July 2023 – Nordic Knitters

How to Knit Traditional Estonian Gloves

Here we go, it started – the Glove Knitting Retreat in Estonia with five wonderful women. We had a nice lunch in Tartu and took a little walking tour to see the historic hilly downtown. We spent a lot of time studying different books to find the perfect pattern and colors for the gloves. There are so many options to do the cuff. Thousands of patterns to choose from so it is a really tricky job. The lunch at Verska Resto was excellent, such beautiful and tasty dishes.

COLOR-WORK DAY: yesterday we were very busy working on the wrists and all the students got a homework to finish them up. Some quick ones even made nice braids to top of the cuff. That gives a nice transition to the palm.
Today’s goal was to knit color-work up to the thumb opening. During our lunch break, we visited Seto museum and had lunch at Tsäimaja. We met some farm animals and inspected how Setos lived in old times. Then we had a chance to see the textile treasures. Knitting continued throughout the day regardless of the location. I have really eager, busy working participants, so glad to have you around.

FINGERS DAY: we had a very challenging day today, including a lot of math. We needed to calculate how many stitches for each finger is needed, how they are located on the full round. What stitches to put on the scrap yarn and which ones to keep knitting. First we left behind the little finger, then the ring finger and index finger and started knitting the middle finger. It sure looked funny when it was done.
During our lunch hour, we took a stroll down the promenade and drank some refreshing cups of holy spring water. After dinner, we boarded the ship and went off to a sunset tour which gave us an opportunity to observe the local coastline from the waterfront.

THUMB DAY: we are getting very close finishing the glove. Most of the fingers are done, now it’s time to knit the thumb. There are few tricks for it to look nice – so we had to do some more math and logical thinking but we got it.
We had lunch in a magnificent home restaurant Maagõkõnõ at Toomemäe farm house, where chef Sirje treated us with some glorious pike with mashed potatoes, fresh pickles and some chanterelles. For the dessert, we had homemade berry ice cream. Delicious!
We took a nice after lunch walk in the woods near Saatse museum. Also visited their renewed exhibition about Seto woman’s life in old days.

FARM-HOUSE DAY: we toured along the open handicraft farm houses in Seto all day. We started in Obinitsa Kunstizaal for some shopping and find handicraft admiration. Estonian playwright Kauksi Ülle welcomed us in her studio, and shared some treasures from her collection. Then we visited my friend Kairi, who is a passionate mender, recycler, and calls herself an ancient taylor, because of her passion for hand sewing historic men’s pants. Third we visited Rikka Ivvan’s farmhouse where Sigre showed her work and passion which is bobbin lace. We had lunch at Taarka Tarõ and continued to Ingrid’s Kriisa Talo handicraft house for some more Seto find craft. At Värska handicraft union we saw some beautiful woven blankets, bed covers and carpets. Last stop was at Marje’s house where we tried some tablet weaving and woodblock printing. Their exhibition of bed covers was exquisite. Thank you so much for all the talented crafters in Seto.
We have two more tours this summer, come join us!
Please see more info at https://nordicknitters.com/handicraft-tours/
In August we will be hosting two more tours as follows:
The Seto Handicraft Tour will be in August 1-6, 2023 and on Saturday we will be participating the Kingdom Day Festival in Setoland. More info here: https://fb.me/e/2gc0uMD1L
The Haapsalu Lace Knitting Tour will be August 23-30, 2023 and on Sunday we will be attending the Lace Festival events. More info here: https://fb.me/e/2PpGSBuMY

By Külli Jacobson|2023-07-26T17:42:20+00:00July 26th, 2023|Nordic Knitters|0 Comments

Learning Old Võru County Handicraft: Linen Work and Spinning in Southern ESTONIA

DAY1: today started the Handicraft Tour to Old Võru County in Estonia. What a pleasure to see old friends again and make some new friends. We stopped for lunch in Tartu and I had a little walking tour there. Then we continued to Võru Kubija Hotel and Nature Spa. Had our first handicraft workshop on honey comb knitting. The evening most probably brings more knitting and a lot of joy in a good company of similar minded cool people. Not to forget the dinner and some spa treatments.

DAY2: our handicraft tour took us to Rõuge today. But first we stopped at the local museum and heard about Võru history, language and textiles of course. Then we had a hike in the woods which took us to the only canyon in Estonian in Hinni. The spring water was really tasty and refreshing but the mosquitoes were vicious. In Rõuge we got lucky and we were the first visitors of the season in the local handicraft store. Before lunch we also visited Ööbikuorg and we’re fascinated by the perpetum mobile water pumps vesioinas. The lunch at Ööbikuoru villa was delicious and their premises so very beautiful located between three lakes. The afternoon brought us the workshop of sprang belt weaving. Marit Kylv is a great teacher and everybody ended up liking the difficult technique.

DAY3: today we visited the Estonian national museum in Tartu. It really is an amazing museum and every time I go there is something new. I like that it really focuses on every day life of simple men and women, today and yesterday and hundred years ago.

DAY4: today was flax to linen day. Thanks to Margit Pensa and Marit Külv as our wonderful knowledgeable skillful teachers we learned all the tricks how to turn a stiff dried flex stem into silky material. We used all the old tools from beautiful Karilatsi Põlva Talurahva Muuseum, also drop spindles and spinning wheels to create linen yarn. We also toured on the museum premises and were served tasty lunch by Taevaskoja caterers. To finish the day we took a nice hike to see natural wonders in Taevaskoja.

DAY5: today we had two workshops and therefore had no time to drive around, stayed put at the Kubija hotel. Our main topic of the day was the inlay knitting. It is called Roosimine in Estonian and is very widely used in Tõstamaa area in Western Estonia. We also had a workshop on cyanotype printing. As the hotel is located in the middle of the woods it was great source of plant material to be used. We each arranged a beautiful setting, placed it on the prepared textile, put a glass sheet on top of it and let it sit in the sun for 10 minutes. The UV rays reacted with a chemical leaving beautiful prints on the textile.
Thank you, Lüüli Kiik for teaching us all the tricks.

THE LAST DAY: our final workshop was on ancient copper spiral decoration. We have seen these findings of Kukruse lady at the national Museum, now we had an opportunity to make one of our own. But at first we strolled through Kreutzwald’s homestead, which is now a museum in Võru, and our teacher of the day Marika Sepp showed us all the fine handicraft items in their household. The workshop was fun: required some logical thinking and a lot of patients but we all succeeded. The next stop is Riga and the annual grand handicraft market at the ethnographic museum!
Bon voyage my friends!
See you next year!

Please read more about the tours here https://nordicknitters.com/handicraft-tours/
Welcome to Estonia! More info at info@nordicknitters.com

By Külli Jacobson|2023-07-10T10:19:57+00:00July 10th, 2023|Nordic Knitters|0 Comments

Sock Knitting Festival in Kihnu Island

I’m so happy to be on Kihnu island again, because tomorrow will start the three day knitting festival.
We will be knitting authentic Kihnu women’s socks. Kihnu island is one of the few places in Estonia where women still wear daily their traditional skirts.

DAY 1: In the morning we were welcomed by the organizers with some local smoked fish sandwiches and beautiful handmade knitting bags. They divided us into two groups, we had total of four teachers and the Kihnu sock knitting could begin. The motif repeat was really wide – 50 stitches and the needles were really thin 1.75 mm. So it took a lot of unraveling to do it right. I finished the color work part and couple inches of white travel stitch part. So much fun and it will continue tomorrow.

DAY 2: so much knitting was done during this sunny but windy day on Kihnu island. In order to save us from back pain and arm pain and neck pain the organizers invited a Shindo therapist to instruct a group exercise session. We also had a really fun excursion around the island in the special lorry. A marvelous dinner was followed by a smoke sauna which by the way is in a UNESCO intangible heritage list as a tradition in Estonia.

What a great day!

Book your on tour or find out what we offer for coming summer here: https://nordicknitters.com/handicraft-tours/

More info at info@nordicknitters.com

By Külli Jacobson|2023-07-10T09:37:46+00:00July 10th, 2023|Nordic Knitters|0 Comments

Bringing Vintage Knitting Style to Muhu Island

Sydney Crabaugh, a vintage knitting designer and the head mistress at the Squid’s School of Vintage Knitting visited me in April, 2023 and together we visited the Estonian National Museum. It is amazing – I haven’t been here a while and forgot that the level of interaction and technology and diversity is really astonishing.
The second day we had a great opportunity to discover Seto treasures both in Värska and Obinitsa. Delicious meals and fine handicraft pleased our souls.
Our first day on Muhu island was breathtakingly beautiful. We met different handicraft masters and had a chance to admire their work at their workshops. We were staying in the historic Vanatoa Farm Hotel and dined at Tõnise.
Our second day on Muhu island took us to the color paradise. This was the place where brightness and joy lives. We visited Velli Saabas, well respected local woolen skirt fabric weaver at her workshop. We saw many beautiful old items at a local museum.
Please contact us infonordicknitters.com for your custom made tour in Estonia.
Bon voyage!