08/20/2026
I’m back from a week in Norway, part holiday and part research trip for New Heights Yarn. This carousel captures some of my best pics around Bergen, the Hillesvag wool mill outside town, and the textile museum in Salhus.
Starting here: Bergen from above, taken from the top of Fløyen. The funicular carries you up in minutes, then the real walking begins. At the summit: a lake with kayakers on it, goats roaming free, wild blueberries growing along the path. I stopped for a knitting break and finished off the morning’s cardamom bolle. On the way back down: towering trees, moss over moss and troll carvings tucked into the forest.
Knitting the first Sweater School sample on a fjord cruise toward Mo. Waterfall after waterfall down the cliff faces, towering rock walls close on either side, small farms tucked into impossibly steep hillsides. A good place to get real work done on my Novice Sweater
Yarn sample cards at Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk (Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk), a working wool mill just outside Bergen. Founded in 1898, still spinning Norwegian wool on machines that have been running for over a century. We took the mill tour and finished the day shopping the shop floor for yarn milled right there on site.
One of the troll carvings from the troll garden up Fløyen, tucked into the forest along the walking path. Norwegian folklore made tangible, right at the edge of the trail.
A day at Tekstilindustrimuseet (Eit unikt museum i Bergen) in Salhus, for their inaugural listening party. Historic machines were set running and demonstrated for us while we worked on our own knitting, getting to know the space, the light and the spectacular Salhus harbour along the way.
Inside Tekstilindustrimuseet (Eit unikt museum i Bergen), where the original knitting and spinning machines still run. A working record of how Salhus made cloth for over a century.
An old weighing scale on the factory floor at Tekstilindustrimuseet (Eit unikt museum i Bergen), cones of wool lined up in the background. Small, practical tools like this kept the whole mill honest.
Fløyen pastry break
Finishing the last of the morning’s bolle partway up Fløyen, knitting still in my lap. The best kind of break.
Di
