Sissal Kjartansdóttir Kristiansen on Faroese Knitting

Knitting and wool are so essential in the Faroe Islands that in the early 1800s, exports of sweaters and socks made up about half of the economy. Today, the nation of about 55,000 people has 8+ knitwear brands, 2 active spinning mills, and 70,000 ewes. Sissal Kristiansen, the owner of knitwear company Shisa Brand, started an initiative called The Wool Islands to celebrate the heritage and potential of Faroese fiber. “We owe it to our past and our future to utilise the natural resources that we have, and on the Faroe Islands, that is wool,” she says. The first project of the Wool Islands was a 15-minute documentary that takes viewers on a sweeping journey through the Faroese landscape, meeting shepherds, knitters, and of course sheep. Available to watch free on YouTube and the project’s website, the film welcomes you to the small country, which is located in the North Atlantic between Shetland and Iceland. Today, the economy of the Faroe Islands relies on tourism; the film shows how ent...