SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 HANDWOVEN | 59brought over from Norway and sometimes made from two
lengths of cloth sewn together. During the Victorian period
and beyond, traditional tablecloths might be replaced by
runners. For special occasions, including Sundays, damask
linen napkins would be brought out. (Th ese beautiful
napkins were so highly treasured, it wasn’t uncommon to
give a well-loved, previously owned set to couples on their
wedding day.) Rag rugs lay on kitchen fl oors, and simple but
beautiful towels were used for everyday tasks.
Perhaps the most interesting and unusual item you
might find in the kitchens of Norwegian immigrants was
the ostebånd, which translates literally into “cheese
band.” The ostebånd was a thin woven band highly
decorated with embroidery or lacework. The band was
wrapped around large blocks of cheese, typically geitost,
and secured with a decorative pushpin. The ostebånd
provided a place to hold the cheese while slicing it, to
avoid touching it with bare hands. Often the ostebånd
had a coordinating mat that was placed under the cheese.
While this might sound odd to modern audiences,
Left: Ostebånds such as this one made by Oline Nilsdotter Øverland
in the mid-twentieth century were wrapped around cheese and
secured with a coordinating pushpin. Above: This plain-weave towel
with decorative damask motifs on the edges and a lattice fringe
comes from a Norwegian-American family in southern Minnesota.
Simple but beautiful designs such as this were common not just on
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VEST-TELEMARK MUSEUM handwoven textiles but on everyday tools as well.according to Laurann, the ostebånd is “part of a long
tradition of decorating dairy products.” Many in the
nineteenth century, not just Norwegians, would use
decorative molds for their butter, for example.
When speaking of household textiles, it should be
noted that one of the hallmarks of Norwegian and
Norwegian-American handicrafts is that basic tools and
other utilitarian items were designed to be lasting,
useful, and beautiful. According to Laurann, there is a
long tradition of making items that are “a joy and a
pleasure to use.”
Even aft er Norwegian and later Norwegian-American
families became fi nancially established, women would some-
times continue to handweave. As Laurann put it, “Economics
can’t explain it all.” In some cases, women preferred to weave
linens because of the belief that handmade items were of better
quality than store-bought. In many cases, though, women
continued to weave because they found joy in the process of
weaving, especially for their own homes. Th is delight in weaving
and in surrounding oneself with handwovens transcends
generations and cultures. It is this sense of delight and wonder
that has kept weaving alive into the twenty-fi rst century, as new
weavers discover the joy of handweaving a simple but beautiful
towel to hang in their kitchen.