The Norsk Folkemuseum is a giant place with both indoor and outdoor exhibits. We were there for 4 hours and didn’t even see a quarter of it. They have relocated 160 buildings from all over Norway and arranged them into villages – one village for each of the geographical areas of Norway, including a stave church. Besides exhibits inside all the village buildings, there are a couple typical museum buildings housing exhibits. This is where the giant mitten exhibit is. I thought this is were Annemor Sundbø’s mitten collection would be; however it is not.
There are more mittens on the walls you can’t see in this picture. Amazingly, the pattern for each mitten on the wall is in a 3 ring binder, which you can see open on the black ottoman in the center off the picture. There were both published and hand charted patterns. Boy, would I like to get a copy of that book! I think they know it might just walk off by itself, so it’s secured to the ottoman. (I looked in the gift shop – no luck.) I have over 80 unique pictures of mittens on the wall, with several mittens in each picture.
I chose just a few to show you here. However, note the cuffs. The cuffs with stranded patterns are traditionally mens mittens. The mittens with lace, ribbing, and/or rings of lines up the cuff are women’s mittens.
Mittens knittted by the “Mother of all mittens”, Marit Emstad, are here. The first stranded black and white mittens can be traced back to her. Previously, mittens were in one color, with designs knitted in different stitch patterns. However, Marit knit the first pair in black and white and wore them to church – a gutsy move on her part. Tradition was very strong. If they were deemed “unacceptable” by the other women at church, it would not go well for her socially. The women at church liked them and started knitting them also. They are often called “Selbu mittens” because Selbu is where she is from.
The yarn she used is much finer sized than what we traditionally use when knitting these type of mittens. The mittens were only showing the front, but I flipped one of them over so you (ok, maybe I, as well) could see both sides. (Yes, I did touch them, shhhhhh). I should have inspected the thumb join to the palm of the hand, but I was in awe and didn’t think of it.
I have hundreds of photos from other exhibits in this museum. I will make some more posts, eventually.
On a more personal note, it rained here for the first time in 3 months a few days ago. Today is a pleasant 80º F, instead of close to (or over) 90º. School has been pretty intense lately. We are cramming two semesters of Norwegian into 6 weeks – a whole years worth. Yikes! Today I took my oral exams for my Norwegian class. I have my written exam on Thursday. Mom, dad, my sister, and uncle will arrive on Thursday and we will travel north to see the family farm, as well as visit other family. I have it on good authority that the family farm raises spelsau sheep! Whoop! I am also hoping to find some spinning wheels and looms there . . .
Hope you har det hyggelig!
As the Whorl Turns 