Knitting on Læsø with Thea Vesterby

Sunday 30.8

16.50 Ferry from Frederikshavn. You are welcome to take an earlier ferry and can check in at the folk high school from 16.00. The course starts with dinner at 19.15

18.20 Arrival Læsø - drive towards Østergård Kultur B&B a little outside Byrum

18.30 - 19.15 Check-in

19.15 Dinner

20.00 Presentation of the programme and who is who? A shorter tour of the grounds with Anna. We round off with an evening song or two

Monday 31.8

8.00 - 8.50 Breakfast in the orangery

8.50 Morning song

9.00 - 12.00 Knitting workshop 1 with Thea Vesterby (*see more detailed info about the individual workshops under the weekly programme)

Break

13.00 Lunch at the folk high school

14.30 - 16.30 A visit to Allen 26 in Gl. Østerby, which is a beautifully and carefully restored seaweed farm. One of the largest on Læsø. The house's owner Lilian Kristensen, former chair of Læsø Seaweed Roofs, receives us and tells about Læsø's unique seaweed houses and the renovation of her own. Lillian serves cake, coffee and tea.

17.00 - 19.00 Knitting workshop 2 with Thea Vesterby

19.00 Dinner

20.00 Evening talk: "Pattern knitting, brain activity and yarn" by Thea tells about finding herself again after several stress breakdowns - she tells about her revelation in learning to knit, which gave her burnt-out brain a kickstart.

Tuesday 1.9

8.00 - 8.50 Breakfast in the orangery

8.50 - 9.00 Morning song

9.00 - 11.00 Knitting workshop 3 with Thea Vesterby

Break with the chance to look around Læsø, take a bike ride, or something else

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch at the folk high school

14.00 - 16.00 A visit to Storhaven, where we take part in Solveig's Tuesday knitting club - and meet the local knitters. We bring the songbooks. We get cake and coffee/tea

Break

19.00 Dinner

20.00 Evening talk: We meet Mr. Læsø - Seaweed Henning, who tells about Læsø past and present spiced with a few tall tales. It is usually quite entertaining.

Wednesday 2.9

8.00 - 8.50 Breakfast in the orangery

8.50 - 9.00 Morning song

9.00 - 11.00 Knitting workshop 4 with Thea Vesterby

11.10 Departure towards Læsø Saltworks. Visit to Læsø Saltworks, which lies 4 km from the folk high school

13.00 Lunch

14.00 - 17.00 Knitting workshop 5 with Thea Vesterby - cake and coffee will be served around 15.00

break

19.00 Dinner

20.00 Folk high school song evening: Anna tells a little about the songs and we will sing, and we also learn some new ones from the Folk High School Songbook

Thursday 3.9

8.00 - 8.50 Breakfast in the orangery

8.50 - 9.00 Morning song

9.00 - 13.00 Knitting workshop 6 with Thea Vesterby

13.00 Lunch at the folk high school

14.00 - 17.00 Time on your own

19.00 Dinner

20.00 - 22.00 Knitting workshop 7 with Thea Vesterby

Friday 4.9

8.00 Breakfast in the orangery

8.50 Morning song

9.00 - 12.00 Knitting workshop 8 with Thea Vesterby

13.00 Lunch at the folk high school

14.00 - 17.00 Round-up of the workshop - cake/tea/coffee will be served

break

19.00 Gala dinner with a fish and shellfish buffet + dessert and folk high school songs

Saturday 5.9

8.00 Breakfast in the orangery

9.00 Departure after breakfast

9.40 Ferry towards Frederikshavn

What do the individual workshops contain:

Knitting workshop 1 (3 hours)

• Intro to the project: design *Your Læsø sweater*
• Pattern knitting intro; which patterns can you use and how do you combine patterns?
• Intro to the back piece
• We draw diagrams for the back piece

Knitting workshop 2 (2 hours)

• Review of drawn diagrams
• Knit swatch(es) / start up with the back piece

Knitting workshop 3 (2 hours)

• Intro to the left and right front piece
• Draw a diagram for the left and right front piece
• Knit swatch(es) / knit on with your sweater

Knitting workshop 4 (2 hours)

• Review of drawn diagrams
• Knit swatch(es) / knit on with your sweater

Knitting workshop 5 (3 hours)

• Intro to the yoke
• Draw a diagram for the yoke
• Knit swatch(es) / knit on with your sweater

Knitting workshop 6 (4 hours)

• Intro to joining the body
• Knit swatch(es) / knit on with your sweater

Knitting workshop 7 (2 hours)

• Intro to sleeve knitting
• Draw a diagram for the sleeve
• Knit swatch(es) / knit on with your sweater

Knitting workshop 8 (3 hours)

• Questions & help
• Knit on with your sweater

Round-up (3 hours)

• Rounding up your own pattern (finishing it)

Here you'll find our folk high school on Læsø:

Annas Højskole, which runs the course, has invested in a large B&B - Østergaard KulturBB, which lies near Byrum in the middle of Læsø.

Læsø is also known as Kattegat's pearl and is the largest island in the Kattegat - even larger than Samsø. There is plenty of nature here - in fact nature makes up 70% of the island's total area. And Læsø dune plantation therefore lies close to us.

Læsø has a very special nature and history - among other things, it is here you find the very special seaweed houses and it is here that the world-famous Læsø salt is boiled, which you will come to hear much more about.

In the middle of the island and close to everything lies the large, beautiful Østergård Kultur Bed & Breakfast a little outside Byrum. Here there are 12 lovely apartments with rooms in various sizes and numbers, there is a large communal room and a truly fantastic orangery, overlooking the park-like garden, which forms the most beautiful setting for our meals.

In the garden there is plenty of garden furniture and lovely sunny nooks, for Læsø is in fact the sunniest place in Denmark.

We also have several fire pits, and we light a fire when the mood calls for it.

In the evening when the sky is clear you will experience the wildest starry sky, because there is no light pollution on or near the island.

It is quite simply magical on Læsø!

You can read more about Østergård Kultur BB here: oestergaardkulturbb.dk

Thea Vesterby, knitting designer and instructor

My name is Thea Vesterby and I am behind the knitting brand VesterbyCrea, which I created in a period of my life when I was forced to reshape my life because of serious stress. For many years I lived a life at high tempo. I have worked with digital solutions since 1997 and spent 19 years at the digital consultancy Valtech. At the same time I ran long-distance races, completed 10 marathons, 2 Ironmans and hiked to Mount Everest Base Camp.

A life full of achievements - both professionally and personally - but also with great costs. I was struck by stress several times over, and the last five years at Valtech I worked reduced hours.

Turning point

It was in the summer of 2019 that two things became turning points for me. My twin girls said lovingly to me:

"You can't be a real grandma if you can't knit!"

And at the same time I began to feel how important it was to find a new path. A path where I could use my creativity and still challenge my brain - but in a far more meaningful and calm way.

Knitting - a new direction in life

So I began to learn to knit. My mother taught me to cast on stitches, and I knitted my first sweater for my daughter. That became the start of a new passion - and a new direction in my life. I discovered how calming and at the same time stimulating it was to work with yarn, colours and patterns. I stopped counting kilometres and instead began to count stitches - first in my head, then in Excel spreadsheets.

Knitting full time

Since the start of 2020 I have sold my own knitting patterns, and from 1 August 2023 I chose to leave my permanent job entirely to dedicate all my time to VesterbyCrea. Here I work with everything from developing knitting designs, laying out patterns, test knitting, translations and graphic work - to accounts, marketing and web shop. Everything is homemade, and all my designs I knit up myself from start to finish. My work with knitting is today my great joy and driving force.

Personal

I live north of Copenhagen with my partner, our four children between us and our dog - and now enjoy the forest not only as a runner, but as a person with more calm in mind and yarn in hand.

Anna Katrin Nørgaard

The principal of Annas Højskole will also be present this week. She always is, when we start up new courses with new partners. Anna lives partly at Østergård Kultur BB with her husband Kim Juul, and partly in Snekkersten with her 20-year-old son. Anna is responsible for all the folk high school singing and for all the practical things around the knitting course itself.

Henning Johansen

Henning Johansen, or just Seaweed-Henning, is the local thatcher who has revived the old craft of thatching a seaweed roof. That is what it is called when it is seaweed, or rather eelgrass, that you lay on the roofs of the characteristic seaweed houses on Læsø. Læsø is world-famous for its roofs of eelgrass. In fact they are not found anywhere else in the world. The 33 seaweed roofs on Læsø are so unique that Henning Johansen, Læsø Municipality and many more are working to get the seaweed houses and Læsø Saltworks onto the Tentative List, which is the forerunner to UNESCO's World Heritage List. We will hear about the seaweed roofs, and we will see Henning in action on one of the houses he and his men are currently working on.