About Lanullva
One family. One invention. A love of wool passed down through generations.
It started because Eilif was cold. Brit knitted a sweater with air in every stitch, and today we still make our garments using the same method.
Welcome to the family
Wool has always been more than clothing to us
Lanullva is a family business from Lyngstad, on the outermost edge of the sea in north-western Norway. Here the weather rolls straight in from the ocean, and everyone knows what good wool clothing means.
It all started with a sweater Brit knitted for Eilif. Since then, three generations of the family have helped build Lanullva, and we are still just as happy every time someone tells us they stayed warm in our clothes.
We don’t try to be bigger than we are. We want to make wool clothing we are proud of, meet our customers directly – in our shops and online – and repair what can be repaired. Good clothes deserve a long life.
LYNGSTAD, OUT AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA
Where the weather comes straight in
Lyngstad lies at the very edge of the Atlantic on the northwest coast of Norway. Here the rain and wind come straight in from the sea, and anyone who works outdoors feels it in their body.
This is where Lanullva began. Today we are based by Atlanterhavsveien on Averøy, five kilometres away.
BRIT AND EILIF
A sweater with air in the stitches
Eilif ran the farm he had taken over from his father. Day after day he came home wet and cold from the forest and the farm work.
Brit was a trained garment technician and had been knitting all her life. She tried a new way of knitting, with far more small air pockets in the stitches. The air held in the warmth and let the moisture out. Eilif put on the sweater, and he stopped feeling cold.
Eilif is no longer with us, but the collection that bears his name is. Brit still knows more about wool and knitting than most people, and is always happy to give advice.
1994
The prayer house basement in Lyngstad
Word of the sweater spread from farm to farm. In 1994 Brit staked everything: she borrowed a million kroner, bought a larger knitting machine in Switzerland and started production at home. She soon moved into the basement of the old prayer house in Lyngstad, and later to premises at the bottom of the village.
She called the garments LANULLVA, from lanolin, wool and warmth.
BRIT’S KNITTING METHOD
An invention we are proud of
For our family, the knitting method is more than a technique. It was Brit’s way of taking care of Eilif – and since then it has kept people warm from Lyngstad to Svalbard and the Himalayas.
We still knit Hustadvika and Havbris using the same method, with air in every stitch.
NEPAL, 1994
From the Himalayas to Finnmarksvidda
In the autumn of 1994, underwear from Brit went along on an expedition to Island Peak in Nepal. The temperature went from plus 20 degrees during the day to minus 20 at night, and the underwear was worn both while trekking and in the sleeping bag. “After 14 days, however, the underwear smelled of nothing but that lovely scent of wool,” one of the participants wrote afterwards.
In 1998, Vinje Klær was named a “Friend of Finnmarksløpet” for promoting the race and the sport of sled dog racing.
SVALBARD, MARCH 1995
Tested by SINTEF, at minus 23 degrees
Workers on their way to Svalbard began ordering underwear from Brit, and she wanted to know whether what she had seen held up. In March 1995, SINTEF tested the underwear in the climate chamber in Trondheim, with test subjects alternating between hard work and rest. The conclusion was that the underwear “therefore appears to work well under conditions of varying work and rest in cold surroundings”.
The same week it was tried out on Svalbard: three hours on a snowmobile at minus 23 degrees, with Lanullva as the only underwear under the suit. SINTEF called the results “very encouraging”. The underwear was tested again in 1997 and 1999.
On 1 December the same year, Brit won SND's idea and innovation prize, Reodor, for her invention.
2006
Gunn Anne takes over
In 2006, her daughter Gunn Anne Vinje Lyngstad took over the business. She has built on what Brit started, using the same knitting method.
Today she runs Lanullva together with her children, Frank, Svein and Cecilie.
WOOL WE CAN STAND BEHIND
From RWS farms to knitting mills in Europe
Our merino wool comes from farms certified to the Responsible Wool Standard, with requirements for animal welfare and traceability. The yarn is spun and dyed at Südwolle Group in Europe.
Our garments are knitted at factories in Spain, Lithuania, Sweden and Finland – most of them using Brit’s method. We still knit the wool blankets ourselves in Norway, and this is also where we repair your wool clothes.
WOOL FROM HOME
The Eilif collection
The Eilif garments are knitted in 100 % Norwegian wool from farms in Hustadvika municipality, close to Lyngstad where it all started. It is a coarser and more durable wool than merino, made to withstand weather and work, just as Eilif did.
The colours take their names from home: Grønnbakken is the patch of land Eilif cleared, and Gray stone is the stones he carried away.
THE STORES
Come and visit us
We are around 30 people, and we have four shops of our own: by Atlanterhavsveien, in Trondheim, in Tromsø and in Røros. In Åndalsnes you will find a Lanullva shop run as a franchise. Drop by, feel the wool and get advice on what suits you.
WOOL THAT LASTS
Made to last
Good wool base layers are meant to be worn for many years. Air the garments between uses, wash rarely and gently on a wool programme, and let them dry flat. If a garment gets a hole, we repair all Lanullva garments here with us in Norway. Repair is a paid service; get in touch and we'll work it out.
Thank you for wanting to get to know us.
Gunn Anne and the family