Norwegian Yarn-Buying Ban Lifted (A Little Late)

When I was in Finland in 2013 I couldn’t resist buying large skeins of intensely-colored cotton knit yarn.  Never mind that it would not all fit in my own baggage; Laurann Gilbertson on the Vesterheim Textile Tour also smashed it in the corners of her luggage.  Since then, it burst from a ceramic container in my studio, waiting to be woven.  This summer I obeyed a self-imposed moratorium on buying any yarn in Norway – it wasn’t allowed until the Finnish yarn was woven.  Finally, success!  Here is the result.

Here is the yarn hanging on a fence in Finland.

Here is what is left.

I am such a fan of working with bands of color and pattern; this is a contemporary permutation of a Nordhordaland banded coverlet.  This time the rutevev images switch to pure texture in a field of color.  This is an example of a banded Norwegian coverlet from the book Ruteåklær by Marit Wang.

Here’s a detail of the new piece.

Here Buzz checks out the texture.