My beautiful Norwegian sweater

I bought the coolest Norwegian sweater on my recent trip. Most guide books recommend buying a sweater in Norway, they are famous for their sweaters. But I didn't want one like everybody else was buying.


I mean, these are lovely sweaters, but a little too conventional for me.


When we were in Bergen, Norway, we visit this well preserved very old section of town.

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This is Bergen's old Hanseatic Quarter. Bergen was one of the main cities in the Hanseatic League, a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. These buildings date from 1702. They were built after a huge fire destroyed all the previous ones.

And this is where I found a tiny shop with a lady hand making sweaters and scarves. Since I've come home I tried to look her up on the web, but she has no website. Alas! Her stuff is lovely and unique.

The back is even pretty! I wanted to wear it out one evening and since I usually travel with a small carry-on sized suitcase I wasn't sure I would be able to cobble together clothes to go with it.

Which leads me to the next part of this blog, which is talking about the versatility of a scoop neck black t-shirt! It was too cold to wear it alone, so I layered a long sleeve white t-shirt under it and just pulled it down over my black tiered skirt. I always try to have one skirt along, preferably one that can get squished in a suitcase and still look good.

The black t-shirt I wore out on my cousin's boat in Sweden and with my sister when we visited this very cool outdoor museum in Stockholm called Skansen, where there are old buildings moved from all over Sweden so you can visit a 300 year old church or a 150 year old farm. We were inside the 1930's home of the owner of a small hardware store. The hardware store was there, too.

I also wore it while eating a proper Swedish smorgasbord, pickled herring, schnapps and all. And in the train getting ready to go hiking in the Norwegian fjords. So you can dress it up or dress it down.

And what's even more cool about this shirt it is made of really thin cotton and will dry overnight if you wash it out in the sink in your hotel room. AND I bought it at my local thrift store for 3 or 4 dollars. What's not to love!

In case you were wondering where the photos of me wearing this sweater were taken ... well here. This is Oslo's brand new opera house. It's beautiful inside and people are encouraged to climb and walk all over it. Very Fun.

I have a few more stories to tell about this great trip. So ... later ...