Members of the Scandinavian Weavers group traveled far and wide in 2025. Lisa Torvik ventured to Rauland in Telemark, Norway, eleven hours north of Oslo. There, she studied weaving at Raulandsakademiet, which offers classes in traditional craft. (See link below.)

Note from Lisa: “This is the view out the back windows of the fireplace lounge (peisestogo) and the upper floor cafeteria and large meeting room [at Raulandsakademiet]. The building is the “Telemark Tun”, a small museum of traditional farm buildings that house a shop of handmade items in the hay barn and a bakery specializing in traditional breads. In Norwegian, a “tun” is what we call a farmstead and since farmsteads were often built close together, with maybe two manor houses or more, it might be the origin of the English word town. ”

The weaving course was taught in Norwegian. Fortunately, Lisa is fluent in both language and traditional weaving, having studied at at Valdres Husflidskule (handcraft school) in Fagernes in 1974.  She is currently a member of the Øystre Slidre Husflidslag (handcraft guild).

“The course I attended this fall in Rauland was called “Dreiel og sateng”, and focused on  “drill” patterns of both satin and broken twill (korskypert) weaves,” Lisa explains. The course instructor was Rita Vistad

While in Norway, Lisa visited many friends and family members, bringing gifts of her woven items. Here is Lisa’s friend Gunvor Hegge in her artist’s studio. Lisa wove the black-and-white skillbragd table runner on the table.

Holly Hildebrandt made her very first trip to Norway, where she studied with Ingebjørg Monsen in Bergen. Ingebjørg is president of Bjørgvin Husflidslag (handcraft guild), where she teaches classes in weaving and sewing, and specializes in constructing men’s bunader (national costumes).

Holly spent the week learning to weave krokbragd and rutevev techniques in beautiful Norwegian wool.

Nancy Ebner finished her 2025 travels with a trip to Morocco through Loom Dancer Odysseys. Nancy and other tour members participated in four textile workshops, and Nancy took more than 1000 photos! Below, women weave rugs in a pile technique similar to Scandinavian rya.

Below, a marketplace of colorful yarn and thread.

Here’s to more weaving journeys in the new year!

www.https://visitrauland.com/raulandsakademiet/

Bjørgvin Husflidslag