I've been to Estonia
I haven't written a blog for ages and ages, but here I am back again. I've just had a splendid adventure and have been to Estonia on a knitting trip organised by the Dutch Knitters. I had so much fun and thouroughly enjoyed myself . I went with Gerard from Iknit London, and we met the Dutch girls in Tallinn, I couldn't get into the hotel they were all at so got myself into a lovely hotel just inside the medieaval city walls. This is the view from my bedroom window., and some other views round the old city which was just lovely once you wandered off the main tourist drag. Tallinn is a major stop for cruise ships cruising the Baltic, and the port is very close to the old city, huge loads of cruise tourists from all over the world on the main streets. A great place to sit in a street cafe and people watch.
Also a great place for knitting and knitted goods, close by to my hotel tucked into the arches at the base of the old city walls were the market stands selling hand knitted and machine knitted traditional Estonian knitwear. mittens, capes, sweaters, hats shawls, all full of colour
The Estonian colour work is amazing, very fine work knitted on 1.5mm needles creating a very dense fabric which is very necessary for the cold winters there, to learn more about these techniques we travelled to the island of Kihnu to meet the some of the ladies of the island who are helping to keep these traditions alive.
The last photo is of a lovely lady called Leila, who took a great shine to Gerard, not only had she never seen a man knit before but, she was gobsmacked by what a good knitter he is. The local guide took a picture of him knitting to put in their island newsletter.
In the lace knitting of Estonia there is a recurring stitch pattern called the "lilly of the valley stitch" . I often wondered why, and on the island I found out. In the way that we have bluebell woods here, the Estonians have lilly of the valley woods, just carpets of them under the trees everywhere you looked. In the old city in Tallinn there were ladies selling vast bunches of them for only1 or 2 euros. I bought the biggest bunch I could find and blagged a pint sized glass from the bar at my hotel, and for 3-4 days my room was filled with the amazing, soul lifting and soothing smell of one of my favourite flowers.Thinking about them, I can almost smell them again.
It was such a lovely week, did I mention that we visted a spinning mill, a wholesale yarn wharehouse, and that there was a seriously good yarn shop tucked away in the basement of a store around the corner from my hotel, and that among other things I have aquired some Haapsalu lace yarn, which is just sooooo nice. I was a little overweight in the luggage department coming home, due to the aformentioned yarn purchases, but only just, given that I left my magnifying mirror and book behind and a few other non essentials in anticipation of this.