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This is a modern version of the Lusekofte Norwegian sweater. Still made in Norway, but weirdly for the USA Olympics ski team in 2006 or 2007. You may be thinking, “What a weird freaking hook to start this piece off with.” That’s an incredibly polarizing sweater. I know. But the technology used in the Lusekofte sweater is… You’ll like it. It’s very, very cool.
The Norwegian fishing sweater that you love that Elioan makes and everything like that uses the same little trick that these, which are variations of the Norwegian lice sweater, use. This pattern exists for a specific reason besides decoration. That’s why I love it.
If the Lusekofte is not your speed though, I’m sure I have something that you would like in my giant sack and also not in my giant sack. A bunch of other sweaters are in this article. But check this out. This is the original and true fishing sweater.
And according to the author Stella Ruhe, who wrote a book on the Dutch Gansey, these originally had pompoms hanging down right here so you could wipe jellyfish venom from your eyes. And fishermen who were wearing these sweaters wanted to get them as covered in like fish guts and oils and waxes and get them as dirty as possible while fishing because that made them warmer and more windresistant.
And that some sailors would need to come home and sit in oil with their sweaters on before they could pull it off cuz it was so fused to their skin.
The Mythology of Sweaters
Now seems like a good enough time as any to mention there was also a lot of folklore and myths around sweaters. The whole identifying a fisherman’s body from the sweater that he wore when he washed ashore.
There’s whole academic papers written on if that’s true or not. And well, we’ll get to that. Ireland.
The Goal
The goal of this article is to find the perfect sweater. Whether that be a $30 one that you got on eBay, which I have plenty of, or a $560 one you got from Filson’s website, which I… is kind of… I use this piece as an excuse to finally buy that sweater and see why it cost $560. But really, the goal is to go over literally everything that we can about sweaters.
Why do some of the arms sit straight out? How does that affect fit versus ones that point down? Tapering, felting, and then my favorite part, the history of sweaters from all over the world, and why different countries designed them a certain way. Cuz once you know that, you’ll realize that every single brand on the face of the planet is basically copying six sweaters. And then you can pick the perfect one for you that you want.
This… Well, I don’t want to spoil it. I really like the Gansey. You see that little diamond right there?
Article Structure
This article will be split into six distinct sections.
Each section will be highlighted by a graphic that one of my good friends, Robin, from high school made about each sweater. In between those sections will be a graphic that I made that looks something like this. Haven’t designed it yet, but that’s what I’m thinking. And that will be bare bones.
How to find a $600 sweater on eBay for $20 or $30 and you know how to get a good sweater that fits you well and that you really like. So that’s the article structure, that’s the woods, and that’s a sack.
Norway: The Lusekofte and Stranded Knitting
Norway has a really cool history with sweaters. Possibly the coolest one, the Gansey sweater up there, but Norway is pretty sick. Essentially, they were like, “Hey, listen. We’re not part of Denmark anymore. Let’s make the sweaters that we want to.”
And that’s exactly what they did. So all of this stuff and all the stuff that you kind of associate with Christmas like this eight-pointed star rose. It’s all very symbolic and it’s incredibly religious. I don’t… This is Dale of Norway. It’s modern.
So now it’s kind of fallen into just decoration. But it used to be like this means life and death. This means protection. This means that, this means here, this outerwear, the ugly Christmas sweater, everything like that. Norway. That was the symbol of Norway. They wanted national pride and stuff like that. And this was it. All of this stuff on it.
The Fisherman’s Perspective
But Norway fisherman like this for a different reason and my favorite reason. A much more calm sweater that you’d probably feel more comfortable wearing which the original came from Devold, D-E-V-O-L-D, that you may recognize as the L.L.Bean Norwegian sweater that was designed for fishermen.
And the Lusekofte translates I think roughly to lice sweater and those little triangle things, lice, because this is stranded knitting. It’s like two sweaters, two layers of yarn.
See how there’s like these floating yarns? Like they’re just kind of floating across to where they need to be knitted into next. It’s not just one uniform size and shape. That is literally just another layer of yarn going over the entire pattern.
And that’s why you have these shapes so you can double up the thickness of the sweater and have these very loose lofty yarns throughout. Dale of Norway hyper warm.
Icelandic Lopapeysa
And an honorable mention if we go that way a little bit is the Icelandic Lopapeysa sweater. Lopapeysa. I pre-record the pronunciation just in case I can’t remember when I’m in the woods. Lopapeysa. Lopapeysa.
Icelandic sheep were brought to Iceland by the Vikings in like the 9th or 10th century and then just freaking left there. People of Iceland in the 1930s were looking like as machines took over. They were like, “What kind of industry can we build with what we have?” And boom, the Icelandic Lopapeysa sweater.
There’s still stranded knitting going on here and here. It’s also knit in the round on the top block, so there are no seams here, which is cool. But the coolest thing about the Lopapeysa sweater is the yarn that they used is not twisted.
Nowadays, I think actually most things are twisted, but untwisted yarn or pencil roving is literally just the fibers are aligned, but they’re never spun. So, very fragile, but super lofty, super warm. And traditionally, they use both types of wool found on the Icelandic sheep. So, the really long coarse wool and the really short soft wool, the guard wool and the insulation wool. They would put it together and then boom, Lopapeysa.
Sweater Fit Tips #1: Sleeve Construction and Taper
Usually during the day, you’re doing one of three things with your arms. Either they’re down by their side and you’re doing things like walking or maybe you’re reaching forward or typing or grabbing something or doing a lot of stuff like this or you’re really putting them up and going crazy.
People that are making sweaters, jackets, and everything like that are trying to guess what you’re doing. And that’s why you have fashion versus work wear and stuff like that.
Reading Sleeve Construction
If you can see a picture on eBay of a sweater actually out like this, very important because this sleeve, you’ll see, is straight. It’s coming straight out. So, you’re going to have a lot of movement, a lot of different choices and flexibility. It’s also a freaking huge sleeve.
Now, our sleeve, although it’s raglan, so you do have some good movement, it’s pointed down a little bit more. And you can see this is probably not meant to be doing things like this for a very long time, but it is kind of comfortable this way and comfortable there. If you have your arms out, you’re doing work like that.
Another neat thing is, see how this sleeve really doesn’t taper till the end? Then it tapers in really aggressively. That’s great if you’re going to layer heavily because this will be comfortable. It won’t fill out and get super tight when you wear like a base layer or something like that.
And then finally, we can go the fashion way. This is from Buck Mason. It’s not 100% perfect, but you get that Da Vinci kind of style. So, you could see the difference in full mobility, slightly different mobility, and then a more fashion focused mobility. And you can also see it with this taper. This right here is going to get tight around your arm. So, if you put a big base layer on, probably going to be less comfortable than this. And this.
Body Taper
Another important thing for fit is looking at the taper of your knitwear in general. This Buck Mason piece tapers down pretty heavily. So that’s good if you’re short like me because I can fold this up and since it’s tapered, it will stay up and shorten the silhouette out in general. You’ll see in most photos I’m trying to roll things up cuz I’m not very tall. This would make it much harder.
Shetland: The OG Soft Wool
Shetland sheep are kind of the OGs of the word that everybody likes. Now everybody likes the word merino cuz that means soft wool, but Shetland was before that and still has its merits. Although it is a little rougher than people expect, I feel like in modern days, but you probably wouldn’t say Shetland wool is rough. You would say it feels dry. Like you could still wear it on bare skin, but it’s a little coarse.
Shetland wool from the Shetland sheep on the Shetland Islands brought there by the Vikings who were just carting sheep apparently all over the world dropping them off like it was their first day at school. They’re very cool little small balls of fire that run around the Shetland Islands and eat seaweed all day.
The Knitting Tradition
The people of the Shetland Islands were incredibly and are incredibly skilled knitters and wool processors. That was a major source of their industry. And oftentimes, the knitters didn’t get paid money for their knitting. They had to barter with their knitted goods. So they would figure out ways to knit insanely fast and keep good quality, which made them machines, so they could turn out sweaters like crazy.
And then knitting machines came. Things got even faster. It was a source of pride and is a source of pride for the Shetland Islands. So the quality stayed up and a Shetland sweater typically has a lot of oomph behind it in name because you’re going into a world of generational knitters and ranchers and everything like that, and you get crazy cool quality and characteristics.
This Shetland sweater is completely undyed. This is the color of the sheep and there’s like 11 different colors that a Shetland sheep will be or close enough and they kind of blend it all together.
So, it is and remains the king of interesting texture, long-lasting anti-pilling wool that you can still wear against the skin.
Ireland: The Aran Sweater
The Aran sweater. Ireland as the whole country, please don’t kill me about this part because I… I actually think it’s way cooler that the Aran sweater myths and stuff like that tie in like it is part of their history, but the Aran sweater is public enemy number one when we’re talking about factual reasons that it exists and folklore and stuff like that.
The Legends vs. Reality
I think everybody and their mother knows the legends of the Aran sweater. Like the biggest one is that these patterns were used to identify fisherman’s bodies that washed ashore. That’s a big one.
Another big thing was these all meant something according to like Irish legend like prosperity or fishing nets or long life whatever, a lot of different things. And then really one of the biggest sources of folklore was that these were fisherman sweaters at all. These are what fishermen put on to go fishing.
Some of them could have, some of their bodies could have been identified if they washed ashore wearing these, but that is exceedingly rare because this is not the structure of a fisherman’s sweater or how they’re built. But it is reminiscent of the Gansey that we’re talking about a little bit.
You’ll notice that one, these are knit very loose. So, I can stick my finger in it. A fisherman’s sweater wouldn’t be knit that loose cuz it really needs to protect you.
Also, these yarns are not spun tight or twisted tight at all. They’re very lofty, very soft, very comfortable, but probably again not what a fisherman would wear. And then the most obvious thing you probably notice right away, the Gansey’s blue, the Aran sweater is white. Why?
The Economic Story
The Aran sweater was brought to the Aran Islands and rural areas to help boost the economy up and help give knitters something to sell and something to make their lives better. So you may not have had blue dye or you couldn’t clean the wool the same as everybody else, but you had wool so you could knit it into this.
Also, at the same time, it photographed really well when you’re sending it over to places like America who have a very high Irish-American population and they’re nostalgic for Ireland. So they want these.
So all of a sudden a country like Ireland is like, “Hey, let’s make a movie and show how tough and cool we are and what we’re doing and all the struggles and how we overcome them and let’s make some products that people in America would freaking love.” So all of a sudden bands have these sweaters on. Grace Kelly’s advertising them and it’s all stemming out from Ireland to boost the economy and help people that are really really struggling.
But what’s cool is that when I looked online in a lot of knitting forums and everything like that, people were really sick about like it’s just a tourism thing. It’s just it’s not original. It’s not authentic. But it is. I feel like it’s far enough away now where part of the history of these sweaters is bolstering Ireland.
And the way they did it of adding all this mythical lore and stuff to them is a brilliant way of doing that. And if it was the year 2500, you’d look back and be like, “Oh, the Irish Tourism Board, I forget what the board was called, they convinced everybody of this, made a beautiful sweater, and like bolstered everybody up, and this is a major source of Irish pride because of that.”
So while originally these symbols were kind of just a derivative of the Gansey and everything like that, and then they got stuff added to them later. Now that is what they mean because they did symbolize prosperity. They did symbolize strength and they did a lot. So this is an icon for many reasons but not really fishermen.
Sweater Tip #2: Identifying Felted Sweaters
Sweater tip number two. This is specifically eBay but sweaters felt. I was very excited about this L.L.Bean made in Scotland sweater. But if you look closely, see how the texture of this knit is really lost. It just looks really fuzzy as compared to something like this. You can actually see the stitches going on.
That’s certainly not a foolproof way to see if it’s felted because some brands do it on purpose. But if you go on eBay and someone says they have an extra extra large sweater that fits like a small or a large sweater that fits like a small, definitely probably felted. And you can block it, wet it, and stretch it out to the size that you hopefully want it to be.
But it doesn’t always work. But if you do get a felted sweater and it does fit you, that will probably be the warmest, thickest, most water windresistant sweater that you’ve ever had in your life. So, it could work both ways.
Cashmere: The Goat Fiber
The first thing you need to know about cashmere is that it’s from a goat. This goat to be specific, the cashmere goat. The second thing that you should probably know about cashmere is that it has very fine and hollow fiber.
So, it’s very warm for its weight ratio. The third thing that you should probably know is I was going to say in this piece why get cashmere when modern-day wool is so soft and then I got cashmere and I was like oh okay got it.
And the fourth and final thing that you should know is that our cashmere friends, the goats, they’re not doing so hot and I actively discourage you to ever get cashmere that’s very cheap.
The Quality Problem
There’s a Wire Cutter article talking about the best cashmere under $100 and it opens by saying I think like the second runner up or something pilled after 20 rubs together like running the fabric over your fingers together against itself.
Personally, I don’t think you should ever buy anything that’s going to start pilling after 20 rubs between your fingers. This… it’s just doesn’t… it’s not a real thing. It’s… it’s basically dissolving as you walk.
If you’re going to buy cashmere, either go used. I got this William… Look at this. I got this William Lockie made in Scotland cashmere sweater on eBay used. It doesn’t fit me at all, but the cashmere is good and not a single pill on it. And it was used and it still feels thick and supple. And look at this. It has been betwixt my fingers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 41, 42… 66, 67, 78, 9, 100. Look at that. Not a single pill on that son of a gun.
The Expert’s Take
This piece that I’m wearing right now is from Wolf Versus Goat. And I actually interviewed Mauro about cashmere because I consider him one of the greatest cashmere experts in the world.
But either way, I interviewed Mauro just to ask him like what the heck is happening? How can a brand make $100 cashmere and say it’s grade-A Mongolian fibers at this staple length and this micron? I was driving myself insane trying to figure out like what are they doing?
And Mauro said it plainly. He was like, I don’t know. I’ve touched it. Brands have asked me for help before in the past, big brands, and I touch it, I say that does not feel like cashmere, so I can’t help you. And that’s it. Sometimes the answer of like, how is that possible is it’s not. There’s just something that we’re not telling you.
Alternatives to Cashmere
You can get something that feels kind of close like you can go the lamb’s wool route, which a lot of times is going to be brushed. You can go Geelong or Geelong, I think might be how they say it in Australia. Alpaca, yak, brushtail possum, raccoon. There’s a bunch of different alternatives that you probably don’t have to compromise on cuz that’s a big thing.
This, I’m wearing a cotton sweater right now. There’s really no compromises on most cotton sweaters, even one that’s like 50 bucks. You can pay $250 for wool and it will absolutely destroy a $250 cashmere sweater because they don’t have to make as many compromises to hit that price point. They really don’t have to make any for a wool sweater that will last you forever.
Guide Sweaters: The Heavy Hitters
The mighty guide sweater, aka my favorite category.
Well, my second favorite. I love guide sweaters. They’re exactly what they sound like. They’re sweaters that some big, strong, huge lumberjack would wear to guide you out of the woods and be, you know, cold or not cold or something like that. They’re also all blue today. They don’t have to be blue. That’s not a rule.
Oh, timer’s going off. 10:50. 10:50. What was supposed to happen at 10:50? Taylor’s like standing outside of yoga. All of her friends are like, “Is he going to come pick you up?” She’s like, “Yeah, I think so.”
Anyway, each of these guide sweaters has one main thing that I want to talk about for each one. This one’s Patagonia. Talk about that second.
Peter Storm – Made in USA Oiled Wool
Number one, Peter Storm, which I believe is now an English company, but originally was an American company. I’m not sure. This is made in the USA of oiled wool. I don’t know specifically what they’re talking about. I would assume it’s coated in something so it doesn’t pill.
We have this ridiculously giant collar which is very tight on my neck. The body is also tight to keep all that warm air close to me, but the arms are pretty open and not very tapered. And that’s where all the comfort comes in. So you can move a ton cuz you have all the mobility in the arms, but the body is nice and tight and cinched. I always feel like I’m saying the word stockinette knit very wrong. So I’m just going to say jersey.
Very similar knit to like a t-shirt, but it’s using very, very heavy yarns to get its bulk. Not something that’s kind of scrunching up and getting its bulk that way.
Patagonia – The Perfect Execution
But if we switch sweaters, this is one of the most incredible sweaters that I’ve ever had in my life. To the point where I highly suggest go on eBay, type in Patagonia wool sweater and nothing else.
Don’t add in your favorite color or your size or anything like that. Just see if one of these exists and if you can make it fit you. Don’t go too small, go too big. But still, this I would say is literally a perfect execution on a sweater from fit to finish to feel. Everything brilliant.
See how this doesn’t look like a real clean consistent V-shape. It looks kind of like bunched up at all of these little points. And then if we look inside of the sweater, you get that consistent V. That’s what leads me to think it’s a cardigan stitch. That stitch does a lot of work pulling the actual knit together.
So, you have a very thick sweater with a lot of loft to it. And the yarns are spun pretty tight, obviously. They have this nice hairiness to them. They’re firm, but not hard. You can wear it next to skin, but I’ve already sourced the correct… Well, maybe not the exact same yarns, but as close as I could possibly get to the yarns used on this in the sweater for the Billy Goat V1. I already have them. I already have them. They feel the exact same. I got a half cardigan stitching. It feels good. Awesome.
Uh, but I do have very bad news about the Billy Goat V2. So, I will share that in a little bit later. That’s a serious topic. I’ll email you about it.
Anderson & Sheppard – The Tank
Okay, you want to see the heaviest sweater of the entire list? It’s an absolute tank. One second. It’s going to take me like an hour to put it on. There’s no front or back on this. So, there’s no label. You could put it on either way.
Anderson & Sheppard, a sweater so nice they named it twice. This is like I don’t… I’m terrible at estimating, but like 800 pounds. It’s incredibly heavy. What stood out right away is that any… Oh, okay. It’s on backwards.
Sorry. Take… take back that front and back thing. Let’s put the mic on my crotch right now. How the heck are you supposed to know? Is there any sign that there’s a front and back? Okay, here we go again. Anderson & Sheppard. A sweater. So… What the heck? I did it again. What is going on? Like back on my crotch. One, two. Anderson & Sheppard. A sweater.
So, what I was trying to say is any sweater brand that trusts their knit enough to let you put your thumb through it consistently and like without care, that is a brand that trusts their knits 100%. The weight of this sweater is so great. I’d feel like a superhero when I put it on. I would confidently stand in front of a hostage like this and think I could take a bullet.
D1920 – The Hard Sweater
This, by the way, is not really a guide sweater, but I feel like it kind of fit in. D1920 also kind of fits somewhat in this category. When we’re talking about tightly spun yarns, their yarns on this quarter-zip that I have is so tight the sweater feels hard. I reached out to D1920 and they’re like, “Yeah, that’s not pilling no matter what.”
Either way, the craftsmanship is executed to an incredibly high level. There’s no corners cut whatsoever. It’s insanely heavy and if you like that there’s very few options. Maybe Heimat who’s going to send me something I think to look at soon. So yeah, Anderson & Sheppard a knitwear company so nice they named it.
Filson – The $560 Guide Sweater
And then we have the $560 Filson guide sweater. Filson oftentimes uses the best materials in the most straightforward simple way and they cut everything for people to work in that formula.
Most brands, they’ll use the same materials, but they’ll cut it for fashion. Or they’ll cut it for work wear, they’ll not use the same level of materials. Filson does. So again, I think this is a half cardigan stitch. It’s made from merino, but it’s probably a very long fibered merino. It’s spun decently tight, but it’s soft. Feels good against the skin.
The important thing is the fit. This, I am layered under here. Like I said, I have a big base layer on right now. It’s cold. I’m not being a baby. It’s very cold out today. Arctic wind is coming in. It’s cut like a freaking tank.
This is an extra small. It’s still too big on me with some pretty big layers on under it. All that is to say, I put the sweater last because it’s consistently the one I wear the most. It just feels most up to the task with whatever I’m doing. And when Taylor saw this and put it on, she was like, “Can I wear this more?” And I was like, “Yeah.”
Sweater Tip #3: Fully Fashioned Construction
This is the Iron Snail Billy Goat sweater. Sample size small. As you can see, need to update you on that via email. I have bad news. But as you can see right here and right here, we have decrease stitches going on because this sweater is fully fashioned. It is linked together in the knit instead of cut and sewn together. So, it’s just a panel of fabric that is then cut and sewn. It’s a different way of making a sweater. Both of them function as a sweater, but this takes longer. It’s harder to do. Usually, it is considered to be a higher quality sweater when it has that.
Nowadays, there’s a lot of modern machines that can actually make a seamless sweater, which just like knit it in a whole, whole garment knitting. But if we’re looking vintage and very hyper expensive and fancy today, you can look up hand-framed, fully fashioned, hand-knit, all of that is indicative of someone taking more care on the garment in general, and it’s a good eBay search term.
The Gansey: The Ultimate Fisherman’s Sweater
My Gansey was hand-knit for me in the traditional fashion by a woman named Jen on Etsy. She has four adult children. Forget what else she wrote, but it’s right here. I asked her to say some things. I really wanted a traditional Gansey and it was hard to find.
And there’s a few brands that I’ll put below that you can get one made for yourself. But getting a true hand-knit one with all of the hallmark features is kind of hard. That was very warm fuzzy feeling. By the way, thank you everybody that followed her and sent her nice messages.
The Design Philosophy
The Gansey is over 400 years old like this design and it’s clearly been refined for that long because it is the most well-thought-out sweater that I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s a lot of stuff built into the Ganseys that are fascinating.
First off, why does this end here? Typically, this was the area of the sweater that got the most wear. So, as a fisherman was working, this would get damaged and it was easy since these sweaters were knit in the round to pull the yarn out and repair it or just to actually stitch in a little repair on the actual stockinette jersey knit area.
But at the same time, there’s an awful lot of Ganseys from that era that are fully patterned out. And that is because some people didn’t knit this pattern all along the sweater because this saved more yarn and yarn was hard to come by in like the 1700s. So, you didn’t want to just go willy-nilly on it.
Functional Features
This area gets the patterns cuz it’s lofted so it’s warmer. This gets the wear and this gets the wear. So, you do it in a way that’s easier to repair. You want a really tight neck anyways on your sweater to keep the cold out.
So, that also allows you to make a fully reversible sweater. So, you can reverse it so it gets even wear on either side. You can also add little things where if you’re putting something over your shoulders, you can make it a little bit more durable with the stitch type that you use.
The arms on a Gansey, you’ll notice they’re a little shorter than normal. I asked Jen to make them a little bit shorter because traditionally they were shorter. If you have your hands in something, you don’t want to rip up the cuffs.
And finally, possibly my favorite feature of a Gansey. See this little diamond gusset? Well, it’s actually not little. This pretty big diamond gusset under the arm that allows the sweater to be really tight. The arms can be pretty tight and you can raise your arm up without the sweater riding up. You have a lot more flexibility and movement.
And, We’re Done!
Wool sweaters nowadays, I feel like, exist in this really weird space where people wear fleece, like polyester fleece more. So nowadays sweaters are trying to get hyper soft, hyper comfortable, hyper cozy. But there is an insane amount of history of work wear and functional sweaters. And there is a lot of insanely nice hand-knit, hand-linked, hand-framed, whatever you want to say, sweaters on eBay for nothing. They’re actually very utilitarian and they look nice. Best of both worlds.
Anyways, that’s about it. Thanks for reading. Look at this bonehead hit my car. Hit and run.
The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.