Heimtali School Museum - Native Textiles

During our week of workshops in Estonia, we had a Field Trip to the Heimtali School Museum. It's an old parish school, similar to the one room schoolhouses of the American west. In fact, any students who lived far away would sleep in the upstairs and go home on weekends!

The school is still in use, but the classes are for students from Viljandi who are recording and conserving textiles, and for youth who are learning about Estonian culture. In a recent project, the fence posts were painted in the style of traditional mittens! (Take that, Pinterest!)

The youngsters also made these, a project to rescue a lonely glove when you've lost its mate. It's a small and simple way to teach them traditional skills and patterns.

The collection included traditional weavings - these remind me of pieces from the American southwest! Surprisingly, the stripes are created in weft, instead of warp.

Here is an entrelac crochet blanket, being held up by Anu - the museum's curator and a champion of Estonian Native textiles.

Here's an embroidered blanket with crochet borders. Anu told us that, after the collapse of the USSR, she would find these old blankets being used for dirty jobs and neglected. She said that she would go buy cheap blankets, and trade them to people she saw using them for things like placing car parts and gardening.

This one is crocheted, with embroidery on it!

Here is a pair of socks in the characteristic bright orange of the Islands. They were gotten from a young woman who was embarrassed to wear them, but they were knitted by her grandmother. She wanted to be more fashionable.

Here we have some of the traditional mittens, along with a detailed record of the pattern.

Students from the College learn to draw extremely detailed records of the collection, many of these I could have used as a knitting pattern!

Anu has written a book of patterns for stuffed animals and puppets that use Estonian patterns. She wants children to be able to recognize and name some of the many patterns that are part of their heritage! As a knitter, a stuffy is also more accessible than knitting an entire sweater on size 00 needles...

The museum included a selection of traditional farm tools, including these cards and combs. There were also a number of models of people doing traditional work and play that involved horses.

And here, in careful storage, is the meat of the collection. Knit garments from around the country and islands! Mittens, which can be traced to their origin by pattern and colors alone. Above, the mittens in black with greens and purples, are very modern takes on old patterns. The use of black/brown/grey with white and red is more common.

Here we have a pair of very simple gloves, but they have been darned and darned and darned some more! Well loved...

A baby bonnet, with a traditional "eye" on the forehead. All baby hats had such a structure to protect the infant from evil spirits and the like. Even today the custom is still common throughout the country.

And an entire dresser full of tablet and inkle woven ribbons! The patterns ranged from very old, to complex modern styles. The most common colors were red and white, and motifs with sun wheels and crosses were the norm.

Pawing through the collection (With gloves on!) was a textile historian's dream! However, having the curator on hand to give you the stories behind some of the objects was half of the experience. A blog post is coming up where I'll show you Anu's studio and tell you more about her work!

EDIT - REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR 2016 CRAFT CAMP.
You too, gentle reader, could enjoy the culture and craftiness of Estonia!

Estonian Craft Camp - Mulgi Embroidery

The second Workshop at Estonian Craft Camp was Mulgi embroidery. Mulgi is a region of southern Estonia, on the border with Latvia. The region has a distinct style of dress, handicrafts, and language. 

People in the area have long worn richly embroidered pieces, and each symbol is full of meaning and history. The base is usually felted wool, and wool threads are used. The traditional colors are red, blue, green, and yellow, on a neutral background.

The main motifs are Circles - the earth, the sun wheel, the cosmos; Crosses - balance and relationships; Tree of Life - fertility; and the Rose - different number of petals have different significance.

Our project is a game of tic-tac-toe, perfect since the common motifs are either round, or crossed!

The color pallette was a bit more expanded, to fit modern taste. But I still wanted to stay somewhat true to the origins! Many of these threads were salvaged from old knitwear, still a bit kinky and some knots in it. There were beads available too, very traditional with metal disc and the like.

During the workshop I was only able to complete eight of ten pieces during the workshop. Hopefully I will get to the board and the final two circles soon...  I used reds and yellows for the circles, and blues and greens for the crosses. The stitches are all simple - outline stitch, blanket stitch, and some french knots.

I purchased, on the trip, some embroidery wool dyed with plants, in the colors used for Mulgi style work. I'm not sure what sort of project I will use them for, felted bags? Shawl? The rich symbolism offers so many possibilities!

More posts on Estonia, Finland, and the experience at craft camp to come in future weeks!

EDIT - REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR 2016 CRAFT CAMP.
You too, gentle reader, could enjoy the culture and craftiness of Estonia!

Embroidered Offering - Balance

The wheel of the year keeps turning, so that all thing remain in balance! I recently took an Oath in my spiritual path, and promised an offering. My oath was very much based on the theme of balance, so I thought my offering ought to be too!

It was a smallish piece, just one hoop's worth of stitching. I started out by divvying up the linen into quarters. I've learned that pencil lines wear off rather quickly, so I used regular sewing thread to baste in marker lines.

I did trees for the four seasons. (This is a favorite of mine!) complete with an appropriate amount of foliage - from little buds to nothing! 

 Next, faces! I had never done faces in stitchery before, if is a very interesting challenge. I have a masculine and feminine face, and I tried to make one old and one young. (They both look a bit old, hazards of hard shadows.) I'm fairly happy with how they turned out, but most importantly, the camera thought it was a person!

The final touches were some weather. Sunshine for the spring and summer, rain and snow for the fall and winter. All the things in their own time. Everything in balance.

We had a good bonfire for midsummer, and offerings were made. Welcome to the warm times! But, the days are now getting shorter, good news to keep us from getting too hot. Also good news for us travelers - I'm writing this in Iceland, the sun only set for about 3 hours last night, and it never got dark. I'm loving it in many ways, but sleep is also good! Here's to Balance!

Wednesday WIPs

 It's that time again! Let's review all the projects I still haven't finished...

First and foremost is another four-seasons embroidery. This one is to be an offering piece for Midsummer, so it's got to be done by then! (I've got a good track record of completing this sort of piece on time, the Gods don't like a WIP IOU.)

I'm liking it so much I think I'll make myself a permanent version.

 I've been working through an alpaca fleece that was gifted to me. Actually, it was two fleeces, each is a mixed brown and white. I've separated the locks into brown, white, and mixed. Hopefully after spinning I'll have three tones of alpaca. I'm also trying out the scotch tension on my wheel, which is making a veeeery thin thread!

 I pulled the Laminaria back out, it's on the final color of yarn, and the border of the pattern. It's also about 700 stitches across, so it's a bit of an investment to get involved in a row. Fortunately my moth control measures seem to have prevented any more damage, but I will need to do some complex lace darning before I can even wear it >.<

I did, however, complete one thing! The lopi dickie for my father is done, just in time for hot weather. I love the way the colors came out, I had to switch the dark green for blue halfway through as my LYS ran out of that color. It's just the top of the sweater, enough to keep the shoulders and neck warm while skiing. AKA, this is the fun part of the sweater and no way in hell I'm knitting straight stockinette for 40 inches. Did I mention that this is, in fact, one size BIGGER than the largest size in the pattern book?

There it is, my lousy fiber output for the last two months, enjoy my shame. Fortunately, I expect to be able to do some stash busting on the long plane flights. I will NEED to do some stash busting, as I'm sure I will buy some more yarn over there...

What are you working on?

Autumn's Offerings - Thor and Sif

NOTE - This article was written, and should have published back in September. It seems it got lost in the ones and zeros...

At the time of balance of the year, I look to nature to see the importance of balance in our lives. In this harvest season it's easy to look to the bountiful fields and the food on our tables as proof of the benefits of balance.

In the Norse tradition Thor is, besides being a mighty warrior, the Lord of Storms. By his presence or absence we get rain and fair weather. Thus, he would be praised for both bringing rain and snow, and for sunny days. Sif, his wife, is a goddess of the fields. Her golden hair (get it right Marvel!) is representative of ripened grains.

Their relationship is a thing of Balance. If there is not enough rain the grain will not grow, if there is too much it rots in the fields. Throughout the winter the soil rests to prepare for the next growing season. Their partnership has space. This is the lesson of the Autumn Equinox,  establish balance in order to create fruitfulness.

As for the making, I placed my ring on the top half of a rectangle of linen, and started stitching! The clouds slowly filled in with undulating waves. I added falling rain drops near the end, and the last touch - a bolt of lightening from the God of Thunder.

The bottom ring I filled with the plants of the fields - vetch, bindweed, grasses, and most importantly golden ripening grain! That space of overlap is the Venn Diagram of the season - rain on the fields.

We gathered for a large feast, think early Thanksgiving, to share in the fruits of the second harvest. This piece was an offering to the Patrons of the rite - Thor and Sif. That is to say, it went up in flames. We got a good omen, and had a fantastic night of food and fellowship. Sacred stitchery has become one of my favorite things!

What are you thankful for? How do you bring balance into your life?

Gnomes - Part 1 - Shirts

 As any crafty person knows, making gifts for the Yuletide starts in January. However, this is the season to kick it into high gear. I, for one, detest seeing Christmas stuff out before the first of December, but it does remind me to get moving on the making!

This year as a gift for most of my dear friends I am creating little gnomes, in the Tomte tradition of the north. We could all use a house helper no? These will be entirely woolen, the bodies felted and attached to these wee shirts.

I decided to break up the tedium, and encourage creativity by making this a learning experience. I dug out an old pamphlet of embroidery stitches, and I'm trying to incorporate new and different stitches into each shirt. I'm not sure how many I will end up with, one can cut out an awful lot of little shirts from a single piece of felt...

I've gotten started on the heads as well, they are rather more time consuming! I'll post more details as these little creatures come together. In the meantime, I'm off to leave a bowl of porridge for any wights that may be already around the house, I wouldn't want them to get involved in any mischief...

What are you making for giftmas?

Embroidered Tree Skirt

Last year I was inspired to create an heirloom piece for our Yule tree. This is, in fact, a big step for me. I have long despised the holiday season, mostly because it starts in September. I am the 'bah humbug' shouting obscenities at holiday decorations that go up before Thanksgiving, and shoving headphones in my ears as soon as the bad Christmas music is heard in stores.

But, like the grinch, I am softening back to the season. I have always loved snow. I have always loved fire. Now that Yuletide means a gathering of friends with good food around a fire on a long cold night... it's not so bad. So, for the first time, we cut a real tree in the mountains and decorated it with my odd collection of ornaments. Such a tree is worthy of a good skirt!

I decided on several traditional winter symbols - Holly, Ivy, Pine, and Mistletoe. All are noted for staying green through the winter, and thus are considered signs of rebirth, fertility, and heralds of spring.

I chose a different color for each plant, and a simple arrangement of three leaves for each. the backdrop is a linen blend trimmed in red bias tape. I had a heck of a time getting it round!

The happy kidney bean likes it!

Works in Progress

I've been busy crafting in between all the travel, cooking, working and enjoying the season. First, a success. I got this awesome slow striping yarn as a graduation gift from my grandmother, it has a tight twist and a nice drape. (It had better, it was $24 a ball!)

I wanted to make the most of each ball so I found a free Ravelry Pattern with a simple lace motif. Of course, the pattern had been charted with some bizarre symbol system, so first I had to use a free web app to make a legible chart.

The finished piece is long enough to wrap twice, and has a nice subtle pattern for interest. I expect I'll use the other ball (which is a blue and purple colorway) in a similar way.

 Next, a little less success. I tried to knit an elf hat based on an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern. It came out quite a bit too small. And odd-looking, and might just get felted down to baby size, or made into a bowl.

 Then I tried to make a baby hat. It's a bit bigger then intended. It's to match this baby sweater that the kid has grown in to. I think mama-baby matchy matchy time might be the solution!

Remember kids, do your gauge swatch! Don't knit blind! And don't assume that measuring on the needles will get you anywhere...

Which leads to the next "Now-I-Know" moment, guidelines. I worked on this embroidery piece for an entire year. And with each new flower I had to redraw the borderlines that had been rubbed off. So naturally, when it came time to add the flower names along the edge, the circle was a bit off center.

I saw this suggested somewhere and decided that late is better than never, before starting the words I ran single thread basting stitch around the piece to make clear circles. No matter the stretching of the hoop, I know where the letters should be to make them straight! I'll be framing this soon and mounting on the wall.

All said, some good crafting has happened in the last month. Someday I may even learn my lesson on the gauge swatch issue...

What have you been making? What have you been screwing up?