The Norwegian writer and knitter Annemor Sundbø has been here in Stockholm these last few days giving workshops. I was there today and met her for the first time. It was memorable.
After dedicating 25 years of her life to saving sweaters from a ragpile Annemor now teaches Norwegian knitting traditions. She gave one of the most interesting talks that I´ve ever heard and if you ever get a chance to attend one of her workshops – don´t miss it!
First we learnt about Setesdal sweaters and got to try a bit of embroidery. I´m not going to show my sample because it would ruin the reputation of the Setesdal embroidery. But here are two examples of Annemor´s:
A simple and stylish way of embelleshing a mitten.
If you´ve ever wondered how to make your buttonholes a bit more ornamental – this is the sollution!
Annemor had brought some of the lovely sweaters she has made – and a whole pile of Selbu mittens, both new and old.
Mittens rescued from the ragpile.
The only disappointment was that Annemor couldn´t bring her NEW mitten book about mittens with animal motifs. It´s out tomorrow – and bound to be another best seller for her! It´s called Norske votter og vantar and published by Det Norske Samlaget (fniss). Go buy.
The workshop was held at Slöjdhuset and organized by Länshemlslöjdskonsulenterna in Stockholm.
Next weekend I will give my own first workshop at Syfestivalen and I´ve spent most of last week preparing for that and trying to calm my nerves.
I´m going to talk a little about how to make knitting patterns and give a few useful tips. Those who wish to try a bit of stranded knitting are welcome to drop by and knit a few rows. I´ve prepared some easy patterns suitable for beginners.
In fact I became so inspired that I made a hat pattern that is really easy to knit – even though it might look complicated. You can never guess where my inspiration came from, I bet.
I still have to come up with a name for this pattern. Wouldn´t a Norwegian name be suitable?
This is the top ten list for popular Norwegian names for jenter:
1. Thea
2. Emma
3. Sara
4. Julie
5. Ida
6. Hanna
7. Nora
8. Ingrid
9. Emilie
10. Amalie
Now, why isn´t Johanne on that list?