Traveling back to Norway I want to share with you some of the beautiful knit wear and knitting shops I saw in my travels. A very special stop was made to a wonderful yarn shop called Garnloftet Helle which was closed for the summer but we had a private “showing”. This shop is owned by the super talented aunt of my new sister in law! The Norwegians are known for their talent for knitting, with their cold climate it’s almost a necessity to learn to knit yourself warm clothes for the winter! 
A very special lace knitting pattern that was expertly translated from Japanese into Norwegian by the owner of the shop. She did so by repeatedly watching a video of the pattern until she had it down. She teaches a class for this pattern and we got a brief lesson of our own and I’ll be trying this pattern out over the winter. I’m not sure I have the skills needed since I will have to train myself to knit continental to master this pattern but I’m determined to try!
In addition to yarn, patterns and classes there were quite a few knitted gifts ready to buy, like these candle jar covers, fingerless gloves (below), several styles of felted “pot holders” and garments such as sweaters and scarves available for purchase.
Above and below are two beautiful examples of traditional Fair Isle knitting. 
Boy would I have loved to spend a day here with some more in depth lessons but my mom and I had our guys with us who were quite patient but not enough for a day there! We discovered yarn in quite a few other shops in Kristiansand although we didn’t visit any other dedicated knitting shops. What I loved was that there were sections of many shops that carried a small to medium selection of yarns, patterns and ready to wear knit items. I found these sections in a couple “gift shops” and a children’s store. I love the idea of incorporating this creative hobby into everyday gift giving!
Spectacular stuff, don’t you think? It really inspired me to knit this winter but having just moved to a tropical climate I won’t be knitting too much from wool for myself. I have a big yarn stash that needs to be knit and maybe one day I’ll learn to knit like a Norwegian!