My family is Norwegian. I love Norsk, Nordmenn, and Norge. I know Norway was occupied during WWII but I need to brush up on my history. I was dinking around on Ravelry doing a search for Norsk, or Norwegian or whatever and came across this sweater. That little boy is current King Harald of Norway when he was 4 years old. We know the sweater existed because he'd been photographed in it. His mother, the Crown Princess, had probably had it made for him. The night he along with his mother and sisters fled Norway they were woken in the night and told to dress warmly because they "were going on a ski trip". The story goes he was dressed in this famous sweater to travel.
What's even more amazing is that little sweater survived the war along with his passport, traveled back to Norway and is now housed in a museum. What a neat story! Then I learned there is a reproduction pattern of the sweater and say no more, I have a little boy around the same age who needs a red and white Prince's sweater.
This was knit out of
Mayflower fingering weight wool yarn from Hobbii.com that a coworker turned me on to. They are a fabulous Danish company and I've ordered from them a handful of times during the pandemic.
He will probably never wear this again but I wanted so badly to knit and get it on him and it looks so striking. There are larger sizes included in the pattern so maybe I'll knit another one, we'll see. I always thought I'd do the one red one at this age for posterity, and then if I did another one, I'd do navy blue or something but I really don't mind the red.
It was a perfect fit too. I was nervous as I was finishing because it was going to be close. It loosened up a bit when I blocked it which is what I was hoping it would do. I found those dress pants at Saver's and they were perfect for the photo. It's just a shame we didn't have any snow on the ground!
PBS just aired a series called Atlantic Crossing this summer and it is all about Harald's mother, the Crown Princess, and her efforts to get herself and the kids out of Norway while her husband Olav V and his father King Haakon VII stayed behind for a time before ruling in exile from England. She eventually made it to the US and had a special relationship with FDR and helped obtain aid for Norway. I was thrilled to see the actor playing Harald wore a sweater like this in the scenes where they fled the country!
I cheated a little because of time. You're supposed to knit fabric covered buttons out of dimes but I needed to get this sewn together, blocked, dried and on the boy this weekend for a picture because it would be my last chance for a while. I was very happy with the metal buttons. I don't have any Norwegian buttons in my stash. That's something we shall have to remedy.
It was quite sunny today too and I wanted an overcast sky for the pictures. I tried to keep him in the shade of the house or fence as much as I could for the light, but here he is in his play house and I think it is one of my favorite shots! He's holding some greenery, totally impromptu! At his age, he will not cooperate for pictures. All you can do is run around after him snapping away with the camera and hope you get lucky with a few shots. I was very pleased with today's pictures and ordered our Christmas cards! Dave thought we should tweet a picture to the Norwegian Royal Family. We might have to do that! Happy Late Thanksgiving!
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