Estonia Adventures Part 3: Tallinn, Estonia

Estonia! The next 9 blog posts are going to be about Estonia. I know that sounds crazy, but the handicraft culture and traditions are so rich here, we just couldn't pair it down. Estonia is a magical place and we hope some of our adventurous blog readers might make it there someday if you haven't already been. Our first stop is the capitol city of Tallinn.

Tallinn is an extremely old city - first traces of human settlement date back over 5,000 years. It boasts a beautifully preserved medieval center which is known as Old Town and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We hardly left Old Town. It was so beautiful and there is so much to explore.

We had the pleasure of being in town for Tallinn's annual Medieval Days festival. As if Old Town isn't medieval enough as is, this festival brings local artisans and crafters to sell their work and includes events, demonstrations and more. We hit the market first and boy was it amazing!

Wandering through the booths we instantly saw and fell in love with Külli. She is the powerhouse knitter behind these amazing mittens. She uses traditional Estonian designs from around Estonia. Each village, island and region has its own patterns. She spoke English very well and was happy to tell us about each design's origins and myths (some are meant to bring protection or luck to the wearer). She even gave us some on-the-fly knitting tutorials for the unique faux-entrelac borders that are often used.

We each bought a pair of mittens and then went back the next day for more. They are just so beautiful! Picking out your pair is the hardest part and we spent a good hour or so talking to Külli, trying on mittens and obsessing over which were the perfect ones. Impossible. You, too, can obsess on her beautiful mittens here.

We want all the mittens!

There is a section of booths at the medieval festival reserved for master craftsmen. Boy, did we get into trouble there. Let us introduce you to our new Latvian friend, Aija.

Aija makes amazing yarn. She travels around Latvia and Estonia to choose sheep fleeces to use from local farmers. She dyes the fleeces using locally sourced plant that she collects. She then hand spins these and finally, different colors are plied together to create a soft, loosely plied, naturally dyed yarn. We each bought copious amounts of this magical yarn, all of which are in natural hues of yellow and green.

Aija is also accomplished at the craft of naalbinding, an ancient form of making fabric with yarn and a large needle which pre-dates knitting. Aija sold her naalbinded hats and mittens that were made from her handspun yarn...swoon! If you're into historical reenactment, you need to go to Estonia right now and pick up everything that Aija makes.

We also met Monika. Monika makes lovely handspun yarns in a rainbow of colors and neutrals. She was on hand to give spinning demonstrations to the public. Monika had met our friend Malia of Penelope Crafts in Amderstam the year before, and helped put us in touch with some women on Muhu Island (check back for more on that tomorrow) to teach us embroidery. (Thank you, Monika!).

Handicrafts are ubiquitous in Tallinn. There are shops in old town selling Estonian knit items of all sorts, but one our favorite finds, Naiiv, featured modern garment designs based on the traditional bright colorwork of Estonia. We knew we had arrived by the very cool yarn-bombed bike outside the door.

Naiiv designs leggings, sweaters, jackets and even backpacks with their colorful knit fabric. We wanted it all...

Thanks for being so magical, Tallinn!

Up Next: Embroidery class on Muhu Island

Estonia Adventures Part 2: Finland

When booking this trip, I learned that one of the more affordable ways to get to Estonia is by ferry from Helsinki, Finland. Reasonable Icelandair flights to Helsinki made this the best route for us and we couldn't resist spending a couple of days in a new city while we were travelling through.

In preparation for the ferry ride (since Megan had never been on a boat before!) we took this boat to a pizza restaurant in an island.

Helsinki is a clean and modern port city, surrounded by water. It is known for its architecture and design and we were able to take in both of these things in our brief time.

Also, great coffee and food! We checked out many coffee shops and spent quite a bit of time knitting at these stops.

There are fantastic markets in Helsinki where one can shop for food and veggies alongside touristy items like reindeer hides and juniper wood utensils. We bought chanterelles and the most delicious strawberries!

We were thrilled to find a yarn vendor, Riihivilla, among these booths. He sold handknit items and kits for making mittens and things, as well as yarn made of local Finnsheep wool, naturally dyed in an amazing range of color. We, of course, were all swooning over this Finnsheep yarn and I'm sure we made his day!

The skeins came in both natural, un-dyed colors as well as naturally dyed colors. Again, these were dyed using the country's local dye-plants - in this case: mushrooms! Amber loves both yarn and mushrooms, so she couldn't resist these. Can you believe this amazing red comes from a mushroom?

Finnsheep come in a range of colors, like Icelandic and Shetland sheep, so of course I had to pick up some fingering weight un-dyed wool in two natural colors. Yummy!

After the markets, one more stop we had to make was at Finnish fabric designer and icon, Marimekko. Marimekko has been designing patterns since 1951.

Marimekko is responsible for many iconic pattern designs and no trip to Helsinki would be complete without a stop in one of their shops. They make and sell all sorts of goods printed with the classic designs including clothing, umbrellas, plates and wallets. What were we most excited about? The fabric! 

The fabric came in various weights from home dec to woven cotton to lawn. Amber and I each bought a cut of fabric which we will covet for a while I'm sure before cutting into! I am absolutely in love with my black cat fabric since I have a kitty just like this at home. 

Next up: Tallinn, Estonia and the medieval festival!

Estonia Adventures Part 1: Iceland

Earlier this month, Amber and I went on an epic adventure to Estonian Craft Camp. We will get to Craft Camp next week - which was life-altering - but first, a quick stop in Iceland en route to Finland en route to Estonia (thank you, Icelandair!).

Iceland is one of my favorite places. This was my third visit and even though it was for a mere 48 hours, we were able to experience new magical places and revisit some of our favorite stops. Iceland is a must-visit for any travel-loving, yarn aficionado. Their love of wool and knitting knows no bounds. Free range sheep dot every landscape and Lopi yarn can be purchased in even the smallest town's grocery market.

You know of our love of Lopi yarn - the Icelandic yarn made from Icelandic sheep's wool since we have made no fewer than 5 Lopi sweaters between Amber and I. The hardy Icelandic sheep that produce all this yarn are the only sheep to see in Iceland and they are everywhere. Farmers let them graze free during the spring - fall and then they gather and sort them every September to keep them safe during the harsh winter months.

Sheep with her babies on a picturesque fjord

We hopped off our plane at 6am, rented a car and immediately headed up to the West Fjords - a 3 hour journey to a northern land of fjords. We stopped along the way to take in the elven magic of the moss covered lava fields at Glanni.

Magical Moss covered Lava fields of Glanni

Once we reached the West Fjords, we were greeted with the epic and otherworldly landscape of this remote part of Iceland. We spent a bit of time in Holmavik at the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery and then stayed the night in a picturesque B n' B in Bjarnarfjörður that had its own hot pots.

Sheep and carin

Amber frolics in the West Fjords

On our way back to Reykjavik the next day we stopped at one of our favorite places - the wool shop Ullarselið in Hvanneyri. This shop stocks the beautiful naturally-dyed Hespa yarns by Gudrun Bjarnadottir. We all purchased mass quantities of yarn at this, our first yarn-buying opportunity of the trip! The natural colors that Gudrun achieves using Icelandic mosses and lichens are irresistible. She combines these native dye plants with indigo and madder for more depth of color. The yarns are all Icelandic wool and all of us purchased the lace weight - perfect for shawls.

Jaime has some tough decisions to make...

We ended our Iceland adventure with a late night dip in the Blue Lagoon in the midnight sun...so magical!

10pm in Iceland in July...so bright!

Next up: Helsinki, Finland: Marimekko and Finnsheep wool

Indigo Dye Day: What We Made!

As you know if you're a blog reader, we experimented with our staff last month and dyed some cloth and yarn with natural indigo. It was a blast and everyone ended up with beautiful goods to work with.
We gave ourselves a month to whip up something special with our hand dyed goods! Check out our results!

I made a Camber Set top! I recently finished my Camber Set dress and I liked it so much, I thought I should try out the top version. I wanted a simple design to show off my fabric which is a shibori dyed cotton/silk blend. The silk is a protein fiber and it helped the fabric take the dye better so I got a beautiful hue of indigo on the exposed parts of the fabric. I accordion-folded and then tied my fabric to create this pattern. The silk also gives the top a bit more drape and flow than a 100% cotton would have which I love.

Allison made this adorable tank that she self-drafted the pattern for! It shows off her shibori dyed Kona great and we love the use of dark indigo thread and contrast stitching. Her shibori technique was to "crumple the fabric and then wrap it with string." It turned out great!

Katy makes project bags that we all use here at the shop and are available online here. She chose to dye up some cotton fabric to use for her project bags so they are extra-special. She dip-dyed them for a sweet ombré affect.

Nathalie dyed up some fingering weight yarn. She wound her yarn into a center pull ball, which made the yarn take on the outside of the call take more dye than the inside. The result is a beautiful yarn with an ombre effect in various shades of indigo. She already whipped up this Hitchhiker shawl - a great one-skein pattern for any sock yarn by Martina Behm.

Nathalie also dyed a t-shirt which turned out a perfect blue!

Jess chose to overdye some Nani Iro wata-gauze that was originally a pale, off-white. This flowy, lightweight double gauze is an even looser weave than traditional double gauze. The fabric took the dye great and she made a Nuance tee out of it - Nani Iro's pattern designed just for this fabric - so perfect!

Jess also dyed some Brown Sheep Burlyspun, super-bulky wool yarn and made a quick knitted cowl. She achieved this speckledy look by putting her yarn in the vat in a twisted skein!

Kiyomi made a quilt! They incorporated their indigo-dyed cotton fabric with other fabrics to piece together this awesome quilt top.

Kiyomi also dyed some rayon jersey, which was a real experiment as we didn't know how the rayon would take the dye. It did great! The color is muted because the vats were almost exhausted at this point, but they did get a subtle ombre effect which looks great in this simple tee.

Miranda was really experimental and dropped all sorts of things in the dye vat including ric rac and sheep locks. She used her indigo locks to make a magical blue unicorn with flowing mane...so cute!

Miranda also over-dyed some silk! As of now the hot fabric is being worn as a scarf, but soon it will hit the sewing machine! 

Sunne used shibori dyeing techniques to dye this beautiful piece of fabric. She hand stitched this scarf together and embroidered to embellish the lovely finish of this dye!  

Sunne is also working on her very own shawl pattern with the fingering weight yarn she dyed! 

Nice work everyone!

Indigo Dye Day

Hi, Jaime here! Once a month we get together with our staff and do fun things (it's called Fancy Fun Times!) This month we did some indigo dyeing and it was so fun we had to report. Indigo is one of the oldest dyes to be used for textile printing and dyeing. Each staff member brought something to dye in indigo dye pots that we set up. It was super fun and the indigo is fascinating and amazing to work with.

Indigo dyeing is a bit more involved than other dyeing I have done. First the cloth and yarn needs to be scoured before dyeing to remove any chemicals, oils, etc that may be in the fibers. Before dyeing you can also prepare the fiber with Shibori techniques, which is an ancient technique for folding fabric. This creates patterns in the fabric by folding, stitching, and otherwise preventing the dye to saturate all the fabric. Techniques like this can be very involved and create beautiful patterns. We are not trained in these techniques so mostly we did some fun experimenting with them.

The day before dyeing, I prepared a concentrate of Indigo dye solution in mason jars.

After we mixed our mason jar concentrate in our 5 gallon buckets we were ready to go. Each of us had numerous items we couldn't wait to get in those vats. For a deep indigo color, it is recommended to keep your fiber under the liquid for at least 10 minutes- man were we getting antsy to see the results!

When you take your fiber out of the vat it is a yellowish green color. As soon as it is exposed to air, the indigo dye starts to oxidize and the blue hues start to come out. It is amazing to watch the color change so quickly!

!Voila! We have all kinds of magical indigo dyed pieces. There was such an incredible array of indigo dyed fiber, each showing off our little individual touches.

Our dye came from Maiwa who sells all sorts of natural dyes and also has great information about indigo and other type of dyeing. Check back next month to see what we made with our fabric and yarns!