Whenever I think of Christmas and cross stitch; Scandinavian designs come to mind. In fact, I’ve supplied patterns to numerous magazines like Xstitch and Lakeside Needle Crafts Winter Cross Stitch Book on the very same style. But we don’t hear all that much from Scandinavian stitching. Where did the style come from, why is it associated with Christmas, and why is it such a unique style anyway?
Where Is It From?
Well, let’s start with the biggest issue in the room; it’s actually Nordic. And even then, it could also be a little bit Baltic. The style is wider than purely Scandinavian countries, spreading all the way from Iceland to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In the 17th century, the Swedish empire included much of this area and it’s here that our story starts.
With parts of the Swedish empire above the arctic circle, winters were long, dark, and cold. This meant looking after livestock, the main source of farming at the time, was a cold and harsh task. It took longer, and farmers were far more grateful for the warmth of the hearth after a good day’s work. But while the empire reached ever outward in this century, the lives of everyday farmers weren’t one of luxury and riches. With passes and travel, routes cut off with snow and ice for most of the year, people didn’t travel, and they definitely didn’t get anything new.
This meant for many the only way to get new items was to craft them. Men moved to carving and whittling, creating furniture, while women occupied their time with looms creating and repairing clothing and textiles; vital pieces of equipment given the weather. But Scandinavian architecture wasn’t quite on the level of other nations of the time, with large fires in the center of homes which bellowed smoke without proper ventilation. This meant any textiles created were often blackened quickly.
Luxury linens were saved for church services and put away afterward to avoid the smoke. This meant that the only fashion of the time was that of church wear.
The Nordic Cross Stitch Style
Due to the harsh winters, travel between villages and towns was not possible, so any clothing was repaired with whatever was close to hand. Red flax farmed in the area and black wool from grazing animals formed the only tools to hand. As they were church clothes, most of the fixes and iconography were stars and crosses for their connection with religion.
Regional designs stayed fairly consistent with laws banning luxury goods kept the creation of new designs illegal. But when these laws were revoked in the 1800s with mass industrialization following soon after, craft really developed.
Much like any industrial industry, poor-quality goods flooded the market, but due to the austere times felt by many Scandinavians only a few decades before meant many rejected these poor-quality items. Craft was not only a small movement like other industrial nations, but was heavily protected and invested in.
These protections came with a level of cottage industry most countries haven’t seen. Crafters would be hired to create designs based on patterns in some of the earliest pattern books known. These would take note of the region and area of the purchaser and would become family heirlooms.
And there weren’t purely one-offs either. It became the fashion to display embroideries in homes, particularly above the fireplace. Why?
With time came improvements in homes, and the soot-filled smoky homes of a hundred years ago were replaced with clean and white interiors. The white linen of embroideries with vibrant red and black stitching in crosses and stars (which were close enough to religious iconography, but not too obvious) became a staple in most homes.
How Did It Spread To Other Areas?
So with a rich and unique history and a unique style that’s already in pattern books, why isn’t this stitching style more widely known?
Part of this is down to the nature of the patterns and their meanings. With each pattern being relevant to a specific region, it didn’t spread out to other nations. A French stitcher can’t just pull up a pattern without knowing its region, similar to how Scottish tartan works.
It’s also partly due to the insular nature that allowed the patterns to be created; without traveling around with each pattern, nations like Germany were able to mass produce their own pattern books, making a monopoly in the market.
When Nordic patterns did come back through into wider Europe, they were essentially classed as folk stitching, and not taken on by wider stitches.
Is It Cross Stitch Though?
There is one big factor in this whole story though; it’s not cross stitch.
Whilst we do see cross stitch patterns in this style, it’s actually hardanger, known in Norway as Hardangersom or Hardangersaum, and is a form of whitework stitched on evenweave. These patterns are stitched on top of with colored threads, called ‘smoyg’, and that gives us the unique style we try to emulate in cross stitch. Due to the combination of two embroidery styles, it’s simply not as popular.
It has been borrowed quite heavily though for knitting patterns, such as Christmas jumpers!
But why do we associate it with Christmas?
That one, thankfully, is easier to answer. Santa lives in Lapland, and this style of embroidery is from there!
So next time you think up a Christmas cross stitch pattern or are wearing a knitted Christmas jumper, give a little thought to one of the lesser-known embroidery styles in the world.
Happy stitching!
Lord Libidan