Visual Bornholm
Published by Visual Media ApS
Designed by Miru Studio
Knitting is a handicraft. A handicraft that can be learned by anyone, and awakens creative urges. Every stitch is a source of meditative pleasure that interconnects people and creates beautiful, hand-made masterpieces. The knitwear is not created by skill alone, though. It also requires the right materials. And these are found in Jette Jensen’s shop, Strikkehjørnet, in Allinge. The shop is familiar to knitting enthusiasts from far and near and features everything from knitting needles, buttons and knitting patterns and instructions to exclusive hand-spun yarns in natural colours. The yarn assortment comprises exclusive, quality yarns from Isager, Filcolana and Rauma, to name a few, but also includes Jette’s own locally-produced yarn range – ‘Bornholmsk Pelsuld’ – made of wool from Bornholm sheep.
From the windows of her house on the Hammeren Peninsula, she can actually look over at the sheep that provide the wool for Bornholmsk Pelsuld. Bornholmsk Pelsuld is made from hand-sorted raw wool from a mixture of the Gotland Pelt and Texel breeds of sheep, also known as ‘Hammershus Lambs’ on Bornholm. The sheep are part of Bornholm’s nature conservation of areas like Hammershus and the Hammeren Peninsula. The wool in the Bornholmsk Pelsuld range comprises smooth, glossy fibres that result in a beautiful surface. The wool retains heat, is durable and is ideal for textured patterns and multi-coloured knitwear. Jette dyes the yarn herself using plants from Bornholm’s countryside. She dyes small quantities at a time, which is why each yarn is unique and a popular product for those who appreciate quality yarn.
Jette herself is a knitting enthusiast who stays up to date on knitting and design trends. This is apparent upon entering Strikkehjørnet, an inspiring space in many ways, as the yarns’ diversity of colours is complemented by the enthusiastic knitting customers in the shop who create unique knitwear – individually and collectively.
Jette recalls how her grandmother frequently sat knitting and how she taught Jette to knit at the tender age of five. Jette’s daughter knits, too, and generations of knitting enjoyment culminated in 2013 when Jette opened her own shop, Strikkehjørnet. It was around then that she began toying with the idea of getting deeply involved with local wool. Using wool from the sheep she had been looking at from her home for years. In an era of intensifying focus on respecting and conserving nature, she had a growing desire to produce yarn for her shop, yarn that has not been on a long, polluting journey before being sold at Strikkehjørnet – and today, her locally produced, luxurious yarn Bornholmsk Pelsuld is among her customers’ favourites.
Sustainability is dear to Jette’s heart, which is why she produces her yarn in a particularly eco-friendly manner. The sheep graze on the Hammer Peninsula, which is also where the wool is sorted and the yarn is dyed. The sheep live a good life, freely roaming the area as part of Bornholm’s nature conservation. Jette dyes the wool using plants such as heather, birch, oak, wormwood, tansy, chervil, broom/genista, madder root and walnut shell, as well as natural materials from outside Denmark, such as dried leaves and roots like Indigo and madder, as well as small, red Cochineal insects. Woollen yarn dyed with natural materials has unique properties that industrial products lack, such as a long useful life, colour fastness and comfort.
