Pernille and Gunnar met on the Norwegian school ship Christian Radich. Pernille at the far for right, and Gunnar at the far for left. Here the ship is in its home port of Oslo at Akershus during rigging. Unique to the Norwegian sailing ships is its Scandinavian crew.

From knots & knitting, for oats & straights

Our story, told by the eldest daughter Elisa Silfverberg Utgaard

Pernille Silfverberg has been knitting since her mother taught her as a child, but she is a sailor first and foremost. She and her husband, Gunnar, met on the Norwegian sailing ship Christian Radich. We are a multi-generational seafaring family; today, Elisa and my younger sister Marie are also sailing in the Scandinavian sailing ship fleet as seamen.

It all started with an Angora rabbit called Angus. A ship's rabbit, in the sense that Angus got to live on board the Christian Radich while Angus' owner, Gunnar's daughter, was studying elsewhere. Puzzled onlookers for the fluffy rabbit on the green spaces of City Hall Square and Akershus Fortress in Oslo had many questions - "Is it a dog?!" Angus scared for even the police horses.

It was only when Pernille received baby socks in angora for the eldest daughter of Gunnar's brother and sister-in-law Unni and Hans Herman, that Pernille understood what angora was.

Pernille learned to spin yarn from Ingrid, godmother for of Pernille's children. She first practiced on sheep's wool from Rörmyr's own ewes and eventually two Angora rabbits for from Norway moved into Rörmyr's rabbitry; Bamse, a white male, and Pjuske, who was a Dutch-bred rabbit. A Dutch-bred Angora rabbit is not desirable to have as a breeding rabbit, but they were Angora rabbits without a pedigree anyway.

At a rabbit show in Norway, Pernille bought a rabbit named Gaia after the goddess in Greek mythology, Mother Earth. Gaia was the first of Pernille's Angora rabbits to have an approved pedigree and it was the beginning of Pernille's serious rabbit breeding. Since then she has focused on breeding good breeding rabbits with a good temperament and high quality in wool feel, density and length.

I remember many exciting rabbit shows from my childhood and had Angora rabbits myself, my first one named Cayenne. My younger sister, Marie, and I preferred to have dwarf rabbits with a lot of bounce in their legs so that we could train them to compete in rabbit jumping, something that Angora rabbits with their calm temperament do not do for. Nevertheless, some of the farm's Angora rabbit babies managed to become reasonably good jumpers. for our great delight of course.

Photo: Me with my yellow angora rabbit Cayenne, who at a rabbit show received a rosette for the highest score in her breed.

From the wool of the angora rabbits, Pernille spun soft angora yarn in 100% angora and designed her own knitwear. for initially in the naturally occurring white, brown, gray and yellow wool of the angora rabbits. Later, Pernille started dyeing with plants, resulting in beautiful yellow-green, reddish-brown, purple and bluish tones. 

Pernille and Gunnar met on the Norwegian school ship Christian Radich. Pernille at the far for right, and Gunnar at the far for left. Here the ship is in its home port of Oslo at Akershus during rigging. Unique to the Norwegian sailing ships is its Scandinavian crew.
Pernille and her husband Gunnar, who was captain of the Ostindiefararen Götheborg when the ship sailed its historic round trip for East Asia 2005 - 2007. Here on the way for Brest, France 2012. In her lap are the two youngest, Jacob & Randi. The maiden voyage went for Oslo - with Gunnar as Captain and Pernille as first mate June 2005. Both the Swedish and Norwegian royal families came to visit on board.

One day in January 2014, a new chapter in Pernille's life began.

Solveig Gustafsson had been commissioned by Bohusläns museum to recreate models from the original Bohus Stickning for 15 years, and through Henrichsens Uldspinderi had produced angora yarns for the many recreated models. The same spinning mill that has also spun yarn for AngoraGarnet for years. Henrichsens Uldspinderi in Skive, Denmark, is the only spinning mill willing and able to spin yarn in 50% angora wool in large quantities - but it became increasingly difficult for Solveig to get hold of angora wool for to spin up yarns for Bohus Stickning.

Solveig had already noted that Pernille's angora yarn was perfect for Bohus Stickning. As Solveig and Bohusläns museum were looking for someone to take on the task of creating knitting kit for Bohus Stickning , they had long had their eye on Pernille and her achievement, the AngoraGarnet.

By chance, Pernille and Solveig got in touch with each other. Pernille was never asked by Solveig if she would like to take over the assignment for Bohusläns museum - it just happened.

During their first phone call, when Solveig told her how difficult it was to get angora yarn, Pernille promised to see what she had lying around. Pernille was presented with a colored pot by Solveig before they hung up and with the pot came a great honor.

A task and a responsibility that Pernille took on when AngoraGarnet was still only a side project and Pernille worked a full-time job as port manager and acting CEO of Tanum's ports.

Over time, AngoraGarnet has gone from being a side project for to a multi-employee business. Over the years, everyone in the family has been involved in caring for the rabbits and attending knitting festivals, lectures, rabbit shows and Christmas markets.

One sound that has become "home" for me is the sound of yarn dyeing. Here I have sat with school books in front of me at the kitchen table and received math help for the sound of yarn being rinsed and hung up to drip off since I had just turned thirteen.

Both Pernille and Gunnar have a great love of for craftsmanship in all its forms.

Gunnar made the kitchen table at home. It is an old piece of the deck of the sailing ship Christian Radich that has become a lacquered kitchen table. Our house is full of old things from sailing ships, many of them with a history.

Gunnar has an eye for recycling and seeing the beauty in old things or debris washed up in the archipelago. He has made the yarn reels Pernile uses for to wind up yarn, a beautiful piece of craftsmanship in its own right, and many of the house's furniture in unique design and with a unique history.

Our house has the feeling of being on board a sailing ship and a yarn dyeing factory in one, but it also reflects who we are. Beyond that, our house feels like home.