Poetry in Stitches, continued ::

I first saw Oleana sweaters at Husfliden in Oslo. Incredibly beautiful sweaters with intense colors in fine wool or wool/silk blends often trimmed in velvet or silk ribbons that I drooled over. I found several links to some places to buy Oleana designs, and if you take a peek, you can possibly see why I'm drooling, not pulling out my wallet.

I picked up a Knitter's magazine in the US last October in which Solveig Hisdal's was featured. Oleana is a small knitting mill near Bergen, Norway whose goal is to show customers the link between textile patterns of the past and modern Norwegian design. The company is named in honor of Ole Bull, the famous Norwegian violinist, who started a utopian colony for poor Norwegian immigrants in Pennsylvania named Oleana. Their aim is to make, not more sweaters, but more beautiful sweaters. Their designer, Solveig Hisdal, who is continuously reviewing museum collections around Norway, is the author of Poetry in Stitches. See how I eventually came back to that point? ;o)
There are some higher resolution pictures at Pinnsvin design that show full pages of Poetry in Stitches. You can see "my" sweater there, and a sleeveless version with the skirts one should wear with them.