A Knitting Trip From Start to Finish

In addition to the conference on Traditional Knitted Sweaters Around the Baltic Sea, the various meetings I had with knitters around Estonia, the Käi ja Koo or Walk & Knit Contest that I participated in, the private knitting classes that I had on specific Estonian knitting techniques, and the yarn shops and handicraft shops that I visited, knitting appeared other places as well.

I was delighted to see support posts at the Tallinn bus station that had been "yarnbombed" - covered in knitted fabric since 2011.

 

Beautiful gloves, mittens, and socks were displayed and available to purchase at the Heimtali Craft Fair.

 

 

And I see that The Dutch Knitters must have a lot of influence in the Netherlands; even the dinner placemat on my KLM flight home was a "knitted" replica of The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer.

 

 

Getting Enough Fiber in Estonia

Did you think this would be a post about eating in Estonia?  Well, I'm a knitter, so my fiber consists of a lot of wool.

I first met "murakamari" electronically through Ravelry (it's a little like Facebook for knitters) and then met her in person one day in Tallinn near the flower sellers. 

After breakfast at Reval Cafe, she took me on a walking tour of Tallinn which, of course, included a couple of yarn shops.

Here I am with murakamari (her Ravelry name) and an anonymous knitter who is wearing a very lacy gray skirt (in front of the Liann Lõngad yarn shop).

In addition to Liann Lõngad (located in a mall near the Kaubamaja department store) and the Pronksi Lõngapood on Aia Street which murakamari showed me, Carla of The Dutch Knitters told me about Karnaluks which is an interesting, mega craftshop located on the second floor of what looks like an apartment building a little ways from the Old Town.  You have to be looking for this place to find it but when you do find it, there are boxes and stacks of craft items in room after room.  Overwhelming and chaotic!

My visit to Karnaluks was followed by a calming visit to a small, charming yarn shop, Lõng ja Lõngast (Wool and Woollen), nearby on Tartu Road.

And yes, I did manage to get enough fiber on my trip to Estonia!  Here's what came home with me:



Best. Tourist Info. Ever.

As you may know, as part of the sweater conference in Estonia, I went to the Heimtali craft fair and participated in the Käi ja Koo (walk and knit contest).  After the fair, I returned to Viljandi and stayed one more night.

I stopped at the Viljandi Tourist Information (TI) office just before 15:00 when it closed on a Saturday. I joked with the young man working the TI office about my coming in just before closing and that he was probably thinking, "why does everyone come in just before we close?"  He was very pleasant and I got some information from him about the islands I was heading to the next day and about Museum Night which was happening in Viljandi that evening.

After leaving the TI office, I stopped for a cold Coke at a kiosk; it was a VERY hot day. While I was sitting outside in the shade drinking my Coke, the young man from the TI office stopped to greet me. He was with a young woman who had been in the TI office, too. They invited me to join them for a folk dance event on the soccer field down near the lake. They were very friendly and gracious to me. I would never have known about the folk dance event if I had not met them.

We walked to the soccer field and talked while we were waiting for the dancing to begin at 16:00. I told them that I had been to the Heimtali craft fair and the young woman said that her parents were ceramicists and had attended the fair. I pulled out the ceramic heart necklace that I had purchased and asked if her parents had made it. Of course, they had.

Upon my return to the US, I found an email address for the potters on the website that was listed on the packaging of my ceramic heart.  I wrote an email to tell the potters how delightful and welcoming their daughter and her friend were to me and sent photos that I took that day (of the young couple who took me to the folk dance event and also of the potters and their booth at the craft fair).

I have now heard back from Getter, the friendly young woman who accompanied Rauno, the young man from the TI office.  Getter wrote "It was brilliant little mysterious coincidence.  If you are ever planning to come to Estonia again, we would kindly welcome/host you. This offer does not expire;)" 

How very sweet.  I hope to see them again someday.  Thanks for the warm Viljandi welcome and the experience of the folk dance spectacle!

Chinchillas in Estonia?

This story begins in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and ends up in Estonia.  Last fall, my knitting friend, Sandy, and I did a presentation about a trip to Estonia for the Door County Learning in Retirement Program.  Nancy, who attended the lecture and slide show, put us in touch with her Estonian neighbor, Gretel.  Gretel suggested contacting Avelin, her Estonian friend who lives in Michigan and owns Baltic Inspirations Inc., a knitwear import business.  I met Avelin at an Old World Christmas Market in Elkhart Lake last December.  Avelin told me that her sister-in-law was a knitter and lived in Estonia.  Lii, Avelin's sister-in-law, invited me to visit her and see her home in the country.

So as I travelled from Saaremaa and Muhu back to Tallinn, I got off the bus at Riisti, got picked up by Lii, and went to her home where I met Taidus, Avelin's brother, along with their children, Lii's mother, and the various rabbits and chickens that Lii raises.  Lii made a wonderful pirukas (meat pie) and we enjoyed chatting about Estonia, knitting, their family, rabbits, chickens, gardening, pirukas, and various other topics.

Lii offered to let me choose a rabbit pelt from her collection and I came home with a Chinchilla rabbit pelt - it is SO soft!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day that took me to the home of some very welcoming Estonians.

Muhu and Mai in May

I visited the Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Muhu for several days in May after the sweater conference.  A 5-hour bus ride took me from Viljandi (the location of the sweater conference), over the water on a ferry ride with the bus, across the island of Muhu by bus, across the bridge between Muhu and Saaremaa, and on to Kuressaare, the capital of Saaremaa.

Through emails before my trip to Estonia, I got some very good advice from Mai Meriste about handicraft places to visit on Muhu and also a very key piece of information which was that I would definitely need a car to get around the two islands and see everything that I wanted to see.  So although I took public transportation most of the time in Estonia, I did rent a car for one day while I was on the islands.  Here's my little Mercedes in front of the käsitöö pood (handicraft shop) that happened to be open only Thursday-Saturday and I was there on a Monday.  Not to worry though.  There were other handicraft shops to be found open on a Monday.

Mai Meriste is one of three authors of an incredible book titled Designs and Patterns from Muhu Island - A Needlework Tradition from Estonia.  I had purchased the book over a year ago while at one of my teaching gigs at The Trading Post for Fiber Arts in Pendleton, Indiana.

And, yes, that's the same Mai Meriste who was on the winning team at the Käi ja Koo event.  

Mai works at the Muhu Museum, which was one of my stops on Muhu Island, but she was not working at the museum the day I visited.  We emailed during the day and although Mai had a very busy "day off," she emailed that "the WiFi area in Orissaare is in front of the eating place called Valge Varese Trahter (has white crows on its windows). If you will happen to sit there when I'm going to kindergarten to pick up my boys, we can sit down for a while. :)"  And that's exactly what we did.  Another virtual friend becomes real.

Lõngakera Film Star

My 2-week trip to Estonia was planned around a 3-day sweater conference - Traditional Knitted Sweaters Around the Baltic Sea.  In fact, my entire focus for the trip was knitting and I wanted to learn and experience as much as I could in the 14 days I had in Estonia, not just during the 3-day sweater conference.  Fortunately, I was able to meet with a number of Estonian knitters, many of whom also attended the sweater conference.

I made contact with Tiina Meeri, an Estonian knitter, prior to my travels and although she would not be attending the conference, she was very willing to meet with me when I was in Tallinn. 

Tiina has written a number of Estonian knitting books and was the on-screen instructor in a series of knitting instruction films in the 1990s.  These films are still being shown on Estonian TV today.  I found a website that had archives of the films available to view.  Although I don't speak or understand Estonian, I think that Tiina Meeri may be the Estonian equivalent of Elizabeth Zimmermann and the Lõngakera (translates as Yarn Ball) knitting series may be similar to the Knitting Workshop TV series with Elizabeth Zimmermann which originally aired on PBS.

Tiina is a schoolteacher of the arts and is an amazingly energetic woman who moves at a fast pace, whether she's walking, talking, or showing knitting techniques (although she can slow it down some, if need be).  According to Tiina Meeri, she has taught many Estonians how to knit through her books and educational films.

She took time to meet with me on two separate days and encouraged me to film her hands as she demonstrated some of the traditional Estonian knitting techniques.  Tiina, in true schoolteacher fashion, even gave me homework to do between our meetings.

@stonia - Staying Connected While Travelling

Estonia, the birthplace of Skype, may also be home to the largest number of free wi-fi access points.  Every hotel that I stayed at had free wi-fi.  That's not so unusual, but most cafes, restaurants, some stores, and even the long-distance buses have free wi-fi.

Skype

My US phone does not operate as a phone in Estonia.  However, since it's smart, I can use it to access my email and surf the internet when I have wi-fi access.  This turned out to be very easy in Estonia.

Just to be safe, I set my phone to Airplane Mode; I didn't want to find that I had actually connected to cellular service and racked up astronomical international cell phone charges.  I also wanted to save my phone's battery so I didn't want my phone to be constantly looking for a cellular signal.

Viber

I used Viber and Skype to text, voice call, or video call my husband and friends.  But then there was the matter of my 90-something mother who would like to hear from me occasionally.


Photo by Zef Hemel

Mom has no computer, no cell phone, no microwave, for that matter.  The last time I travelled overseas, I used a calling card to dial her from a phone booth.

However, there are no pay phones in Estonia anymore. I was told that they were removed a couple of years ago. Hmmmm. How do I reach mom?

Well, someone suggested I download Skype and use that. I already had the Skype app but I had always used Skype to call skype to skype. I hadn't thought of calling a landline with it. I loaded $4.99 worth of Skype Credit from iTunes and proceeded to call mom every few days from the comfort of my hotel room rather than a phone booth down the street. It was wonderful and inexpensive!