I’m still buried, so you won’t get much from me for another 3 weeks, but I wanted to post one thought and one Wooohoooo!
I’ve been searching for spinners in the local area, and finally stumbled over a couple or three in varying degrees of expertise and activity, as well as a few folks who are interested in seeing what all the fuss is about. (Can you say “enable”? 
)
See, the problem is that while Norway has a strong tradition of knitting, it doesn’t have one for spinning. Spinning fell out of public sight rather a long time ago—so much so that much of the language used to talk about spinning here is English vocabulary. There ARE a few spinners here and there, and interest in the craft is growing, but there are no guilds, no spinning groups, and there was no handspun at the biggest and most prestigious craft show in the country this fall.
I’m afraid I rather offended someone not long ago when I was exploring this idea and trying to figure out, for instance, why there are more spinners in Sweden and Denmark and Germany than in Norway, and why Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK seem to dominate the field at the moment. In those countries, there is such a thing as a spinning community, however diverse it may be.
I suspect she felt compelled to defend Norway, but there truly was no need. Norwegian spinners concur that the tradition does not exist here, and that vocabulary needs to be recreated/renewed to cover the field. She noted that there were “usynlige spinnere,” or “invisible spinners,” and she’s absolutely correct. But therein lies a hint of the problem. If spinning is done in secret as a subversive act in the same way that writing and artwork may be produced from in hiding, that’s one thing. If spinning is done “invisibly” because there is not a cultural interest in the craft as an art form, that’s something entirely different. It’s not a good sign if the existing vocabulary for the craft and tools is last found in a book which was published in 1939—and which was an overview of the history of the textile industry in general. Nor is it a necessarily relevant observation that some of the vocabulary exists in other Scandinavian languages; while there are connections, each language develops differently, and is based on its own developing population. It’s even less promising if one must consider trying to track down the old spinnners in order to find what vocabulary they use or used—and that one must do so in a hurry before they’ve all died off.
That discussion made me think about how we define tradition in an artistic sense, and I think therein lies the crux of the problem. When we talk about a population or culture having a tradition for or of something in the arts, my gut feeling is that we tend to imply that not only does the participant see it as a tradition (and I draw a strong distinction between a tradition and an incidental hobby, a personal craft, or a habit) , but that others see it that way, too. I can establish a personal tradition of spinning or associated with spinning, but if that tradition doesn’t expand beyond me, then it also dies with me. If my craft never makes it to the public eye, then while it may be a tradition for me, it certainly won’t be for anyone else. If we talk about a cultural tradition, then of necessity we must be talking about more than one person–and certainly not an invisible practitioner. Likewise, if the craft is one done of necessity (i.e., it is work essential to daily life and basic necessities), then my feeling is that it far too easily falls by the wayside when advances in technology and production make it unnecessary (although not obsolete). That, too, suggests something else to me, which is that if the craft is never perceived in any other sense—specifically, if it is never perceived as an art form—then it has difficulty making the transition from daily work (which is dropped when it is no longer necessary) to tradition.
I think of Shetland lace, Norwegian rosemaling, Japanese silk painting, and Navajo weaving off the top of my head. In all those cases, while the craft may have had a functional purpose, it also had an artistic one and was recognized—and known about—by the surrounding and wider community. One need not post an announcement in a local newspaper or advertise to find artisans or practitioners of the craft; that craft community was and is recognized and visible.
That is not the situation here with spinning.
That does not mean, however, that it will always be this way. Interest is growing.
And yes, there is a woohoo to all this rambling: I met my first Norwegian spinner this weekend! :-) Knittacia and I had our own spinning group meeting on Saturday—the first of what I hope will be many. As I suspect is true of other “invisible spinners,” she had thought she was the only one in the area. Unfortunately, being invisible brings a certain amount of isolation with it. 
I simply cannot say how good it was to be able to talk about fiber and spinning and wheels and spindles and . . . :-) with someone whose eyes didn’t start to glaze over when you began talking about microns and colors and blends. :-) I’m rather afraid I was so excited that I chattered nonstop like a little train or a kid on her first visit to the zoo, but I think she survived. While we met, we talked about having a very informal intro to spinning meeting for other members of a local craft group. I need to clear my current workload first, and I need to find supplies to make a few cheap spindles as testers. She has a small stash of quality mid-weight spindles and some Ashland Bay rovings she’d be willing to set up as starter packs for those who are interested, and I’m going to pick up a Babe Production wheel as a second wheel for training purposes so I can avoid putting folks on my Rose.
And then, ladies and gents—and this is my evil plan—we can doggoned well “grow” our own spinning group. There may not be a tradition of it in Norway, and at the moment there may be no visible spinning community, but that certainly doesn’t mean we cannot create one!
{ 11 } Comments
Så fint hvis dere og får en spinnegruppe. Jeg har hatt “min rokkeklubb” i ca 20 år. Den har riktignok ikke vært aktiv hele tiden, og antall deltagere har vært skiftende. (3-5) Men nå i høst åpnet jeg den for flere. Det ble muligheter til det da jeg kan bruke lokalet til Spinnvilt her på Lillehammer. Så nå håper jeg det er mange som kommer innom etterhvert med sitt spinneutstyr, første mandag hver måned. Det er hyggelig å være sammen med flere spinnere.
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EN PS fra Rhonna: For dere som ikke kjenner, Tove er en del av Spinnvilt laget. De finnes her: http://www.spinnvilt.no
Jeg skrev en feil på bloggadressen, nå håper jeg den blei riktig…
UPDATE FROM RHONNA/OPPDATERING FRA RHONNA: I’ve fixed it as well, Tove.
Jeg har rettet den også, Tove. 
Nå blir den rett i begge to.
Well done on starting your own group :>) with your enthusiasm it should go well!
I’m lucky enough to belong to two spinning groups and here in Scotland there are many groups so we have big gatherings as well.
It is great to be able to discuss, learn and teach all things spinny and just sitting spinning in a room full of people doing the same has great appeal to me too.
The common bond that generates fresh ideas and brings new friendships is worth it’s weight in gold.
Hi Rhonna.
You must have a great time, finally meet some other spinners, if you arrange a weekend I will consider taking the trip to Trondheim :o)
About drop spindlers, cd spindlers are not so expencive and they who has spin with them say it is great to start with.
I am going to order more from Wollknoll, yihaa
and see know that I have miss to write you blog url in my blog. That will be change no,
chat later :o)
oops! posted on the wrong day, but I hope that you get idea. A big WOOHOO to you and all the enableees you get to enable!
It’s interesting how many invisible crafts/arts are taken back up as leisure pursuits after “labor-saving” machines have made the hand work unnecessary. Fascinating post, and very interesting that spinning has become so invisible there aren’t even ready words for it.
Good for you for growing your own enablees, I mean spinning group.
Hi Rhonna. Good for you that you found other spinners there. I found some spinners here too, they have a spin ring every other thursday, it’s a part of the local husflidslag! So now I get to show them all kinds of things I learn on the net,like navaho ply, and they show me how to spin dog hair and angora and such.
Oh and I forgot, we should definetly make a spinners forum in norwegian, or scandinavian at least, Its time isnt it? But how do you start a forum? MAybe start with a shared blog?
Hello and thank you for that wonderful time on Saturday. And not to worry - you did not talk more than what I consider to be normal. I look forward to building up a spinning group, and I am more eager to spin now.
When it comes to your discussion about spinning tradition in Norway, I find it very interesting. And it made me think, and now I feel like I have something to add. What I would like to do is to try to answer your question “why there are more spinners in Sweden and Denmark and Germany than in Norway, and why Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK seem to dominate the field at the moment”.
First of all. Norway is and has always been a small Country among all these listed. I know New Zealand is small to, but the fact that some companies has grown and become the main distributors of spinning wheels is a good reason for this. The rest of the dominating Countries are very much bigger, and in Countries with more people you have more room for larger variation ( I am sorry for the shortness of English words, but I hope you understand).
From what I have experienced it looks like the experienced spinners in Norway are mainly very old and that the generations between me (I am 34) and them (80+) have not been showing much interest for this craft. In the old days they had to spin to be able to knit, but when the yarn was made by machines, they focused on the knitting and weaving. But even knitting and weaving have had a falling interest. It is just the last 5-7 years or so, the interest for knitting has grown a lot. And it looks like the interest for old traditions are growing among Norwegians.
Maybe it is because we became an Oil-nation! An industrialized nation and a major oil exporter. In a small Country with all this Oil there has not been the need for or people for a lot of non-oil-related companies. There where a lot of spinning-wheel builders and weave-builders 50 years ago, but now we have almost none left. In Sweden and Denmark you can see have had a lot more activity these last 50 years in crafts, design and art. They have to make a living from something else than Oil.
So what I am saying is that I think the major industrialization of Norway have had a big in pact on the creative traditions in Norway. Not only spinning, but a lot more - such as Rosemaling.
And then there is the spinning vocabulary. As discussed, we have lost some generations of spinners and even if we still can find the Norwegian spinning-words that was used, the art of spinning has not been in progress these last years like in the other Countries. So therefore we will not find a Norwegian word for all those used in English I guess. But this is something you know a lot more about than me.
Maybe we should start to work on a research-book-project on this subject
Happy spinning!
Fantastic, very interesting, and inspiring blog. I confess I have been an ‘invisible spinner’ for years in the UK until very recently when I finally joined a guild. It is wonderful to share, discuss, and enthuse with other spinners. I hope you are willing to do what it takes to discover the history and language of the tradition in Norway - perhaps you could share what you learn with spinners worldwide like me who are very interested in the particularities of differing local spinning and knitting traditions, like words, tools, fibres used, social aspects of the craft etc… I love a book I have by Vibeke Lind - ‘Nordic Knitting’ for this reason. So, please do write that book!!
Your post gets me thinking, as usual. I am a person who likes many kinds of crafts. Due to limited time I decided to focus on one, knitting. Yet adding spinning to me was well worth it. I wonder, what makes me want to spin? What is it about spinning that makes me find a place for it in my life? Is it the tradition that appeals? I think that is no small part of it. The more I spin, the more I learn about it. It is much more subtle, the act itself is much more an art than knitting. The product is more “basic”, but the process is more of an art. It doesn’t matter how you make a knit stitch, it will still be a knit stitch. But everything about how you move and don’t move while spinning will change your yarn in subtle and not so subtle ways. I just read abby’s new yarn manifesto. lol. Food for thought in there, too.
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