It is that time of year again, the Campaign for Wool Week or Ulluka as we simply call it. I was delighted to be invited to the launch of the Wool in Fashion Pop-up shop at Glasmagasinet and the book launch of Ren Ull/Pure Wool last Tuesday. The shop is a co-operation between Designerkollektivet and Norwegian Fashion Institute, it represents more than 20 designers who work with wool and focuses on design talents among them: Makeløs reDESIGN, Telespinn, Sorl ved Strand and Judith Bech. The book is by Tone Skårdal Tobiassen – journalist and newly converted wool-fluff – and Ingun Grimstad Klepp, an ethnologist at Sifo, who has spent 15 years researching clothes habits and sustainability. I would have liked to share Ingun’s colourful crochet dress in green and blue stripes which had sheep walking across it but it was very crowded, and she was extremely popular. We were all given a small piece of yarn – a very appropriate identity tag – on entering which allowed us to venture outside the shop with our glass of wine or beer. The book covers the road from sheep to products, kills myths like all wool is itchy, tells wool stories never before told nor collected, and presents acknowledged designers, published by Aschehoug. A must-have in other words!

This treasured teddy is a very special teddy, it belongs to Per Spook of Haute Couture fame and he made his first clothes for it. The authors asked if he can knit and the answer was; “Yes, of course!”. The teddy was on a one-day loan only to the pop-up shop with his suitcase of garments displayed, you can see some of them pictured above in the book. The teddy was given to Per Spook just after WW2 when he was 6 years old… Here is his Winter 89/90 collection, see nasjonalmuseet.

I was drawn to the beautiful sheen of this mohair yarn from Telespinn. Here is their own description of it: “Symre is named after the flower Symre which there are several kinds of in Svartdal (in Telemark). Symre knitting yarn is a thin 2-ply knitting yarn which is very soft and shiny. Symre is spun of fiber from young mohair goats.” See more on their website: Telespinn.

See what Kristin E. Halkjelsvik, Makeløs/Exceptional reDESIGN, can do; the belt to the right is a former embroidered wall hanging, while her modern take on the Setesdal costume has both traditional silver brooches and new brilliantly coloured ones made in plastic by artist Siri Berrefjord part of the Designerkollektivet as well as stunning fabric combinations! Well, exceptional is part of her name and I was delighted to meet her outside of Facebook! See photos from her latest fashion show focusing on recycling of garments, cloth and traditional women’s handicraft called Redesign goes Jugend, here: glamor-st-moteshow.

I was also delighted to meet designer Sissel Strand behind the brand Sorl ved Strand whose garment construction I admired at the Designerkollektivet shop. I was also in good company, accompanied by another handknit designer, now employed by the yarn company Du Store Alpakka, Sidsel J. Høivik whose knitting book I love, see my blog post: lekre-masker-og-lekne-sting! A perfect way to spend an evening, in other words. The Wool in Fashion Pop-up Shop will stay until the 19th October, so if you are in Oslo, you know where to go…