This page is a collection of blog posts, essays and other writing I have shared across the internet (as of 2025).
Spring thoughts on wool
(Substack 6.3.25)
The air is warm today, 10 degrees in the morning. The sun is rising as I make coffee in the kitchen and the kids sleep longer than normal. I have to wake them up, dim bedroom, warm legs under heavy duvets, it feels a bit heartless to pull them out of their dreams, but it helps that I made pancakes.
It’s been a long winter, it always is, in the end, and it makes spring so much sweeter.
I have been thinking a lot about wool. Not unnormal for me. As my husband recently put it on a less generous moment of his day, there is wool everywhere, absolutely everywhere and, it is everywhere! He is right, it’s even some hiding places he doesn’t know about, and some I have planned.
The thing about wool is that it is so much more than itself. The reason it gives warmth isn’t even because of it self, in a way, it because of the air it holds, the “nothing” it contains. I love to hold a piece of wool between my fingers (fiber or knitted or anything), and feel the warmth build up, and realize that it is my own warmth it holds, for me.
Wool in itself is “just” a fiber of 2 -10 cm length. But if you give it twist, it holds it, if you weave it, or knit it or color it, it holds it, i you give it heat it holds it. It can hold so much, and it does it with absolute silence and grace.
It isn’t even very hard do come by. It isn’t expensive. The sheep needs to be shorn whether we use the wool or not. Our land, the local flora needs them. And they very little in return, especially the older breeds (smaller in size, easier births, good maternal instincts, living mostly of the land and local vegetation). I won’t speak on behalf of the sheep owners though, I am sure they work hard. But all in all, sheep give generously.
Wool is soft and undemanding, silent and rich. There is no fake high demand, no exclusivity game, no hidden tricks. It’s honest and reliable and still highly valuable.
I am deeply inspired by wool in my life, and I see my role as a mother reflected in the gifts from the sheep. Like wool I want to give my family comfort and protection, to be generous and available and I see that, and my role in it, as highly valuable.
End of the year reflections
(Substack 18.12.24)
I like the idea of a email letter like this, some independency from social medias and longer in form. and even though I am not sending one every few weeks, it’s a connection I appreciate.
Christmas and the end of the year is drawing near, we are in the darkest week of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and I am feeling it. We have more rain and fog than snow, and I kind of just want to stay put inside. But it is seldom a good idea. So I keep up some socialization, some climbing and a run now and then.
This December have been different from the three previous years of this one-woman business. I actually predicted the forth and last tax invoice of the year. I managed to send out all orders in good time. I even hade enough self restraint not to take on extra work the last weeks. The days are short enough as is.
Observing changes like these, one year to the next, with specific points in time to compare, give valuable insight to the development of my priorities and I like the feeling of slowly finding my way in this still new terrain.
I have had an amazing year of custom orders, even got to create a commissioned piece for a museum. The spinning workshops have been taking a different form this year, shorter and with more children. It feels as important as ever to share the knowledge and the joy that is spinning yarn from raw wool. And I have been gifted so many incredible messages and kind words of encouragement. We really are a tribe of people who love the fiber arts, and it gives me strength to belong a space that values this work. Thank you.
I am not big on airing my emotions on social media, but the community around me (you), making this work possible, is due some insight from time to time, and of course, some parts of this year have been hard too. I made a custom piece that was returned, as the person couldn’t afford it. That is a month of no pay right there. In spring the royal princess was supposed to visit my weaving studio, aka home. We had the police over and the princess’s advisers, to plan the visit, but then it had to be postponed due to very understandable reasons. The boys still asks when the princess is coming, and that is perhaps the saddest part of it being canceled. I also had an amazing spinning workshop planned in the mountains this summer that had to be canceled. This is a small list of the hidden plans and work that go into building a solid livelihood, a lot of ideas and initiative that doesn’t come to anything. And there is nothing to do but to cry, shake it off and try again.
Hardship is part of the deal, and the day to day work, the enthusiasm, the absolutely incredible people I get to be in touch with, combined with the rightness I feel at the core of doing this work, far outweighs the downside.
So thank you for being part of this journey, I would not do this work on my own for my self only.
Whether you are heading into Christmas holidays and the dark of winter or not, I send you my warmest wishes for a good ending to this year, and the best of luck for the next.
