Kule Strikkedager 2005................pics click here !

Iris Bishop and myself were invited to a Knitting Conference in Drammen, Nr Oslo, Norway taking place on the first weekend in February. The event was being organised by Aud Holmen and Mette Pedersen both avid machine knitters.

Both Aud and Mette have attended Metropolitans' Knitters Dream Week and that is how we both knew and met our fellow Norwegian knitters. For the last two years a group of knitters from Oslo have organised a week in the UK touring knitters' places of interest which included a stop over at the Dream Week, consequently both Iris and I have had a small experience teaching Knitting as a 'foreign language'. BUT for the weekend I think we should have done a crash course in Norwegian.

Ten days before my trip I send out an 8 kilo box of books using Parcel Force's euro48 service (4 days signed for, guaranteed or so I thought) as my baggage allowance was only 23K and Norway is not part of the EEC, their currency is the Norwegian Kroner and not the Euro. We flew BA from Heathrow on their 7.20 flight to Oslo, Iris travelling on the night express up from Crawley and myself testing out parking at Heathrow and checking in on the internet, to gain an hour's shut eye. At five in the morning I can drive to Heathrow, fast bag check-in and buy a coffee in under an hour !!! (normally takes hour and an half just to get to the airport!)

We are met in Oslo by Aud, I was expecting very cold weather, hence we were both wearing lots of knitted clothes, the layered look…..but this was mainly due to baggage restrictions so we both wore our heaviest knits !!! Apparently they have had their mildest January ever and temperatures were no different to the UK, around 2c but there was a dusting of snow on fields and fantastic frozen ice waterfalls at the side of the road. After a two hour drive, stop for lunch, we arrive at the 'First Hotel' in Drammen with a backdrop of fir trees and a Ski run, we were given our schedule for the weekend (all in Norwegian) shown our rooms and requested to attend the opening at 15.00 hours.

The first difficulty we came across was how to exit our room !!!! The door opened outwards………. Fortunately no one seems to be in the corridor outside the room at the time. Coffee and cake greeted us in the 'plenumsalem' were everyone is gathered.. 90 attendees 50% machine knitters, 50% hand knitters. We were shown to our seats in the front row, there then followed lectures till 18.00hrs in Norwegian. This language has no similarities to English, French or Spanish (I am only familiar with these) so neither Iris or I understood a word said, even though there were wonderful slides of inspiration, I feel we missed out…… Then it was the turn of the Designers from the UK to tell them about Machine Knitting in England. Help ! Iris and I have never worked together before so I think we proved an interesting spectacle. Iris was saying what a wonderful creative piece of equipment the knitting machine is, and how she demo'd to the Queen while working for Knitmaster at the Ideal Home, and there was I saying how there is no new blood coming into UK machine knitting and it looks like becoming a dying craft. What a contrast ! They probably understood us as English is their second language.

The afternoon of lectures ended with Annemor SundbØ who amused us by showing all these old thread bare holey garments which ended up in a huge huge pile on the stage, we had not a clue what it was about except old Norwegian knitwear. Apparently Annemor bought a mill to re-process knitted fabrics and these garments she couldn't bare to destroy as they showed the history of Norwegian knitting and patterns. Fifteen lecturers were teaching over the weekend on a variety of subjects, only ours were in English. The attendees from Norway, Sweden and Finland wore wonderful coloured knits, so pleased to show off their craft. Colours were bright with a predominance of green, not a popular English colour and the knitters were 'young'

There was also talk of Knitting Cafes opening up in Oslo !! There was an area for sales were local companies showed there vast shades cards of wools, not large stocks of supplies to buy. A table full of Alpaca in the most wonderful colours ( I had to bring one home), Silver reed machines, industrial steam irons. Iris's books arrived and Aud kindly collected them from Oslo on the Saturday just in time for sales, mine?? Well they never arrived and I still don't know where they are, the internet tells me Denmark !!

Saturday morning and I have my first lecture in a conference room upstairs at the hotel (grupperom 202) What a wonderful set up. The Machine, a brother electronic, a video camera over my shoulder and this huge screen to my left showing exactly what I am demo-ing on the machine. There was this wonderful man 'who does' and he set up everything including bringing rails of clothes up the 2 flights of stairs !! When ever something was needed this guy was there…… Teaching was slower 'in a foreign language' and some things had to be translated by the enthusiastic audience. Coffee was always on hand and water…. And we needed water as we seemed to de-hydrated all the time. I had merino wool, linen/silk and a 1ply acrylic to demo with, their climate calls for natural fibres.

Lunch (Lunsji) was served at 13.00hrs, not to be missed, wonderful smoked salmon.. Iris tested out the meat balls and said she preferred Ikeas' !! The afternoon was spent in the sales area, interesting with no books….. But my Swarovski zips and glitters made a hit as they had not seen anything like them before !

Dinner in the evening saw some wonderful knits, a super felted shawl with openwork holes, followed by a sleep it had been a tiring day. Sunday was the last day, breakfast was a 8.00hrs with a lecture starting at 9am. I was told I should go to this lecture, but with the language being a barrier, I whizzed in before and drooled over the clothes. All in Alpaca, 'Close Knit World' by Anne Helene Gjelstad, clean cut lines, strong colours, neat contrast edges, skirts, tops, jackets with immaculate set-in zips, and dresses. Simple plain design from Peru Lunsji ended a weekend that showed so much enthusiasm for an age old craft and we both met some very talented ladies with so much to share.

I came home tired but inspired.