Last weekend was the annual knitting weekend for Norsk Strikkeforbund/Norwegian Knitting Association (NSF) that began on Friday with an excursion to Oslo Mikrospinneri/Micro Spinning Mill, in Bærum, from Scandic Oslo Airport Hotel. We were more than 50 women that wanted to visit the mill.
As the group was so large, it had to be divided into two parts with about 25 knitters in each group. First half would go to the mill first, while the second would go directly to the shop. The surprise was that the mill was in an old barn at a farm outside of Oslo (called Grini Gård/Farm – where a lot of different companies are located), while the shop was at Røa in Oslo. The locations were however not that far apart, only about 10 minutes by bus.
The group of us who went to the mill first were met by founder Pernille Volent outside the barn. The first room was being refurbished; hence the mill itself was covered in plastic sheets to avoid dust coming through.
Pernille is a former musician, that stopped as it was not compatible with having 3 small children and decided to make & dye yarns instead. It took her several years of research and learning to get started.
Her idea was to make a luxurious yarn – as there are none of those produced in Norway until she started, adding a bit of Mulberry silk to the different wool fibres available in Norway. Pernille also bought a washing machine for the wool – that can only take up to 6 kilos – but it is one of very few in Norway, as most yarn companies send their fibers to the UK to be washed (like Hillesvåg and Rauma). Pernille also keeps more lanolin in her yarns, unlike the other manufactures in Norway.
Walking around in the spinning mill, was a very different experience than walking around at Rauma. The size of the mill is more like a large house about 180 square meters – the former barn at the farm. To assist Pernille, she has one woman at the mill and one in the shop. So, in total they are 3 now working at Oslo Mikrospinneri.
The shop at Røa, close to the shopping center, in a charming old garage is a yarn haven!
It was ever so hard trying to limit the need to buy a lot of yarn, with all the stunning yarns all around.
This painting by Kittelsen from the fairy tale by Asbjørnsen and Moe about the “The Twelve Wild Ducks” titled “Prinsessen plukker myrdun“/The princess picking Eriophorum inspired Pernille calling her company Myrull. See the colour palette here too… I bought two skeins of Lille Oslo/Tiny Oslo and two of Lille Gull/Golden Thin – but what would you pick?
