Originally published in Dagens Næringsliv, June 10, 2022, by Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Tone Skårdal Tobiasson. Translated and adapted by Robbie LaFleur, August 2022. See original.
The nearly 1000-year-old Baldishol Tapestry has a prominent place in the [newly-opened] Nasjonalmuseeet (Norwegian National Museum). If you want to know more about the history behind this cultural treasure, you can view this film, The Baldishol Tapestry (1040–1190), from the museum, which describes how it was discovered and something about the motifs in the tapestry. But the film doesn’t touch on why the tapestry survived so long.
More information from Norway’s National Museum: https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/samlingen/objekt/OK-02862. The Baldishol Tapestry shines nearly 1000 years after the wool was spun into thread, thanks to the fantastic quality of the wool from the spelsau sheep, write the authors.
It survives, of course, due to several lucky circumstances that came together. But the main reason the tapestry shines nearly 1000 years after the wool was spun into thread, is due to the fantastic quality of the wool, which came from the original northern European breed of sheep that we today call spelsau. The breed came to our area over 7000 years ago. This wool meant that the Vikings could sail across the world’s oceans with their strong woolen sails, and spelsau wool is the very basis for a tapestry tradition that has flourished until today. The strong, glossy guard hair of these sheep is the hub of our cultural tradition.
The same wool is the raw material in the Lendbreen tunic, from around 400, which is older still than the Baldishol Tapestry. The tunic has been displayed around the country because it is Norway’s oldest clothing item. We used a commercially-woven reproduction of the wool fabric as inspiration for the VikingGull (Viking Gold) fabric project, which received broad recognition in the last season of Symesterskapet [a Norwegian reality show in which ten contestants vie to become Norway’s best amateur sewist; the UK version is “Sewing Bee.”], as the world’s more sustainable material.
Symesterskapet, the Norwegian television show, is not available outside of Norway, but this short “extra” segment is, “Vikingstoff” (Viking Fabric). It shows the contestants viewing the reproduction Viking fabric they will use for contemporary clothing. (In Norwegian)
But the European Union’s newly-released textile strategy is not in agreement with us on this wool’s sustainable profile. They are strongly encouraging the use of recycled materials in new products. In the case of wool, this is called “shoddy,” ripped-up wool from production extras or castoff clothing. [For more information, see, “Questions and Answers on EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles.]
During the Second World War it was decreed [in Norway] that yarn should contain shoddy to preserve the expensive raw material. Even today wool is sold with the words “pure new wool” as a guarantee that the wool is new, not recycled and therefor of lower quality. Rauma Yarn was given an exception to this wartime rule, as they delivered yarn for home craft sale. It was here that quality was not sacrificed. But that is what is being discussed in today’s suggested textile strategy; there is discussion of a requirement that would make the yarn weaker, less durable. For clothes that could be used for hundreds of years, that creates a problem.
Spinning mills in Norway continue to spin this glossy, strong spelsau yarn for weavers and some happy knitters who have discovered the sheen and diversity of colors both in knitting and weaving yarn. In Iceland they have made similar adjustments for the amazingly long guard hair in the wool there.
In Sweden the yarn is called ryagarn (rya yarn), and Wåhlstedt Ullspinneri in Dalarna specializes in it. Roger Bush, the director, has machines that his deceased father-in-law made for the long fibers. Bush mentioned textile artists who have been loyal Wåhlstedt’s customers, like the Märta Måås-Fjetterström studio, which has a square meter price up around 120,000 kroner, and Helena Hernmarck, whose art works cost around 20 million kroner and are found in New York and Berlin.
Helena Hernmarck. Blue Wash 1, 1984. Minneapolis Institute of Art. Read about Hernmarck’s use of Walstedt yarn in a post by MIA curator Nicole LaBouff, “Counting sheep: Helena Hernmarck and the revival of Sweden’s signature wool.“
Recently Volvo officials visited Wåhlstedt’s to look at spools of 1950s-era rya yarn, spun for SAS Airlines, and they ordered yardage of the same type for their most expensive cars. Røros Tweed provided upholstery fabric for an airport in the north of Norway, and after many, many years, when the airport was remodeled, the chairs lived on because they were not worn at all – in contrast to most everything else. This would not have happened if Røros Tweed was required to use yarn with recycled content, or “shoddy.” Nor would the works of our iconic weavers, who used yarn of 100% spelsau, have survived. If the EU requirement for the use of “shoddy” wool existed at the time the Medieval Baldishol Tapestry was woven, you could question whether it would exist today.
A Røros Tweed throw, “Knut.” In an article in Lokalfolk, Røros Tweed Creative Designer Thomas Frodahl explained, “But the material is exceptional. Thanks to the Norwegian climate, the wool we use is much thicker, more twisted, and shinier than other wools from around the world. This local wool is embedded in our history and our products – and, luckily for us, we have the best wool that Norway can offer!”
We need to have durable, beautiful textiles that require little maintenance and demonstrate that clothes can last. Requirements to blend in recycled materials, which make the yarn weaker and duller, should not be mandatory for products that require high quality and a long life. This is yet another example of how little understanding there is about what the circular economy should be acting on: reducing environmental burdens.
Ingun Grimstad Klepp is Professor of Clothing and Sustainability with Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), Oslo Metropolitan University. Tone Skårdal Tobiasson is an author and journalist, and a board member of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. They are co-editors of the recently-published e-book, Local, Slow and Sustainable Fashion Wool as a Fabric for Change. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88300-3
(Editor’s note: Watch for more information from Tone Skårdal Tobiasson on the VikingGull (Viking Gold) spelsau fabric reproduction project in the next issue of the Norwegian Textile Letter)
Fascinating – good luck with your fight against the imposition of shoddy wool in all new products.