Today, the only thing more annoying than sending out a post in which all the links acquired a mysterious arrow in the coding and didn’t work is listening to the squirrels playing chase games inside our eaves. Here are two charming weaving patterns with squirrels that I saw in the archives of the Norsk Folkemuseum last month. I will not be weaving these squirrels. And I apologize for the inconvenience of broken links. For sure the links work on the issue main page – norwegiantextileletter.com.

A Week to remember: The Norwegian Textile Symposium in Skien. Magnhild Peggy Jones Gilje describes a meeting packed with programs and classes on traditional textile techniques.

Viking Weaving on Minnesota’s North Shore. Holly Hildebrandt is enthusiastic about a class at North House Folk School from Melba Granlund. She made her own warp-weighted loom.

Walborg Nickelsen: A Designer Influenced by Frida Hansen. The mystery designer of transparent tapestries in three museums is identified through searching the archives of the Norsk Folkemuseum.

From WOW! to HOW?: Weaving at the Karin Larsson Exhibit. This summer and fall, volunteers from the Weavers Guild of Minnesota demonstrated rag rug weaving at the American Swedish Institute during the run of the Karin Larsson “Let the Hand be Seen” exhibit. They drew inspiration from Karin Larsson’s beautiful textiles and an unusual rug 14 meter long rug in the ASI collection.

Guiding Students to a Satisfying Outcome: An Interview with Christine Novotny on Teaching Rölakan. A weaving student became a weaving teacher, passing on a traditional Swedish weaving technique.

Weaving is Life: An Exhibit of the Weaving of Marta Kløve Juuhl. Marta Kløve Juuhl’s accomplishments during her long career as a weaver were celebrated at Ullveka — Wool Week.

Skillbragd Puzzles: Overshot Coverlets in the Vesterheim Collection. Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum Curator Laurann Gilbertson ponders the weave structures of coverlets in the museum.

Tribute to Anne Kjellberg, 1945 – 2024. Norway’s museum community lost a leading figure in the world of textiles, costume and textile history with the passing of Anne Kjellberg in July of 2024.

2024 National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition. See the ribbon winners in this exhibition that showcases the self-expression of contemporary artists who create folk art rooted in Norwegian traditions.

Book Review: Pick-Up Bandweaving Designs: 288 Charts for 13 Pattern Ends and Techniques for Arranging Color. Are you a bandweaver? Do you celebrate Christmas? Get this book on your list!

Book Review: Winter Knitting for Little Sweethearts. If you knit for children, you will want to get buy this book from two Norwegian designers and make the darling sweaters and other projects.

Thanks for reading! Please share comments and questions and article ideas with me, at lafleur1801@me.com.

Robbie LaFleur

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you for all your appreciation along the way. Tusen takk!

Today, the only thing more annoying than sending out a post in which all the links acquired a mysterious arrow in the coding and didn’t work is listening to the squirrels playing chase games inside our eaves. Here are two charming weaving patterns with squirrels that I saw in the archives of the Norsk Folkemuseum last month. I will not be weaving these squirrels. And I apologize for the inconvenience of broken links. For sure the links work on the issue main page – norwegiantextileletter.com.

A Week to remember: The Norwegian Textile Symposium in Skien. Magnhild Peggy Jones Gilje describes a meeting packed with programs and classes on traditional textile techniques.

Viking Weaving on Minnesota’s North Shore. Holly Hildebrandt is enthusiastic about a class at North House Folk School from Melba Granlund. She made her own warp-weighted loom.

Walborg Nickelsen: A Designer Influenced by Frida Hansen. The mystery designer of transparent tapestries in three museums is identified through searching the archives of the Norsk Folkemuseum.

From WOW! to HOW?: Weaving at the Karin Larsson Exhibit. This summer and fall, volunteers from the Weavers Guild of Minnesota demonstrated rag rug weaving at the American Swedish Institute during the run of the Karin Larsson “Let the Hand be Seen” exhibit. They drew inspiration from Karin Larsson’s beautiful textiles and an unusual rug 14 meter long rug in the ASI collection.

Guiding Students to a Satisfying Outcome: An Interview with Christine Novotny on Teaching Rölakan. A weaving student became a weaving teacher, passing on a traditional Swedish weaving technique.

Weaving is Life: An Exhibit of the Weaving of Marta Kløve Juuhl. Marta Kløve Juuhl’s accomplishments during her long career as a weaver were celebrated at Ullveka — Wool Week.

Skillbragd Puzzles: Overshot Coverlets in the Vesterheim Collection. Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum Curator Laurann Gilbertson ponders the weave structures of coverlets in the museum.

Tribute to Anne Kjellberg, 1945 – 2024. Norway’s museum community lost a leading figure in the world of textiles, costume and textile history with the passing of Anne Kjellberg in July of 2024.

2024 National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition. See the ribbon winners in this exhibition that showcases the self-expression of contemporary artists who create folk art rooted in Norwegian traditions.

Book Review: Pick-Up Bandweaving Designs: 288 Charts for 13 Pattern Ends and Techniques for Arranging Color. Are you a bandweaver? Do you celebrate Christmas? Get this book on your list!

Book Review: Winter Knitting for Little Sweethearts. If you knit for children, you will want to get buy this book from two Norwegian designers and make the darling sweaters and other projects.

Thanks for reading! Please share comments and questions and article ideas with me, at lafleur1801@me.com.

Robbie LaFleur

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you for all your appreciation along the way. Tusen takk!

Her Royal Highness Mette-Marit, the Crown Princess of Norway, is an avid weaver. A previous article  in the Norwegian Textile Letter, translated from NRK Vestfold and Telemark, described her passion, Crown Princess Mette Marit Became a Weaving Student – And Now There are Full Weaving Courses and Waiting Lists.

On April 12, 2024, in honor of her 50th birthday, she held a weaving symposium, “Unifying Threads” [Samlede Tråder]. These are her opening remarks.

Many of the 260 invited guests at the symposium.

Many of the attendees wrote enthusiastically about attending the symposium on social media. Jon Fredrik Skauge posted an essay on Facebook that he allowed us to translate and share, LONG LIVE WEAVING — Thoughts on Crown Princess Mette Marit’s Weaving Symposium.

Jon Fredrik Skauge

I love hearing from readers who enjoy or are inspired by articles in the newsletter. I had two artists contact me (both from Duluth, Minnesota, coincidentally) and thank me for Kristine Bielenberg’s article, A Red Lion and Castle Flamskväv from Skåne. Karen Keenan said she was inspired by the tulip patterns around the lion and is using them in a new batch of pottery.

Photo: Karen Keenan

Alison Aune thanked me when I ran into her at the opening of the new exhibit at the American Swedish Institute, “Karin Larsson: Let the Hand be Seen.” Alison uses Skåne-style flowers in her paintings, and it’s fun to see her interpretations of the tapestry motifs in paint.

Photo: Alison Aune

The Nordic Fest is coming up at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum on July 26-27, 2024, and the wonderful National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibit will come to a close. The award winners will be announced, and that means we will be able to share photos of the weaving entries featured in the exhibit. Expect another Norwegian Textile Letter extra later this summer.

Robbie LaFleur
lafleur1801@me.com

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you! Tusen takk!

I will be traveling to Norway at the end of August to continue research on the transparent tapestries of Frida Hansen and her followers, for my upcoming book. Any donations now will be very useful for my work, this labor of love.

When Karin Bøe went on a hike this spring in search of wildflowers, she passed by the ruins of a building and found treasure of a different sort — and not the kind that a lot of people would recognize. Tattered quilts peeking out piqued her curiosity. She examined them and shared the history they reveal with us.

One Person’s Trash(-y Textiles), a Historian’s Gold

One Person’s Trash(-y Textiles), a Historian’s Gold: Part Two

Karin Bøe moved to Valle in Setesdal in 1995 as a craft instructor. She began to study weaving traditions in the Setesdal region by examining coverlets and interviewing older weavers. In 1996 she began her business, Valle Vev, creating traditional weavings. She has a certificate in handweaving and a masters in traditional folk art.

You might want to read her other articles from past issues of the Norwegian Textile Letter.

Rose Tapestries in Marnardal
Red is the Finest Color We Have: On Color in Coverlet Weaving in Setesdal around 1900

God sommer! Happy summer.

Robbie LaFleur

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you! Tusen takk!

Dear Norwegian Textile Letter friends, 

God sommar! I’ll bet that many of you can remember times that you passed up a treasure in an antique store or an auction. I still can’t believe I didn’t buy a Swedish lion tapestry for sale at a Scandinavian celebration in Phoenix several years ago. But today you can read about the Swedish lion that Kristina Bielenberg did buy, and is preserving for coming generations. Enjoy “A Red Lion and Castle Flamskväv from Skåne.”

If you are traveling to Norway this summer, be sure to see the exhibit at the Nasjonalmuseum: “Britta Marrakatt-Labba: Moving the Needle.“

This is a detail of exquisite embroidery in a piece by Marrakatt-Labba, Motstånd [Resistance]. I saw it in a recent show at the American Swedish Institute. If you see her work, I guarantee you will be stepping close to admire her workmanship and follow the stories she relates through thread. 

The Glasslåven kunstsenter & atelier in Gran, Norway, has a summer exhibit of work by a German-born artist working in Bergen, Daniela Bergschneider. Her works made of porcelain pieces covered in flexible fabric are skeleton-like or spiky. I find them almost spooky and so captivating. You can see her process in this video. 

And if you are in Bergen, be sure to see this lovely Frida Hansen transparent tapestry!

Watch for more interim articles this summer. Keep in touch with ideas or comments. 

Robbie LaFleur
lafleur1801@me.com

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you! Tusen takk!

Rya coverlet with a ground weave of krokbragd

Danskbrogd [Danish weave], front

Kari Hodne, b. 1871, with scythe, bucket and rake in Åseral, 1943.

A book on weaving in the Vest-Agder region of Norway is being released this week, Vevd Fargeglede: Sengetepper i Vest-Agder [Woven Delight: The Coverlets of Vest-Agder], by Nanne Støhlmacher. Katherine Larson, who wrote the brief synopses in English for the book, wrote a review for the Norwegian Textile Letter.  I posted about the review, and knitting book and cultural history author Annemor Sundbø commented, 

I read the book from cover to cover, and am very impressed by how clear the book is and how the material is arranged with all the details and without anything becoming boring – and not least how beautiful and inspiring the book is. Everyone should be proud of this book at Skald Publishing and in Vest Agder Husflidlag and nationally. What a treasure! You can be very proud of this one, Nanne! Good luck with the launch!

I will definitely have to add this book to my collection of books about weaving in Norway. Read the review: Vevd Fargeglede: Sengetepper i Vest-Agder. I wish I could attend the book launch on Tuesday. Below is the listing for the event at the Norsk Folkemuseum. 

Robbie LaFleur

This issue of the Norwegian Textile Letter was not planned around a theme, but the one that emerged was legacy — the recognition of  weavers through research, preservation and the wonders of sharing images and information via modern technology. 

Lill-Karin Elvestad describes a project to capture the history and culture of Troms County in northern Norway through the registration of historical clothing. The project leader, Lillian Magnussen, said that for research into cultural history and handcraft, “seeing these items can as valuable as gold.” Read “Old Clothing Tells our Story.”

Elvestad discovered a personal connection while writing about the “Clothing in Troms” project. She wrote a moving essay about her great-great-grandmother, a masterful weaver at a young age. Would her life have been different today? Read “A Tribute to Ane Marie Aleksandersdatter (1847-1906).”

A 1962 article by Astrid Bugge is provided in translation, “A Bit about the Transparent Portieres of Frida Hansen.” Since the article was first published, photos of many of the transparent tapestries mentioned in the article have been digitized and are available to view on museum websites. More readers can enjoy the legacy of Hansen’s work. 

In “You can Count on Wool,” Sølvi Westvang Skirbekk uses clothing and textile tools in the Anno Glomdalsmuseet museum collection to discuss the historical importance of wool and how it fits into current concepts of sustainability. She muses about the legacy of today’s profusion of fibers and clothing excess. “Perhaps the largest paradox will be that the future’s museums reveal few traces of today’s intense overconsumption?”

Minnesotan Nancy Gossell discovered boxes of beautiful linens woven by her Swedish grandmother and devised a creative solution to passing on that legacy to her family. Read “Full Circle: A Return to Sweden to Repurpose Family Heirlooms.”

A beautiful type of monk’s belt weaving from Skåne in Sweden is described in a translated section from the online Hemslöjds Guiden [Handcraft Guide] published by the Föreningen Sveriges Hemslöjdskonsulenter [Association of Swedish Handcraft Consultants].  Perhaps contemporary weavers will be inspired to make a flower-filled weaving? Read “Swedish Munkabälte.”

Rya rugs date from medieval times and have been used by mariners against the frigid cold at sea; in carriages; as bedding; and as a signature of the mid-century Scandinavian modern era. Here they are used for social comment…they are coming of age. Read “Rya Rugs…Coming of Age: An Exhibit of Work by Elizabeth Hunter.”

Kristina Austi: Dialogue between the Ancient and the Digital. A contemporary Norwegian artist marries the deep legacy of weaving and the power of folk tales on a high-tech jacquard loom.

Please enjoy these articles, along with the usual “Nordic News and Notes” column. Let me know your thoughts or ideas for future topics. God påske — Happy Easter! Robbie LaFleur

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you for all your appreciation along the way. Tusen takk!

Update: A Norwegian Textile Letter reader had a problem when clicking on the “mailto” link for Howard, to get the zoom link. If that happens, put this address in your email program: nordicspiritclassics@gmail.com. Technology is great when it works! Happy new year. 

Vikings and textile fans! There is an upcoming free lecture available by Zoom, coming up soon, this Friday, January 12.

On January 12 at 7:30 PM Pacific Time there will be a Zoom video presentation by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University in Sweden. In this 32 minute program, Dr. Hedenstierna-Jonson will speak about the beginnings of sail ships in the Nordic countries and textile requirements to service a Viking longship. Contact Howard at nordicspiritclassics@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

Dr. Hedenstierna-Jonson is  one of the speakers who will be coming to Thousand Oaks in February for the 25th annual Nordic Spirit Symposium. This year the theme is Vikings: New Technology — New Discoveries. https://scandinaviancenter.org/nordic-spirit-symposium/

Dr. Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson’s bio on the Uppsala University website includes a long list of presentations and publications on Viking archaeology. She describes her specialty:

I am a researcher and part of the Viking Phenomenon research project. I studied at the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, and presented a PhD thesis in 2006 on the Birka Warrior – the material culture of a martial society. With a background in field archaeology and as senior curator at the Swedish History Museum (SHM) I have held research fellowships at SHM, Stockholm University and the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM) in Mainz. Previous research projects have focused on warfare, identities, mobility and material culture in Late Iron Age – Viking Age societies. Most recently I was part of the interdisciplinary ATLAS-project aiming at unravelling human prehistory within present day Sweden by combining archaeology, physical anthropology and genetics.

Thank you to Laurann Gilbertson, Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, for this tip.

Robbie LaFleur
norwegiantextileletter.com

Dear Norwegian Textile Letter friends,

Anita Osterhaug, the former editor of Handwoven magazine, wrote a warm, interesting, and beautifully-illustrated book about Nordic culture and handcraft, Nordic Hands: 21 Fiber Craft Objects to Discover Scandinavian Culture. The projects at the heart of the book are imaginative and beautifully designed by a variety of Nordic fiber experts. I wanted to add this review to the Norwegian Textile Letter before Christmas (phew – that’s just under the wire), because you may know just the right recipient. And sure, that might be yourself! Read the full review.

A Christmas tablecloth by Ingrid Larsen from the Norwegian Digital Museum: https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023232091/teppe

Happy new year!

Thank you to all the readers of the Norwegian Textile Letter who have contributed in 2023. It is so appreciated. Consider joining them with a donation. Takk!

Robbie LaFleur

Dear Norwegian Textile Letter friends (and Norwegian knitting fans),

I added a final article to last month’s Norwegian Textile Letter issue, “Annemor Sundbø’s Latest Book: An Eminent Exploration of Nordic Sweater History.” The book should be purchased for the photos alone. Reviewer Mary Skoy highlighted a number of photos and sections — I’m not sure how she was even able to choose!

I added two webinar notices to the December “Nordic News and Notes” column.

Upcoming Webinar Featuring Norwegian Knitters Arne & Carlos

“Healing Trauma through Craft.” World Hope Forum. December 17, 2023, 9 am-11 am CST. Register for free. 

Recent events continue to challenge our sense of humanity on an international scale and so the next edition of World Hope Forum has gathered speakers who practice mending, caring, and giving; a hopeful attempt before the Holidays to knit society back together. Among the featured guests are well-known authors Arne & Carlos: “Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrisson are highly regarded fashion designers, textile artists, YouTubers, and authors. Their work is highly influenced by their Scandinavian background and everyday life in rural Norway. They work under their artist name ARNE & CARLOS, established in 2001.  Today, the duo designs for and works closely with Rowan and Regia yarns. They have also written ten books.”

Upcoming Webinar on Norwegian Knitting History

“The History of Norwegian Sweaters.” Presentation by Laurann Gilbertson, Chief Curator, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Thursday, January 4, 2024, 6:30 pm CST. Sponsored by the Sons of Norway, Nidaros Lodge #1-001, Minneapolis, MN. Click here to register.   (Trouble registering, or accessing the Zoom event?  Email Carolyn at cjtownsen@comcast.net.)

Learn about the history of different types and styles of Norwegian sweaters, including Setesdal, Fana, Marius, and Olympic.  Laurann Gilbertson will also talk about the symbolism behind some of the patterns and colors on sweaters made today. Those attending are invited to wear their sweaters! If you do, make sure to have your camera on!!

Happy holidays! God jul!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s articles. There are many good ones in the works for 2024. I also made a new year’s resolution to include more notices of exhibits of traditional and contemporary weaving in Norway. I often haven’t included the information because there was no time to write or solicit whole articles. But I will include more notices in the “Nordic Notes” column. Perhaps some readers can visit, or the notice may include a significant online version, or at the very least, readers can learn about and follow up on artists new to them.

Thank you to everyone who helps support the Norwegian Textile Letter with donations to cover expenses. Your financial support is crucial; an end-of-the-year donation would be much appreciated. Thank you for being a subscriber. 

Robbie LaFleur

Click on the image for an easy link to donate. Tusen takk!