Dale of Norway Sirdal, knit in Heilo yarn, by Karin
I’m very fortunate to have some tremendously talented customers. This past week, a charming coincidence arose: two of my wonderful customers showed me their very special renditions of Dale of Norway’s beloved “Sirdal” design, a traditional Norwegian knitting classic (which, by the way, is available for FREE at Kidsknits, with the corresponding Dale yarn purchase – more about that below.)
Karin from Fort Worth, TX is a delightful woman with a gorgeous garden and a beautiful family. That’s a close-up of her Sirdal vest that you see above. Karin knit it for her son, Rob, in charcoal heather 0083 and natural 0020 Heilo.
The Dale cognoscenti among you may be scratching your heads, thinking “I’ve never seen a Sirdal vest pattern?!” Along with her Heilo yarn purchase, and with Dale of Norway’s approval, Karin received the Sirdal cardigan pattern from out-of-print Book 147. She knit the body straight up, as usual; then, she sewed her armhole lines on the side, cut them open, closed the shoulders, picked up around the armholes, worked the ribbing, shifted the ribbing for the fold, worked a facing and hemmed it all in place. It even looks great on the inside:
Such a great idea and such beautiful work!! Rob must be so thrilled! Thanks so much for sharing your photos with us, Karin – everything you do is always so lovely!
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Lynda from Gwynedd, PA certainly knows how to show her love for her dear friend, Charlotte! Here’s lovely Charlotte in the Sirdal Pullover Lynda made for her, using black 0090 and natural 002 Heilo yarn:
Now, this is not just any old Sirdal, either! Check out the center of the collar – Lynda worked Charlotte’s initials into the diamonds – isn’t that a sweet idea?!
Lynda is chock full of wonderful ideas. Look at Lynda’s idea for a coordinating hat:
Isn’t that magnificent?! Thanks so much, Lynda, for sharing your wonderful work with us! And thanks, Charlotte, for letting us see how great you look in your new Sirdal. I hope you always have fun in it.
Points to consider:
First of all, the Sirdal design is not mine to give away, it’s Dale of Norway’s design to do with as they, as copyright holders, please. As I’ve mentioned here before, their policy allows Dale dealers (like me) that are interested in supporting old, out-of-print Dale designs to give FREE copies of their out-of-print patterns to knitters when they purchase the corresponding Dale yarn. If you’d like to see other out-of-print Dale designs that would be available under the same policy, I’ve listed most of the old Dale books that I have in my library on Ravelry, here.
Second, sweater silhouettes change over time. Thankfully, traditional designs never change radically. But, realize that the armhole depth on an old, medium-sized Sirdal Pullover was 11″ – fashionable in its day, but that day was quite a while ago! On the newer (reworked) cardigan from Book 147, it was 10 1/4″ – more moderate, as they go. Now that silhouettes have gotten even slimmer, on the brand new Oslo design in Book 228, it’s down to 9 1/4″. As you might guess, Lynda narrowed the sleeves on her Sirdal considerably. Thankfully, with dropped shoulders and Norwegian steeks, that’s a pretty easy thing to do. If you need details, you know where to find me!
ETA: I’ve gotten permission to add the measurements and yarn requirements – see below!
Dale Sirdal, from out-of-print booklet 6007.
Sirdal from Dale of Norway Book Nr 147.
Sirdal for babies and toddlers, from Dale Book Nr 147.
Two Strands 
Sirdal is just so beautiful! One should knit that design one day! 🙂 Have you Mary Ann?? 🙂
Helle, Denmark! 😛
Nice to “see” you over here, Helle! I agree – Sirdal is so beautiful! I did knit the baby version, years ago, but I’m especially tempted to make one for myself now. As usual, the trouble comes in deciding just which color. I love the high contrast of black-or-charcoal + natural and I know I’d get plenty of wear out that combo. But, the color work geek in me keeps looking at it, thinking of ways I could do it in, oh, I don’t know…5 or 6 different shades. Hmmm, maybe 7? What colors would you pick??
I don’t even have the pattern! So that I would have to find somehow first! While I would love to go out and buy yarn, I can’t financial, but ……I have some white/natural white, but can’t know if it is enough, when I don’t have the pattern, and I also have some beautiful blue…..more blue than the one, who is used in the white one. That could be used…….if there is enough of course. Do you know of any places, where to buy a download for it. I am thinking the sweater/pullover one! 🙂 But I know what you mean, about color geek. Just look at my Pink Oregon Cardigan ( Alice Starmore), and compare to what other have used! Giggle. So for me in this case, it would be what I want to use, but to use what I have at hand. Sigh.
Patternfish recently posted in the Dale of Norway Ravelry group that they’re hoping to have the pattern available shortly. However, Patternfish is not free. But, if you already have yarn to use, that might end up being the more affordable option. Either way, I hope you enjoy it and let us know how it goes for you!
Ahh, just saw it. Don’t know how patternfish works, but can try to look into it, when I see she have made it avaiable. I did look a couple of other places, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I think Dale of Norway should reprint some of the older patterns……..maybe a collection of the most wanted patterns. I did write them on facebook a little while back, and requested some of the older patterns as a free download once in a while. They tend to make the most boring one as free download! Giggle. At least to my eyes! 😉
I like the idea of a book of reprised favorites, too. In fact, when I place my order with them tomorrow, I’ll definitely let them know that we’d love to see it.
Sounds like a great idea! The more who tell them the bigger chance there is for them to re-publish patterns! 🙂
Hi I found Dale’s free patterns online and then went looking for US yarn vendors. Your links to kidsknits don’t work any more. I found a website that linked to a retailer who supposedly had Dale yarn, but all they have is on sale because it is discontinued. (That retailer also shows links to Sandnes Garn that don’t work.) You would help knitters a lot if a) you could find a Dale retailer in the US, if there is such a thing any more and b) you would find out from Dale if you are still allowed to share their patterns. At any rate, DG267 which is free, has Sirdal, Setesdal, and Fana patterns, and they gave me some good hints about how to do my planned Fana jumper. Happy knitting!
Patricia, this blog post you’re commenting on is from October 2012 – it’s more than seven years old. A lot has happened since then! Dale Garn suddenly pulled out of the North American market more than three years ago – there are no Dale retailers left in the US or Canada. Any Dale yarn sold currently in the US is merely leftover stock. I know for a fact that, well before Dale pulled out of the US, they ended their program in which they allowed free copies of out-of-print Dale patterns to accompany Dale yarn purchases. With Dale long gone and my old Kidsknits site so Dale-centric, about two years ago, I closed my old Kidsknits website and developed my new website, MaryAnnStephens.com, which carries over, and expands upon, the Fair Isle aspect of my knitting design work. I kept the Kidsknits site online for a year after that, solely for the purpose of forwarding folks to the new site. There are probably all sorts of things Dale Garn has offered since they suddenly pulled out of the American market years ago – none of us former Dale dealers have anything to do with any of that. Glad you could find Book 267 for free – that’s great (but that’s a relatively new development.) Dale Heilo has not been made for many years, but I believe Dale Falk, which works for many designs in Book 267, is still sold throughout Scandinavia. If you’d really like to use Dale yarn, their website is Dalegarn.no . Here’s a link to their dealers’ page: https://dalegarn.no/forhandlere/ It’s in Norwegian (of course) but you’ll see there are plenty of websites and phone numbers listed. Good luck!