My home growing up was with filled with Hardanger embroidery. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized what a treasure these linens were and I now keep them carefully stored and display them for special occasions only. My grandmother was from Norway and despite emigrating to a new country and helping run a fishing camp, she still found time to carry on this lovely tradition.

You can see some examples of the linens by clicking this link (opens new window).

Hardangersøm (or Hardangersaum), is Norwegian for 'embroidery from Hardanger', and refers to the style of needlework that many of us know as Hardanger embroidery It takes its current name from a town on the southwestern coast of Norway, in a mountainous area at the head of the Hardanger fjord.

Hardanger is a form of cutwork embroidery which is believed to have originated in Asia and Persia. Hardanger has also been referred to as Norwegian lacemaking because of the way it looks. Portions of the background fabric are cut away and discarded, with the edges worked over in buttonhole stitches. It is worked on white even weave fabric, usually linen or cotton, using linen or pearl cotton threads.

The patterns were used as a favourite decoration worked in bands of embroidery across tablecloths, napkins, towels, bedspreads, pillows and curtains and clothing items such as aprons, shirts, and Norwegian folk costumes.

In simpler forms of hardanger, the holes themselves decorate the fabric but in more advanced techniques, the holes can be filled in with threads in various patterns to create a more elaborate design. You can see both examples in the pictures.

The traditional designs are geometric and based on several shapes: square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, diagonal, zig-zag and cross. These shapes are put together to form many different designs but never created pictures. Patterns varied greatly from one family to another and from village to village. Eventually specific designs came to be associated with specific places.

Hardanger uses many easy-to-learn stitches of two basic types. The first is counted thread embroidery with simple stitches which can be altered slightly or combined in many interesting ways to create limitless designs. Together with drawn-thread or cut-work embroidery, this leads to a stunning effect!

It often featured:

• diamond, triangular or square motifs of cutwork 
• satin stitching in rectangular blocks (kloster blocks) and other shapes 
• pulled thread work in the form of four-sided stitch 
• cable stitch 
• eyelets