How knitting grannies are telling Sweden’s Viking story

Knitting is not only about the practicalities of making clothing but also the history and culture. Different communities around the world have their own knitting stories; for example, in Gotland, Sweden, people commemorate the knitters who took a dangerous sea voyage.

The history

If you are not Swedish, it is possible that your knowledge of Swedish history stops with the Vikings. The Vikings were sailors, explorers, and warriors who travelled the globe.

This story happened later, in 1824, when the tröjkällingar or ‘sweater dears’, a group of female knitters on the island of Gotland, tried to sail to Stockholm to sell their products. These regular journeys were a vital part of the island’s economy at a time when you couldn’t visit websites such as woolcouturecompany.com/collections to buy knitting kits, let alone knitwear. On this particular voyage, the weather was against the ladies. They were blown off course, all the way to Estonia, but still made it home for Christmas Eve.

The commemoration

Eva Sjöstrand discovered the story of the sweater dears in a book published in 1924. Eva decided there should be a more modern commemoration of the dramatic story, so she wrote the choral piece Samma Ull. This translates as We Are All Made of the Same Wool and was sung by the Allmänna Sången Visby, a local choir of 35 people. With music composed by Jan Ekedahl, this choral piece lasts for 75 minutes. Eva herself sang the part of Briten Granquist, a prolific leader among the sweater dears who produced 777 jumpers herself.

Many of the women who participated in this project are knitters and successors of the original tröjkällingar. They knit as they sing, their needles forming the percussion as they lurch and sway to represent the waves tossing the ship. After months of rehearsal, they performed the piece in front of their Gotland community.

The epic tale of the knitters of Gotland is one that deserves to be remembered and shows how the Viking spirit survives in Sweden, even among its knitters.