(soft bright music) (siren wailing) - Just waiting for a siren to stop.

Oh, and now it's stopping.

Get ready for a little Alabama magic.

(soft upbeat music) Well, the good news is it's only getting hotter.

- Yeah it's a good day to wear a bunad.

(upbeat music) I live in Minnesota and my ancestors came from Norway.

So what am I doing here in Alabama wearing this traditional Norwegian folk costume?

My great-great-grandmother immigrated from Norway in the late 1800s.

All she brought with her was her spinning wheel.

I'm here with my crew, Kris and Ben, and today we're gonna pick up the spinning wheel from my great cousin.

And after that we're headed to Norway where my great-great grandmother learned to knit with love.

(upbeat music) - [Ben] Hello, we are here to visit Vonnie.

Awesome.

Thank you.

- [Speaker 1] Yeah.

- [Ben] There she is.

- Hello.

- [Dana] Hi.

- Nice to see you.

- It's good to see you.

- Oh it's wonderful.

- [Dana] Oh goodness.

- Wonderful.

Oh you look so Norwegian, you have a solje.

- [Dana] What's a solje?

- It's the jewelry that they wear for ceremonies.

- When I put it back together again, here it broke off.

It just fell off.

And so I put a little bit of glue on there.

It's a weak point, you know, so you wanna be very, if you're moving it you wanna be very careful.

- [Dana] Oh okay.

And you would like to see this go to a museum, is that right?

- Yes.

- [Dana] Okay.

- I mean, I would like, I don't want it back.

I've had it for the last 30 years.

- Okay.

So I've been tasked with finding a permanent home in a museum for this, okay.

- In Minnesota.

- In Minnesota.

- Yeah.

But here's all the extra parts.

- Do we know anything about how old this is?

Was it new when she got it or did she get it from her...?

Is it a used one?

- I know she brought it with her on the ship.

She sheared sheep on board the ship and made garments.

'Cause she spun the wool and then she knit 'em.

- As long as you were collecting artifacts you might like those.

- These are incredible.

These should be protected in the museum.

This is part- - [Vonnie] (indistinct) to do whatever you wanna do.

- Yep.

- This is part of our state heritage.

- This is a picture of my grandparents and their three living children.

I grew up on Lake Koronis where I was born.

And I grew up in the home of Lydia and JB Johnson.

But Grandpa fished every day, which was his occupation in Norway.

He used to roll across the north, say to the Lofoten Islands.

And I visited there, you probably have also.

- [Dana] Can you tell me what you know about Lydia and where she comes from?

- She came from Sweden as a child.

She had been put out of her home because there were too many children they couldn't afford to feed them.

And so she came to somewhere in Norway.

My grandfather fell in love with her and his parents did not want him to marry her.

And so that was the year the cod didn't run.

So he decided to take off for America.

And it took two years for him to gather enough money to send for her.

And she came in the bottom of a boat as steerage with animals.

(sheep bleating) She knits everything throughout her life.

Luggos.

(pinging) Socks.

(pinging) Sweaters.

(pinging) Heavy jackets.

(pinging) You know, somehow she made them heavier.

I don't know because I don't knit.

No, I'm terrible at it.

I tried many times, but I either knit too close or I don't knit close enough.

And so it's unreliable when I knit.

(Yvonne laughing) - [Dana] All right we'll be right back.

- Okay.

- I'm not nervous at all.

Just another day transporting historical artifacts.

Oh okay.

Look at that.

I feel like Indiana Jones right now.

- [Dana] Yeah.

Spinning wheel retrieve.

High five.

- High five.

(upbeat music) - Right now it is 11:41.

It's still light.

(upbeat music) So today we went HipKnitShop.

- HipKnitShop.

I'm director.

- And learned about cool, vibrant colored, all natural wool and cotton.

- My name is Catherina.

I've been knitting since 2016 and I've started this shop.

I didn't mean to start a new shop.

I shared my knits and passion through social media.

And I got questions, you know, do you have patterns to sell?

Finished garments?

I stopped to think, "Okay, maybe I could do that."

Show you one of the most more popular designs.

Actually they're best sellers now too.

Especially the lemons and strawberry.

A bit, because it's a bit unique compared to, you know, traditional designs as well.

So I was a nurse working at the NICU.

I quit my job at the hospital to do this on full time.

There's not so many women in my family that's been knitters.

Maybe my grandma used to knit wool socks and my mother made a few cool 80s sweater with lots of colors.

My family think it's a bit weird that I'm sitting here with my own knit shop and deliver wool and on I own pattern worldwide 'cause we didn't imagine that that would happen.

(Catherina chuckling) This is actually the cherry jacket inspired by the Granny Squares jacket.

And that's an old Norwegian tradition.

Usually you have maybe from seven to 10 balls for each sweater.

- [Dana] Why do Norwegians love to knit so much?

- Yeah.

(Catherina chuckling) I think it's for different reasons.

You have the young people who want to make unique clothing, you know, in their own colors.

They don't want to wear what everyone else is wearing.

Maybe a lot of young people want to make things themselves.

They want to make things that last.

Cotton is one of the worst environmental threats for the earth.

I have pure rule that my cotton is certified 'cause this is a new type of culture that you think about what you do and what you choose to buy.

Maybe a lot of older people or people that's been knitting for generation, they just like the handcraft.

They just have always done it and like to do it.

(soft music) I didn't think that it was something for me 'cause I like, you know, to be on the move and to do something all the time.

And actually that's perfect 'cause you know, you can watch television and you can talk and you can (indistinct) your fingers.

You can knit while you do other things.

If I go camping, I bring my knit.

If I go to a boat ride, I bring my knit.

If my boys are in a soccer practice, I always knit.

So it's very calming and just sit there and enjoy life while knitting so.

(soft music) - All right.

If I were to pick a sweater in this shop, follow me, follow me.

Huh?

(water waves crashing) - We are going to the THON hotel in downtown Bodo to pick up Marta Nerhus, who is our next interview.

She makes large sculptures out of knitted textiles and her yarn is made out of metal.

So it's kind of the next, next level knitting.

- She's a heavy metal knitter.

- Should we put some heavy metal on?

- Yeah.

(heavy metal music) - I feel that this metal wire is just like a line.

You can draw it and you can draw in the space and you can build with it.

Yeah.

- [Dana] So you're knitting with metal?

- You're knitting with metal, yeah.

It's metal thread, but all my techniques are from textile.

Like knitting and I'm sewing it together to make it stand like this when it's three dimensional.

I think it's fantastic to see something grow between your finger.

It's great to get your ideas out to life, but it's even more great when you don't have an idea and suddenly you can talk to the material and something grow.

So this is Syrian refugees coming to Norway and I sew that.

- [Ben] So how big is that?

- So.

I think I prefer big pieces, but I also do small pieces.

(Marta chuckling) So this is my evening knitting.

(Marta and Dana laughing) So this is more like handcraft.

- [Dana] What is the difference between art and handcraft?

- I think handcraft is... its for use and for your eyes.

But if you make art, I think it has to have some deeper meaning.

I was going to have a big exhibition at Bryggens Museum in Bergen.

It was just at the time there were coming so many refugees from Syria and we have this discussion, are they welcome or not?

And then I was comparing to this immigration to America that people have been traveling and trying to get a better life.

I think it's not long time since we were in the same situation in Norway, yeah.

(soft music) I was growing up on a farm and my mother and father were doing everything by hand and were working all the time.

Yeah, knit and weaving and sewing.

And also this (indistinct).

She couldn't stop.

She was very, very- She liked to do it.

The same exhibition and made 800 small boats like this.

I couldn't imagine the shining in the tread before I were hanging it.

And they were so thin.

And my mother was very proud when I had the exhibition.

Here you see it's knitted.

When I was trying to get into this art, she always saying that you should be a teacher.

You should be a teacher to earn money because it's really a hard life.

I can tell you that.

I first was a social worker and when I was 27, I have a sister who was 37 and she died of cancer.

And I thought, now I have to do what I should do, to knit art.

- [Dana] Why do you think Norwegians love knitting so, so much?

(Marta sighing) - Maybe it's cold and we need, but it's also in the 70s when I was in high school, even the boys were knitting.

We are sitting there in meetings and sitting on the floor and knitting.

And then it has been out for a long time, but now maybe five, maybe 10 years ago, it is in fashion again.

So everybody's knitting now, and even boys.

- [Kris] Well guys, how do you think the day went?

- So to be honest, we took on a hike that was definitely too advanced for our skill level.

Then when we got there, we made friends with like six Norwegians.

And they took us on a boat ride.

(water splashing) No, everything worked out perfectly and it was like super warm, which is, we are told it's like the best day in 20 years in Norway.

And it is very hard to make friends in Norway so we are super lucky about that.

(soft music) - We are on our way to Lofoten and we're gonna talk to some sheep.

I'm gonna get their opinion on what's up, pulling their hairs and making sweaters.

(soft music) - Well we're here and the view is fantastic.

This is where my great-great grandfather used to fish in the winter and sleep under his boat.

We begin.

- Yeah.

- Where would you like to do your interview?

- Uh, we could do it inside my living room.

- [Dana] Okay.

- I moved to Lofoten in 1997.

When I got here in Lofoten I was an exhausted textile artist feeling that I couldn't really express myself through the textiles.

Then I discovered that the wool here is actually really, really good.

So we could make yarn and we could actually sell it.

Okay.

And then I thought, "Okay, I'll just also going to be a business lady now."

Everything you see here now in the shop is made from local sheep wool.

Sweaters and hats and mittens and scarves.

So we sell hand knitted stuff.

This shelf here, the wool is from this kind of sheep, which are the older kind.

I like the orange.

I think it's such a happy, good, strong quality energy.

Hmm.

The old way on doing things is the best I think.

And I think it's important that we don't lose this knowledge.

So I have learned some from the Viking age, the Vikings way of dyeing.

They used really good colors.

So they are still strong colors today.

- [Kris] Sorry, Dana - - Excuse me we are making a film here.

(crew laughing) Could you please go outside?

- [Dana] Why do Norwegians love knitting so damn much?

(Ragnhild laughing) - You know, the Norwegians has been, they have been knitting a lot, so I think it's in our blood.

You know, we are up here in the north in the cold.

So without the sheep we would never have been here.

The sheep has given us both clothes and meat and the sheep has followed us everywhere.

(sheep bleating) When I say that we have wool from naturally happy sheep, I think it's really true.

They are living a very free good life here.

And sometimes we will also send them to the slaughter house.

And when I say sending them to the slaughter house, it's like I'm putting them in my own car, driving them 10 minutes just over on the other side of the hill here to the slaughterhouse.

So it's super close.

Like I'm telling them in the car, don't be afraid, you're just going to die.

It's not dangerous, you know?

But I'm crying almost thinking about it because it's not easy all the time, you know?

You really get to know them well and it's very nice friends.

So that's a kind of- Yeah, balance within myself.

Hmm.

- [Dana] My grandmother left Norway to follow some dude to America.

Can you imagine doing that?

- Yes.

(Ragnhild laughing) I dreamt about doing that when I was a young girl wanting to go to America.

I wanted to have brown horses and I wanted to have a black sheep and we were gonna have five kids.

So the whole plan was like set up.

So when I moved here, when I started planning Lofoten Wool, I wanted to find out what kind of wool do they produce here on this island.

And I was traveling around visiting different farms and there was one very funny, nice lady.

She said, "Oh, I can bring you to my dad's farm because he's got this super, super lovely special wool."

So she took me there and we were in the barn looking at this lovely looking sheep and this really long hairy shiny wool.

And then when we went to the car, she said, "By the way, would you like to meet my dad?"

And I said, "Yeah, well why not?"

And then we went inside and talking and I said, hmm that's nice man.

(Ragnhild and Dana laughing) And then he said, "Well, I got a lot of wool in my barn that hasn't been sorted properly.

Perhaps you would like to come back and help me with that?"

So the romance started to blossom in the barn there and we started kissing a little bit.

So that was a dilemma because he's quite a lot older than me.

So we said, well you can't resist love, you know?

Once the arrows of amour have hit you, you are, you just have to play along.

So now we've been together nine and a half years and he's really been supporting me a lot and helping me build up all this farm work.

(Ragnhild speaking Norwegian) Yeah.

Hi.

I think Lofoten Wool plays an important role actually in Norway.

You know, we all have to make some choices, you know?

Who produces your clothes, what fibers is it, what you do with it when it's finished.

Sometimes when I'm tired I'm thinking, "Ugh, perhaps I should just do something else."

But no, I shouldn't, I should just continue this because it's really the right thing to do I think.

(upbeat music) (Dana laughing) - [Dana] Easy.

- [Ben] I just drop it right here at the very end.

- Hello?

- Hi Laurann.

It's good to see you again.

- Good to see you too.

- So I brought you something, this is my great-great grandmother's spinning wheel from Norway and I'm bringing it here to see if you want it for your collection at Vesterheim.

- One thing that's special I think about Vesterheim is that we are the oldest and most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated to a single immigrant group.

So we are dedicated to preserving the stories of people who had come from Norway and living here in the United States.

(door beeping) - [Dana] So today I brought you all of my family's artifacts from Nesna, Norway and some photos from the people that owned them.

- Wonderful.

And all of these items belonged to Lydia, yes.

Who was an avid wool crafts person and knitter.

Lots of Norwegian women would do a lot of their own textile production and so they would be raising the sheep themselves, shearing them, spinning them with the spinning wheel.

But another step in the spinning is to straighten the fibers before spinning using wool carders and you'd use them in pairs.

You'd put some of the fleece here and pull the combs apart away from each other to get the fibers nice and straight before you use the spinning wheel.

And then the spinning wheel.

This is a beautiful one.

So many, many women, especially in the 1800s, would bring a spinning wheel with them and you've got, it looks like most of the parts, even if they're not attached on the spinning wheel right now, I think because of this rounded support here, your spinning wheel was actually made in Finland.

Even though Lydia was using it in Norway and brought it to Minnesota.

I don't think Vesterheim can accept this because it was Finish originally, but also we have a lot of spinning wheels.

We have more than 70 because so many women brought them and also the families saved them.

This was so important and maybe symbolize the grandmother or great-grandmother for them.

So we're not accepting spinning wheels any longer.

So sadly there's a limited amount of space and resources to care for things.

We had wheels from lots of places in Norway and we thought this is maybe not the best use of our space.

There's other stories we want to be sure to have space for to tell.

Some of them have been transferred to other museums so that we're down to about 70 now.

- My great-great grandparents were from Nesna and my great-great grandmother communicated via letters with her family there for the rest of her life.

They sent these to her as a gift.

And then these, or I know she was very well known for making luggos and am I saying that right?

- Yes, I think so.

- And I think it's a form for making socks or luggos.

- But that would be wonderful.

We would love to have the slippers and the forms.

That would be a really wonderful way that we could help share that common duty of tradition and handcraft with our museum members and visitors.

So this granddaughter saved all this stuff and she lived with her for a time.

So all those stories were able to be preserved that way.

- And it's wonderful that she's got these experiences to share because so often someone in the family passes away or you come across these and you don't know what they are.

- This is you as a baby?

- Yep.

This is my baby book.

That wealthy.

(Vonnie laughing) - I'm so glad she's been sharing her stories with you and that you've had that story to go along with these objects too.

That makes a big difference.

Sadly, I think in general, people don't know as much about the objects as they used to and it happens so easily.

People tell you the story.

You think you're always going to remember the story of who used it or what it is, and then that just sort of slips away.

I think we have to hear those stories multiple times.

So that might be my plea to the public, is bring it out every year at Thanksgiving or bring it out often and share the story.

Because the more the family hears these stories, they can help keep track of the information to share those stories often.

(soft upbeat music)