Textile Museum

July 19, 2025

This post will be of most interest to those of Sheila's friends who knit, weave, crochet, sew etc., or who are interested in Scandinavian folk-costumes. The rest of you should feel free to skip this one.

After a 2-hour drive which was a bit scary in spots, due to the fog / low-lying clouds / smoke from the volcano 230 miles away, Sheila finally got to go into the Textile Museum (Heimilisiðnaðarsafnið) in the town of Blönduós. This is the only specifically focused textile museum in Iceland. The museum is located in a beautiful building with good visitor access. It hosts several unique and independent exhibitions of embroideries, Icelandic national costumes, the Halldóra room, which is dedicated to the life and work of Halldóra Bjarnadóttir (1873-1981), and a wool exhibition. Annually the museum hosts a special exhibition of Icelandic textile artists and designers.

The building seemed so small, and yet there was a lot to see, as there were 2 basement areas in addition to what is visible from the street.

Most of the museum consists of the collection of Halldóra Bjarnadóttir, an educator, politician, and author who lived to be 108! None of the items were made by her, although she taught needlecrafts along with academic subjects. She felt that handcrafts were in danger of dying out in Iceland, and so began her collection. Those interested can read more about this interesting woman here.

Please excuse the poor quality of some of the photos--it's hard to take good pictures through glass display cases!

Linen bobbin lace. The thread was spun from "tow", or the very short leftover fibers.

Knitted mittens

Knitted insoles. Shoes were often fairly thin, so this was for warmth.

The 'granny square' seems to be international!

This was very fine work, with the center motifs only about 1" square.

A particular type of needlepoint, utilizing long, straight stitches, called glitsaumer.

A similar effect can be achieved with Swedish dukagång weaving.

A stunning needlepoint piece...or possibly done in long-arm cross-stitch.

Detail

Another large piece using the straight-stitch glitsaumer technique.

Detail

A woven piece. I like the asymmetry.

A very large knitting machine, with a spinning-wheel placed in the middle to save space, not implying it was used like that.

Thin leather shoes with knitted insoles.

Shoes were usually homemade of sheepskin and didn't last long, to the point that distances might be measured in "shoe-wear".

Then there was the current exhibit "She is I: The Knitting Experience", by a local artist, Halla Lilja Ármannsdóttir, who actually works at the museum and was the one who explained the layout of the museum. She made everything herself, although some of it was machine-knit and then assembled. But still--it's a whole lot of knitting!

"A dialog of knitting expressions in the form of fashion, art, sculpture and jewelry. Exploring nature, material and family lineage."

The Icelandic National Costume has a very different history than those of Sweden and Norway. While those have been worn in tradition since the 1700s or even earlier, and developed out of everyday clothing as well as "fancy" clothes to wear to church or for solemn occasions, the Icelandic national dress took a somewhat different path.

In the 1600-1700s, wealthy Icelandic women dressed much as their counterparts in Europe (painting on left), while the middle classes had a more distinctive style, called faldbúningur, shown on the right.

The faldbúningur slowly began disappearing, as Iceland gradually came into more contact with the rest of Europe, and had almost died out by the 1850s. At that time, a well-known artist, Sigurður Guðmundsson, designed a formal variant, the skautbúningur, with the intent that it be worn for formal occasions as an expression of national pride.

In 1870, Siguröur designed the kýrtil, a much simpler garment for less-formal occasions. It slowly gained popularity for confirmations and weddings. Originally white, it later expanded to a range of darker colors.

I was planning to explain the development of the costumes in more details, but the subject turns out to be quite complex, and rather than commit a whole lot of errors, I'm simply going to show the pics I took, and refer anyone interested in delving deeper to this website. Feel free to try to distinguish between the faldbúningur, skautbúningur, kyrtill, and upphlutur--I couldn't quite get them sorted. I think that upphlutur refers only to the bodice of the others, but I'm not entirely sure. And then about the time I think I have them figured out, I see there is also a peysuföt....