Danish Delight: The Beautiful Yarns of Isager

The northern coast of Denmark is known for many things: windswept beaches, dramatic landmarks, and a long tradition of beautiful handknits. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that renowned knitwear designer Marianne Isager was born there—and chose the village of Tversted to be headquarters of her eponymous company. Isager (pronounced EE-say-eh) has been creating unique handknitting designs and an extensive range of natural-fiber yarns since it was founded in 1977.

Elevating the Craft

While Marianne Isager founded her workshop over 45 years ago, the company’s story actually begins before that, with a Danish textile pioneer named Åse Lund Jensen (1920–1977). In the early part of the twentieth century in Scandinavia, knitting was considered more of a folk craft than an art. Textile workshops focused on other handcrafts, such as weaving or embroidery. Åse Lund Jensen’s passion, however, was knitting. She found great inspiration in Danish, Icelandic, and Faroese knitting culture. Through her striking designs, Jensen established handknitting as its own separate discipline in the arts and crafts movement of the time. She tirelessly promoted knitting through her own work and as a teacher, founding her own workshop in 1960.

Jensen was a meticulous designer who believed that knitted garments should be as well-made as tailored clothing. She made multiple sample garments to perfect construction and fit for each design. She drew from Scandinavian knitting traditions, adding her own unique and somewhat minimalist style. Dissatisfied with the yarns that were being produced at the time, Jensen decided to create her own yarn ranges. Jensen initially sold finished sweaters but once customers clamored to knit their own Jensen designs, she became an educator as well. She wrote several influential books about knitting, some of which are still in use today.

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In the early 1970s, a young student named Marianne Isager began training as a weaver and textile printer at the School of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen. Fate intervened when Isager attended a 1973 retreat at a handcrafts school and met Jensen. Isager also became fascinated with handknitting. The two struck up a close friendship, with Jensen serving as a mentor to the younger student.

From One Legacy to the Next

Sadly, Åse Lund Jensen died a few years later, leaving her workshop (including the yarn and pattern rights) to Marianne Isager. (At the time, Isager was only 23 years old and still a weaving student!) Isager finished her studies and went on to found Isager Yarn, preserving Jensen’s legacy and beginning to build her own.

While Isager still offers some of Jensen’s patterns and several of the original yarns that she created, Marianne Isager added her own spin, propelling the company through four-and-a-half decades of success. She has produced an extensive portfolio of designs and written numerous books, including her current series of books called A Knitting Life. Each book provides a retrospective of Isager’s work at various times, and includes brand-new patterns with her trademark style and craftsmanship. Today she operates the company with her co-owner and daughter Helga. The Isager company is located in a former elementary school and consists of a retail shop, wholesale workshop, and educational space.

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Using Quality Fibers from the Get-Go

You’ll notice right away that Isager yarns have a distinctive look and style. Åse Lund Jensen had decided ideas about yarn—ideas that don’t sound unusual today, but they didn’t necessarily follow the conventional wisdom of the era. She insisted on producing premium yarns using fine-quality wool at a time when acrylic yarns were popular. Not only did better yarns last longer, they kept their shape and had a better hand (she reminded knitters that “cheap yarn is the most expensive”). Jensen also preferred more muted colors than the “glaring” (as she put it) shades that were in vogue in the sixties and seventies. As a result, she experimented with botanical dyes and heathered shades.

Isager offers several alpaca yarns. "Knitted alone or held together with other of our yarns, they create interesting textures and unique color combinations.

Isager yarns stay true to these principles today. Yarns are made from high-quality fibers, including alpaca, linen, organic cotton, kid mohair, and of course wool, as well as interesting fiber blends. Isager palettes are so timeless that many shades have been continuously produced since Jensen’s time. Palettes across different base yarns are cohesive and blend together beautifully. New colors are added from time to time and most yarns also come in undyed shades that showcase the natural cream, taupes, and browns of the fleece.

Many Isager yarns fall into the finer gauge ranges—laceweight, fingering weight, and sport. Originally, Jensen favored finer-gauge yarns because finished garments would weigh less and therefore be cheaper to ship to overseas customers. Another advantage of finer-gauge yarns is the ability to use yarns together, in a mix-and-match approach. A knitter can “build” their dream yarn by combining various fibers.

Laceweight skein, used in Cecelia Campochiaro’s Parastripe Shawl. Photo by Matt Graves

Combine Yarns for Unique Color and Texture

Of course, combining yarns also creates plenty of opportunities for knitters (and designers!) to play with color and texture. Heathered and non-heathered shades of the same color create subtle gradations; contrasting hues accentuate striking colorwork patterns; and an extra strand of hazy kid silk/mohair can unify disparate colors.

Cecelia Campochiaro’s Parastripe Shawl, available to Farm & Fibers subscribers, is a perfect pattern to experiment with the different textures and color effects of Isager yarn. The pattern features a syncopated chevron rib pattern knit with one strand of Isager’s Alpaca 1 yarn and one strand of Spinni. Alpaca 1 is a two-ply laceweight made of 100% alpaca; Spinni is an all-wool singles yarn reminiscent of traditional Icelandic shawl yarns (and one of the yarns originally created by Jensen). The resulting fabric, particularly after blocking, is light and airy.

Designer Cecelia Campochiaro explores texture in her Parastripe Shawl. Starting with the yarns—Spinni and Alpaca 1 from Isager—she works with a wool singles and a slightly fuzzy alpaca. This texture difference boosts the marled effect in this simple yet sophisticated chevron motif. Photo by Matt Graves

The gorgeous marled colors are creating by using four different shades of each base yarn, all clustered around the blue-green section of the color wheel. Different combinations of colors—there are sixteen in all—create the shifting marls. The interplay between high-contrast and low-contrast combinations makes it a fascinating and fun knit.

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Isager yarns and patterns are sold in knitting shops all over the world and many of Marianne Isager’s most popular designs are sold in kits. For more information about Isager yarns and the history of the company, visit isagerstrik.dk/en