to provide tips!

She’s redoing things now, but she’s cut it down by 40 masks less than the Size S instructed given how huge it was.

So, this has me wondering, does there tend to be a sizing difference between older and newer Norwegian patterns, or is this likely a sizing anomaly with this specific pattern?

Any polite insight would be helpful!

by WanderinArcheologist

8 comments

  1. It looks like a 90s style that’s meant to be oversized. It’s not slim fitting in the photos. 

    I’m confused how both photo 1 and photo 4 can be sleeves when they are sized so differently. Am I missing something? 

  2. I have no idea about the pattern and if that has changed over time. However, I do have the same Lenovo charger, and it’s just shy of 11 cm long, and I count ca. 20 stitches. The suggested yarn from Rauma has a gauge of 22 stitches (masker) per 10 cm. If your friend is simply following the pattern, that means at least 3 extra stitches per 10 cm, which means more like 30 extra stitches around the body! Of course, this is a rough estimate from the photo, but I would suggest looking into this before she reknits anything.

  3. Fashion did change over the years. Patterns from the 1960s will have a tighter fit than from the 1990s for instance.

  4. Oh they where absolutely oversized in the 90’s.

    Garnstudio still got the old patterns up, I dunno if they are in English as I mostly use the site in Norwegian, but boy are they massive.

    Oh wait, I found some in the US/english site too; [https://www.garnstudio.com/search.php?action=browse&c=women&page=125&lang=us](https://www.garnstudio.com/search.php?action=browse&c=women&page=125&lang=us) basically they sort everything newest first – so if you jump to the last page of the patterns you get to the 90’s and 80’s

    Edit to add these two icons;
    [https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=2849&cid=17](https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=2849&cid=17)
    [https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=3210&cid=17](https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=3210&cid=17)

  5. According to my norwegian mom they would wear their sweaters over a coat/anorak with the hood sticking out while skiing lmao. Oversized with triangular sleeves so huge sleeve headings and narrow cuffs

  6. You can’t look at the letter sizing, you need to look at the finished measurements. 

  8. I’ve inherited one of these! It’s phenomenal and looks great on, but yes, it’s very oversized by design. Especially the sleeves. Personally, I love it! (And I always get compliments when I wear it!)

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