WEAVING DANSKBROGD

Text by Robbie LaFleur

The Norwegian Textile Letter is a publication for fans of Norwegian (and other Scandinavian) fibre activities, published since 1994. Scholarly or informative articles aim to raise the level of knowledge about historical and contemporary weaving and other textile techniques in Scandinavian countries, and highlight related activities in the United States.


Image: typical danskbrogd designs. Image above: Danskbrogd combined with krokbragd; sample, front and back, by Jan Mostrom.

Occasionally, several articles in one issue highlight a particular weaving technique. Danskbrogd is a little-known weave structure found in a small area of Vest-Agder, Norway, with characteristic geometric patterns in a light colour against a dark background. Typically, bands of small geometric designs were interspersed with bands of krokbragd. A detailed danskbrogd description from Katherine Larson’s book, The Coverlets of Norway, provided background on the technique.


Image: Lila Nelson wove the northern lights in danskbrogd technique. Owned by Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum.

The newsletter often includes articles translated from Scandinavian languages, helping more readers gain access. For example, the danskbrogd issue included a translation of a document about coverlets from the Vest Agder Museum in Kristiansand, Norway. Many readers are active weavers, so an instructional article by Jan Mostrom was included, "Weaving Danskbrogd." The Scandinavian Weavers Study Group of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota studied krokbragd and danskbrogd over two years, so the newsletter included drafts and photos from their study notebook, “Danskbrogd Weaving from the Krokbragd Study Group.”  


Image: historical danskbrogd from the collection of the Vest-Agder Museum in Kristiansand, Norway.

Contemporary interpretations of traditional weaving techniques are often included in the Norwegian Textile Letter. Lila Nelson (1922-2015) wove the banded technique into chickens and cities and starry skies (see “Lila Nelson’s Danskbrogd”).

For more articles featuring danskbrogd in the Norwegian Textile Letter, simply enter the term in the search box. Or you could search for other well-covered techniques, like rya, vestfold technique, billedvev (tapestry) or flesberg (a three-shaft rosepath technique).