For the second time around the NSF/Norwegian Knitting Association’s annual knitting weekend was held at Scandic Oslo Airport Hotel at Gardermoen, the first weekend in March. Just like last year’s jubilee in Tromsø, it was a blast! It started midday on the Friday with an excursion to Oslo Mikrospinneri/Micro Spinning Mill for those who signed on, or you could join the knitting party (vorspiel), and then continued with a talk by designer & publisher Inga Semmingsen about how to use your waste yarn.
Next on the agenda was Maskustrikk – menn som strikker/Masculin Knit – men who knit; a happening with NSF leader Terje Tjelle, aka Strikketerje, Remi, Edvard and Arild. It began as a conversation about how they all started to knit, but took off when Edvard (left) described how he had started knitting Dolly Toilet Roll Covers and found the need to make a male version of the doll (with a Barbie Ken doll). We could not stop laughing as he described the process and showed us the result. Remi took us back down to earth with his story as a nurse, whose knitting had helped not only female patients with trust issues but also through his project “Åmtanke”/To care; where he has knitted hundreds of sweaters – and encouraged others to do the same – for people in need. After dinner until midnight the knitting party continued with knitting bingo, then we had more time to knit and chat to each other.
Saturday started with the annual meeting itself, lead by editor of the membership magazine “På pinnen”/On the needles Tove Fevang. In the photo above you can see the two versions of leader Terje, which I thought was a funny! The knitters in front is a mother and daughter-in-law pair who both love to make jackets by the danish designer Christel Seyfarth.
During the day, we could droll over the ever growing table of prizes to be won from the upcoming draw. I actually won this time – that rarely happens – the book in the left corner called “Bingeboken“! Named after a Swedish knitting tradition and an inspirational book! Yay! I gave away 2 of my patterns, you can spot the Maimi pattern, but I also selected the Japana pattern. The best prizes were 2 large yarn kits and 2 generous yarn shop vouchers.
The next talk was by acknowledged designer Ingunn Birkeland, who has published 3 books so far; one on knitting, one on sewing and one on crocheting. The next one could be on embroidery or something else like play with colour – she has a very distinct colour palette as you can see. You can find some of her pattern in English on Ravelry. This was the second highlight for me after the trip to Oslo Mikrospinneri! I have met her once before at the knitting festival in Fredrikstad a couple of years back, then by email we I interviewed her for the membership magazine. Above you can see what she is famous for – the weaving of ribbons and sewing those into garments.
Here is another photo of garments she had brought including the new jacket she was wearing.
Of course, Terje was too tempted to try the bolero on and had his partner take a picture of him together with Ingunn. I could not resist to do so either, see the result above.
On the last day of the event, the Sunday, we had one workshop and two talks left on the agenda. “Fargeglede”/Colour Joy (learn more about colours, where you can find inspiration and how you can give your garments a personal twist), with designer Nina Granlund Sæther was the workshop that started with a talk, as there were 90 of us. She spoke about where she finds inspiration especially for her colour choices and how we should photograph whatever we like, something that is easier when we are on holiday – and relaxed – or away from our everyday life. Above is a detail from a national costume with embroidery, tatting (white edge) and sewing, that Nina found inspiring.
For the workshop part we were instructed to bring a picture we like and 3.5 mm/US 4 needles. Then to pick yarn from what she had brought about 2 meters of each colour and wind around a sheet in the order from the picture or as we pleased. The second part was to knit a small swatch with the remaining yarn. Above you see some of the results made.
Last but not least was the talk by Merete Norheim Myrdahl – who spoke about “Bunadkofter”/National Costume Jackets. She asked if I could be a model on the stage and I agreed to that, so I spent a lot of time standing on the stage wearing one, together with two other women. That was a fun experience and her talk was filled with jokes making us all laugh so hard. Above you see her laying out all the different collars Merete has knitted to match the different embroideries and ribbons on the different local National Costumes. To sum up: The annual meeting was a blast and I had a wonderful knitting weekend in Oslo! I want to thank NSF and everyone I met! I hope to see you all at the next annual event in Ålesund in March 2026!
Join my patron page for more details and if you chose a paid level, you will find more photos and details in my February Newsletter and more coming in the March Newsletter, in addition to the released Oslo Microspinneri Vlog (video) and the NSF Knitting Weekend 2025 Vlog (video). Thank you to all my patrons!
