Marathon knitting week

 I'm back from Estonia and the knitting workshop, which turned out to be quite intensive. So much knitting every day just to keep up - I developed a half-inch wide blister on my left ring finger partway through the week from clenching the metal double-pointed needles and had to wear a plaster/band-aid the rest of the week. We were learning how to knit Estonian gloves, which together with mittens played an important role in their cultural traditions. Mittens were given as gifts at weddings and funerals for example.  The fabric is quite dense and thick - we were knitting with wool equivalent to 14 wraps per inch on 2mm needles - so that the gloves will be warm and sturdy. I'm not a particularly fast knitter, so I was having to panic knit compared to some of the other participants, just so I could keep up with the various workshop stages of the glove.  My resultant sample glove has terrible tension and is full of pattern errors and strange lumps, but I managed to cover all of the various techniques and took lots of notes which I have since consolidated into improved instructions.  This is what my glove looked like by the end of the workshop.

So on my cuff, I tried out a braided cast-on, followed by a Kihnu braid, followed by a wrapped little dots pattern, then threw in some fair isle, garter ridges and some cables.  I was riffing off some of the examples I saw in books and for sale in shops.  My main pattern is from a book of Kihnu Island patterns, and the smaller finger pattern is also from there.  

Once I got home, I bought some 4-inch glove needles and finished the little finger. I also ripped back the thumb top to have another go at getting the pattern right. My pattern repeat is 20 stitches, and as well as the thumb having one full repeat + one partial repeat, you then decrease the top in four different places.  Trying to work out how to knit the pattern repeat while stitches were disappearing in four different places, while wrestling with 8-inch metal needles that kept falling out of the stitches, just about made my head explode.  I tried three times and gave it up as a bad job while in Estonia, but it's fixed now.  And finally, I duplicate stitched over some of the worst pattern errors, and gave the glove a good steam to plump up the wool which improved some of the tension issues.  This is the final result, still far from perfect but it was a good learning experience.  I don't love the colours so I doubt I will knit a second glove to match, but I had to choose wool from what the teacher had available and I wanted two contrasting colours.

As well as knitting, I did a few days of sightseeing in Helsinki (Finland) and in Tallinn (Estonia), plus the workshop participants got to see some of the south-eastern area of Estonia along the Russian border.  Estonia reminded me so much of Canada, miles of green forest punctuated by lakes and rivers and bogs. The south-eastern area is sparsely populated with many old wooden buildings and log-cabin style barns. What was really interesting is the very vibrant craft traditions which are still very much a part of regional folk costumes and decor.  We saw lots of weaving and old floor looms on which they weave fabric-strip rugs, ornately decorated woollen blankets, and the very fine decorative linen weaving used in the sleeves of the traditional costumes.  Narrow woven braids are another  constantly seen craft, used for belts and to decorate costumes and items - these are woven in a variety of ways including tablet looms, inkle looms, rigid heddle looms etc.  They make a coarse torchon-ground based bobbin lace in coarse linen thread and red cotton thread, which is used to decorate costume items.  Crocheted items include white filet lace and colourful folk medallions sewn onto costumes. And of course knitted gloves and mittens were everywhere.  Tallinn had all the usual tourist tat souvenir shops but also had several artisan handicraft stores with really high quality items on sale.  

I bought a lovely handwoven cotton shawl, which is incredibly soft and drapey.

I bought a metre of handwoven woollen skirt fabric (top) from the women who had woven it on community floor looms. I will have to find a special bag pattern to use it with.  I also bought the little zipped pouch  (bottom) which is sewn from a woven woolen skirt fabric.

A handmade tote bag with scenes of Tallinn - for some reason the cat decided she

needed to roll around while I was taking pictures.

A little pincushion lady wearing an Estonian costume (see the bands of simulated weaving on her sleeves), and some little handmade strawberry pincushions that were for sale in the same shop - I bought these as gifts.

I bought a book of mitten patterns taken from historic examples held in the collections of the Estonian National Museum, and a little booklet on knitting Haapsalu shawls.  I knit a Haapsalu shawl years ago from some much bigger books that were hard to follow - this booklet seemed to be a clearer synopsis.

Some 'Finnish house' earrings, and a traditional embroidery motif key chain

An enormous fabric shop I came across in Helsinki centre, all dressmaking and home dec though, no patchwork fabric.

Some antique dollshouse furniture c 1860, on display at the National Museum

of Finland in Helsinki

Knitwear for sale in Tallinn

A floor loom with a fabric-strip rug in progress

Seto-style bobbin lace

Another floor loom with rug in progress

Seto bobbin lace

Some colourful woven woolen braid belts

Woven wool rugs

Tablet weaving a woollen braid

I'd never been to Finland or Estonia before and knew virtually nothing about either country, so it was a really interesting holiday with lots to learn. I enjoyed Helsinki but it was eye-wateringly expensive. Finnish historic wooden house styles reminded me of what we saw in New England on a holiday 10 years ago.

I also saw this adorable playhouse in the garden of one of the old houses near Linnunlaulu Bridge. I want one.

For once my travel to and from my holiday went without a hitch - no delays, no COVID, no panic running through airports.  Like the good old days.

Since I got home, I've been doing the usual unpacking, laundry, gardening etc.  As well as finishing the sample glove, I finished off a set of boxes I had started before my travels.  I saw a blurb in a magazine for an Etsy digital printed fabric that you could cut up to make sewing-themed storage boxes.  It reminded me that I had purchased this sewing panel at FOQ last year.

Then I had a look around on Youtube for storage box tutorials and eventually came across this video which uses cardboard inserts to create rigid sides.  I was able to cut my panel up into three strips without losing too much of the pattern and made one big box and two smaller boxes.  I cut up a delivery box for my cardboard but it hasn't given a very crisp outline - the boxes would look better with heavy chipboard inserts for example.

I can also now post the test bag I sewed before my holiday, which is the Passport Folio designed by Mrs. H for her Patreon group at Swoon Designs.  It's designed to hold a family's passports and insurance cards, plus there is a zip pocket and another hidden slip pocket.  I added a pen loop inside. I'm not going to lie, I really struggled with this make because we were sewing the test instructions before a video tutorial had been created, and the pocket instructions were like fabric origami. But I got there in the end with some help from fellow testers. The Folio is really cleverly engineered in how it is constructed, with the various pockets folded up from larger pieces of fabric. My Jack H2 industrial machine sewed through the multiple layers for the final topstitching like butter.

We've still got a replacement car for probably another week.  The search for a new car is going slowly - we've looked a few brands that are recommended as tow cars but new versions are both very expensive and hard to get - Skoka quoted 23 weeks from factory for delivery.  Secondhand ones are of course available but we would want to buy an approved used car with a warranty and currently there is nothing in our area.  We need to get a move on as soon we won't even have a car to go and look for a new car.