The third Baltic Wool Conference has been held on location in Gotland 6-7-8 october 2022 with participants from 11 different countries! Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Austria, Germany, UK, Canada,Iceland,Norway, Sweden and of course Gotland!
Photos Annica Doms, Riina Noodapera, Elke Unt, Ave Matsin
Thursdag October 6th: Conference at the Gotland Museum in Visby
8.30 Registration opens
9.00 Welcome and introduction, Anso Norling, Annkristin Hult and Rina Noodapera
9.30 Gurbet Peker: Sheep on Gotland – from the ethnologist´s perspective
Gurbet Peker is a PhD candidate in Ethnology at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland.
Her research concerns how animals, conceptions about animals and practices with
animals as well as interspecies relations (re)shape and (re)produce a place. She will
talk about the unique role the sheep have on Gotland as she sees it from interviews
with sheep farmers, people that work with wool craft and other sheep-related
observations she has made in the countryside as well as in Visby.
10.15 F I K A (Swedish coffee break)
10.30 Jenny Shepherd: Increasing the value of local wool – an example from the
Isle of Man
Jenny Shepherd will tell us her inspiring story about saving a heritage breed by using its
uniqueness. She has done a great job developing wool products from Manx Loaghtan –
the rare primitive sheep of Isle of Man that once was nearly extincted. Today she keeps
a large flock, about 800 ewes, and runs a farm shop with wool and meat from the farm.
11.30 Two new initiatives working for increased use of local wool in Europe and
Sweden: Nathalie Ketterle presents EWA – European wool association and
Christian Lundell presents Arena för svensk ull (Arena for Swedish wool)
12.00 Anso Norling presents Gotland Grey – an initiative for developing a profitable
value chain for grey quality wool on Gotland
12.15 L U N C H
13.30 Björn Lanzke: Wool pellets – an ideal organic fertilizer
Making the best of our local wool, there will still always be a need for processing lowvalue or waste wool. The German company floraPell has successfully used the
potential of wool as a natural fertilizer and Björn Lanzke will tell us more about this.
14 ca Hanna Niskanen: Introducing Scandinavian tweed from Saimaa Wool
In Finland, there is a growing interest for developing wool products from Finnish breeds.
One of the innovative entrepreneurs is Hanna Niskanen, who left an advertising agency
in the city to become a sheep farmer and now runs the company Saimaa Wool.
14.45 F I K A
15.15 Karin Kloth presents eldbla and Made of Gotland
15.30 Introduction to the Visby walk and talk
16-18 Visby walk and talk visiting local craft stores and studios: eldbla, Lomakka,
Yllet, Ödins garveri, GKF and Kvinnfolki
18.30 D I N N E R at Gotlands Museum
19.30 Guided tour of the Iron Age picture stones in Gotlands museum
Friday October 7
th: Study visits and conference
8.30 We meet at the bus in Almedalen, Donnersgatan (Donner street)
8.45 The bus departs from Almedalen
9.00 Study visit at GUTI – a growing project with a co-working textile factory
10.00 F I K A
10.15 The bus departs from GUTI
10.30 Study visit at ULLKONTORET – Sweden´s only large wool scouring mill
12.30 L U N C H at Gotland Green Centre in Roma
14.00 The conference continues at the Green Centre
If you have posters or other material for the exhibition, please note that you
need to bring it to the conference room before 14.00
14.10 Leonie Högele: Sheep Rearing in Sweden – why so marginal?
14.30 Short presentations:
Anu Pentti presents a wool project in Finland
Nathalie Ketterle presents the Alpine Stonesheep Project
Johanna Palmadottir presents Icelandic Ullarsel
Gotlands spinneri (Gotland wool spinning mill)
15.10 Emma Hällström: The story of Heather – a heated wool pad for staying
warm and comfy in daily life
15.45 F I K A
16.15 Ave Matsin from University of Tartu, Viljandi Culture Academy presents the
Estonian-Norwegian project Estonian and Norwegian local sheep wool –
research and study materials for textile students in higher educations
16.50 Short presentations:
Tom Cubbin, HDK-Valand Campus Steneby, Sweden
Ulrika Dahlberg, Novia University, Finland
Global wool a short presentation from the German company
Eileen Marie Feste presents a Creative Europe Project
17.15 P A U S
17.30 Charlotte Raab – some reflections on wool education in Sweden today
followed by a discussion about Education and knowledge for future wool
business with Charlotte Raab, Roger Bush and Ave Matsin.
18.30 D I N N E R at Gotland Green Centre
21.30 The bus departs from the Green centre to Visby
Saturday October 8
th: Bus tour on the Gotlandic countryside
8.30 We meet at the bus in Almedalen, Donnersgatan (Donner street)
8.45 The bus departs from Almedalen
9.00 ANSARVE FARM
Our first stop will be Ansarve farm just south of Visby with around 150 ewes. In 2019 they invested in a whole garment knitting machine. The knitwear and other products from the sheep are sold in a farm shop and they also run a web-shop.
11.00 F I K A
A contemplative concert in Gammelgarn church, Mari Jonsson, Elke Unt with Gotland folk musicans
13.30 GOTLANDS STRUMPFABRIK
We will also visit Gotlands strumpfabrik – Gotland sock factory. One evening ten years
ago when Ulrika Ek again found a hole in a sock she sighed and asked her husband:
Why doesn´t anybody produce really good and durable socks? Later that evening they
decided to start a sock factory…
14.45 L U N C H
16.15 STENKYRKA SPINNING MILL
On Gotland there are three spinning mills running and a fourth one is soon coming up.
They all have different types of production and complement each other well. We will visit
one of them – Stenkyrka ullspinneri – a very flexible Mini Mill.
Around 18 we will be back in Visby and then the conference is over.
Best regards from the BWC crew:
Anso Norling, Riina Noodapera and Annkristin Hult info@balticwoolconference.com
Thank you for participating and many thanks to our sponsors this year:
Margus Farmshop, Hablingbo
Sigsarve lamb, Näs
Botvide Lambsfarm, Lau
Hulte Eko,Hemse
Romaklosters pastorat
Honorary Consulate of Estonia in Gotland
Yllet, Visby
Special thanks for assisting to Niki and Paula!
Baltic Wool Cooperation – also called BWC 2.0 – is a parallell project to the Baltic Wool Conference and will contain networking and an inventory of processing sheep wool industry in the Baltic Sea region. An inventory will be made outlining the wool processing industries in the region, for example the mills capacity, machinery and quality/quantities produced. Networks and new cooperations will be built between businesses working with sheep wool during the 18 months of the project. The project is funded by Swedish Institute and lead partner is Hushållningssällskapet Gotland at the Rural Center. Are you interested in being a part of the inventory or want to know more about the project? Do not hesitate to contact us. Please contact Project Leader Riina Noodapera at e-mail: 
Ullindustri på Gotland 