Passion for knitting

It was just after Christmas in 2012, and Dorthe Skappel was about to venture into the mountains to spend a few peaceful days at the cabin of a good friend. As usual, this meant a whole series of lovely, romantic movies, and as always, a knitting project. Since the weekend was planned for lots of chatting and coziness, it was important that the knitting project wasn't too complicated. Therefore, the choice was made for a simple, roomy sweater made of soft yarn, and it was to be finished before the Christmas holiday was over.

She finished in time, and back home in the city, her youngest daughter Marthe was thrilled with enthusiasm for this simple sweater design and immediately adopted the garment. When she was photographed for an article in the fashion magazine "Costume", she highlighted the sweater as her favorite garment.

Maria, her eldest daughter, was equally excited about the garment, and Dorthe knitted a camel-colored version for her. She loved it to bits and was photographed wearing it on the cover of "Det Nye" magazine.

During this time, Maria ran a blog. When hundreds of comments poured in from readers who also wanted to get their hands on the garment, Maria and Dorthe decided to post the pattern for the garment on her blog. Dorthe dictated, and Maria wrote the pattern and drew explanations by hand.

The Skappel sweater takes Norway by storm

After the blog post, it skyrocketed. The alpaca yarn Dorthe had used sold out everywhere, there were long queues outside knitting stores, and several hundred people contacted via social media to share their successful knitting projects.

An entire generation of young people picked up their knitting needles.

The demand for the sweater was massive. That such a simple sweater would turn out to be so popular was a mystery to us. And the idea that the adventure would evolve into a knitting business was unthinkable at the time.

A rule that applies to most trends is that they disappear as quickly as they arise. But this time, the knitting trend that emerged around the Skappel sweater proved to be an exception to the rule.

Customers wanted the garment, and to get their hands on it, they had to learn to knit. After creating their first garment, customers experienced a sense of creativity and accomplishment. The desire for the garment was therefore replaced by the joy of creating and knitting. Since then, Skappel has become an established brand in the knitting industry. Dorthe Skappel hand-knits all new designs, and our brand is recognized for producing beginner-friendly patterns and quality yarn - with a promise that "everyone who wants to can learn to knit."

The first Skappel sweater is now displayed at the Norwegian Folk Museum in a permanent knitting exhibition, where it represents a part of Norway's recent knitting history.