Kyo inserted wool from Norwegian sheep into the pork-expensive Japanese machine. He has moved from Japan to Møre and Romsdal – to control the knitting machine. Now many are hoping for a revival of the Norwegian clothing industry, with sustainability and short-term clothing. FOUNDERS: Arnar Lyche and Rose Bergslid show the joints needed to make a wool sweater. Photo: Webjørn S. Espeland / news NOK 3.90 per kilo Arnar Lyche is a sheep farmer in Nordmøre and one of two founders of Tingvoll wool. – It started with me delivering 230 kilos of wool and getting NOK 900 in payment. – It was a bit small, don’t you think? – Yes, it was very little. I had spent several thousand on cutting them, so it was a losing project that the wool should be used. At the same time I was in Iceland and saw Icelandic woolen clothes everywhere, it was part of their identity. Lyche started with his own clothing production. – I think it is 100% sustainable, as the sweaters are a pure natural product. In the EU, 80 percent of all wool is today thrown in the bin. It is a number the sheep farmer seems to find objectionable. WOOL: Here are the sheep on their way before they get rid of their wool. A wide range of natural colours. Photo: Rose Bergslid Wool professor Clothing professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp at Oslo Met has helped design one of the new wool sweaters in Tingvoll. – Norwegian agriculture is more than food. And clothing is more than global mass production. We can make clothes in Norway, she says. DR. ULL: Professor of clothing and structural strength Ingun Grimstad Klepp at Oslo Met. Photo: Webjørn S. Espeland / news Beyond the 19th century, textiles became one of Norway’s most important industries. Most villages had their own spinning mills, and there was close proximity between seamstresses, weavers and factories. In 1960, 14 percent of all industrial workers in Norway worked with textiles, but then things went downhill. In the 1980s, global free trade took over, and since then countries with low living standards have made our clothes. Klepp, who is also a professor of sustainability, believes that most of the clothing industry is not sustainable. – This applies from the way animals and humans are treated – to chemical use and overconsumption. Local clothing produces small emissions from transport, and here you take care of raw materials that would otherwise go to waste, she says. Professor Klepp also points out that the woolen cloth does not need chemical dyeing. MACHINE: Rose Bergslid in Tingvoll wool at the knitting machine for NOK 1.3 million. Photo: Webjørn S. Espeland / news Machine from Japan Rose Bergslid in Tingvoll ull says that their knitting machine is one of three of its kind in Norway. – How much faster does that sweater knit than you would have done it yourself? – It takes between 30 minutes and two hours for everything, depending on how many patterns there are. By hand it would probably have taken at least a week, but I can’t knit, she says. She doesn’t need that either with a machine worth 1.3 million. – This is the closest thing you can call a 3D printer when we talk about textiles. In addition, these machines tolerate thick woolen thread, which not many other knitting machines do. THE KEY: Kyo comes from the same city as the advanced knitting machine from Shima Seiki. Has he programmed a new wool sweater. Photo: Webjørn S. Espeland / news – In competition with low-priced artificial clothing, such advanced machines are the solution for the Norwegian clothing industry, says Professor Ingun G. Klepp. The other skin Researcher Veronika Glitsch has a doctorate in how clothing can be made more sustainable, and works herself with redesign and short-haul clothing. RESEARCHER: Veronika Glitsch is an associate professor at the University of Southeast Norway. Photo: Stein S Eide / news – Clothing production is one of the environmental worst cases globally. We must become more local, she says. 25 percent of all the world’s chemicals go into textiles, and enormous amounts of water have been polluted from production. – Clothing is the second skin, so it is important to make garments that are used a lot and for a long time, says Glitsch. A favorite garment is often worn first in festive outfits, then at school or work, then at home before it ends up when measuring the cabin. In the UK alone, usable clothing to the value of NOK 2 billion ends up in landfill every year – with lots of chemicals and microplastics. The researcher has great faith in Norwegian cloth. – We also have to make the textile fibres, and in Norway hemp and wool have very good conditions for cultivation. She thinks it is a bonus that the sheep also keep our natural landscape open. EEL TRAILING: Sheep can do an eel hunting job in the outback, in addition to supplying wool and mutton meat. Photo: Rose Bergslid Do you need wool? – But do I need more woolen clothes, or do people think that people only have one woolen jumper lying around? – We are forced to replace the microplastics we wear, such as fleece and oil-based super underwear. So then I need more than just a sweater, says researcher Glitsch. Professor Ingunn G. Klepp also points out that with good wool jumpers we can cut down on everything at home and use less electricity. – In addition, I wash cotton clothes very often, while woolen clothes can be used for a few months, even maybe a year before I wash them. The smell of sweat does not settle in wool, so airing is more effective than washing to get rid of the smell, says Klepp. news has not been able to get a comment from those principally involved in this case: BREK: Few people know what the sheep think about Norwegian wool production. Photo: Åse Tronstad
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Can short-distance clothing travel the Norwegian clothing industry?
