Scandinavia has a rich knitting tradition, but this tradition doesn’t date back to the Viking age (roughly end of 8th century-mid 11th century). Vikings didn’t knit. Therefore it makes no sense to publish books with titles such as Viking knits or Viking Patterns for knitting, etc.
It’s a pity, really. Vikings had lovely sheep and were so good at spinning their fleece and weaving it into huge sails, you’d think they could have used some of it to knit some warm garments too. But they didn’t. They did a little sprang and quite a bit of nalebinding (naalbinding). In fact, the tradition of naalbinding hasn’t worn out entirely in these regions. Nevertheless nalebinding is tedious and yes, it’s a pity they spent so much time nalebinding stuff that could have been knitted in half the time.
It doesn’t make sense either to publish videos on youtube with titles such as “How to viking knit?” Such titles are misleading and almost always refer to the nalebinding technique (a technique also refered to as single needle knitting and knotless knitting). The Nalebinding technique have been used and it seems-invented- in many parts of the world. The nalebinding techniques isn’t specific to the Vikings, nor is their use of threads of metal to nalebind things like bracelets. Nalebinding has been along for a long long time and it evolved into many stitches. And when a name – such as the Oslo stitch – seems to point to a Scandinavian origin – keep in mind these names only refer to the places where archeologists first discovered an artifact using that specific stitch.
During the Viking Age, Scandinavians reared short-tailed sheep (oh beloved Spælsau, Icelandic sheep & co!). Nowadays, they also breed some modern species, such as the Norwegian White sheep, or the Swedish Texel. But why, o why call a yarn company that sells Merino wool “Vikings of Norway”? Vikings never bred Merino sheep. They took their little short-tailed sheep with them wherever they settled, and yes, as far as Greenland (poor sheep!). If you want to knit wool that is vaguely similar to actual “Viking wool”, go for these specific short-tailed breeds. And very finely spun wool, as this is how they would have spun it for their sails and woven garments.
Maybe you don’t care. But fake history irks me. So…
Unsolicited Knitting Advice 