By Mary Skoy
Domestic to Decorative: The Evolution of Nordic Weaving was an exhibition at Red Wing Arts gallery in the historical Red Wing, Minnesota, train depot in November 2023. The exhibition by the Scandinavian Weavers Study Group of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, illustrated the enduring legacy of Nordic craft from its earliest days as functional household items to its excellence in contemporary design.
Participating in this exhibition led me to more carefully analyze the wedding blanket I inherited from my great-grandfather, and then to weave a contemporary interpretation of the blanket for my great-niece’s third birthday present.
The old blanket was woven as a gift for the 1880 wedding of Per Mikkjelson Lønning and Synneva Fransdtr. Kanelønning, my grandfather Audun’s parents.
This 1899 family photo shows my great-grandparents Per and Synneva Lønning with 9 of their 12 children on the Lønning farm on the island of Stord, Hordaland, Norway. My grandfather, Audun Per Lønning in the light jacket at the far left, was the youngest of the boys, so came to America to settle and farm in north central Iowa in 1911.
The twill weave blanket measures 52”x 64” and is woven with handspun wool yarn and is slightly felted. The outer selvedge is brown thread with a wider sett than the rest of the piece. The other selvedge is joined in the center by hand-sewing. Spinning friends tell me that the ripples in the fabric hint at overtwist while spinning.
Ingebjørg Monsen, a Norwegian weaving instructor and textile historian, sent me information about similar blankets from that era:
“The red thread is a traditional way of hemming the blanket. The colored thread is for decoration purposes, but it also makes a cover up for the hem stitches in a very nice way. The hand spun yarn in the piece is from dropspindel. This very fine blanket I expect to have been in use in bed. Could also have been used as a tjeld (curtain) to protect from draught. The more common width of the farm loom is represented in the half width of the blanket.”
My friend Heather Torgenrud, author of Norwegian Pick-Up Bandweaving and Pick-Up Bandweaving Designs, did some research on the Norwegian Digital museum site, digitaltmuseum.no, and wrote: “I did a quick search for a hvit ullteppe or pledd in kypert (twill) and found only one that looked similar, though one could dig deeper and maybe find more. That one is from Vest-Telemark, believed to be handspun wool, woven in twill, somewhat felted, machine hemmed on the short edges, red stripes. It is classified as a tjeld, which I believe in this context would mean a blanket to hang in front of the bed like a curtain, as in this quote from Sigrid Undset’s trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter, “tepper var hængt omkring [brudesengen] som et tjeld [blankets were hung around the bridal bed as a curtain].”” (https://digitaltmuseum.no/021028527431/tjeld)
The blanket is a family treasure.
The fine handspun (spun on a drop spindle?) has on close inspection a slight sheen with flecks of darker fleece carded with the white fleece. It has a richness, depth, and soul in its long history.
It is the embroidered initials of my great-grandfather, Per Lønning—the faded “PL” in the corner of the old blanket—that led me to weave a blanket inspired by this one for my three-year-old great-niece for display in the “Domestic to Decorative” show.
The warp for Sami’s blanket was Montana-produced alpaca yarn and assorted wool in several shades of white, inspired by the nature of the handspun in the old blanket. I wove this blanket in two pieces in a twill structure imitating the classic diagonal line characteristic of the twill weave in the old blanket, and then hand-sewed the pieces together, as in the old blanket. The weft was silk and mohair. Sami’s initials are embroidered in her favorite color.
Here are the two blankets carefully displayed in the gallery of Red Wing Art. About 150 years separate the weaving of these two blankets.
Mary Skoy has been involved in the fiber community in Minnesota since the early 70s as a weaver, spinner, dyer, knitter, and frame loom weaving advocate. Mary traces her interest in Norwegian textiles to her Norwegian great-aunt Sunniva Lønning, a fiber artist, teacher, and activist in mid-twentieth century Norway who worked to preserve ancient sheep breeds, particularly the iconic spelsau sheep. Sunniva’s father Mikkjel is the imposing young man in the back in the family picture above.
Read more: The exhibit, From Domestic to Decorative: The Evolution of Nordic Weaving at Red Wing Art in 2024, was described in posts on the Scandinavian Weavers Study Group blog.
Beloved Textiles and Family Stories in “Domestic to Decorative”
“Domestic to Decorative”: Krokbragd Demonstration
“Domestic to Decorative”: Warp-Weighted Loom Demo
Gala Reception for “Domestic to Decorative”
Now Open: “Domestic to Decorative”
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