The Show Must Go On

I wasn't able to attend Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival this year because I was teaching at Fiber College of Maine that same weekend.  However, in spite of my absence, the Second Annual Walk & Knit Relay Challenge still took place at the festival on Saturday, September 12, 2015.

The Arachne Spinning Guild of Door County took over running the event with Chris Vuco acting as emcee.  Thanks to my spinning guild for taking this on and still gathering a team together to participate on the racecourse.  A total of eleven teams participated this year!  You can see the energy the winning team had as they got ready for the race.

Winning Team, left to right:  Aviva Cantor,

Kirsti Johanson, Caitlin Brecklin, and Renata Hornik

This Walk & Knit event was inspired by a similar team-relay race that takes place in Estonia, known there as Käi ja Koo.  Winning is based on rankings in the following criteria:  fastest speed of walking, highest number of stitches completed, and lowest number of errors.

 

After bringing this event from Estonia to the USA last year (see my blog post about last year's event here), I was pleased to hear that some knitting students of mine also held a Walk & Knit event in Iowa earlier this year.  I watched a video from their event and some participants thought that one of the teams had cheated when a "walking knitter" ran part of the course.  There is no rule that precludes running to produce a winning time, but there is definitely a trade off; finishing fast also means finishing with fewer stitches.  It just depends on your strategy.

Some people think of a knitter as the stereotypical grandmother sitting in a rocking chair, but this event shows that knitting is also for active people.  You know you're watching a sporting event when you see team huddles and team T-shirts.

Well, I hated to miss the second annual Wisconsin event, but I did talk up the Walk & Knit event when I was at Fiber College of Maine and it looks like the Käi ja Koo could make an appearance on the East Coast next year!

I'm spreading the word!

Where in the Blue Blazes Was I?

Blue blazes on the trail

in Acadia National Park

Some of my favorite activities are knitting and being active outdoors.  These are usually mutually exclusive, but not when I had the opportunity to teach at the Fiber College of Maine in early September.  I was also able to spend a very active day at Acadia National Park and the knitting classes that I taught at the Searsport Shores Ocean Campground where Fiber College is held, took place nearly in the out-of-doors.  While students were learning about knitting Estonian cuffs and lace and special Latvian cuffs, we were all protected from the (sometimes inclement) weather by large tents.

It all began when Maryly, an East Coast friend through Ravelry (see my prior blog post about Ravelry here), suggested that I apply to teach at this event that takes place in Searsport, Maine, each year in September.  It was a great idea and I loved hanging out with so many fiber people in the wonderful setting of Searsport Shores Ocean Campground, run by Fiber College director, Astrig, and her crew.  At the campground, I found a colorful dyer's garden, a meditation cabin on a bluff above the seashore, and walking trails through the woods.  Fiber College offered many inspiring classes, a selection of vendors, musical entertainment at various times, a mentored dye tent, other special events throughout the week, and some fabulous meal options including wood-fired flat breads and chowder.  On my first night at "college," there was a Somali Bantu Celebration which included a feast of traditional Somali food as well as music and dance performed by Somali people.

Maryly was my transportation from the Portland airport and made sure I had any camping supplies that I needed.  Camping accommodations were provided by Fiber College and they were well above my normal camping standard, which is usually a small tent with an air mattress and sleeping bag.  Instead, I was housed in a Hornet, a hard-sided camping trailer with slide outs for additional living space, a kitchen including a refrigerator, and a bathroom including a toilet and shower.  All of the comforts of home!

I had a roommate, Daryl Lancaster, who is another teacher at Sievers School of Fiber Arts, where I teach regularly in Wisconsin.  Daryl is a weaving and garment construction expert from New Jersey whom I've always wanted to take a class from but haven't quite managed yet.  I've been reading her blog for a while but I had never actually met Daryl in person.  We got to know each other in our shared abode and we had a nice time hanging out together in the evenings after our classes while enjoying conversation and knitting time along with a glass of wine or two.  She is an energetic and expressive teacher who shares so much in her classes.  Daryl wrote a blog post about her experience at Fiber College here.

Daryl Lancaster teaching inkle loom weaving

Each teacher was interviewed and featured in a Fiber College blog post.  My interview appears here.

I had an entire free day after my arrival with Maryly and I made good use of it by taking a short one-hour road trip to Acadia National Park to see the sights and take a hike.  After looking at the park's website, I thought that the Precipice Trail sounded like the trail for me.  Since I was traveling solo for the day, it seemed that this trail would be well-enough traveled that I would have good company along the way.  At the visitor center, the ranger warned me that the trail was rated "strenuous" but I thought, how strenuous can a trail be that is less than one mile each way?  I was soon to find out.  The trail is named Precipice for a reason; it is not recommended for people with a fear of heights.  I don't have a strong fear of heights, but climbing tall ladders can get me a bit shaky.  It turned out that was exactly what some of this trail entailed.

When I got to a point where the trail required climbing metal rung after metal rung up quite a long stretch of vertical rock, with a long drop off just a few feet away, I got a bit weak in the knees.  As I stopped to catch my breath on a ledge, the sun came out and I realized that I had not put on sunscreen for the day.  I chose not to apply it at that point; I didn't need greasy hands right before my next ascent of metal rungs.  I waited for the last two people that I had passed to catch up to me, and then I ventured forward, or more accurately, upward.

Since I had just returned from a hiking trip to Colorado, I figured I was ready for this hike.  It turned out to be a great, challenging hike, but Western hiking is so different from East Coast hiking.  In Colorado, you travel up switchbacks and are perpetually out of breath from lack of oxygen at the high elevations, but you are hiking using your two feet.  In Maine, hiking seems to consist of hiking with hands, arms, knees, and shins on the ground and rock surfaces rather than always using your feet, which happen to be safely encased in hiking boots, seemingly designed for the purpose of hiking.  What were those East Coast trail planners thinking?  Well, of course, the completion of the hiking challenge was rewarding and the views were beautiful!

Next year will be the 10th anniversary for Fiber College of Maine.  It's a great venue that offers a wide variety of fiber classes.  I believe the dates will be September 7-11, 2016.  Watch their website for details here.

More Interwoven Latvian Connections

At age 85, Erna Jansons published her first book.  It is a beautiful and colorful book about Latvian Mitten Designs.  It is now nine years later and, of course, she has another book in the works.

I first met Erna in 2006, shortly after her book was printed.  I went to her home to buy a couple of copies of her book; one for me and one for my teaching buddy, Sandy.  In 2013, Erna moved into the senior-living complex that my parents lived in.  When I found this out, I started to visit her in her apartment.  Erna is a very talented artist.  She makes unique use of Latvian motifs and colors in her paintings, weavings, tapestries, drawings, and knitted mittens.

Mary and Erna in the Dining Room at Christmastime

A different, but related, Latvian connection began in 2013.  I received a Ravelry message (see my blog about Ravelry here) from Rachel, a knitter in Minnesota who is of Latvian descent.  She also writes a blog at:
http://balticstitches.com/

Well, Rachel and I have written back and forth for a couple of years now.  However, just recently she contacted me and asked if I knew Erna Jansons.  Rachel had requested Erna's book Latviešu Cimdu Raksti or Latvian Mitten Designs from the Library of Congress and after viewing the book at her local library (Library of Congress books apparently cannot be removed from the local library), she Googled the book and ran across a prior blog post of mine here and surmised my connection with Erna.  It seemed like the best course of action would be a visit to Milwaukee by Rachel to meet with Erna and me.  Well, this meeting sounded like too much fun for my friend, Sandy, to miss, so I invited her as well.  Sandy and Rachel had also previously connected through Ravelry.  So we began to plan a knitters' weekend in Milwaukee.  We added one more knitter to the mix when Rachel invited her aunt, Zinta, to join her for the road trip.

This is where things begin to get even more interesting.  Zinta is a retired Lutheran minister so I suggested that we might want to go to the Milwaukee Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Holy Trinity Church on the Sunday of their visit.  I emailed our friend, the pastor, Archbishop Lauma Zušēvica, to see if she would be in town and preaching that Sunday.  Yes, indeed she would be.  I heard back from Pastor Lauma again shortly after that and she offered an opportunity for Pastor Zinta to preach.  Zinta agreed to preach, and we all went to the Latvian service which was presided over, in Latvian, by Archbishop Lauma.  Pastor Lauma was just consecrated in April 2015, as the Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (Latvijas Evanģēliski Luteriskā Baznīca Ārpus Latvijas), meaning everywhere outside of Latvia.

Archbishop Lauma at her Consecration as Archbishop



Besides our meetings with Erna (one on Saturday and one on Sunday), I also set up a visit with a Latvian weaving friend, Vita Kakulis.  She invited us to her home where we could see her studio space, her weavings, and her huge library of Latvian design books.

Rachel, Vita, and Zinta

Vita showed us a video from the Folk Costume Exhibit that took place at the XIII Latvian Song & Dance Festival in Milwaukee in 2012, served us a lovely luncheon which included pīrāgs and traditional Latvian open-faced sandwiches, and gave a copy of the fabulous, but out-of-print, Cimdu Jettiņa book to Rachel.  The day was a gift for all of us.

UPDATE on 10/29/2016:  Erna Jansons' book Latviešu Cimdu Raksti or Latvian Mitten Designs is now available for purchase - details for ordering are on my website here or you can find the book on Etsy here.

Knitting Fair Isle on a Fair Island

Some people grow up spending summers on Washington Island.  I wasn't one of those people, but luckily I've sort of become one.  I get a chance every summer or fall and then again in winter to spend some time on this little island off the tip of Wisconsin's Door County (the thumb of Wisconsin's mitten).  I've been coming to the island to attend and/or teach classes at Sievers School of Fiber Arts since 1997.  The island and Sievers are special places!  Sievers' summer class schedule goes online each year on February 1st and students don't want to wait too long to sign up, as some classes can fill quickly - was 15 minutes the record?

http://www.sieversschool.com/

In July, my teaching buddy, Sandy, and I taught a Fair Isle Techniques class that was well attended by knitters who wanted to spend time together and extend their knitting skills.  Immediately following our class, there was a Fair Isle Design class taught by Janine Bajus from California.  Janine is known as the Feral Knitter (say Fair Isle and Feral quickly and you'll see where the name came from).

Left to right:  Sandy, Ann of Sievers,

and Janine Bajus of Feral Knitter

 

In keeping with our Fair Isle theme, we were pleasantly surprised to find the island's book store has a new owner and name - Fair Isle Books.  The book store is located next to everyone's favorite, Red Cup Coffee Shop.

In the summer when daylight is abundant and weather is cooperating, I love to get out on the island roads on my bicycle.  Sunrises and sunsets can be outstanding, and wildlife (oftentimes deer, turkeys, or pheasant, but even a fox this year) and beautiful wildflowers can be seen.  And whether you're in a car, on a bike, or walking, you'll want to be sure to greet everyone you meet along the way with the customary island wave.  It's a friendly community of about 700 residents year-round and many more in the summer months.

For most visitors, a ferry ride is required to get to the island.  In the summertime, the ferry ride takes about 30 minutes.  In the winter, the trip can take a little bit longer as it crunches through the ice.  Here's a short 10 second video I took from the ferry in winter.

winter ferry video

So, as I said, a ferry ride is required . . . unless you fly in.  As it happened, a Fly-In and Fish Boil were taking place on the weekend after our class.  Our favorite was The Pink Lady, a 1955 plane that is flown by the daughter of the original owner.  The daughter followed in her dad's footsteps and is now a commercial pilot living in California.

It doesn't have to be a special weekend to view some of the other island sights.  Mountain Road is a flat road that curves around the island's "mountain."  After climbing wooden steps to the top of the mountain, you can climb some more steps to the top of the lookout tower for a view to the north and east, which includes Rock Island, a state park that can be reached by yet another ferry.

 

Since it's an island, it's obviously surrounded by water.  Schoolhouse Beach is a popular spot, but be sure to wear your shoes or sturdy sandals on this rocky beach on the north shore.  On the opposite shore, you'll find Sand Dunes Park where you can snuggle your toes into soft sand.

The impressive Stavkirke, or Stave Church, was built in the 1990s mostly by volunteers from the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The design was based on the Stavkirke in Borgund, Norway, which was built around 1150 AD.  The Washington Island Stavkirke is set back from the road and can be reached by a woodland path.  There also happens to be a miniature Stavkirke on the island in the middle of a lavender field near the Historic Island Dairy building, but it should not be confused with this church.

As you can see, the lavender fields were beautiful when we were there in July.

Lavender fields at Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm and Shop

You'll find a fair number of restaurants on this fair island.  Some of my favorites are:  Tuesday burger night at Karly's Bar or dinner at The Cellar located in Karly's lower level on other nights (don't miss the homemade Blue Cheese dressing), breakfast at The Sunset Resort featuring traditional Scandinavian specialties like Icelandic pancakes, and the Friday night Perch Fry at Findlay's Holiday Inn (privately owned, not part of the chain).

Once a year, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church serves a Harvest Dinner on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend.  Happily, we are usually on the island teaching in October, and can sign up for one of the five seatings (from 4 PM to 8 PM).  Church volunteers prepare and serve a traditional Thanksgiving-like dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, squash, pink fluff (Google pink fluff recipes), rolls, pickles, and pumpkin pie.  Wow, I swear you can smell turkey roasting all over the island that weekend!

But the best thing to do on the island?  Take a class at Sievers School of Fiber Arts.  You'll find that it's definitely located "north of the tension line."

Bocconcini (Tidbits from Italy)

My husband and I took a nonstop flight from Chicago and arrived in Rome the day after there was a fire at the Rome Fiumicino airport.  Because of the fire, we spent quite a bit of time on the tarmac before a bus transported us to the terminal, where we waited in a massive, chaotic line to get through passport control.  We noticed airport workers wearing dust masks and although we didn't smell smoke, I imagine if you were there for the entire day, you'd want to protect yourself from the smell or particles that might still be in the air.

I've mentioned before my abhorrence of the ubiquitous "selfie sticks" in use by every tourist in Rome and, because of that, I never got my camera out of its case in Rome and took only a half dozen photos with my phone's camera.  We visited the Vatican on arrival day and along with St Peter's Basilica, my other favorite was the ceiling of the Map Room, or Gallery of Maps, in the Vatican Museum.

Ceiling of the Map Room at the Vatican Museum

We saw many classic sights in Rome and had the added bonus of getting restaurant, gelato, and sightseeing suggestions from a young friend who recently spent a semester studying in Rome.  It's nice to get some "insider" tips!  Those tips resulted in a wonderful lunch that included pear pasta at Osteria Del'Anima near Piazza Navona.  We also enjoyed fabulous gelato at Frigidarium (near Piazza Navona) and Verde Pistaccio (near Termini train station).  My husband's favorite gelato flavor was lemon and mine was hazelnut!  On our friend's recommendation, I had the cacio e pepe (cheese and black pepper) pasta more than once.  I think I need to look for a recipe for that; it's a winner!

The quiet of Cinque Terre followed the hectic sightseeing schedule that we set for ourselves in Rome (see blog post here:  http://marygtheknitter.blogspot.com/2015/06/ups-and-downs-in-cinque-terre.html) but after that, we went to Firenze (Florence) for another sightseeing frenzy.  To make the most of our time, we decided to splurge on the Firenze Card which was helpful in saving time at many museums, although I'm not sure we saved time at the Accademia (where Michelangelo's David is located), which had a long line for reserved tickets as well as unreserved tickets and each line moved rather erratically (at the whim of the museum staff), but eventually we were admitted.

 Courtyard in the Museo del Bargello, Firenze

On our first day in Florence, we were looking for lunch and specifically went to All'Antico Vinaio, a little deli-like place that was highly rated on TripAdvisor.  However, it had hordes of customers lined up out the door and down the street and we decided we didn't want to wait so we walked on.  After viewing the Museo del Bargello and still not having had lunch, we returned to the street where the deli was located and it was now between normal meal times so the line was gone and we walked right in and ordered a roast pork sandwich (panino) with toppings of zucchini, eggplant spread, cheese, and red pepper spread.  There were so many toppings to choose from!  The restaurant also offered self-service wine for 2 euros per glass and had indoor seating at large tables where we were able to relax, rest our feet, and share our sandwich.  It was SO good that we made our way back there the next day to get another fantastic sandwich for lunch.

We found a tiny little pizza place, I'Pizzacchiere, just below Piazzale Michelangelo, where you definitely need a reservation (you can make reservations online), and enjoyed a White Tiger pizza and mixed salad.  Delizioso!

View from just above Piazzale Michelangelo

Although we missed the Gregorian chanting at the church of San Miniato al Monte, just a short walk further up from Piazzale Michelango, we toured the church at dusk and looked down over the city on a gray, drizzly day.

After Florence, we rented a car for just two days to get into the Chianti and Tuscan countryside.  We drove through the curvy, hilly roads of Chianti and then made a stop in Siena to see Il Campo, the Duomo, and a little bit of the rest of the town.  Our destination for the night was San Gimignano, a scenic tower town located on a hilltop which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We found a little restaurant, DULCISinFUNDO, with a beautiful view over the surrounding countryside and when they opened, we were able to get one of two outdoor tables that were put out just under the umbrella you see in the picture below.  We had the spaghetti with boar sauce, laurel, and juniper which was a regional specialty, the roasted vegetables prepared like ratatouille, and a wonderful tiramisu to end our dinner.

Side street in San Gimignano

The next day, we stopped in Volterra, another Etruscan town built on a hilltop.  You can see that we had the option of the stairs on the right or the stairs on the left to get from our car to the center of Volterra.

Volterra

Our trip ended in Pisa so we had an opportunity to get a glimpse of its claim to fame.

Imagine the number of selfie sticks we saw there!

Ups and Downs in Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre (Five Lands) in Italy has been on my list for a while.  A friend raved about it 10 years ago when she went and now I know why.

Of course, we had to see some sights in Rome and Florence along with the throngs of other tourists (many with their ubiquitous "selfie sticks" which made me want to hide my camera away and not take a single picture), but the sights in Cinque Terre were so beautiful that my camera came out.

Manarola

We chose Manarola for our base in Cinque Terre and liked the smallness of it and it's quiet nature when the day trippers were gone in the evening and early morning.  We were warned about pickpockets in the Cinque Terre train stations and, in fact, in all of Italy, but we were conscious and deliberate and had no problems.  We were a little surprised when the train ticket seller in one of the towns said to us, "be careful, there are two pickpockets on the platform right now."  They know who they are, but apparently still can't control them.

We had a little apartment to ourselves, the Limoncino apartment, that we rented from Nicoletta at Manarola Vista Mare.  It was on a quiet Ligurian alley (really a steep walkway with some steps just off the main "road") where we could hang our laundry out to dry from our second-story bedroom window on the clothes lines provided.  Dinner options in our little town were varied and our favorites were Trattoria dal Billy and Nessun Dorma.  Nessun Dorma has outdoor seating only and beautiful views out over the Mediterranean and the village of Manarola.  Trattoria dal Billy is up higher on the hillside and reservations are recommended, especially if you'd like outdoor seating.  Again, a beautiful setting, wonderful food including a regional specialty of Trofie al Pesto (a pesto pasta dish) and the BEST Panna Cotta with dark chocolate sauce, and entertainment as we watched the waiters run up and down the steps as they served food on at least three different levels.

For this trip, my husband and I decided to travel with only carry-on luggage and I thought I would miss having a hiking pole, which is restricted by TSA regulations.  The hiking in Cinque Terre is very challenging - there are many stone steps and very steep trails rather than switchbacks, and I prefer to use poles for this type of hiking.  However, it turned out that we were able to rent poles from Cinque Terre Trekking, a small gear shop in Manarola, and we were very glad we had them!

Start of the trail out of Manarola

 Hiking up to the crosses above Manarola

The roads in these towns are not designed for cars.  You might see a few cars or trucks making deliveries early in the morning but then the road is only open to foot traffic the rest of the day.  To travel between the five towns, there are trains, boats, or many hiking trails.  Although three of the four sections of the most-hiked coastal trail were closed (landslides cause much trail damage in this hilly region), there are still many trails that will get you from one village to the next.  It just requires going higher up the hillside to travel from one to the next.

 

Our first day-hike was from Manarola to Corniglia via Volastra, a fairly strenuous hike that I had read about on the Life in Liguria blog:

http://lifeinliguria.blogspot.com/2014/05/wednesday-hiking-corniglia-volastra.html

Another helpful blog about Cinque Terre hiking was Italian Fix:
http://www.italianfix.com/hiking-cinque-terre-trails/

My husband on the trail above Vernazza

 

We found it interesting that the most common greeting on the trail that day was "Bonjour" rather than "Buongiorno."  Since Cinque Terre is located in the northwest part of Italy, relatively near to France, I suppose that makes sense.  That day, a train ride took us from Corniglia to lunch in Vernazza, followed by a boat ride which returned us to our home in Manarola.

Still life in Monterosso

Another day, we hiked the coastal trail from Vernazza to Monterosso.  This was a much busier trail than the prior day's trail.  It is the most difficult section of the coastal trail but also the only section of the coastal trail that was open to hikers.  We finished that hike fairly early and after a look around Monterosso and its various bakeries (yum!), we hopped on a train to Riomaggiore, the fifth of the Cinque Terre towns.  We did one more hike up to the Santuario della Madonna di Montenero, high above Riomaggiore with a view out toward Portovenere before we returned to Manarola where a gift of wine and grappa was waiting for us from our host, Nicoletta.

Unfortunately, the Via dell'Amore, or Pathway of Love, was one of the closed sections of the coastal trail, but walkers are allowed to travel a little way down the path before access is denied to the rest of the trail.  The Path of Love may be blocked, but the many, lovely (and more strenuous) paths of Cinque Terre are waiting to be explored!

Italia!

While our trip to Italy was not a knitting trip, there's no getting away from fiber connections!  My husband and I traveled to Rome, Cinque Terre, Florence, the Chianti and Tuscan countryside, and returned home from Pisa.  Our focus was museums, sightseeing, and Italian food; there is so much to see and so much to eat!  Our favorite area was the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) which is a Unesco World Heritage Site.  We spent three nights in Manarola, one of the five villages in the Cinque Terre, and we hiked every day and enjoyed beautiful views of the Mediterranean, the charming little towns with their housing stacked up the steep hillsides, and vineyards galore.

But how about that fiber?  We were in Florence having a look at the Palazzo Vecchio when we happened upon the Sala del Cinquecento (Hall of the 500) which looked like it was being set up for some sort of fashion school exhibit - 50-60 elaborate costume pieces, each made from muslin.

Although we mostly traveled by train or other public transportation, when we left Florence we did rent a car for two days for a scenic drive through the curvy, hilly roads of Chianti and Tuscany.  We stopped in Siena and had a wonderful, casual lunch at Gino Cacino di Angelo, a little deli on Piazza Mercato, near the outdoor market.  Then we had a look in the Siena Duomo (cathedral).  We really liked the black and white striped columns and then fell in love with them even more when we found some sporting sheep's heads!

 

Of course we had to do a little window shopping while we were in Italy and that included looking at leather goods.  If these leather knit-look purses hadn't been just a little too small, I probably would have gotten one.