Teachers: Destination YARN

Scandinavians, Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison, are highly regarded designers, textile artists, and authors. They are best known for their original, colorful, and visually striking designs as well as their craft books. Their work is highly influenced by their Scandinavian background and their everyday life in rural Norway. They work under their artist name ARNE & CARLOS, which they established in 2002. In 2010, ARNE & CARLOS’s first craft book, Julekuler (55 Christmas Balls to Knit), became an immediate Norwegian bestseller and consequently went on to become a bestselling book in North America, Europe and Asia. Today, ARNE & CARLOS have published 10 books that are enjoyed by people all over the world. Their books are available in Norwegian as well as English, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

These two Scandinavian designers have collaborated with many prestigious international brands, including Urban Outfitters (2009) and high-end Japanese fashion label, Comme des Garçons (2008). Today, they design for and work closely with Rowan, Regia, and Schachenmayr yarns. ARNE & CARLOS’s creative base is located 170 kilometers north of Oslo, Norway, in the mountainous region known as Valdres.

Knitting runs in Keenan Goldsmith's (the Knitting Bartender) family. He and his sisters learned how to knit from his mother who in turn was taught by his grandfather. His grandfather, a Holocaust survivor from Mainz, Germany, knit in a concentration camp as a young man to stay productive which saved his life until he escaped to the US and became a naturalized citizen. At the beginning of the pandemic, Keenan noticed a lot of tension, both politically and socially, especially on social media. He was prepared to delete his accounts before making a split second decision to join online Facebook knitting groups to post his cable sweaters.