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Over the past weekend (February 28-March 1) Bruce and I were in Kil, Sweden, for the Sheep Festival. We traveled with Josefin Waltin, and met up again with the wonderful folks we visited last summer when I began my wool journey here. Kate, one of the long-time volunteers for the festival and the person I’ve been in contact with over the year, had talked me into giving a presentation on The Book [Knit (Spin) Sweden: A Different Kind of Travel Book]. It was about my search for wool, which did have the audience confused, as they couldn’t imagine why it was that anyone would need to make an effort to find sheep — after all, they’re everywhere! Well, you do need to look, and they aren’t exactly hanging out on the streets of Stockholm.

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Each day featured different breeds on view outside, and it was a real treat to “meet” them in person. I was also asked to do an interview for Swedish radio, a short talk for the sponsor/vendor dinner, and a podcast for Ullforum (the website for people with sheep to offer fleece for sale). I ended up being much busier than I had expected, but had a great time and added a bit of yarn to the collection. For me it was less about new yarns, and more about catching up with folks I met last year, and meeting in person those I’d only “met” via email.

I also ended up with many fewer photos than I had anticipated — for some reason, a whole group that included some good overviews of the largest room of vendors, were totally blank. Sigh. I absolutely wasn’t paying enough attention. Fortunately Bruce got this one showing a full yurt installed in the midst of the vendor space. There were 110 vendors of everything from lamb sausage and clothing made from sheepskins, to yarn, toys, fencing for the flocks, and weaving tools. In other words, an eclectic mix of all things sheep.

The festival itself is an amazing event. Kil is a small town of about 12,000 people, and the festival is housed at the school (closed to classes last week for winter vacation). It has been so successful that the festival has grown each year, with at least 10,000 visitors over the weekend from all over Sweden, Europe, and this year, the US. It’s truly a whole town event. There are hundreds of volunteers taking on jobs from ticket-taker to workshop organizers, printing programs to set-up, clean-up, and fashion show choreographers. In addition to the vendors this year, they offered educational lectures, dozens of demonstrations, several classes, and activities for children. Many families open their houses to visitors as there are few commercial hotel options. Having 3 days with Maja and Anders at their home was as fun as any other part of the event. Our last night over pizza had us laughing late into the evening.

I continue to be overwhelmed by the reception I was given. I met so many people who were excited about the book project and thought it would make a positive contribution to the craft world. The thing I talked about that seems to have made the biggest impression is my analysis of the value of the resource that is Swedish sheep. This was, of course, a very receptive audience, but I’ve been looking at the sheep from a different viewpoint. So far, I’ve identified 19 different breeds (these are animals that have developed specific characteristics over many years). If you took fleece from each of these breeds and mixed them 50/50 with each other in all available combinations, you would get 342 different yarns. Not all of them would be wonderful, but it’s a way to begin thinking about the possibilities. Now imagine that you chose fleece from 10 of these breeds and mixed them in all possible combinations (with equal proportions of each for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6……mixed together) to make yarn. The number goes to 345 billion+. It’s an insane number, and likely represents mostly junk in terms of a useable yarn, but it starts to give you an idea of the breadth and depth of the resource just in terms of yarn.

For Josefin and me, it’s a great opportunity of “what ifs.” As she works individually with each of these sheep breeds and learns some of what can be done with the fleece by varying how they are processed and spun, she is developing important data that other spinners and crafters can use to make informed decisions about spinning their own yarn. And we are only scratching the surface. At best, we will be able to give an overview, and hopefully that will inspire others to dig more deeply into the subject. My goal, of course, is to encourage the spinning mills to make really wonderful yarn that can be made available to an international audience. It still remains difficult to find truly Swedish yarns in yarn shops in places like Stockholm.

I do understand the issue. The big spinning mills like Ullcentrum, because of their size and manner of production, are able to make truly consistent yarns of the type that most knitters are used to. They are a mix of breeds, and by returning to the same sources, they are able to reproduce the same yarns over and over. I assume that this makes it a very comfortable yarn to buy for most knitters. The benefit I see, is that Ullcentrum uses all Swedish, local wools, and is a Swedish company. I’ve also knit with their yarns and like them very much. At the festival they were demonstrating a crochet technique that closely resembles nålbinding, but can be ripped back like crochet (making it much easier to correct mistakes). Still, I’m determined to try the authentic method, and to that end bought a book with excellent illustrations I think might help. Written by Nusse Mellgren, with both English and Swedish text, it claims to be “the easiest, clearest ever guide!” One can only hope!

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Båvins Spinnhus also had a booth and I was really excited to see that in addition to their interesting breed mixes, they now are starting limited editions of dyed yarns, working with the renown hand-dyer Tante Kofte. I am coming home with the gold color. All of these, which were just an experimental batch, are rich, jewel tones with incredible shine. They would be awesome for color work. I plan to make another pitch to the spinning mill to get their yarns into an online shop.

Tourists in Stockholm

I’m excited to say that the sun has come out after days of rain. That is sort of the expected weather this time of year, and is kept from being gloomy by the sudden appearance of crocus in all of the parks. I’ve spent quite a bit of time indoors at one of the museums charting patterns for mittens. Here are some hints of my projects.

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Today will be a real tourist day, traveling to Gamla Stan (the old city) and starting by participating in the weekly climate strike begun by Greta Thunberg. She won’t be here, but some of the other activists will be, so we want to show our support. Gamla Stan is full of tourist shops (and some very nice ones), and we also will make a trip to the Armory and Fashion Museum. Off course, there will be a time out for fika (tea and cookies). I’m coming home with a fika cookbook — as if I needed an incentive to make cookies!