Bålgård Cardigan

You will now follow me on a journey that I have made many times and know almost by heart.
A special journey to a destination that is very dear to me. As with so many of my childhood journeys, I, my six-year-old, started out
sister and our single mother in our car. But our neon green Saab Sedan had barely left the driveway, before my
Sister and I started to argue: Are we ‘on the road’ now?
Only when we were “on the road” did we get to open the bags of candy we had bought for our 40-mile journey. Regardless of how much we
whined, we had to wait until we had traveled the first 5 miles and passed Uppsala with its twin-tower cathedral. Now that I am an adult, I realize that my mother must have been quite relieved when we finally got our bags of candy.
The destination of our long journey was my grandmother’s house in the small village of Bålgård, located outside Arvika in Värmland.
After several hours of driving and a well-deserved lunch break, we crossed the border to Värmland. The nature changed beautifully as we drove through the landscape. Majestic green fir trees grew tall on either side of the straight road, a road that climbed the soft green hills towards the sunset in front of us.
After another hour or so, it was finally time to turn off the main road onto a narrow, winding dirt road. I remember
still how it seemed to stand still and it felt like the gravel road was forever long when we drove the last kilometers.
At last we turned around the last bend and in the lush green valley ahead we saw our grandmother’s farm where its red, abandoned
barn seemed to almost want to hide in the edge of the forest.
As we drove up to the house, our beloved grandmother rushed out onto the porch to make the
greet us, as if she had been waiting for that moment all her life.
We climbed stiff-legged out of the car to meet Grandma’s warm, loving embrace. We had arrived at the Nyby farm in Bålgård.

This is how designer Anna Friberg, @yarnesty on Instagram describes the story of the Bålgård sweater.
Thanks to @hantwerks for the loan of beautiful pictures.