Ancient tales and modern yarns

With the economy sliding into recession and people seeking ever cheaper forms of entertainment, it’s no surprise that interest in knitting, a handicraft at least several centuries old, has skyrocketed in recent years. But few novices approach this newly hip pastime with the same zeal or depth of experience as Lise Solvang.

Solvang, a Norwegian transplant who recently moved from Manhattan Beach to an alpaca farm in Casitas Springs, specializes in custom-made designer knitwear partially inspired by the Nordic goddesses that populated the oral tradition of her childhood. An established artist who has been featured in spreads by Vogue and Elle, in January she plans to tackle a new challenge by closing the circle of creative work and learning to harvest, spin and dye the fleece of animals she calls “serene, beautiful beings.”

At 844 gallery in downtown Ventura last weekend, fashionistas had their first chance to see pieces from Solvang’s high-end collection, which includes hats, purses, bikinis, shawls, shirts, sweaters, and one-of-a-kind dresses and gowns. The venue, a Craftsman-style house that allowed visitors to interact with the models by touching the work and asking questions, was uniquely suited for the show: its owner, Bernadette Brown, also owns the alpaca farm where Solvang lives.

Solvang is the first “soft goods” artist Brown has featured since the gallery opened in April. Accustomed to displaying paintings, sculpture, ceramics and jewelry, Brown was drawn to the pieces she calls “amazing works of art, and very functional and comfortable.” Solvang’s work, she says, “kind of opened up the gallery to having a whole other dimension.”

Brown, who has lived on her small-acreage farm for 10 years and raised alpacas there for three, plans to work with Solvang to harvest the animals’ fiber. Softer than wool and warmer than cotton, alpaca fiber is highly desirable, earning it the nickname “the fleece of the gods,” says Solvang. In turning her hand to all the stages of production, Solvang hopes to draw on her Norwegian roots and ground herself in an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle by “creating beauty out of all this beauty.”

Though she has been knitting since age 8, the creative process remains largely mysterious to Solvang herself, who says she often approaches her projects intuitively. “The yarn is the inspiration to me. Usually I don’t know what I’m going to make. . . . I figure out needles and then it just grows into something, just by feeling it and touching it.”

For commissioned projects, Solvang works one on one with her clients to determine a design that reflects both the wearer’s personality and the occasion. For one woman marrying a musician, that meant a “very, very cool rock ’n’ roll Viking wedding gown,” complete with Viking-inspired jewelry and a knitted bronze crown.

Though these pieces can run up to $1,000, the result, Solvang says, is gowns that “come to life when someone wears them . . . in the way they flow and move with a woman’s body. They are very feminine and sensuous.”

That fascination with feminine energy is reflected in Solvang’s background and her incorporation of Nordic mythology into her work. She grew up in a family where every woman knew how to spin, knit and weave, and she learned her country’s folklore and fairytales by listening to her grandfather’s stories on the porch. When she first moved to the United States, those stories found their way into mini musicals she wrote and performed with a theater troupe for students in South Central Los Angeles. When she began knitting professionally in 1997, mythological figures became the basis for her inspiration.

Now, when beginning an uncommissioned gown, she often chooses a Nordic goddess and creates an entire piece around that figure, sometimes even writing her own interpretation of the goddess’ story. For Freya, the patron goddess of love who weeps tears of gold for separated lovers, she designed a gown pearled with tiny drops of gold.

“They inspire me,” she says of the female deities. “It’s like I want to create gowns for them, everything that they encompass, who they are.” She believes that energy can translate to the women who buy the dresses. “Maybe it can inspire them.”

Solvang also specializes in sharing the healing power of knitting to help women struggling through drug and alcohol recovery. While still living in the the South Bay area of Los Angeles, she began visiting women in recovery homes and teaching them how to knit and about the folk traditions of her homeland.

“I get to tell stories from my old country — how, when you knit for someone you love, you always weave in a strand of your hair so that love will stay strong,” she says.

Though she met with initial resistance from some skeptical participants, the activity came to have the same significance as the proverbial sewing circle, with women coming together in a safe space in order to share their stories.

“We’d sit and we’d laugh and tell funny stories, and someone would share something from their life . . . and we’d all be crying together,” says Solvang. “It would be this great support. And all from just sitting there and knitting.”

Even one woman who first refused to participate later came around and knitted a hat for her husband.

For Solvang, that moment captured the beauty of her work. “When you create something with your hands, it leaves a pretty special energy in the garment.”   

For more information, visit Lise Solvang’s Web site at www.distributedscanning.com or call the 844 gallery at 804-6804.