As December draws to a close

Nine patterns and counting uploaded on Patternfish.

Today I uploaded The King's Sweater on my Ravelry store. I've been working on this pattern for what feels like forever! This modern copy was designed for a class at the Vesterheim, Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa for this fall. I viewed copies of the original when I was in Norway fall 2013. Next month, it will be featured in the January/February 2015 “Historical Knitting” edition of Piecework magazine.

This pattern is a copy of the sweater Prince Harald wore April 9, 1940. On that day, the Nazis invaded Oslo, and Crown Prince Harald, his older sisters Ragnhild and Astrid, their parents, Crown Prince Olav V and Princess Märtha, and their grandfather King Haakon VII fled the capitol. Over the next five years, Crown Prince Harald evaded Nazi capture, living most of this time in a suburb of Washington, D.C.. Prince Harald is the current king of Norway, King Harald V. The original sweater is still property of the royal family. It toured Norwegian museums as a part of an exhibit titled, "The Longest Journey (1940–1945): the royal family’s long, involuntary sojourn abroad during the war years".

My neighbor's son, Kaden, was the model. Isn't he just perfect? Despite his twinkling blue eyes, he stood so still for me to take these photos this fall, and he never once said, "it itches!" He is definitely not a Ricketts!

For some reason, my photos are not uploading. I'm going to post this anyway. If you are curious to see some image, please click through one of the links at the beginning of this post.