Textile Designer Finds Pandemic and Political Reprieve in Rural Norway
BY GRACE MOEN
Ingvill Kaasin Montgomery is a textile designer, entrepreneur, wife, mother, and Norwegian living—for now—in Portland, Oregon. At the height of the pandemic and fraught political tensions in the US, she packed up her two young daughters and fled to her home town of Vingelen, Norway, a place where the sun peeks above the horizon for, at most, three hours each day and the daily commute takes place via a sled fastened to skis. For Montgomery and daughters Leona (7) and Ella (5), life in rural Norway was like a Nordic fairytale. During those four months, Montgomery came to realize it was time to sell the textile company she had built from the ground up (Hovden Formal Farmware) and move to Norway with her family full time. In the Fall of 2020 she handed the reins of her company over to a pair of sisters of Norwegian descent in the MidWest and today, she is preparing her husband and daughters for the transatlantic move. We sat down for an interview in February 2021 to discuss how returning to her hometown during a pandemic helped her reset her life.
Grace Moen: What prompted your extended visit to Norway?
Ingvill Kaasin Montgomery: When we realized that the Oregon schools weren't gonna open again and that the Norwegian schools were open, we decided that was important. We just packed up and left and we didn’t really know when we would come back. David [my husband] had to stay [in Portland] because he had to work and he doesn't have a Norwegian passport. It was hard for him. We missed him a little bit, but he missed us more. He was on lockdown so it was pretty boring.
GM: You grew up in Vingelen, so this was truly a visit home for you. How was that?
IKM: We had a blast. We stayed with my parents; it was wonderful to move home. I never thought I would say that at an age of 38! My parents recently retired and so they were both home all the time. We were three people not working, with two kids. That's a lot of playtime. It was so much fun.
GM: Your parents, your daughters, and you all speak varying degrees of Norwegian and English. What was it like navigating two languages in one household?
IKM: I feel like it was the hardest for me…. It is so freaking hard to speak Norwegian in Norway. In the house, my parents obviously speak Norwegian the whole time and my children speak Norwegian the whole time. I’m the one walking around the house speaking English. So embarrassing. It’s like, can’t you just turn that switch on and off? Nope. It’s amazing how our brains work or don’t work.
GM: Kids’ brains are so mushy like that, so available for learning.
IKM: Ella learned Norwegian in four months. Adults can't do that, you know? I was with her at the barnehage [daycare] the first couple of days and my heart broke because she's trying to communicate, but that didn't take many more days before she's running that show.
GM: Talk me through what an average day was like. Was it very different from life in Oregon?
IKM: We stayed in my [old] room; we would get up around seven, seven-thirty. My dad would start a fire in the woodstove and I would feed the girls. Then I would take the girls to school. We did a lot of outdoor stuff. Being out in the dark with headlamps on the spark [kicksled]...
GM: ...yes, right, because you arrived in August, the days were only getting shorter…
IKM: Yeah, oh my gosh. It’s the biggest culture shock to come home when it’s so freaking dark. It’s so hard to wrap your head around or your body around. There is no procrastination. If you see the sun, you go outside or you lose your window of opportunity.
GM: How do you adjust to that?
IKM: It’s definitely something that feels front and center. We have bonfires outside and also the Christmas lights… Because it’s rural, you can go on your spark [kicksled] for a kilometer without seeing a house. And then that Christmas tree or the lights will show up and you’re like ahhhh… so little light can warm my heart so much. The darker it is, the brighter it shines.
GM: It sounds like Norway was literally the light in the darkness of the pandemic. What is next for you and your family?
IKM: Well… we are moving to Norway.
GM: Congratulations! That’s a big move. Tell me more about how you came to that decision.
IKM: We realized that maybe we're a little bored here. I think David had like a week or two of sleepless nights, but then he's like, yeah, you're right. That's the thing to do. And it's the right thing for all of us. We need it; it's time for adventure. It's time to be closer to family.
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