Making and wearing the Jussi sweater
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Practitioners and people who know the tradition well
The Jussi sweater is a traditional sweater worn especially in South Ostrobothnia and recognized throughout Finland. The Jussi sweater is made traditionally from wool and has a few recognisable features: a simple straight-cut design, traditionally burgundy and grey colouring, and a pattern of diagonal diamonds and stripes on the chest and sleeves. Jussi sweaters have been made in South Ostrobothnia since the early 20th century, and the wool sweater has become established as part of local culture. Originally, the traditional sweater was made on a hand-operated knitting machine using two beds. Jussi sweaters are currently also made by individual people as hand-knitted garments for their own use and as gifts. Jussi sweaters are still available as industrially machine-knitted products, and in Finland they are manufactured by two knitting mills. The Jussi sweater tradition refers both to the knitting of the sweaters and to the broader tradition of wearing them, in which industrially manufactured sweaters are also regarded as valuable.
The preservation and continuity of the Jussi sweater tradition have largely been influenced by the desire of South Ostrobothnian people to wear the Jussi sweater as a representation of the traditions of the region. The sweater is therefore usually made for a person with South Ostrobothnian family roots. The symbolic value and design of the sweater have also attracted broader production, and Jussi sweaters are now made industrially, for example in Asia, and sold in supermarkets. Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry has promoted the availability of domestically made ready-knit sweaters and has developed knitting instructions and maintained the availability of suitable materials for the sweater. Since 2023, Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry and Seinäjoki Museums have begun to collect more detailed information on the tradition related to the Jussi sweater.
Practising of the tradition
The Jussi sweater is one of the best-known symbols of South Ostrobothnian identity and is strongly connected with regional culture. The upper part of the Jussi sweater is burgundy and the lower part is grey. On the chest, at the point where the colours change, there are diagonal diamond patterns between the red and grey stripes, popularly known as salmiakki (“salty liquorice”) patterns. The diamonds contain both colours. Traditionally, the sweater is knitted on a knitting machine with two beds, and the shirtfront and sleeves are knitted in what is known as full-needle rib. At the point of the diamonds, the stitches are transferred onto neighbouring needles, and the fabric is knitted alternately in grey on all needles and in red only on the needles of the upper bed. Knitting a Jussi sweater on a hand-operated knitting machine is demanding, and the yarn must be thin enough and of good quality.
Since the late 20th century, Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry has safeguarded the tradition of making the Jussi sweater by organising courses for people interested in machine knitting and by commissioning ready-made Jussi sweaters from home knitters for sale. As the number of home knitters declined in the early twenty-first century, a Finnish knitwear factory was sought to manufacture the Jussi sweater, and there the sweater is still produced industrially on knitting machines according to the traditional model. The finishing of the sweaters is, however, still done by hand there as well. Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry has later also developed various making kits and hand-knitting instructions for Jussi sweaters for hobbyists.
The Jussi sweater has remained largely unchanged. The wool sweater is still a popular everyday garment and gift in South Ostrobothnia, but it is so strongly connected with Ostrobothnian identity that few people from elsewhere feel it natural to wear one. It is unique that a knitted garment has such a strong connection with South Ostrobothnia, and the Jussi sweater has an established user group. The Jussi sweater is easy to wear, and at the same time wearing it communicates locality. The Jussi sweater is worn mainly by men of different ages, and sometimes also by women. One of the best-known and most iconic wearers of the Jussi sweater is, for example, the “Giant of Kurikka”, skiing legend and former politician Juha Mieto.
The diagonal diamond pattern familiar from the Jussi sweater, both on its own and combined with horizontal stripes, is still used in the playing uniforms of Seinäjoen Maila-Jussit. The imagery of the Jussi sweater is also used in performance costumes by performing groups originating from South Ostrobothnia, such as Duudsonit, Rehupiikles and Elonkerjuu. “The Jussi sweater is the most natural shirt for a South Ostrobothnian”, the band Rehupiikles says to explain why it wears Jussi sweaters. The visual world of the Jussi sweater continues to be used very widely in various other products as well, such as jewellery, printed T-shirts and baby bodysuits. The Jussi sweater is also known in other popular culture. The comic strip Pöyrööt is set in South Ostrobothnia and written in dialect. The characters in the comic wear Jussi sweaters.
The use of the Jussi sweater is not, however, limited only to Ostrobothnia. It is also worn, for example, by the students at the University of Helsinki’s Etelä-Pohjalainen Osakunta (Nation of South Ostrobothnia). Etelä-Pohjalainen Osakunta is an active interdisciplinary student organisation with around 300–400 members, bringing together students in the Helsinki metropolitan area who are from Ostrobothnia or identify with Ostrobothnian culture. The history of the student nation goes back as far as the Ostrobothnian Nation of the Royal Academy of Turku in the seventeenth century, and it has operated as the South Ostrobothnian Nation since 1908. The wearing of the Jussi sweater is visible both in the everyday life and celebrations of the student nation. At the annual Parttenkoliaaset, the second most important celebration of the student nation, the dress code is a Jussi sweater or national costume. About 60 participants wear Jussi sweaters at the event every year. The salmiakki patterns familiar from the Jussi sweater often also appear in the decorations. The Jussi sweaters of the members have been inherited, received as gifts or made by the wearers themselves. Ostrobothnian students also wear the Jussi sweater as everyday clothing, as a reminder of their Ostrobothnian identity and roots amid the bustle of the Helsinki metropolitan area.
The background and history of the tradition
The Jussi sweater has been seen as being particularly connected with the play Pohjalaisia (“Ostrobothnians”) and the character Jussi Harri in it. Pohjalaisia is a play originally published by Artturi Järviluoma and written by Anton Kangas, which premiered at the National Theatre in 1914 under the direction of Jalmari Lahdensuo. Two later films of the same name were also based on the play. In the National Theatre’s first performance of Pohjalaisia in 1914, Jussi Harri wears a wool sweater similar to the Korsnäs sweater from Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia. In Jalmari Lahdensuo’s silent film version Pohjalaisia from 1925, Jussi Harri already wears the familiar Jussi sweater. It is therefore likely that the Jussi sweater was modelled on traditional wool sweaters and developed into a knitted sweater that was easier to make. Did the image of the defiance and stubbornness of Jussi Harri from the play Pohjalaisia also transfer to the Jussi sweater?
From the 1920s onwards, the University of Helsinki’s Etelä-Pohjalainen Osakunta developed for its own use, among other things as a sports shirt, a wool sweater very similar to the one seen in the film Pohjalaisia. The sweater of the student nation was created later than the film, and it is likely that the sweater in the film served as its model. Members of the student nation were already wearing Jussi sweaters in inter-nation Finnish baseball competitions in 1931, when the women’s team of EPO wore Jussi sweaters. During the 20th century, members of the student nation were also active performers of plays staged for social evenings and celebrations. In these plays, Jussi sweaters were often used as performance costume. The student nation still makes use of the Jussi sweater theme.
Members of the student nation founded a new Finnish baseball club in Seinäjoki in 1932. As a result of a naming competition, it was called Maila-Jussit, and the team’s representative uniform still features the familiar diagonal diamonds. As early as 1928, the Jussi sweater was advertised in Helsingin Sanomat to a wider Ostrobothnian public. The wool sweater became a phenomenon at the latest when South Ostrobothnian athletes achieved success in sporting competitions in the 1930s. The design has proved successful, as the sweater is still well known and widely used one hundred years later. The enduring design and strong symbolic meaning have carried the sweater to the present day.
Jussi sweaters have been knitted in networks of home weavers and in small weaving mills around South Ostrobothnia and elsewhere in Finland since the 1920s. In Orismala in Isokyrö, Tanner & Manner Oy operated a clothing factory and weaving mill between 1925 and 1930, producing men’s suits and women’s capes and weaving garments. The factory took the Jussi sweater, which became more common in the 1920s, into production at a very early stage. In autumn 1929, at least one shop in Seinäjoki and one in Kauhajoki advertised Jussi sweaters in newspapers. At the end of the 1920s, Jussi sweaters were advertised in Helsingin Sanomat to Ostrobothnians because “Christmas is coming, and everyone must have their own Jussi sweater – and no one else should wear it anyways”.
At Haapamäki weaving mill in Lapua, Jussi sweaters were produced from the 1930s until the early twenty-first century. In Nurmo, Jussi sweaters are known to have been woven and sold at the market in Lapua probably until the 1950s. In a weaving mill in Alahärmä, blue-grey Antti sweaters were the first to be made in the 1950s, and during the same decade Jussi sweaters were also woven in Ylihärmä.
At the church village of Isokyrö, Jussi sweaters were woven to order at least from the 1940s to the 1980s. Farm mistresses had Jussi sweaters woven from their own yarns for the masters of the household. Sweaters were ordered for people of all ages, and men wore high-collared sweaters made of thick wool as work shirts in winter. Home knitters, both women and men, are also known from, for example, Seinäjoki, Ilmajoki, Lapua, Jalasjärvi and Kaustinen, who made sweaters for relatives and acquaintances and for sale in shops as late as the 1990s. Home knitters often made sweaters as a sideline occupation. At that time, the knitters most often also passed on the skill to the next generation. In making the Jussi sweater, careful arrangement of the diagonal diamonds was considered important. The pattern was expected to continue seamlessly from the chest and back to the sleeves above the underarm. In industrially manufactured sweaters, aligning the pattern was not always as carefully finished, and the diamonds on the sleeve might be placed too low.
Over the years, the Jussi sweater has remained very similar, but the looseness of the sweater has changed according to fashion. The sweater may also have either a low or a high collar. Buttons are often sewn onto the shoulder of a high-collared sweater. In earlier times, skirts were also knitted from thin yarn using the patterning of the Jussi sweater, and women wore them together with a thin Jussi sweater.
The transmission of the tradition
Jussi sweaters were commonly worn in South Ostrobothnia as everyday shirts from the 1930s until the 2000s. Since then, the use of Jussi sweaters especially by South Ostrobothnian public figures and performing groups made the tradition visible to a broad audience. In general, the use of the patterns and models associated with the Jussi sweater has always been approached very flexibly, which has helped to safeguard this tradition. The Jussi sweater and its visual motifs continue to appear in people’s everyday life, in the news and across different media channels almost weekly in South Ostrobothnia.
As the availability of hand-operated knitting machines has declined, hand-knitting instructions for the Jussi sweater have increasingly been developed for both children and adults, and materials are available for hobbyists, making the sweater easily accessible to knitters. Jussi sweaters still appear regularly in social media knitting groups, where knitters discuss knitting them. Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry also advises hobbyists in matters related to making the sweater.
One example of the transmission of the tradition to new generations is the long-standing custom at Seinäjoki Upper Secondary School, where graduating students wear either national costume or a Jussi sweater on their last school day before the matriculation examinations.
The Juureva jussipaita (“Well-rooted Jussi sweater”) exhibition, created jointly by Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry and Seinäjoki Museums in 2023, also increased awareness of the history of the Jussi sweater and of its local and symbolic significance. At that time, information was gathered during the planning of the exhibition through a newspaper article in Ilkka-Pohjalainen, in which people were asked to share their knowledge about Jussi sweaters and the manufacturers with the makers of the exhibition. Descendants of home knitters and other makers of Jussi sweaters contacted the museum and were interviewed. In this way, information was obtained comprehensively, especially about the makers.
Documentation of the tradition
In South Ostrobothnia, the Jussi sweater may be considered such a self-evident part of the region and such a living heritage element that the Jussi sweater tradition has not been documented very systematically. For example, there are individual objects in the collections of Seinäjoki Museums and the Kauhava Knife and Textile Museum. Likewise, local museum collections may contain individual objects or photographs. At least in the collections of Seinäjoki Museums and the Isokyrö Museum, there is a knitting machine that was used to make Jussi sweaters for sale.
The photograph collections of Seinäjoki Museums contain examples of the use of Jussi sweaters, but they came into the collections for reasons other than the Jussi sweater tradition itself. They nevertheless tell about the use of the Jussi sweater as part of everyday life.
The need to document the tradition became clear in connection with the Juureva jussipaita exhibition carried out jointly by Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa ry and Seinäjoki Museums in 2023. At that time, oral history and photographs related to the Jussi sweater tradition were documented, and contemporary documentation was also carried out at the penkkarit celebration, school-leaving festivities, of Seinäjoki Upper Secondary School.
Photographs and knitted wool sweaters have also been preserved in the family archives of home knitters, and they are still in use.
Sustainable development
The Jussi sweater has traditionally been made of wool. Wool is a natural fibre that lasts a long time, but a knitted garment is also easy to mend or darn. Woollen garments do not need frequent washing either, as airing outdoors is often enough. The traditional sweater stands the test of time and is always fashionable. Domestic production does not burden the environment to the same extent as foreign production, and it provides work in Finland. The yarns used in domestic products also have different certifications that comply with sustainable development principles and follow certain standards.
Safeguarding Ostrobothnian culture and identity through the Jussi sweater offers a valuable opportunity, as the wearer of the sweater can feel that they belong to the South Ostrobothnian community and can represent it with pride. The Jussi sweater can also be passed down within a family from one generation to the next.
The future of the tradition
The future of the Jussi sweater looks strong. It serves as a source of inspiration for many actors who produce new and innovative content related to it. Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa is the craft heritage godparent for the Jussi sweater, which means that it promotes and maintains the living Jussi sweater tradition in many ways.
The traditional Jussi sweater is a cultural symbol that carries strong regional and cultural significance. The sweater is a strong example of living heritage, because it can change over time. Jussi sweaters can be made in different versions and colours, but the elements of the sweater remain recognisable. Local identity is of interest in tourism, different products and communications, which is why it emerges in many different contexts. The tradition also remains vibrant because an ordinary knitting enthusiast can easily make the garment as a hand-knitted sweater.
The tradition is carried forward by the examples mentioned above, such as the penkkarit custom of Seinäjoki Upper Secondary School, in which songs are sung to teachers while dressed in national costumes and Jussi sweaters. This tradition has continued from year to year and decade to decade. The tradition also continues in the clothing of different artists and influencers. It is also maintained by the Finnish baseball club Maila-Jussit (SMJ), based in Seinäjoki and founded by the University of Helsinki’s Etelä-Pohjalainen Osakunta. The Jussi sweater was chosen at that time as the playing shirt of SMJ. The Jussi sweater or playing uniforms referring to it have always been used by SMJ. The traditional Jussi sweater was last used in play in the early 1980s. When the Jussi sweater was replaced by lighter versions, the Jussi pattern was not forgotten, but instead became the dominant element in SMJ playing uniforms. Even today, the traditional Jussi pattern dominates the chest and sleeves of the playing shirts of all SMJ teams.
“When we speak of the Jussi heart, we do not mean only the club logo on the playing shirt. It is much more than that. It is attitude, pride and perseverance. The Jussi heart is a spirit that lives in every player, coach, volunteer and supporter of Maila-Jussit. It is a tradition that has been passed from one generation to the next, and a spark that ignites new enthusiasm season after season.”
The community/communities behind this submission
Marketta Luutonen, researcher of craft culture, PhD
Elisa Kujanpää, daughter of the home weaver Paavo Niemi
University of Helsinki’s Etelä-Pohjalainen Osakunta (Nation of South Ostrobothnia)
Bibliography and links to external sources of information
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Taito Etelä-Pohjanmaa: Juureva jussipaita.
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Harrin Jussin muisto. Jussipaita suomalaismiehen rooliasuna. Anneli Nikko, Ismo Pellikka ja Erkki Savolainen (toim.) Oppimista, opetusta, monitieteisyyttä. Kirjoituksia Kuninkaankartanonmäeltä. Joensuun yliopisto. Savonlinnan opettajankoulutuslaitos, 133-151. 2007.
Lankapaitoja ja muita asusteita. Marketta Luutonen, Anna-Maija ja Gunnar Bäckman. Helsinki: Maahenki. 2015.