Spede sweather

My spede class finally happened!
The traditional peasant costume for women where a blouse or dress, skirt, bodice, skirt and apron. Variation to this is very rich in Sweden and geografi and money have made them very different from each other.

In the south there I live it was common to add a knitted sweather, spede means sticks and means "knitted" It was a tight knitted sweather that was worn under the bodice and maybee with a jacket over ( it´s cold in the winter...)

These sweathers had a vent in front or in the back and where decorated with fabrics and trims, more or less depending on how much money you had

Inger who held the class told us that the lenght varied from over the hip til under the bust. The kit that she sells ( or you can buy a ready made sweather if you just want to do the decoration are waistlenght. It´s important to get the folds even and they should be folded downward so the dandriffs wont´get stuck in them, an old lady told Inger that when telling her about how to make the sweathers.

This is Eva, the owner of "Helylle" the yarnstore where the class was held ( link to the right) She knitted a vest with som lace at the bottom , felted it and decoratet it in a spedeway.

And this is my first spede. I chosed a very untraditional color and found a beautiful fabric in Copenhagen that I´m using together with some velvet trim and who knows what...

It´s hard in the beginning to get the folds correct and neat. I had to remowe the beading of the fabric to be able to do that, will be readded later

Relief knitting was a part of the sweathers too and Inger made this little sample that you can use as a cuff/mudd. Relief knitting is when you use purlstitches to create a pattern.

I also learned to cast on with 3 treads to get this extra twist and a non roll edge

I later bought this band to make them sparkle.

If you want to get in contact with Inger and her work go to www.ibodesign.com