'People buy imported sweaters as the real thing,' said Thuridur Einarsdottir, founder of the Handknitting Association of Iceland. 'But it is not.' .... "It is amazing how quickly it began to resemble national pride and unity,' said [Vedis] Jonsdottir. 'To us, the sweater is like a flag.'
“Hanging by a Thread? Trouble is rattling Iceland’s sweater industries” an Associated Press story by Egill BJarnason about Icelandic wool and Icelandic patterns being sent to China to be knitted into lopi sweaters only to be shipped back to Iceland and sold as “Icelandic” sweaters. Which raises the questions: What makes for an Icelandic sweater? Wool? Pattern? Knitter? The heavy sweater with decorative yoked pattern only dates to the 1960s. Vedis Jonsdottir is the designer of a book of Icelandic knitting patterns of which I have succeeded in making the very simplest one.
