Knitting Night in Norway

Knitting Night in Norway - Part II

So it did happen on Friday evening, November 1. As a part of the Slow TV movement in Norway, nearly 13 hours of television focused on the International Back to Back Wool Challenge. This is four more hours than originally planned because, well, the Norwegian team did not get anywhere near breaking the Guinness record for completing the sheep to sweater competition. At 8.35 am on Saturday morning November 1, after eight hours and 33 minutes of nonstop spinning and knitting, the knitting team presented their finished sweater. (The Australian team they were trying to beat managed to complete the feat in four hours and 51 minutes.) But the program did garner 1.3 million views, which is said to be about one-third of the Norwegian population. (I can't believe one-third of the population tuned in. That percentage seems unimaginable for the North American audience[s].)

The 2013 Norwegian team with the completed sweater

It is easy to see that the finished product, the off-white sweater knit on November 1, is nothing like the traditional Norwegian sweater we've all seen before. This type of knitting would take far longer to create. What with the complicated design and two or three colorways, eight hours would hardly scratch the surface.

Jimmy Kimmel devoted nearly 2.5 minutes recently describing the event and morphing it into a typical U.S. reality television program. It is worth a look because you do get glimpses of the program itself (just click on his name above).

Way to go Norway, I love your laid back TV viewing style. And even I would have tuned in for some of the show, if only it could have been found.

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