Bergen Jacket - My first Norwegian Kofte

It is summer in Germany, but you cannot really feel it. The weather is highly unreliable and I already feel a bit of autumn-motivation in me. Do you know this feeling? The hunger for warm soup, the good feeling of selfknit socks on your feet and some needles in your hands.

In the beginning there was only yarn...

Summer often is a time of little knitting as you don't feel like wearing woolen clothes, or not even like holding them in your hands for making them. But I have been a busy bee and finally finished my Bergen Jacket.


You can find the free pattern on Ravelry. It is pretty easy to follow, but I mainly used it for the measurements. For the flowers in the colourful part I decided on an old pattern from Norgestrikk, a book I really love, mainly for all the history behind it and all the pictures. My wardrobe is not crazy with colour, so most of the patterns I would recreate with different colours than the vibrant Nordic ones.

I will not lie, it took me a while to finish the Kofte and it still has one or two flaws that I will hopefully improve in the next one I might be knitting in winter. I used Drops Nepal yarn, which is pretty warm, so unlike my fellow Norwegian knitters, I won't be able to wear my Kofte until winter. The Nepal yarn is easy to knit, feels nice and is not too itchy on the skin (almost every yarn feels itchy on my skin, I am a real sissy here.)

What took me longest, was, as always, adding the buttons and sewing the threads. Are you also as lazy when it comes to that last step? The button border turned out to be quite a challenge. After steeking (cutting the knit as a tube cardigan into a cardigan) one might assume that both halves would be the same length, sounds logical, doesn't it? However, when I wanted to add the button border they weren't. It was pretty weird. Now the added border wrinkles a bit, but I am ok with that. If it doesn't happen with a second one!

The shoulder part is a little bit tight and I was too impatient to add long sleeves. Having extra long arms I should have added some centimeters to the arms of the pattern, but no, by the time I was adding the arms I really wanted to be done, so now I always have to wear something underneath that has real long arms.

For all the flaws, I still love my Bergen Jacket and the way it turned out. It was a little adventure, especially with the steeking, but I am looking forward to more Kofte knitting and I am grateful for all the inspiration I get on facebook and instagram by all the Kofte-communities.

Now I am happy to finish the baby blanket Chalice and the socks I still have on my needles.

Securing the Steek 

Steeking, cutting into the cardigan