Norwegian knitting Norwegian knitting (''strikking'') has a history dating from the 16th century. History Knitted garments found in Norway have been dated as far back as between 1476 and 1525. Some of the most well known sweater patterns attributed to Norwegian co ...

, a ''selburose'' () is a knitted

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

pattern in the shape of a regular

octagram In geometry, an octagram is an eight-angled star polygon. The name ''octagram'' combine a Greek numeral prefix, '' octa-'', with the Greek suffix '' -gram''. The ''-gram'' suffix derives from γραμμή (''grammḗ'') meaning "line". Detai ...

. It is traditionally used for

winter clothing Winter clothing are clothes used for protection against the particularly cold weather of winter. Often they have a good water resistance, consist of multiple layers to protect and insulate against low temperatures. Winter clothes are especially o ...

such as the Selbu mitten (''selbuvott'') and sweaters (''

lusekofte The lusekofte (, '' lice jacket''), also called the Setesdalsgenser (''Setesdal sweater'') is a traditional Norwegian sweater, dating from the 19th century. The original sweater features a black and white design, the name referring to the isola ...

lopapeysa A lopapeysa () or Icelandic sweater is an Icelandic style of sweater originating in early or mid-20th century, at a time when imports had displaced older and more traditional Icelandic clothing and people began to search for new ways to utilize t ...

'' and ''

mariusgenser Marius sweaters ( no, Mariusgenser) are Norwegian-style knitted sweaters with patterns inspired by traditional Setesdal sweater ( no, Setesdalsgenser), but without lice, a type of pattern. While the traditional sweaters used the natural colors of ...

''). Of ancient origin, the pattern is associated with the town of

Selbu Selbu is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Mebonden. Other villages in Selbu include Flora, Fossan, Hyttbakken, Innbygda, Selbustrand, Trøa, Tømra, and Vikvarvet. The ...

in Norway, and has become an international symbol of Norway (or Scandinavia generally), Christmas and winter.

History

The design now known as the ''selburose'' has a long history. It appears in textiles across European history, and in knitting pattern books from Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany in the 16th to 18th century.Om selbumønsteret i Andemor Sundbøs ''Kvarsdagsstrikk'' fra 1994 (avfotografert bok fra Nasjonalbibliotekets arkiv)
/ref> It appears to combine designs of Islamic and Christian tradition based on

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

art, or even the Sumerian

Star of Ishtar The Star of Ishtar or Star of Inanna is a Mesopotamian symbol of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna and her East Semitic counterpart Ishtar. The owl was also one of Ishtar's primary symbols. Ishtar is mostly associated with the planet Venus, w ...

. In Norway, the pattern was already in use prior to 1857 on sweaters from Western Norway based on Danish designs. Marit Guldsetbrua Emstad (born 1841), a girl from Selbu, popularized the design in 1857 when she knitted three pairs of mittens with an eight-petalled rose design (''åttebladrose'') and brought them to church. She may have been inspired by stockings knitted by Marit Sessenggjerdet, a woman working for the same employer. The design became immediately popular in Selbu. The Norwegian Arts and Craft Club (''Husflidslag'') spread the ''selburose'' mitten fad across the country after 1910. By the 1930s, 100,000 pairs were made in Selbu every year, and by 1960, much of the town's economy depended on the trade. The popularity of the design in Norway may have been helped by the desire to establish a Norwegian national identity as the decades-long process of Norwegian independence from Sweden had thought leaders searching for the country's "true spirit". The bold, "uniquely ''Norsk''" design of the ''selburose'' fit these aspirations. Norwegian girls were taught to knit the pattern, as a pair of ''selbuvotter'' became the traditional gift of a girl to her fiancé and his friends. The home industry of Selbu mitten knitting helped make Norwegian farming life economically feasible and gave women a measure of economic independence. Norwegian emigration and international trade spread the symbol across the world, where it is often interpreted as a

snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...

or a star instead of a flower. This helped cement the association between the ''selburose'' and winter clothing and therefore winter itself.

References

{{Italic title Norwegian clothing Textile arts of Norway Heraldic charges Selbu

History

See also

References