Here’s a little holiday freebie for any of you who have kids, work with kids, or just like coloring inside the lines. My sister-in-law works with kids and I had a chance to help her plan a day of Scandinavian-themed crafts. We put a bunch of traditional stuff into the mix, but I found myself mind wandering into more creative territory… and I wound up quicky drawing up a couple of coloring sheets based on traditional Norwegian sweater patterns. They’re not terribly polished, but I figured I’d offer them up as downloads for any of my readers who might want to share these with kids they know.

I’ve simplified the motifs somewhat to make coloring easier, but I also wanted to stay faithful to the actual design, so these sweaters would still be recognizable. As such, the Marius sheet and the Fana sheet are probably best for kids with some real dexterity (though by all means, I’d be delighted if your two year-old went to town with some crayons and made a beautiful, colorful mess out of either of them – truly!). If the files open up in your browser, try right-clicking and selecting “save.” You can also right click on the link itself.

Download the Marius Sweater coloring sheet (pdf)
The Marius sweater, or mariusgenser, is pretty iconic. In fact, it’s arguably the most famous sweater in Norway. It’s that blue and white sweater with a bit of red up by the collar (blue, white, and red being the colors of the Norwegian flag). It was initially made famous by Marius Eriksen, a well-known skier, figher pilot, and actor.

Download the Fana Cardigan coloring sheet (pdf)
The Fana cardigan, or fanakofte, is also incredibly recognizeable to Norwegians. Like many traditional Norwegian patterns, the Fana cardigan was a regional design and took its name from a place. It is named for Fana, near Bergen. The combination of the stripes (with the dots, or “lice pattern”) with the star or flower motifs and the checkerboard is incredibly traditional.

Download the Make Your Own coloring sheet (pdf)
The third sheet is a blank sweater template. I’m the kind of knitter who believes that anyone is capable of designing a sweater, if they set their mind to it. You may have to learn some skills along the way, but everyone has that creative potential. I love to encourage that kind of creative confidence in children, and so I made a blank sweater coloring sheet so that kids (or adults!) could draw up any design they could imagine. Stripes, patterns, symbols, words, cats, dogs, snowmen, candy… the possibilites are endless. Even a solid colored sweater would look nice.

These aren’t perfect, and they’re a little quick and sloppy, but I hope you enjoy them all the same. It may be a little quiet around here over the next few weeks as I’m traveling for the holidays, but I’m going to do my best to line up some posts!