A wonderful winter spinning day

After the trip to Iceland, some unspun wool found its place in the luggage. Today, it was time to start spinning... This wool is coming from the "Moraud" breed (sorry no Islandic fonts at my computer).


The nice photo of sheeps is borrowed from an Islandic blog that does not have a name.

It was a funny wool to spin, it has beautiful intermingling colours and it gets a little "chunky" when one spins it.

Hopefully two threads 100gr. will be finished today.

Sommer minner - Summer Memories

"Løten Husflidslag" Visiting our Gallery

Sokk og Rokk Conquering Iceland !

Country: Iceland
City: Reykjavik
Location: The Handknitting Association of Iceland - Shop
Why?: To buy a spindle

What did we end up doing?: Uhhh ......

Håndtein? Spindle? Jauuu, jauuu, an old man is making drop spindles and he delivers them here, said the shop keeper with a big smile. ..." But I dont know how to use them, do you?" she added.

That was all it took so that TrondE started a demonstration (and a lecture, history, use, size, weight, material, quality.... )

In few seconds, the customers started gathering, watching the 2 aliens: one demonstrating and the other taking photos... But we ended up bay mking new friends.

A special young (cute) enthousiastic girl was very much interested in learning. She followed the demonstration attentively. We are sure that, after we left, she bought herself a drop spindle, and she is practising hard by now :)... and she is enjoying it too :)

Hello from us here in Norway !

A souvenir photo for our blog? Jauuu, jauuu

Viking Spindles

Yes... Spindles were part of the norwegian culture. They have been used in the daily life until the spinning wheel was created and developed. Stones were carved into rings, decorated with simple carvings, and then each was attached to a wood stick, and voila, the spindle was ready: easy made, effective and most of all a survival instrument to defeat the cold winters.

Colours by Mushrooms - Soppfarger

Here are some coloured wool yarn that we manage to colour using mushrooms so far. The colours get so natural, harmonious and nice for the eye.

Her er så langt vi har kommet med soppfargingen, fargene blir så harmoniske og gode for øyet.

The Big Arrival !

Finally ! Our mushroom drying machine has arrived and it is already filled with different kind of colouring mushrooms. 13 trays of different kinds of Hydnellum, Cortinarius, Paxillus atrotomentosus, Sarcodon squamosus ... This is really cool !

Rødlig lørdag kveld - Red Saturday Evening

En flott ettermiddag var det og vi fant den ettertraktede røde slørsoppen: Cortinarius Sanguineus (blodrød kanel slørsopp - Blodspindling). Her er den før tørking.

Soppen er utkokt og det første fargebadet er igang.

Å sjekke PH erviktig og interessant når man holder på.

Her er resultatet av første badet,og de neste badene er igang på ovnen. Det røde pigmentet er kraftig redusert og i andre badet får fargen et mer oransj preg. Det kommer bilder av det også.

Sokk og Rokk

Just before the "Under Brua" rock festival, we were thinking about finding a way to market our "Sokk og Rokk" blog.


After long discussions that can be cool and fun sometimes and very heavy some other times, idea started to get clearer.

We went thru tons of photos that we took in Damascus - Syria , Maghdouche -Lebanon as well as in Norway.

... and here is the final result !

A reasonably mysterious, elegant, full of textile love, and colourful brand image was born ! and most of all pleasant and funny. It puts a smile on your face :)


... and for sure, it fits our exclusive handspun yarn...

Happy ? Yes, we are :)

Soppfarging - Dyeing with mushrooms

I år bugner det av sopp i skogen, og det satte fart i soppfargingen. Ikke at kunnskapen er så stor ennå men to fargesopper vet vi da om........ Her sorteres soppen for tørking.

I endel oppskrifer står det at man skal skille hatten fra stilken fordi det gir ulike farger. Det må prøves.

Når fargepigmentene er kokt ut så kan man starte fargingen.


Rett temperatur i en time er påkrevet. Hyppig sjekking er nødvendig.

Ulik PH gir ulike farger. Under sees resultatet av en fargesopp i ulik PH. Å farge 50 grams bunter er fint for da kan man prøve ut beiset kontra ubeiset.

Nå er det bare en ting å gjøre, eksperimenteringen av farging av ull før spinningen starter.

Sticking Nettles - Brennesle

Experimenting with sticking nettle is a chapter by itself. We read somewhere that it contains fibers. We read in another place that its fibers were exclusive to royalties, some other places that it was used in the uniform of german soldiers at a certain time in history...

No matter what, litterature about nettles is almost not possible to find, neither on the net or in the libraries around Norway. If it exists, then god knows how much we tried and researched to get it without any considerable success.

In this case, one thing is left to be done. It is to try to find about the sticking nettles ourselves and maybe write about it, here on "Sokk og Rokk".

Hamararbeiderblad - HA

Rock as music ... and Rokk (in Norwegian) as a spinning wheel ........ "Sokk og Rokk" breaks all the borders and adds more originality to the "Under Brua" rock festival!

Today, Hanne Maren Torpen Hokstad wrote a nice reportage about us in HA - Hamararbeiderblad.

"Under Brua" Festival - "Sokk og Rokk" was there!

This year, we were invited as "festival artists" to the "Under Brua" rock festival in Hamar. We took, each his own "rokk" spinning wheel: Gilbert and George and we headed there, right next to the Viking Ship arena. We have been spinning for around 7 hours yesterday and god knows how long we will spin tonight... Nice atmosphere, lovely contact with people, and for sure a clear message to get people back to use their hands :)

Flax - Lin

During our short vacation in July, we got the opportunity of having a private flax treatment demonstration. Flax has always been fascinating as a plant, a flower and as fiber as well. It is something that you read about, you see as ready made products in some shops, but you never get to see it processed, anyway not in your daily life.

The whole process was just amazing. From breaking the dried crop to beating it, to separating the fibers from the wood, and then to clear the fibers completely, all the procedure seemed to us as interesting as dealing with wool. At the end of the day, fiber is a lovely material no matter what.

Needless to say that we bought the breaking tool ("brake" in norwegian, I dont know the name in english) and the separating tool ("hekle" in norwegian).





Now we are ready to start our flax - Linen journey. God knows where it can lead us !