Inspiration
In 2021, I visited the National Nordic Museum and fell in love with a sweater. The museum tells the story of Scandinavian immigration to North America. In the middle of the Norwegian immigration story display hangs this classic grey and white hand-knit Nordfjordkofte. Honestly, it haunted my dreams. From the first moment I saw it, I felt compelled to recreate it.

Fast forward two years, and I was able to fly to Seattle and spend a day with the sweater in preparation to teach this class. Wearing a pair of gloves, I examined it inside and out. The overall motif is a common one. But this version has such personality. The gauge is finer than most versions I’ve seen, but that’s exactly why I love it. It has a square neck. It is cropped and fitted. There is no button band because the buttonholes are in the fabric of the body. The cardigan was knit in the round and steeked, which is common. But the inside is lined with linen (a beautiful finishing touch). The front features a lovely hand-woven Nordic ribbon and charming pewter reindeer buttons.

My version works out a few minor quirks and irregularities of the original while maintaining everything that makes the sweater special. If you choose similar colors and yarn, your Nordfjordkoftke will look, feel, and wear like an exact replica of the one in the museum.
The fitted sweater can be made in six sizes from 33 ¾ to 63 inches (buttoned up). Note that the gauge changes depending on the size you are making. Ready to knit? This is going to be fun! This pattern included extensive instructions on how to tailor fit this garment to fit you perfectly. If you need a smaller or larger size than listed in the pattern, please message me for instructions.

Materials For Cropped Sweater
Yarn: Rauma Finullgarn / 175 m per 50 g ball
Main color (MC): Grey No. 404 | 5 (5, 6, 7,8, 9) skeins or approx. 800 (870, 1144, 1208, 1386, 1610) meters of equivalent yarn
Contrasting color (CC): White No.401 | 4 (4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7) skeins or approx. 591 (640, 794, 806, 925, 1071) meters of equivalent yarn
If you would like to make a longer version, add an additional skein of yarn in each color.

Needles: Gauge size needles in 32 (40)” / 80 (100) cm circular needles for body, and DPNs or Flexiflips and 16” / 40 cm circular needles for sleeves.
Suggested needle size: 2.75 mm (a little smaller than a US 2)
Three metric sizes below gauge-size needle in 32 (40)” / 80 (100) cm circular needles for body ribbing and DPNs for cuff ribbing
Suggested needle size 2 mm/ US 0

Notions: 8 (8, 8, 9, 10, 10) 20 mm or 7/8-inch Norwegian pewter buttons. Button number is determined by length of the cardigan from the cast-on edge to the bind-off for the square neck. The cardigan in the Museum has 8 vintage moose pewter buttons.
Suggested buttons: I used “Elg” (moose) buttons.
2 yds / 2 m of 0.75”/ 2-cm wide ribbon to trim the cardigan opening and around the neck, ½ yard x 57”/50 cm x 145 cm linen, a darning needle, stitch markers, scrap yarn, sewing thread and needle (for the ribbon and the lining) and sewing machine to prepare the body to cut the steeks, and to hem the linen lining. DMC Coton Perle 8 Color: Ecru to reinforce the buttonholes by hand.

Gauge and Swatch- Note: The original sweater was made using the metric system. Inches are added for reference. It works best to knit this pattern using the metric system. As always, if you set your gauge to inches the sweater will be a tad larger than the metric version.
29 stitches and 29 rows = 10 cm for Size S, M, L and XL
24 stitches and 24 rows = 10 cm Size XXL, XXXL

Sizes
Women’s S (M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL)
Recommended ease: 3–5” / 7.5–12.5 cm of positive ease

Finished Measurements
Bust circumference: 33 ¾ (39 7/8, 46 ¼, 52, 55 ½, 63 ¼)” or 84 (99.5, 115, 130, 142, 161) cm with the cardigan buttoned.
35 ½ (41 ½, 47 ½, 53 ½, 57, 64 ¾)” or 88.6 (103.8, 119, 134, 143, 162) cm with the cardigan unbuttoned
Full length: 22 ½ (22 ½, 24, 25 ½, 26 ¾, 26 ¾)” or 57 (57, 61, 65, 68, 68) cm
Length of body from cast-on edge to neck shaping: 18 ½ (18 ½, 20, 21, 22 ¼, 22 ¼)” or 47 (47, 51, 53.5, 56.5, 56.5 or approx. 4 (4, 4, 4 ½, 4 ½, 4 ½)” or 10 (10, 10, 11.5, 11.5, 11.5) cm short of the final length of the cardigan.
Armhole depth: 7 ½ (8 ½, 9, 9 ½, 10 ½, 11 ¼)” / 19 (21, 23, 23.5, 26, 28) cm
Upper arm circumference: 15 (16 ¾, 18, 19 ¼, 20 ¾, 22 ½)” or approx. 38 (42, 46, 47, 52, 56) cm
Sleeve length: 17 ½ (19, 19, 19, 20, 20)” / 44.5 (48.5, 48.5, 48.5, 51, 51) cm. Note! Sleeve length measurement does not include facing.

Skills used to make this heirloom sweater

Longtail cast on
Knit
Purl
Colorwork in the round
Buttonholes
Backward loop increase
Binding off
Three-needle bind off
Increasing sttiches in colorwork
Two-color longtail cast on
Handsewing

This pattern includes extensive instructions for tailoring this cardigan to fit you perfectly and instructions on how to calculate buttonholes and length in colorwork for a tailor-made garment.